First swine flu death in Spain

Woman dies from swine flu in Madrid

It has been announced that a 20 year old woman who was admitted to hospital a fortnight ago suffering from swine flu in Spain died in the early hours of this morning.

The woman was asthmatic and according to first reports her condition worsened over the weekend due to complications from pneumonia. According to official health sources she is the first person to die from Swine Flu in Spain.

Trinidad Jiménez, the Minister for Health, will give more information on her death during a press conference scheduled for 9.30am this morning. Juan José Güemes, the Director of Health Services for the Comunidad de Madrid, will also appear before the press.

The young woman who was admitted to hospital on 15th June was 28 weeks pregnant and was given a caesarean on Monday. Doctors decided to carry out the operation in order to save the life of the baby she was carrying due to the worsening state of the woman. According to information provided by the hospital the baby is doing well.

This case which represents the first death from Swine Flu in Spain is the fourth death from the disease in Europe. A second swine flu sufferer, 32 year old man, is reported to be in a very serious condition in the hospital Joan XXIII hospital in Tarragona, Spain.

MySpace announces job cuts in Spain

MySpace to make large numbers of its staff redundant in Spain

The internet social network site ‘MySpace’, which belongs to the media group, NewsCorp, directed by Rupert Murdoch, is about to announce a significant ‘readjustment’ of its workforce in Spain. The company has already served various members of its staff with redundancy notices and the official news of its redundancy plans which will affect most of its 18 staff and collaborators in Spain is expected to be announced today.

Nevertheless, a spokesperson for the company indicated that this was not a closure of the company’s activities in Spain and that MySpace España would continue to operate from its own office. However, the spokesperson avoided answering questions regarding the redundancies and repeated that the official news would be broadcast by NewsCorp today.

The reorganization of the MySpace office in Spain forms part of the process of restructuring announced by the company and it is expected that up to two thirds of its international workforce, around 300 employees, will be affected. It is also expected that in addition to redundancies 4 of its offices outside the US will be closed.

NewsCorp acquired MySpace in 2005 at a cost of 580 million de dollars (432 million euros), at a time when it was considered to be the principal social networking site operating on the internet. However its leadership is now in question given the success of the 2 other major social networking sites - Facebook and Twitter.

Spanish government recession spending

Spain spending more on fighting the recession than any other EU country

According to a report on public finance published this week by the European Commission the Spanish government will use 2.3% of its GDP between 2009 and 2010 on measures to combat the current economic crisis. This is more than double the amount that other EU states are spending which is estimated to be 1.1% of their GDP. It is also estimated that spending on helping financial institutions overcome the crisis has risen to an average of 16.5% of GDP throughout the EU equivalent to 1.8 billion euros.

Although it is forecast that the recession will begin to improve from 2010 onwards in its report the European Commission warns that the ‘success of current measures adopted depend on credible strategies for beating the crisis’. In reality this means that when economic growth occurs governments will have to start to reduce their public deficit which has shot up due to less revenue from taxes and higher social spending.

On Tuesday the Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Joaquín Almunia, said that the ‘efficiency of policies to stimulate budgets depended a great deal on the commitment to put an end these measures when the economy begins to recover’.

In addition to plans for stimulating economic growth ‘if automatic stabilizing factors such as more social spending are taken into account it is estimated that EU states will have spent around 5% of their GDP on their economies between 2009 and 2010 which is equivalent to 600 million euros’.

As well as Spain, Austria, Finland, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany have also introduced significant measures to stimulate their economies. The EU report demonstrates its concern for countries where credit and property prices have increased disproportionately. It goes on to say that ‘in a certain number of cases where significant macroeconomic imbalances have occurred the margin for possible manoeuvres to impose anticyclic policies without increasing risk factors have gone down since the beginning of the crisis’.

The report analyzes the four packages of economic stimulation which were introduced in Spain in April, August and November 2008 and during the first few months of 2009. According to Brussels not all the measures have been equally effective and well directed.

