Nerja News

Two immigrants have so far died on a boat which reached the port of La Restinga on the island of El Hierro in the Canary islands.

The boat arrived in the port with 123 people on board, one of whom was already dead. The second passenger, possibly a minor, died after the boat docked. A further nine people are in a serious condition, suffering from hyperthermia and dehydration.

It is thought that up to 28 of those on board the cayuco are minors, although the exact number will not be known until tests have been carried out.

Omar Osama Bin Laden has been deported from Spain after his failed bid for political asylum.

Omar Osama Bin Laden and his English-born wife arrived in Madrid on Monday and immediately requested asylum on the grounds that his life was in danger in the Middle East. However, the Spanish authorities decided there was insufficient evidence of danger or threat to his life and have sent him packing.

He is now back in Cairo where he is being questioned by the authorities.

Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is a happy bunny again after eventually getting an invite to the global finance summit in Washington on November 15th.

The Bush administration wanted to limit the summit to the G-20, which includes the seven leading industrial powers plus Russia, as well as developing countries such as China, India, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil. Spain, despite being the world’s eighth largest economy, was excluded from the list and the Prime Minister has been campaigning for inclusion ever since the summit was announced, travelling all over the place to enlist support for his cause. more »

The criminal division of the National Court has ordered a halt to the exhumation of mass graves from the Civil War and Franco period at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The exhumations had been ordered by Judge Baltasar Garzón after he declared himself competent to carry out investigations into the whereabouts of over 100,000 people who ‘disappeared’ during the Franco Regime. This move in itself was contentious and caused much debate, both in political and non-political circles. more »

José Rodríguez Salvador, known as the Vall d’Hebron rapist, has been detained in Granada after the Provincial Court in Barcelona ordered his re-arrest and return to jail. more »

Spain has rejected an appeal for political asylum made by Omar Osama Bin Laden, one of the many (19) sons of terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden.

Omar, and his British born wife, arrived at Madrid airport on Monday on a stopover flight from Egypt to Morocco and immediately asked for political asylum on the grounds that his pacifist beliefs put his life in danger in the Middle East. more »

Unemployment in Spain is at the highest level since April 1996, and now stands at 2,818.026. October was a bad month, six time worse than last year with another 192,000 becoming unemployed.

October has always been a month when unemployment has risen, but never as bad as this year. It has hit all sectors, the services industry being the worst hit as far as actual numbers are concerned with a net increase of 113,720 (+7.4%), and agriculture as far as relative figures are concerned with a 9,039 (+10.5%) increase in the number out of work.

In Andalucía, unemployment rose by 42,344 (+6.6%) and now stands at 683,777. The only province to register a decline in unemployment was Almería, down by 0.56%. Everywhere else it was a case of up, up and up. Málaga province was up by 8.35% on last month.

Car sales in Spain during October dropped by 40% when compared to the same month last year, with only 77,660 being registered.

Year to date, car sales are down by roughly 20%.

The Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has announced measures to help certain sectors of the community with their mortgage repayments during the next two years. It is estimated that around 500,000 people will benefit from the measure.

The beneficiaries under the scheme are: more »

A total of 17 people lost their lives on the roads at the weekend, bad weather throughout the country being a contributory factor. A further 3 people were seriously injured.

The number of fatalities is 7 more than during the corresponding weekend last year.

In Spain, there are 41,459 women who are recipients of some kind of active protection in relation to domestic violence, with the largest number being in Andalucía.

Of the total, 29,756 are Spanish women, 11,703 are foreigners. more »

A man doused himself in flammable liquid yesterday morning and then set fire to himself outside the Women’s Centre in avenida Antonete Gálvez in Murcia.

Local residents who witnessed ths incident grabbed fire extinguishers to put him out and he was then treated by an Emergency Medical Unit before being transferred to hospital. He is said to be burned from top to bottom.

If it was some sort of protest, then it fell a bit flat as no-one currently knows either the identity of the man or the reasons for the pyrotchnic display.

Mark Lewis, a councillor in San Fulgencio on the Costa Brava, has ended up as mayor of the town, population 8,000, after all those above him in the pecking order were arrested on corruption charges.

Mark Lewis, who moved to Spain 25 years ago, was until very recently the Councillor for animals, responsible for cats, dogs and other little critters, but it all began to change after the deputy mayor, Manuel Barrera Garcia, was caught on video allegedly taking a €5,000 bribe to help promote the development of a hotel, golf course and casino. more »

An Air Europa flight, flight number AEA196, from Glasgoq to Lanzarote skidded off the runway this morning after landing and ended up just short of the perimeter fencing. No-one was injured in the incident and the passengers are now all carrying on with their holidays.

There were 74 passengers and 6 crew on board the plane. The plane, a Boeing 737, apparently developed problems with the undercarriage as it came in to land and It is thought that a broken axle may have caused the plane to skid off the runway, although this has yet to be confirmed.

A total of 28 people have been treated for varying wounds as a result of the ETA bomb attack at the University of Navarra.

Most of those injured suffered cuts and bruises as a result of flying debris and glass and are being treated in hospitals in the area. Others suffered anxiety attacks, loss of hearing, ringing in the ears and other sundry ailments.

A car bomb attack at the University of Navarra has left seventeen people injured and caused damage to at least a dozen vehicles on the campus.

The bomb exploded just before 11am this morning in a car park near the main, central building of the University of Navarra, only a few metres from where a similar bomb was placed in the last attack on the facility a few years ago.

The injured are mostly suffering from cuts and bruises caused by flying glass and debris and 15 have been taken to various hospitals in Pamplona for treatment. About a dozen vehicles in the car park were either burned or damaged in the blast.

A third immigrant on board the dugout which arrived in Playa de Santiago near Alajeró, La Gomera, yesterday has died in hospital.

The boat, which had set off from Guinea-Conakry ten days earlier, arrived in the Canaries with two passengers, one of them a baby, already dead and several others suffering from hyperthermia.

The 125 would-be immigrants were crammed into a ten metre long boat.