Don't forget to get the extra hour tonight

JUST A REMINDER: 3 a.m. becomes 2 a.m. tonight. Of course, we'll have to give that hour back next Spring, but let's enjoy it while we have it. (Any comments on the debate going on all over Europe about changing the hours twice a year?)

Four accused of 'irregular animal sacrifice': highlights animal control problem in the country

(Illustration only)

LOS BARRIOS (Cadiz) -- Four people were accused last week of killing animals at a shelter without the proper permits. Three of them are employees of a company called Control Zoosanitario, which has a contract to take abandoned domestic animals in Los Barrios and Algeciras. Among other things, they are impugned for alleged irregularities when putting the animals down, such as giving false dates in order to shorten the animals' stays at the shelter. According to a communique from the Guardia Civil, the four are the vet who attends at the shelter, and two employees of the dog 'home' in Los Barrios, plus someone with no proper connection to it, but who was the one killing the animals without permits or even a veterinary license to do so.

Manilva Mayoress resigns because of 'irregularities'

(sotograndedigital.com)

MANILVA (Cadiz) -- The westernmost municipality in the province of Malaga returns to its usual state of political instability, according to local and provincial media. The Mayoress, Antonia Muñoz, who has been on the Council for 27 years, and at its head since 2007, has been under investigation for alleged irregularities such as nepotism and dodgy contracts -- she resigned last Friday without offering any public explanations, just seven months before local elections. She had ben under pressure to resign since June 2013, when she and her Council cohorts officially resigned from her party (IU, Izquierda Unida) ranks. The present judicial investigation has already 'splashed' her family and close friends. Local sources also point to serious discrepancies with many of her political group, ever since they left IU.

UK High Court dismisses Gibraltar challenge to new online gambling law

LONDON -- A High Court in the UK has dismissed a legal challenge from bookmakers to bring the licensing and taxation of online gambling companies under UK control if they offer their services to consumers in Britain, Reuters reports. Gambling companies with large UK customer bases such as Ladbrokes and William Hill have placed their operations offshore to benefit from lower taxes. A new tax regime is due to come into force on 1 December to force such companies to obtain a licence from the UK Gambling Commission and to pay a 15 percent tax online winnings from bets made by UK consumers. The case was brought by the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association (GBGA), arguing that it contravened European legislation on free movement of services. The GBGA declined to say if it would appeal. (Source: Telecompaper)

Do they still find arms from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)?

SPAIN -- Yes, indeed. The Guardia Civil anti-explosive unit, called TEDAX, deactivates some 1,000 artefacts per year throughout the country. The region of Aragón is where they find more than anywhere else; so far this year alone they have dealt with 115 bombs ranging in size from 4 to 45 Kg. from all over the country; these did not include hand guns or rifles. Perhaps the most curious was a hand grenade that was discovered hanging from a branch of a pine tree. Other arms are often found during ploughing where Civil War battles were fought. On a more ‘human’ scale, the mountains of Andalucía contain the families of former Republican fighters, many of whom stayed in the hills after the Civil War was over, still fighting Franco many years after the war itself. Tradition demands that families and their members attain nicknames, so you will find quite a few guerrilleros out there.

Ferrovial is on a shopping spree, starting with the UK and Australia

MADRID -- One of Spain's largest companies, Ferrovial, is a big player on the international business scene, specialising in construction, operations and airport management. Having bought -- not without difficulties from the competition authorities -- the remaining shares in three important British airports (Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton, the 8th, 14th and 18th busiest in the UK, respectively) in a 50-50 partnership with the Macquarie Fund earlier this week, it put in a non-binding bid to acquire Transfield Services, an Australian firm. Transfield is in the operation and maintenance services businesses in a list of markets that range from natural resources, transport infrastructure and defence to many others. Ferrovial already had a participation in the three airports and still holds

Why is my home not selling?