It found that the most effective plan was applied in November 2008 with the investment of 8,000 million euros in small scale projects and the 3,000 million euros for technological development in the car industry. In total this plan represents 1.5% of Spanish GDP and according to the report ‘the composition of this stimulus and its concentration in investment by local government has been very effective for national production as a whole and for employment’.

The report also said that other measures such as those adopted in April and August 2008 which include the 400 euros tax rebate for 2008 will probably have a more limited impact. The authors of the report also showed their concern for the deficit in the Spanish economy and expressed their worry that instead of extra resources going towards consumption in the economy they will instead be destined for savings.

Spain aid to Africa

Zapatero offers 240 million aid package to fight hunger in Africa

This week the Spanish President, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has committed 240 million euros to fighting hunger in Africa. The announcement came in a meeting with 14 other heads of state from Sub-Saharan Africa during the first bilateral summit between Spain and the Economic Community of Western African States which is currently taking place in Nigeria.

Zapatero defended the need to maintain and increase development aid despite the economic crisis. He said that the crisis ‘affected everybody but when it hit those that already suffered from hunger and poverty the consequences are much more devastating because they are measured in human lives’. He added that ‘the developed world cannot sit back and ignore their responsibilities’.

The 240 million aid package promised by the Spanish president yesterday forms part of the 200 million euros a year aid (1000 euros over a 5 year period) that Spain announced during the conference on food security held by the UN body the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in Madrid last January. It is anticipated that the plan will be approved on 10th July in L'Aquilla (Italy), at the end of the G8 summit and in a meeting of 20 countries to which Zapatero has been invited.

Yesterday’s declaration also includes 15 million euros aid over a 5 year period for the preparation of infrastructure projects and 7 million euros to support the renewable energy centre in Praia.

The text proposes supporting ‘the consolidation of democratic processes’ and the ‘fight against the rise in human, arms and drug smuggling’. However, the final communication from the summit fails to address the serious problem of corruption in countries like Nigeria where more than 70% of the 140 million inhabitants live below the poverty line despite the fact that Nigeria is the biggest oil producer in Africa producing 1.7 million barrels a day.

Zapatero has also offered to host the second summit of the Economic Community of Western African States in the Canary Islands although no date has been fixed yet.

Wine industry in Spain facing difficulties

Surplus grape harvest and the economic crisis could damage wine sector in Spain

With just over 2 months to go until grape harvesting begins the wine sector in Spain is facing a critical situation due to surplus grape production coupled with the reduction in prices due to the fall in demand for wine in the Spanish market. The problem appears to affect all ranges of wines even high quality brands.

Agricultural organizations and cooperatives have asked the government to impose urgent measures to eliminate or reduce this ‘surplus’ and to help wine producers earn a better market price.

The Ministry for Rural Affairs has decided that the distillation of wine for alcohol can take place a month earlier beginning on 1st August.

During the last grape harvest the total production of wine was 40.5 million hectolitres compared to the record of 50 million obtained in 2004.

Annie Leibovitz exhibition in Madrid

On her arrival in Madrid yesterday Annie Leibovitz told reporters that ‘Madrid was a magical place, like Paris due to its immense cultural creativity’. Tomorrow the doors to an extensive exhibition of her work, described as a type of ‘family album’, will open to the general public in Alcalá 3.

The exhibition which has also been on display in Paris, New York London and Berlin contains more than 200 images representing the artist’s intimate family life as well as her more well known photographs of world famous personalities. It is the result of collaboration between PHE 2009 and the Brooklyn Museum of New York where the exhibition originally went on display in 2006.

The idea behind the exhibition was a family album and the exhibition represents a type of personal diary of the artist showing photographs from her trips to Sarajevo, Venice, Berlin, Kyoto and Cairo alongside photos of her parents and children (who you can see growing year by year).

Photos of the death of her father appear together with photos from the birth of her 3 daughters Susan, Sarah and Samuelle. Leibovitz said she wanted to ‘represent the idea of birth, life and death which forms the story of every human being’. There are also photos of the last moments of Sontag, who died of cancer. Leibovitz said that she had a few doubts over whether to include these photos but she says that many people who have lost a relative under similar circumstances have thanked her for including them in the exhibition.

