Catalan organization fights for legal sex workers for disabled

A Catalan organization is pushing to help provide disabled people with sexual relations by providing legal "disability prostitutes."

 

Jaume Girbau was born with a congenital disease that left him in a wheelchair from a young age. He had a bad experience with a sex worker, which left him wondering why there was such a distinct lack of professional sex workers specializing in people with disabilities.

 

“She didn’t know what to do, she wasn’t prepared," Girbau told 20 minutos. After this traumatic experience, Girbau decided to start a group called "Sex Asistent Catalunya", made up of sexologists, sex counselors, therapists, and people with disabilities.

 

“We think it would be useful for there to be qualified professionals capable of providing a service to people with physical and mental disabilities,” he said. “This could be in the form of hugs, caressing, sexual massages, body exploration, games or aiding sexual relationships for couples who require it," he added.  

 

Now the group wants the Spanish government to back a motion to make sexual assistants legal. This is already reportedly the case in many countries across Europe, including Denmark. Germany, Holland and Switzerland and according to Girbau, France is debating whether to follow suit.

 

Some of these countries apparently even pay for the services with public funds.

 

The organization has started compiling teaching material, with the aim of offering professional training with an official university degree to those interested in participating. 

 

“There’s already plenty of demand,” Girbau told 20 minutos.

 

Patricia Carmona, President of Aspaym (an association for people with serious spinal injuries), is also in favor of a law which would guarantee sexuality to disabled people. 

 

“Unresolved sexual issues lead to behavioral problems,” she told 20 minutos.

 

“It should no longer be the parents or staff at the clinics who have to masturbate them. Why not have a professional do it?”

 

Carmona runs workshops and debates in which participants open up on two of modern society’s biggest taboos: sex and disability. The primary aim of the workshops is to prevent those with disabilities being treated as if they were children.

 

This brings to mind the 2012 Hollywood film "The Sessions". directed by Ben Lewin and starring Helen Hunt. The movie tells the story of a 38-year-old man in an iron lung who wishes to lose his virginity and contacts a professional sex surrogate with the help of his therapist and priest. The movie has raised awareness for the cause of Sex Asistent Catalunya.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354718

Marbella now second-most expensive beach destination in Spain

Marbella is the place to be for many celebrities, footballers and reality TV stars, who enjoy lying on the endless sandy beaches and dining in style in the local restaurants. It is now also the second-most expensive beach destination in Spain.

Celeb spotters have seen Naomi Campbell (top model), Nicole Scherzinger (US singer/songwriter) and Ashley Cole (top UK footballer) in town recently, enjoying the sun and sangria, either in the luxurious Puerto Banus or on the beaches of the Golden Mile.

 

On June 30, former Police member, Sting, was in town giving a concert as part of his latest world tour.

 

Now it is being said that Marbella is second only to Playa d’en Bossa in Ibiza in terms of luxury and expensive holidays. The town is also the most searched for destination on the holiday comparison website, Trivago.

 

Naturally, all this luxury comes with a price and the average night in Marbella will knock you back 190 euros, while in Playa d’en Bossa in Ibiza, the average price is 286 euros, to lay down your weary head.

Salou will cost around 166 euros, Costa Adeje 157 euros and Puerto de Alcudia and Playa de Palma are an expensive average of 146 euros.

 

Several other Spanish tourist spots are also increasing their prices by on average 28%, including Torremolinos, Lanzarote, Playa Blanca, Roquetas de Mar and Almunecar. 

 

But not to worry, for those on a more conservative budget, several destinations have actually lowered their prices by 3% recently, including Fuengirola, Conil, Torrevieja, Llanes, Salou or Benicàssim.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354709

Crisis claims another victim as famous Can Fabes restaurant to close it's doors

A restaurant close to Barcelona, famed for elevating Catalan cuisine to new heights, will be closing down, two years after losing the founding chef and a coveted third Michelin star.

