Saturday, 28 May 2011

seven municipalities in Malaga have been denounced by the EU for sewage problems.


The Spanish government is now in the firing line of the European Court of Justice for failing to comply with European legislation on waste water treatment in 38 towns and cities.
Following an initial complaint made in 2008 by the European Commission, Spain has been ordered to pay costs and must now take steps to meet European standards.
According to the EU directive any urbanisation with more than 15,000 inhabitants should have had a treatment system for urban waste water in place by 2001.
Interestingly the ruling comes as Nerja’s long-awaited sewage treatment plant has finally gone to tender.
The licensing of the project to develop the construction plan and to build the plant has been authorised so work can get started.
The news was announced by the Secretary of State for Territorial Cooperation, Gasper Zarrías who said that, while no date had yet been set for work to start, he expected things to move, “very quickly.”

Environmentalists want the La Montosa Quarry, in the Sierras de Tejeda-Almijara Natural Park, to be returned to its natural state to prevent further damage to the environment.

CAMPAIGNERS fighting the possible expansion of a quarry in a natural park have called for it to be closed down.
Environmentalists want the La Montosa Quarry, in the Sierras de Tejeda-Almijara Natural Park, to be returned to its natural state to prevent further damage to the environment.
The Ecologistas en Accion Group (GENA) have submitted an official complaint about the expansion to the environment department in Granada.
“The quarry is being continually developed without considering the impact on the environment,” GENA president Rafael Yus said.
“Should the regional administration not provide satisfactory solutions we reserve the right to go to the Environmental Prosecutor,” he added.
The contract to manage the site was issued before the area was classified as a natural park.
Aerial photographs suggest the site is nearly four times bigger than it was 10 years ago, expanding from 29,300 square metres in 2000 to 132,700 square metres in 2010.
The quarry has been blamed for the destruction of large areas of woodland, which is vital for preventing soil erosion and providing habitats for native wildlife.
Campaigners also allege that rivers are full of debris from the quarry while mining has also led to social problems in the region.


“It’s a beautiful area and this mining is wreaking havoc,” said local resident Charles Jefferson.
“Unless someone in office puts their foot down it may be too late to save it from being lost forever,” he warned.

Monday, 16 May 2011

BRITAIN is set to simmer under a two-week heatwave with average temperatures of 29C as a warm blast sweeps in from Europe.


Although forecasters have predicted cooler temperatures this week - we could be set for the hottest May on record with the soaring temperatures to start this weekend.

But while many Brits will celebrate the baking heat, there are fears over the impact it could have on farmers and the environment.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman was forced to call an emergency drought summit due to take place later today.

May has already been 2.6C warmer than usual - with an average of 13C in central England - already putting it inside the top six per cent of hottest months since 1659.

Jonathan Powell, senior forecaster at Positive Weather Solutions, said: "This is an astonishing year so far and may well continue to turn up more surprises.

"May is outperforming expectations, as did March and April.

"There will be some rain during the rest of May in the north and west but not nearly enough to stave off drought concerns."

Parts of southern England have already been declared drought risks after the warm weather in April and fears are growing as the heatwave spreads from Europe.

A Met Office spokesman said conditions were expected to become mainly fine and settled from Saturday into next week.

A spokesman said: "It looks mainly dry, although isolated heavy showers are possible from time to time."

"The relatively dry, settled weather shows signs of continuing into June, with daytime and night-time temperatures likely to be above average."

The lawyer for a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn nine years ago says she wants to file a legal complaint against the International Monetary Fund chief.


