Alora

Alora will hold the 14th festival of Verdiales, which takes place each year in selected towns in Malaga province.  The festival begins at 9.00 pm on Saturday 8th July until the early hours of the morning.  There will be 16 groups taking part in the Verdiales in the styles of Montes, Comares and Almogia.  The event will take place in the Lower Square, Plaza of the Despedia. 

The Town Hall of Alora promises a fantastic July for the young people of Alora.  During a presentation of the activities for the month, Jose Sanchez, (The Mayor) said they want the children to enjoy the town. The activities include concerts, workshops and plays. During the weekends of July, there will be movies in the Cervantes Theatre and diverse workshops in the arts centre for example, a course of percussion and another of African dances, in the Municipal Pool there will be aquatic sports, a super-slide and a drawbridge. 

 

The City Hall of Alora will shortly undertake the construction of the new football ground Nuestra Señora de Flores, which will include Astroturf.  The total budget of the work which has risen to 1.103.119 euros, will be financed by the Department of Commerce, Tourism and Sport and by the Ayuntamiento of Alora. 

 

Protesters Busy in Ronda

Neither 500 signatures `against´ presented by the ecological association Silvema, nor the opposition of the mountain villages or even the denial by the Mediterranean River basin to supply water could shake the intent of the Mayor of Ronda, Antonio Maria Marin Lara. At the beginning of June he authorised the works to begin on the Ronda Golf and Country Club, he avoided discussing this "blot on the landscape" of 2 golf courses, 3 five star hotels and 800 luxury houses in the plenary session of the council which meant that details of the permission were not published. Although the developer has had the green light it still remains to be seen where the water will come from and who will undertake the cost of this huge development 12 kilometres outside Ronda.

 

The developers have already started fencing the land and cutting access roads despite the fact that they do not have the officially signed papers. In the 8 million square metres of the Golf and Country Club they intend to have 442 luxury villas on plots that vary between 4,500m2 and 20,000m2, 341 houses in 4 urbanisations, 3 hotels - one of which will be absolute luxury, a Golf Clubhouse, 2 American ´World Class´ 18 hole golf courses, an Equestrian centre with bridle paths for riding, a tennis club and more. But, still it is not clear where, how and who will pay for the water for this controversial complex.

 

Studies that have been carried out by various official bodies show that development in this area will adversely affect the water tables of Becerro and Arriate but this was not enough to stop the mayor. Francisco Wheel, manager of the construction company says that the City Council will be forced to provide the water as it is urbanisation land......

 

It is estimated that one golf course uses the equivalent amount of water as a population of 15,000. There will be 2 golf courses so they alone will be using nearly as much as the town of Ronda with 36,000 inhabitants. The greatest problem is not the pernicious use of water but the maintenance of the turf. The 3 types of grasses that they have to use require many chemical agents and pesticides which, because of the mountainous area, will filter into the subterranean water tables that supply much of the area. A large number of citizens together with the Local Police, Silvema and the Green Patrol protested by blockading one of the main routes to the proposed development on the 14th June.

 

Busy Weekend for the Costa del Sol

Malaga airport will handle more than 1,500 flights this weekend with today (Saturday) being the busiest day with 439 flights. It comes at the start of July with RENFE Spanish railways also offering 2,200 extra seats to the Costa del Sol from Madrid and 20,000 journeys expected to be taken on the province's roads over the weekend.

 

Football and Languages

Learning to play is the motto that defines the campus Charlton Athletic Esde, a project focused on integrating education with the sport.  Sponsored by the Ayuntamiento in partnership with ESDE Idiomas and Malaga City Council it will use football to encourage youngsters to learn English.  From July the campus will receive a total of 100 Spanish and foreign children who will learn languages playing soccer.  La Mosca football club in Malaga is the successful first venue for the scheme, with a week of language lessons followed by a week of football coaching, Need more information?..... call 952 210 463.

Ardales Up In Arms

 

3 projects have already been agreed that will change the town forever, recently approved by the mayor, Salvador Pendón, who is the president of the Delegation of Malaga, the first is a development of houses for 13,500 new citizens, Ardales at present has a population of 2,500.

 

Additionally 2 golf courses and 3 hotels with a capacity of 850 and various sports and other facilities have received permission. In order to progress these developments the local council, led by Pendón, has re-classified over 5 million square metres of rural land to urbanised land.

 

One of the arguments used by the Public Works Delegation of Andalucia to stop works and criticise the management of the towns and villages of Andalucia was that the building being carried out was radically changing the appearance of the locality.

 

Christian Malcolm Triumphs in Malaga

 

Britain's Christian Malcolm edged past France's Ronald Pognon to win the men's 200m race on Thursday on the second and final day of the SPAR European Cup in Malaga, he finished in 20.29 seconds against Pognon at 20.37, Poland's Marcin Urbas was third with 20.55.

 

"I felt really well during the race, and the wind hasn't bothered me at all as I felt pretty strong," Malcolm said, moreover, I'm happy for having achieve my season best today, I can say that I really had fast legs in the first part or the race, so the home straight turned into a very easy thing for me. In the European championships, I'll be going for gold."  Pognon beat favoured Briton Dwain Chambers in winning the 100m in 10.13 seconds on Wednesday, the first day of cup.

