Regional News, week ending Friday 6th July 2001
NEW GROUND LAW
Under the new Ground Law, 40 per cent of the Andaulaz coast has been declared for public use. The new Law replaces in the previous one and included important updates on coastal protection, inspections and other environmental matters. Among other measures, no areas of the coast will be permitted to be earmarked for private use such as with hotel who build swimming pools and other leisure areas on them.
IMMIGRATION
37 paperless immigrants were found off on the Granada coast and in Tarifa over the weekend. 21 Moroccans were found in the Calahonda and La Rijana area of Granada, having come off three boats. In Tarifa football ground, 16 Moroccan men were found having sailed across the Strait.
EARTHQUAKE IN JAEN
An earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale took place in Jaen yesterday morning. The epicentre was the town of Jamilena, and the tremor was felt for several seconds in half a dozen neighbouring municipalities.
SEVILLE WOMAN OFFERS SON TO AUTHORITIES
A Seville woman has asked the Junta de Andalucia to take legal custody of her 15 year old son or place him in a detention centre. Luisa Palomino said she could not control her son, nor stop in the road to drugs and crime which he had chosen. She added that she had tried locking her son in the house but he had destroyed the door with a hammer and then disappeared for three days. The new Juvenile Law made things worse, she said, because her son knew that if he was arrested nothing would happen to him, and he had no fear of justice.
STABBING IN SEVILLE
A 25 year old Seville man died in the Burgullios area of the capital after being stabbed in the chest. The incident happened at 4 am in a zone used for the "movida", where the man and his friend were drinking. When the friend left for a moment to go to the toilet, he found MDP lying on hte ground bleeding profusely from a wound to the right part of his chest. He died shortly after being admitted to hospital.
"ROAD OF DEATH" HEARING
The Audiencia of Granada confirmed yesterday that the oral hearing of the so-called "Carretera de la Muerte" of Road of Death case will begin next Wednesday, despite that fact that evidence believed crucial in the case has not arrived in court. The case refers to a stretch of the former N323 in which 60 people died in three years. Evidence has been produced which the prosecutors believe to be crucial in the case. It consists of a study, costing four million pesetas, which was commissioned from an expert engineer looking at the particular stretch of road. However the Audiencia said yesterday that the study should have been handed over to the magistrates in the case ten days before the case begins.
SPANISH FISHERMEN ARRESTED
A Moroccan police patrol arrested seven fisherman from La Linea who were found fishing illegally in Moroccan waters. The seven were found in two boats, shell fishing when they were caught by the patrol and taken into custody. Sources said they are to be released once they pay a fine.
SEVILLE MURDER TRIAL
A 64 year old woman from Ecija in Seville who admitted to stabbing her husband to death told a jury yesterday that her married life had been hell with the man, and that she had also been the victim of sexual abuse by her father from a very young age . The fiscal is looking for 15 years behind bars for the woman, but the defense has asked for seven months in prison, taking into account attentuating circumstances and the woman's mental state.
SEVILLE POLICE REQUEST CITIZENS AID
The Homicide squad of Seville are asking for citizen's help to find out who killed that 25 year old Martin Diaz Prieto in a bar on Sunday night. The police say they are at a loss to know why the man was stabbed, or by whom. Martin´s companion had gone to the toilet in the bar and when he returned a few moments later he found his friend lying on the floor stabbed in the chestand having received a heavy blow to the head. Witnesses say his attacker was of a dark complexion and used a very fine bladed weapon. But they added that there was no row or argument before the incident took place.
U.S. NUCLEAR SUBMARINES
Two American nuclear submarines moored in the Rotal Naval Base are attracting questions from the PSOE party of Cadiz. Deputy Maria del Carmen Sanchez has asked the Government why the two boats are being permitted to stay longer at the base than five days permitted under the bilateral treaty with the US.
JUVENILE STABBING BY 26 YEAR OLD BOYFRIEND
The Junta de Andalucia is to take into care the 14 year old girl from Lucena in Cordoba who was stabbed by her 26 year old boyfriend. The girl is still is a critical condition in hospital, with injuries to her head and chest. She had been living with the man for two years, and was also looking after his two children, but there had been considerable conflict between the two and the girl's family. Local director of the Andaluz Women´s Institute said that it was an atypical and exceptional case. Maria Paz Gutierrez went on, a girl of her age should be playing with her friends, not living with someone as a couple and bringing up his children. The Institute is to call an extraordinary meeting along with the Cordoban group against Violence towards Women. The meeting will take place tomorrow and will formally protest against the events.
ARREST WARRANT FOR 15-YEAR OLD BOY
Meanwhile, an arrest warrant has been issued for the 15 year old Seville boy whose mother begged the Junta to take into care because she could no longer control him. The child is to be taken into a detox centre for young addicts in Mijas. Isias Perez Saldana, social affairs councillor said that the Junta will decide later whether it will accept the mother's request to take the boy into care.
ROAD-SIDE BIRTH
A prisoner from the Women's prison in Alcala de Guadaira in Seville has given birth by the side of the road in the arms of a Guardia Civil officer as she was being taken to hospital. The 33 year old Huelva woman felt unwell on Sunday afternoon and was put in an ambulance only accompanied by a warder and no medical personnel. However, the birth rapidly became imminent, the vehicle stopped and in the end two passing Guardia Civil were flagged down and drafted in to deal with the birth.
GIANT SQUID
A trawler based in Motril, Granada caught rather more than it bargained for on Monday. A live squid weighing 65 kilos and measuring 7.5 meters long turned up in the nets, but died shortly afterwards. The specimen is thought to be from the a rare variety known as Architeuthis, about which little is known. A similar specimen turned up dead on a beach in Fuengirola in 1999.
14 YEAR OLD PRONOUNCED DEAD
The 14 year old girl we reported on yesterday who had been beaten by her 26 year old boyfriend is now clinically dead. Manuela EG had been with her attacker for two years, looking after his children. He remains in custody.
PRISON ESCAPE
A 20 year old prisoner managed to escape from his cell in Seville on Tuesday night. Sources say he had managed to pull out the window frame using wet jeans in the form of a tourniquet.
FOSSIL WHALE SKULL DESTROYED
A 46 year old Seville man has been arrested by SEPRONA, the wildlife protection police, for having acquired and destroyed the fossil skull of a whale which could have been seven million years old. The rare fossil had been found in Alcala de Guadaira, and disappeared after its presence had been documented by a Junta paleontologist. The rest of the skeleton was destroyed during building evacuations, but the skull had been saved in its entirety. However the arrested man, initials ARD, said it broke up when he tried to clean it.
C.G.N.U. BUYS HALF OF UNICAJA
The bank Unicaja yesterday sold half of its insurance and pension companies to the British company CGNU. Unicorp Vida y Ahorro Andaluz as it is know is valued at 50 thousand million pesetas, with the its 50% share CGNU now becomes the fourth biggest European insurance company.
MULTIPLE DEATHS IN PALMA DEL RIO
An elderly woman and a child of 4 died yesterday in the Cadiz town of Palma del Rio in separate incidents. The child died iafter falling into a private swimming pool, and the 73 year old woman, AGL, died after falling off a bridge into the river Genil.