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SPAIN’S richest man Amancio Ortega is selling his biggest yacht for a cool €76million. The Spanish fashion mogul, 85 purchased the 67 metre superyacht, Drizzle, in 2012 for €95million but now wants to upgrade his fleet and purchase a new boat worth a whopping €172million. The Inditex founder, who has a net worth of €70 billion, wants to upsize his boat to make his Mediterranean coastline cruises even more luxurious. Lavish yacht Drizzle is now for sale on the website of the Mallorcan company, Hamilton Marine in Puigpunyent, which specialises in luxury yachts.

The interior of the boat offers accommodation for up to 12 people, boasting seven double cabins for its occupants to sleep in. BARCELONA captain Alexia Putellas has become the first Spain international to win the Ballon d'Or since 1960 . She was crowned the best female footballer in the world as she received the Ballon d'Or Feminin. Putellas, who was born in Mollet del Valles, is the first Spanish winner since Luis Suarez in 1960. The 27-year-old was also named Uefa's Women's Player of the Year and Midfielder of the Year and ended the 2020-21 season as the highest-scoring midfielder in Europe with 26 goals to her name. Paris San Germain superstar Lionel Messi picked up a record seventh Ballon d’Or award at the event. Putellas was one of five Barca players nominated for the award, with team-mate Jennifer Hermoso coming in second. "Honestly, it is a bit emotional. Very special. It is great to be here with all my teammates. We've lived and experienced so much together, especially last season," she said. !I would like to thank all my teammates, all my teammates throughout my career and the ones I have right now. This is an individual prize but football is a team sport.”

PUSH THE BOAT OUT

Right royal mess

A RAPPER who fled Spain in 2018 after insulting the monarchy has another extradition hearing to fight off. In May 2018, performer Valtonyc, real name Josep Miquel Arenas, fled to Belgium after being given three-and-a-half years in jail. The Supreme Court upheld the 2017 verdict and sentence over a year later, prompting Valtonyc to flee Spain. Mallorca police set up a surveillance team to ensure he did not leave the island, yet he still managed to escape. Belgian courts have rejected previous extradition requests but a new hearing has now been set for December 28 in the Ghent Court of Appeal. The Sa Pobla artist was convicted of glorifying terrorism, threatening rightwing politician Jorge Campos and making defamatory comments against the Spanish royal family.

SEX PEST GRANNY

A BESOTTED 72-year-old woman has been fined a mere €60 for sending sexually explicit and threatening letters to hunky Il Divo singer Carlos Marin. Besides the small fine, a Madrid judge gave the Barcelona woman, named as Rosa, a sixmonth 500 metre distancing order barring her from approaching Marin and banned her from getting in touch with him.

Obscene

The problems started in February when Rosa started phoning Il Divo’s producer, telling him that she had developed ‘a platonic love’ for Madrid-based Marin. The judge said the calls became ‘annoying, obscene and offensive’. She then started sending obscene letters directly to 53-year-old Marin, which generated a ‘certain uneasiness and fear’ in him. The letters initially made explicit sexual offers and how she would ‘satisfy’ him. The lack of a reply saw the tone of the messages abruptly change as Rosa’s written advances came to nothing. Further dispatches referred to Marin as an ‘imbecile, fool, idiot, and a child prodigy’. The messages were also sent to his family and his Il Divo colleagues, as the language ramped up further to accuse the singer of being a ‘liar’ and being ‘married to a prostitute’. The last straw was Rosa resorting to sending death threats. Marin’s lawyer, Alberto Martin, said the singer had to stop

Il Divo singer subjected to campaign of sexually explicit letters

By Alex Trelinski

THEY are one of the most influential bands in the electronic music genre, and now Spanish fans will be able to see Kraftwerk life. The German group has been around for decades, although it now has a much changed lineup, although the band is as innovative as ever. Formed in Dusseldorf in 1969 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, they have influenced a diverse range of artists and many genres of modern music, including synth-pop, hip hop, postpunk, techno, ambient and club music. Now they are one of the main acts

Good Werkers

at the new International Festival La Cala de Mijas, near Malaga. Headliners are British group the Arctic Monkeys who will be playing their first Spanish date for four years at the event, which will run from September 1 to 3, 2022. Also playing will be Australian Chet Faker, British bands Blossoms and Hot Chip plus a lineup of Spanish artists. Tickets are on sale at calamijas. com. meeting fans after concerts as he feared the woman might appear and attack him. Announcing an appeal against the sentence and the €60 fine, Martin commented that the judge ‘felt more sorry for the aggressor than for the victim’. Il Divo is an international hit classical crossover singing group created in 2003.

Top score

The eagles have landed

NINE White-tailed Eagles have been donated by Norway in an effort to re-introduce the species to Spain. They are being kept in a special enclosure in Asturias as they acclimatize to their new home. As one of eight bird species on the official List of Extinct Species, they qualify for the reintroduction project, which is being managed by conservation group GREFA. Young wild birds were taken from their nests in Norway earlier this year and sent to Spain. They have been fitted with GPS trackers to monitor their movements once they are finally set free. This first phase of the scheme is set to last two years, with it being used as a test to try different reintroduction techniques. If this test phase is successful, it is planned to release 20 eagles a year for five years in a bid to build a breeding population. Norway has previously provided birds for reintroduction schemes in Scotland, as well as current projects in Ireland and the Isle of Wight.

