Public examinations in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Click this link for more info
http://isidoroefpe.blogspot.com.es/p/public-examinations-oposiciones.html

CORRUPTION / Spain gripped by 'corruption' scandal

Here some videos in which we know what our european neighbours think about us... Take a look!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21359234

Even more here...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21361644

LAWS // Spain's Operacion Puerto to inflict more embarrassment on cycling

This article belongs to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/21259759

By Matt Slater
            BBC sports news reporter
Last week, Team Sky boss Sir Dave Brailsford said he thought cycling knew enough now about doping to come up with a decent plan to tackle it.
"If 25 guys tell you how they robbed a bank, what new information are you going to learn from the 26th, 27th… it's a diminishing return," he suggested.
It was a mildly controversial thing for him to say at the time, but events this week have made his stance even more isolated.
The International Cycling Union's (UCI) decision to scrap the independent commission it set up to look into the Lance Armstrong scandal will come as little surprise to some. Yet its alternative plan for a "truth and reconciliation commission" proves there are still people at the top in cycling who can tell which way the wind is blowing.
There is, however, one corner of the cycling world that seems to be as uneasy about "T&R" as Brailsford is. That is Spain, which is coincidentally where Sir Dave made his remarks.
His problem with handing out amnesties for dopers in return for testimony is that it lets them off the hook too easily. He argues that cycling should just get on with making sure the sport never loses its way so badly again.
Spain's issue with truth and reconciliation is… well, it's complicated.
For proof of this look no further than the trial that has started this week in Madrid into a doping conspiracy that was uncovered nearly seven years ago, when "Operacion Puerto" shut down the blood-manipulating activities of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes and friends.


These activities certainly match Armstrong's in terms of their scale. It is their professionalism, sophistication and success that is up for debate. But first, some background. In 2004, a rider called Jesus Manzano told Spanish newspaper AS about the blood-doping secrets of his former team Kelme.


Among other shocking accusations, he claimed his dramatic exit from the 2003 Tour de France - airlifted off a mountain with near fatal dehydration - was the result of his team doctor giving him a blood-boosting drug intended for dogs.
Fuentes, having made quite a reputation for himself in athletics and at Spain's most successful cycling team ONCE, was Kelme's medicine man.
The team dismissed Manzano's story as the fabrication of a bitter man, pointing out that he had been sacked after he was caught with a woman in his hotel room during the 2003 Tour of Spain. But was he telling the truth? Enough people at the anti-drug trafficking arm of Spain's Guardia Civil thought so and started making polite inquiries about the pharmaceutical habits of the country's best cyclists. When, in 2005, Armstrong's former team-mate Roberto Heras tested positive for the drug du jour EPO on his way to a record fourth win at the Vuelta, those inquiries were bolstered by wire taps.
Heras was riding for Liberty Seguros, the old ONCE team's new sponsor, but Fuentes was his "personal physician". It would soon become apparent that Heras was not the doctor's only private patient.
By May 2006, those listening in on the wire had heard enough and arrested Fuentes and four associates, including his sister. Raids on properties owned by Fuentes uncovered almost 200 bags of frozen blood, 40 bags of plasma and a trove of steroids, growth hormone and masking agents. Most intriguingly, police also found calendars and documents marked with code names.


Matching a rider with the code would become a popular parlour game amongst cycling fans for months to come. For many of those fans, "guess the cheat" was better than watching the racing, particularly when Spanish investigators published a report two days before the start of the 2006 Tour de France that included the names of 56 cyclists. Among them was a young Alberto Contador, Armstrong whistle-blower Tyler Hamilton and Lance's favourite victim Jan Ullrich. And then? Not much really


