News from Andalucia & Costa del Sol
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Mijas joins call for A7 to return to non-motorway status
Plan also calls for toll motorway to become free or much cheaperBy Oliver McIntyre
THE Mijas council last week passed a motion urging the Public Works Ministry to return the A7 in the town to standard highway status from its current designation as a motorway. Mijas joins the call issued recently by Estepona, and says Marbella and Fuengirola are planning to do the same.
Cercanías schedule changed to improve link with AVE
Changes include extending night time service an hour laterBy Oliver McIntyre
THE C-1 Cercanías line between Fuengirola and Málaga has altered its weekday schedule in order to better link travellers to the AVE trains departing out of Málaga’s María Zambrana station. The changes, which came into effect on Sunday, affect the early morning and late night trains and extend the night time service an hour later.
The new schedule is aimed at allowing travellers from Fuengirola, Benalmádena and Torremolinos to reach Málaga in time to catch the AVE trains that depart to Madrid at 7.10am and 8.10am, and for passengers on the AVE that arrives in Málaga from Madrid at 10.55pm to catch the Cercanías home.
Coín identifies 7,000 illegal homes for regularisation
Towns begin passing bylaws to meet requirements of Junta’s homes decreeBy Oliver McIntyre
THE Coín town council last week approved the local ordinances required to regularise homes under the Junta de Andalucía’s illegal-homes decree, or Decreto 2/2012. The town hall says it has identified more than 7,000 homes on non-building land in the town that may be eligible for the process.
The council approved three ordinances. The first outlines the requirement that homes and other buildings to be regularised must be free from ongoing sanction proceedings, are not on specia
lly protected or flood land, and are more than six years old.
Fibre optic roll-out for MAlaga
Costa capital to become one of European cities with broadest coverageBy Dave Jamieson
FIBRE optic cables will pass 60 per cent of private homes in the city of Málaga by the end of the year. The project is expected to create several hundred jobs.
The telecoms operator Jazztel announced last week that it is investing 31 million euros this year to expand its fibre optic network in Spain through an accord with Telefónica which will see it becoming available to three million homes nationwide. The technology allows for high-speed data transfer, providing very fast connection to the internet. Jazztel’s José Miguel García told a press conference in Málaga last week that the roll-out would begin in the city and is expected to be successful, “given its technological profile”.
“Málaga is the second city after Barcelona where we are launching this,” he explained, “and it will become one of the European cities with the highest percentage of households which have access to fibre optic connections.” Jazztel, which will share the network with Telefónica, also plans to expand the network this year in Madrid, Sevilla and Valencia.
RICH DONATION
Library workers find €2,400 in donated book and return it to ownerBy Oliver McIntyre
BENALMÁDENA resident Josué Escudero is very happy he decided to donate three large boxes of books to the Arroyo de la Miel library last week.
The roughly 150 books had belonged to his recently deceased father; had he decided to toss them out or leave them boxed away somewhere he may never have known that one of them had 2,400 euros tucked inside it.
Irish Godfather returns to the Costa del Sol
Mobster faces trail in Spain after completing sentence in BelgiumBy David Eade
CHRISTOPHER Kinahan, known as the Irish Godfather, has returned to the Costa del Sol. The alleged head of a criminal organisation that was broken up in 2010 in an operation against the Irish Mafia operating in Málaga has now completed his sentences imposed by the Belgium courts. They extradited him in 2011 on a European arrest warrant for money laundering offences committed in that country. Mr Kinahan did not contest the warrant.
Now he is back in Spain to face justice before the courts here. It is understood he will remain free on 60,000 euros bail, the terms first set in December 2010. Estepona court, which is in charge of the case, also insisted he report to officials once a week and he has been banned from leaving the country.
Málaga police for hire by the hour
Charges will apply to events staged for profit or publicityBy Dave Jamieson
LOCAL police in Málaga have confirmed that they are to start charging for special services from this summer. The mechanism for charging a fee for a police presence or traffic controls has been in place since the start of the year, but has not been put into operation.
Non-profit organisations which stage road races, cycling rallies and similar events will be exempt from the charges, as will municipally organised events such as fairs and parades. However, organisations which stage events to make a profit or for reasons of publicity will be liable to contribute towards police assistance, although Málaga town hall says it will consider applications on a case-by-case basis.
Spanish fallout from Boston terror attack
Consul sacked and ETA-linked Bildu party refuses to condemn bombingsBy Dave Jamieson
SPAIN'S consul in the US city of Boston has been fired after failing to provide an adequate service in the wake of last week’s bomb blasts. However, a political party with alleged links to ETA has refused to condemn the outrage.
The minister of foreign affairs in Madrid said that Pablo Sánchez-Terán failed to meet his obligations as the country’s consul in Boston when he closed the consulate at the usual time, despite the terrorist attacks at the city’s marathon having taken place just a few hours earlier.
That night, Sr Sánchez-Terán told reporters that the consulate had been closed, because “it was the usual time to do so”. He failed to provide a contact phone number for families concerned about Spanish relatives taking part in the marathon, and instead advised people to phone round local hospitals, although he did take calls from media representatives to confirm there were no reports of Spanish victims of the incident.
Sensitive satellite images cause security concerns
Government wants to force Google to block images of official buildingsBy Dave Jamieson
THE government has approved plans to create legislation which would force internet sites such as Google Maps and Google Earth to block images of some official buildings in the interests of security. The proposal, which was put forward by the Partido Popular administration with the support of the Defence Commission, was approval by Congress last Thursday almost unanimously, with only Izquiera Unida deputies abstaining.
The proposal stated that the cartographic information about sensitive installations and locations available on the internet could make it easier to put national security at risk.