A 19-year-old motorcyclist died in Lanzarote yesterday following a collision with a car.
Emergency services rushed to the scene on the LZ-3 near the town of Haria just after 11pm but could do nothing but declare the victim dead at the scene
Sep 062011
Sep 062011
A total of 32 people in the Canary Islands have lost their lives through drowning so far this year, many of them elderly.
Of the victims, 81 per cent were aged between 55 and 88, according to the latest data.
The highest mortality rate was in the province of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria where 21 people lost their lives; 13 in Gran Canaria, four in Lanzarote and four in Fuerteventura.
In The province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 11 people drowned; eight in Tenerife, and one each in La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro.
Experts say the best way to stay safe is to be aware of the dangers. Many people ignore warning notices and red warning flags on beaches when it is thought to be unsafe to go into the sea.
 |
 |
Aug 242011
The National Police have arrested two men who forged 25 supposedly solid gold coin pendants, which were in fact gold plated silver, and sold for them for over 16,000 euros to Tenerife pawn shops in Puerto de la Cruz, Los Realejos and Santa Cruz.
One of the team who was the manufacturer of the forged coins had over 30 years experience in the making of jewelery, which is why staff at the “We Buy Your Gold” shops had difficulty in spotting the fakes.
The other partner in crime sold the coin pendants by saying they were part of an inheritance of which he had recently been a beneficiary.
They were caught out when one of the pawn shops decided to melt the object down rather than re-sell it as jewellery.
These kind of shops have grown exponentially in the last couple of years, popping up in most high streets on the island, in response to the economic crisis.
Aug 182011
Lifeguards on the Playa de las Vistas beach in Las Américas are warning of an influx of small jellyfish after over 20 people were treated for stings yesterday.
Jellyfish are amongst the most abundant inhabitants of marine waters and most jellyfish are equipped with stingers to obtain food and protect themselves.
Jellyfish do not actively attack humans but when their tentacles come in contact with human flesh, their stingers are released as part of their natural defence mechanism.
The Playa de las Vistas jellyfish stings are completely harmless to humans and while they do cause some discomfort which can be alleviated with a cream available from the lifeguard station, they do not pose a serious risk. Any redness of the skin will disappear within 24 hours.
Aug 152011
The Met Office has issued both yellow and orange alerts for different areas of the Canary Islands, warning of soaring temperatures.
Weathermen issued an orange alert for Gran Canaria where, they say, the mercury could rise to 36C today, while in the western isles, Tenerife, La Gomera, El Hierro and La Palma, temperatures will hit 34C on all but north-facing coasts.
Aug 132011
Ernst Décsey
A team of Spanish, Swiss and French volunteers are to do a sponsored climb of Tenerife’s Mount Teide Volcano, the highest mountain in Europe, in aid of the Cambodian Krousar Thmey foundation, on the 9th and 10th of September.
They are covering their own costs so every Euro that is donated will directly benefit the children of Krousar Thmey.
The objective is to collect 38,000 Euros which represents 10 Euros for each meter climbed, well almost, Teide is actually 3,718 metres above sea level, so hopefully sponsors will make up the small difference.
The team which is led by Ernst Décsey will begin their climb from sea level, starting off from the El Socorro Beach in Los Realejos and of the 15 people in the team only three have ever done the climb before.
Krousar Thmey (which means New Family in Khmer) is dedicated to supporting children in difficulty and celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
They provide materials, education and social assistance to some 4,000 of Cambodia’s children who are most at risk, finding foster homes for street orphans, funding orphanages and all Cambodia’s schools for deaf children and blind children.
You can make a donation on-line at the charity’s web site http://www.krousar-thmey.org/wordpress/en/teide-2011/
Aug 122011
According to health workers unions, the ER department of the Hospital Universitario de Canarias (HUC) is in a state of “permanent collapse” and not just because the entire Endocrinology and Ophthalmology floor has been closed, but also because specialists’ holiday periods are not being covered by locums and so GPs are having to refer cases directly to the ER for those patients whose ailment can not wait until September.
Before the great August exodus started in Tenerife the Ministry of Health insisted that the planned closure of hospital beds would not affect emergency services, nor would the lack of budget to hire replacements for staff who were off sick or on holidays affect waiting lists.
However, the reality of the situation on the ground would appear to contradict these claims.
Intersindical Canaria spokesperson, Cati Darias said “The ER is over capacity on an ongoing basis, with patients in corridors as there are no beds available”
Three fishermen were rescued around dawn this morning off the coast of Lanzarote.
The men sent out a distress call at around 3am after their boat ran out of fuel, leaving them adrift a mile from shore, off Punta de Papagayo in the Yaiza municipality.
Marine Rescue Service and Guardia Civil craft were mobilised for the rescue and the three men, along with their boat, were towed to the safety of the nearby Rubicón marina, apparently, none the worse for their ordeal.
Aug 052011
Tenerife’s recycling complex in Arico is to get a new plant capable of recycling electrical appliances.
The new plant, which will be operational from October, will be able to reprocess up to 60,000 appliances, fridges, freezers and other electrical goods, a year.
Up until now, in order to comply with EU environmental regulations, such goods have been shipped to the mainland for recycling.
With the new plant, that will no longer be necessary, saving transport costs and, perhaps more importantly, creating more than 20 much-needed full-time jobs for local people.
Aug 042011
Seprona, the nature conservation arm of the Guardia Civil, have reached an agreement with the Tenerife College of Veterinarians in order to have access to their dog chip information database, so that Seprona officers can immediately identify the owners of dogs that have been abandoned, abused, or involved in accidents.
Vets estimate that 3,000 pets are abandoned in Tenerife every year. Just the one dog’s home at Valle Colino, which covers the island’s capital, takes in over 1,000 dogs annually, besides those rescued by the voluntary organisations in the South of the Island.
The president of the college Jorge de Miguel said: “We know that there are still a significant number of unidentified animals, although more and more pet owners are micro-chipping their pet, not only to avoid fines, but also to locate the animals more easily in case of loss.”
De Miguel went on to say that keeping a census of pet identification is the responsibility of the various municipalities.
“Some do well, some are OK and some perform the task very badly, with less than 20 per cent of councils maintaining a completely updated census,” he said.
Letters to the editor