News July 4th 2007

False Alarm
A bomb threat on the busiest day of the year so far caused chaos at the airport on Saturday. Three telephone warnings were received at just after midday. Two were to the Basque region of Spain, the first to the daily newspaper Gara, the second to the Automobile Rescue Service in the area. The third was to the Majorcan paper "Diario de Mallorca". Authorities decided to take the calls seriously and within minutes they had started to evacuate the nearly four thousand passengers that were inside.
The model evacuation was carried out at just after 12.30p.m. and took a total of just ten minutes. The passengers were at first taken to the car rental parking area and then moved on to the bus area within the airport. It was then decided to move them further away, and they were then shepherded towards the entrance to the airport, in front of the bar Ponderosa.
After the airport had been cleared, members of the anti-terrorist department entered the building with two sniffer dogs and a robot, designed to detonate bombs at a controlled distance. At 2p.m. a loud blast was heard, which sources later explained had been a controlled explosion, carried out by the robot, on an empty shoe box in the car park. At 3.12p.m. a second blast was heard, but this also turned out to be a controlled explosion, this time on a bag left unattended, again in the car park.
After the entire area had been searched, the workers were allowed back into the building at 3.18p.m. At precisely 3.55p.m. the passengers began being led back to the terminal building. In all 13,000 passengers were affected on 37 different flights. In total the airport was closed for three and a half hours.
The evacuation was described as perfect by police sources, although some members of the public did complain about the initial disorganisation in the car park, and the fact that they had to be moved several times. They also claimed that there was a lack of information during the initial stages which they described as "unhelpful".
The evacuation took place during the hottest hours of the day and shade was sparse. Water did arrive at around 2p.m. to the relief of most. The Red Cross was also quickly on the scene to assist in the number of small incidents, mostly related to the heat. However, more first aid groups were quick to arrive, and both the
young and the old were found shade and given water almost immediately.
The evacuation was made all the more difficult as the use of mobile phones was strictly forbidden in the initial evacuation from the terminal. This proved extremely difficult to enforce, and in the end police had to confiscate a number of phones after their warnings went unheeded.
It was clear that the bomb threat was intended to cause complete disruption. The perpetrators chose the busiest time of the busiest day of the year so far. In total 100,000 passengers were set to pass through the airport during the weekend. This included 40,400 passengers on Saturday, on a total of 307 flights. It is a credit to all the people involved that by 6pm most of the disrupted flights had left and there were only minimal delays to other journeys during the rest of Saturday and Sunday.
The identification of the perpetrators behind the false alarm remained unclear, although authorities said that nobody, including ETA, had been ruled out of their investigations. The interior minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba apologised for the inconvenience caused to travellers but said that he hoped they understood that the Government would always take a safety first policy in relation to any threats received.

AROUND THE ISLAND

Low-Cost Increases
Figures released last week by the Airport Authorities have shown the spectacular rise in popularity of the low-cost airlines in 2006. In June of last year the low-cost carriers brought 56,263 passengers to Ibiza, a rise from the previous year of 33.8 per cent. Meanwhile in the same month the more traditional airlines brought a total of 166,412 passengers, an increase of only 2.1 per cent.
The trend continued in July with the low-cost airlines bringing a total of 71,679 people to Ibiza, an increase of 27.1 per cent from July 2005, while the regular airlines carried 206,413 people in total, a drop of 0.6 per cent.
The rise continued in August and September with increases of 26.5 per cent and 23.9 per cent respectively. This compared to a decrease of 0.5 per cent in August and a slight increase of 2.5 per cent by the traditional carriers.
The trend looks set to continue this year, with figures for the first four months showing an increase in passengers using the low-cost option of 16.1 per cent. However from January - April, the majority arrived from German airports, with Hapag Lloyd and Air Berlin carrying 62.2 per cent of the total.
Figures for Spain showed a similar tendency, with the most glaring statistic revealing that while the number of low cost carriers is increasing every year, during August last year the majority of passengers flew with either EasyJet, RyanAir or Air Berlin.
Surveys taken of low-cost airline passengers showed that the majority travel without a package, and do not stay in hotels when they finally reach their destination.