El Racó de Can Fabes is a restaurant located in Sant Celoni in the Montseny hills north of Barcelona, Spain, founded by chef Santi Santamaria.

Rooted in local tradition, Santamaria's gastronomic offerings elevated Catalan cuisine to the pinnacle of gastronomy and it was one of the first Spanish restaurants to be awarded a Michelin star. The restaurant has been rated with three Michelin stars each year since 1994.

However one star was lost in November 2011, just nine months after the death of the founder, Santamaria of a heart attack at the age of 53 in the kitchen of a restaurant he had just opened in Singapore.

Regina Santamaria, the founder's daughter, took over the restaurant and hired a new chef, Xavier Pellicer, who made changes to the menu and at the beginning of 2013, Pellicer left the restaurant.

Now it seems the restaurant has to give up and close down. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Santamaria family, who founded Can Fabes in 1981, said the restaurant is the latest victim of Spain's stinging economic crisis.

"In these difficult times for restaurants in our country, Can Fabes does not have the necessary economic viability to pursue a project based on excellence," the statement read.

"We have decided to put an end to one of the brightest chapters in Catalan and European cuisine of the past 25 years," it added.

According to Miss Santamaria, the decision to close the restaurant was "very hard and very sad".

"We cannot carry on, we have tried to save it by every means possible, but it hasn't worked. Now our goal is to end this chapter with our head held high." 

The restaurant will serve its last meals on August 31, 2013.

At present, there are seven Michelin three-star restaurants and 19 two-star eateries in Spain, including Can Fabes.

The top spot was taken this year by another Catalan restaurant, El Celler de Can Roca, recently voted the best restaurant in the world in the 2013 World's 50 Best list, released by Restaurant magazine. 

Video: Santi Santamaria speaks about his cuisine: (Catalan with English sub-titles) 

 
To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354705

Artist of 'Always Franco' fame found not guilty

Artist Eugenio Merino stole the limelight at the ARCO modern art fair in Madrid last year with a satirical piece of art depicting Francisco Franco in full uniform, inside a Coca-Cola fridge. Then he got sued for his trouble.

The piece of art consists of a wax model of Franco in full military gear, frozen inside the fridge.

However, once the the Franco Foundation, an organization devoted to perpetuating the memory of the “Generalísimo”, as he is known, got wind of the artwork, they immediately filed suit against the sculptor for dishonoring the former dictator.

According to the artist, the idea behind his sculpture was to show how Francisco Franco was "frozen in the Spanish people's minds." He had no intention of mocking the former nationalist leader.

Last Thursday the foundation, which is headed up by Franco's daughter, told the Regional High Court of Madrid that they would be asking Merino to pay €18,000 in damages for the insult. However, in return, the public prosecutor asked for the charges to be dropped.

On Wednesday the judge found Merino not guilty saying that the work "Always Franco" is "a work of art that causes surprise, by the unusual location of the historical character" but that it "could not undermine the honor and the dignity of the claimant Foundation, as it does not exceed our current culture-specific social applications."

Merino explained to the national daily El País that he was merely attempting to show how Franco was frozen into the minds of Spaniards. “The bigger a deal they make of this, the more people support me,” Merino told the media on leaving the court and referring to the Franco Foundation’s insistence on pursuing the case.

“They’ve already buggered me and got what they wanted: publicity.”

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde, to give him his full name, ruled Spain with an iron fist from 1936 until his death in 1975. The last official statue to the former dictator was pulled down in 2008. However, he does have a tomb in the monument of Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos, near Madrid. And for now, artistic expression wins the day.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354674

Stolen Picasso, other art burned to crisp by thief's mother

The artwork was painted by Picasso in 1971, just two years before he died at the age of 91. It was stolen in October last year from a Dutch art gallery and the remains have now possibly surfaced, after the work was burned literally to a crisp.

Known as "El Loco (cabeza de arlequín)", or "The Madman (harlequin head)", the painting has allegedly been burned in an oven by the mother of one of the thieves. 

