Spain Papers Review - Friday October 3 2008

Spain Papers Review - Friday October 3 2008
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By h.b. - Oct 3, 2008 - 9:45 AM

The front page of El País today.

The state of the Spanish economy and the latest unemployment numbers dominate the front pages today.

El Mundo puts the new numbers in large type at the top of the page. 95,367 new unemployed in September, 608,005 new unemployed in the past year.
El País notes that the number of unemployed is increasing at the fastest rate for 30 years, with that 608,000 joining the dole over the past 12 months.

El Mundo says that Zapatero has asked Solbes for daily reports on the health of the Spanish banking system. El Mundo says that although the Prime Minister and the Governor of the Bank of Spain think there is no immediate risk, the Government does have an emergency plan to rescue financial institutions in difficulty.

El País reports, with a picture of bank president, Jean-Claude Trichet, that the European Central Bank is considering a reduction in interest rates given the seriousness of the financial crisis. ABC says the reduction will come in the November numbers.
ABC headlines that the Spanish Minister for Tax and the Economy, Pedro Solbes, has said that a Bush rescue plan would not be viable in Europe. The paper notes today’s repeated vote in the House of Representatives.
Público notes that Solbes doubts that Europe will be able to reach an agreement on what to do. He has warned that coordinated action could take 25 years.

El Mundo notes that President Sarkozy in France has purchased 30,000 homes under construction as a way of keeping the workers employed.
El País reports that Merkel will be going to the Paris summit on the economy despite her differences with Sarkozy. Zapatero has not been invited.

El País reports that the arrival of more than 1,200 immigrant children aged between 8 and 17 in Cayuco boats has saturated the reception centres on the Canary Islands. It’s the highest number in history with capacity of the installations there put at just 500.

El Mundo looks at the case of the ETA activist Elena Beloki, who has been found guilty of belonging to a terrorist organisation. The 47 year old is being allowed to remain out of prison to complete an artificial insemination process so that she can become pregnant. Judges have granted the permission ignoring the opinions of the prosecutor and the Association of Terrorism Victims AVT.

El País takes us to Afghanistan where it says the talibans have now become drug runners. The paper reports that the rebels have installed heroin laboratories in the country for the first time.

El Mundo reports that Spanair did not meet Boeing guidelines when repairing the last fault found on the fated MD-82 year. The paper says that the technician who disconnected the fuse to the temperature gauge after the first aborted take-off of the plane should then have checked 26 other items related to it – among them the audio warning system for the position of the plane wing flaps.
El Mundo also has exclusive pictures today of the wreckage from the plane which is being kept in a hanger in Barajas Airport.

And finally,
El Pais and ABC both report that the quality of Spanish semen is down because of pollution and the use of pesticides, solvents and disinfectants. A study from the Marqués Institute in Barcelona has shown that 58% of the 1,239 men tested had semen considered to be poorer than normal according to the World Health Organisation guidelines.

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