The 2006 Tour would finish as it started, in shame, with American Floyd Landis being stripped of victory for failing a drugs test. But by that point the vast majority of those named in the Puerto case had already been told they would be facing no further action, criminal or sporting. With doping not a crime in Spain until a new law made it so in November 2006, the former was no surprise, but the fact so many were able to get away with cheating speaks volumes of an ambivalence towards doping that lingers in Spanish cycling.
To this date, only six of the 56 have been given bans for their involvement with Fuentes - and one of those, Giampaolo Caruso, would get his ban overturned on appeal - and none of those had anything to do with the Spanish cycling authorities.
You can see why Armstrong liked living in Girona so much.
So, given this Spanish reluctance to pry too deeply into old doping cases - and the fact that Fuentes and his four co-defendants face "public health" charges that have very little to do with actual sport - why the fuss about Operacion Puerto?
The short answer to that question is Balco.
Balco is shorthand for the biggest doping scandal in US sports history prior to Armstrong's.
For those who have lost count, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative was the sports nutrition company that happened to have a sideline in supplying cutting-edge doping products to some of the world's leading track and field stars as well as a number of big names from American football, baseball and boxing.
Operacion Puerto has been Europe's Balco-in-waiting ever since the name of Fuentes first hit the headlines.
That's because of his occasional - but potentially explosive - comments about his client list beyond cycling, not to mention the claims of riders like Manzano and Jorg Jaksche, who have spoken about their doctor's "other patients".
There is little doubt that Fuentes developed his expertise in what could euphemistically be called "sports medicine" when he was working with Spanish athletes in the 1980s. His future wife, Cristina Perez, was a hurdler on the national team but failed a drugs test shortly after the 1988 Olympics.
But doping in athletics - like cycling - is hardly news. Proof of doping in Spanish football or tennis, however, could plunge the country into darkness.
In the aftermath of his arrest in 2006, Fuentes said he had 200 clients in professional sport, which leaves almost 150 unaccounted for. There is also the small matter of 100 bags of unclaimed frozen blood


Yet the prospect of the 57-year-old doctor providing the names of those clients during this trial seems unlikely. The judge has already limited proceedings to the cycling cases, allowing Fuentes to admit on Tuesday that he also treated "tennis players, athletes, footballers and a boxer" and just leave it at that.
When asked by Le Monde journalist Stephane Mandard on Monday if he was going to "tell all", Fuentes said: "I don't intend to name any of my clients. For me, that's the past."


Le Monde, as it happens, was forced to pay damages to Barcelona in 2011 for a story it published in 2006 about the club's alleged links with Fuentes. The same article also mentioned Real Betis, Real Madrid and Valencia. All four clubs denied any wrongdoing.
Spanish tennis superstar Rafael Nadal was also asked about a possible connection to Puerto in a press conference at Wimbledon in 2006. It was one of the few times anybody can remember him scowling, his rejection of any link was made very clear.
"I do not want to be a hero or a martyr. This is a huge hypocrisy," Fuentes told Mandard. There are many of his compatriots who will be delighted he feels that way.
Cycling fans, on the other hand, are going to have to endure another two months of this, as the likes of Contador and 2005 Tour runner-up Ivan Basso are called in to say as little as they possibly can about their dealings with the dodgy doctor.
It will all be very seedy and embarrassing, particularly for Contador, who only returned from a two-year ban in August.
Spain's tarnished reputation in this area is also unlikely to get much of a polishing, although getting this trial on after so many judicial roadblocks is a victory of sorts.
So as adverts for truth and reconciliation go, the Operacion Puerto trial looks set to be a disappointment. Hazy memories and the distinct possibility of a mistrial look more likely, which would ensure Fuentes keeping his secrets and Spain its heroes.

New vocabulary:
diminishing return :  rendimiento decreciente            hurdler: corredor de vallas
mildly:  moderadamente, ligeramente                       plunge: lanzarse, meterse
stance : actitud, postura                                          aftermath: consecuencia
to scrap:  pelear, reñir                                            scowling: ceñudo
who can tell which way the wind is blowing.:  quien sabe de que lado se está???
coincidentally : fortuitamente                                   dodgy: arriesgado, sospechoso
amnesties:   amnistías                                              seedy: sospechoso, de mala fama
dopers:  drogadictos                                               tarnished: manchado, empañado
airlifted :  transportado por aire                               polishing: abrillantando
intended : esperado, planeado                                 roadblocks: barricada
bolstered : reforzado                                              Hazy: difuso, confuso
wire traps: redes trampa?                                        mistrial: juicio nulo
Raids :  ataques
a trove: tesoro
intriguingly: fascinantemente
parlour : recepción
amongst: en medio de, entre
lingers : permanecer
bans: prohibiciones
overturned:: anular, volcar
reluctance: desgana
to pry: curiosear
fuss:  protestar, quejarse
shorthand: clave, escenografía
prior: anterior

Spain's migrant healthcare dilemma

By Tom BurridgeBBC News, Madrid

A new law in Spain has revived the debate over whether illegal immigrants should receive free public healthcare.