The exhibition also includes photos of celebrities such a pregnant Demi Moore who she photographed for the cover of Vanity Fair as well as Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Johnny Depp, Nelson Mandela Jack Nicholson the ex US presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

There are also some photographs of buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao which Leibovitz describes as ‘a very sexy building’. A documentary called ‘Life through a lens’ by Barbara Leibovitz will be shown on 19th and 25th June, 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th July and 3rd September.

Leibovitz was the last person to photograph John Lennon before he was assassinated in New York. She always carries her camera with her and has spoken out in favour of digital photography saying that it allows the photographer to take photos in the dark or at a very high speed. She says it's just a matter of ‘knowing how to use new resources’

The exhibition will be open to the public until the 6th September.

Road Traffic laws in Spain

Spanish parliament to vote today on reforms to road safety laws

The Spanish parliament will vote today on proposed reforms to make road safety laws tougher. However, after months of discussing over 200 possible amendments to the current law there is still no clear consensus in parliament. Although the reforms were unanimously agreed last week by Comisión de Interior some parliamentary groups such as the PP and the UPyD are still trying to impose their conditions in return for their support. Moreover even if the government gets the reforms to the law passed in parliament it will still have to be approved by the Senate before it comes into effect next year.

The reforms include proposals for many changes to the law including the express payment of fines (15 days) in order to get a 50% discount (now the discount stands at just 30%). In addition the reforms would make it possible to win back points lost on the driving license (up to 6 points every two years) if drivers are prepared to attend re-education courses. Reforms would also improve the technology used to report incidents. According to the government the idea is to make it easier for those drivers who want to pay fines quickly and make it much more difficult for those who usually try and avoid paying fines.

For example, any driver who has two fines pending payment will not be able to do any transactions in the department of traffic for any vehicle that is registered under their name. The new laws also make it possible to immobilise any vehicle that is circulating without insurance or motorbikes or mopeds whose owners are caught riding their vehicles without wearing their helmets.

The new list of sanctions for which points are deducted from driving licenses are to be made stricter - for example for carrying radar inhibitors. In addition drivers will not be able to take their car to have a MOT if their insurance payments are not up to date. The margin of 10 kilometres per hour on speeding fines will be abolished under the proposed reforms and a fine of 100 will be given after going over the speed limit by just one kilometre. On the other hand there are infractions that will no longer result in points being deducted such as stopping or parking in bus lanes.

Today the government will also try and reintroduce a reform which was included in the first draft of the law which is that cars can be towed away if drivers park in blue zones without paying or go over the amount of time on their parking tickets. The CiU who went to great lengths to achieve an amendment to the proposed reforms for points not to be deducted from licenses until drivers have gone over 131 kilometres per hour are now trying to get another amendment approved which would mean that the department of traffic would be forced to return points to drivers for things that under the new proposals no longer mean that points are deductable.
The PP is against extending the payment time for fines and measures against drivers with fines pending payment. They are also against the suppression of the right to appeal against sanctions.

Europe's first 3-D film is Spanish

The first European 3-D fiction film with real actors will be Spanish. The title of the film is Viaje Mágico a África (Magic Journey to Africa). It is directed by Jordi Llompart and has a budget of 10 million euros.

The film was shot in Namibia and South Africa and is a story full of adventure and love. It is dedicated to Jana the daughter of Llompart who was killed in a car accident in Namibia in 2007. The film is about the adventures of Jana who is searching for a friend who is a bushman.

Llompart (born in Barcelona, 1962) was previously a news presenter for TV. He moved into directing after being involved in the making of a documentary and in 2005 he made El Misterio del Nilo (the Mystery of the Nile), which was the first Spanish documentary made for IMAX cinemas. Still being screened in IMAX cinemas around the world it has been seen by 7 million people and has made over 30 million euros so far. Llompart who is fascinated by the African continent wrote a novel inspired by his daughter and following the success of the book Llompart began to think about adapting it to the cinema. However, he stresses that it was more important for him to make a good film than to be the first European film director to make a film in 3-D.