Restaurants Suffer
The president of the restaurant and bar association, Eduardo Duque, has claimed that turnover is down during the first two months of the season by around 30 per cent. The claims were made following a survey amongst all the members of the association. Duque said that May had initially started off well, and people were very optimistic about the season. However the expected rise did not materialise and June saw takings slump as tourists stayed away.
On a more positive note, Duque claimed that the recent promotion of Ibiza and Formentera within Spain had led to a significant increase in the number of Spanish nationals visiting out of the normal summer period of July and August. He continued by saying that this increase had saved results from being a lot worse.

Coalition Worries
The mayors of Santa Eulalia and San Antonio have both expressed their concern at the new coalition in the Govern Balear. In the recent elections, the PP candidate and former president, Jaume Matas, actually won the election but did not do so with enough of a majority to retain power. The coalition of PSOE and UM (the united party of Majorca) therefore won enough votes to control the Govern, and elect all the key positions within the new government, including the president. However the mayor of Santa Eulalia, Vicent Mari, expressed his concern that the new tourism minister will be from the UM party, whose political interests are based totally in Majorca and he claimed that there was a possibility that Ibiza would be forgotten about.
Jose Sala, mayor of San Antonio, underlined these concerns and said that it was worrying that a party entirely focused on Majorca, could have political power over separate islands in which it had never taken any interest.
The new mayor of Ibiza Town Lurdes Costa tried to ease concerns saying that the situation would be carefully monitored, and suggested that there would be no problems with the new coalition party.
The president of the PP party in Ibiza, Jose Juan Cardona, said that the new coalition was a pact between the electoral losers to oust the PP from power. He admitted that the coalition was legitimate and his party would not be disputing its legality, although he called the union a tragedy for politics within the Balearics and underlined the negative affect that it could have in Ibiza and Formentera.

Electrical Rise
The electric provider, GESA, revealed that demand in Ibiza has grown over the last six years by 48 per cent, from 512 to 757 gigawatts. This increase is by far the highest in the Balearics, and is due to a combination of the increase in residents now living on the island, and the extreme temperatures experienced over the last few years in both summer and winter.

OAP Invasion
The social affairs secretary, Jesus Caldera, announced in Palma last week an increase to the Imserso programme for this winter. Imserso is a scheme that was set up by the last government, which allows Spanish pensioners to travel at vastly discounted rates. This type of tourism is key to the Balearic Islands during the winter, and accounted for 80 per cent of the total winter tourism in 2006/7.
Caldera said that the number of travellers in total is set to increase from 830,000 to just over one million, of which 184,000 will come to the Balearics.
The price per stay will also be increased by ten per cent, to 17.5 euros per day. Hoteliers on the island had threatened to abandon the programme this winter if prices were not increased, claiming that they were losing money.

Winds Cause Problems
Marine Rescue had a busy Tuesday last week, as high winds caught many people by surprise, and they had to carry out a number of rescue operations. The first incident involved the boat, "Red Fox", which ran aground in Punta Pedrera with five people on board. Fortunately nobody was injured and the boat could be towed to safety. The next incident occurred three miles from San Antonio port, where a smaller vessel with only one occupant got its propeller caught in some ropes. The driver put out a distress call, and was soon rescued.
In Santa Eualalia there were a number of incidents, with several boats washed up on the shore.

Gay Day
Wednesday saw the Gay Parade sweep through the streets of Ibiza. The annual event is intended to raise awareness of the prejudice that homosexuals still suffer in the world. The parade consisted of colourful floats and dancing and was a great success. The organiser, Monique, said that the march was important to raise awareness among citizens about the discrimination that they still have to tolerate.

