Costa Bandidos

U.S. court backs Spain over $500M sea treasure

2012-02-02T07:41:00.001Z

"With the ruling by the appeals court, the process begins to recover all of the coins taken illegally" from the sunken ship, Spain's Culture Ministry said in a statement. Odyssey, which can still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, said in a statement, "Currently, no final order has been issued in the case and it would be premature to comment at this time." The battle royal began after Odyssey announced in 2007 it had found the sunken treasure. It quickly laid claim to the coins, put them in crates and said it flew them to a discreet, well-guarded location in the United States. Spain soon filed suit in a federal court in Tampa, Florida, also claiming the treasure. Spain claims $500 million sunken treasure Spain says its navy warship Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes was carrying the coins. The Mercedes, a 34-gun frigate, left Peru in 1804 and crossed the Atlantic to within a day's sail from Spain when British ships attacked the Spanish fleet. In the ensuing Battle of Cape St. Mary, south of Portugal, the Mercedes exploded after being hit in its power magazine, according to the Spanish government's filing to the Florida court. The federal court in Tampa in 2009 ruled in favor of Spain's claim to the treasure, but Odyssey took the case to the federal appeals court in Atlanta, which ruled last September to uphold the lower court's ruling. At the end of that 53-page ruling, the three-judge appeals panel wrote, "For the foregoing reasons, the district court did not err when it ordered Odyssey to release the recovered" items to the custody of Spain, according to a copy of the order viewed by CNN. Since then, Odyssey has filed various motions at the appeals court to overturn or delay the ruling, said James Goold, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who is representing Spain in the case. But on Tuesday, the appeals court denied an Odyssey motion, the court's chief deputy clerk, Amy Nerenberg, told CNN by phone from Atlanta. Goold, who spoke to CNN by phone from Washington, said it appears that Odyssey's only possible appeal now would be to the U.S. Supreme Court. That court agrees to hear only a tiny portion of the cases presented to it. The appeals court is expected to send the case in the coming days back to the federal court in Tampa, which would establish and supervise the procedures for sending the coins to Spain, Goold said. Spain believes that the main part of the nearly 600,000 coins are currently in Florida, Goold said. Spain's Culture Minister, Jose Ignaico Wert, told CNN in Madrid on Wednesday that the case was never really about the money. "We're not going to use this money for purposes other than artistic exhibition, but this is something that enriches our material, artistic capital and it has to be appreciated as such," Wert said in an interview. He said the coins would be exhibited in Spanish museums. Peru has also followed this case. The silver and gold came from Latin America when Peru was a Spanish colony. "Formally, they haven't claimed anything, but we are completely open to consider the possibility of distributing some part of the treasure also among the Latin American museums," Wert said. The treasure includes a vast trove of coins, included fabled "pieces of eight," some minted in 1803 in Lima, Peru, Spanish officials said at a 2008 news conference. The treasure already has crossed the Atlantic ocean twice -- by ship in 1804 and then by plane in the other direction just a few years ago. Spanish officials hope it might finally arrive now for the first time on the Spanish mainland.

Legionnaires' Disease: Pensioners Hospitalised After Spain Holiday, Benidorm

2012-02-02T07:36:00.001Z

nine British pensioners have received hospital treatment for Legionnaires' Disease after a stay at Spanish hotel, it has been reported. A 76-year-old man is in an intensive care unit at the Benidorm Clinic, two more are being treated on regular wards while a fourth has already been allowed home. Dr Delfin Arzua from the clinic said: "Four British holidaymakers were admitted with symptoms of pneumonia and tests have confirmed Legionnaires' disease." Five more pensioners were treated in UK hospitals after suffering symptoms when they returned home from Spain. They all fell ill after holidaying at the four-star AR Diamante Beach hotel in Calpe, on the Costa Blanca, local journalist Tom Worden told Sky News. Legionnaires' disease is a potentially fatal form of pneumonia most likely to affect the elderly or ill. People catch the disease by inhaling small droplets of water from the air which contain the bacteria. A spokesman for travel agent Saga said holidaymakers were moved to another nearby hotel after the cases were reported and a British scientist was sent to investigate the suspected outbreak. The scientist found no trace of the bug in the hotel but he did recommend some changes to the plumbing. A spokeswoman for the Alicante health authority said: "Once the alert was raised the entire water and sanitation structure of the hotel was cleaned. "As the incubation period is 10 to 12 days we cannot rule out new cases in the next few days."

Amy Winehouse coroner 'not qualified'

2012-02-02T00:07:00.001Z

The family of singer Amy Winehouse have said they are "taking advice" following news that the coroner who oversaw her inquest has resigned. Camden Council has confirmed that Suzanne Greenaway had stood down because she had not been a lawyer in the UK for the required five years. The council said she had been appointed "in error" by her husband Andrew Reid, the coroner for inner north London. Ms Greenaway ruled that Winehouse, 27, died from accidental alcohol poisoning. She returned a verdict of misadventure. The Office for Judicial Complaints has begun an inquiry into Dr Reid's conduct. Letter of apology In a statement, Winehouse's relatives said: "The Winehouse family is taking advice on the implications of this and will decide if any further discussion with the authorities is needed." Ms Greenaway qualified in Australia in 1999 in September and was a member of the Supreme Court there but she had not worked as a lawyer for the required time in the UK, a Camden Council spokesman said. The spokesman added that the Winehouse inquest verdict remained legal and would only be judged illegal if it was challenged and subsequently overturned by the High Court. Amy Winehouse's father leaves St Pancras Coroners Court Dr Reid said he was writing to all of the families affected to apologise. He said: "While I am confident that all of the inquests handled were done so correctly, I apologise if this matter causes distress to the families and friends of the deceased." He has offered to hold the inquests over again if the families of the deceased request it. During her time as deputy assistant coroner, Ms Greenaway conducted 12 inquests in Camden, but mainly worked from Poplar Coroner's Court. Coroners are appointed by the Ministry of Justice who then interview and appoint their own staff, including in the case of Dr Reid, his assistant deputy coroner. Under the Coroners Act, he must then notify the local authority although it has no power of scrutiny over appointments, a Camden Council spokesman said. The inquest into Winehouse's death heard she was more than five times the drink-drive limit when she died on 23 July. Ms Greenway had said the "unintended consequence" of Winehouse drinking so much alcohol was her "sudden and unexpected death". Three empty vodka bottles, two large and one small, were found at her flat, St Pancras Coroner's Court heard.

