Barcelona will have a trade fair to buy and sell innovative projects

The Mayor of Barcelona. Jordi Hereu, presented yesterday one of his planned actions against the crisis: focusing on innovation and the emerging economic sectors. Jordi Hereu introduced the launch of an unprecedented conference in June to meet in the Catalan capital some 2,500 executives from large companies with leading creators of projects in the fields of telecommunications, renewable energy and biotechnology. The meeting, called Hit Barcelona, aims to become a world reference. (Photo: Mayor Hereu arrives to Fira de Barcelona to present the new fair, with its president, Josep Lluís Bonet).

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Chinese culture invades Barcelona

The Cotxeres de Sants facilities in Barcelona welcomed yesterday the Xinafest festival, organized by Orígens cultural association, aiming to bring toghether Chinese and Catalan cultures. Throughout the day there were lectures, workshops and demonstrations who gave a touch of color to the festival.

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Mayor Hereu defends Barcelona's model in London

"It is the cohesion, gentlemen." The mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, adapted the well-known phrase 'It's the economy, stupid ", to synthesize in London how Barcelona is facing the crisis, with the same values of civic participation and complicity between the government and the citizens who have ordered the development of the Capital of Catalonia in the last 30 years. Hereu insisted that the current transformation is more powerful than the changes made because of the 1992 Olympic Games. After all, "the Barcelona of today is closer to 2020 than 1992," recalled the mayor, who boasts a lead Barcelona which turned out to be a city of small things without giving up the big projects of a great city.
Hereu said all this in a lecture at the London School of Echonomics after visiting the works of the 2012 Games, where he recommended to his hosts that the Olympic facilities need to be "linked to the city's main strategy" and to be "very aware of the post-Olympic stage". The mayor also took the opportunity to support the candidature of Madrid for the 2016 Games, and before returning to Barcelona, he inaugurated a new Consolat de Mar in the British capital. It is the fourth of these commercial offices, after the Deputy Mayor, Jordi William Carnes yesterday inaugurated the third in Paris.

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Minister Maragall wants to change the schools calendar

Advance one week the beggining of the school year, and set seven days of vacation in February, dates and variables adjusted for Easter. This is the new proposal the Catalan Minister of Education, Ernest Maragall, presented the School Council of Catalonia and was greeted by political parties, unions and parents with concerns to consider the "hasty" and "inappropriate." For Maragall, the changes would improve teaching and a more rational application of the school calendar.

The proposal stems from a report by a committee of experts based on the school calendars of other countries (the majority are spread over the holidays throughout the year) and changes the balance of Easter, Winter and Summer holidays. maintaining the 176 days of classes. According to Maragall, the change should not pose any problem because the teachers would continue back at the beginning of September, having been in June to prepare the classes.

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Can Fargas finally belongs to the people of Horta

The large masia Can Fargas is already public property after the City Council has paid five million euros for its expropriation. Neighbors and politicians "took ownership" of the house yesterday, in a ceremony full of symbolism meant to the final ten years of litigation, demonstrations and some clashes. With a total area of about 5,000 square meters, the building will be converted into a music school, while its gardens will be open to the public. According to municipal sources, the proposed facility will have about 400 studentsand more than 20 teachers.

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Javier Fesser's Camino tops Goya awards

Javier Fesser's Camino, a haunting drama about the Catholic group Opus Dei's influence on a terminally ill girl, dominated the 23rd Goya Awards last Sunday in Madrid. Camino won a prize in six of the seven categories in which it was competing, including best film, best director and best actress.The movie portrays the last months in the life of an 11-year-old girl (new actress Nerea Camacho) educated strictly in line with the dogmas of Opus Dei.
Carme Elias won best actress award in the role of her religious mother.
Puerto Rican Benicio del Toro won the best actor award for his interpretation of revolutionary Ernesto Guevara in Steven Soderbergh's Che, el argentino (Che the Argentine).
Main awards inculde: besta ctor for Benicio del Toro in Che, el argentino; best supporting actress for Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and best European film for 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu.

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Spanish judges jailed 115 islamic people, but only nine got a sentence since 2002

Police operations against Islamic terrorism made in Catalonia since 2002 have led to at least 115 arrests, mainly focused in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, in those kernels, such as Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Badalona, and the Raval district of Barcelona, where there is more concentration of people of Islamic origin. Seventy of the detainees are awaiting trial (fifty with provisional freedom and twenty in jail), and thirty were acquitted of terrorism-related root gihadista because the police investigation provided no evidence against them. Nine were convicted of collaborating or belonging to terrorist organization. Another of the detainees was prosecuted and convicted in Morocco.

