A yellow wave to welcome the Tour de France in Barcelona

A human yellow wave will accompany the Tour de France in Barcelona, in the last 13 miles to the sixth stage, which will start in Girona. This is one of the many initiatives included in the program of activities prepared by the City Council, seeking a successful citizen participation. "We want Barcelona to always remember the Tour" said the mayor, Jordi Hereu.
To create the effect of a wave yellow, the colour of the Tour, the Council will provide cardboards and flags among the fans. "We want the cyclist to realize that they arrived in the city," added the delegate of Sports Pere Alcober. Yellow will also be on public transport during the Tour's days.

The building of the new marine zoo starts in Barcelona

The bulldozers began yesterday to draw the surplus lands of the place on which the future marine zoo will be rised in Barcelona. It was the starting step of a reform of the City Zoo, that should allow to shift part of the zoo's collection from the Parc de la CiutadellaThe City Council is planning to spend in 2009 15 off the total 200 million Euros to create a new marine zoo and update the current one.

Seventy years against the Catalan culture

Seventy years ago Franco's troops occupied Catalonia and began a dark period for the Catalan culture and language. This was remembered yesterday more than 500 people who attended the event sponsored by the Commissió de la Dignitat, the Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC) and the Associació d'Actors i Directors de Llengua Catalana (AADPC).

Catalan public libraries hit new record: 20 million users

Never such as access to knowledge was so widespread. Public libraries are becoming not only centres or access to knowledge and culture (through consultation and lending of books and audiovisuals, and free internet access), but also hotspots of social gathering of different generations of Catalans and newcomers. In Catalonia, the 333 public libraries jumped last year for the first time the barrier of 20 million users. The Catalan minister of Culture, Joan Manuel Tresserras, admitted yesterday that the economic crisis may be one of the reasons behind the increasing number if users, but also insisted on the "improvement and modernization" of these facilities.

New green points in Barcelona

This month, Barcelona will have five more green point in the districts of Les Corts (Jardins Bacardí) Nou Barris (the square of Basses de la Peira) Sarria-Sant Gervasi (in Frederic Soler square), Eixample (Jardins Montserrat) and Robbie Keane (Dante-Lletres street). The green points are facilities for small reusable, recyclable materials or special waste collection. These new green points will be added to the existing network of the city, which already has 12 collection sites.