Lawyer David Koubbi says Tristane Banon did not file suit earlier due to "pressures" she face over the alleged 2002 sexual assault by Strauss-Kahn and was dissuaded by her own mother, a regional Socialist official.
The IMF chief — a possible Socialist contender in France's 2012 presidential race — is in custody in New York after being accused of a weekend sexual assault against a hotel maid.
Koubbi told RTL radio Monday he is likely to file suit for Banon now because "she knows she'll be heard and she knows she'll be taken seriously."
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
NEW YORK (AP) — The head of the International Monetary Fund was examined for evidence that could incriminate him in the alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid, charges that stunned the global financial world and upended French presidential politics.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a married father of four whose reputation with women earned him the nickname "the great seducer," faced arraignment Monday on charges of attempted rape and criminal sexual contact in the alleged attack on a maid who went into his penthouse suite at a hotel near Times Square to clean it.
Strauss-Kahn was taken into custody on Saturday and spent more than 24 hours inside a Harlem precinct, where police say the maid identified him from a lineup, then headed to a hospital for a "forensic examination" requested by prosecutors to obtain more evidence in the case, defense lawyer William Taylor said. He was taken to a Manhattan court early Monday.
Another defense attorney, Benjamin Brafman, said the IMF managing director "intends to vigorously defends these charges and he denies any wrongdoing."
A member of France's Socialist party, Strauss-Kahn was widely considered the strongest potential challenger next year to President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose political fortunes have been flagging.
Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet lamented the shadow the incident could cast on all of France.
"I'm very surprised to see at what speed in France we rush to political conclusions about a subject that is a serious one. He is accused of very serious acts. We are hardly speaking at all of the alleged victim," she said Monday on Canal-Plus television. In addition to the hotel maid, Koscuisko-Morizet said there is another "clear victim, which is France."
Strauss-Kahn, 62, was nabbed less than four hours after the alleged assault, plucked from first class on a Paris-bound Air France flight that was just about to leave the gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
He was alone when he checked into the luxury Sofitel hotel, not far from Times Square, on Friday afternoon, police said. It wasn't clear why he was in New York. The IMF is based in Washington, and he had been due in Germany on Sunday to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The 32-year-old maid told authorities that when she entered his spacious, $3,000-a-night suite early Saturday afternoon, she thought it was unoccupied. Instead, Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he sexually assaulted her, New York Police Department spokesman Paul J. Browne said.
The woman told police she fought him off, but then he dragged her into the bathroom, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear. The woman was able to break free again, escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said.
Strauss-Kahn was gone by the time detectives arrived moments later. He left his cellphone behind. "It looked like he got out of there in a hurry," Browne said.
The NYPD discovered he was at JFK and contacted officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport. Port Authority police officers arrested him.
The maid was taken by police to a hospital and was treated for minor injuries. Stacy Royal, a spokeswoman for Sofitel, said the hotel's staff was cooperating in the investigation and that the maid "has been a satisfactory employee of the hotel for the past three years."
Strauss-Kahn was arrested on charges of a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment. Authorities were looking for any forensic evidence and DNA.
His wife, Anne Sinclair, defended him in a statement to French news agency AFP.
"I do not believe for one second the accusations brought against my husband. I have no doubt his innocence will be established," said Sinclair, a New York-born journalist who hosted a popular weekly TV news broadcast in France in the 1980s and '90s.
The arrest could throw the long-divided Socialists back into disarray about who they could present as Sarkozy's opponent. Even some of his adversaries were stunned.
"It's totally hallucinating. If it is true, this would be a historic moment, but in the negative sense, for French political life," said Dominique Paille, a political rival to Strauss-Kahn on the center right, on BFM television. Still, he urged, "I hope that everyone respects the presumption of innocence. I cannot manage to believe this affair."
Candidates need to announce their intentions this summer to run in fall primary elections.
"If he's cleared, he could return — but if he is let off only after four or five months, he won't be able to run" because the campaign will be too far along, said Jerome Fourquet of the IFOP polling agency.
"I think his political career is over," Philippe Martinat, who wrote a book called "DSK-Sarkozy: The Duel," told The Associated Press. "Behind him he has other affairs ... I don't see very well how he can pick himself back up."
Strauss-Kahn is known as DSK in France, but media there also have dubbed him "the great seducer." His reputation as a charmer of women has not hurt his career in France, where politicians' private lives traditionally come under less scrutiny than in the United States.
In 2008, Strauss-Kahn was briefly investigated over whether he had an improper relationship with a subordinate female employee. The IMF board found his actions "reflected a serious error of judgment" yet deemed the relationship consensual.
But attempted rape charges are far more serious than extramarital flings and could do far more damage to his reputation in France and abroad.
"It's sure that a future president already mired in judicial problems is not well seen by the French," said Patricia Bous, a lab researcher in Paris' Left Bank on Monday.
"It's obvious that this is someone a lot of people were counting on, and because of this all of the cards are being reshuffled. So I don't know what's going to happen, but for me there is a presumption of innocence and we await the proof so we'll see," said university employee Hubert Javaux, also in the Left Bank.
French newspapers all put Strauss-Kahn on their front pages Monday morning, with grim headlines and photos. "DSK Out" read the banner headline on the left-leaning Liberation. "The Doors of the Elysee Are Closing for DSK" read that in Le Soir.
The New York allegations come amid French media reports about Strauss-Kahn's lifestyle, including luxury cars and suits, that some have dubbed a smear campaign. Some French raised suspicions about the sexual assault case as well.
"Perhaps this affair will unravel very quickly, if we learn that there is in the end no serious charge and that what was said by this woman was not true, and we all wish for this," former Socialist Party boss Francois Hollande said on Canal-Plus television. "To commit an act of such seriousness, this does not resemble the man I know."
A former economics professor, Strauss-Kahn served as French industry minister and finance minister in the 1990s, and is credited with preparing France for the adoption of the euro by taming its deficit.
He took over as head of the IMF in November 2007. The 187-nation lending agency provides help in the form of emergency loans for countries facing severe financial problems.
Sarkozy, who did not comment publicly Sunday, had championed Strauss-Kahn to run the IMF. Political strategists saw it as a way for Sarkozy to get a potential challenger far from the French limelight.
Caroline Atkinson, an IMF spokeswoman, issued a statement Sunday that said the agency would have no comment on the New York case. She referred all inquiries to Strauss-Kahn's personal lawyer and said the "IMF remains fully functioning and operational."
The fund's executive board was expected to be briefed on developments related to Strauss-Kahn on Sunday, but the meeting was postponed. John Lipsky, the IMF's first deputy managing director, would lead the organization in an acting capacity in Strauss-Kahn's absence.
Strauss-Kahn was supposed to be meeting in Berlin on Sunday with Merkel about increasing aid to Greece, and then join EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday. The IMF is responsible for one-third of Greece