The great Asian gold theft crisis

2012-02-01T23:37:00.001Z

Two small faces pull the curtain back in a side room and peer round to see who is at the door. After they run back inside, their mother, Mrs Rashid, unlocks the front door. Five weeks ago, she came home one evening to find the door ajar. The downstairs floor of her house was relatively untouched but upstairs the bedrooms had been ransacked – drawers opened, wardrobes emptied, clothes and belongings scattered everywhere. "It was such a huge shock," she says, sitting on the sofa, her voice breaking slightly. Her husband, Mr Rashid (neither want to give their full names), a big man sitting across the room, shakes his head. "They took it all," he says. The thieves who broke into this semi-detached house in Earley, near Reading, stole around £70,000-worth of gold jewellery. To those who are not from a south Asian family, it might seem remarkable to own so much valuable jewellery, but families such as the Rashids (Mr Rashid runs a small business) live in ordinary houses and are not particularly wealthy. Their gold collection – elaborate necklaces, rings, earrings and bangles – is treasure that has been handed down from generations of their families in Pakistan or bought as wedding gifts. It's our savings, our security, says Mrs Rashid, visibly upset. If, in future, the family needed money, they would have sold some pieces. "It's like paying a mortgage for 20 years and then having a house worth thousands of pounds afterwards – it's the same thing with gold," she says. "Our parents gave it to us, we would have given it to our children, they would have given it to their children," says her husband. They tried to put their gold in the bank, but "there were no lockers available. Everyone is looking for one." With other investments looking distinctly shaky in the economic crisis, last year gold prices reached record levels. In the autumn, an ounce reached a peak price of £1,194; today it is worth around £1,100 and analysts predict it could reach a new peak later this year or early next, as people seek safer investments, and demand for gold jewellery rises with the growing middle-classes in India. Asian gold (sometimes called Indian gold) is a broad term that covers jewellery bought and held by south Asian families, and often passed down through the generations. It tends to be the highest quality – often 24 carats, the purest gold – and it has vastly increased in value, sometimes to the point where a family can't afford to insure it. Thieves know that some south Asian families may have a large collection of gold at home, and it is these houses they target. There are no figures for the number of gold thefts, let alone the theft of Asian gold, but everyone I speak to believes the number of robberies is increasing. Last year, several police forces in areas where there is a large Asian community, such as Leicester and Slough, ran awareness campaigns after a spate of opportunistic robberies – there have been several reports of women who have had their gold jewellery snatched in the street – and burglaries. For a while, an attempted gold theft was a line of inquiry in the murders of Carole and Avtar Kolar in Birmingham in January, though the police later ruled this out. Mr Rashid shows me the window in the downstairs bathroom that was broken, and where the thieves must have got in. He thinks the house was being watched, because he noticed a silver car outside the front some days before. "My family is so frightened," he says. "My kids won't go upstairs on their own, it's a completely different life since it happened." They feel the police have not been very supportive, and they have little hope the perpetrators will be caught. "I was already upset, and a policeman said: 'Your gold must have been melted down by now,'" says Mrs Rashid. "I was even more upset when he said that." The Rashids know of several other families in the area who have been burgled. "A few watches and a BlackBerry were taken, but they were looking for gold," says Vikas Tandon, whose house in the area was broken into in September. "They seemed to know where to look – I am confident they used metal detectors. There were bowls of jewellery in one of the rooms, with real gold and artificial jewellery mixed in together. They only took the gold, so they knew what they were looking for." Tandon has now installed CCTV cameras "to give the family more confidence. The loss of the gold itself is bad, but the psychological after-effects of being burgled are worse. Everyone is scared." A local councillor, Tahir Maher, says: "A lot of residents have been very badly affected. It started in the summer. It is very much Asian families who are being targeted." In one day, he says, five homes in the area were burgled and gold stolen. He went door-to-door warning families to keep their gold in safes, or put it in the bank, "although banks have started to stop giving people safe deposit boxes, so people are keeping their gold at home". It isn't just homes that are targeted. This month, in Bradford, two men wearing balaclavas stole bagfuls of gold worth up to £100,000 – a third man had driven a 4x4 into the back of a jewellers as it was closing up. The terrified staff fled. In areas of Birmingham where there are a large number of Asian jewellers, several shops have been robbed. In the Handsworth area, where many south Asian people come to buy jewellery, there are numerous jewellers. Wedding sets – an elaborate necklace and earrings in 22-carat gold – can cost upwards of £5,000 for a fairly basic design, though the sets I see on display in many of the shops are much cheaper, lesser quality versions. Most of the jewellers have CCTV cameras and metal shutters. One of the jewellers I go into is protected by cameras, a metal grille, bulletproof glass and two time-lock doors. Another jewellers across the road was robbed last year during the day by three armed men. "There were customers in the shop," says the owner, who does not want to be named and is reluctant to go into details. He says there is an increased level of fear among jewellers specialising in Asian gold. "There is a fear daily. This is what we are living with now." Nigel Blackburn is chairman of Lois Jewellery, one of the biggest gold buyers in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. The staff behind the counters are busy dealing with a steady stream of customers bringing everything from random old bits of broken chains and odd earrings, to cases full of gold jewellery. It is weighed, the quality gauged, and cash is handed over. I watch some people leave with bundles of notes – one man, who has brought in several kilos of gold, walks out on to the street with nearly £75,000 in £50 notes stuffed into a plastic carrier bag. Blackburn's company buys £4-5m worth of gold every week, and about £500,000 of that is Asian gold. Much of it comes from jewellers wanting to get rid of stock, from owners selling pieces and from smaller dealers selling it on. He shows me a tub of bangles ready for smelting (once molten, they are poured into a mould and come out as gold bars). The prices have rocketed. Six years ago a kilo of Asian gold jewellery would have fetched £6,000; now it is worth £30,000. How much of it is stolen? Hopefully none of it, he says. His staff do what they can – sellers fill out a form before their gold can be bought – but he says: "ID means nothing these days – criminals can forge anything." Mainly his staff rely on judgment. "If someone brings in a gold chain that has been snapped, it could have been pulled off someone's neck," he says. "If someone is out there" – he points to the timelock door where people can be seen before they are admitted – "and they look nervous or they just don't look 'right', that will raise alarm bells. We will not buy from anybody we're not sure of. There are unscrupulous [dealers] round here. They buy it, they melt it and then you can't prove anything." Many of the dealers have smelting equipment, and it can be done in a matter of minutes. Inevitably, sometimes stolen gold "slips through the net. But we've got the CCTV to give the police. We have cameras trained on the scales, so we film everything we buy, and the people who sell it." He works closely with the police and they are called any time he is suspicious of somebody; he was responsible for 14 arrests one week. If there's a robbery, especially in the Midlands, he will be alerted, "so we know what to look out for". Another jeweller in the area who buys gold says she knows of dealers who don't care if they buy stolen gold. She thinks she has been offered stolen Asian gold in the past, "but I refused to buy it. I don't want to make my money in a dishonest way." But there are numerous ways to easily sell gold with few questions asked. "There are places in shopping centres that will buy gold and pay good prices. Even Tesco now buys it," says one jeweller. There is also a wealth of online scrap gold dealers who will pay upwards of £800 an ounce for the finest quality (usually Asian) gold – simply send the jewellery off in an envelope and wait for money to be sent back. "One of the issues is that gold jewellery is often not traceable," says Paul Uppal, MP for Wolverhampton South West, who has taken an interest in the issue of gold theft. "Constituents had spoken about it, and also coming from an Asian family it was word-of-mouth as well. At the moment, it's easy to smelt the gold down and sell it off." Gold sales aren't covered under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act, which requires dealers to keep detailed records of metal received; many think the act is inadequate. It could be updated later this year if a current six-month pilot scheme is a success, but it isn't clear if precious metals will be included. "Anyone can walk into a jewellers and the gold can be smelted down within 20 minutes," says Uppal. "There needs to be some sort of audit trail. I've mentioned it to ministers whenever I can but the problem is, it seems to be viewed in the grand scheme of metal theft. This is quite nuanced, and very specific to the Asian community as well." In Earley, councillor Maher has helped set up a neighbourhood watch-style group aimed at the Asian community worried about gold burglaries. It is still a new scheme, but he says it is growing. "People are looking out for each other," he says. He is working with the police closely because he says his big fear is that "people may take matters into their own hands in a bad way". The way he talks makes it sound like a community under attack – Maher knows of families who have lost tens of thousands of pounds' worth of gold, including elderly people, a single mother and another woman who miscarried after discovering her house had been broken into. "People are living in fear. Mothers were scared to be at home with their children in the day, and older people were frightened of being attacked in the street or followed home," he says. "There is a lot of mistrust. This has cost the community a lot."