Simone from Brazil and Prince from Nigeria are both illegal immigrants living in Spain. They both have long-term, potentially life-threatening illnesses. And until recently they both received free public healthcare.

However that could all now change.

As of this month, a new healthcare law means illegal immigrants who are over 18 will only get treated for free within Spain's healthcare system if it is an emergency or a pregnancy or birth.

Prince, 42, was born in Nigeria but has been living in Madrid for the last 15 years.

He has HIV and takes four different types of drug every day to treat the virus.

Crucially he does not have a Spanish health card and so, under the letter of Spain's new health law, he will not get free treatment.

He says he cannot afford the medicines, which he claims would cost hundreds of euros a month, and fears that the new law could send him "direct to the grave".

Simone Belmont, 40 and a mother-of-two, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011.

She had a mastectomy and has undergone chemotherapy and radiotherapy. All of that treatment was administered free, courtesy of Spain's public health system.

Now, though, she says she is worried.

"I have appointments with my doctor, and I'm not sure if I'll be seen," she says.

'Segregation'

A health organisation, Doctors of the World, is running a campaign against the new law called "Right to treat", in which they are encouraging doctors to defy the new law and continue treating people who do not have the correct legal status.

The group estimates that there are around 150,000 people living in Spain illegally who will be affected

Dr Ricardo Angora says that a huge population of immigrants will be "segregated".

He warns that the new law will create a "health apartheid", in which some will be eligible for free treatment and others will not.

"We are not talking about a privilege - basic healthcare is a human right," he says.

In a recent speech, Health Minister Ana Mato argued that the new measures relating to illegal immigrants' access to free public healthcare were "not driven by a desire to save money".

She argued it was a question of Spain complying with European health regulations and ensuring that Spanish people received the same treatment abroad as those from abroad received in Spain.

She also said that provisions would be made to ensure that certain diseases were controlled, including "chronic illnesses for foreign people without legal residency [in Spain]".

However there has been no detail on what those provisions will be and, when we asked Spain's health ministry whether illnesses like HIV and cancer would be treated free on the health system, we were referred back to the minister's speech.

What is more, some doctors and nurses have said they will defy the new law.

On top of all that, Spain's regional governments are the ones that actually implement healthcare policy. Healthcare makes up 40-50% of their budgets.

Five of Spain's autonomous communities, including Catalonia and Andalusia, two of the largest in population terms, have publicly said they will not implement the new law.

False economy?

Although the government argues that the new law is not driven by financial considerations, many analysts believe otherwise.

And, in times of economic crisis and austerity, there is no doubt that wider health reforms that the Spanish government is implementing are designed to reduce Spain's overall health bill.

Spain currently spends around 9.5% of GDP on healthcare per year, which is the average amount developed countries in the OECD spend. Britain spends around 12% of its GDP.

However Spain's healthcare bill has been rising faster than other nations.

Professor Nuria Mas from Spain's IESE business school specialises in the economics of healthcare policy.

She says, over the course of the last 10 years, Germany's annual health bill has risen, on average, by around 2%.

In Spain that figure is 5.5%.

Overall, she believes the new law could increase the amount Spain spends on healthcare each year, because some illegal immigrants might avoid preventative or early treatments, which they would have to pay for.

If they then wait until their condition becomes an emergency for which, under the new law, they would be covered, then the Spanish state would pick up the tab.

And emergency treatments are often more expensive.

However she also says Spain's free public health system has contributed to a "pull effect", making it "very attractive for immigrants, especially illegal ones, to come to Spain".

The new law will, she argues, make it "more difficult" for those people and may reduce the "pull effect" now and beyond Spain's financial crisis.