Florida International Bankers Association is organizing a seminar in Spain for top bankers and regulators from both sides of the Atlantic.




Members of the Florida International Bankers Association head to Spain this month to meet with their European and Latin America banking counterparts as well as regulators from both Spain and the United States.

The Spain-U.S. Forum on International Banking, which is being organized by FIBA, will be held in Madrid on May 23. Participants will look at challenges bankers face in an environment shaped by toxic assets, the sovereign debt crisis, and sluggish economic growth as well as discuss opportunities going forward.

Like U.S. banks, many Spanish financial institutions were hit hard when the housing bubble burst and left troubled real estate loans on their books. In Spain, however, the problem wasn’t subprime mortgages or investment in toxic securities, but rather too many real estate loans that soured as the Spanish economy spiraled downward.

South Florida bankers, lawyers and consultants making the trip will take part in what FIBA President Darío Fuentes calls a “public-private dialogue’’ involving regulators from the Federal Reserve and Banco de España, the Spanish Banking Association, and the Latin American Federation of Banks. The Spanish Confederation of Savings Banks also has been invited.

FIBA wants to serve as a bridge connecting European, Latin American and local banking interests, said Fuentes, who is general manager of Caja Mediterráneo’s agency office in Miami.

At least 10 Spanish banks have set up agencies, branches or representative offices in South Florida over the past decade, and some 300 of the 500 major Spanish companies operating in the United States are in Florida. Spanish banks are particularly interested in this region because from a South Florida perch they can keep track of business in the United States as well as in Latin America.

The Florida and Latin American bankers will be getting an update on recent steps Spain has taken to shore up its troubled banking sector, especially its cajas de ahorro, or mutual savings banks, which had been heavily involved in lending to developers.