Malaya case hears dramatic statement from Fidel San Román

2012-02-01T08:34:00.001Z

The constructor, Fidel San Román, who is now 72, on Monday ratified, one by one, all the payments which the prosecutor considers he made to Juan Antonio Roca, the man who was the Municipal Real Estate Assessor in Marbella Town Hall. As the Malaya case continues in Málaga, the amounts paid by San Román totalled 3.08 million € and were given in exchange for first occupancy licences for the properties he had built in the town. It was a dramatic statement to the court. ‘When the homes were ready to be handed over to the purchasers, the Town Hall told us that the money was needed, and if not paid, things could not move forward’, he said talking about a development of 800 apartments. He told the court that in 2005 alone he paid Roca more than three million € in ‘white physical cash taken out of the accounts of his companies’, and that the payments were normally made in Roca office in Marbella, but sometimes in Madrid. It’s a direct contradiction of claims made by Roca in the case so far. Roca has admitted receiving payments from Fidel San Román, as well as Aifos and Construcciones Salamanca, but said the payments were not made for favours but for ‘advisory work’. Román dismissed this saying his family business had never paid for advisors. The developer is presenting himself now as a victim of blackmail. Not paying would have been ‘business suicide’ and added that he knew that he doing something bad, but that he did not have any other option. The prosecutor is asking for a nine year prison sentence and 48 million € fine for San Román on charges of bribery and money laundering.

Five Britons in court in UK for Mallorca pyramid fraud

2012-02-01T08:28:00.001Z

Five British citizens are in court in the United Kingdom shortly for having allegedly set up a pyramid selling fraud which resulted in 70 residents of Calvià on Mallorca being defrauded out of 12 million €. They are alleged to have captured 150 investors in several countries, promising enormous profits on the stock market from a company called Gilher Inc. The accused are charged with massive fraud, money laundering in Panama and the Seychelles, although they are all claiming innocence. The Serious Fraud Office says the operation started in 2001 and has named the main accused as 60 year old John Hirst, from Brighouse, and Richard John Pollet from Poole, both of whom had luxury villas in Calvià with an active social life. They were members of Mallorca Cricket Club and the Rotary Club, and they offered interest of up to 18%. It was 1.5% return per month, making 18% per annum, and a 2% bonus was paid if invested for a year. Police say that they managed to capture as many as 70 British residents of Mallorca, mostly retired people who often handed over their life savings and sums of between 11,000 and 223,000 €. Similar numbers of victims were seen in France and the United States, who paid over some 12 million € in total under the promise of large profits. Problems started at the end of 2009 when the first complaints about fraud were seen. Hirst and Pollet have both denied the charges when they appeared at Bradford Crown Court in a plea and case-management hearing. Hirst pleaded not guilty to money laundering linked to a 33,000 pound transfer from the Bank of Cyprus to Gilher Inc, and a 428,000 pound investment in Last Second Tickets Limited. His wife Linda, pleaded not guilty to various money laundering charges including one related to the purchase of a 552,000 pound house with her daughter Zoe in Send, Surrey in 2008. All five defendants were granted bail until the pre-trial hearing which is expected on April 20, and Judge Durham Hall has confirmed the trial date has been set for June 18. It’s expected to last eight weeks.

Canada has joined Colombia as a leading exporter of synthetic or designer drugs, flooding the global market on an almost unprecedented scale

2012-01-29T22:48:00.001Z

Canada has joined Colombia as a leading exporter of synthetic or designer drugs, flooding the global market on an almost unprecedented scale, police say. The RCMP have seized tonnes of illicit synthetic drugs that include Ecstasy and methamphetamine being shipped abroad after being “cooked” in make-shift labs in apartments, homes and businesses in the GTA. Police are now seizing more chemicals and synthetic drugs, which they say is favoured by young people, at Canadian border checks rather than the traditional cocaine, heroin or hashish that officers call drugs of “a last generation.” Most of the Ecstasy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine), meth or ketamine, a hallucinogenic used in “drug cocktails,” are smuggled from Canada by trucks, air cargo, human couriers or courier services to a network of traffickers. The U.S., Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan are the world-wide targets of these highly organised criminal syndicates, the Mounties said. Two Japanese students were arrested at Vancouver International Airport in 2009 after 47,000 Ecstasy pills with the “Chanel” logo were seized from their luggage. And, in November that year 400,000 tablets and 45 kgs of pot were seized in Michigan as it was being transferred from a small Canadian aircraft to a vehicle. The RCMP is working to stamp out the problem and have created a Chemical Diversion Unit (CDU) to target “rogue chemical brokers” who import and sell chemicals to organized crime cells to “bake” synthetic drugs for export. The force also created a Synthetic Drug Operations (SDO) whose members target clandestine drug labs in the GTA that are operated by crime cells and traffickers. “We execute search warrants once we locate a clandestine lab,” said SDO Sgt. Doug Culver. “These labs are dangerous with toxic chemicals and our members are specially trained to handle them.” His officers use hazardous material suits to enter a suspicious lab to ensure it is safe from corrosive chemicals before uniformed officers can enter. Police said an Ecstasy tablet, that usually features a harmless-looking logo, is sold for up to $15 each at Toronto nightclubs and the potency can last for about 10 hours. The tablets used to sell on the street for about $40 each two years ago. Supt. Rick Penney, who is in charge of an RCMP-GTA Drug Squad, said tonnes of chemicals and synthetic drugs are being seized by his officers. “We are talking tonnes and not kilograms,” Penney said. “This is becoming a matter of routine for us and it concerns me.” Penney said Canadian-made Ecstasy and meth are popular in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the U.S. and some European countries. “Canada is a player on the global market,” he said. “We see a lot of synthetic chemicals passing through the Canadian border or going out of province.” He said some of the chemicals are purchased by criminals on the Internet from suppliers in China or India. “The majority of the drugs we seize in Ontario are for export,” Penney said. “This is a global problem and Canada is a big player.” The drug officers said Canada exports as much Ecstasy and chemical drugs as Colombia ships out cocaine. Police said synthetic drugs are the choice of young people because it is cheap, with a pill being made for 50-cents and sold for up to $15; lasts a long time; can be easily hidden and a tablet appears relatively harmless with a “cute” imprinted logo. Sgt. Brent Hill, of the Chemical Diversion Unit, said rogue brokers use fake names, companies or addresses to import the chemicals into Canada. Some use the name of legitimate companies and give fake delivery addresses, he said. He said the imported chemicals are resold by rogue brokers at exorbitant profits to organized crime groups originating from China, Vietnam and India, including criminal bike gangs in Canada. The chemicals are “cooked” into synthetic drugs. The CDU monitors more than 100 chemicals entering the country. Some are for legitimate industrial uses ranging from industrial cleaners to pharmaceutical products. Others are strictly for “baking” drugs. Hill shows a make-shift laboratory that was seized in a 2007 Scarborough bust in which three people were arrested. Officers seized two million units of Ecstasy and bags of chemicals at a residence on Pipers Green Ave., in the Brimley Rd. and Finch Ave. E. area. Jian Yao Quan, 24, and Yan Shi, 46, both of Scarborough, and Wan Shun Ling, 55, of Brooklyn, New York, were convicted of drug-related offences and will be sentenced on Feb. 14. A warrant has been issued for Wei Quan Ma, 43, of Toronto, who’s believed to have fled to China. During that raid, police found a 22-litre round-bottom heating mantle filled with chemicals being baked as vapors flowed through a hose taped at the top of the container to a large can filled with cat litter, that helps to absorb toxic gases to avoid leaving smells behind, police said. Hill said the mixture leaves a cloud of corrosive chemical hanging over the area that is harmful to people and is the reason why officers wear haz-mat suits to enter drug houses. “These labs pose a serious threat to the safety of the public and emergency first responders such as police, fire and ambulance workers,” Hill said. “Most chemicals in a clandestine drug lab are highly toxic, corrosive, explosive or flammable “ He said some unsafe labs can cause a fire or explosion that can lead to environmental pollution. Police said its common to find an Ecstasy pill containing a combination of controlled substances including methamphetamine or other controlled or non-regulated psychoactive substances. Some doses can be lethal and kill users. Officers point to the deaths of five B.C. young people since last August from Ecstasy laced PMMA, the same lethal chemical linked to deaths in the Calgary area. There have been about 18 Ecstasy-related deaths in B.C. in two years. “Some of these drugs are dangerous cocktails,” Hill said. “Crime groups are putting more addictive chemicals in some of the mixtures to get kids coming back for more. “These brokers are aggressively targeting the legitimate chemical industry. They continue to expand in a highly-lucrative market selling legal chemicals, regulated precursors and non-regulated psychoactive substances.” Officers said some unscrupulous brokers establish fake front companies, or claim to be legitimate companies to import chemicals into Canada. They fill out paperwork required by the Canada Border Services Agency but usually provide false information, police said. “The acquisition of chemicals is the choke point,” Hill said. “We are fully engaged with the legitimate Canadian chemical industry and monitor suspicious chemical transactions.” He said its a crime under Bill C-475 to possess, produce, sell or import “anything” if the person involved knows it will be used to produce methamphetamine or Ecstasy. “Crime groups with links to south-east Asia continue to dominate chemical-brokering operations,” the Mounties said. “There are criminal enterprises including individual operators and semi-legitimate companies that are brokering or procuring chemicals for synthetic drug production.” Police said some chemical shipments imported into Canada for industrial use are stolen by crime gangs to produce drugs. “Global demand for Ecstasy remains high,” Hill said. “Ecstasy continues to be the most sought-after and widely available controlled synthetic drug in the Canadian illicit market.”

