Although the occasional rains of summer may have been a brief but welcome break to the continual hot and dry spells of previous years, the rain has brought an unpleasant legacy along with it. The extra rain through August has added water to the ground, feeding plants and animals, it has added to the dwindling supplies in the reservoirs, and …

Hospital Quirónsalud Valencia and Centro Médico Quirónsalud Alicante are collaborating with the Euromelanoma Campaign, providing free mole examinations from June 25 to 28 in Valencia, and June 26 to 28 in Alicante. Those interested in undergoing these examinations must request a prior appointment at 960 019 852 in the case of the Valencia hospital centre, and on the website www.euromelanoma.org or at …

Tiredness, or fatigue, resulted in 177 deaths and 4,063 injuries, of which 589 were serious enough to require hospitalisation, in a total of 2,722 road traffic incidents in 2017, the last year for which complete data is currently available. Of the total number of incidents, 2,722, the majority were on the secondary road network, the …

Dear Readers, I am glad to share with you 3 pitfalls to avoid when buying a property in Spain. Some people may be under the assumption that using a real estate Solicitor will lead to unnecessary additional expenses when it comes to buying or selling their home. However, purchasing or even selling a property in…

Manos Unidas, the Catholic Church Association in Spain for aid, promotion and development of the Third World, has launched a campaign under the slogan "A New World" "Common Project".

Moreover AMREF, the largest international health organization completely of African origin and management, which name is the acronym for African Medical and Research Foundation, has launched another campaign against infectious diseases.

The AMREF team consists of 850 professionals (97% of them in Africa), working in the offices of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan and South Africa. There are planned, directed, analyzed and performed all the projects that focus on AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and sexually transmitted diseases.

Hunger also is producing real havoc among the population. The most affected area is sub-Saharan Africa. In Somalia the situation is critical. A staggering 925 million malnourished people, according to a report by FAO, the UN Agency for Food, are suffering the consequences of the delay in achieving the first of the Millennium Development Goals: halving the hunger in the world in this year 2015.

Moreover, a recent UN report states that Eastern and Central Africa have a chronic crisis that requires efforts beyond emergency aid. Long-term structural reforms are needed.

In Mauritania "only children eat breakfast, the older have switched from three to two meals a day or a meal". "But our main problem is water." The loading and transporting animals must travel about five kilometers to the Gorgol river. The Government has launched an urgent plan to try to ensure food and potable water.

Pope Benedict XVI, in a speech addressed to the 174 ambassadors accredited to the Holy See countries said "with half of what is spent on armaments, we could eradicate hunger in the world."

“Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult”, said the English writer Samuel Johnson.

clementeferrerrosello@gmail.com Author and journalist Clemente Ferrer has led a distinguished career in Spain in the fields of advertising and public relations. He is currently President of the European Institute of Marketing.

“El señor de la basura” (“Lord of the Rubbish”) was the title of a magnificent documentary the program Equipo de Investigacion de La Sexta produced about a known businessman in the Vega Baja. This man has become well-kn...

Children who attend schools in heavily trafficked areas show a lower cognitive development according to a new study led by researchers from CREAL.

Many schools are located in close to busy streets, with traffic air pollution which peaks while children are at school. The research, part of the BREATHE project, was to evaluate the relationship between long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollutants at school and cognitive development measurements in primary school children.

"We have found that children attending highly contaminated schools had lower growth in cognitive development than children in schools less polluted. In this sense, children who attend schools with high levels of pollution, both in the classroom and on the playground experienced less growth of cognitive functions essential for learning, the 7% against 11%.

These results were confirmed using direct measurements of traffic related pollutants at schools. This can have consequences on school performance and behavior”, explains Jordi Sunyer, principal investigator of the study.

The researchers from CREAL, an ISGlobal alliance research centre, developed a prospective study, from January 2012 to March 2013, of 2,897 children, aged seven to ten years, from 39 schools in Barcelona and Sant Cugat exposed to high and low traffic-related air pollution.

Researchers at the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) have published an article in the Gaceta Sanitaria publication, detailing how they believe that the smoking ban in bars and restaurants has not had a negative impact on the industry, ...

The Parents and Teachers Association (APA) of the CEIP Playas de Orihuela say they are extremely angry and have now reached the end of their patience as over a hundred of their supporters launched a day of protests last Monday outside the local Junior school which is now celebrating 13 years in antiquated portacabins.