 

Continuing with investigations of the theft from the art gallery in the Netherlands, investigators in Romania found "small fragments of painting primer, the remains of canvas and paint", as well as some copper and steel nails that pre-dated the 20th century inside the oven of a woman, whose son, Radu Dogaru, was among the accused in the theft.

 

The forensic investigator, Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu, cannot say for sure that the burnt remains are from the stolen paintings, but he did say that if this were proved to be the case, it would be "a crime against humanity."

Dogaru's son was charged with stealing artworks by Picasso, Monet, Matisse and other renowned artists. Reportedly the art was worth between €100 million and €200 million. 

 

Olga Dogaru, the thief's mother, admitted last week to burning the paintings to “destroy evidence” and prevent police from being able to blame her son for the theft. Dogaru apparently also claimed to have hidden the artwork in an abandoned house and also a cemetery in the Romanian village of Carcaliu, but she says she dug them up and then incinerated them once police started searching the village.

 

She told Romanian Mediafax news agency, "I placed the suitcase containing the paintings in the stove.”

 

Six Romanians, including Dogaru's son, Radu have been charged in what is the biggest art theft yet in the Netherlands, for stealing 20 works from Amsterdam's Van Gogh museum in 1991.

 

Besides the Picasso, other paintings in the heist included Monet's 1901 "Waterloo Bridge, London and Charing Cross Bridge, London"; Matisse's 1919 "Reading Girl in White and Yellow"; Paul Gauguin's 1898 "Girl in Front of Open Window"; Meyer de Haan's "Self-Portrait, around 1890"; and Lucian Freud's 2002 work "Woman With Eyes Closed."

 

Dogaru told the media that the thieves struggled to find a buyer after a Romanian fashion designer and the Russian mafia turned down the paintings.

Oberlander-Tarnoveanu said that forensic specialists have been analyzing the ashes since March and hope to submit their findings to prosecutors next week. 

 

The Picasso painting, while not one of his most famous works, is one of a series of paintings of harlequins the Málaga artist painted during his lifetime. It is thought that he was influenced in these works by a close relationship with circus people during his time in France as a young man.

 

The paintings were owned by the private Triton Foundation, a collection of avant-garde art compiled by multimillionaire Willem Cordia. Cordia was an investor and businessman who died in 2011 and was survived by his wife, Marijke Cordia-Van der Laan.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354653

83-year-old bullfighter drops trousers for the press, shocks Spain

Jaime Ostos, 83, was the victim of a horrific goring in the bullring 50 years ago. However, he shocked readers of Spain's "La Gaceta" newspaper on Wednesday, by removing his trousers to display the damage to his groin.

He even, apparently, told the journalist and photographer to “Shoot as many as you want.” 

 

While the media in Spain has been totally involved in the corruption scandal involving Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy and the court case of former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas, implicating said Rajoy, this business daily newspaper decided to go for a different shock value, with Ostos featured as the biggest news story.

 

While preferring not to show the full image in this article, it can be viewed here by anyone wishing to see the famous fifty-year-old injury.

 

From that image, you can see that Ostos really took over the front page, trousers down, baring his scar and just managing to hide his genitalia, while PM Rajoy and Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, Secretary General of PSOE (the opposition party), take very much second place with a small feature at the bottom. The blurred out and cropped image below will give you the general idea: 

 

The headline of the story in "La Gaceta" was the rather ominous, “Doctors preferred to sign my death certificate rather than get blood on their hands." 

 

There have been reactions of humor, irony and outrage at the newspaper's choice for a front page feature, which celebrated the anniversary of the famous bullfighter's nasty injury.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354612

Video game inspires 19-year-old to kill his millionaire dad

After suffering "constant humiliation" from the treatment of his father, the 19-year-old son ended the 57-year-old man's life using a spiked bat, similar to that used in a video game he had been playing.

Last Friday, after confessing to the cold-blooded murder of 57-year-old Andreu Coll Bennássar, Andreu Coll Tur together with his friend and accomplice, 20-year-old Francisco Abas Rodriguez, have been remanded in custody by a Spanish judge on Mallorca, without bail.