Wrecked Italian liner will not be moved for months

2012-01-29T21:02:00.001Z

The wreck of the cruise ship Costa Concordia could remain where it lies near the Italian island of Giglio until the end of the year or longer before it can be broken up or salvaged, the official in charge of the recovery operation said on Sunday. Divers searching for bodies in the hulk, which lies half submerged a few metres from the shore, suspended work on Sunday after heavy seas and strong winds caused the vessel to shift noticeably, authorities said.

In Spain, taxmen snoop about homes rented to sun-seeking vacationers — then visit the owners who neglected to report the income

2012-01-29T14:32:00.001Z

In Greece, tax officials fly helicopters over residential areas to spot swimming pools of the alleged poor. In Italy, inspectors raid elite ski resorts to catch the down-and-out in their Ferraris. In Spain, taxmen snoop about homes rented to sun-seeking vacationers — then visit the owners who neglected to report the income. File photo by Virginia Mayo, AP The European Union, whose headquarters are pictured here, has been concerned about the debt crisis in southern Europe. EU officials blame part of the economic mess on a culture of tax evasion.EU officials blame part of the economic mess on a culture of tax evasion. Ads by Google CPD Online, On Time Online CPD - for when your deadline is demanding. Evading taxes is almost a national pastime in European nations such as Greece, Spain and Italy, and for years their governments largely looked the other way. On Monday, the 27 nations of the EU will meet in Brussels to focus on how to boost growth and jobs. But as the southern European nations struggle with a debt crisis that threatens to overwhelm the European Union, their recently installed governments feel they must become more like their more solvent northern neighbors, where the crime of tax evasion is taken seriously. Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and other countries are raising taxes and clamping down on those who have found creative ways not to pay them. Many people admit they cheat, but the wealthy say they are being unfairly singled out to cover for government overspending — and people in the middle class, who have seen their household incomes crumble, are bitter about losing even more to taxes. "In this country, (most of us) are struggling day-to-day in order to make ends meet," said Argiris Eleftheriou, 76, of Athens. "The pensioners and the employed are the only ones that aren't evading taxes. We're paying the taxes of the rich, too." EU officials blame part of the economic mess on a culture of tax evasion in debtor nations that has cost billions in revenue that could be used to shore up their finances. Greece has a projected debt burden of 162% of GDP this year. The amount of taxes past due to the state is $78 billion, according to a 2011 report by the EU's Task Force for Greece. EU officials say that about half of that will never get collected, and the other half is tied up in 165,000 pending court cases. Paying for things in cash is the norm in Greece (and Italy and Spain), making it hard for tax inspectors to track. In Greece, cash transactions accounted for 25% of GDP, according to a 2011 report by Friedrich Schneider, a professor of economics at the University of Linz in Austria. And the EU believes tens of millions of dollars in Greek income has been deposited out of sight in Switzerland banks. Greece is pushing back with a "naming and shaming" campaign. This week, the Greek Economics Ministry published the names of 4,151 individuals who owe a total of more than $19 billion in taxes including a famous singer, a professional basketball player and a former newspaper publisher. "Our sovereignty is being chipped away because some are not paying their taxes," said Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, referring to the strict fiscal oversight imposed by the EU and IMF in return for bailout funds. Meanwhile, new taxes keep coming. In the past two years Greeks have seen a self-employment tax of $390 to $650, a solidarity tax of about 1% to 5% of income and a property tax. More are expected, but locals say they can't pay. "Life has drastically changed; we don't go out anymore; we're locked in our homes and close to depression," said Eleni Benekou, 48, a middle-class housewife in Athens. "(Recently) I went to the flea market to buy some things, but I didn't dare open my wallet." In Italy, the focus is on tax evasion by the super-rich, which ran rampant under the leadership of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi— also accused of tax dodging and who once famously said that evasion of high taxes was a God-given "right." Berlusconi successor, technocrat Mario Monti, has vowed to get Italy's house in order by reducing spending and increasing tax revenue. One of his first actions has been to clamp down on "the pretend poor," as Italian media have dubbed the super-rich tax evaders. While one in four Italians — 15 million — reported no taxable income last year. Italy says that at least 3 million of those own at least three homes. Meanwhile, Italian taxpayers reporting incomes of less than $26,000 owned 188,000 Ferraris and Lamborghinis, more than 500 private airplanes and about 42,000 yachts. Monti has ordered tax police to go to the super-rich wherever they are. In raids on the elite Italian Alps ski resort of Cortina in early January, officials found 42 high-end sports cars belonging to owners who reported less than $26,000 of income annually. The Italian government is also cracking down on money-laundering, lowering the maximum allowed for cash transactions to from $3,200 to $1,275 and putting dogs at the Swiss border to sniff out large sums of cash. (It is common for Italians to drive their money over the Alps to Swiss banks, tax agents say.) So far, Italian officials say this has netted $52,300 on average per day at the border, up from almost zero a year ago. Since Monti took office in November, Italian tax police have identified $65 billion in untaxed money, officials announced Wednesday. Monti is also pushing for a new tax bracket for the super-rich and a financial transaction tax. Even TV commercials appeal to Italians to help find these "parasites of society." And while Italians hang effigies of tax officials at protests, some agree with the push. "Everybody has to do their part, but the rich should do more than their part," said Angela Perin, 56, a school administrator in Rome. "They've had it easy too long, and now everybody is suffering because of that." In Spain, officials also declared "an open season" on tax evasion. They have capped cash transactions at $1,300 and are cracking down on tax havens. Spain has taken hundreds of tax evaders to court, and tax police have caught about 200,000 individuals who had not declared income from rental properties — a large source of income in the sunny tourist destination — and an easy source of under-the-table cash, officials said. One of the first actions of Conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy upon taking office in mid-December was to break a main campaign promise by raising taxes: The government has passed measures to raise income and property taxes by more than $7.64 billion a year and has added a new tax bracket for the rich — which increased the cap by 7% to a maximum of 56% in some Spanish federal states for those earning more than $390,000 annually. Some say the zeal for taxes as the solution to a country mired in debt and high unemployment of 21.5% will backfire. "The tax hike is going to have a perverse effect on the Spanish economy," said Miguel Borra, president of CSI-F, the main civil servant union in Spain. "That will include a growing lack of trust among the population (in government) as well as diminishing purchasing power." In crisis-hit but tax-averse Ireland, officials haven't raised income tax but rates on many other things have risen: taxes on pension contributions, property, carbon dioxide emissions and a hated "universal social charge," along with hikes in sales taxes. "They get called stealth taxes, but they're not particularly stealthy as we can see them coming," said Gerard Casey, professor of philosophy at University College Dublin. "They do it so they can say with a relatively straight face, smirking perhaps, 'We've not raised taxes.' " Emeline Callan, who runs a barbershop in Celbridge, County Kildare, says she earns less than minimum wage despite working nine or 10 hours a day — and the cost of her commute has doubled with the gasoline and car tax increases. Her frustration may be a warning to Europe's governing elites that they must find another way to balance the books. "The tax I pay gets me nothing that I need," she said. "The social charge is just a cover to gain more money from us to pay for the government's mistakes. It's loan repayment on a loan we the people didn't take out."

