From typicallyspanish.com
Spain Papers Review - Thursday July 17 2008
By h.b.
Jul 17, 2008 - 9:45 AM
El Mundo says that the prosecutor has asked for the terrorist’s flat in San Sebastian to be embargoed as De Juana starts another hunger strike. The paper says the Ministry wants to stop the sale of the flat so it can see whether it should be auctioned off in favour of terrorist victims. El Mundo says that De Juana is claiming a campaign against him in the media.
El Mundo has a photo of the wife of one ETA activist, a glazer, Cándido Azpiazu, who yesterday paid 46,000 € to the terrorist victims ordered by the courts.
El País says that the terrorist has been able to keep his house, right next to that of a victim. ABC also gives the story front page space
El Mundo notes that the crisis has also hit the airline industry, with Spanair cutting 1,100 jobs. The paper says the airline has lost 40 million in three months because of the increase in fuel prices and the fall in demand. El País notes that nine routes are to be cut.
ABC leads with the Minister for Tax and the Economy, Pedro Solbes, has admitted a ‘complex crisis’ on the day that Spaniar announces massive sackings. The paper says the airline has used the increase in crude prices to justify laying off a third of the workforce.
El Mundo notes that the thousands of people who are affected by the bankruptcy of Martinsa, who have paid deposits and want to know what is going to happen to their homes, only get information currently from a telephone answering machine.
El Páis leads today with the claim that Martinsa inflated its results last year, by calculating the assets of Fadesa at a higher rate than the real cost.
Público notes that the Minister for Tax and the Economy, Pedro Solbes, is against any government rescue of the real estate company. The paper also reveals that Fernando Martín, the Chairman of Martinsa, earned more money with another of his companies last year than all of the workers in the Martinsa Fadesa company.
In its campaign for the defence of the Castellano language, El Mundo notes today that the bilingual signs law is being applied in the Basque Country. The paper says that is because of the difficulty of the Euskara language.
La Vanguardia reports that the Catalan Government is now standing up to Madrid in demand of better regional financing.
The other Catalan paper, El Periódico de Catalunya, notes that the regional health service has been obliged to re-employ doctors which earlier were offered early retirement.
The Supreme Court has confirmed the trafficking of explosives and drugs charge which was placed against José Emilio Suárez Trashorras and Antonio Toro, two men implicated in the Madrid train bombings in 2004. El Mundo has the news.
El Mundo notes the detention of Spanish rider Dueñas in the Tour de France for testing positive for EPO in the fourth stage of the race, and for having doping substances in his room.
ABC has the story of the man who tricked his partner that he was giving her a massage, when in fact he then set her on fire.
In international stories:
Flower petals and honours for the five Hezbollah prisoners exchanged for two Israeli bodies – is the headline in El Mundo this morning.
El País has a photo with the caption that Israel exchanges prisoners for bodies.
Público notes that that Saudi King is using Spain for his religious summit.
Back in Spain, El País notes one negative effect of the points driving licence. The reduced number of car crashes which has been seen as a result has also meant a fall in the number of organs being available for transplant.