| ILMOR BATTLE ELEMENTS IN TEST SESSION
MotoGP's newest squad Ilmor had to battle against the elements as their 2007 challenger hit the track for its first test session of the year last weekend. At a snow-hit Almeria Circuit in southern Spain, Ilmor's Australian rider Andrew Pitt put the new Ilmor SRT X3 through its paces ahead of the British-based team's full-time entry to the prestigious series. Having elected to miss the first two official MotoGP tests of the year in Sepang and Phillip Island, the Ilmor squad were eager to make up for lost time as they set about improving engine performance and chassis stability at the Spanish track. "It was without doubt a worthwhile exercise," declared Ilmor GP Team Manager Mike Janes. "The workload we have had since [the team's last test of 2006 in] Jerez has been enormous and we have had to really focus on getting the new team ready for this season.
Inaugural Seniors Tournament
Spain v Europe at Roda Golf Saturday 24th February 2007. Being the first tournament of its kind here on the Costa Calida it was an extremely difficult to organise, however, on the day everything went like clockwork. It was planned for two sides of 50 players each but short notice left both sides light of a few players but there was more than enough to make the event a great success. Pablo Riestra and his team at Roda backed by Calidona presented a course in superb condition and had trophies and prizes for the winners laid out on our arrival. Bob Gallard had organised the Europe side and had what he believed was a formidable side which contained players from Sweden, France, Germany, Ireland, Scotland and of course England from all along the Calida coast. Cards were handed out after the welcome and opening address and everyone was in place for the 9am shotgun start. The weather was perfect, apart from a strengthening breeze and a good day was in prospect. The breeze was both a help and a hazard but being the same for everyone it didn't really matter.
A third of all babies in Malaga, Almeria and Cadiz are born out of ...
What was once considered an embarrassment or even a disgrace has become a common situation that is generally accepted by society. In fact in todays Spain more than 26 per cent of births are to unmarried mothers and the figure is rising. In 1975, the year of the death of Franco, only two per cent of babies were born out of wedlock while ten years ago the proportion was just 12 per cent. This 26.6 per cent in Spain is still low in comparison with other European countries. In Estonia and Sweden, for example, more than 55% of births are to unmarried mothers (according to 2004 statistics), and the figure for the UK is 42.3%, Austria 35.9%, Ireland 32.3%, Portugal 29.1% and Germany 27.9%, the only countries below Spain in the ranking being Slovakia, Malta, Poland, Italy, Greece and Cyprus.
Three immigrant boats in less than 24 hours
Four immigrant boats have been intercepted off the southern coast of Spain since Wednesday afternoon: three in Almera province, and another off the coast of neighbouring Granada province. Thirty six passengers, all from Morocco, were rescued from a sinking boat some 20 miles to the south east of Cabo de Gata early on Thursday, with one passenger having to be airlifted to hospital: reports say she was semi-conscious when she was rescued. Another thirteen people, also from Morocco, were arrested on an El Ejido beach at dawn that morning, after their boat was spotted by the SIVE electronic surveillance system. Twelve more were rescued several hours later after two days lost at sea: it was the passengers themselves who contacted emergency services for help. There was another rescue at sea off the coast of Granada on Wednesday, where a boatload of 52 Sub-Saharan immigrants were rescued after 20 days at sea.
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