NEWS
22 - 28 November 2012 www.euroweeklynews.com
Legionnaire’s scare
Sharing funds LOCAL associations and NGOs in Vélez-Málaga will receive €57,000 in council grants. The town hall will allocate €15,000 to non-governmental organisations and the remainder to the collectives.
Saving the cave WORK to protect 30,000year-old cave paintings at the Cueva del Tesoro in Rincón de la Victoria will be finished by the summer. A further €75,000 has been allocated to fight fungus in the cave, the mayor said.
EWN
VELEZ-MALAGA’S Fernando Ruiz Hierro Municipal Sports Centre was closed for 24 hours after the bacterium responsible for Legionnaire’s Disease was detected. The premises, particularly the water pipes and ventilation systems, were disinfected and the sports centre is now open. High levels of the legionella bacterium
were detected in both the men’s and women’s shower rooms. Other areas did not show dangerous levels. Schools and centres for the elderly are also being checked but no cases of Legionnaire’s were detected among the population, representatives of the MalagaAxarquia Health Board said. “Although no cases of infection were found, we closed the sports
Axarquía - Málaga East
centre temporarily as a safety measure. Lots of people, including many children, use these premises every day,” Velez-Malaga Sports Councillor Jesus Lupiañez said. After three residents in the nearby town of Benajarafe were diagnosed last year with pneumonia due to Legionnaire’s Disease, Velez Town Hall hired a company to monitor all municipal buildings.
Landfill seal A LANDFILL site near Sayalonga is to be sealed, while mountainsides facing roads are to be vaulted to prevent rock slides.
Road repair THE provincial council has allocated €1.2 million for improvements to a threekilometre stretch of road from Rincón de la Victoria to Macharaviaya.
TASTY TREAT: But ham with true Iberian origins from pigs fed on acorns (inset left) faces an unsure future.
Top quality Iberian ham may have had its bacon
Q
UALITY Iberian ham appears in need of saving its own bacon. The Spanish government has introduced new rules regarding the production and sale of ham with true Iberian origin. This has caused much controversy among traditional producers who fear that the survival of legs of ham and other products will become endangered by more lowerquality goods marketed as true Iberian pork. In the past three years, production of true Iberian ham from pigs fed on acorns and bred outdoors has fallen 26 per cent, while produce from stall-bred pigs fed on animal feed has increased 34 per cent. True Iberian ham should come from pigs bred outdoors, allowed to reach a certain
Quote of the week
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MORE than 8,000 temporary work contracts will be signed during Christmas in Malaga Province and 35,000 in Andalucia, a study by Randstad recruitment agency said.
Local food
Police quiz
THE association of local municipalities is setting up a body to co-ordinate quality control for tourism-related industries in Axarquia.
Festive gift
UP to €47 million will be invested in 2013 by Malaga City Hall, out of which €6 million will be used on the AVE highspeed railway works, the Tabacalera building and port promenade.
AT least €74,000 of electricity will be saved by Vélez-Málaga Council following a decision to use less street lighting. Parks and council buildings will have less lighting and there will be fewer Christmas lights.
Tourist plan
N watch ews
Cash boost
Lights out
OPPOSITION groups in Torrox want an investigation into what they claim are illegal police contracts that have led to the existence of a ‘parallel force’ in the Proteccion Civil.
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‘It is true that these measures are harmful for the people. But they are meant to produce growth, richness and welfare. Otherwise we would not take them.’
Spain’s President Mariano Rajoy, on the first anniversary of heading the government.
age and given a special diet, including acorns. However, under current rules, the pig can be slaughtered before it is 10 months old, in many cases be a cross-breed with American pork, and often bred in pens. Consumer organisations say that traditional methods are being taken elsewhere, leading to fears that the top products, one of the main figures of Spanish gastronomy and famous throughout the world, will eventually disappear. The government planned to change the rules, but traditional producers do not want products from animals bred in stalls, even if pure Iberian pigs, to be marketed with the Iberian origin.
Number of the week
26,961
fewer foreigners paid National Insurance (Seguridad Social) last month in Spain out of the 1,701,875 signed up, the Ministry of Employment has revealed.
REGIONAL gastronomy will be promoted through the Sabor a Malaga campaign and trade show on December 6-9, both organised by the Malaga government.
In the red A PLEA to delay payments of the €800,000 annual royalty has been made by the company managing Malaga’s Muelle Uno Port promenade, reportedly in the red.
Costs double MAINTENANCE costs of Malaga’s town planning building have doubled to €800,000 a year after it was split into five separate offices, the city’s works council said.
and finally... A STUDY by 168 neurologists in Spain has revealed that 75 per cent out of 851 patients surveyed suffering from headaches did not receive proper health assistance, and additionally 45 per cent were not correctly diagnosed.