More than 10,000 people completed yesterday’s Barcelona marathon, which has become the fastest in Spain (read article in Castilian here, El Periodico). Now in its 30th year, the annual run (which wasn’t held in 2005 due to a disagreement between the city council and the then organiser of the event, la Comissió Marathon Catalunya) has become one of the most popular in the Iberian peninsula and is aiming to reach the global success of runs such as those in New York and London. Since 2006, when a new organising group took over, made up of the Catalan company RPM and the French ASO, its profile has improved significantly and yesterday’s event saw records broken in terms of the number of people taking part—10,550 started the course (of 12,162 who had registered) and 10,238 managed to finish the 42-kilometre run; around 100,000 are estimated to have watched and cheered on those taking part.

A new law that aims to control the way that private foundations use public money is being drawn up by the Catalan ministry of Justice, following the fraud scandal at the Palau de la Música Catalana (read article in Catalan here, Avui). The case, which saw the accused Fèlix Millet and Jordi Montull steal an estimated €35 million from the funds of the Catalan institution, highlighted notable inadequacies in the way that the use of government grants, which represent around 48 percent of their budgets, are monitored by the Generalitat. The new Foundations Protectorate law will also apply in cases to where money is moved between foundations and other private organisations. The law has passed through its initial stages and is due to arrive before the Consell Tècnic of the Generalitat (the step before approval of its implementation) in April.

Also in the news: Barcelona welcomes permanent secretary of the Mediterranean Union (read full article in Castilian here, La Vanguardia); European cinemas and film distributors come out against proposed Catalan film law (read full article in Castilian here, El Periodico); Catalan president predicts Catalunya will come out of crisis earlier than rest of Spain (read full article in Catalan here, Avui)