Llompart then went on to use his prestige in the World of IMAX cinema to secure distribution agreements and to go ahead with his idea of adapting his novel to 3-D cinema. He says that 3-D will not save the cinema industry and that the public are tired of the same old clichés and the lack of surprises but that new audiovisual techniques and better scripts will help the future of cinema. In declarations published by El Pais today, Llompart said that not all stories can be made into 3-D films and that care needed to be taken when putting IMAX and 3-D together otherwise the audience would end up getting dizzy.

In the film Viaje mágico a África, Verónica Blume plays Jana and Llompart believes that this role will secure her future as an actress. Adrià Collado plays the parents of Jana and Leonor Watling has the role of a fairy. The children are played by children from Namibia who were hand picked and then trained by the director for 3 months before filming began in March 2008.

Llompart and his team filmed in Namibia for 8 weeks, in South Africa for 2 weeks and in Barcelona for 3 weeks. Now after 7 months of editing they are now working on the computer generated images for the film and recording the soundtrack. Viaje Mágico a África will be 90 minutes long in normal cinemas and the 3-D IMAX version will be 45 minutes long. It is due to be released on 6th January 2010.

Impact of the credit crunch on Spain's tourism industry

After many years when the number of foreign visitors to Spain continued to rise non stop and the Mediterranean coastline suffered the devastating effects of mass tourism it appears that the boom years for Spanish tourism have come to an abrupt end.

The tourism industry accounts for 11% of Spain’s GDP and employment, so when the tourism sector suffers a setback it has a very negative effect on the Spanish economy.

Strategic errors committed by the sector as well as the impact of the global economic crisis in Spain and abroad have contributed to the current crisis. Experts in the sector agree that the paradigm needs to change and that for this change to occur many important years have already been lost.

Changes are needed because the demand for tourism in Spain is completely different to what it was just 15 years ago. Nowadays holidays are much shorter as less and less families make the traditional yearly exodus from inland cities to the coast in August, and choices are diversifying to include cultural, rural and gastronomical elements.

It has been obvious for some time that Spain was losing its competitive edge in the tourist market to newer, and often cheaper, destinations, but the need to implement changes in tourism policy was camouflaged by the positive results in the tourism industry. 2007 was a record breaking year for tourism in Spain with 59 million foreign visitors visiting the country. However, the following year this figure fell by 2 million and experts predict that this tendency will continue this year.

During the first quarter of 2009, 12% fewer tourists visited Spain compared to the same period for 2008. This drop in the number of foreign tourists was most noticeable amongst British tourists the number of which fell by 18% during this period. The US has just replaced Spain as the world's second most popular tourist destination for the first time since 11th September 2001. Spain is losing its traditional market to destinations in Eastern Europe or further afield.

Measures aimed at boosting the tourist industry in Spain

Barcelona is still one of Spain’s most popular tourist destinations. The Catalan capital has used both public and private investment to convert the city into a top destination for foreign tourists. It has moved with the times and offers visitors cultural, professional, gastronomic tourism and more. Furthermore many of its hotels with 3 stars or more have recently been renovated. It was also the first city in Spain to introduce a mobile bicycle-lending scheme which enables tourists and citizens to borrow bikes from various points in the city and drop them off at another point.

Bilbao is also a popular destination thanks to the Guggenheim museum which now attracts visitors from all over the world to the city. It has gone from being a tired industrial city to a fast moving modern city offering its visitors many cultural experiences (architecture, art, music, gastronomy...).

Andalucía has made an attempt to move away from it's most popular destinations and promote lesser-known attractions such as Antequera (Málaga), Lucena (Córdoba) and Écija (Sevilla) with positive results in attracting foreign visitors

Lastly the Costa Brava has also made progress in re-inventing its tourist offer and become a popular tourist destination throughout the year. It is also an attractive destination for cultural tourism (Salvador Dalí and Josep Pla), golf enthusiasts and gastro turists thanks to the top restaurants in the Costa Brava (El Bulli, Emporda, San Pau....).