Legal Battle
A number of Scottish newspapers have taken up the cause of Angela Scullion, after she received an official demand for compensation for damages to the truck that killed her son. The accident occurred in June last year at around 2a.m. as Thomas Ryan was crossing the San Antonio-Ibiza road outside the Amnesia club. The road was not lit at the time and as he was halfway across the road, he was hit by a tow-truck driving towards San Antonio. The driver passed a breath-test that was carried out immediately after the accident. He was later cleared of any responsibility by the courts.
In the months after the accident, his mother launched a campaign, backed by the Scottish media, to try and get safety on the road improved. In the media the road became known as "the road of death." However she now finds herself embroiled in a legal battle after the bizarre actions of the tow-company.
Scullion recently said that she was delighted with the new changes to the road, and felt that the safety of pedestrians had now been greatly improved.

Lamps Vacations
The invasion of stars began last week with the arrival of the Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard to the island. The footballer, who has a Catalan wife, is a regular in Ibiza and could be seen enjoying the sun and doting over his two daughters in ses Salinas beach last weekend. Lampard has long been a target for Barcelona, and was said to be on the lookout for a summer villa on the island. He told reporters that he was happy to be here and was looking forward to a relaxing few days after a hard season that included 71 games for his club.

New Hospital Plans
The new president of the Consell Insular of Ibiza, Xico Tarres, has revealed that he is already starting to put pressure on the new president of the Govern Balear, about the construction of a new hospital in Ibiza. Tarres wanted to allay fears that the coalition with UM (United party of Majorca) would put the necessities of the island in second place, especially if the UM party took control of the health ministry. He claimed that the new Consell would push for the building of a new hospital, added to the remodelling of the current public hospital. Tarres said that the new plans would provide first-class medical care to all the island's residents and visitors, for at least the next twenty-five years.
He continued by talking about the golf courses which are planned over the next few years. There are, in total, projects for five courses, two in San Antonio, two in San Jose and one in San Juan. The most advanced of the projects is by far the Matutes backed course in Playa den Bossa. Tarres said that he would speak to each mayor separately, and calculate the specific needs and benefits to each municipality.
He was less diplomatic on the subject of ports, and said that during the next four years he would not consent to the building or remodelling of any of the island's marinas. He said that there were a few projects that had been given the green light, specifically es Viver in Ibiza Town, but that the permission had still not been given from the environment ministry, and he was confident of a negative report from the department.
The outgoing PP urban minister, Jose Torres, criticised the plans of the future Consell and reiterated that high-calibre tourism requires high-calibre infrastructure, including golf courses and marinas. He said that he understood their preoccupation with over-building, but said that they would have to find a happy medium, if the island was not to suffer.

Blue Flag Beaches
The mayor of San Juan, Antoni Mari Mari Carraca, presented the blue flag to the four main beaches of the municipality that have been awarded the distinction. The beaches are Cala San Vicente, the port of San Miguel, Portinax and Benirras beach. Carraca said that it was an honour to receive the flags, but that the awards were a credit to the local community who have always wanted the best for the local area. The blue flag is awarded to beaches who meet a series of demands, including the quality of the water, the services available and the safety of the beach.

Hotel Occupancy Stable
The latest statistics from the Hotel Federation have revealed that the number of tourists is on a par with 2006. There was only a very slight fall (0.54 per cent) over the first fifteen days of June, although some areas did suffer considerable decreases.
Formentera saw a 6.99 per cent increase in hotel occupancy since last year, which underlined the strength of the Italian market at present. Roberto Hortensius, the president of the Hotel Federation, said that normally one would worry if an area was so reliant on one type of tourist, but he said that the case of Formentera was special, and if for any reason the Italian market was to fail, there would be plenty of other markets to take its place.
The bay of San Antonio was again the biggest faller with a decrease in numbers of 6.08 per cent. However, Hortensius said that he was not too worried about this decrease, as the area saw a huge increase in 2006 of 12.24 per cent from 2005, and he considered this a levelling out, and said that the recent work undertaken in the bay area had started to pay dividends.
The only other area that saw a decrease was the north of the island, which was down 3.36 per cent. All of the other municipalities were up, Ibiza Town only slightly by 0.6 per cent, San Jose beach resorts by 2.29 per cent, and Santa Eulalia by 3.69 per cent.