They say that they will continue to protest every Monday until the situation is resolved.

APA President, Yolanda Fernandez, says that the parents are "absolutely disgusted" that they have to deliver their children every single day to a ‘temporary' building complex made up of 20 antiquated portacabins which are purported to pass for the Community Junior School.

The situation was brought to a head last week, she says, when on Tuesday a metal ceiling panel broke away from the roof of a classroom full of 5 year old's and dropped down onto a desk being shared by 4 children. Fortunately the students were carrying out an activity in another part of the room at the time and there were no injuries.

However the consequences could have been quite different and resulted in a number of serious injuries.

One parent reported the matter to Canal Vega TV who sent down a team to investigate. Their newsman Ruben Miguez was denied access however and had to compile his report from the adjacent road.

As he conducted interviews outside a number of contractors could quite clearly be seen in the background making repairs to the portacabin roofs.

Fernandez said that Regional President, Alberto Fabra, had promised a brick built school for the Orihuela Costa in the run up to the 2010 elections but 5 years later the building was no further forward and in the intervening years they had made excuse after excuse.

This latest incident is just one of a long list of faults and complaints that were distributed in a circular to parents and to press as APA strive to publicise the plight of their children, which they feel are being increasingly abandoned, and each of which will spend nine years on site as they undergo Junior education. Extracts include:

“Children from Infantile have been standing in deep water up to their knees during 8 hours because of incorrect construction of the drains which flooded into their “classrooms”.

We were witnesses of water leaks from the electric plugs, sleepy ramps on the way to Comedor, flooded Library with mold and damp on the books….

Our children shake from cold when they have to go to the toilet which is outside.

What are we waiting for? Now is the time to stop it!!”

Indeed it is difficult to see how the children can't but be influenced by the situation and how their development would almost certainly be affected, both physically and psychologically by the cold and the rain during the winter and the intense heat during the long summer months, which the ancient utility plant is finding it increasingly difficult to manage.

Small children, it is claimed, can sit in wet clothes for up to 8 hours because the classroom heating is inferior. There are leaks in many of the classrooms and in the dining area, flooded library books are covered with mold and mildew.

There are also said to be constant power failures, caused by obsolete overhead wiring, which further hinders student comfort, welfare and learning.

As a result of the broken promises and the growing frustration that many parents now feel APA say that they will continue to demonstrate every Monday morning from 8:30 to 9:15 on the road outside CEIP Playas de Orihuela, and there they will stay until Fabra and his government fulfil their promises and provide the neighbourhood with what they need, a brick built school that is so very essential to the education and development of the Orihuela Costa's increasingly abandoned young children.

Let's hope that we don't have to wait until a child is seriously injured before any action is taken!

Despite another year of court cases, resignations and even prison terms, corruption in Spain is not considered as bad as last year, according to data published by the Transparency International organisation in Berlin this week. In fact, in the rankin...

I like toys as much as the next man. Be it train sets, steam cars, remote control helicopters, iPhones or Nintendo. Other, sometimes questionable, gadgets have also come onto the market in recent years, including devices for treasure hunting on the bea...

Spain Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, announced the following assessment on the referendum held last Thursday in Scotland:

"I would like to congratulate the Scottish people on deciding - clearly and unequivocally - to remain part of the United Kingdom and, by extension, the European Union.

They have done so by a wide margin, peacefully and with meticulous respect for the law in their country.

We celebrate Scotland remaining part of the United Kingdom. We celebrate its ongoing contribution to the greatness, cohesion and development of the United Kingdom.

As citizens of Europe, we are also glad that the citizens of Scotland are staying with us; collaborating and participating as important partners in the great political project that is the European Union.

With their decision, the people of Scotland have avoided the serious economic, social, institutional and political consequences that would have stemmed from leaving the United Kingdom and Europe.

On Thursday, they chose between segregation and integration, between isolation and opening up, between stability and uncertainty, between security and certain risk. And they have chosen the most favourable option for all: for them, for the rest of the British people and for Europe as a whole.

I strongly believe in the integration of the European Union, I believe that this is the path which has led us to overcome the tragedies of our past and enables us to successfully tackle the challenges of the future. In order to succeed in that endeavour, we need everyone; and that is why we are very happy that Scotland has decided to stay with us".