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Judge Santiago Pedraz yesterday handed down a finding that the demonstration planned for Bilbao today could go ahead. This despite the march being announced by Joseba Permach and Joseba Alvarez, two directors of the illegalized Eta/Batasuna. It was also revealed that following today’s demonstration, there is to be what has been termed as ‘an act of moral support’ towards one of Eta’s worst terrorists Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos.
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Gustavo de Aristegui., the spokesman for foreign affairs of the conservative Partido Popular, yesterday admitted that he considered that a fundamentalist website has issued death threats against him. Mr. Aristegui added the in his view the person responsible was Yusuf Fernandez, the spokesman for the Spanish Federation of Islamic Religious Entities. Mr. Fernandez had accused Mr. Aristegui of being ‘ an enemy of Islam’ which many observers consider of sufficient weight to carry a death threat.
The meeting yesterday between two water collectives – the Valencian and that of La Mancha – started off well, but during the break in discussions sources from both collectives accused each other of wasting water, with the La Mancha representatives accusing the Valencians of wasting more water per hectare ‘ given the sort of cultivation they are undertaking’. For their part the Valencians stated that they were using water under agreements laid down under the National Water Plan, and added that the amount watered in La Mancha is double that of Valencia, and that they have been using the same water source for 700 years, whilst the Valencians have only been using it for thirty. Finally Juan Jose Moragues, the President of the Jucar Water Confederation urged both side to use restraint in their water policies., and added that in his view, it was important that water restrictions remain in place until October.
Torrevieja Mayor Pedro Angel Hernandez Mateo, yesterday refused to accept the resignation of the head of the Municipal Police Force, Alejandro Morer, despite the fact that Mr. Morer and thirteen of his colleagues are accused of torturing suspects, not following up on cases and creating false documents. The Mayor added that Mr. Morer ‘had done the honorable thing’ in presenting his resignation, ‘but since none of the accused have been imprisoned, they should carry on their work of protecting the citizens of Torrevieja’ . The mayor continued: “ I fail to understand the commotion this court case has caused,. For if these policemen were guilty of anything, they would have been sent to jail.”
A 55-year-old man who tried to stage a holdup in the Banco de Espiritu Santo in the centre of Alicante yesterday was almost immediately in police custody. He had entered the bank on Alicante’s Calle Alfonso El Sabio, and asked for change of a 100-Euro note, and he then produced an axe and threatened a client and two bank workers. In the ensuing struggle, the would-be robber was overpowered. As the bank employees held the man against the wall, the client sought help in the street, and came across two National Policemen who were on patrol nearby. They immediately intervened and took the man into custody.
A kidnapping case that lasted eight years and gripped Austria came to an end yesterday after Natasha Kampusch managed to escape from the three-meter wide area that had been her home for the last 3.096 days. The underground cavern was under a garage with access by a 50-cm-wide tunnel and an electronic locking device. However, her captor ‘forgot’ to close the device and left the garage light on, enabling Natasha to escape. She was later discovered somewhat disorientated in a nearby garden, whose owners called the police. After verifying her identity thanks to an unusual scar, Natasha was reunited with her parents, with whom she showed the distinct signs of Stockholm Syndrome, after telling them that she had addressed her captor as ‘My lord and master’ over the last eight years. Local psychiatrists stated that it would be a very lengthy process before Natasha can lead a normal life again. Meanwhile, police found the body of her alleged kidnapper Wolfgang Prikopil and the nearby railway tracks, stating that he had committed suicide.
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It was revealed yesterday by the OPEC oil cartel that according to its figures, Russia is currently extracting more oil that Saudi Arabia, making it the biggest oil producer in the world. These figures have been hailed in Russia as evidence that such periodic production spikes are not one-offs and that Moscow really does have the right to claim the No 1 spot.
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