SPAIN – This fact is, of course, not exclusive to this country. However, there are a large number of homes left unsold here, especially on the Costa del Sol. Advice given to Spanish sellers on various websites might be handy knowledge for expats, too:

·        One ad is not enough.  Even a series of ads may not be enough. The secret behind successful marketing is in repetition, so we can learn from the likes of Coca-Cola, Lever Bros. etc. etc. The big boys, in other words. (More  ideas and suggestions below.)

Tarifa re-enacts siege of 1812

TARIFA (Cádiz) – Tarifa was under siege last weekend. Well, it might have given that impression to a wandering tourist. In fact, the town was really under siege by French forces on June 1812, during what in Spain is known as the War of Independence, and the Peninsular War in the UK’s history books. Napoleon’s troops were mostly in Cádiz towards the end of the blockade. The fun and games was presented by an association from Bailén that specialises in re-enactments all over the country – usually in themes related to the French occupation of the peninsula. On Saturday, they re-enacted the battle at La Caleta, which saw the breach of the old town walls (faithfully reproduced by municipal workers during the week) at what was once known as Puerta del Retiro and is now called Plaza de Calzadilla de Téllez. The siege itself lasted for twenty long days, seven of which the people of Tarifa had the scarred wall to defend heroically.

Antonio Banderas, lifetime Goya award 2015

MADRID -- Spain's film academy, the Academia de Cine, whose annual awards are the country's equivalent of the Oscar, has awarded Spanish international star Antonio Banderas a Goya of Honour -- something like a lifetime achievement prize. The academy's Board was unanimous in its acclamation of Banderas's "brilliant career on both sides of the Atlantic" where over the years he has developed not only as a versatile actior, but also as a director and producer. He has been nominated for a Goya award on four occasions, has worked on over 90 films and has appeared on Broadway (Nine). He worked with Spain's best-known director Pedro Almodóvar on five movies and on such box-office hits as Philadelphia, Shrek, Evita and Zorro, among others.

Andalucía’s education disaster (MÁS ABAJO EN ESPAÑOL: Andalucía, desastre en educación)

OPINION (by Alberto Bullrich) -- A friend’s son was told to leave his classroom at the village Adult Education Centre the other day. He called his mother in tears; she went to speak with the teacher, who told her that the ‘head office’ had denied the boy, 17, permission to take the exams at the end of the course because he was born in January, after the ‘adult’ deadline of December 31. He would have to wait a whole year, though he was offered other unrealistic alternatives. Fair enough, he was born ‘too late’ so he is not officially an adult yet. But why was he eager to attend these classes?

Spain: worst drop in exports in five years

MADRID – Spain’s exports dropped 5.2% in August, the worst since October 2009. The reasons behind it are multiple, but the main cause is the problems the European economies, especially France and Germany, have undergone. Sales to emergent nations have also dropped, a contributing factor. While presenting these figures at a press conference last week, the Minister for the Economy, Luis de Guindos, pointed out that in real terms and having discounted the price of exports, the downward drift is only 1%. Nevertheless, the general trend of the Spanish economy is toward negative inflation. German exports fell by 1% in the same period, and the French, 5.7%; in both countries this is the sixth consecutive downturn. Exports from the UK were also down, which accumulated a 20% descent in eight consecutive months. Bad news, too, from outside the EU, where exports dropped by 7.1%, particularly in emergent Latin American nations such as Venezuela (-73.5%), Brazil (-22.3%) and Mexico (-16.5%). (Source: El Economista)

Spanish Olympic medallist signs up with Cirque de Soleil

Margalida Crespí

MADRID – Where she’s going there are no nets, and no drum roll, yet the jump is monumental: from the podium at the London 2012 Olympics to the main ring of a circus. Not any old circus, mind you, the magnificent Cirque de Soleil. Yes, Margalida Crespí, Olympic bronze for team synchronised swimming and a world gold medal in the same discipline. She’s giving up high level competition for possibly more strenuous discipline of the world’s most popular circus. Aged 24, the native of Palma de Mallorca is packing her bags and headed for Montreal, the circus’s headquarters. She wants to

How could the new capital gains tax law affect you?

