WIN A 30€ VOUCHER WITH HABANERAS

The Habaneras shopping centre in Torrevieja has launched a competition in which the lucky winners can get a 30€ voucher which they hope will ease the burden of the Christmas spend.

A secret Santa will be hidden in one of the shops in the centre and all you have to do is find it and identify the mystery person by email the location, along with an amusing message, to papanoelhabaneras@gmail.com or on their Facebook page, facebook.com/habaneras, where winners will be updated daily.

MASKED ROBBERS MAKE OFF WITH CAR

A man was injured on Tuesday at his farm in Albatera, when two hooded individuals entered the premises and began to beat the victim.

Having found the keys to the owner's luxury car, the criminals tan made off. The 49 year old victim was taken to hospital suffering from severe trauma, but is expected to make a full recovery.

LOS MONTESINOS MEETS ADMINISTRATORS

A meeting on Wednesday between administrators responsible for looking after properties and fincas in the town of Los Montesinos, aimed to discuss the effects of new laws that may affect the town and how everybody can work together to develop in line with both the law and the needs of the people.

Held in the Hotel La Torre, subjects such as building, maintenance and rehabilitation were all on the agenda.

MOTORCYCLIST SERIOUSLY INJURED IN MURCIA

A motorcyclist has suffered serious injuries when he was involved in a collision with four vehicles in a tunnel on the Ronda Norte de Murcia.

Investigators are trying to piece together the facts of the crash that happened at one of the busiest times of day, just after 2 in the afternoon.

ORIHUELA TO TRIAL CAR SHARING

In a move that is hoped to reduce both traffic on the roads of the city and costs for individuals, the City of Orihuela has announced a trial “car sharing� scheme.

Anybody wishing to take part can register their details on a website and hope to match up with a similar traveller thus amalgamating their journeys into one.

The town hall have also pointed out that the development of the website has been done without additional costs to the municipal budgets.

“The maintenance personnel did not identify the cause of the breakage and dispatched the aircraft incorrectly, turning to point 30.8 of the MEL [Minimum Equipment List manual],” the experts’ conclusion read, adding that the document is written in such a way as to “induce error.”

The aircraft, a Boeing MD-82, detected a fault in an exterior heat sensor and returned to the stand. A Spanair mechanic found that a heater, designed to prevent ice forming on the sensor, was active and, following the manual, disconnected it. A Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Commission report published in August 2009 noted that in addition to this fault, the pilots failed to carry out the proper checks prior to take-off, did not correctly deploy the wing flaps, and that the TOWS warning system also malfunctioned.

The MD-82 has a history of failures, including a crash in Detroit that killed 154 people in 1987 and one in Indonesia in 2005 that left 25 people dead.

The report also stated that the “history of accidents caused by the inadequate configuration for take-off had not been addressed, up to the date of the JK5022 accident, with sufficient corrective measures on the part of [Spanish and EU] aviation authorities or the manufacturer to solve the problem.”

via ELPAÍS.com in English.

Spain´s Interior Ministry says a passenger train has crashed into a dump truck working on the future bullet train link with Portugal, killing two people and injuring three others.

A regional spokeswoman said the collision happened near the outhwestern town of Carmonita, 90 kilometers (56 miles) from the border with Portugal, at about 1 p.m. today. She says emergency services are working to clear the wreckage.

She says one of the dead was a woman passenger aboard the train, the other the truck driver. She spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with ministry rules.

Bullet trains are scheduled to travel from Portugal´s capital, Lisbon, to Madrid in under three hours by 2014 despite budget cuts caused by the financial crisis.

via Train crashes into truck in Spain; 2 dead, 3 hurt | The Jakarta Post.

A Saudi army lieutenant colonel died today during a training flight at a Spanish air base, the Spanish Defence Ministry said.

The incident happened around 9:30 a.m. during a training flight aboard a Eurofighter Typhoon jet. A few minutes after takeoff, the plane hit the ground for unknown reasons, the Defense Ministry said.

A Spanish pilot who was also on board ejected before the plane hit the ground, the ministry said.

A special committee has been sent to the Moron Air Base in Seville to investigate, the Defense Ministry said.

The Saudi pilot was at Moron to sign an agreement on Spanish-Saudi cooperation, which includes training for Saudi pilots on the Eurofighter, the ministry said.

Saudi Arabia is one of the customers for the Eurofighter, which is manufactured by an international consortium of Britain´s BAE Systems, the German and Spanish arms of EADS, and Italy's Alenia Aeronautica.

via Saudi pilot dies in Spanish military crash – CNN.com.

The United States has stopped annual payments it has made to Spain for a 1966 air accident in which two hydrogen bombs caused non-nuclear explosions, a Spanish government source said yesterday.

They said a bilateral agreement in force since the accident “expired” last year, the source at the ministry of science and innovation said.