Disco Tourism
The new president of the Bar, Restaurant and Cafeteria Association of Pimeef (small and medium sized business), Pedro Ortiz, attacked the trend of younger tourism and said that while the "all-inclusive" tendency was damaging the island, he explained that the real cancer was the island's total dependency on "disco" tourism. He claimed that these younger tourists did not eat out, or even use the bar, but were merely interested in going to the nightclubs where they spent all of their money.
He said that this season continued to be worse than last year, and that the main fears of his members were that, amongst other things, the season had now been reduced to just 60-70 days.

Drug Addiction
Figures released by "Project Home", the rehabilitation centre for addicts on the island, revealed that there had been a sixteen per cent increase in recent years in the treatment of cocaine addicts. 41.6 per cent of people who now pass through the various programmes on offer at the centre are addicted to cocaine. In 2006 this accounted for a total of 517 people. The director general of the centre said that the average spend per addict on the drug was 680 euros, and added that the majority also had drink problems.

New Cars
Residents in the Balearics spent, on average, 15,577 euros in May on the purchase of a new car. This was a decrease of 18 per cent in total and was way below the national average of 21,884 euros.

Flight Disruption
Spanair were forced to cancel sixty flights on Monday, after cabin staff went on strike. The flights to and from the capital, Madrid, were mostly affected, with only three international flights cancelled. However, the strike caused huge disruptions to all of their flight programmes. Further strikes have been called for on the 9th, 15th and 31st of July, if an agreement is not reached.

Lopez Scandal
The bribery scandal that rocked, but did not affect, the PSOE party before the elections seemed to be back to haunt them after the former deputy mayor, Pedro Campillo, was amongst a number of people who have been asked to give evidence as part of the investigation. The case surrounds suspected "commissions" that were given to certain members of the socialist party, in return for awarding a vast majority of the work to the building firm, Brues S.A., in the Eivissa Centre project. The project included plans for the building and renovation of several buildings within Ibiza Town. The president of the company, Anonio Pinai, has also been called to give evidence.
The scandal started after the "El Mundo" newspaper got hold of tape recordings of several meetings between the then PSOE party member, Roque Lopez, and various other members of the party. The newspaper insisted that of the funding that the company had offered the party, around 1.5 million euros had been "kept along the way." Lopez had long since left the party, and was living in Seville when the accusations came to light. However, he has always been at the centre of the row, which now seems to have backfired on him, after he has now also been called in for questioning.
However the net could grow wider over the next few days and it is quite possible that the new mayor of San Jose, Jose Mari Ribas Agustinet, is also asked to give evidence. Agustinet is heard on the tapes saying how best he would pay the "commissions", using "black" money from the sale of properties.
The truth is that the case seems to become more sinister and complicated as the weeks pass, but it appears that the courts, at least, are determined to get to the bottom of what exactly went on.

Airport Renovation
The Airport Authorities announced last week the awarding of the renovation of the current airport to the companies Dragados and Cobra Instalaciones. In a deal worth around 36 million euros, the company will have twenty months to completely re-design the entire airport. The work will include the elimination of all of the offices that are currently located between the ground and first floor. It will also include the complete renovation of the air-conditioning system and the electrics of the current building, so as to make the airport more modern.
The current luggage handling area on the south-east corner will be completely re-designed. It will become a two-floor building that will include thirteen additional check-in desks and an improved luggage turn-around area. The work is due to start this winter, and will cause only mild inconvenience to the traveller.

ITV Shock
The National Automobile Association has estimated that 36.6 per cent of cars currently being driven in the Balearics have not passed their ITV test, the highest rate in the whole of Spain. The Association claimed that these levels were not only detrimental to the safety of the driver and other road users, but also to the car itself. A spokesman for the Association claimed that cars that regularly underwent the ITV test were far less likely to have to visit the garage during the remainder of the year.

