Dublin, Apr 28 (EFE) – The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, expressed his condolences on Wednesday for the murder in Burkina Faso of two Spanish journalists and an Irish environmental activist, while “strongly” condemning the “actions of those responsible for the attack”.

Coveney confirmed today in a statement that the deceased Irish citizen is Rory Young, co-founder and president of the NGO “Chengeta Wildlife”, dedicated to combating poaching.

“Young was part of a group that was attacked on Monday morning by unknown assailants in eastern Burkina Faso,” explained the head of diplomacy in Dublin, who expressed his condolences to the activist’s family and those of “the two Spanish citizens who lost their lives in this tragic incident.”

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in contact with Young’s family and continues to offer all possible consular assistance. We will continue to cooperate on this matter with the authorities and partners on the ground,” the note added.

According to Irish media reports today, Young was acting as a guide to the two murdered Spanish journalists, David Beriáin and Roberto Fraile, in the making of a documentary on poaching in African wildlife parks.

Burkina Faso authorities said that the three were traveling in a convoy consisting of a vehicle and motorcycles when at 9 a.m. local time they were attacked by armed individuals, apparently terrorists, who opened fire.

The assailants, the same sources added, kidnapped the foreigners and then killed them.

The consortium formed by the Spanish company, Australian fund Macquarie and Ireland’s John Sisk&Son has successfully completed the alliance they forged in 2018 for the campus

FCC has closed a project in Dublin (Ireland), together with the Australian fund Macquarie Capital and the local company John Sisk&Son Limited, valued at 220 million euros. The infrastructure consists of two buildings at the TU Dublin University of Technology (TUD) on the Grangegorman campus in Dublin (Ireland).

The Central Quad building has a floor area of 35,552 square meters and will house the academic activities and facilities required for a total of ten schools in the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Faculty of Engineering and Environment, and the Faculty of Arts and Tourism. The East Quad building has an area of 16,940 square meters and houses most of the academic activities and facilities required for the Faculty of Arts and Tourism.

The buildings have been built under a public-private partnership system and will provide university services to 10,000 students and staff in the Irish capital. This is a new award for Carlos Slim’s company in this market. FCC also executed the widening of the M-50 urban freeway from two to four lanes in each direction, which forms the ring road around which Dublin’s accesses to the city, and in particular to the airport and port, are articulated.

FCC is currently working on the design and construction of the new North Runway at Dublin airport. In the United Kingdom, FCC Construcción has built infrastructures such as the International Broadcast Center, which became the headquarters for media broadcasts at the London Olympic Games in 2012. In addition, the Spanish construction company built the Enniskillen Hospital in Northern Ireland.
FCC to strengthen its position after covid

These projects are a step towards turning the record around in 2020. In the covidm year FCC recorded a net profit of 262.2 million euros at the end of 2020, down 1.7% compared to 2019, due to exchange differences booked throughout the year, -51.3 million euros in 2020 compared to 14.8 million in 2019.

the gross operating profit (Ebitda) recorded an increase of 2.1% to 1,047.5 million. This increase is explained by the higher contribution in the concessions area, together with the increase in the result from the sale of surplus emission rights in the cement area, which offset the drop in construction.

FCC reached 6,158 million in revenues, 1.9% lower than in 2019. Revenues were supported by the good performance of the utilities activities (environment and water), thanks to their nature of essential services, which softened the contraction in the construction and cement areas, more affected by government restrictions since last March to combat the health crisis, to which was added a higher revenue contribution in concessions due to the change in the consolidation method of the concession company Cedinsa.

UEFA confirmed that Seville will replace Bilbao as the venue for the next European Championship, in which Munich remains as host and the matches that were to be played in Dublin will be played in St. Petersburg and London.

As decided by the UEFA Executive Committee meeting this Friday, the La Cartuja stadium in Seville will be the alternative venue to San Mamés in the competition, in which Munich has confirmed a minimum of 14,500 spectators to host matches.

UEFA explained that the four matches that were to be played in Bilbao, the Spanish national team’s three group stage matches in Group E and one in the round of 16, will be moved to Seville’s La Cartuja stadium, with the support of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, which has confirmed its intention to allow spectators at 30% of the stadium’s capacity.

“Following the decision of the local authorities, it became clear that it was highly unlikely that fans would be able to attend the matches that were scheduled to be played there. Therefore, with the assistance of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), UEFA proposed to move those matches to another venue in that host country, simply so that fans could attend the matches after a year without being able to watch live soccer in the stadiums,” UEFA stated.

In a statement, it said that “this decision will create a festive atmosphere at all matches in UEFA’s most important national team competition”.

Spain will therefore play in La Cartuja against Sweden on June 14, against Poland on June 19 and against Slovakia on June 23.

Two days ago, in a joint statement, the City Council of Bilbao, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the Basque Government announced the “unilateral” decision of UEFA, which they do not share, and announced that they will enforce the contract they signed with this organization to ask for financial compensation.

The UEFA Executive Committee also decided that the three Group E matches initially scheduled for Dublin (Poland-Slovakia, Sweden-Slovakia and Sweden-Poland) will be relocated to the St. Petersburg stadium, which will also host three Group B matches and one quarter-final.

The Round of 16 match that was also to be played in Dublin will be moved to London’s Wembley Stadium, which will host the semifinals (July 6 and 7) and the final (July 11).

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said it had “worked diligently with the host associations and local authorities to ensure a safe and festive environment for the matches” and was “very pleased to be able to welcome spectators to all matches to celebrate international soccer across the continent”.

UEFA expressed “its appreciation and gratitude to the cities of Bilbao and Dublin – both considered good venues to host future UEFA events – the national and regional governments of Spain and the Republic of Ireland, and all local stakeholders for their dedication, professionalism and efforts over the past years.”

He also thanked the Football Association of Ireland “for their excellent collaboration and hard work” and said he “looks forward to continuing to work with the remaining eleven host associations to organize the UEFA EURO 2020 matches,” which will be played from June 11 to July 11.

He also confirmed that all ticket purchasers for the matches to be played in Bilbao and Dublin will receive a full refund for the face value of their cancelled tickets and that they will have priority access, on a first-come, first-served basis, for the sale of the relocated matches.