On the 31st May this year, nine men from Paddle4Heroes are going to paddle from Gibraltar to Marbella in Spain by kayak to raise funds for Help for Heroes and a new charity called Families of The Fallen.

2012-01-29T13:11:00.001Z

PADDLE4HEROES, RAISING MONEY THROUGH KAYAKING - FOR HELP FOR HEROES AND FAMILIES OF THE FALLEN

On the 31^st May this year, nine men from Paddle4Heroes are going to paddle from Gibraltar to Marbella in Spain by kayak to raise funds for Help for Heroes and a new charity called Families of The Fallen. Both of these charities should touch the heart of anyone British, as they are at the forefront of helping servicemen and women recover from the trauma of war.

Of the nine paddlers (aged between 20 – 58!), six are ex-servicemen (including one from my own regiment) and all live on the Costa del Sol. Several have experienced active service and all know the devastation that war can bring to everyone involved.

Indeed, the consequences of active service can be long lasting, not just for servicemen and women but also for their immediate families. Both parties often need significant help readjusting to normal life (whether the trauma is psychological or physical) and that is where charities like Help for Heroes and Families of The Fallen come into their own.

Needless to say, Britain seems to have been continually at war for years now, with the Iraq wars and Afghanistan being notable. However, our military forces also continually operate in many other areas including often as unsung UN peacekeepers, which can often involve significant risks – and injury.

TRAINING, TRAINING AND...MORE TRAINING!

In fact, whilst deaths in battle always make the news, injuries rarely do and they, of course, far outnumber deaths, despite often being utterly life changing for those hurt. Indeed, I hate to think how many British servicemen and women have sustained terrible injuries over the past twenty years – with their injuries never having made the news or having been ‘hidden’ deep within governmental statistics. Certainly, many more servicemen and women (and their families) need help than most of us realise…

Needless to say, the point of the canoe trip by Paddle4Heroes from Gibraltar to Marbella (90 km) on the 31^stMay is to raise funds for Help for Heroes and Families of the Fallen. It is your money that keeps these charities going and your money that directly helps our servicemen and women in their time of greatest need.

So, please make an effort to spare some money for Paddle4Heroes. What they are doing deserves your support and it would be great to think that any of you Britons, with any connection at all to Spain, could help to make the Paddle4Heroes event an outstanding fund raising success – that does justice to any Briton living or holidaying in Spain!

If you want to know more or wish to contribute to Paddle4Heroes then please see the Paddle4Heroes Facebook page.

Spain takes legal action against Spanair

2012-01-28T17:02:00.001Z

Spain's government has launched legal action against the now-defunct airline Spanair for allegedly violating the country's aviation regulations by suddenly ceasing operations, a minister said Saturday. An estimated 22,000 passengers who had booked seats on more than 220 canceled flights have been left looking for alternative arrangements and instructions on how to seek reimbursements. Spanair, owned by a consortium based in the northeastern region of Catalonia, shut down its operations late Friday because of a lack of funding. The legal proceedings begun by Spain's government could lead to Spanair being fined euro9 million ($11.8 million) for two "serious infringements" of aviation security legislation, Development Minister Ana Pastor said. The alleged infractions related to obligations linked to continued service and passenger protection. Chairman Ferran Soriano said the airline had failed to attract inward investment and consequently the regional government of northeastern Catalonia took the decision to stop providing funds. Spanair, whose hub was Barcelona airport, employed around 2,000 people and used the services of about 1,200 ground staff. Spanair's financial woes were exacerbated by a 2008 crash that killed 154 people. Eighteen people survived what was Spain's worst aviation disaster in 25 years. The airline, which also ran a commuter service between Madrid and Barcelona, was in trouble financially before Spanair Flight JK5022 -- an MD-82 jet -- crashed on takeoff on Aug. 20, 2008 as it tried to leave Madrid bound for the Canary Islands. In 2010 Spanair, which was Spain's No. 4 airline, reported an operating loss of euro115 million ($151.2 million) and had survived thanks to finance provided by the Catalan government and some private investors. The Catalan government cited the "current economic climate" and "European legislation concerning competition" as the major factors influencing its decision. In Brussels, the European Low Fares Airline Association said those of its members flying overlapping routes with Spanair would offer specially discounted fares to enable stranded passengers to return home. Offers are subject to seat availability, said the organization of budget airlines -- which includes Ryanair and EasyJet. The association's secretary-general, John Hanlon, said in a statement the aim was to assist Spanair passengers who were experiencing difficulties with travel plans. National carrier Iberia Spanish Airlines SA said it had also offered to help.

Italian fugitive arrested in Almería

2012-01-24T20:25:00.001Z

An Italian fugitive has been arrested in Almería on a European arrest warrant for pending sentences amounting to almost 10 years behind bars. His crimes include drug trafficking, violent robbery, illegal possession of weapons and falsifying documents. It’s understood from EFE that his criminal record goes back for more than 20 years. The man, named as Maurizio R. aged 56, was arrested in Almería City in the early hours of Friday after discovered that he had moved to the province.

British man is accused of stabbing three other Britons, two women and a man on the terrace of the bar Malibú Park in San Eugenio Alto in Adeje.

2012-01-23T02:32:00.000Z

DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.A British man, who name and age are still to be officially released, was arrested on Monday night by members of the National Police from the Tenerife South police station. He is accused of stabbing three other Britons, two women and a man on the terrace of the bar Malibú Park in San Eugenio Alto in Adeje.

It happened at 11pm when the man who is now in custody attacked the three British victims. The Police say they were sat in the bar when after a big argument the man went back to the room where he was staying and then returned with a machete and a large knife with which he attacked the three in the neck, face and arms.

One of the victims, a 47 year old woman had only slight cuts to her neck and was taken to the Las Américas Health Centre. The other woman, aged 43, was cut in one of her arms and taken to a hospital in Adeje. And the third victim, a 47 year old man was cut in the face and also taken to a clinic in the South of Tenerife.

The attacker is reported to be in his 50’s. It was the hotel receptionist who alerted the police, and when they arrived at the scene the attacker had fled and was hiding in his room where he was arrested.

The injured are all recovering well from their injuries.

A grisly event in South East Asia highlights the region's developing meth-driven drug war

2012-01-19T04:11:00.001Z

The Mekong River in Thailand Photo via By Jed Bickman 10/11/11 | Share Uppers Rock the World New Life for Asia’s Golden Triangle China Unveils Radical New Approach to Drug Treatment Vietnam's Rehab Gulag Revealed Spinning to Cambodia! In one of the grisliest incidents of the drug war in South East Asia in recent memory, the corpses of thirteen Chinese sailors have been found by Thai authorities on the Mekong River. The victims, including two female cooks, were blindfolded, bound, and shot dead. They're believed to be the crew members of two Chinese cargo ships that were hijacked last week by Thai drug gangs—the boats were recaptured in a firefight with Thai police and 950,000 methamphetamine pills were discovered on board. It's unclear whether the meth was loaded onto the boats by the Thai gangs, or whether it was already being shipped from China. Thai military officials blame a drug trafficking ring led by 40-year-old kingpin Nor Kham—who operates out of northeast Burma and is a wanted man in both Burma and Thailand—for the attacks. Authorities speculate that the Chinese ships neglected to hand over protection money and paid the price. The Chinese government has reacted defensively, suspending cargo and passenger trips along the Mekong river. The region along the border of Burma, Laos, and Thailand—known as the “golden triangle”—is the center of methamphetamine production in Asia, although China has also produced vast amounts of meth since the 1990s. Ephedrine, the base of methamphetamine, is derived from a native Chinese herb—“mao,” AKA "yaba"—which has an important role in Chinese medicine. The UN estimates there are between 3.5 million and 20 million methamphetamine users in South East Asia: such a broad range only serves to illustrate how badly understood the problem is. In 2009, countries in South East Asia collectively reported a 250% jump in methamphetamine arrests, as well as an increasing trend of injecting methamphetamine, which leads to a corresponding jump in HIV and other diseases among users.