Matisse exhibition in Madrid

A new exhibition of paintings by Matisse in the Thyssen Museum in Madrid opens tomorrow under the title ‘Esplendor en la sombra’ (Splendour in the Shade)

Matisse (1869 – 1954) is one of the twentieth century’s best known artists alongside Picasso which is why the Thyssen Foundation in Madrid (www.museothyssen.org) has decided to open an exhibition dedicated to work produced by Matisse during his mature years. In contrast to his early paintings and those produced during the years before his death much of the paintings he produced during this ‘mature’ stage of his career are little known. The period in question is from 1917 to 1941.

As from tomorrow the public will be able to see the exhibition of his work produced during these years. The exhibition includes 74 works in total and includes paintings, sculptures and drawings gathered from 50 museums and private collections around the world. Landscapes and nudes form the central themes of this dazzling exhibition. All the work during this period was produced in Nice, France, where Matisse lived following the end of the First World War.

Tomás Llorens, the Commissioner of the exhibition says that the period 1917 – 1941 was a luxurious period in Matisse’s career, not because he lived a bourgeois lifestyle but because it was during this stage of his life that he really mastered his art.

The first two exhibition rooms are dedicated to the first work he produced while living in Nice and provide an insight into the way Matisse played with the exterior and the interior. They reflect the light of the sun in the interiors and on the figures of women in the background of the pictures. There are also pictures of landscapes, gardens, and balconies seen from the interior.

During the 1920’s Matisse demonstrates his interest for backgrounds inspired by Islamic art. From this date onwards Matisse dedicated much of his work to female nudes portraying them in as many ways as possible. He also painted nudes inspired by classic Greek art. Most of the sculptures in the exhibition are from this period.
Matisse’s larger pictures produced when his wife and daughter were detained by the Gestapo and France was under Nazi control are shown at the end of the exhibition.

Results of European Elections in Spain

Zapatero loses out to Rajoy in European elections

The current economic crisis had a significant impact on the European election results in Spain with the PP main opposition right wing party of Spain winning the elections by a margin of 3.7 points more than PSOE which lost more than 700,000 votes. The IU left wing party maintained its position winning 2 seats. The Coalición por Europa and Europa de los Pueblos gained 1 seat each (which is the same situation as before) and the UPyD party gained a seat in Brussels for the first time.

The turn out for the election was estimated to be 46% which is slightly more than in 2004. The PP won 42.23% of the vote compared to 41.21% in 2004 while PSOE won 38.51% of the vote compared to 43.46% in 2004. Translated into numbers of votes this means that the PP increased their share of the vote by 221,000 - in total 6,609,941 of the electorate voted in favour of the PP- while PSOE lost more than 710,000 votes compared to 2004 with a total of 6,030,892 votes. The socialist vote was also down by 5 points in relation to the number of votes they received in the March 2008 general elections when they obtained 43.64% of the total vote. The socialists have blamed the current economic situation for the decrease in their support.
The PP now has 23 seats in the European parliament (1 less than in 2004) and PSOE has 21 seats compared to 25 seats in 2004. However, it is important to point out that the number of Spanish European MEPs has gone down from 54 to 50 as a consequence of the entrance of new countries in the EU since the last EU elections. Despite losing out yesterday PSOE is now the largest single socialist party in the European parliament.
The Coalición por Europa party which is a conglomerate of nationalist groups including CiU, PNV and other groups such BLOC came third after the PP and PSOE. It won 5.12% of the vote with 800,733 votes which is a very similar result to 2004 when they won 799.000 votes under the name of Galeusca, which then included the BNG party.

Izquierda Unida (IU) maintained its position in the EU parliament winning 2 seats despite the fact that its percentage of votes went down compared to the 2004 elections. This time it won 3.75% of the vote compared to 4.15% in 2004. Yesterday it received 583,600 votes, which is approximately 60,000 less than in 2004.

