Local News

In The National News

More problems for Bankia this morning. With the Spanish stock market falling 20.4% so far this year, Bankia sees shares in its assets column worth some 66% less than in the official accounts.
The problem of the ‘toxic’ assets in construction, property, home loans and credits to families and promoters is well commented, but new Chairman, José Ignacio, will now also have to manage the shares in other companies the bank owns. Their value is substantially less than reflected in the bank’s accounts and El País reports an audit has put the size of the new black hole at 2.465 billion euros.

The Spanish Government has protested about the planned visit by the Duke and Duchess of Wessex, Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones, to Gibraltar.
Diplomatic sources say that the British Ambassador, Giles Paxman, was called to the offices of the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, the day after the announcement of the visit by the Gibraltar Government, to hear of the ‘disgust’ of the Spanish cabinet.
The royal visit to the Rock is planned for next month.
The new Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, changed the policy to Gibraltar as soon as he arrived in his post in January.
The previous Socialist government had started a relationship with the Gibraltar Government and the Tripartite Forum, created by Miguel Ángel Moratinos, with equality in talks between London, Gibraltar and Madrid, but that was thrown out by the Partido Popular when they came to power.

A 53 year old man has survived being hit by lightning in Tres Cantos, Madrid. The discharge entered his scrotum and left though his foot, according to the emergency services.
The man told 20minutos newspaper that he did not lose consciousness at any time. ‘I only felt that I could not move my legs’.
He said he called his son and his son then called the emergency services who then sent a mobile intensive care ambulance to the scene.
The man has been admitted to the La Paz Hospital and they say an EEG scan has determined that the strike has not affected the heart or brain. He does have burns around his scrotum and on one foot and will be kept in hospital for observation for 24 hours.

In The Local News

29 families have been squatting in an empty residential development in Torremolinos for the past month. The building was completed three years ago, but the flats have never been sold as the promoter went bankrupt.
The families moved in with all their belongings, and now use the underground car park to park their card. They have been maintaining common areas and also the swimming pool. Reports also indicate they have changed the locks, and have organised between themselves the monthly payment of 20 € from each of the 29 flats.
Most of the families are reported to be from the same clan who had been living in social housing in Arroyo de la Miel.
One of the occupants told Diario Sur, ‘We are civilised people without work, and we need a roof over our heads’.
National and local police are patrolling the area as their only answer to complaints from other residents. They say that they cannot evict the families unless they get a denuncia from the owner resulting in a judicial order.

The prosecutors’ office considers that drug running has become one of the main parts of the economy in Cádiz.
Cádiz province with 1.2 million people has 3% of the population of Spain, and it’s calculated that 46% of the hashish which comes into the country does so via Cádiz province. 18% of all drug trafficker detained in Spain were in Cadíz.
The Chief Prosecutor thinks that the number of traffickers is increasing ‘forced by need’ as the recession continues to bite. He raises his concerns in his annual report for 2011.

The Royal Gibraltar Police said an incident off Europa Point yesterday underscored its good working relationship with the Guardia Civil.
A Spanish patrol boat had chased a jet ski into Gibraltar waters and alerted the Gibraltar authorities, which rapidly attended the scene. “They called us immediately,” an RGP spokesman said. The Gibraltar officers checked the jet ski and its rider but found nothing suspicious, allowing its Spanish rider to leave. The jet ski rider aroused suspicions because smugglers have often used them to transport drugs and migrants across the Strait of Gibraltar. Vessels from the Gibraltar Defence Police and the Royal Navy’s Gibraltar Squadron also attended the incident in support of the RGP.