MADRID -- A new capital gains tax comes into effect on January 1, 2015. Not every property seller is impacted, though. According to Fuster & Associates, the government is eliminating two coefficients when calculating the tax due on a property sale. It does mean, however, that some vendors will see a large increase in the amount of capital gains they are liable for. There are three tax groups that will be exempted from paying, however:

30,000 illegal homes in Málaga, only 16 demolitions

MÁLAGA – It has been calculated that there some 30,000 illegal homes built in the province. Many of them are on ‘non-buildable’ or ‘rústico’ land, or on river flood courses, and the sides and tops of mountains … Yet only a tiny proportion of them have been demolished, which is what the law mandates (restitution to its original state). This permissiveness is owed principally to the fact that there is no politician willing to assume the electoral costs of an unpopular measure. That, and the sluggish speed of justice in Spain. Of course, it’s Nature that loses out, as usual. The provincial Prosecutor//calculates that there were at least 16 demolitions 2013 as the result of having been built on non-buildable land and therefore considered as an offence against ‘territorial ordination’. This is more than can be said for previous years.

Sperm: the new white gold?

MADRID – Spain has become a major exporter of human semen. It has to do with a number of things, not least of which are that it is not illegal in this country to donate sperm. This is why, for instance, Spain recently began exporting it to Portugal, where donations are not allowed, and nor are artificial insemination of lesbian couples or single mothers. People flock to Spain for artificial insemination, principally, from other less progressive European countries and from around the world. //The fact is, too, that the quality of sperm, in the developed world at least, has been decreasing over the years.  The reasons behind this are diverse: alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, fast foods in terms of nutrition, stress, fashion dictates in tight clothing, some sports such as cycling (which puts pressure on the testicles) and an increase in obesity in developed nations. There are more but these are the most common.

According to research carried out by the Department of Growth and Reproduction at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, using scientific studies of those years, the average sperm count descended alarmingly between 1940 and 1990. From 113 million spermatozoa per millilitre to 66 million, almost half.

Another study, published in HumanReproduction magazine, confirms the downward spiral. Between 1989 and 2005, the sperm count per millilitre is now a mere 49 million. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) does not see this count as alarming, as the established minimum is 15 million, as it asserts in a manual they publish on the subject.

Single mothers and homosexual couples are 60% of the business

In the meantime, sperm banks have arisen like mushrooms. Ole Schou, who founded the world’s largest, Cryos, based in Denmark, agrees that tendencies and attitudes are changing rapidly. He adds that only 40% of his clientele is heterosexual couples; the rest are single mothers and homosexual couples. Cryos exports to 70 countries, which they can do in 24 hours. “Since our foundation in 1991, we have helped in the conception of some 30,000 babies, about 2,000 a year.” This, he says, is due to the company’s strict quality controls and in part to Danish law.

Having begun with university students as donors, and having expanded exponentially, Cryos exploits the international market with profits at the 80% mark. The number of donors is a “state secret” according to Schou. He is at present studying the possibility of opening offices in other countries, including Spain, in order to offer different kinds of donors – different specifications.

The law in this country forbids payment for donations but allows compensation ‘for the trouble’. Men in Spain can make an extra €1200 in six months, according to local sources. Many sperm banks, not just here, have an open clause in their donor contracts that says that at age 18, the children resulting from a donation, are allowed to contact the donor.

(Source: www.quo.es)

Some bank customers pay over €270 a year in commissions

MADRID -- A recent study by the consumer group Facua reveals that clients of Barclays, Santander, Unicaja and La Caixa are the ones who pay highest commissions, which can reach a hefty €270 per year or more. According to the survey, the median amount paid is €168.73 if your paycheck, benefits or pension are not automatically credited (domiciliado; here we use 'domiciled' for no reason except convenience). Below is a sample listing of the costs:

Teresa Romero is free of Ebola

Excellent news: the nurse who contracted the disease after voluntarily attending to the two Spanish missionaries who died from it, is free of Ebola. She underwent a second test yesterday and it was announced that there are no longer any signs of it in her system. Doctors at the Carlos III hospital say that she must now take plenty of rest and build up her strength.