Arrested businessman had ‘double life’

2012-01-19T03:31:00.001Z

A MAN, 36, was arrested in Albacete, southeast Spain, accused of the abduction and rape of several women. In Albacete, he was a respected businessman, with a wife and children, but in Madrid, he was wanted for the abduction of one woman, raping another and several robberies. His criminal ‘other life’ allegedly began in 2010 when he began to carry out burglaries when on business trips, mainly to obtain jewellery and cash, although he also kept ‘trophies’ from his victims. With time, he began to commit other crimes and in October he allegedly pointed a gun at a woman in the Chamartin district and kept her captive for 12 hours, threatening her to obtain her credit card numbers and sexually abusing her before letting her go. In November, wearing a balaclava he approached a woman at Barajas Airport, threatening her with a gun and forcing her into the boot of a car. She was able to alert a colleague and her husband with her mobile phone, and was rescued in the Madrid area of Torrejon de Ardoz. The attacker escaped but left behind a shotgun, an airgun and a machete. He was traced to a farmhouse he used to carry out his criminal activity which was guarded by six dogs. Police are now studying the ‘trophies’ he took to determine whether he was involved in other crimes. He has been remanded to prison charged with rape, illegal detention, robbery, illegal weapons possession, causing bodily harm and car theft. On the way to prison, he attempted to escape but was caught by police.

Pasquale Mazzarella and Clemente Amodio arrested in Marbella

2012-01-17T15:18:00.001Z

TWO Italians belonging to the Mazzarella mafia family were arrested in Malaga for their alleged involvement in drug trafficking activities, according to Press reports. Pasquale Mazzarella, who had been on the run from the authorities for the past three years, and Clemente Amodio, wanted since last Spring, had European arrest warrants against them and were handed over to the National Court to be extradited to Italy. They were living in a villa in Marbella, and had moved their headquarters to Spain, allegedly bringing drugs from Morocco to sell in Europe.

Property owners not impressed by Junta's decree on irregular property

2012-01-16T23:56:00.001Z

The regional government’s plan to regularise the dozens of thousands of illegal properties is not proving successful. Owners of the properties are refusing to pay the costs of bringing their properties into legality. In most cases the regional council for public works and housing have offered a ‘recognition’ of the properties – a legal device to allow them to come out of limbo and gain access to power and water. But this needs the collaboration of the citizens, and their money. Many Town Halls have discovered the process does not get underway, and El País reports that two of the most interesting cases are in Córdoba and Chiclana in Cádiz. These two localities have about 25,000 homes build outside the regulations, 15,000 in Chiclana and some 9,000 in Córdoba. In both cases the property owners are refusing to meet the costs of the regularisation process; in Chiclana only 56 have applied. In Córdoba none of the 42 illegal urbanisations has brought itself into legality. Meanwhile in the Axarquía where many foreigners have purchased such property in good faith, say they are against the latest decree from the Junta last week. President of the Save Our Homes association, Philip Smalley, says the formula will just leave thousands of properties in the district in limbo. He says there is no judicial guarantee after the process because the Junta will be able to do what they want with the properties in the future. The Junta has identified 12,760 irregular properties in the Axarquía. In the Almanzora valley in Almería, again there are many foreign property owners affected. The AUAN protest group there says the decree does not help those with ongoing court proceedings against demolition. President Maura Hillen considers that only 16% of their members will benefit from the decree.

Nine in every 10 Spaniards feel uncomfortable speaking English

2012-01-16T23:52:00.001Z

A new survey has shown that nine in every ten Spaniards still feel uncomfortable speaking English, despite the fact that 37% of them have spent more than 15 years studying the language. Thirty five percent said they felt insecure and embarrassed, and 4% said they would not make the attempt in case they seemed ‘ridiculous’. Europa Press reports that one in two, although knowing that their grammar was not correct, would however try and speak the language. The survey by ‘Pueblo Inglés – More than English’ also revealed that 98% of those questioned felt that the standard of teaching English in Spain’s schools was not the best. Many felt that more time should be spent on the subject in schools, with particular emphasis on conversations with English speakers and on role playing for real life situations. Language schools and academies were the most popular method of learning English, but more than half said the best way was spending time abroad in English-speaking countries.

British peer calls for abolition of time limit on expat voting

2012-01-16T23:47:00.001Z

Britons who live abroad currently have no voting rights if they have been out of the country for more than 15 years An estimated 5.6 million Britons currently live abroad but, under UK law, those who have been out of the country for more than 15 years have no right to vote in British elections. There has been support for changes to the law in a recent debate on electoral reform in the House of Lords. The Telegraph reports this week on a comment from Lord Lexden, the Conservative Party’s official historian, that the time limit is, ‘a problem which has been allowed to go on for far too long.’ He proposed that the government’s plans to reform the electoral system could provide the ‘perfect vehicle’ to abolish a limit which he said has been ‘chopped and changed’ ‘without rationale.’ It was originally set at five years in 1985, was extended to 20 years in 1989, and was then reduced to 15 in 2002. Brian Cave from the website www.votes-for-expat-brits.com, which campaigns for the right to vote for Britons abroad, told the Telegraph, ‘To have Lord Lexden make such a long speech and make such telling comments was a milestone in our campaign.’ The newspaper however notes a comment by the Labour peer Lord Lipsey during a radio debate last month that there was, ‘no chance’ of the limit being abolished.

British driver arrested after Sevilla hit and run

2012-01-16T23:40:00.001Z

23 year old Briton has been arrested in Campillos, Málaga, by the Guardia Civil in connection with a hit and run accident at a petrol station in Gillena Sevilla last Thursday. A petrol station worker was injured and had to be admitted to the Virgen del Rocio Hospital, and the driver failed to stop. The Briton lives in Campillos and has been named with the initials W.A.F., and has been taken to Sevilla to attend the court which has charge of the case. By chance a member of the public had seen a TV report on the wanted driver and recognised him coincidentally at a petrol station in Campillos.

Bad news for foreign victims of Costa del Sol mortgage scam

2012-01-16T23:37:00.001Z

The National Court will not be investigating the mortgage fraud which was reported last year by twenty foreign residents of the Costa del Sol and which affected victims all along the Spanish coastline. Most of the banks and foreign financial advisors involved were from Denmark who informed their clients that, if they died without a mortgage on their Spanish property, their heirs would be subject to hefty inheritance taxes which they would never be able to pay. They were then offered a mortgage on their property, with the money invested outside Spain, mainly in Luxembourg. El Mundo reports that the investments did not however go well, and the victims are now in danger of losing their homes. The Málaga victims are represented by the Marbella law firm Lawbird, who told El Mundo, ‘This is complete judicial apathy from this court, which considers the complaint as lacking in relevance.’ ‘It contrasts,’ they said, ‘with the rapid response from the Danish government which has announced that it will investigate the manoeuvres which invested the funds from the loans in fiscal paradises.’

