Recent News in Brief for Costa de Almeria

Free masks ALMERIA’S provincial council began distributing 2.1 million free facemasks, commencing in Los Gallardos where every resident received two masks.  Distribution will continue in every municipality with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants while the remaining masks will go to Diputacion employees, social groups and employees of the PFEA agricultural programme.
Pandemic help NIJAR town hall paid out €499,698 last year to assist 923 self-employed residents who were affected by the coronavirus pandemic.  These grants were covered by the province-wide total of €9.751 million made available to 14,662 applicants that included direct aid as well as help with rents and overheads.
Disco brawl A MAN with six previous convictions, two of them for bodily harm, received a 14-year sentence for knifing two disco doormen in Mojacar in 2018. He and a group of friends started a fight that culminated in the stabbing after they were asked to leave by the security guards.
Going far POPE FRANCIS appointed Almeria-born Juan Antonio Cruz Serrano as the Vatican’s Permanent Observer to the Organisation of American States (OAS). Fr Cruz Serrano, who was ordained in 2001 and entered the Vatican’s diplomatic service in 2004, is qualified in Canon Law and speaks English, Italian, French and German.
Far off ACCORDING to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) by January 1ast year there were 99,440 Almerienses living outside the region compared with 100,809 in 2019.  Almost 50 per cent (50,846) live in Cataluña, followed by the Valencian Community (13,013), Murcia (11,573) and Madrid (10,436).
Lucky numbers ALTHOUGH no-one took the Primitiva Lottery’s first prize on February 4, a Garrucha resident was one of three punters who each won a second prize of €78,477 for five correct numbers, plus the complementary number.  The coupon was processed in the Lottery Administration in Garrucha’s Calle Mayor.