According to El Mundo, the murder of Andreu Coll senior took place on the night of June 29 in the small Mallorcan municipality of Alaró.

Coll junior and Abas admitted to having first drugged Coll senior, before bludgeoning him to death with a medieval-style spiked bat, a hammer, a vase and a music speaker.

Reportedly they first cleaned up the blood and fingerprints with bleach, and then drove in the victim's Land Rover to nearby Bunyola to get rid of the body.

They had wanted to make the attack look like a robbery, and had removed Coll senior's rings and Rolex watch before dumping the body.

The two men attended the victim's funeral as normal. However, the Civil Guard arrested them soon after, as infrared tests showed them to be the real killers. 

The two young men had met online a year and a half earlier, while playing the video game "Call of Duty." 

The lawyer for Abas said that his client fell in love with Coll junior, after they spent time together in Mallorca and Zaragoza. He said that his client "regretted taking part in the murder but had done it for love." 

Both men were obsessed with violent video games and spent up to 12 hours a day playing them. Police believe that the spiked bat used by the men in the murder was based on a similar weapon seen in the video game "Dead Rising 2." 

While Coll junior had told the judge that he murdered his father due to his constant humiliation, he is also heir to a €50 million fortune. Spanish media is speculating that money may also have been a motive in the murder. 

A nondisclosure order has been dictated by the Regional High Court in the Balearic Islands while the trial continues. According to the Majorca Daily Bulletin, the two young men are both on suicide watch and in separate cells.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354582

Teenage prank turns into 'kidnapping' scare

When a teenage girl decided to play a prank on her father, things went terribly wrong, as a Spanish police officer stopped his vehicle and pulled a gun on him. However, it could have been much, much worse.

A 13-year-old girl in Valencia, Spain decided to play a silly and childish joke on her dad. She held up a sign in the car, while they were driving along, which read: "Help. I'm being kidnapped."

 

Her father had no idea what she was doing, but when an off-duty Spanish Civil Guard officer got a glimpse of the sign he did not hesitate in his attempts to "rescue" the poor girl.

 

He swerved his car so as to block and force the alleged kidnapper's vehicle to stop. The officer then jumped out of the vehicle and pointed a gun at the girl's father's head, ordering him out of the vehicle, with hands on head.

 

The shocked father obeyed, all the time assuring the officer that he was the father of the girl.

 

It didn't take too long for the teenager to admit to the joke. However, the off-duty officer had already alerted the authorities to what he thought was a serious incident, which then drew a large deployment of police officers to the scene.

 

Once it had been established that they were, indeed, father and daughter, they were both allowed to leave the scene with no charge.

 

However, its pretty certain the teenage prankster will have quite a bit of explaining to do.

 

This isn't the only time that a faked kidnapping has gone wrong in Spain, as Digital Journal reported recently on a stag night prank that ended up in the Madrid headlines as an armed kidnapping.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354540

UK's 'coke king' busted on the Costa Blanca, Spain

Benidorm - Britain's criminals might just start thinking twice about moving to Spain to continue plying their "trade," as Spanish police have arrested a notorious UK drug dealer and "coke king," Brian Charrington, and several accomplices.

On Monday, Spanish National Police arrested Charrington, who is suspected of running an international trafficking racket involving cocaine from Venezuela.

Overall, police arrested 13 people in both Spain and Venezuela, including Charrington, who police describe as "one of the 10 criminals most investigated by European police and leader of an international drug-trafficking organization."

According to a statement, officers seized 220 kilos (485 pounds) of cocaine from an apartment in L'Albir, close to Benidorm on the Costa Blanca, and also impounded property and bank accounts worth more than €5 million ($6.5 million).