In January 1966, a US Air Force B-52 bomber collided with a KC-135 tanker during a midair refueling over southern Spain.

Two of the four hydrogen bombs broke up near the small town of Palomares in non-nuclear explosions, dispersing radioactive plutonium.

Since then Washington has provided an annual compensation to Spain to monitor pollution levels and perform blood tests on more than 1,000 residents.

The Spanish newspaper El Pais said yesterday the amount was 403,000 dollars (314,00 euros) per year. It added that the issue was discussed during a visit to Spain in May by US Vice President Joe Biden.

The science ministry source said “both administrations are going to meet to see what will happen now.”

El Pais said “traces of plutonium and americium remain in about 20 hectares” and in 2007 Washington and Madrid signed an agreement under which the United States agreed to pay for the cleanup of the area.

Now the Spanish government “wants Washington to agree to remove the plutonium” as Spain has no appropriate disposal site, the newspaper said.

The US Department of Energy said in a statement on its website Monday that its “cost-sharing arrangement with the Kingdom of Spain, begun in 1966, ended in” financial year 2008.

“The final radiological survey was completed in 2009 and received a positive review by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Plans for final remediation are in preparation in 2010.”

via AFP: US ends payments to Spain for 1966 bomb accident.

On August 20, 2008, a Spanair Flight from Barajas Airport (Madrid) to Gran Canaria Airport (Gran Canaria, Spain) crashed shortly after take off, killing 154 people. The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-82. Only 18 people walked away with their lives after the crash.

Now, exactly two years later, news of what might have brought the plane down surfaced. News which, if proved to be true, might shed another cone of shadow on the aeronautical industry.

According to Spanish media, citing the investigators, at the bottom of the crash lies a central computer system used to monitor technical problems in the aircraft. Apparently, that system was infected with malware, which prevented it from picking up the three technical problems which eventually led to the plane´s crash.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the plane took off from the Madrid airport with its flaps and slats retracted. Usually, such an event would cause audible alarms, but in this case, the systems which supply power to the take-off warning system failed.

According to livescience.com, citing head threat researcher at Trend Micro, Jamz Yaneeza, the malware has been classified as a Trojan horse. It could have been brought into the plane´s systems in several ways.

This doesn´t mean however the malware was placed intentionally. Mikko Hyppönen, the head of the research department at security firm F-Secure, says it´s likely the malware was not intended for the plane either.

via Spanair Flight 5022, Crashed by Malware – autoevolution.

Two British children have been killed in a car crash during a family trip in Spain.

Nine-month-old Amelle Khan and her brother Amir, two, died when the vehicle they were in plunged down a grass bank at the side of a motorway.

The children, from Wandsworth, were believed to be on holiday with their parents when the accident  happened.

Their mother Gemma Martello, who was driving the Renault Espace, is thought to have lost control of the car before the crash at 3am yesterday near the village of Briviesca in the province of Burgos, northern Spain.

The 27-year-old was taken to hospital along with her two other children Leila, six, and five-year-old Zackariya. Their father Jawed Chady, who was also in the car, is believed to be uninjured. Mr Chady, 33, a nurse, is said to be from France of Moroccan descent.

It is thought the family were on their way to visit relatives in the north African country.

Mr Chady was today at General Yague Hospital in Burgos by his partner´s and children´s bedsides along with other relatives, including Miss Martello´s sister.

The family were travelling on the AP1 motorway when the crash happened, 180 miles north of Madrid. Investigators are looking at the possibility Miss Martello fell asleep at the wheel.

Mr Chady is thought to have taken a break to rest after driving throughout the day and most of the evening.

The car smashed through the central reservation and careered across the opposite lanes of the motorway before plunging down a bank.

Police investigators say no other vehicle was involved.

The two children who survived the accident were not seriously injured and are expected to leave hospital later today.

A coroner was today conducting post-mortems on the two children before their bodies were released to the family and repatriated to the UK.

Miss Martello´s sister said the family were too upset to speak.

A spokesman for Civil Guard in Burgos, which has submitted a report to an investigating judge placed in charge of the case, said: “No other vehicle was involved.

“We are looking at the possibility this tragic accident was the result of driver tiredness.”

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Madrid confirmed: “A British family have been involved in a road traffic accident in Spain.

“We are offering consular assistance.”

A neighbour at the former home in Brixton said: “They are a nice normal family. Very quiet, lovely people.”

via .

The accident happened when the lorry lost its load of sweet melons on the busy A3 near Basle in Switzerland, closing the road for two hours while firemen cleared away the watery fruits. And police turned a blind eye as motorists caught in the sweltering heat in a three mile tail back streamed out of their cars to help themselves from the honey melons lying by the road.

One motorist said: “The police weren´t giving them away but they weren´t stopping anyone from tucking in either. It certainly sweetened the waiting time a bit.”

via Croatian Times Online News.