Palma Arena to become city's new exhibition centre

Killer in jail as police revise events

Builders want gov't ait to sooth spending cuts

Elton John & Andrea Bocelli to be an "added tourist attraction"

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PALMA AND MADRID
ANIMAL rights groups in Majorca yesterday welcomed the news when the Catalan parliament dealt the death blow to bullfighting in the region, outlawing the centuries-old spectacle for the first time in mainland Spain.

The result of 68 in favour, 55 against the ban was expected, since Catalonia’s parliament had accepted a citizens’ petition to stop bullfighting with activists concerned about animal cruelty battling devotees of the renowned Spanish tradition.

In the debate, some lawmakers cited the declining popularity of bullfighting in Spain, where fewer people go each year to the arena to watch toreros in their distinctive “suits of lights” wield red capes and swords at close range against enraged bulls. “There are some traditions that can’t remain frozen in time as society changes. We don’t have to ban everything, but the most degrading things should be banned,” said Josep Rull, member of parliament for the Catalonian nationalist party (CiU).

Many commentators and lawmakers denied that the anti-bullfight movement has to do with separatist moves in Catalonia, but Carlos Nunez, president of the Bull Breeders’ Union, said he believed it was entirely political.

Nine lawmakers abstained from voting in the debate in which animal activists concerned about the bull’s suffering argued against those who revere bullfighting, celebrated by U.S. Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway in the book “Death in the Afternoon”.

Animal rights activists have pledged to spread the ban from the autonomy-minded region throughout the rest of the country.
Anti-bullfighting groups gathered signatures from 180'000 Catalans, which forced parliament to vote on the tradition which dates back to 711, when the first bullfight took place in celebration for the crowning of King Alfonso VIII. “They have heard the outcry of a society that is reinventing its traditions,” said Anna Mula, of the group Prou! (Enough!).
Before the vote, animal rights activists, one drenched in red paint, and bullfighting aficionados gathered outside parliament to hear the result.
Highly ritualised bullfighting, in which the matador and his entourage use capes, lances and darts to subdue the bull which is killed at close quarters with a sword, was made illegal in Spain’s Canary islands in 1991.

For fans, who shout “Ole” in chorus at the bullring to appreciate a daring or stylish move, the showdown is a moving display of fear and courage. “It’s not a cruel show. Completely the opposite. It’s a show that creates art: where you get feelings and a fight between a bull and person, where the person or the bull can lose their life,” bullfighter Serafin Marin told Reuters.

The drama of the bullring also inspired painter Pablo Picasso and poet Federico Garcia Lorca. But anti-bullfighting activists point out that it has disturbed many other artists, from Mark Twain to Hans Christian Andersen.

Under the ban, which would come into effect in 2012, the last active bullring in Catalonia’s capital, Barcelona, would shut down, as would the remaining few elsewhere in the region.

Some lawmakers cited Spain’s ongoing economic crisis -- the country is just emerging from a deep recession -- as a reason to keep bullfighting alive.
A report by an industry group that lobbied against the ban said 100 million euros of tickets to bullfights are sold annually in France and Spain, and projected rising unemployment benefit payouts for Catalonia’s government when bullrings shut. “Banning bullfighting at a time of economic crisis is madness,” said Rafael Luna, member of parliament for the conservative Popular Party, during the debate.

The bullfighting industry includes manufacturing of the elaborate suits as well as specialized breeding of bulls, which cacost up to 10'000 euros apiece. “It’s an attack on liberty, on a private economic activity. “People are free to go or not go to the bullring,” said Fernando Masedo, president of the International Federation of Bullfighting Schools, where initiates learn to face down bulls.

Most young people get more worked up about heroes in football, in which Spain won the World Cup this year, and tennis and cycling. Bullfighters are no longer household names.

KYLE Eastwood, son of Hollywood actor and film director, Clint Eastwood is to be one of the musicians performing in this year’s jazz festival in Sa Pobla.

The American pianist McCoy Tyner, a leading influence in jazz since the 1960s will give the first concert on 4th August in what is now the festival’s 16th year.

Their recipe for success lay in a fusion of the classic sounds of “grunge” and “shoegazing”, spiced with a touch of melodic pop, and all crowned with Dolores’ extraordinary voice. There were more than 16 million copies of Need To Argue sold worldwide.

1995 was a very prosperous year for the band. They made their own first “Unplugged” recording (a musical editing programme which caused a furore at the time) and the resulting song put out on general release “Zombie” was awarded for being the best of the year. Not long into 1996, the Cranberries’ To the Faithful Departed explored new dimensions of musical style. The departure from their usual stomping ground was a resounding success and the draw they exerted on the public shrank not one millimetre.

However, at about this time, some press photographs revealed the deteriorating state of health of Dolores.
Undernourished and emaciated, it was clear that the singer was suffering from anorexia. A major tour was cancelled with organisers covering the reality of the situation by saying that Dolores had developed knee problems. The group remained off the scene for a year.

Bury the Hatchet was released in 1999 and Wake up and Smell the Coffee followed in 2001. These recordings were the last of the Cranberries before their break-up which was to stretch to six years.

THE total spend by foreign tourists in the Balearic Islands fell by 12.2 percent in the first six months of this year in comparison with the same period in 2009, tourism research group “Egatur” reported yesterday.