The organization used a group of drug mules to fly cocaine into Spain using commercial flights, and officers intercepted at Barajas Airport, Madrid a man carrying five kilos of cocaine in eight packages distributed across specially adapted underwear, pictured above.
 The Daily Mirror reports that the arrests have also smashed a further plot to smuggle tons of cocaine into Europe via "an armada of yachts."

57-year-old Charrington, who has his own Wikipedia page, used to operate in the North East of England during the 1980's. He rose to fame as a major drug baron in 1992, when a raid at his Middlesbrough home unearthed almost €2.3 million in cash, which was all allegedly linked to drug dealing. While arrested in 1992, he was never formally charged, due to faulty police procedures.

It seems he moved to the sunny Costa Blanca to avoid any further UK problems only to finally meet up with the Spanish National Police.

This news comes shortly after the arrest of yet another notorious UK criminal, Mark Alan Lilley, a convicted drug trafficker who had been on the run for 13 years. As Digital Journal reported, the man was caught by Spanish police in his villa in southern Spain, hiding away in his safe room.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354498

'Lo siento': Spain apologizes to Bolivia over Evo Morales debacle

In the wake of the problems caused by various European countries believing NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, was on board the Bolivian president's plane recently, Spain has now officially apologized for its part in the whole mess.

Digital Journal reported on the fact that Spain was trying to defuse the recent huge row over the Bolivian President Evo Morales' private jet being prevented from entering Spanish airspace, when leaving a gas supplier's conference held in Moscow. 

 

Spain, among other European countries had been told that Snowden was stowed away on board, and had requested authorities at Vienna airport to search the plane to ensure that the whistleblower wasn't hiding away somewhere.

 

On Monday, Spain officially voiced its regret at the diplomatic row with Bolivia. Spain's Ambassador to La Paz, Miguel Angel Vasquez, in a written note delivered to the Bolivian Foreign Ministry said: "I have to acknowledge that perhaps the procedures used at the Vienna airport on the part of our representative were not the most efficacious."

 

"We regret this fact ... the procedure was not appropriate and bothered the president (Morales), putting him in a difficult situation."

 

"Spain and Bolivia have relations that go far beyond any incident, any circumstance like the one we've now experienced and I hope and I'm sure that the Bolivian authorities understand them in the same way."

 

"Spain deeply regrets this and is sorry that it happened. We offer our apology and consider the matter closed," he added.

 

EFE reported that he also said that Spanish airspace "was always open to the (Bolivian) presidential aircraft."

 

Both Venezuela and Brazil have echoed Bolivia's indignation over the incident, with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua calling it "an attack against President Morales's life."

 

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff expressed "indignation" over the treatment of Morales, calling it a "provocation" that concerned "all of Latin America."

 

Possibly due to the recent harassment, Bolivia has now joined Venezuela and Nicaragua in offering asylum to Snowden. The former IT contractor turned NSA whistleblower remains holed up in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, currently awaiting temporary asylum in Russia.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354491

'I made cash payments to Spanish PM,' says Spain's Luis Bárcenas

According to judicial sources, on Monday Luis Bárcenas, former treasurer of Spain's ruling Partido Popular (PP) party, told the court that he had given secret cash payments to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy from a "slush fund."

Digital Journal reported on the arrest and jailing of the Partido Popular's ex-treasurer Luis Bárcenas recently, with no bail, as he had failed to adequately explain the money he held in Swiss bank accounts. Bárcenas was arrested and jailed after the court ruled that he was a flight risk.

 

Digital Journal further reported back in January on the major "slush fund" scandal that had emerged in Spain, where the ruling PP and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy denied that the party made payments from business donors to the PM and other party leaders.

 

Now as the court case runs in Spain's High Court, various statements are coming out which directly implicate members of government.

 

According to sources present at the hearing, who asked to remain anonymous, Bárcenas said on Monday that he handed €25,000 ($33,000) in 500 euro notes to Rajoy in March 2010.

 

One of the sources then told the media that Bárcenas then reportedly handed the court papers detailing this slush fund, and "declared that he was the author of the documents," which had been published in local newspapers showing secret payments to Rajoy in the 1990's and 2000's.