The surprise of the day was the UPyD, which won its first seat to the EU parliament after receiving 449,393 votes (2.87% of the total vote).

The sixth and last party to win representation in Brussels was Europa de los Pueblos –– a coalition which included the ERC BNG, Aralar and Los Verdes. This coalition won 391,937 votes which is 2.5% of the total vote. This result is a slight improvement on 2004.

In the Basque country the PNV won the European elections with 28.54% of the vote which is 6.7% less than in 2004 while the PSE-EE came second. The radical Basque left nationalists known as the izquierda abertzale did not manage to gain any seats in the European parliament. The Iniciativa Internacionalista, which is supported by the former Batasuna party, which is accused of having links with ETA, won 175,000 votes which represents 1.12% of the total vote which puts it in seventh place.

The turn out for the European elections in Spain was 46% of the electorate - 15.7 million votes in total. Abstention was 54% (a similar figure compared to the 2004 European elections which so far holds the record for the number of abstentions at 54.86%) and there were 220,000 spoiled votes (1.41% of the total number of votes). Despite this participation is 2 points higher than compared to the rest of the 27 EU countries which registered on average a turn out of 43.39%.

Trial in the US to retrieve Spanish treasure

Treasure hunters Odyssey losses first round to Spanish government in court battle in US

On 3rd June this year a judge in a US court in Tampa, Florida ruled in favour of Spain in the case of La Mercedes, a Spanish ship which sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean over 200 years ago. The claims by Odyssey Marine Exploration, the company which discovered the wreck, that the remains of the ship and its contents are the property of the company therefore look unlikely to succeed after a two year legal battle with the Spanish government.

The ruling in the court in Florida this month backs the claims by the Spanish government that the remains of the Mercedes is part of Spanish heritage. The controversy surrounding the archaeological remains of the Mercedes arose as soon as Odyssey Marine Exploration publicly announced their discovery which included treasure of 500,000 gold and silver coins. The remains of the ship were discovered in May 2007 although the exact location was kept a secret.

However, even then the Spanish authorities suspected that the ship in question was la Mercedes, a Spanish war ship which exploded after being hit by a cannon fired from a British vessel on 5th October 1804 during the battle for Santa María, near the Algarve coastline. Since the announcement of the discovery both the Odyssey and the Spanish government have been locked in a legal battle in a court in Florida over who has the rights to the treasure found on the ship.

The result of the ruling on 3rd June undermines the interests of Odyssey whose shares slumped 41% on the Nasdaq index yesterday. However, for now the ruling by the court in Tampa is only a recommendation to a superior judge who can decide if it stays that way or not. The decision establishes the fact that the courts have no jurisdiction over a Spanish war ship which has sovereign immunity over any claims presented in the US.

If the superior judge upholds the preliminary ruling then the Odyssey has just 10 days to appeal against the decision. The lawsuit could continue for at least another two years and even if the courts rule in favour of Spain the company could still take its case to the high court. Meanwhile the treasure remains in the custody of the authorities in Tampa.

Odyssey bases it claims of ownership over the wreck of La Mercedes because it says that the ship was on a commercial voyage when it was sunk. It is trying to gain the support of the descendents of the crew of the ship who for the most part were traders who had deposited their fortune in the ship when it set sail from Lima, Peru. The Vice -Chairman and lawyer for Odyssey, Melinda MacConnel, says that she believes that these people will support the claims by the company. Grem Stem, the Director of Odyssey, said that he was very surprised over the ruling and was confident that the superior judges would see the weakness in the Spanish case.

However, what remains clear is that for now Spanish claims over ownership of La Mercedes have been reinforced. The Minister for Culture, Ángeles González- Sinde, has been cited as saying that the decision is a precedent for future discoveries and that the government has been waiting two years for this ruling and is hopeful that the case will be concluded soon.

Taken from an El País article.

