Stinking, burning rubbish fouls Spain's sherry city

JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA, Spain (AFP) - Stinking, smoking piles of garbage fouled the air Wednesday after locals burned bins in frustration at a strike by dustmen in the elegant Spanish city that gave the world sherry.

Impatience at the three-week strike over job cuts boiled over this week, prompting residents to set fire to some of the mountains of rotting waste that have piled up in the streets of the southern town of Jerez de la Frontera.

"It's disgusting to walk round here. It's horrifying," said Josefa Inestal, 55, a local resident in the district of Mopu, passing a pile of broken bin bags with their contents spilling out.

"I've seen rats this big," he added.