Costa del Sol News - Archive 13th April 2001

Regional News, week ending Friday 13th April

GRANADA PUB SHOOTING

A dramatic pub shooting in Granada last weekend resulted in the death of two young men and search and capture warrants issued for three others who fled the scene. Police revealed that the two who died were involved in drug dealing and that the three who had fled the scene were a father and his two sons, also involved in drug dealing. As the week drew on it was revealed that one of the two sons had a previous conviction for murder when, aged 14, he pushed his stepsister into a canal. He had served two years in a juvenile detantion centre for the crime. At the time of writing, police have so far arrested the man´s brother, 24 year old Miguel Jose MB. The other two remain at large.

LIGHT AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT

A man died after apparently being hit by propeller from a light aircraft in the Sierra de Grazalema. JM Jurado Marín was found in a massive pool of blood in front of the aircraft, which however showed no sign of damage. The attending judge immediately placed the proceedings sub-judice. It is known that the man had previous convcitions for drug-trafficking, and that the Guardia Civil had been watching the area for about a year, suspecting it was being used to land light aircraft bringing in drugs form Morocco.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Over 150 paperless immigrants are this week´s toll for the coast of Cadiz. 56 people were rescued from a pneumatic boat which had broken down and was losing air, while in another operation 48 people were detained, including 16 women and two babies. The babies, thought to be twins, had to be treated for hypothermia. Meantime, police arrested 6 so-called "pasadores", those who traffick in immigrants. LEGAL

IMMIGRANT PORBLEMS IN LEPE

The mayor of Lepe (Huelva)Jose Oria said that this year the flood of immigrant workers to the town had reached saturation point. He added that despite the fact that many businesses do provide housing for their workers, the reality is that many foreigners are living in squalid conditions. Huelva province has a massive strawberry industry, and bring in many workers from Eastern Europe to help with the harvest.

FISHERMEN CONTINUE PROTESTS

The fishermen of Barbate (Cadiz) have continued their protest about the lack of fishing agreement with Morocco. They are staging a sit-in in the Town Hall and are periodically blocking major roads in the area. Fishermen in Almeria have decided to stage their own protests now, with plans to block Moroccan fish from coming into port. Meanwhile in the rest of Andalucia, the sector will be joining in national protests and demonstrations on april 18th and 24th.

HIGH-SPEED TRAIN FOR GRANADA

The mayor of Granada, Jose Moratalla and the Infrastructure Ministry have signed a collaboration agreement to bring the AVE high speed train to the city in 2007. They are now to ask the Junta de Andalucia to join in the agreement.

GIRLS SMOKING MORE THAN BOYS

A study carried out among schoolchildren aged 10 to 19 in SEville shows that girls are smoking more than boys. 20% of girls were found to smoke, as opposed to 18.3% of girls. Studies at a national level show that as the number of male smokers declined from 55% to 44.8% during 1987 to 1997, the number of female smokers increased from 23% to 27.2%. A spoeksman from the Virgen del Rocio hospital in SEville said that smoking appears to have gained a positive role for the modern woman, symbolising freedom, independence and rebellion.

JULIO IGLESIAS ROW IN JAEN

The Town Hall of Jaen has booked Julio Iglesias to perform in the city on September 1st. However opposition parties have spoken out against the move, saying that the 30 million peseta cost of the performance is outof all proportion to the 45 million peseta cultural budget. "It is appalling that they spend on one concert more than they will spend on the whole of the June fair," said one opposition councillor. However, the government team justified its decision by saying that the ocncert would be good for the external promotion of the twon, and that there had been many complaints about the mediocrity of music in Jaen. "We want to turn Jaen into a musical reference point in Andalucia," a spoeksman said.

HOLY WEEK IN FULL SWING

Semana Santa has been in full swing across Andalucia, beginning on Palm sunday with processions representing the entry of Christ into Jerusalem. The dramatic and beautiful processions unfold in every town and village across the region and this year there will be over 300 hours of live television coverage through cable channels in Seville, Granada and Malaga

News Archive from Andalucia