 

Yet another of the sources attending the hearing said that Bárcenas had confirmed that the money came from a secret fund, which implies that the payments were undeclared. The source stressed, "He said the whole party leadership received envelopes" of undeclared cash.

 

On Monday, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the leader of the opposition PSOE party has called for the “immediate resignation” of Mr. Rajoy, and has warned that his refusal to stand down was causing “incalculable damage to a country that is living through difficult moments.”

Rajoy, who has been in power since late 2011, has, however, ruled out resigning over the scandal. He denies any wrongdoing.

 

The latest attacks by the opposition come following the publication of several mobile phone text messages between Rajoy and Bárcenas, which were obtained by the Spanish daily El Mundo.

 

These messages show that the two men were in contact until at least March this year, which is almost two months after the scandal broke. In the last message published by El Mundo, Rajoy was apparently trying to calm down his former treasurer, saying: “Luis, I understand. Keep courage. I will call you tomorrow. A hug.” While these text messages do not prove the issue at hand, they do implicate the prime minister in the scandal.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354487

Woman rescued from suicide attempt off the beach in Fuengirola, Spain

After receiving an emergency call on the 091 number, National Police officers, with the aid of a fisherman and his boat, managed to rescue a women who was attempting to commit suicide.

The call was received at 7.00 am on Tuesday, alerting police to the fact that a woman was drowning in the sea close to the beach in Los Boliches, Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol.

After notifying the Salvamento Marítimo branch of the Civil Guard, National Police officers headed immediately to the scene and with the help of a fisherman who was working in the area, went out a few hundred meters from the shore to rescue the woman.

The woman is said to be of Indian nationality and around 33 years old. She has been taken to hospital and is undergoing psychiatric observation due to the attempted suicide.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354501

Prison Break: Spanish murderer/sex criminal performs shock escape trick

Strongly resembling an episode of the US series "Prison Break," a Spanish prisoner, aided by two trusty accomplices, managed to escape while undergoing treatment at a Madrid hospital.

The man is doing some serious time for murder and sex crimes in the Alcalá Meco penitentiary, near Madrid.

 

He suffered an apparent wrist injury while playing on the prison's football field and was taken to the emergency room at the Principe de Asturias hospital in the town of Alcalá de Henares, just outside the city.

 

It was necessary for the prisoner's handcuffs to come off while his arm was put in plaster. Once the plaster was complete, police officers accompanied the man back to the police car, parked at the entrance to the emergency room of the hospital.

 

Turns out that two of his closest friends were on the scene and as soon as the prisoner and his escorts stepped outside, the prisoner's accomplices attacked. Apparently at first the officers hesitated, but when they tried to intervene, they were pushed to the ground by the two accomplices.

 

The prisoner then found a handy use for his newly-plastered arm, using it to hit the two police officers on the head. The trio then escaped in a waiting BMW.

 

On reviewing CCTV footage, it was possible to see the prisoner's two accomplices arriving in the hospital grounds shortly prior to his arrival.

 

Police believe the men were alerted by the prisoner’s family, who had previously received a call from Alcalá Meco penitentiary, as required by prison protocol when a inmate requires medical treatment. 

 

There is now an urgent manhunt underway, as well as an investigation of the officers who had accompanied the prisoner.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354425

Reverse trend: Now Spaniards head to Morocco for work

Moroccans have been crossing the Med looking for a better life in Spain for decades. Now the trend is turning in a different direction, as out-of-work Spaniards head south to Morocco's shores.

The economic crisis continues in Spain, with unemployment and austerity wreaking havoc with the people, who are just trying to get by and make a living. Now Spaniards are heading south to Morocco, seeking employment opportunities. In the video (original article), we hear from 36-year-old Marcos Martinez Bacelo, an unemployed mechanic, who six months ago moved to Tangier from his hometown in Vigo, Spain, to get a job there. 