Greenpeace Study
According to a new report by Greenpeace, the Balearics is the community where most land has been taken up with new construction over the last ten years. The report claims that 41.4 per cent of land has now been occupied by new buildings, according to the group, due to political policies based on "cement, bricks and asphalt."
Over the last three years alone they claim that 171,900 apartments have been built or are in the planning stages, twenty-one new golf courses have been projected, along with nine new marinas. According to the report there has also been over ten million square metres asphalted over the last three years. The figures were described as alarming, although in the report the main culprit seemed to be those in Majorca, where most of the projects (especially for the golf courses and the ports) were planned.

IBIZA TOWN

Security Cameras
The mayor, Lurdes Costa, held her first meeting with the Central Governments representative on the island, Manuel Bar, in an attempt to sort out the security problems currently facing the capital. Petty crime is rife during the summer months as professional thieves target the many tourists on the island. They both agreed the installation of cameras at key points around the centre is now a necessity.
They also called for a meeting with the hotel federation, local businesses and neighbourhood associations, to try and assess the immediate needs of the residents.

Repair Complaint
Local shopkeepers in Ibiza Town were up in arms last week after work started on the reparation of the old Port Authorities building, in the marina area. The president of the Neighbourhood Association, Jose Tur Vinas, said that the work would cause immense inconvenience to the owners of businesses and stall holders in the area. It would also give tourists a very poor image of the area. The building is in the marina area of Ibiza Town and, in high season, it is estimated that 10,000 tourists a day will walk past.
Vinas claimed that he advised the Town Hall of the poor state of the building back in November of last year and cannot understand why they waited until high season in order to repair the building.

Surgical Improvements
The director of Ibi-Salut, Ignacio Martinez, the company that runs the health service on the island, confirmed on Thursday that the new extension to the Can Misses hospital will be finished by summer 2008. Martinez took the opportunity to show reporters around the work, which got underway a few months ago. The plan is to build a new two-floor surgical wing to the hospital, which will house four operating rooms, two more than at present. The project is to be carried out in two phases, the first of which (the building of two temporary operating theatres) is currently underway. It is hoped that this will reduce the impact on the public to a very minimum. The work was described as essential, and will cost a total of four million euros.

Tourist Information
The Town Hall has announced the opening of a fourth tourist information centre in ses Figueretas. The office, which is located in the Julia Verdera square, is the fourth within the municipality, the others located in Vara de Rey, Casa de la Curia and the Interpretation Centre Madina Yabisa. All of these offices are open during July and August from Tuesday - Saturday, 11a.m.-2p.m. and again from 5p.m.-8p.m., as well as on Sundays from 11a.m.-2p.m.

SAN ANTONIO

Police Clash
A group of around forty British holiday-makers turned the West End of San Antonio into a battleground last weekend. The incident occurred on Sunday night at 11.30 p.m. Police received a number of calls that a group of youths were causing problems in the central strip. Four police officers were sent to control the situation. However on arrival they were met with a stream of abuse, and were set upon by the group. The police officers called for back-up, the Guardia Civil soon arriving. On seeing the re-enforcements, the group made a hasty retreat.
There were no arrests made. One officer was injured in the incident, and required medical attention.

Blue-Flag Day
The mayor of the town, Jose Sala, together with the councillor for Tourism of San Jose, Angeles Mostaza, was on hand to assist in the presentation of the blue flag for the es Puet beach. The beach, which is shared between the two municipalities, received the award for the very first time and will join the beaches in San Antonio of Cala Salada, Cala Gracio, and the port area which will also proudly display the blue flags.

