CHEMISTS OBLIGED TO SELL MORNING AFTER PILL

All andalucian chemists will be obliged to sell the morning after pill, according to an announcement made by health councillor Francisco Vallejo. The pill must be dispensed if accompanied by a medical prescription, Vallejo said, and the same order applies to condoms, he added. Vallejo said that through this measure the Junta was giving a definite and coherent reply to a social and sanitary problem in the face of hypocrisy of Government arguments and the Partido popular.

HUELVA IMMIGRANT PROTEST BEGINS

Fifty two Moroccan, Ecuadorian and Algerian illegal immigrants who shut themselves in the Huelva provincial library on Monday have begun a hunger strike. They decided yesterday to reject a Government subdelegate offer to look at each demand for regularisation individually, applying existing Spanish law and agreements if they left the premises. The immigrant´s spokesman, Cesar from Ecuador said that they could not accept the proposal because there were many workmates who could not demonstrate that they had been resident in Spain since before the cut-off date of 23rd January this year.

CLARA PARENTS IN COURT

The fiscal's office of Cadiz and the family of Clara Garcia, the young girl murdered by two classmates a year ago, went to court this week to ask the Audiencia of Cadiz to confirm the sentence Clara´s killers have been handed down. The two girls, now aged 17 have been sentenced to eight years in prison followed by five out on parole.However, the lawyer of one of the girls Iria SG is asking for three years for his client in a detention centre for minors, saying that the homicide was carried out without the aggravating circumstance of malice aforethought.

WATER PRECIOUS IN ANDALUCIA

A report carried out by the Junta de Andalucia´s Department of Transport and Public works shows that a quarter of the Andalucian economy is directly dependent on water. Between agriculture, tourism and the food industry, annual output reaches almost 2 billion pesetas, not to mention indirect spin offs. These areas are entirely dependent on the availability of water. In the wake of the study, the Junta is insisting that banks of water be created within the region, and that water is viewed as a commodity to be exchanged for economic compensation.

SEXUAL ABUSE TRIAL IN SEVILLE

The public prosecutor in Seville has asked for 20 years behind bars for a former fireman alleged to have sexually abused two of his daughters. He is also alleged to have abused the remaining three girls, but the deadline on those cases has run out. The man's trial will take place tomorrow. The fiscal says that FCR is an "aggressive, violent and domineering man who maintained a reign of terror in his family."

RONDA WIVES TO GREECE

Around 200 wives and girlfriends of the Alejandro Farnesio Battalion in Ronda will be going to Greece over the next few months to spend time with their respective partners. The battalion is on a peace mission in Kosovo, but the soldiers have been given five days off over the period. The wives have organised the initiative themselves, and have to find 175 thousand pesetas for the trip. They'll be going out in groups of 10 over the coming weeks. A spokesman said it was good for the moral of the troops, who´ve been on duty in the Balkans since March 24th.

PICASSO MUSEUM PROGRESS

Today sees the beginning of the final stages in the renovation and creation of Malaga's Picasso museum. The company Ferrovial, which won the contract for the works last month will begin the works in the Palacio de Buenavista and the houses from the old Jewish quarter which surround it. A timescale of 20 months has been allocated for the project, which is to concentrate first on the permanent Picasso collection in the Palacio, and then on the surrounding complex which will house temporary exhibitions. This area will eventually become the biggest exhibition space in Malaga, bigger than the space put aside for the permanent Picasso exhibition. The company undertaking the works is the same one which carried out the works on the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

ALGECIRAS IN RISHING TALKS WITH TUNISIA

The Ayuntamiento of Algeciras is to seek its own solution to the problems caused by the failure of the fishing talks between Spain and Morocco. The mayor, Patricio Gonzalez met the Tunisian ambassador to Spain , Habib Mansour, this week to ask for the possibility of reaching a private agreement to permit the Algeciran fleet to fish in Tunisian waters. This move would benefit smaller boats and is a first step towards trying to ensure that local fishermen can carry on fishing and will not have to convert their boats for fishing elsewhere. The Town Hall is also following a similar line with Libya.

POLITICIAN DIES IN FARM ACCIDENT

A local politician in Granada died on Wednesday in an accident on his farm in Yator, in the Alpujarra. Jose Vela Ruiz was 43, married with three children. The accident happened in the early evening, when the tractor he was driving overturned. Vela Ruiz had been the local secretary of the Partido Andalucista in the area for the past five years, and had been instrumental in negotiations between the PSOE party and his own in forming the town´s current government LAST "INSUMISION" CASE On the day that military service ended in Spain,(Tuesday 29th May) 25 year old Rafael Falcon from Seville faced a request by the fiscal for 4 years of disqualification from work for "insumision" or refusing to do the mili. This was the last case of its kind in Spain and coincided with a Congress vote on the derogation of the crime of "insumision".

