Picardo pushes ahead with Madrid speech

Today

The Gibraltar Government plans to side-step attempts to stop Chief Minister Fabian Picardo from addressing an audience in Madrid and will host the event itself.
Mr Picardo had been due to address the prestigious Nueva Economia Forum on February 3 but the invitation was withdrawn for what the organisers described as “reasons of State”.

Tradewise 2015 attracts world No 4

Today

Ranked fourth in the world, Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov, is the highest rated player ever to take part in Gibraltar at the Tradewise International Chess Festival.
Topalov, Nakamura, and Hou Yifan are the big names in the thirteenth edition of the Festival which begins today at the Caleta Hotel.
“For the world No. 3 Veselin Topalov to play in Gibraltar is an indication of how far we have come in 13 years,” emphasises tournament director Stuart Conquest.

Gibraltar would have thwarted any ‘Sintra process’ – Canepa

Today - by Dominique Searle

A political torpedo would have ensured that Anglo-Spanish talks planned for April 3 1982 in Sintra, Portugal would not have put UK and Spain on track for an “irreversible” agreement on Gibraltar, as has been claimed by former Spanish diplomat Jose Cuenca.
Adolfo Canepa, now Speaker but at that time Chief Minister Sir Joshua Hassan’s right hand man, told the Chronicle yesterday that the Gibraltar delegation - including the then Governor Sir William Jackson - would have simply walked out.
“I cannot see that any Gibraltar delegation would have agreed to any irreversible process for an irreversible solution,” Mr Canepa says emphatically.
“If they had attempted to move on that kind of process we would have simply walked out.”

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Gib frontier ‘should have been demolished” - diplomat

Today

Jose Cuenca, the Spanish diplomat who was Director for Europe in the 1980s under Foreign Minister ​José Pedro Pérez-Llorca has declared that he believes that the frontier should never have been closed in 1969 but “nor should it have been opened.”
Sr Cuenca recently revealed in his autobiography how close UK and Spain were to taking agreed papers to a ministerial meeting in Sintra that would have “led irreversibly to an irreversible solution on Gibraltar.”

SLEEPING BEAUTY PANTO FULL CAST

Today

The Sleeping Beauty pantomime is back this week at the City Hall by the Trafalgar Theatre Group. With a large cast the panto resumes this lively action and audience interaction on Thursday, 7.30pm. Pic: Johnny Bugeja
 

Spain must comply with border findings Garcia tells Commission

Today

The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia has told the European Commission that Gibraltar has now complied with all the recommendations made to it in relation to the border and that it is about time that Spain complied with those made to them. These comments were made during the last day of Dr Garcia’s visit to Brussels in a meeting with the Director General of Home Affairs, whose department is responsible for the investigation into the frontier. He briefed them and presented a dossier for December 2014.

Dramatic fire at Laguna Estate

Saturday, 24th January 2015

A fire broke out in a ground floor flat in Maidstone House, Laguna Estate, yesterday morning and was brought under control within a half hour.
Some residents were evacuated and one was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene.
Several Royal Gibraltar Police officers were also treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. There were no further injuries.
The fire saw residents escaping the building via windows and balconies and using the scaffolding made their way to the roadside.
An investigation into how the blaze started has begun.

UK and No 6 decry Margallo interference with free speech

Saturday, 24th January 2015 - by Dominique Searle

Spain’s top debating society Nueva Economía Fórum’s decision to call off a planned presentation by Chief Minister Fabian Picardo in the country’s capital sent shockwaves through democratic circles yesterday. A Spanish MP has tabled a question in the Madrid parliament.
As the Chronicle broke the news that there was evidence that Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo had personally intervened to get the talk halted there was condemnation from the British Government.

Govt and Opposition clash over ‘lightbulb’ safety

Saturday, 24th January 2015

The GSD yesterday expressed concern that refurbishment work on Resolution House in Laguna Estate was being carried out without concern for the health and safety of residents.
The Opposition said it was reacting to complaints it had received from tenants in the building.
But the intervention drew a sharp rebuttal from the Gibraltar Government, which said the only thing that had occurred in the building was that a bulb had blown.
It accused the Opposition of being against the refurbishment of Gibraltar’s older housing estates.

Fixed term contracts in the care sector

Saturday, 24th January 2015

The Government has stated that a small number of employees in the Care Agency with imminently expiring fixed term contracts which will not be extended will not be dismissed.
In a statement the Government criticised what ‘those who are trying to falsely sensationalise the situation’ were attempting to insinuate. x