 

The hardest part has been the decision he made to leave his wife and two young children in Spain while he headed over to Morocco: “The most difficult part about living here is not having my family by my side,” Martinez, said, while looking at photos of his children, Soraya, 10, and Nicolas, 3.

 

Emilio Rodriguez is another Spaniard who has made the move and now runs a small construction company in Tangier, northern Morocco, where he also sought greener professional pastures.

 

He told AFP, "In Spain at the moment things are going badly."

 

"Over there I sold everything. There is no work, no bank financing," he added, explaining that he had moved to Morocco's port city of Tangiers, just across the Straits of Gibraltar from the southern tip of his home country, Spain, at the start of 2012.

 

Another recent emigrant from Spain is José Manuel Fernandez, who is presently exploring his options in Morocco. Fernandez works for a Spanish company specializing in building golf courses.

 

"I came to see how it goes here. I saw there were lot of facilities, ways of doing things to develop the country, especially in the construction sector," said Fernandez.

 

It seems ironic that for many years, Moroccans have been heading north to Spain looking for a better life, and in fact, they form one of the largest immigrant populations in Europe and Spain has the second largest community of Moroccans.

 

But in recent years, Spaniards have been making similar moves, albeit in a different direction geographically. Apparently it is difficult to assess numbers. as many Spaniards travel to Morocco as tourists and return home every three months to collect unemployment benefits, and also to make sure they do not overstay their visas. 

 

A young Spanish intern with a local NGO said, "Many work informally and regularly travel to Spain to receive unemployment benefits and to avoid being illegal" in Morocco.

 

The Interior Ministry in Morocco, however, is attempting to keep a tighter rein on the back-and-forth process, by urging Spanish arrivals to comply with all the necessary formalities.

 

Officially, 2,660 Spaniards have reportedly registered for social security in Morocco in 2012, which is slightly up from 2,507 in 2011. However, the actual numbers are believed to be much higher. 

 

In the economic world, Morocco's key trading partners are Spain, and also France, the latter country having divided and ruled the country as a protectorate in the past. Morocco does, however, have economic problems all of its own, and despite a growth rate of between 2.5 and 5.0 percent in recent years, youth unemployment in the country currently stands at more than 20 percent.

 

However, this isn't deterring Spaniards from trying to find work there.

 

Marian Gallande told the media, "I arrived in Tangiers with my daughter three months ago. I'm looking for a job."

 

She was also finding it hard to get by in Spain. "I earned €1,000 euros ($1,300) a month, but the cost of living is too high there," she says. "I prefer to be in Tangiers. Spain is my country, it's true," she adds, watching the ships leaving the port, "but I am more at ease here, where society is not closed as some people think." 

 

Spanish King Juan Carlos will be starting a three-day state visit to Morocco on Monday. Relationships between Madrid and Rabat have apparently steadily improved in the more than five decades since Morocco achieved independence.

 

Possibly he should rather be exploring why so many of his own people are leaving for those same northern African shores.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354379

Spanish father found guilty of murdering his two young children

On October 8, 2011, two children, six-year-old Ruth and two-year-old José "disappeared" while visiting a park with their father, José Bretón, who claimed that he had merely lost the children. Investigations proved a different story indeed. 

Bretón, the father of the two children, was born in Córdoba in 1973, and was an unemployed former army driver.

 

He was always the main suspect in a case that had the police searching for their bodies for months, using both trained dogs and also ground-penetrating radar. 

 

 While the children were never found, investigators did eventually find the remains of a large bonfire on the estate owned by Bretón's parents outside the southern Spanish city of Córdoba. The bonfire was so hot it destroyed DNA evidence, but teeth were found in the ashes, which were later identified by forensic experts as belonging to two children, aged two and six years respectively.

 

Bretón was arrested 10 days after reporting the children missing and has been in jail ever since.

 

In previous court appearances, Bretón denied all charges and told officers imperiously, "You have nothing on me."