CADIZ FAMILIES BECOME MISSIONARIES

Two Cadiz families have decided to leave the country indefinitely to become missionaries in Taiwan and Estonia. The two couples will take their thirteen children with them, and leave behind jobs in pediatrics and pest control. The family going to Taiwan face two interesting challenges, only 5% of the population is Christian, and they will need to learn Mandarin Chinese. The two families from part of a group of 100 families from Spain, Portugal and Italy being sent out as missionaries after a meeting with Pope John Paul in October.

TARIFA BEACH POLLUTED, SAY ECOLOGISTAS IN ACTION

Ecologists in Action have denounced the Government and the Junta de Andalucia for the contamination of a 10 kilometer stretch of beach in Tarifa, between Los Lances and Bolonia. The area is popular with tourists, and lies within a protected natural area. The Ecologists say around 200,000 hard, compact balls of tar around 1 centimeter in diameter have been found all over the beach. Local Maritime headquarters say that these would appear to have come on the tide from a boat cleaning out its tanks, and they are speculating that the pollution may have occured some months ago, but has been brought in by the recent strong east winds. The balls are some 200 m from the water´s edge, in a dry area. In a helicopter sweep of the area yesterday, streaks of a white substance, possibly detergent were also detected in the water, but are not thought to be connected with the tar balls. Ecologists in Action also stated that this pollution of the water constitutes a grave danger for cetaceans and turtles in the area.

IMMIGRANTS AND POLICE CLASH

Police in Huelva on Wednesday tried to stop a group of 100 immigrants joining a sit in being staged by 50 others in the Huelva Provincial library. One person was injured and another arrested in the tussle between the two sides. However, 30 people managed to break through to join the protest. A spokesman for a local immigrant support association said that hte immigrants had been victims of brutal policing, but the Government sub-delegate said that it was impossible that two police should have charged against 100 immigrants. The official version says that two policemen took responsibility for trying to stop the group moving from the Library to the Diputaction, and admitted that one person had been injured, although said it was unclear as to the circumstances behind the injury.

ROCIO ROMERIA BEGINS

Monday saw the start of the Plan Romero 2001, the official first day of the famous romeria to El Rocio in Huelva. Some 300 thousand pilgrims are taking part in the colourful event arriving in El Rocio from all over andalucia. Some 34 brotherhoods are thought to be en route to El Rocio at the moment, and their numbers will be swelled to half a million by people arriving in cars and buses. 5000 people have been drafted in to attend to the needs of the pilgrims. A nursery in El Rocio has been given a special brief to stop begging by children this year and a new service will be routine checks on horses to make sure they are not being ill-treated.

GRANADA DEBT SHOOTING

A 51 year old man died in Castillejar in Granada on Monday after being shot twice in the head by his 60 year old neighbour. The shooting followed an argument over a loan the dead man had been accumulating by borrowing from his neighbour AOC. AOC told police yesterday that his victim had never thanked him for lending him the money, which amounted to some five million pesetas over 14 years, but took to abusing and insulting him in public places. He added that wounded pride and too much alcohol taken that afternoon had driven him to his actions.

FOREST FIRE NEAR TARIFA

Fire broke out Thursday in an area known as Monte Camarinal near Tarifa and was fanned by the wind dangerously close to an urbansiation. 8 people had to be evacuated from the Atlanterra urbanisation, where the flames also damaged a house according to Infoca sources. The wind hampered firefighting operations, resulting in the loss of 20 hectares of forest. Sources say arson is not suspected. And in Gaucin, two people were arrested yesterday in connection with a forest fire in that area on April 30th.

RUBBISH DISPUTE BINNED

After over a month of industrial conflict between workers and management at Tecmed, the rubbish collection service in Almeria, agreement has been reached and lorries have begun to pick up the heaps of accumulating rubbish. The dispute began on april 21st, with weekly strikes at first , and then more in the last week. 17 rubbish containers in the town were also set ablaze. The town Hall has also fined Tecmed 60 million pesetas for failing to carry out its obligations.

HUELVA PROTEST GATHERS STEAM

Immigrant protests have been gathering pace in Huelva. On Thursday, 50 men entered into the Instituto Social in the Marina to begin a sit in, while 325 people are now protesting inside the town´s provincial Library. 200 of them are on a hunger strike, which is taking its toll. Eight people had to be taken to health centres with problems aggravated by the intense heat. Most of the immigrants are Moroccan, Algerian or Mauritanian and are demanding regularisation of their papers according to the recent Barcelona agreement. However, news from central Government was not encouraging. Jose Torres Hurtado, Government delegate in Andalucia spoke yesterday from the El Rocio romeria, saying that no-one who staged a sit-in would have their documentation facilitated. "We will conced no privileges to anyone under pressure," he said.

ASLEEP ON THE JOB

Local police have detained a 19 year old man found by workers at the Centro Andaluz de la Fotografia in Almeria when they arrived for work at 8 a.m. The man was fast asleep on a sofa, surrounded by open drawers and cupboards and objects scattered all over the floor. When the police arrived the man carried on sleeping. On being wakened he informed them of how he'd managed to enter the building and start the robbery before being overwhelmed with tiredness.

News Archive from Andalucia

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