A sad, sad sight

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR If you live in the area, you've seen something like these. The driest winter in most living memories has dried out practically all the citrus groves in the area, of which San Pablo de Buceite and San Martín del Tesorillo are the most prolific. Many growers had added avocado trees to their crops. To no avail. Some orange trees might survive if they're pruned back properly in the spring, but the avocados are very dead, and have to be replanted with new trees. These take about eight or nine years to produce fruit, once they have reached maturity. Still, there are always the subsidies... San Pablo and Tesorillo are about to be declared 'catastrophic areas'.

Broad band in Spain costs 10.8% more than the average in Europe

(Agencies) According to a report issued yesterday by the EU's Commission for Telecommunications Market, the cost in Spain of medium-speed broad band service (between 2 and 10 mgb, over 70% of all users) is almost 11% above the average of the best offers available in the rest of Europe. Also, the difference between the same service by Orange, the cheapest, and Telefónica (now Movistar), the most expensive is nearly €26. As for prices by Telefónica, the preponderant operator, in respect of other European operators (including Deutsche Telekom, KPN, BT, Eircom and Telecom Italia), the best offer by the Spanish operator for broand band + voice (i.e. national phone calls) averages €58.1 against €33.8, the average in Europe.