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Seven islets just one kilometre away from the town of L’Estartit on the Costa Brava form one of the most attracting diving areas in Europe. Twenty years of protection as a natural marine park have permitted a complete sea-bed recovery, which hosts hundreds of species such as groupers, lobsters or even red coral. Caves, sharper rocks and sand banks captivate thousands of scuba diving lovers each year. Thanks to Illes Medes, L’Estartit has evolved from a little fishing village to an international diving town where tourists from all around the world are regular visitors looking for its submarine views.

The investment is to be added to the €360 million plan to build a new logistic park for the Catalan multinational within the next 10 years. Construction work on the logistic park started in February in an area near Mango’s world headquarters, which are located in Greater Barcelona’s town of Palau-solità i Plegamans. The €27 million investment announced on Wednesday is for a new industrial building that will begin construction this summer next to the company’s main offices. It will host the all the staff in charge of Mango’s new lines for teenagers and mature women – respectively called ‘Rebels’ and ‘Violeta’ – as well as the company’s brand for men ‘H.E. by Mango’. The new facilities will add 17,000 square metres to Mango’s headquarters.

Mateu Hernández is the General Director of Barcelona Global, an independent private association that is trying to make Barcelona one of the best cities in the world to attract talent and business activity. Its activities are similar to associations like Partnership for New York, Berlín & Partners and London & Partners, for example. Barcelona Global is made up of the main research centres in the city, prestigious professionals from the Catalan capital or related to it, and more than thirty of the most powerful and innovative companies in Barcelona.

The healthcare tourism sector is growing. Russian, British and German visitors make the most of their holiday trip by visiting specialists, passing medical tests or undergoing a surgical operation. As a response to this, a private medical center in Girona has announced that it will invest more than €1 million to profit from healthcare tourism.

Carmen Amaya is considered the best flamenco dancer in history whose passionate and wild style changed the conception of flamenco. Born in Barcelona in 1917, Amaya travelled around the world and triumphed in Latin America, United States and South Africa. This year marks the 50th anniversary of her death and the Catalan Government has proclaimed 2013 Carmen Amaya Year, with the intention of recognising the career of one of the best-known Catalan artists.

By the end of last month, 14,829 fewer people were registered at the Catalan Public Employment Service, which leaves the total number of registered jobseekers at 642,166 individuals. This represents a 2.26% drop compared to the figures from April, meaning that registered unemployment decreased in Catalonia for the last three consecutive months. May is a month when unemployment tends to drop thanks to temporary summer jobs, mostly related to the tourism industry. In the whole of Spain, unemployment decreased by 1.97% in May, with 98,265 fewer people registered as unemployed. This leaves the total number of people registered as being without a job and looking for one at 4,890,928 individuals in Spain. The Catalan Government welcomes “the positive horizon” shown by the May figures but it considered them to be “insufficient” as yet.

The agreement was previously discussed with the Spanish Executive and it respects the Catalan Government’s external action power as described in Catalonia’s main law. The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, signed the agreement with UNESCO’s General Director, Irina Bokova. The new framework allows Catalonia to have its “singularity” represented in the international organisation, although not permanently. Catalan representatives will be present in specific meetings and projects, separate from the Spanish delegation. “It is more than what we already have”, stated Mas. The Catalan President was one of the speakers at the Opening Plenary Session of UNESCO’s Global Conference, which is being held in Paris from the 3rd to the 5th of June.

The 16th edition of the DocsBarcelona festival increased audience figures by 40% compared to 2012. The festival organisation thinks that one of the reasons for such an increase is the fact that they have moved the event from winter to spring. Furthermore, the improvement in the festival’s communication and image management as well as the higher number of movies shown and sessions held could also be behind the positive 2013 figures. Joshua Oppenheimer’s ‘The Act of Killing’ received the best movie award for its work picturing Anwar Congo’s death squads in Indonesia. Catalan Eva Vila’s ‘Bajarí’ received the jury’s special mention.

56,500 Barça fans came to the Camp Nou to welcome Neymar to FC Barcelona. "Barça are more than a club and a great team and I want to help Leo Messi to continue to be the greatest player in the world," he said. Neymar da Silva Junior signed his contract with FC Barcelona on Monday afternoon. He will be a Barça player through the 2017/18 season. The signing ceremony took place at thye club’s offices in the Catalan capital. The player, Barça President Sandro Rosell, Vice President Josep Maria Bartomeu and the Football Director Andoni Zubizarreta were all in attendance.

Barça put four past Malaga in the last game of the season and hit the 100 point mark. The Catalans were three up after a quarter of an hour thanks to goals from Villa, Cesc and Montoya. Iniesta got the fourth in the second half before Morales got a consolation goal for Malaga. Abidal came on to a standing ovation on 75 minutes for his final minutes as a Barça player.

The port of Barcelona dealt with 174,711 TEU export containers between January and April. Most of the containers go to countries such as Russia, Turkey, Algeria or the United States, as well as regions in South-East Asia and South America. A new study by the port states that exports are now higher than ever and have helped create a diversified market to the five continents. The number of cruise passengers has also jumped 10%.

The Palazzo Fortuny presents an exhibition that explores the Catalan artist’s work as well as his own private collections. The exhibition, ‘Tàpies. Lo sguardo dell’artista’ (Tàpies. The view of the artist), opens in June and visitors will be able to enjoy it until November. The show is part of the Biennale of Contemporary Art in Venice, and is curated by the son of the artist, Toni Tàpies, along with Natasha Hëbert, Daniela Ferreti and Axel Vervoordt.

David Gardner argues in an interview with the CNA that politicians must find “political and legal ways for citizens to be able to express their will democratically”. The Financial Times International expert says that both Catalonia and Spain should agree to have a referendum and warns that “no one” can simply ban it. This journalist thinks it’s unlikely for Catalonia to become an independent country anytime soon but admits that most of the problems come from Madrid avoiding any kind of negotiation. “But they either negotiate or Spain will face a constitutional crisis”, he warns.

The new species has been named “Nievisia sossiensis” and has been discovered by researchers at the Catalan Paleontology Institute. Described as a small primate that weighed between 100 and 150 grams and lived in the Eocen epoch, the remains have been found at the archeological site of Sossís near the town of Conca de Dalt (Lleida Pyrenees). The research has been published this month in the international magazine ‘Journal of Human Evolution’, specialized in Paleolithic Archaeology and Primatology.

The Catalan Government announced last September the ‘BCN World’ project, a mega-resort that will be built on the Costa Daurada, near Tarragona and Salou. According to the forecasts, the construction will cost €4.7 billion and the opening is scheduled for 2016. The complex will consist of six casinos and theme parks, 12,000 hotel rooms, golf courts and a smart city, among other aspects. The initiative was presented just a few hours before it was confirmed that Sheldon Adelson’s ‘Eurovegas’ would go to Madrid, although the Catalan Government denied that ‘BCN World’ is the alternative project. While experts validate the economic viability of the project, they do question the suitability of this leisure model in Europe. Just weeks before construction begins, there are still a lot of questions without being answered.