SAN JOSE

Cala Pinet Claims
The Public Prosecution department is to study claims made last month of a pact between the parties, formerly at loggerheads, over four illegal apartments in the Cala Pinet building in Cala de Bou. An official complaint had originally been made in 2001, by the owner of the house next door to the project. He claimed that part of the property had broken distance laws between the two buildings. He continued that four of the apartments were, in fact, illegal. The case reached the high court, where a demolition order was given for the apartments. The constructor told the court that the demolition would be carried out.
However, in the meantime an agreement was reached between the constructor, the former mayor of San Jose, Serra Escandell, and the neighbour, allowing the latter to build an apartment complex of four floors on 2,000 m2 of the land opposite the apartments, if he retracted his original complaint. He agreed and the deal was signed.
The High Court was alerted to the deal by the Green party who had been made aware of the agreement. The Court made clear that once a sentence was reached, it had to be carried out. They asked for the file on the case to be sent to them, and promised to carry out a full investigation into the claims.

Home Help
The Town Hall of San Jose has announced an increase to its home help programme. The mayor announced that he was putting out the tender to private companies, in a deal worth around 80,000 euros per year. The Town Hall has announced that the service will now be provided by two full-time workers, whose jobs will include taking people shopping, the arranging of medical treatment, and help in general hygiene issues. The announcement was the first of several due, from a mayor intent on improving social care within the community.

Three Cautions
The "after hours" bar DC-10 re-opened its door last Monday, and immediately received three cautions after a police visit. The cautions were given for exceeding the capacity of the bar (it officially only holds sixty-five people), having music on an illegal terrace, and for people dancing on the same terrace. The visit was made by police, hours after the bar had opened its doors after the recent ban received for allowing the sale of drugs on its premises.
After a meeting last week between the new mayor, Josep Mari Ribas, and Jose Manuel Bar, the central government's representative in Ibiza, Ribas promised to clampdown on establishments that were not complying with municipal laws.

Building Clampdown
The Town Hall has confirmed the closure of six building sites, the majority in Cala de Bou, after continual complaints from local residents. Among those buildings stopped is the Punta Pinet development, which has been the cause of numerous complaints over the last few weeks. In tourist areas, building work is prohibited between the months of May - October. However during the last legislation this rule was normally flagrantly ignored.

SANTA EULALIA

Re-organisation
The mayor, Vicent Mari, spent the week organising his party, as he introduced some radical changes to the set-up of the Town Hall and its councillors. Each area within Santa Eulalia is now to have two councillors whose job will be to fight for the causes that are important to that area. The previous administration received a great deal of criticism over their general handling of areas outside of the main Santa Eulalia urban area, especially Puig den Valls and Jesus. These areas will now have their own representatives within the Town Hall. Miguel Yern and Margarita Torres will be the councillors for Jesus, Antonio Riera and Carmen Mari in Santa Gertrudis, Carmen Tur and Salvador Losa in San Carlos and Miriam Juan and Toni Mari in Puig den Valls.

New Centre
The Town Hall announced last week that work was soon to start on the remodelling of a new centre for municipal courses. The building in Mariano Riquer Wallis street, which is set to cost 180,000 euros, will house the diverse courses run by the Town Hall during the year. The new centre will be on two floors, and contain three large classrooms where the courses will take place. It is hoped that the centre will be ready by the end of the year.

Blue Flags
The mayor, Vicent Mari, expressed his delight as he awarded four beaches in the municipality with the prestigious blue flag. The beaches were Cala Llenya, Cala Llonga, Santa Eulalia and Es Canar. The mayor said that it was a great tribute to all the hard work undertaken by the locals.

FORMENTERA

Road Works
The asphalting of five rural roads began last week in Formentera. In total the roads measure 7.88 kilometres and will cost 823,268 euros to finish. The work will take around a month, and started on Monday with the sa Cala to Ca ses Ferrers road.

Debt Payment
The new mayor, Jaume Ferrer, has begun to negotiate the huge debt that the Town Hall has with the rubbish collectors, Cespa. The debt has been built up over the last eight years and has always been put to one side. However after announcing that Cespa had once again won the public cleaning contract on the island, Ferrer promised to start to pay off the debt, which has now risen to 700,000 euros. Cepsa, for their part, announced that their cleaning programme would be stepped up during the summer to meet the demands of the increased population.

