Baby gorilla arrives at Madrid Zoo (video)

Gorka, a gorilla at the Zoo Aquarium de Madrid, has given birth to a brand new baby on Saturday.

The baby weighed in at 1.5kg (3.3lbs) and is Gorka's fourth baby, born after a complication-free eight-month pregnancy.

The zoo has been unable to ascertain the baby's sex as yet, as apparently Gorka is always hugging and cradling her baby in her lap.  Staff at the zoo will be keeping a close eye on mother and baby, who will most probably remain separated from the other five gorillas in the zoo for the first month, to ensure that mother and child bond.

The zoo's official Facebook page is asking for suggestions for a name for the baby gorilla who was born as part of the important European Endangered Species Programme.

A video of mother and baby can be enjoyed below:



Read more about the story (in Spanish).

Former tennis ace Boris Becker loses villa in Mallorca, Spain

German former tennis ace and six-time Grand Slam champion, Boris Becker, has apparently just lost out on his luxury holiday villa on the island of Mallorca in the Spanish Balearic Islands.

Becker had apparently neglected to pay a construction bill of €391,000 ($544,000) and the Spanish authorities confiscated the home.

According to a judge in Palma, the nine-bedroom property will now be auctioned off for a tidy €7 million ($9,750,993). The construction bill in question was apparently for carpentry and plumbing work, as well as for resurfacing a basketball court at the villa.

Becker’s lawyer is trying to claim that the bills were the responsibility of the real estate agent who sold him the villa, but the judge is having none of that. Reportedly Becker, 46, bought the villa 17 years ago.

Becker almost lost the villa over a similar case back in 2012, where around €276,162 ($384,780) was owed to a local gardening and landscaping company. In that case, Becker managed to scrape together the amount owing and keep the home.

Apparently back in 2007, Becker tried to sell the house for €15 million ($21 million) but didn't manage to find a buyer.

Reportedly Becker's economic problems arose due to a €24 million ($33 million) divorce case.  With the latest case, should he wish to keep the villa, he would also be required to cough up an additional €24,000 ($33,441) in court fees and interest.  To the source

Spain's most exclusive restaurant has just one table

Well, to be more accurate, the restaurant will serve only one group of diners at a time and has only one chef, the owner, Antonio Cornejo. 

This unique restaurant is called Mercès One and is located in Barcelona.

 

When there is availability, it's possible for clients to book not only the meals of their choice, but also the décor, crockery and cutlery that they prefer to go with it.

It seems the restaurant is popular, so not only is it essential to prebook, but it can be a little difficult, too. However, a spokesperson for the restaurant told the English language news website The Local, "We're busy, but there are still plenty of free nights available." If clients are flexible with their dates, no problem.

If you are lucky enough to book an evening at the restaurant, you will find there is a variety of interior designs to choose from, ranging from modern to romantic to even minimalistic. Choose your preferred crockery and cutlery, table linen, the music you would like to hear and, of course, the dishes to enjoy as well as the drinks.

All these options can be booked online on the restaurant's website. If the number of choices get a bit too much, Cornejo says that guests can leave everything in his most capable hands.

As to the cost, menu prices average €60 (or $83) per person, excluding the wine, and the restaurant can seat parties of up to 22 people at a time.

Cornejo told the Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo that he has over 12 years of experience in the catering industry, but enjoys the fact that now he is getting a chance to develop his creative side by concentrating on just one set of clients per night. Not only that, but he has 365 chances of doing just that.

To the source

Pick up an old Spanish village for nothing or for cheap

If you can prove that you have a viable plan to rescue the dilapidated stone houses and restore the town, you might be able to get an abandoned medieval hamlet somewhere in rural Spain either for nothing, or for a very low and affordable price.

Some of the villages are centuries old and were left vacant after residents moved to the big cities, or their farming land became less fertile and making a living proved too difficult. 

One prime example is A Barca, up in northern Spain.  The town dates back to the 15th century and is on offer for nothing, nada, zilch, to the right investor.

In the town there are 12 crumbling stone homes covered in moss and ivy, and not much else.  In A Barca's case, the residents left in the 1960's when a dam was built, flooding their farmland.

Other examples, going cheap at the price, include Pena Vella, near A Pontenova in Galicia which is yours for just €62,000 if you can prove your good intentions.

According to Spain's National Statistics Institute, there are around 2,900 of these abandoned hamlets all over Spain, just waiting to be snapped up by the right person.

