The company that developed Manchester’s Trafford Centre shopping complex is to try and recreate the plans on the Costa del Sol.

Peel Holdings has been given the go ahead to build a shopping mall similar in design to the one in north-west England, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Torremolinos will be the location for the 80-acre site, which is said to cost £500 million to construct.

Lindsey Ashworth, who is set to lead the project, told the newspaper: “While there will obviously be a flavour of the original Trafford Centre, the major difference is, because it’s in a warm climate, it can be outward-facing.”

The company representative added that bars and restaurants around the complex will have terracing, while some will be constructed around a lake.

Millions of Britons head to the Costa del Sol for their holidays every year, while many decide to purchase property in this part of Spain.

A new book has been written highlighting the famous names that have had some association with the beautiful village of Churriana, according to reports.

Local historian Cristobal Salazar has written a book Personajes de Churriana, which tells the tale of the Malaga district and the characters that have come from it.

Among the famous names are writer Ernest Hemingway who celebrated his 60th birthday at La Consula in July 1959.

Many influential names have been attracted by Churriana’s estates including El Retiro and San Javier.

Among them are Julio Caro Baroja, an anthropologist and the nephew of writer Pio Baroja.

Poet Maria Victoria Atenda and musician Francisco Martin Pino were some of the names who attended the launch of the book at Malaga City Hall.

The city hall has produced a thousand copies of the book, which can be purchased from the Junta de Distrito offices.

Malaga is full of history, with a number of exhibitions taking place throughout the year. One such exhibition is that of the Malaga artist Rafael Perez Estrada, which opened on April 23rd 2003 in the lower floor gallery of the Municipal Archives, Almeda Principal.

Leap year babies are being invited to celebrate their unusual birth dates together in style by attending a huge party in Malaga this year.

The Leap Association of people born on February 29th is organising the event, which hopes to bring together as many leap year babies as possible.

It is hoped that the get-together will get into the Guinness World Records for the highest number of people born on February 29th getting together in the same place.

The current record is held the gathering of 340 leap year babies which took place in Norway.

The celebration will be held at the La Brasa restaurant in the Alameda Principal.

Malaga is a great place to celebrate in style and has been increasing in popularity in recent years, since the opening of its Picasso Museum in 2003.

Over the next ten years, it is expected that many improvements will be made to the city as it vies for the title of European Culture Capital in the year 2016.

Valencia has opened a unique 80,000 sqm modern zoo at the Parque de Cabecera.

More than 4,000 different animals coming from around 250 different species live at the zoo.

Some of the zoo’s inhabitants have come from Valencia Zoo, while a number of others have been donated by different zoos around Europe, including donations from France, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.

 
The famous Valencia Zoo, set in the Viveros gardens has been open since 1965, and as well as housing large mammals and birds, it also has a collection of more than 50 species of fish.

Dubbed Bioparc Valencia, the zoo is an ‘immersion zoo’ in which the animals’ natural habits are reproduced in detail in respect of their inhabitants.

Habitats include recreations of Equatorial Africa, the Americas and dry savannahs.

It is hoped that visitors to the zoo will enjoy an educational visit and understand the need and importance of animal preservation.

The zoo is open daily between 10:00 and 18:00 or 21:00 local time, depending on the season.

The regional government of Andalucia is attempting to make the area safer by banning the ownership of dangerous animals.

Under the new system, large reptiles, poisonous insects and large primates will not be allowed in Andalucian households and people who flout the law could be hit with a fine of €115,000

People living in the region who already own such pets will be given a six-month period to take the forbidden animal to their local city hall and hand it over, Homes Worldwide reports.

Andalucia is the first region in Spain to introduce this type of legislation and officials hope that the new law will prevent deadly species such as snakes from escaping into rural areas and breeding.

The regional government believes that the regulations should enable homeowners on the Costa del Sol to live in a safer environment.

According to southern Spanish newspaper Sur, the new regulations also include an extensive reclassification of dangerous dog categories.

Thousands of tourists are expected to flock to the Spanish city of Valencia next month to witness the spectacular Las Fallas festival and take part in the celebrations.

Each year hundreds of papier-mache figures mounted over wooden frames are burnt as part of a pagan ritual that pays tribute to the coming of the spring solstice.

