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Marc, Catalan, and Elke, German, reside together in Berlin with their daughter Matilda. This year they will spend their first Christmas in Catalonia.

Freight will be able to be transported with the same train using the new European-standard railway connecting the Barcelona Harbour to the French network. With the new freight infrastructure, the journey between Barcelona and Lyon will be reduced by 6 hours and will eliminate the extra costs of changing trains in the Pyrenees. Barcelona is thus greater consolidated as the main Mediterranean harbour and as a logistic platform for freight.

The company will open a centre for industrial automation engineering in Reus. The centre is scheduled to open in 2011 and will employ around 30 qualified professionals.

Spain’s Highest Court sentences on a case about 3 parents who wanted their children to be taught in Spanish at Catalan public schools. The decision breaks the principle of using Catalan as the language of instruction in Catalan schools. This model has been in place for the last 30 years and guarantees knowledge of both the Catalan and Spanish languages by all pupils, as exam records have been proving. Now, Spain’s Supreme Court is interpreting the Spanish Constitutional Court’s sentence from last June, which stated that Catalan was a teaching language but that Spanish should also be. The fear in Catalonia is that the country will split into 2 separated language communities and social groups will not understand Catalan.

Artur Mas will become the 129th Catalan President tomorrow. The Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) will facilitate the investiture of the leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU). PSC and CiU agreed that the Socialist would participate in the negotiations between Catalonia and Spain. The agreement would also involve the new Catalan Electoral Law.

FC Barcelona and Athletic Club have drawn 0-0 at the Camp Nou in a game marked by the clearly different styles of the two sides. The quarter finalists will be decided at San Mamés in two weeks’ time.

The puntCAT Foundation attended the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) meeting in Cartagena, Colombia last week. Proposals for similar domains such as ‘.scot’ and .quebec’ were put aside for future discussion.

Neus and Cédric plan to celebrate French and Catalan Christmas traditions with their newborn son.

The Catalan Parliament voted on Artur Mas’ investiture today, but an absolute majority was needed. Mas only received the 62 votes of his group MPs. The other 6 parties voted “no”. The next voting will be on Thursday, the 23rd of December, when only a simple majority will be needed. It is expected that some parties will abstain to facilitate Mas' investiture.

The New York's StoreFront for Art and Architecture has displayed the work of Catalan artists such as Enric Miralles, Antoni Muntades and Carme Pinós.

The Christmas season makes up 39% of sales for the cava sector. The sector exports 60% of its production to countries such as Germany, England, Belgium, the United States and France.

The delay was attributed to heavy snow in the North of France. It was the first train that a high-speed train crossed the Pyrenees in direction to Paris. The high-speed train route from Barcelona to Paris is expected to be fully completed by 2020. This first train linked the Catalan city of Figueres with Paris, while some passengers came from Barcelona to Figueres in a regular train.

The Caga Tió (literally “poop log”) and Saint Nicholas combined. The Massard Sans family of Brussels celebrates Christmas with a mix of Catalan and Belgian traditions.

Mas affirmed the beginning of a “national transition” towards the right of Catalans to decide on their own future. A new economic agreement with Spain is a priority in this direction. In addition, the new Catalan President will implement an economic reactivation plan, agreed together with the Parliament and the social agents. The new government will also have 2 expert advisory councils on Economics and Health, organised free of cost by professional associations. Mas also promised that, once the budget improves after the crisis, social policies will represent 55% of the public expenditure.

A team at the University of Girona and the firm Easy Innova design a new application that helps people find car rides quickly and easily.