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Date Published: 04/07/2014

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and whats on round-up, 4th July 2014

Could EU money revive the Paramount project?

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and whats on round-up, 4th July 2014 The summer may traditionally be slow in terms of news, but the start of July has been just the opposite in the Region of Murcia this year as a raft of corruption cases set political fur flying.

Nationally, corruption has dominated the main news as the Caso Nóos creaks to an inevitable end, but here in Murcia the words Novo Carthago have stopped being yet another unbuilt urbanisation and become a hot topic, dragging in Joaquín Bascuñana, the central government delegate to the Region of Murcia, who was called in front of the investigating judge on Wednesday, along with the regional minister for the environment. Sr Bascuñana chose to exercise his right to remain silent, an option he also preferred when questioned by members of the press afterwards. Also in court on the same day was the Mayor of Torre Pacheco, Daniel García Madrid, who is on trial for allegedly perverting the course of justice by awarding public works contracts without putting them out to tender as the law requires, and the Mayor of Murcia also made the headlines as the court investigating the Caso Umbra extended the secrecy order relating to his own assets.

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and whats on round-up, 4th July 2014 However, another Mayor made a different set of headlines, the Mayor of Sucina, José Mercader, spinning bottles and dancing in the streets, as Sucina launched its “I Love Sucina” campaign, which hit youtube with a blast this week as the region opened for summer business and the onset of the summer tourist avalanche.

Elsewhere, other politicians have also been in the news as the regional government continues to push forward with macro-projects which aim to improve the infrastructure of the region for the future. Manuel Campos remains confident that the airport at Corvera will be open before the end of 2014, despite the fact that the EU has still not given the go-ahead for the 177-million-euro loan to Aeromur which would make this possible, and is also optimistic that the AVE high-speed rail service will arrive in Murcia and Cartagena by 2018.

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and whats on round-up, 4th July 2014 Another grand project, the Paramount theme park in Alhama de Murcia, is still searching for private investors to finance construction, but a central government department is working to help secure European funding to enable work to begin.

Another major infrastructure is back on the priorities list in Cartagena as the former regional minister for public works, Antonio Sevilla, takes over as the head of the Cartagena Port Authority, to tackle the El Gorguel macro-container project which has been fought with such determination by ecologists. His first action being to approve financing to extend the railway line in Escombreras to the existing container terminal, construction of which can now begin.

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and whats on round-up, 4th July 2014 Elsewhere, the summer season is now in full swing all over the Costa Cálida, despite a week of relatively cool weather and rough seas which saw the red flag flying at various of the Region of Murcia’s beaches on Wednesday. The influx of visitors and the migration of many from the capital to the coast causes a re-structuring of the regional health service, with extra staff being re-located to the beach resorts. At the same time the police and the Guardia Civil perform a similar operation, and of course in larger municipalities like Cartagena extra bus services are now operational.

Last week the Region of Murcia played host to a VIP visitor in Liam Neeson, who left a trail of destruction in his wake, and this week if anything the prestige of the man who attended a friend’s funeral in the regional capital was even greater: just twelve days after his proclamation King Felipe VI came to Murcia for the second time in two months, albeit for sad reasons.

Some of the Region’s economic indicators continue to suggest that the situation is slowly improving: unemployment fell again to 135,000, although some reports suggest that the drop was less significant than it might have been as agricultural workers have been laid off because of the drought and the devastating hailstorm in Cieza. On the subject of the drought, theories that the Region’s rain is being “stolen” have resurfaced in Jumilla and Yecla, where questions are being asked about possible cloud-seeding to avoid storms like the one in Cieza.

Other stories to make the news this week include the regional government’s latest attempt to auction off the old Los Arcos hospital in San Javier – 6.2 million euros is the asking price, for anyone who might be tempted – and the lightning strike which caused a wildfire in the mountains of Moratalla, just as the fiestas to celebrate the Cristo del Rayo are getting under way.

More details of these and many other stories can be found in the regional news section of Murcia Today.

What’s on, 4^th to 10^th July

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and whats on round-up, 4th July 2014 The start of summer heralds the advent of various major cultural and musical events, and the month of July is a busy one in the Region of Murcia.

The San Javier Jazz Festival gets under way on Saturday with George Benson performing in the opening concert, and in the course of the next seven days Bobby McFerrin is among the other performers taking centre stage. Booker T. Jones and Freddy Cole are among those performing over the following month.

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and whats on round-up, 4th July 2014 In a couple of weeks’ time the Mar de Músicas festival in Cartagena features a host of world music concerts which will make it difficult for music lovers to choose which is the most tempting, although Bobby Womack died last week, leaving a gap in the program which will be hard to fill.

