The 3-week course designed for Iraqi penitentiary workers ended today. The course aimed to strengthen democracy within Iraqi prisons and included visits to prisons in Barcelona.
The Babylon Cinema of Berlin will screen 11 Catalan films produced during the Franco regime as part of their series of ‘radical, transgressive and underground’ films.
The 28th edition of the Liber International Book Fair ends tomorrow in Barcelona. This year’s 3-day fair focuses on new technologies such as the Ipad, book tablets and other electronic reading material.
During the last few years there has been a rapid growth in ecological products throughout Catalonia. Markets are popping up all over the territory offering local, organic and ecological products.
The website is part of an integral plan agreed on between the Roma community’s representatives and the Catalan Government. The museum opens in a moment of debate in France about the Roma people’s integration, which has been brought to Catalonia by the Catalan branch of the Conservative People’s Party (PPC)
The budget foresees 3,134 million euros for infrastructures in Catalonia, 18.6% of the quantity for all of Spain, an amount significantly less than in 2010. One of the reasons is a reduction in public expenditure due to the economic crisis and austerity needs. 320 million have not been assigned to any concrete work and their assignation will have to be decided on in a bilateral commission.
After more than 3 years of negotiation, the Conservative People’s Party (PP) and the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) have finally agreed on a replacement procedure for the Constitutional Court magistrates who currently have expired mandates. The Constitutional Court has had 4 magistrates with expired 9-year mandates since 2007. The Senate should have already appointed new magistrates, but the two main parties, especially the PP, have been blocking the process.
Isolated picket actions and violent anti-system protests contradicted the generally calm and respectful spirit of the general strike in Catalonia, which respect minimum services agreed on. Trade unions state that 80% of Catalan workers followed the strike. Small and medium-sized business associations quantified 1.2% of the strike’s success. The Catalan Government quantifies 11% of public employees who did not go to work today.
The restaurants ‘B44’ of San Francisco and ‘Casa Mono’ of New York were recognised for the strong presence of Catalan wine on their menus.
The highway management company Acesa has already begun construction works on highway rest stops in Montseny and next to Barcelona. The new services for lorries and their drivers will have a fee of 10 to 20 euros. They include 24h surveillance, showers, laundry, resting facilities and entertainment zones.
Foreign correspondents from all around the world attended the presentation of the CNA website in Madrid. The project aims to become 'a voice for Catalonia in the world', said ACN's director, Saül Gordillo.
The workers’ representatives hope that the industrial action will force the Spanish Government to reconsider its labour market reform. The strike is planned for the 29th of September.
The Spanish Ministry of Economy believes that the budget cuts for autonomous communities have nothing to do with the 7.9% cut in the Spanish general budget.
Scientists from the Vall d'Hebron Institute for Research in Barcelona find that patients are more likely to develop respiratory difficulties when there is a failure in the activation of immune response genes.
Catalan Cinema is recognised with three awards at the festival, including the Special Jury Prize for 'Elisa K' and the Best Photography Prize for 'Aita'.