CRIME & INCIDENTS

Accidents Aplenty
Two drivers were lucky to escape with only minor injuries after a crash near Jesus on Wednesday. The accident occurred as one of the cars tried to join the road from the car park of the Victoria Hotel. The driver claimed that he did not see the other driver that collided into the side of his car. Both drivers were taken to hospital as a precaution, but were later released.
In a separate incident on the San Jose-Ibiza road, a hire car was rammed from behind by a coach. The incident happened as workers on the road diverted the traffic, because of emergency repairs that were taking place on the road. The car slowed suddenly as the driver was being signalled at by a worker, and the lorry, which it was assumed was too close to the car, did not have enough time to brake, and crashed into the back of the car. Fortunately there were no injuries due to the accident.
The incidents continued on Thursday with the traffic police attending at least five accidents, fortunately none of them resulting in any serious injuries. The first occurred on the airport road at the Ponderosa bar turning. A van crashed into the side of a rented vehicle as it pulled out at the turning, having failed to see the other vehicle. The female driver of the car was treated at the scene of the accident, and later released.
Finally two youths were seriously injured after the motorbike they were driving hit a wall, for reasons unknown to the police. They were driving along the road that joins es Figueral and Cala de San Vicente, close to the turning of Aguas Blancas when the accident occurred. The sixteen year old driver was not wearing a helmet, and after being taken to Vilas Hospital immediately underwent surgery for head and facial injuries. His passenger, a fourteen year old girl, who had been wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, was taken to intensive care unit of the same hospital, where she remains in a coma.

Man Attacked
Three Austrian youths were arrested at their hotel on Friday after a violent brawl that ended with a fellow compatriot having his nose broken. The incident occurred close to the Hotel Algarb, where all the protagonists were staying. According to police reports, the injured man had confronted his compatriots after they had been making fun of his partner. As the discussion heated up, it suddenly turned violent, and the injured man received several blows to the face. Police, advised by neighbours, were soon on the scene and made the arrests at the hotel soon after finding the victim in a pool of blood. The injured man was taken to hospital with a suspected fractured nose, and other facial injuries.

Jail Sentence
A security guard who stole 200,000 euros in August 2004, was sentenced to three years in prison last week. The money had arrived, along with several other packages from Majorca, and was due to be taken to La Caixa bank in San Jordi. The money never arrived, although all the other deliveries were made that day. An investigation was immediately launched and a search of the defendants´ house uncovered 160 five-hundred euro notes, still with the pink coloured seals that they had arrived in. Lucio Manuel del Vale was immediately arrested and a court in Palma yesterday sentenced him to three years in jail, and to pay back the remainder of the money still missing.

Man Knocked Down
An Australian man was seriously injured on Tuesday on the ses Salinas road after being run-over. Details of the incident remain unclear but it appears that the man was knocked down in the early hours of the morning by a Citroen C2 car. The accident resulted in the 24 year old being rushed to hospital with severe head injuries. In the Vilas private hospital, he underwent a series of operations before, being taken to the intensive care department. He remains in a critical condition.

NEWS FROM THE MAINLAND

Equipment Criticism
The Spanish Government has been heavily criticised from all sides, after it was revealed that the vehicle in which six soldiers died last weekend in Lebanon did not contain all the safety equipment that is was supposed to. From November of last year all vehicles should have been carrying an anti-remote device, which stops remote control bombs being set off by interfering with the signal. The vehicle in which the soldiers were travelling had not yet been updated. The Defence Minister, Jose Antonio Alonso, said that he would launch an immediate investigation to find out why these changes had not yet taken place.
The funerals of all six soldiers took place during the week, the majority attended by one member of the Royal family.
According to reports from the Lebanese paper, "The Daily Star", the bomb that exploded consisted of 70 kilos of the powerful plastic explosive C4, five times more powerful than TNT.

Ibiza News powerd by Ibiza Sun

By modern day standards Ibiza is an extremely safe place to holiday. This is a weeks worth of news and so its effect is magnified. Please do not fret while you are here - you are quite safe!!

If you have any stories for our incidents section then call or fax 971-348-271 or e-mail on: editor@theibizasun.com