David Attenborough wins Prince Asturias Prize

David Attenborough awarded the Principe de Asturias prize for Social Sciences

The world famous natural historian and television presenter of nature programmes, David Attenborough (born in London in 1926), has been named today as the winner of the Principe de Asturias prize for Social Science. The prize, along with the other 7 Principe de Asturias prizes, will be awarded by Felipe de Borbón in a traditional ceremony to be held in Oviedo in October this year.

The other Principe de Asturias awards which have already been named will go to Norman Foster for the Arts and the World Health Organization for International Cooperation. Each award comes with a gift of 50,000 euros and the reproduction of a statuette designed by Joan Miró.

Attenborough is one of the best known natural historians in modern times and was behind the making of award winning documentaries such as ‘Life on Earth’.

Population statistics in Spain 2009

Spain’s population grows to almost 47 million inhabitants

The number of inhabitants officially registered at town halls through out Spain has grown over the last year by half a million to 46,661,950. According to provisional figures published today by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) the growth in the Spanish population is mainly due to the growth in the number of foreign inhabitants (329,929, compared to 174,199 respectively). The number of immigrants officially living in Spain has gone from 5.2 million to 5.5 million in a year and now accounts for 12% of the population (a growth of 1% since last year).

Nevertheless, since last year the number of immigrants registering at town halls in Spain has fallen by half. Over recent years the number of immigrants registering as official residents grew between 600,000 and 750,000 a year.

Out of the total number of people registered at town halls 49.5% are men and 50.5% are women – the numbers for foreign residents is similar 53.1% are men and 46.9 are women. According to ages 15.5% of the Spanish population is under 16 years old and 43.3% is aged between 16 to 44 years old with 41.2% aged over 45 years old.

Immigrant population in Spain: According to the official figures there are 5,598,691 immigrants living in Spain – 6.3% more than last year. Out of these Rumanians are the largest number (796,576), followed by Moroccans (710,401) and Ecuadorians (413,715). Last year the number of Rumanians living in Spain grew by 64,770 while the number of Ecuadorians fell by 3.3%. The number of Bolivians living in Spain also fell by 15,351 and the number of Argentinians living in Spain fell by 4.7%.

EU Nationals in Spain: The largest group of immigrants living in Spain are those from other EU countries. This group represents 40.5% of the total number of foreign residents in Spain. In January 2009 there were 164,000 more EU citizens officially registered at town halls in Spain than last year - out of these the biggest increases were as follows: 21,643 more Britons, 17,123 more Italians, 10,380 more Bulgarians and 9,410 more Germans.

The regions where the foreign population grew the most in 2008 were Catalonia (80,402), Andalucía (44,814) and the Comunidad de Madrid (37,752). On the other hand, the areas which saw the lowest increases were Ceuta (1,202), Melilla (1,934) and Extremadura (2,156)

London School of Economics center in Madrid

In January 2011 the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), whose staff have been awarded 14 Nobel prizes, will open a new center in Majadahonda, a relatively small locality with 66,585 inhabitants, It is the first time that this famous institution has decided to open a school in another country other than the United Kingdom.

Yesterday the President of the Comunidad de Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, together with the Director of the LSE, Howard Davis, placed the first brick of the new building which will be called the Centro Internacional de Estudios Económicos y Sociales – CIEES - (the International Centre for Economic and Social studies). It will be a private centre funded by the Caja Madrid and the Fundación Mapfre.

During his speech yesterday Davis joked saying he hoped that the new centre would help everybody forget the small problem of the Spanish Armada in 1580. Both Davis and Aguirre emphasised the importance of the new bilingual school which will serve as a link between the UK and the rest of the Spanish speaking world. The new centre will be built on a piece of land measuring 17,000 metres located near to the local railway station.

However, gaining a place to study at CIEES will be very difficult given that there will only be 300 places available for postgraduate studies in Economics, Public Administration and Social Science. Studying at the new centre won't be cheap. A Master’s degree at the LSE in London which lasts a year currently costs around 9000 euros which doubles if its a two year course. José Antonio Moral Santín, the Director of CIEES and Professor of Economics for the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, said that prices would be similar. However, grants will be available to some students (almost half the students at the LSE receive some sort of grant). He said that only 30% of students would be required to pay all of the fees and another 30% would receive full grants for the cost of their studies.

