Women soldiers in Spanish army

According to a report on Spanish radio, there are more women serving in the Spanish army than in any other army in Europe. Compulsory military service for men in Spain was ended relatively recently, by the PP government in 2001, in a move which was greeted with wide support among the majority of the Spanish electorate. Only a few years earlier, consciencious objecters refusing to do their military service faced prison or 18 months compulsory "voluntary" service.

When military service was abolished, the Spanish armed forces faced with the challenge of recruiting professional soldiers rather than relying on the bulk of young men doing military service, embarked on a series of high-profile publicity campaigns aimed at persuading young people to consider joining the army as the first step in a long and stable professional career.

Judging by the figures released by Cadena Ser yesterday, the campaigns seem to have been particularly successful among young women, as the number of female soldiers and marines has shot up in the past few years to the extent that this year no less than 14,300 women serve in the Spanish army, that is 13.5 percent of the whole armed forces. This means that Spain has the largest number of women soldiers of all EU member states, and the third largest in NATO member states, behind the USA and Canada.

Hoteliers protest at smoking ban in Spain

Professionals from the hotel and tourism industry in the Spanish region of Valencia (Costa Blanca and Costa del Azahar) attended a meeting held in Valencia yesterday to analyse the first consequences of the anti-smoking law in Spain. Their conclusion was that the immediate consequences have been very negative for the hotel industry.

According to figures released to the press after the meeting, revenue in hotel cafes and bars has fallen by 50 percent, as smokers prefer to go and have a coffee or a drink in smaller bars nearby which, because of their size, can allow smoking inside. According to the new anti-tobacco laws in Spain, smoking in small cafes or bars is permitted a long as owners display a notice in the window to this effect.

Representives from different hotel and tourism associations told the media they were extremely worried about the negative effect the smoking ban was having on profits, and they fear the worse is to come. Ms Montes, the general secretary of one hotel association from Benidorm and the Costa Blanca claimed that it was not at all reasonable of the government to expect hotels to meet the deadline established by the new law to create separate and independent smoking and non-smoking areas in large hotel cafes and restaurants, because to do so hotels would have to carry out reforms during the high season months in July and August. She also expressed the concern of many hotels that most foreign clients had made their hotel reservations over a year ago, when they had no idea of possible smoking restrictions in Spain. Ms Montes said that hotel professionals were worried about how clients would react on arriving at the hotel and finding out that smoking was now forbidden in public areas.

Related: Anti-smoking laws in Spain

Property for sale or rent in Spain

Euroresidentes has, over the past few years, slowly but surely become one of Spain's largest webs, with more than 12 million visits each month. Euroresidentes began as a website specifically designed to answer the questions and needs of Europeans and expats looking for information about different aspects of living in Spain: travelling, holidaying, shopping, learning about the culture or buying a house in Spain. Infact, one of our most popular sections, in Spanish, English, French and German, is Property in Spain.

Over the past year or so we have signed agreements with various institutions, law companies and banks aimed at creating special products and standards of service for non-resident property-buyers in Spain, including agreements with Caja Madrid and Bankinter. Since Euroresidentes was launched six years ago, we have answered thousands of queries from people looking to buy their dream home in Spain, and in need of specialised advice, a bit of encouragement, or a word of warning as each case may be. And as the number of people abroad looking for property in Spain continues to grow, and with it the demand for information, our policy is to remain objective in the advice we offer to our users.

In response to the growing demand for people looking to buy property in Spain, we have collaborated in the design of a new resource for visitors looking for property for sale or property for rent in Spain called Tutipi ( http://www.tutipi.com ). We have always been unwilling to recommend the services of one estate agency or promotor or another, despite requests to do so from potential buyers or property developers themselves. While we have passed on testimonies of satisfied customers to users asking us our opinion about one developer or another, we do not endorse the services of any particular company or agency.

But as the requests from users looking for property in Spain and asking advice increase each year, we have decided to go one step further and created a site which is completely free, both for people advertising property, and buyers looking for property in Spain. This way we hope to connect supply with demand within the democratic framework offered by Internet.

Tutipi enables property sellers to publish plans and photos and will eventually replace our other more basic Spain Property for Sale and Spain Property for Rent noticeboards altogether. The service is free for everybody. As always any comments from our users, sellers, buyers or just helpful visitors, are more than welcome. And as the list grows and users find (hopefully) a bargain opportunity just in the area they wanted, our usual advice mot to rush into a purchase but to get proper legal advice before parting with any deposits obviously applies.