Apparently many villages have already been snapped up by foreigners, including Americans, Britons, Germans Norwegians and Russians taking the properties.

Eco-village anyone?   Here's a website offering the hamlets for your pleasure.

Source

Former tennis ace Boris Becker loses villa in Mallorca, Spain

German former tennis ace and six-time Grand Slam champion, Boris Becker, has apparently just lost out on his luxury holiday villa on the island of Mallorca in the Spanish Balearic Islands.

Becker had apparently neglected to pay a construction bill of €391,000 ($544,000) and the Spanish authorities confiscated the home.

According to a judge in Palma, the nine-bedroom property will now be auctioned off for a tidy €7 million ($9,750,993). The construction bill in question was apparently for carpentry and plumbing work, as well as for resurfacing a basketball court at the villa.

Becker’s lawyer is trying to claim that the bills were the responsibility of the real estate agent who sold him the villa, but the judge is having none of that. Reportedly Becker, 46, bought the villa 17 years ago.

Becker almost lost the villa over a similar case back in 2012, where around €276,162 ($384,780) was owed to a local gardening and landscaping company. In that case, Becker managed to scrape together the amount owing and keep the home.

Apparently back in 2007, Becker tried to sell the house for €15 million ($21 million) but didn't manage to find a buyer.

Reportedly Becker's economic problems arose due to a €24 million ($33 million) divorce case.

With the latest case, should he wish to keep the villa, he would also be required to cough up an additional €24,000 ($33,441) in court fees and interest.

To the source

Police in Valencia use "go-go" dancers to protest lack of equipment

Police in the city of Valencia are fed up with a shortage of both vehicles and equipment.  They say their pistols are 30 years old, bullet-proof vests are out of date and also safety equipment for motorbike police is seriously lacking.  There is also a lack of new uniforms.

They decided to bring attention to their bad working conditions by launching a protest.  200 Local Police officers protested outside the town hall in Valencia together with several "go-go" dancers wearing underwear and union t-shirts.  According to El Mundo, one officer even turned up at the protest in a pair of bright blue long johns.

While equipment has been lacking for some time, things came to a crux after an accident, in which four officers received light injuries when the 17-year-old van they were using suffered brake problems.  Valencia's town hall, however, blamed the driver of the van for the accident and 20 Minutos reported they said the local police force had "everything it needs to carry out its duty."

Catalan mothers struggle to breastfeed their babies

Anna Pedraza, the chamber president of the Catalan Association of Pediatric Nursing in Spain, has warned the Catalan Parliament Tuesday that more and more mothers are malnourished, due to lack of financial resources.

This results in the mothers being unable to breastfeed their babies and they are then forced to turn to the social entities for commercial, artificial baby milk.

Pedraza stressed that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends breastfeeding of babies up to the age of six months, stating, "These mothers cannot because they lack the necessary nutrients to feed their infants." She stated that she regrets that the Catalan government has cut many programs which could mitigate this phenomenon.

Speaking of a group of disadvantaged mothers and working mothers with low incomes, vice president of the association, Cristina Rey, said that it is impossible to guarantee the minimum six months of breastfeeding. She said that once breastfeeding is over, these needy children are then fed from food banks with "very little variety" of food which does not guarantee all the necessary nutrients.

Rey stressed that this trend is threatening the development of small children and that it is “very disturbing.” Rey urged the government to enhance the screening protocols to ensure that Catalan children eat at least one balanced meal per day, especially those under three years.

 Olga Vigo, a nurse and representative of the Association of Family and Community Nursing in Catalonia, says that there have been "no comprehensive studies" on the nutritional problems of vulnerable children and stressed the importance of differentiating between malnutrition from lack of nutrients as opposed to malnutrition from a poor diet.

Vigo also stated that the Catalan pediatricians are confronted daily with "very worried families that cannot afford to feed their children," and regretted that parents are in such a bad situation economically they have to reduce the number of meals they give to their children.

Spokeswoman for the Catalan socialist party (PSC), Eva Granados, lamented that the economic crisis in the country preys upon the most vulnerable groups and because of this the child poverty rate has now reached 30 percent.

According to a report by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights published last October there have been many accounts of "children fainting at school due to lack of proper meals" and "wearing the same clothes at school for three consecutive weeks," due to poverty.

As Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, insists that things are getting better in Spain, unfortunately the poor still suffer from the severe austerity measures imposed all over the country as well as high unemployment. While the above article is about Catalonia, the story is the same in all regions of Spain.

To the source