At present the new centre has the full support of the town hall of Majadahonda, near Madrid, which has conceded the land needed for the construction of the new LSE centre free of charge. Other nearby town halls in Alcobendas and Móstoles also offered to find land for the new centre.

It is expected that the new centre will attract students from all over the World. It is hoped that the centre’s bilingual Spanish/English policy will be a big attraction for not only students from Latin America but also for oriental students. The LSE currently receives a large number of students from China and India.

As well as postgraduate studies the new centre will also have room for some applied research programmes with the help of some top university professors who will visit CIEES to take part in specific courses. Moral Santín also explained that there will also be a department for consultancy and assessment dedicated exclusively to businesses although he made it clear that CIEES would be different from other well known business schools such as ESADE or IESE.

Plans to open a centre linked to the LSE in Spain go back almost a decade to the end of the nineties when Moral Santín was a lecturer at the LSE. The then director of the LSE, Anthony Giddens, expressed an interest in opening an International centre abroad. Moral Santín proposed Madrid as a possible location for an International centre and in 2005 the project got underway.

Spanish scientists create stem cells without embryo

Scientists in Barcelona generate stem cells without the need for embryos

Research into ‘third way’ stem cells has made a significant advancement towards their medical application with the recent discovery by the research team led by Juan Carlos Izpisúa based in the Regenerative Medicine Centre of Barcelona (CMRB). Juan Carlos Izpisúa and his team have obtained a certain type of stem cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) from cells taken from the skin or hair of a patient. The significance of this finding is that these iPS are as versatile as embryonic stem cells. The group based at CMBR managed to obtain iPS cells from a patient suffering from a rare type of hereditary anaemia and correct the genetic defect in laboratory animals which are genetically identical to those of the patient.

Juan Carlos Izpisúa and his team have presented their findings in an article published in the scientific journal ‘Nature’. The group has spent two years trying to obtain iPS cells which in the future could be used to replace damaged cells from a patient. The implication of this would be that the illness in the damaged cells could be corrected.

The research team based at CMBR has been working in collaboration with Juan Bueren in the Research Centre for Energy, the Environment and Technologies in Madrid (CEIMAT) together with Jordi Surrallés in the Universidad Autónoma of Barcelona – two Spanish research teams which are leaders into this particular type of anaemia (Fanconi anaemia).

The Discovery of iPS cells has revolutionized research into investigative medicine over the last few years and the objective of therapeutic cloning in the future is obtaining stem cells genetically identical to those of an adult. The iPS cells or pluripotent cells which are obtained are indistinguishable from those of embryonic stem cells and can be converted into any cell including aiding the production of an ovule or sperm cell.

The revolutionary technique is based, surprisingly on adding just four genes to hair or skin cells. However these genes are transcription genes which regulate other genes and are capable of confusing the genetic programme of certain cells (hair and skin cells) and return them to their pluripotent origins – a genetic configuration capable of converting itself into any other.

The technique of obtaining these cells is applicable to other human illnesses. For example skin cells from a patient with Parkinson’s disease by means of a simple biopsy could be converted to iPS cells and later on the specific neuron which is damaged in in this illness could be distinguished.

The objective of this research is not only the possibility of future transplants but the cultivation of these cells are in themselves a valuable tool which could be used to study an illness or to try out new medicine.

Izpisúa and Ángel Raya, insist that the results of this research is curing this type of anaemia in animals but that it is still a long way from being applicable to humans in a safe and efficient way.

Chris Mason from University College commenting on the findings said that Izpisúa’s research demonstrates a new method that could be used for the treatment of a rare hereditary disease. He also added that for this not to be an empty promise resources should be invested in the next stage which in his opinion is its practical clinical use in safe and economically viable conditions.