MATERNITY wards in the region have been alerted after a man disguised as a doctor attempted to snatch a new-born baby in a Valencia hospital last week. The middle-aged man was wearing a doctor’s white coat and approached the woman in the paediatric nursing room on the seventh floor of the Hospital Clinica. He said he needed to take the infant away for tests, but the mother was suspicious and pressed the...
ONE of Mexico’s biggest and fastest growing bar chains has chosen Valencia as the site for its first Spanish outlet. Cerveceria Chapultepec started in Guadalajara just four years ago and already has over 100 bars in its home country. Their selling point is a simple one – everything on sale costs the same, making it ideal for younger drinkers keeping an eye on their budget. The cost of the Valencia...
THE Torrevieja-based Cantabile ladies choir will be performing at La Siesta Church this Friday(February 21st), starting at 7.30 pm. The free event will include a collection in aid of the Baby House in Mozambique run by an ex-Torrevieja resident, Tracey Williams. Cantabile is a well established international choir which has been in existence for over two decades, and new members are always welcome at their...
A 55-year-old Spaniard has been arrested for running an indoor marijuana farm close to the local police station in Rafal, after reports of a strange smell in the area. Guardia Civil officers from Callosa de Segura raided the premises in the town in Operation “Nafal” and seized 400 plants and six kilos of marijuana that were ready to be sold. The man was bailed after a court...
SAT Animal Rescue last week opened its new charity shop in Los Montesinos on Calle Alejo Martínez, after spending a decade in the town at its previous location on Avenida del Mar. Los Montesinos mayor José Manuel Butrón(pictured-left) helped to cut the tape as the revamped shop takes its place in a network of six outlets across the south of the Costa Blanca from the first store opened in Guardamar in...
GUARDAMAR stages its carnival parade this Saturday in a traditional curtain-raiser to the Lent season. It´s a colourful event that features a heady mixture of music, masks and fancy dress. Prizes will be offered for some of the best costumes, with the procession starting at 7.30 pm from Plaza Jaume II which will finish up at the square in front of the town hall. A children´s parade takes place on Sunday...
AN Icelandic man, who recently decided to take up running to lose weight, will take part in next month´s Elche Half-Marathon to raise money for the Elche Children´s Care Home. 22-year-old Ben del Grosso lives on the La Marina urbanisation, and only started running last September and got hooked, getting his first Half-Marathon under his belt just a few weeks ago. In a message to the Elche home, Ben...
TRAFFIC in the Marina Alta has dropped by over a quarter since the motorway tolls were abolished in the area at the start of 2020, according to the latest Traffico figures. The average number of vehicles passing through the municipality of Ondara has fallen from 16,000 in January 2019 to under 12,000 last month. Hard figures are not yet available for all towns but Gata and Benissa have both reported...
SPANISH health authorities last Friday said that the country was officially clear of Coronavirus cases after two patients tested negative after treatment. A German tourist visiting the Canary Islands was the first case followed by a British man who lives with his family on Mallorca. Both men had relatively mild cases of Coronavirus and were quarantined before being released, after getting treated and...
THE ANNUAL scourge of the poisonous processionary caterpillar that can kill small dogs and make children sick is starting to arrive across Spain and the Costa Blanca, boosted by the recent warmer weather. The dangerous caterpillars, which are usually about an inch long, have tiny barbed hairs containing a protein called thaumetopoeid, which can cause allergic reactions, foaming at the mouth and vomiting if...