Court orders Spanish woman to return her children to her husband in the UK

2012-01-16T23:34:00.001Z

Spanish woman resident in Valencia, named by EFE as Carolina A.G., has been ordered by a local court to return her children to their father in the UK, where the family moved in 2008. Her estranged husband is a Nigerian man who obtained Spanish nationality after they married in Spain in 2003. The couple has three children, now aged 8 and 5 years old and, the youngest, just 4 months. Their mother says she has suffered abuse from her husband throughout her marriage, and she finally reported the abuse last year. She also reported him for rape. She told the EFE news agency, ‘I feared for mine and my children’s lives … he has also mistreated the eldest and he even punched me in the stomach when I was pregnant with my last child.’ She decided to return to Spain after he threatened to take the children to Nigeria and she was advised by the Spanish Consulate in Nottingham that it was better for her children to be in Spain. The mother does not have sole custody, and a Valencia court applied the Hague Convention in its ruling made public on Monday, considering to be responsible for illegal abduction. It also said that she has violated an order from a Nottingham court banning her from taking two of her children outside the jurisdiction of England and Wales. The denuncias against the husband were not taken into account by the Valencia court and the mother’s lawyer has now requested a letter rogatory to the UK justice system for the official complaints to be provided to Spain. It’s understood that he has also lodged a denuncia for rape and abuse at the National Court, as the body which is responsible for safeguarding the rights of any Spanish citizen.

Spanish tourism received a welcome boost last week with UK travel agents reporting a rise in interest and bookings to the country.

2012-01-15T16:24:00.001Z

Spanish tourism received a welcome boost last week with UK travel agents reporting a rise in interest and bookings to the country. The news came when on Friday the Post Office revealed evidence that resort prices have crashed by as much as 40% compared to 5 years ago. That, combined with political unrest in some other popular tourist destinations and the fact that the pound is at a 2 year high against the euro has once again made Spain an affordable and favourite option. The annual survey conducted by the Post Office measured the prices of 8 items in resorts across 33 destinations around the world. Those items included a cup of coffee in a bar or café; a bottle of local beer; a 1.5 litre bottle of water from a supermarket; a can of Coca-Cola; a three course evening meal for two adults; sunscreen; insect repellent and a pack of cigarettes. The results of the survey showed that Spain came out the second cheapest with an average price of £37.72 for the 8 items. It was topped only by Sri Lanka offering the best value at £27.95. With people looking for a cheap way to enjoy fun in the sun and the Post Office currently offering a currency rate of 1.165€ to the pound (prices correct as of Friday 13th Jan.) it is thought a new wave of visitors will be enjoying the delights of Spain this year with the firm’s Holiday Money Report concluding: ‘Resort prices in the Costa del Sol are now 40% lower than 5 years ago, when we conducted the first price barometer. The cheaper cost of travel to Spain will make it a compelling choice for bargain hunters. So does the rising value of the UK pound - up 6.4% against the euro in the past three months.’ Turkey has in recent years been a serious rival to Spain's top status for bargain breaks but this year it proved to be 60% more expensive than Spain. This year, Turkey was17th in terms of the cheapest option according to the Post Office survey. At the other end of the scale the survey showed Australia to be the most expensive country for the 8 items at a staggering £115.69, together with Barbados, Singapore and New Zealand. The biggest rises were recorded in Kenya, where the basket was 52% more expensive than last year and Portugal, where the increase was 39%.

Ciudad de la Luz film studios in trouble in Alicante

2012-01-14T16:35:00.001Z

Another of the large projects in the Valencia region is in trouble as the company which runs the Ciudad de la Luz film studios in Alicante, Agua Amarga de Gestión S.L., has applied for bankruptcy protection. It comes as the regional government has failed to pay four million € as the promoter of the project. Mercantile Court 2 in Alicante accepted the application on December 16 2011. The centre has amassed a total debt of more than 190 million €, and now the Valencia Government wants to privatise the operation despite spending 160 million € on it. The project was an idea of Eduardo Zaplana, an ex Partido Popular President of the Valencia Government who thought it would compensate the city for the Terra Mítica park in Benidorm. The studios cover a 320,000 square metre site. El País reports that a new agreement between the regional government and the company could be round the corner. The company says that would need the payment of the debt. They note that in 2005 when the first productions were carried out at the facility, there were in that year 59 productions in total which brought an income of 174 million €, saw jobs for 4,757 workers and more than 3,000 contracts with other companies. It also gave rise to some 150,000 overnight hotel stays in Alicante.

Iberia pilots announce more strike action

2012-01-14T16:32:00.001Z

Pilots from the SEPLA union who work for Iberia have announced three more days of strike action on January 25, 27 and 30. It follows four days of previous action in protest at the plans by Iberia to establish a new low-cost carrier, Iberia Express. SEPLA say that they have picked the dates with care, so as not to affect the Spanish tourism fair, FITUR, which runs in Madrid between the 18th and 22nd of this month. Meanwhile cabin crew and ground staff are also considering taking action, and are reported to be looking at striking on Mondays and Fridays from February 2. A meeting will be held on Tuesday to confirm that action which could affect 21,000 workers on the ground in handling, cargo, maintenance, trade and operational activities.

The Decree to regularize houses in Andalucia

2012-01-14T16:30:00.001Z

According to Hillen “It’s possible that this fireworks display will dazzle some but if you look at the detail of the Decree you will see that it does not help those with ongoing court proceedings, where perhaps the majority could face the chop”. “If what the Junta wants is more cases like the Priors, the decree certainly does nothing to prevent that” she added. “Actually, I sometimes despair at how little the administration is in contact with the real problems of its citizens. They must know that what looks nice on paper is not always workable in practice. It appears that they don’t and all they want to do is inundate us with a byzantine tangle of laws and, whilst they are about it, completely destroy foreign investment in Spain”. Hillen asks “What shall I tell elderly retirees who have demolition orders against their homes? Can I tell them that the Decree will save them? I can’t because it doesn’t”. “What can I say to hundreds of retired couples who live on irregular urbanisations without escritura for their land? Can I tell them that the Decree will give them their escritura? No I can’t, and indeed some of those who currently have escritura are at risk because, according to the Decree, escrituras can be annulled because of the possible illegal segregation of land.” “On the other hand, the regularization of these developments still has to go through an unrealistic, expensive, arduous and painful process which will take a very long time” she added. Regarding the new provision for isolated houses she states that “I regret to say that these houses are relatively blighted, since according to the decree they are not entitled to a licence of occupation or use; are subject to yet to be defined future regulations and some theoretical minimum standard of habitability; Furthermore, the decree states that these houses can only be repaired and preserved; that they should have self sufficient supplies of water, electricity and waste treatment and that only in exceptional circumstances can they be connected to mains services; In other words they are of dubious legality” “That is to say that the Junta, instead of making an important legal change , and by that I mean changing the LOUA, to resolve a major problem has instead only created more confusion in addition to creating a category of second class housing”. She concluded by saying “I hope that not too many people are lured by this bait because I think that it doesn’t fix very much. In fact among our members we think that only 16% of them will benefit in any way from this Decree”.

Government to bring in changes to the 'Ley de Costas'

2012-01-14T16:26:00.001Z

The current and controversial ‘Ley de Costas’ has been in force since 1988 with hardly any modifications. Now the new Minister for Agriculture, Foodstuffs and the Environment, Miguel Arias Cañete, has indicated that ‘very deep reforms’ are on the way to bring value to the coast. El País reoprts that at an event to welcome top civil servants in his department, he gave a speech which indicated that the environment cannot stop economic development, and said that environmental legislation needs to be simplified. Sources at the ministry have noted that there is a problem of judicial insecurity with the current legislation and that they have received pressure from countries such as Britain and Germany, and complaints from EuroMPs as there are foreigners who have been affected by the compulsory purchase aspect of the legislation. The law, which was left untouched by the Aznar government, declares all the beach to be of public use, but does not use a fixed distance, following geographic concepts instead. That extends the area into dunes and marshlands, to where the sea has reached in the worst of storms. Many people have purchased property without the notary or the bank telling them it is located in land for public use, and these people have been granted a 30 year concession of use, but no longer own the property. A legal change now is complicated by the fact that there has already been compulsory purchases and demolition of some properties, so their owners will now be able to claim compensation. The new legislation is expected to extend the concessions, as ‘thousands’ of them were to expire in 2018.