Over the coming seven days there are also various flamenco events on offer: Saturday heralds the San Pedro del Pinatar flamenco festival, including the enormously popular José Mercé, and in the evening the latest Música entre Vinos event in Jumilla also has a flamenco flavor, while next Thursday there is a flamenco ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet in the El Batel auditorium in Cartagena.

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and whats on round-up, 4th July 2014 Away from music, it’s Moratalla’s turn to begin the annual fiestas next Thursday, with a week of bull-running, street parties and general roistering taking over the town from 10^th to 17^th July in the events to celebrate the Cristo del Rayo.

Elsewhere, the Totana tapas route is running until 20^th July, as the first acts in the Fiestas of Santiago begin, and the 5-kilometre Aidemarcha charity walk/run is taking place in San Javier on Saturday. Those who don’t feel up to the effort can also take part in a gentler way, as a 3-kilometre walk is being held in parallel with the more strenuous event, and those with even less desire to work up a sweat would no doubt welcome a ride on one of the horse-drawn carriages featured in a parade through the streets of San Pedro del Pinatar on Sunday. This event comes at the end of the annual municipal fiestas, so from now on locals can concentrate on enjoying the beach for the rest of the summer, as well as the forthcoming musical events which are just starting to spring up all over the place!

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and whats on round-up, 4th July 2014 Many of the localised events only come in a couple of days in advance, making it very difficult to keep up with the volume and translate them quickly enough. Sadly, this product receives no financing whatsoever from the regional tourism and cultural authorities and has extremely limited resources to undertake this vast volume of translation, so keep checking the whats on section and as much as is physically possible will be translated and posted. There are also lots of great musical events in the bars and restaurants of our sponsors, so enjoy, there are plenty to choose from.

Coming up next week are folk dancing festivals in Lorca, Cartagena and Murcia capital, offering the chance to discover real Murcian traditional dancing, (programmes in the pile) while Alhama de Murcia continues with its programme of regional folk music in the gardens of the town during the evenings.

Spanish news round-up, 27th June to 4^th July 2014

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and whats on round-up, 4th July 2014 The weather doesn’t usually provide much in the way of variety in Spain during the month of July, but this year is already something of an exception. While temperatures have been unusually cool in parts of the south, much of the country has been suffering the effects of severe storms, and in midweek a freak cloudburst left up to a foot of hailstones accumulated on the streets of Soria in Castilla y León. At the same time flash floods in the province of Albacete caused havoc on the AVE rail line between Madrid and Alicante, with one train being derailed due to subsidence under the tracks and various other suffering long delays.

Elsewhere, the news has been dominated mostly by the continuation of a series of long-running stories. In the Nóos corruption case one of the accused unexpectedly made a complete confession, and among the consequences is the possibility that Princess Cristina may not have to stand trial after all. The outlook for her husband, on the other hand, looks extremely bleak, as if his accountant’s statement is believed it appears to leave him with little in the way of defence.

The tension between Spain and Gibraltar still shows no sign of dissipating: a year after the Gibraltarians’ decision to deposit large concrete blocks in the sea angered Spanish fishermen one of the 70 offending blocks has been removed, but there is no sign of any easing of the situation at the border checkpoint as the Spanish government keeps its stringent checks in place. One of the grievances held by the Spanish authorities is that huge quantities of cigarettes are allegedly being smuggled over the border from Gibraltar, and tobacco company Altadis estimates that 38% of all cigarettes sold in Andalucía are contraband.

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and whats on round-up, 4th July 2014 Other ongoing controversies in the headlines are the plans to prospect for oil off the coast of the Canary Islands and the government’s proposed reform of Spain’s abortion law, while among the good news this week were another fall in unemployment figures across the whole country and the reduction of international mobile phone charges within the EU.

All this will only be of secondary interest to Carolina Godayol, though. Sra Godayol is the managing director of Spain’s History Channel, and two years ago she proposed that one of the two lions which flank the main entrance of the lower house of Parliament should be endowed with testicles. However, after giving the matter lengthy consideration, the Ministry of Culture has rejected her scheme, and the lion known as Daoíz will remain emasculated until sufficient justification for the manufacture of a bronze lion scrotum can be provided.

And they say there’s no important news in the summer!

For full details of these and many other stories, including a Spanish property news round-up visit www.spanishnewstoday.com

Currency round-up

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and whats on round-up, 4th July 2014 Click for this weeks currency round up showing the exchange rate between Sterling and the Euro. If you would like a free quote to see how much can be saved on regular currency transfers such as a pension, or one-off lump sums such as the purchase of a property, call for a no obligation quote.

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