News, February 2010

News from the Churches

Gospel Choir in Burgos

New Bible presented. Church presentation on the issue of abortion broken up by women demonstrators. Meaning of Christmas - cancelled until 16th January due to bad weather, now a great success. Christmas TV Service on Christmas Eve seen by 275,000. 4880 shoe-boxes sent to children in Sahara. 'Spain, we're praying for you' repeats event in March. 500 attend GBU Forum. Red box preachers ran successful marathon day. 450th anniversary of first Spanish evangelical martyrdom. This and more... Read on! more >>

February 24th, recent news round-up

First major union demonstrations against the Zapatero government - BBC; more >>

Sport headlines

F1 cars get test drive in Valencia. Nadal abandons against Murray in Melbourne 1/4 final. Barcelona wins Clubs World Cup in Abu Dhabi. Barcelona leads league. more >>

New abortion law in Congress

December. In November a new abortion law went before the Congress. This has been long months in the planning stage and finally comes to full political debate. With the Roman Catholic influenced Partido Popular on the opposition benches, the law faces a narrow victory. Main items are the closing of a clause which has allowed almost any woman to abort at any stage of pregnancy, but it now gives full freedom to abort up to 14 weeks. more >>

Inquisition museum opens

Early December saw the opening of the doors to the Castle of Saint George in Seville, former home of the Spanish Inquisition. more >>

News theme: weather and winter travel

Spain is not, contrary to its image, permanent summer! The tourist season is limited, even at coastal areas, except in the Canary Islands, to half the year. Winter, especially inland, is far harsher than it is in (mostly) mild Britain, so much further north. more >>

News Theme: The Economy

Unemployment in Spain (The Economist)

During the decade until 2007 Spain was seen as enjoying an economic miracle. Now Spain is among the worst hit nations in Europe, with economist all over the world, not least in Spain itself, hitting hard at the government for its policies. World economic woes are certainly affecting Spain, but it is suffering more due to local matters. Several billion Euros have now been thrown by the government at the problem, but unemployment reached over 4 million, or virtually 20% by the end of 2009. Experts believe the government is not adopting the best policies to get Spain back to work. We offer our view. more >>

News theme: Basque politics and ETA - 50 years on

31st July 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of ETA's terror campaign. To mark it, ETA planted a bomb outside a Civil Guard barracks in Burgos on 29th and under a patrol car in Mallorca on 30th, the latter causing two deaths. ETA is still alive and killing, but has achieved nothing useful for the Basques they claim to represent. On 19th June '09 ETA killed again. Here we offer some background thoughts to the problem. more >>

News Theme, The immigration crisis

Desperation (AFP)

Reports, almost daily, of open boats known variously as pateras (coming from Marrocco or Algeria) or larger cayucos (reaching the Canary islands from further south), combine with stories of illegal 'paperless' immigrants attempting to cross the fences at Ceuta and Melilla. Add to these high profile stories the situation of hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans and Romanians, not to mention Asians and you have the appearance of a significant immigration crisis. Throw in the confusion and disagreement of politicians as to how to deal with the phenomenon and you have a real crisis, now doubly significant as the jobs they are hoping for have dried up. more >>