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President Companys' fascist sentence not to be nullified

The Spanish government announced yesterday that drafted the statement of recognition and restoration of the honour of the Catalan president Lluís Companys, executed by Franco in 1940. The President of the Generalitat, Jose Montilla, and Joan Saura had this "step forward" for the planned law of historical memory. For ERC, however, is a "farce" because it has no legal validity. In fact the execution decision from the Fascist Spanish illegal government still have all its legal force.

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Montjuïc's funicular closed for maintenance

The funicular and cable car to Montjuïc close service to the public from next Monday until 20 February, both days inclusive, to carry out maintenance tasks. During this period, in which the infrastructure can not serve, will be a special bus service between the stops of Paral·lel and Montjuïc Park, which have the same schedule as the cable car, from two quarters of eight in the morning to eight o'clock in the evening. PHOTO: ORIOL DURAN

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The Mayor of Barcelona wants the State to guarantee Nissan loans

Barcelona's Mayor Jordi Hereu endorsed yesterday that the state guarantee Nissan loans, as had the Catalan minister of Labour, Mar Serna. The Japanese multinational company announced last week that requires the backing of the executive to achieve the money needed to ensure the continuity of the plant in Barcelona beyond 2012, and yesterday the Mayor insisted that the automotive industry is key to Barcelona and Catalonia. As it is, also insisted Hereu, the retail trade, threatened by the European directive that eliminates the restrictions to open malls in Catalonia.

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The Olympic Stadium in Barcelona to be updated

Any strategic plan on the Lluís Companys stadium is, right now, eclipsed by the conclusion of the next European Athletics Championships. It will be the first competition of its kind being held in the state, and since the council is very important to your organization. An event of this nature, which has a strong media coverage, forced to make a general renovation to the Estadi Olímpic. 17 million euros will be spent to, among others, refer to the dressing rooms to enable new media and modernize the markers. The project, in short, tries to make a more functional facility built in 1929. (Photo:Oriol Duran)

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Salamanca private documents return to Catalonia

The first private documents taken from Catalonia by Franco's nationalist forces in 1940, and kept in the Archivo General de la Guerra Civil Espanyola in Salamanca, returned to Catalonia's National Archive last Monday. The documents include 120 books, 75 of which were part of the private library of the writer, historian and politician Antoni Rovira i Virgili.
The rest of the documents, inlcluding private documents of political parties and various associations, are set to return to Catalonia in 2009.
More than 300,000 files and 1,000 photographs were taken by Franco's nationalist forces in 1940. Catalonian officials have campaigned for the return of the documents for more than 20 years.

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Catalan investors buy a part of Spanair

The tourism group Consorci de Turisme de Barcelona and Catalana d'Iniciatives, a private equity group, will buy a part of Spanair, announced the Scandinavian airline operator SAS AB. The Stockholm-based company said it had signed an initial agreement with the Catalan investors. A final agreement is expected by January 31, SAS said. SAS has been trying to sell Spanair, Spain's second-largest airline after Iberia, for more than a year as the carrier struggles to turn a profit amid tough competition and a slumping Spanish economy.

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House prices lowest in 50 years

New property prices are set to drop to their lowest level in almost 50 years, recent studies warn. Real estate experts are now predicting a drastic drop in residential construction next year, meaning that only 150,000 homes will be built in the whole of Spain, which is the fewest since 1960. This situation will certainly have a negative effect on employment as well. Studies say that one million people working in the real estate and construction businesses are likely to lose their jobs next year.

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Pottery fair in Quart

The village of Quart, near Girona, has become popular for its first-quality pottery. 43 potters and ceramists from all the corners of Catalonia will gather at the 19th annual Fira Mercat de la terrissa catalana from December 6-8. Visitors to the fair will have the opportunity to see the different traditional techniques used by locals to make various kinds of pottery, such as rakú, or just practise their skills with the clay. Declared an area of artesanal interest, Quart has known how to use its geographical location (the village is located in an area with an extremely clayey ground) to build a long tradition in pottery -making. Quart is especially famous for the black ceramics, the terrissa negra.

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Ever-green fir trees at Espinelves Christmas fair

What would be Christmas without a tree? For all those in love with the festive season, Espinelves (Osona)celebrates the traditional Fira del Avet, its annual fir tree festival, from December 6-14. Espinelves has become famous for this rural Christmas fair, over 25 years old. Visitors can choose from a myriad of fir trees, as well as Christmas decorations and crafts, exhibitions and street shows. http://www.espinelves.com/

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Plastic bag controversy goes on

The three members of the Catalan government don't seem to agree on the hot issue of plastic bags. While ICV-EUIA goes for the elimination of the bags, the other members of the government propose to charge customers for plastic shopping bags beginning with next year. The three left-wing parties need time to clear their thoughts and have given themselves six months to take a mutual decision. A special commission including government experts in environment, businesses, customers and other groups will be created to help them reduce the use of the environmental-damaging plastic bags. The deadline is June 2009.

