QUEEN BAPTISES DONKEY
During her visit to the Fundación Casa del Burro (Donkey's Home Foundation) in Rute, Cordoba province, last week, Queen Sofia gave the name of Lluvia (Rain) to a young Andalucian donkey and baptised him with drops of the local anis instead of holy water. Lluvia is the son of Camila, who was named after her "adopted" father, the writer Camilo José Cela. Lluvia now joins the other donkeys which have been "adopted" by the Royal family in recent years. During a tour of the Foundation, director Pascual Rovira described the work being done to save the Andalucian breed of donkey from extinction and introduced the Queen to several of the donkeys, one of whom - called Mandela - insisted on kissing the royal visitor. Despite having spent the first ten years of his life working underground in a cave in the Alpujarras, Mandela is very playful and affectionate.
SIERRA DE LAS NIEVES WINS AWARD
The Sierra de las Nieves was one of 20 recipients of the European Commission's EDEN awards for excellence as a tourist destinations which goes beyond commercial success to guarantee the area's social, cultural and environmental sustainability. The awards were handed out at the European Forum on Tourism which was held recently in Bordeaux in France. The areas which receive the EDEN awards benefit from the advertising the EC provides for them at tourism conferences, promoting their traditions, customs and artistic heritage. The EC award is the fruit of work done by Sierra de la Nieves Rural Development Group which promotes the socio-economic growth of the area consisting of nine municipalities - Alozaina, Casarabonela, El Burgo, Guaro, Istán, Monda, Ojen, Tolox and Yunquera.
IMMIGRANTS ALLEGED MURDERER ARRESTED
The Guardia Civil have arrested the man suspected of killing a Senegalese immigrant which sparked of several days of disturbances and house burning in Roquetas de Mar, Almeria province, over two weeks ago. The man, named as Juan José aka El Bollo, had been hiding out in a farm in an unpopulated area which was difficult to access. A Guardia spokesman said the owners of the farm were in no way connected to the man.
BIG BANG SHOCK MALAGA
People in Malaga city suffered nasty shock last Friday at about 9.40 am when they heard two huge explosions. The noise was so loud that it was also heard as far away as Torrox, Fuengirola, Rincón de la Victora, Alora and Alhaurín de la Torre. According to reports, residents rushed to their windows to see what had happened and people in the street were looking all around, completely bewildered. Many thought the cause was two bombs that had been exploded by the Basque terrorist group ETA, but by 10.30, the Defence Ministry had confirmed that two jets had broken the sound barrier high over the area. One of the consequences was that the mobile phone system broke down temporarily as thousands made calls in an effort to find out what had happened. Another was that a radio station in Murcia reported that a bomb had exploded on La Malageta beach in Malaga city, while a radio station in Madrid said two bombs had gone off in the city's Guardia Civil barracks.
IBI TO BE PAID IN INSTALMENTS
As of next year, residents of Coín will be able to pay their IBI tax in ten instalments, Mayor Gabriel Clavijo announced last Thursday. Payment would be made via direct debit and anyone interested in this method of payment can already apply for it at the Town Hall's Patronato de Recaudación (tax office) on the first floor of the Ayuntamiento offices in Plaza de la Villa. Sr Clavijo said it was just one of a series of measures that the council will be introducing to make the economic crisis more bearable for the town's tax payers. He said the council was also studying the possibility of allowing people to pay their road tax in three instalments per year.
PLANS TO ATTRACT TOURISTS
The Secretary of State for Tourism plans to introduce three special tourism offers next year aimed at attracting senior citizens from the north of Europe to Andalucia, the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia. The offers - called "Privilege", "Winter in Spain" and "Senior Tourism" - were announced by Javier Bustamente, president of SEGITTUR (State Company for Tourism Technologies and Innovation) at the Conference on Innovation, Key for Tourism in the 21st Century, which was held in Malaga last week. Sr Bustamente said the government was already negotiating the launch of the project with the governments of the regions concerned. He said Jerez de las Frontera had been chosen as the ideal place for the Privilege plan, which is aimed tourists with high spending power, while the Costa del Sol is considered ideal for the Winter in Spain offer. He said the Senior Tourism offer is aimed at tourists with medium spending power and will be launched in some places as this winter.