Egatur said that for Spain as a whole, spending levels in fact rose very slightly by 0.1 percent during the first half of the year compared to the same six months of 2009 and there was a notable upturn of 2.4 percent in particular relation to the month of June.

The research, commissioned by Central Government’s Ministry for Industry, Tourism and Commerce, put the first half year figure in the Balearics at 2'988 million euros and for Spain as a whole at 20'772 million for the same period. Egatur confirmed that average spend per foreign tourist also fell in the Balearics during the first half of the year by 5.2 percent to 864 euros whilst nationwide the figure rose by 2 percent to 904 euros.

From January to June this year, the daily average spend of foreign tourists in the Balearic Islands has been 104 euros, claim Egatur, almost exactly the same as it was during the first six months of 2009. In the rest of the country, daily spend rose by 4.4 percent to reach an average of 98 euros.

FROM this coming October onwards, power supply company in the Balearics, Endesa, will be providing a recharge point for electric cars at its industrial premises at Sant Joan de Deu, close to Palma airport, Juan Frau the firm’s Network Planning Director confirmed yesterday.

The use of electric vehicles is forecast to significantly reduce carbon emissions contamination in the transport industry and to provide much greater energy efficiency than in conventional motorised counterparts.

Balearic President Francesc Antich and Palma’s Mayor Aina Calvo were attending the inauguration of two of Endesa’s electrical recharge points yesterday morning. One of the points was for Endesa employees and the other for the general public.

There is already one such recharge point in operation at the underground car park in Via Roma in Palma. Another five are to be set up in the suburbs of Palma over the coming months.

Frau pointed out yesterday that the cost of recharging an electric car is six times less than filling a motorised vehicle with petrol. Recharging costs work out at 1.5 euros per 100 kilometres compared to 10 euros for the same distance for a conventional car.

There are currently between 10 and 15 electric cars on the roads in Palma. Prices start for the simplest vehicles at 15'000 euros, rising to 30'000 euros for more sophisticated models.

Frau said that at the moment, there are only two motorcyles which run on electricity on Majorca and to buy one of these would cost in the region of 6'000 euros.

MADRID
SPANISH daytime temperatures will rise by an average of between 3 and 6 degrees Celsius by 2100, and rainfall will tumble to 15-30 percent of recent levels, according to forecasts yesterday by the Met Office.

The Met Office said it produced the forecasts in order to plan for the impact of climate change. “Madrid will be like (southern city) Seville, and Seville like Tucson. This is a report for action,” Met Office President Ricardo Garcia told journalists.

Climate Change Secretary Teresa Ribera added at a news conference that Spain, which already suffers from water shortages and is building desalination plants, was particularly vulnerable to climate change. “To the extent that temperatures change, animals and other living things will have to grow in different places to today, and that will also lead to significant changes in economic activities,” she said.

CLIMATE CHANGE
In order to combat climate change and reduce its extensive dependence on imported fossil fuels, Spain has invested heavily in subsidizing renewable energy sources in recent years.

THE prime suspect in the murder of 25-year-old Romanian Ana Niculai did not take as long as expected to crack yesterday when he admitted to a preliminary hearing in an Inca court that he did kill the young woman and later torched the car in which she was locked in the boot in an attempt to erase any clues.

Security was extremely tight around the Inca courthouse yesterday as scores of angry members of the public gathered to heckle Alejandro de Abarca, alias “the dwarf.” Some managed to break through the police cordon as he was taken away from the courthouse and assaulted the police vehicle in which he was travelling as tensions reached fever pitch.

De Abarca claims that he did not intend to kill Ana Niculai and that his only plan was to steal her boyfriend’s car as she parked in an underground car park in the centre of Palma before going to work in the bar she ran in Calle Socorro.

According to De Abarca’s account of events on Monday, July 19, he drove the stolen Audi A4 to the Son Banya shanty town on the outskirts of Palma near the airport, with Niculai inside. There he bought five grammes of heroin and an undisclosed quantity of speed.

According to De Abarca’s statement, he then injected a serious amount of the drug and suddenly became very nervous.
It was during this period that he is suspected of having also injected Niculai with what was to apparently prove two fatal doses of heroin. The first was to calm her down, the second, according to sources close to the case, to kill her.

According to the suspect’s statement he does not know at which point after that the victim died because he was under the influence of drugs, but he apparently admitted to later locking her in the boot of the stolen car with her hands tied behind her back and setting it alight along the Muro to Ca’n Picafort road in an attempt to erase any clues.

Last night, investigators had fresh doubts over when the victim was set alight.
He apparently told the court of how he continued to be in a state of nerves after setting the vehicle alight and decided to go on the run because he was scared of being arrested for car theft.

De Abarco appeared in court shortly after 1.30pm and after a 90 minute hearing, the judge presiding over the case ordered that the suspect and investigating officers from the Guardia Civil accompany him to the Albufera and surrounding area where the crime took place and where the suspect had been hiding to retrace De Abarca’s steps and reconstruct the tragic and brutal events of July 19.

It was when he was taken under tight security to the reconstruction scene that tension outside the courthouse exploded. But fortunately there were no major incidents.