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Explosion in Gavà

A gas explosion injured 24 people, 16 of them seriously, and killed a 60 year-old woman in a block of flats near Barcelona in northeast Catalonia on Wednesday. An accumulation of gas in the lower part of the three-storey block in the town of Gava could have set off the explosion, the spokeswoman for the interior ministry of the Catalan government said. The blast happened around 3am and at least four children were among the injured.The building was almost completely destroyed by the blast and a subsequent fire. Around 50 people living in neighbouring blocks of flats had been evacuated as a precaution.

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Joan Baptista Humet dies aged 58

Catalan singer-songwriter Joan Baptista Humet died Monday in Barcelona of stomach cancer, aged 58. Humet's songs, such as Que No Soy Yo , Terciopelo, and Gemma, among others, put to music the difficult years of Spanish transition, and became instant hits. Soon after, his songs Busco una Flor, Hojas, Clara, Hay que Vivir and Terciopelo, turned him into one of the most symbolic singer-songwriters of the 1980s.

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El Punt newspaper celebrates the fifth anniversary of its Barcelona's edition

Five years ago, November the 30th, El Punt published the first issue of its Barcelona`s edition. It was the opening of a new era for the newspaper, a milestone in the company's mission of achieving a Nation-wide Catalan newspaper. El Punt Barcelona was the result of months of preparatory works from a large team of journalists. Five years later, El Punt is the country's #1 newspaper written in Catalan by circulation and by readers.

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Brown worried about plunged retail sales in UK

Another front in his war against the crisis worries PM Gordon Brown, as British retail sales plunged in November at their joint-fastest pace since records began 25 years ago while a growing number of Britons predicted prices would fall, not rise, next year.
Lending rates on dollar loans between banks rose for the second day running yesterday amid ongoing funding concerns despite the rescue of Citigroup Inc. earlier in the week. The rate on three-month loans in dollars — known as the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor — rose over 0.01 percentage points to 2.22 percent, according to the British Bankers’ Association.

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Catalan novelist Juan Marsé, Premi Cervantes

The Catalan author Juan Marsé, the writer who best portrayed Barcelona's post-war period, won the Cervantes literary award, the Spanish-speaking world's highest literary honor. The prize, considered a Nobel for literature in Spanish, worth 125,000 euros, has been awarded to Marsé for the body of his entore work focusing on the hardships of life in post-civil war Spain. The author of Últimas tardes con Teresa was born in Barcelona in 1933. Last year the Cervantes prize went to Argentine poet Juan Gelman. Previous winners include Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes.

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Plastic bags to be banned in Catalonia

Catalonia's regional government is set to approve legislation that will ban all shops and supermarkets to give out plastic bags for free. From January next year, customers will have to pay for each plastic bag or bring their own shopping bag from home. This measure is meant to raise people's awareness on protecting the environment and follows the example of other coountries in Europe and the U.S.

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Festival del Mil.lenni kicks off in Barcelona

From December 16 to April 27, the 10th festival Mil.lenni will be offering around thirty concerts in Barcelona. Venues include the Palau de la Música, Auditori, Auditori del Fòrum and Gran Teatre del Liceu. The festival boasts a long list of Catalan artists including Raimon, Antonia Font, Jarabe de Palo, Josep Carreras, Manu Guix, Nena Daconte, Roger Mas and La Locomotora Negra, among others. Other highlights include Michael Nyman, Enrique Morente, Paco Ibáñez, Noa, Goran Bregovic and Ainhoa Arteta. Mil.lenni will also bring Sara Baras and Josep Carreras, who will be singing together for the first time in Barcelona. The festival kicks off with the Gotan Project and closes with Pasión Vega, in a show specially designed for the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

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Three Mossos d'Esquadra sentenced to jail for torturing innocent immigrant

Barcelona's Audiència (High Court) has sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail to three members of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) who tortured and threatened a Romanian man they confused with a thief in July 2006. On July 27, 2006, the Mossos d'Esquadra went to Lucian Paduraru's home, five days after a woman had identified him, although expressing her doubt, as the man who had robbed and assaulted her. According to the prosecutor in the case and eye witnesses, the officers beat Lucian Paduraru all over his body, and verbally abused him, threatened him and put a gun in his mouth to force him to confess. They also abused his girlfiend who was three months pregnant at the time. In recent years the Mossos d'Esquadra been the object of various allegations of police brutality and mistreatment. At present the three men are free and still working as police officers.

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