HAVE FUN LEARNING WITH U3A
Retirement beginning to bore you? Liven up you life by going back to school at the U3A - University for the Third Age - in Fuengirola. Registration is now open at the Ark Christian Fellowship Hall, Las Rampas, from 11 am to 1 pm, on September 30th and October 2nd and 3rd. You can also register on Enrolment Day on October 6th. Courses range from Scrabble, Poetry, Health and Your Body, Computer Improvers Workshop, Spanish for Beginners, Patchwork, and Golden Age of Spain, just a few of the 40 courses on offer. One novelty this year is a series of talks on the Spanish Civil War, to be given by Muriel Pilkington from the Town Crier. Membership of the U3A costs 25 pounds and entitles members to participate in as many groups as they wish. More details are available on U3A's website: www.u3acostadelsol.org.
THIEVES TARGET CAR PARKS IN COIN
There have been a spate of robberies in the car park of the Lidl Supermarket in Coin over the last couple of weeks. One involved a Spanish couple who were asking a woman for directions. When the lady asked was showing the woman the way, her male companion went to the passenger side of the car and took the handbag that had been put on the seat. A similar incident happened in the Mercadona underground car park a few weeks back. The couple were described as being in their early thirties and appear to be working from two cars. The latest incident was last Tuesday when Jan from Animals In Distress was robbed. She works tirelessly for the animals and was on her way to pay veterinary and food bills for them. So, not only has she lost her handbag with all the personal contents including her reading glasses, money for the care of the animals raised by Jan and other volunteers has also gone. Whilst Jan doesn't expect to get the money back, can anyone who finds the handbag let the Town Crier know on 902 00 99 00 and we will return it to her.
LATEST DELICACY JELLYFISH SOON ON SPANISH MENUS
The founder of the Hospital Clinico in Malaga - Felipe Sánchez de la Cuesta - now has a street named after him, to make the 25th anniversary of the hospital's opening. Sr Sanchez de la Costa taught pharmacology for eight years at Malaga University before he was made Dean, after which he concentrated on providing medical students with decent Faculty and a place where they could practice what they were learning. The new hospital would also give the city 700 more hospital beds and create jobs for 3,000 people. However, he found it no easy task to persuade the local authorities to build the hospital, which would cost more than 5 billion pesetas, until the then Prime Minister, Adolfo Suarez, attended his political party's conference in Torremolinos in 1977. Sr Sánchez de la Cuesta immediately sought his help and when the prime minister said "How can I help you", he replied: "By letting me use your name for 24 hours." Those were the exact words Sr Suarez had said to Francisco Franco years earlier, when the dictator had asked him how he could help him solve a problem. Sr Suarez told Sr Sanchez de la Costa to go ahead and use his name for as long as necessary. However, when the different bureaucrats who had to give the necessary permits heard the PM's name they immediately came through, and Sr Sanchez de la Cuesta was never again told to "come back next week". The first stone was laid on February 3rd, 1979, and the Hospital Clinico Virgen de la Victoria was opened in May 1983.
INTELLIGENCE AGENTS FIRED FOR NOT DETECTING ETA EXPLOSIVES
Six agents belonging to the Provincial Information Brigade in Bilbao were fired last week after it was discovered they had not listened to taped telephone conversations involving a suspected ETA terrorist which might have prevented recent car bomb attacks in the north of Spain. The Provincial Information Brigades have the specific function of keeping track of suspected ETA terrorists and their accomplices. The six men had been tapping Asier Borrero's phone but terminated the operation in June this year after deciding that he was only interested in having a good time and doing drugs and probably had no connection with the Basque terrorist group. A few weeks later, on July 22, the Guardia Civil arrested nine members of the so-called Vizcaya complex, who had been running explosives over the French border. Several others managed to get away, among them Asier Borrero. When his name was mentioned by one of the detained, the taped conversations were given another listening. Borrero did talk about drugs but he also talked about transporting explosives from France to Santo Domingo de la Calzada in Rioja province. The same detainee had also mentioned several ETA hiding places, one of them in Santo Domingo de la Calzada. Acting on that information, the Guardia subsequently discovered 100 kilos in the hide-out there in an operation which was supervised by National Court Judge Baltasar Garzón. The second listening also revealed that Borrero had had several conversations with members of the Vizcaya complex, which the six Brigade agents had failed to pick up.