New words:

Crucially : crucialmente, significativamente           mastectomy : mastectomia (surgical removal of a breast)

to defy:     desafiar, retar               referred back: remitido a lo anterior

austerity:     austeridad                                    reforms :  reformas

implementing :  implementando            overall health bill: el total del coste de salud

preventative :  preventivo                                   

pick up the tab: lidiar con las consecuencias --> pick up the pieces (deal with the aftermath)

now and beyond:  ahora y en la futura                      provisions : abastecimiento       

Spain healthcare bosses quit over Madrid privatisation

Healthcare managers in the Madrid region are resigning over plans to privatise part of the health service in and around the Spanish capital.

The regional government wants to cut costs by privatising the management of 27 health centres, out of 270 in total.

On Tuesday 322 managers from more than half of the centres tendered their resignations, to take effect when the privatisation takes place.

Spain's debt crisis has brought deep cuts to public healthcare.

The country's 17 semi-autonomous regions administer healthcare and education.

On Monday thousands of Spanish medical workers and residents marched through Madrid, angry at the conservative regional government's privatisation plans.

Piece of news from:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20948446

New words:

privatisation: privatización                  healthcare: sanidad

management: gestión                        resign: dimitir, abandonar, renunciar

Santander absorbs Banesto and Banif and shuts branches

Continue reading the main story

Banco Santander is to absorb two Spanish banks, Banesto and Banif, closing 700 branches in the process.

Santander has more than 14,000 branches in 12 countries

It owns 90% of Banesto and will buy out the minority shareholders with Santander shares at a 25% premium. It already owns all of Banif.

The three banks have 4,664 branches in Spain between them. All the remaining branches will be branded as Santander.

Santander predicted that the merger would save it 520m euros ($684m; £422m) a year in three years' time.

It said that the merger was part of the restructuring of the Spanish financial system.

Santander did not say how many jobs would go, but said job cuts would be implemented gradually through transfers around the group, natural turnover and voluntary redundancy.

It added that the proportion of Spanish bank branches owned by the group would increase by 2015 despite the closures, because other banks were also cutting back their networks.

Santander said the total number of bank branches in Spain was expected to fall to 30,000 by the end of 2015, down from 46,000 in 2008

This piece of news belongs to BBC.CO.UK

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20754294

New words:

shuts = cerrar           shareholders = accionista        remaining = restantes

to absorb = absorver         merger = fusión        turnover =  sustitutos

buy out = comprar el total      redundancy =  cese

Red Cross to make Spain appeal as economic crisis bites

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19881851

by BBC News Business

New words:

Some news about Spain and the world

Eurozone crisis sees huge rise in numbers leaving Spain

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19868408

Global economic recovery weakening, says IMF

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19876587

by BBC News Business

New words:

Police avert copycat Columbine massacre in Mallorca university

Police avert copycat Columbine massacre in Mallorca university

http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/21797/police-avert-copycat-columbine-massacre-in-mallorca-university
By: ThinkSpain , Thursday, October 4, 2012

Rajoy to meet regional leaders to promote austerity regime

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19797055

by BBC new business

New words:

Spain floods: Ten die in Malaga, Almeria and Murcia

Here, a piece of news related with one possible topic, a natural disaster..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19767627
By BBC news

New words:

Six burning questions for Spain

Other article about Spain and our current situation:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19711689

by BBC News Business

New words:

Spain's banks 'need 59.3bn euros of eurozone loans

Here a link from BBC in which we can read about our depress current situation:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19763756

by BBC News Business

New words:
downturn: descenso              audit: auditoría                     broadly: en líneas generales
lender: prestamista                 subsequent: posterior           bursting: estar repleto
major: muy importante           aid: ayuda                           praised: elogió
valuation: valoración              thorough: concienzudo, cuidadoso
funding: financiación            assumption: se suponía
defaulted: omitido               foreclose: ejecutar                    request: petición
bailout: rescate                   publicly: públicamente               bailout: rescate
monitoring: seguimiento      backdrop: la situación general     outline: contorno, resumen
struggling: malvivir              shrinking: reducción                  revenues: rentas públicas, ingresos