Category Archives: Spain

Spain likely to return to the polls in November after party talks fail

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Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez appears to have failed in bid to form a stable government

Spain looks set to return to the polls for the fourth time in as many years in November after last-ditch efforts to break the deadlock following April’s inconclusive vote came to nothing late on Tuesday.

Although the Spanish socialist party (PSOE), led by the acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, won the most votes five months ago, it fell well short of a majority in the country’s 350-seat congress.

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Four dead as torrential rain and floods batter Spain

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Almería and Murcia airports closed with many areas on high alert as downpours continue

Four people have died as heavy rain and flash-flooding continue to batter south-eastern Spain, swelling rivers, turning roads into torrents and forcing the shutdown of two regional airports.

Police in Almería said a middle-aged man died in the early hours of Friday after his car became trapped in a tunnel that flooded in minutes.

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Extreme rainfall triggers flooding in parts of Spain – video

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Parts of eastern Spain have received what in some places was the heaviest rainfall on record, as storms wreaked widespread destruction and killed at least two people. One of the first places to be hit was Ontinyent, south of Valencia, where almost 300mm fell in 24 hours, the heaviest rainfall recorded there since 1917

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Barcelona’s car-free ‘superblocks’ could save hundreds of lives

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Report predicts radical scheme could cut air pollution by a quarter as other cities including Seattle prepare to follow suit

Barcelona could save hundreds of lives and cut air pollution by a quarter if it fully implements its radical superblocks scheme to reduce traffic, a new report claims.

A study carried out by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health calculates that the city could prevent 667 premature deaths every year if it created all 503 superblocks envisaged in its initial plan – up from the current six schemes.

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Sardine tins for the poor?: Barcelona’s shipping container homes

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Just a stone’s throw from La Rambla, the Spanish city is building 12 shipping container flats to help tackle its social housing crisis

Barcelona has begun installing its first shipping container homes just a stone’s throw from La Rambla, the famous thoroughfare in the city centre, in a bid to provide emergency housing for people who have been evicted or otherwise driven out of the neighbourhood by gentrification.

Work commenced last week on the 12 small apartments, which are being installed on Carrer Nou de Sant Francesc, a narrow street in the densely populated Ciutat Vella (“old city”) district.

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Helicopter reveals rooftop marijuana plantations while filming Vuelta

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• Catalonia police confiscate 40 plants in Igualada
• Guardia Civil post footage of illegal plots on social media

Police in Catalonia have seized dozens of marijuana plants from a roof terrace after social media users spotted the plantation in video footage filmed by a helicopter following the Vuelta a España cycling race.

Officers from the regional force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, headed to the town of Igualada, north-west of Barcelona, after video from Saturday’s stage eight was posted on social media.

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Babies develop ‘werewolf syndrome’ after medicine mix-up in Spain

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Authorities say there are 17 known cases so far after hair loss treatment mistakenly put in reflux medicine bottles

At least 17 children developed so-called “werewolf syndrome” after a major medicine mix-up, Spain’s health ministry has said.

The children – some of them babies – began growing hair all over their body after being given what was thought to be omeprazole, a drug that helps with gastric reflux.

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Spain braces for more rain after hail piles up during violent storms

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Cold front heads towards east of country and Balearics as Madrid reels from flash-floods

Parts of eastern Spain and the Balearic islands are bracing for heavy rains after Madrid and the surrounding area were battered by violent storms, torrential hail, and flash flooding.

Roads around the Spanish capital were flooded, flights diverted from Barajas airport and underground services affected on Monday night as an isolated depression at high levels moved across the centre of the Iberian peninsula.

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Barcelona police spare bathers’ blushes with clothing ‘robbery kits’

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Initiative particularly welcome among those who have clothes stolen on city’s nudist beaches

Police in Barcelona have handed out more than 100 emergency clothing kits to bathers who return from a swim to find everything they left on the beach has been stolen by the thieves who plague the city’s shoreline.

The “robbery kits”, made up of a T-shirt bearing the city council logo, a pair of shorts, flip-flops and a metro ticket, are particularly appreciated by swimmers on the city’s nudist beaches of Sant Sebastià and Mar Bella whom thieves have left exposed.

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Man arrested in Madrid accused of upskirting more than 500 women

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Police say they caught him filming on Metro after allegedly uploading videos for a year

Police in Madrid have arrested a man accused of filming the intimate parts of more than 500 women without their consent while they travelled on the Metro.

The accused made the videos, a practice known as upskirting, using a mobile phone concealed in a backpack. Police say he then uploaded at least 283 of these videos on to pornographic sites where they were viewed millions of times. Police have identified 555 victims, some of them underage.

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Wildfire in Gran Canaria forces thousands to evacuate – video

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About 8,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in Gran Canaria as firefighters battle a wildfire. The blaze, which began on Saturday near the town of Tejeda, is advancing on several fronts, propelled by high temperatures, strong winds and low humidity. Sixteen planes and helicopters as well as more than 700 firefighters are working to contain flames of up to 50 metres

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Hands off our treasured railway, say locals in Sóller, Mallorca

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Anonymous investors have launched a hostile €25m bid for Sóller’s locally owned heritage train link to Palma

Indignant residents of the Mallorcan town of Sóller have said their railway is not for sale after a group of investors launched a hostile takeover bid.

The town has been linked to the capital, Palma, with a picturesque narrow-gauge railway since 1912. The train, with its wooden carriages, has been in continuous use ever since, climbing 200 metres and passing through 13 tunnels on its 27km journey.

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Barcelona announces ‘drastic’ rickshaw cutback

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Estimates put total around 2,000 but vehicles remain in regulatory vacuum

Barcelona city council has announced it is to take action against the mostly unlicensed rickshaws that have proliferated on the city’s streets in recent years, which some estimates put as high as 2,000.

“Barcelona isn’t Bombay,” said Jaume Collboni, the deputy mayor. “We have cycle lanes that are for bicycles, pavements for pedestrians and we aspire to having a respectful and quality tourism model.”

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The rain in Spain: how an ancient Arabic technique saves Alicante from floods

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To protect itself from destructive flooding, the city has built a park designed to store and recycle rainwater

In Alicante it never rains but it pours. The city in southeast Spain goes without rain for months on end, but when it comes it’s torrential, bringing destructive and sometimes fatal flooding.

Or at least, it used to. In San Juan, a low-lying area of the city, authorities have built a new park with a twist. Called La Marjal, it serves as a typical recreation area and a nature reserve – but its primary purpose is to store, and then recycle, rainwater.

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Plácido Domingo accused of sexual harassment

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Allegations ‘deeply troubling’ – I believed my relationships were consensual, says opera star

The opera singer Plácido Domingo has been accused by several women of sexual harassment.

Eight singers and a dancer said they were sexually harassed by the Spanish tenor in incidents that spanned three decades from the late 1980s, Associated Press reported.

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