The government seized two small, insolvent cajas and encouraged others to merge to increase their viability. These mergers have resulted in 45 cajas being whittled down to 17. These merged cajas have formed new banks in which they are shareholders.

Earlier this year, the government issued a decree law that tightened capital requirements for all Spanish financial institutions in a bid to strengthen the financial system and persuade investors that it won’t follow the European bailout route of Ireland.

Under the decree law, Spanish financial institutions will be required to maintain a core capital ratio — a measure of financial strength and a buffer against potential losses — of at least 8 percent, or at least 10 percent if they are more dependent on wholesale markets or haven’t shown the ability to tap capital markets.

Many of the cajas fall into the latter category and the new capital requirements put pressure on them to convert to publicly held companies or seek mergers or new investors.

Financial institutions had to submit their plans for reaching the new core capital requirements to the Banco de España in April. Those that can’t meet the requirements by the end of September will be able to tap into Spain’s bank rescue fund, the FROB — but, in exchange, the government will take a stake in them.

INSURANCE companies across Spain have estimated that the damage caused to property in Lorca (Murcia) following Wednesday's earthquake – the worst in 55 years –

INSURANCE companies across Spain have estimated that the damage caused  to property in Lorca (Murcia) following Wednesday's earthquake – the worst in 55 years – will complete in the region 70 million euros.

The State-run Insurance Compensation Consortium (the 'Consorcio' is expected to pay the bulk of repair costs in most cases, and some insurance companies will assist their customers with the transactions.

According to minister for the economy, Elena Salgado, the Consorcio has agreed to increase  its deadlines for reporting claims and to open extra hours to help those affected – in abstract, to be as bendy as possible.

Salgado says 'no effort will be spared' in the long and drawn-out quest too 'make Lorca what it used to be' again.

She is currently fine-tuning the details of a new law which came into force on Friday covering housing assistance, compensation for family members of the nine people who perished in the quake, tax and social security benefits and low-interest finance to prevent local commercial addresses from going under as a result of being unable to business commerce.

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

Madeleine McCann

Sunday, 1 May 2011

Six local police needed to bring down drunken Briton

32 year old Briton, named as Kenneth P.S. has been arrested after trying to take the gun being carried by a local policeman when in one of the shops in the Starco Commercial Centre in Arona.

The local police say two people approached them with the appearance of being drunk. One of them was very well built and muscular and nearly 1 metre 90 tall, and started shouting at the police in English using the expressions, ‘Fuck the police, ‘Fuck off’, and ‘Bloody Bastard’ among others.

La Opinion de Tenerife reports the police say they tried to ignore the man but then he fell on one of them and reached for the agent’s gun.

Finally a total of six police were needed to contain the individual who remained hostile throughout the whole procedure.

 

14 workers affected by water leak at Asco nuclear plant

escape of 25,000 litres of radioactive water from the Asco I plant in Tarragona has been described by the CSN, the Nuclear Safety Council as ‘Not an accident’.

14 workers were covered up to their ankles by the water after a valve opened in an ‘unwanted way’. The CSN described it as ‘an inadequate procedure’, and underlined that none of the employees were contaminated above safety levels.

The plant, which was in switched off mode for refuelling at the time, was evacuated so the water could be cleared and the building be decontaminated.

The water which escaped had been in contact with the reactor as part of the cooling system, but did not contain radiating particles because of chemical filtering procedures.

 

18 year old tourist falls five floors in Salou hotel

18 year old French tourist is in a critical condition in the intensive care unit of the Joan XXIII Hospital in Tarragona, after accidentally falling from the fifth floor balcony of the hotel he was staying at in Salou.

The regional police, Los Mossos d’Esquadra, say the formed part of a group of 500 French tourists, and La Vanguardia reports that he fell into the interior patio of the hotel last Thursday after climbing onto a handrail. It’s thought that he was drunk.

The 18 year old’s injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

 

Blogger Themes

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Share

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More