 

City of Malaga Supercross Championship

 

This is the 6th edition of this race, qualifying for the Spanish Championship, this indoor category was born only 20 years ago in the USA, it's races taking place in stadiums or pavilions, Supercross is not only a sport but also a show, riders have to climb or dodge obstacles in illuminated settings, and there are usually parallel activities promising the public lots of fun.

 

The 6th edition of the 'Ciudad de Malaga' Supercross Championship will take place at the José María Martin Carpena Sports Hall in Málaga on the 1st July at 2200 hours. It's long tradition bears witness to the popularity of this sport among local motor enthusiasts.

 

The event has been organised by the Malaga City Council, Moto Club Málaga and Global Motorsport.

'Ciudad de Malaga' Supercross Championship, Martin Carpena Sports Hall, MALAGA

For further information or ticket sales, please visit www.globalmotorsport.es

 

Music Festival in Marbella

A two day music festival will take place in the Marbella bull ring on 10th and 11the August with Madness on the first night and the Sugarbabes on the second. The event is organised by Awesome Events.  Tickets from El Corte Inglés and Fnac with a 10 Euros discount on tickets purchased before 15 July.

 

No-smoking Beaches in Cataluna

The Catalan Parliamentary Group is today defending the idea of banning smoking on some of its beaches. The move follows the first step in the direction taken by L’Escala in Girona, who recently declared one of their local beaches to be a no-smoking zone.   The Mayor of the town, Josep M Guinart, said that just as there are designated nudist beaches, so there should be designated no smoking beaches.

 

Minimum Age for Riding a Moped to be Raised to 16

The Spanish government announced last week it is to raise the minimum age for riding a moped from 14 to 16.  Riders will also have to pass an examination which will be obligatory.  The interior minister Alfedo Perez Rubalcaba revealed the move as part of a road safety plan.  The announcement comes as Spain prepares to introduce a new points-based driving licence from Saturday 1 July.

 

Spain Has Introduced New Law

 

Following news that Spain has introduced a mandatory copyright tax on blank media, another intellectual property law has finally banned unauthorised peer-to-peer file-sharing, making it a civil offence to download content from such networks in Spain.

 

The legislation, approved by American's Congress yesterday, toughens previous provisions. An early May circular from Spain's fiscal general del estado, or chief prosecutor, allowed downloads for purely personal use, now though anyone caught grabbing content from, say, eMule, will have to reimburse rights holders for losses, although such losses will be difficult for authorities to track.

 

But the government is going after Internet service providers; it's a criminal offence for ISPs to facilitate unauthorized downloading. The law also introduces a small tax to be levied on all blank media -- from a blank CD to mobile phones and even a memory stick. Computer hard disks and ADSL lines have been left out of the legislation despite their widespread use for illegally copying music and films. The money collected will be paid back to the owner of the copyright.

 

BlackBerry Connect for Movistar in Spain

Palm and Research in Motion (RIM) has announced the availability of BlackBerry Connect software for the Palm Treo 650 smartphone in Spain. With BlackBerry Connect, Movistar’s customers will benefit from a wider range of devices compatible with BlackBerry services from Movistar.  BlackBerry has been welcomed by millions of mobile professionals around the world because it is a scalable, secure, and proven wireless solution.

 

NASA Counted Down to the Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery Today (Saturday)

 

They are hoping to fly a crucial mission whose failure could ground the shuttle fleet permanently and leave the International Space Station unfinished, Discovery is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 3:49 p.m. EDT (1949 GMT) on a voyage to the space station that will test repairs to the shuttle's troublesome fuel tank, which triggered the destruction of shuttle Columbia and the deaths of seven astronauts in 2003.

 

NASA weather officials predicted a 60 percent chance the flight will have to be postponed, with lightning near the launch site the potential culprit, "We're looking forward to good weather and when we have it were going to be ready to go," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said at a news briefing on Friday.

 

Aragones Signs for 2 More Years

 

Luis Aragones has agreed to stay on as coach of Spain for another two years, ending speculation that he would resign after the country's FIFA World Cup exit.

 

After negotiations with the Spanish Football Federation the 67-year-old announced he would remain in charge of the team in the quest to win UEFA EURO 2008™. "The federation has convinced me to renew my contract," Aragones said. "There is the European Championship coming up and they need a coach, they told me that they were happy with my work and that they wanted me to stay and I was pleased with that."

 

Spanish Football Fans Behaviour Criticised

 

Spanish football fans have been criticised for their behaviour during the game between France and Spain in the World Cup.  French coach, Raymond Domenech, complained of racial chants from a section of the Spanish crowd against the French team, and then Franz Beckenbauer said the Spanish had not been sporting to whistle against the French National Anthem.  Beckenbauer also said that Prince Felipe apologised for the fans behaviour at the time as they watched the game together in the royal box.

 

Real Madrid President

The new president of Real Madrid will be elected on Sunday when club members vote for one of five candidates bidding to take charge of the nine-times European champions.  The 85,000 "socios" have been subjected to intense campaigning from construction magnate Juan Miguel Villar Mir, businessman Juan Palacios, former president Lorenzo Sanz and lawyers Ramon Calderon and Arturo Baldasano. The winner will be expected to turn round Real Madrid's fortunes and determine the future direction of the club.

 

Nadal Faces Agassi at Wimbledon

 

Rafael Nadal will face Andre Agassi in the third round at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships today in what promises to be a thrilling game.  Second-seeded Nadal beat American Robert Kendrick last Thursday, 6-7 (4-7), 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5, 6-4.