 As well as bonfires and exciting pyrotechnics, the event will also feature colourful parades and lively regional music, with an impressive fireworks display over the Turia River rounding off the festivities.

The atmosphere of the festival is designed to symbolise flowering gardens and the arrival of spring, which signals a change in the weather and brings locals and tourists alike out into the streets.

Those with rental properties in Spain will be looking to benefit from an increase in visitor numbers when the festival, which continues to grow in popularity each year, takes place between March 15th and 19th.

British people with homes in Spain may be interested to learn that the government is planning to increase the level of English language teaching in the country’s schools.

Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has revealed that, under new education proposals, 15 per cent of all classes will be taught in English within four years’ time, according to Typically Spanish.

Recognising that the language often referred to in Iberia as “the language of Shakespeare” is becoming increasingly important in the global economy, the prime minister said that the development of English lessons would enable Spanish students to compete on the world stage.

Unveiling his plans at an event in Madrid, Mr Zapatero stated that 12,000 native English teachers will be employed in Spain under the new system, while 20,000 Spanish people who currently teach the language will take courses in an English-speaking country to improve their knowledge.

He added that the extra teaching would benefit children from modest backgrounds who cannot afford to develop their language skills in other ways.

“There are families who can easily pay for their children to travel or study abroad, but our priority is for those who cannot,” Mr Zapatero explained.

According to figures released by the Junta de Andalucia last year, 22.8 per cent of children attending school in Marbella are of non-Spanish nationality.

Ski resorts in Spain are becoming more popular with winter holidaymakers while maintaining their competitive prices, it has been claimed.

According to Homes Worldwide, Spain’s ski resorts were largely “ignored by anyone outside the country” until recently, but are now gaining a reputation as some of the best skiing locations in Europe.

In addition, resorts such as those in the Sierra Nevada have a unique selling point which other popular skiing destinations such as France and Switzerland cannot compete with - their proximity to the Costa del Sol means that holidaymakers can take to the slopes and then sunbathe on the beach a couple of hours later.

The website stated: “If you are thinking of investing in a Spanish property, perhaps its time to consider the slopes as well as the costas.”

Property owners may not have to make this choice, however, as the relatively short distance from the Sierra Nevada National Park to Costa del Sol locations such as Malaga and Velez-Malaga allows people to enjoy the best of both worlds - winter snow and summer sun.

Foreign buyers now account for one in seven properties sold in Malaga province, according to figures recently reported by southern Spanish newspaper Sur.

The new high-speed rail connection between Madrid and Barcelona has made its inaugural journey today (February 20th).

According to Typically Spanish, the new service has already proved to be the most popular AVE line yet, with 70,000 tickets sold by the rail operator since they were made available last Thursday (February 14th).

Ranging in price from €40.80 (£30.85) to €163.50, tickets can be conveniently booked on the internet and allow buyers access to a journey time of just two hours and 38 minutes between the two cities.

AVE plans to shorten this travel time even further in the future once additional safety measures are finalised, the website reports.

The launch of the Madrid-Barcelona service means that, for those who do not like to fly, the Catalan capital can now be reached from the Costa del Sol by train in just over five hours. This is because the duration of the Madrid-Malaga AVE service, opened in December 2007, is just two hours and 30 minutes.

Plans for a new AVE station at Alicante are currently being developed, Typically Spanish reported last week.

The strict gambling restrictions currently in place in Spain are to be relaxed over the next few months, it has emerged.

Regional governments in Madrid and northern Spain have already given the go-ahead for new betting shops, with authorities in other parts of the country - including southern areas such the Costa del Sol - expected to follow suit.

This means that sport-loving British expatriates living in Spain may soon be able to take a punt on their favourite team, although betting regulations will remain stricter than in the UK, the Independent reports.

Gamblers will only be able to place bets on sporting events, while a maximum wager of €500,000 (£371,000) will be enforced.

“No one is going to get rich but the fun will be in ‘pitting my opinion against yours’,” said Emma Mateos, marketing director at Spanish gaming company Victoria SA.

“It is simply an opportunity to live the emotion of the sport more intensely,” she added.

Football and basketball are the two most popular sports in Spain, although with the Costa del Sol the country also boasts one of the world’s premier locations for golfers.