SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Saturday July 24 2010 HUNDREDS turned out on Saturday for the annual re-enactment of the defence of Tenerife's capital from an invading British fleet. by JAMES TWEEDIE The event commemorates the failed attempt on July 25 1897 by British forces led by Admiral Horatio Nelson to capture the Canary islands from Spain. Nelson lost his right arm to a Spanish cannon while leading the landings at the port of Santa Cruz. The force of 1,000 British soldiers was defeated by the port's garrison under general Antonio Gutiérrez, suffering several hundred casualties, and withdrew under a truce. Ironically, Britain later came to Spain and Portugal's aid during the Peninsular War or Spanish War of Independence after those nations were conquered by France during the Napoleonic Wars. Re-enactors from Spain and Britain played the roles of the attackers and defenders in mock battles around the port-side San Juan castle at noon and later that night in Calle la Noria an...

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Saturday July 10 2010 HUNDREDS marched through Tenerife's capital Santa Cruz on Saturday in support of Western Sahara's struggle for national liberation. by JAMES TWEEDIE The demonstration, organised by the Tenerife Platform in Support of the Referendum, called on the kingdom of Morocco to honour its pledge to hold a vote on the independence of the north-west African nation less than 100 miles from the Canaries. Protesters also demanded the release of Sahrawi political prisoners in Moroccan jails, a moratorium on arms sales to the kingdom and a halt to fishing in Sahrawi waters by Spanish trawler fleets – a concession negotiated by the current Socialist Workers' Party government of prime minister José Luis Zapatero. Members of Sahrawi national liberation movement POLISARIO Front were joined by trade unionists the United Left (IU) party, the Canarian Committee for Solidarity with the Peoples (CCSP) and campaign umbrella group Assembly for Tenerife (A...

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Wednesday July 7 2010 A MONSTER pothole in Tenerife's capital Santa Cruz remains unrepaired more than five months after it appeared. by JAMES TWEEDIE The huge sink-hole in a residential street in the city's Conservatorio neighbourhood measures about six metres by three metres (20 by 10 feet) across and three metres (10 feet) deep. It has lain open since the heavy rain storm of February 1 2010 which caused severe flooding and property damage across the island. Broken pipes and torn electric cables jut and trail from the sides of the yawning pit, where rubbish has been dumped and plants have taken root. Santa Cruz council has placed safety barriers around the crumbling edges of the hole, but nothing more. A local woman said it was an “embarrassment” that the council had failed to fill in and resurface the hole and others in the city's streets almost half a year since the storm.

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Wednesday July 7 2010 A MONSTER pothole in Tenerife's capital Santa Cruz remains unrepaired more than five months after it appeared. by JAMES TWEEDIE The huge sink-hole in a residential street in the city's Conservatorio neighbourhood measures about six metres by three metres (20 by 10 feet) across and three metres (10 feet) deep. It has lain open since the heavy rain storm of February 1 2010 which caused severe flooding and property damage across the island. Broken pipes and torn electric cables jut and trail from the sides of the yawning pit, where rubbish has been dumped and plants have taken root. Santa Cruz council has placed safety barriers around the crumbling edges of the hole, but nothing more. A local woman said it was an “embarrassment” that the council had failed to fill in and resurface the hole and others in the city's streets almost half a year since the storm.