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ROAD BIKES

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THE September 2019 floods that hit Alicante Province and Murcia were Spain’s most expensive natural disaster in five years, costing a whopping €2.3 billion. This is the figure put on the damage by the Aon Foundation, out of an overall ‘disaster costs budget’ total of €12

COSTLY DISASTER

billion between 2016 and 2020. It’s the first time that such a comprehensive study has been carried out in the country. It also revealed that a large number of people had no insurance to pay for thedamage suffered. Ten days of Storm Gloria across Spain in January 2020 cost €1.3 billion. The third-highest cost of €272 million was caused by storms and floods hitting the south-east of the country a week before Christmas 2016.

A FLOCK of more than 200 dead starlings fell like rain on pedestrians and cars in Ferrol (A Coruña), with investigators left clueless as to why the birds died. The matter has been handed over to the environmental department, who col-

Flocking heck!

lected two dead birds for analysis and autopsies to determine the causes of the mass death. The starlings were also scattered across the flowerbeds at the back of a nearby hospital The president of the local residents’ association, Mapi Rodiguez, said she cannot explain what could have happened. “They came out of the trees in the emergency area of the hospital, flew a few metres and fell plummeting to the pavement,” she said.

LIGHTING UP

COUNCIL BUILDINGS across Orihuela and Orihuela Costa will light up tomorrow, December 3, to commemorate International Day of The Disabled. The facades of many public buildings will be illuminated with different colours in tribute to the different groups of disabled people. Orihuela Costa Town Hall will also display a large banner with the slogan ‘Universal Accessibility for everybody'.

SAN FULGENCIO Council, which incorporates the popular expat urbanisation of La Marina, is giving away €7,000 in a bid to boost the local economy over Christmas. The initiative, organised by the council’s Development and Commerce, will distribute the money in the form of vouchers to be exchanged in local shops. The campaign is running until Sunday December 19. Some 20,000 tickets will be distributed through 32 participating establishments, which will be given to shoppers with every purchase. Participants will then be entered into a draw to win vouchers worth €1,000, €600, €400 or €100. The draw will take place during the Christmas Fair on 19 December, where local businesses will also participate with stalls displaying their

FREE MONEY

products. There is still time for businesses to join in, simply by calling the Department of Commerce before December 3 on 966794201. Councillor for Commerce, Darren Parmenter, has invited everyone to join in the campaign, enthusing that: “it is beneficial for everyone, both for consumers and establishments”. Parmenter also stated that: “it is the duty of this council to support local shops as much as possible, as it gives an image of quality and proximity to the consumer, which is more difficult to achieve in large shopping centres.”

PASSPORTS No passport needed

PLEASE! Pass needed for a night on the town

COVID passports will come into use this Friday (December 3) around the Valencian Community. Most hospitality and nightlife businesses will have to ask customers to produce a QR identification code that proves they have been vaccinated against COVID-19. A phone or paper certificate will be accepted, while a special app will be used by traders.

Exempt

Hospitality businesses with a capacity of under 50 people will be exempt. People visiting hospitals or care homes will also need to produce a code. A passport will also be needed for wedding receptions and baptisms plus music festivals (both inside and outside) where a mask cannot be worn at all times. FIVE Murcia areas have cut indoor hospitality capacity limits due to rising COVID infections, but there are no imminent plans to introduce a passport scheme. Businesses in Abaran, Alhama de Murcia, Fuente Alamo, Mazarron and Torre Pacheco are now restricted to 30% indoor capacity but outside terrace limits remain at 100%. New restrictions in the five municipalities were triggered automatically on Monday as they are now in the ‘very high risk’ category for coronavirus infections. Despite the localised changes, the whole of Murcia is still classified as low risk.

UNEMPLOYMENT in the Vega Baja has increased by over 28% in the past 13 years. But four of the area’s largest towns have shown increases of over 30% during that time. Guardamar del Segura, Almoradi and Torrevieja were the worst hit, with Orihuela close behind. Only one of the 27 municipalities, Bigastro, has seen a slight drop in the number of unemployed over that time. A new report shows the general trend across the region is an increase that started at the beginning of the Spanish economic crisis in 2008. Bigastro, the only town to buck the trend, did so by recording a decrease in unemployed people from 695 in 2008 to 686 in October 2021. In the whole region, unemployment has increased from 24,611 to 31,624.

LIFE SAVING TECH

NEW technology is being used to track locations of emergency callers in the Valencian Community. The Advanced Mobile Location (AML) system pinpoints a mobile phone location to between 15 and 20 metres. The geolocation system will be especially useful for hikers and mountaineers who get into difficulty in re-

By Alex Trelinski

Bingo halls and casinos that have a restaurant will also have to adhere to the rule. Valencian president, Ximo Puig said: “This move is urgent and necessary and both allows the safety of those vaccinated and convinces those who have not to get the jab.” The new rule, rubber stamped by the Valencian Superior Court, will last for at least 30 days. While the region’s high vaccination rate of 92% meant that it is ‘no longer dominated’ by the coronavirus, unvaccinated people have a 20-times higher risk of being admitted to intensive care.

mote parts of the region or for people who simply cannot tell emergency services where they are. AML already covers 65% of Spain’s population and is expected to cover the whole country by the end of the year.

End

The president added that he hopes extra measures will not be needed over the festive period. “We believe the COVID passport should be the fundamental measure to end the pandemic,” he said.

Bad news