 

Finally justice has been served in the case, as on Friday a jury has unanimously found José Bretón guilty of murdering his two small children and burning their bodies to cover up the crime. A jury of two men and seven women delivered the verdict this week, after hearing all the facts surrounding the disappearance of the two children.

 

While Bretón remained cool during the court trial, and always claimed that he simply lost his children, the prosecution presented a case that he killed the children as revenge against his wife, who had recently asked him for a divorce.

 

Psychologists describe Bretón as "extremely cold and detached," and police officers who had interrogated the man also remarked on his apparent lack of concern about his own children and also his harsh verbal attacks against his wife, Ruth Ortiz.

 

Reports from the psychologists described Bretón as "highly intelligent," with an IQ of 121 and that he showed "signs of being excessively manipulative" and was "exceptionally clear minded."

 

He had apparently told the police, "Outside I'm a nobody, but at home I'm the boss."

 

144 expert witnesses at the trial corroborated that Bretón had purchased the sedatives Orfidal and Motiván to put his children to sleep.

 

Proof was also shown that he bought large amounts of diesel fuel to incinerate their bodies at Las Quemadillas, his parents' Córdoba estate. It was from that estate that Bretón made one last phone call to his wife, who did not pick up the call, before going ahead with his dreadful plan.

 

As can be seen in the video (original article), Bretón listened totally impassively as the judge pronounced his guilt and is now awaiting sentencing. Both the public and private prosecutors are asking for a 40-year sentence.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354344

Panic and injuries in 'Running of the Bulls' pile-up in Pamplona

Local television showed scenes of sheer chaos as piles of fallen runners blocked the entrance to the bullring in Pamplona on the seventh day of the famed San Fermín Festival, or the "Running of the Bulls."

This event was the second to last day of the San Fermín fiesta, which draws festival-goers and daredevils from around the world for a week of perilous bull-runs, partying and fun.

Towards the end point of the frantic dash through the cobbled streets of Pamplona, some runners at the front tripped, then spectators watched in horror as ten half-ton bulls plowed into the back of a huge scrum of around 200 people, all piled on top of one another.

Due to the crush of people, several of the bulls were unable to get through to the arena, causing even more chaos, with runners trying to pull their companions free, while bulls jumped over the crowd, crushing and goring people in their wake.

According to Javier Sesma, health spokesperson for Navarra province, 21 people were injured, some gored by the bulls, and others who were hurt in the stampede itself. Sesma said that one runner, a 19-year-old Spaniard from Vitoria city, was seriously injured when his thorax was crushed.

“It is a very grave situation. He’s in a stable condition, but it’s very serious,” Sesma said.

An 18-year-old Spaniard was gored in the armpit, and a 35-year-old man American was gored in his buttocks during the 928-yard dash through the narrow streets, but reportedly these injuries are not so serious. Other injured parties suffered cuts and bruises, and Sesma said that one spectator suffered a heart attack whilst watching the incident.

Runners being gored by the bulls does happen from time to time, but apparently stampedes of this nature are luckily quite rare. According to Reuters only 14 people have died in the last 100 years in the San Fermín festival, which dates back from the 13th century.

The "Running of the Bulls" is characterized by runners, dressed all in white with red neckerchiefs, watched by hundreds of spectators, who stay up drinking all night in the bars, presumably to get up the courage to run with the huge bulls. 

Author Ernest Hemingway, a great fan of Spain, gave publicity to the event after writing about it in his book "The Sun Also Rises."

Apparently this year, Hemingway's great-grandson, 16-year-old Michael Hemingway, attended the event, 90 years after his famous great-grandfather Ernest first visited the city, and was seen to be taking plenty of photographs of the event.

For interest, below is a black and white photo of Hemingway, taken in 1925 with the persons depicted in the novel "The Sun Also Rises." In the photo we can see Hemingway, Harold Loeb, Lady Duff Twysden, Hadley Richardson, Ogden Stewart and Pat Guthrie. 

Photographer not specified, owned by John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354283