Two air passengers met by police over heated bust up after teenager 'reclined his seat'

2012-01-12T12:43:00.001Z

A furious row broke out between two passengers on a packed jumbo jet after one reclined his seat as the man behind was about to eat. The pair almost came to blows at 40,000ft as shocked travellers looked on. It started when an 18-year-old sitting in economy class moved his seat back to sleep. Air rage: The drama happened on board an Emirates 517-seat Airbus A380 - the world's biggest commercial airliner - from Dubai into Manchester Airport The 38-year-old passenger sitting immediately behind him was about to eat his in-flight meal at the time. And when he asked the youth to put his seat back up while he ate a major row broke out. More... Airline passenger is stunned three times with a Taser gun after after he refuses screening check and runs into secure area Car-sized robotic explorer fires its thrusters for next stage of journey to Mars - and will land there in August The pair traded insults and leapt up from their seats in a head-to-head confrontation. As the argument became more heated cabin crew were called and attempted to defuse the incident. Stunned travellers watched as the two men continued to shout abuse at each other while standing in the aisle before they were finally persuaded to calm down. The drama happened on board a 517-seat Airbus A380 - the world’s biggest commercial airliner - operated by Emirates from Dubai into Manchester Airport. Close: The row broke out as one passenger reclined his seat while the man behind was about to eat The pilot of flight EK17 was so concerned he radioed ahead and police were informed. Officers went to the gate at Terminal 1 after the flight landed to meet the two passengers at around noon on Tuesday. A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police confirmed officers ‘spoke to’ two men, aged 38 and 18. No further action was taken as neither man wanted to make a formal complaint, and both also admitted they had been ‘in the wrong’, say police. A spokesman for the airline said: ‘Emirates does not tolerate this kind of behaviour from passengers and safety will not be compromised.’ They confirmed there had been an ‘altercation’ on board the flight and, although no blow had been exchanged, cabin crew had been called to calm the passengers. One traveller who uses the route said: ‘I have recently flown with Emirates to the Far East. This trip was split into two separate flights and lasted 20 hours. ‘Like a lot of people on the second leg of the trip I wanted to sleep. There is a system in place where you can indicate that you do not want the meal and to be left alone to sleep, which is what I did. My seat was reclined to the limit allowed. Welcome party: Police officers were waiting at the gate at Manchester Airport's Terminal 1, pictured, to meet the two passengers involved ‘When it came time for the meal I was woken up by the person behind asking me to sit up, so they could enjoy their meal. I was a little p***** off that I had been woken up. 'I hadn’t reclined it whilst he was eating, I was doing what I wanted to do, sleep, in a position that the seat was allowing me. I didn’t make a fuss and accepted it.’ He said: ‘This is only a problem in the "cheap" seats and perhaps the airlines can have an area in this class for passengers who want to sleep in the reclined position. 'No meals would be served to these passengers, so the problem will be removed. By sitting in this area you accept no meals and the seat in front may be reclined.’ The double-decker plane first started flying into Manchester Airport in September 2010 after around £10m had been spent on changes to the airfield to accommodate it. Its introduction was part of a huge boom in the number of people flying in and out of Dubai,

Gold treasure trove and millions in cash seized from Colombian drug dealers in Spain

2012-01-12T12:28:00.001Z

A National Police operation has seized more than 4 million € in cash and a treasure trove of gold ingots from a group of drug traffickers based in the north west of Madrid which was finalising a deal to sell off half a ton of cocaine. Three suspects from Colombia have been arrested, who also face charges of money laundering. The Interior Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday that the drugs were brought into Spain by air and the laundered proceeds from their sale were then sent to Colombia in the same way. Police began their investigations last month and swooped on the luxury apartments which were used by the gang early on the morning of January 5, seizing more than 3.5 million € and three kilos of highly pure gold. The gold was made up of ingots each weighing a quarter of a kilo. A further half a million € was discovered when the suspects’ vehicles were searched.

Suspect arrested over woman found murdered in Fuengirola

2012-01-12T12:22:00.001Z

An arrest has been made in the case of the woman who was found dead, wrapped in plastic and a blanket, beneath a bridge in Los Boliches, Fuengirola, on Monday morning. She was identified as E.U.G, a woman who was born in Almería in 1980. She is believed to have been killed last Saturday, two days before her body was found. The autopsy has now confirmed the cause of death as asphyxiation, and it’s understood there were also signs that she had been hit on the head. There was no sign of rape, or that any of her personal possessions had been stolen. All that’s known on the suspect is that he was known to the victim. La Opinión de Málaga said he was arrested in Fuengirola.

AIFOS boss now admits paying Juan Antonio Roca

2012-01-12T12:17:00.001Z

Another twist in the Malaya case with the owner of the real estate promoter, AIFOS, Jesús Ruiz Casado, telling the court on Wednesday that, despite his declaration on Tuesday that he had never made any payments to the Marbella Municipal Real Estate Assessor, Juan Antonio Roca, that in fact he did make the payment ‘of some amounts’ through his commercial director, Francisco García Lebrón. Casado explained that he had found a 135,000 € mismatch in a report on the accounts of his company which had been presented to the Court, and that there was a 90,000 € coincidence with the notes in the computer archives of Juan Antonio Roca. He said he told his commercial director to make a payment to support the Town Hall sponsorships and fiestas. ‘I did not control this matter sufficiently’, he said and said he pleaded guilty to avoid prison, and admitted making payments of 4.8 million € for town planning favours between 2004 and 2006, for which he is accused.

the secret of the Costa del Sol got out to the world, in a big, big way

2012-01-10T22:51:00.001Z

.The mid-Andalusian coastline began to lure Northern European types, weary of their long, dark winters and eager to bask in the region's ever-present sunshine. First came the super-rich and famous (think Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Laurence Olivier), after Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg opened the aristocratic Marbella Club in 1954. The demi-rich and B celebs followed, and gradually the masses—as is their wont—caught wind of the fun and sun, subsequently descending in droves. Through it all, the gays came too, establishing their beachhead at Torremolinos in the 1960s and 70s. Unfortunately, the switch from sleepy-fishing-village-dotted seashore to frolicksome touristic playground proved too rapid for the area to bear seamlessly. Unsavory types like on-the-lam Brits, the Russian mob, and Arab arms traffickers crept in, earning the region the unwelcome nickname Costa del Crime in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Unsavory Marbella politicians meanwhile took advantage of the instability, pushing through scores of corrupt construction projects before being stopped and ultimately jailed. Now, however, with a clean political slate and hot on the heels of a highly publicized summer 2010 visit to the area by Michelle Obama, the Costa del Sol is back with a vengeance. A new generation of hip tourists, a large faction of them gay, are now discovering the 300-plus days of sun, the warm Mediterranean beaches, the bargain-to-luxury shopping, the excellent spas, the delectable food, the rich history, the effervescent culture, and yes, those scrumptious southern Spanish men of the delightful Costa del Sol. By far, most international visits to the Costa del Sol start in Málaga, and more specifically at its Pablo Ruiz Picasso International Airport. Low-cost carriers like Ryanair and EasyJet have turned this into Spain's fourth busiest airfield, with scores of carriers now serving over 60 countries. The airport's newly opened third terminal is expected to accommodate the growing number of travelers in the coming years. Thanks to an extension of Spain's high-speed AVE train line in 2007, it's now also possible to get from Madrid to Málaga by rail in just about two and a half hours. While many Málaga arrivers scurry off to nearby beachside resort towns, any proper visit to the area requires a healthy dose of the beautiful city itself. With about 570,000 inhabitants, this is Europe's southernmost metropolis, not to mention one of the world's oldest towns, with an historical center dating back more than 3,000 years. In this now fully modern and vibrant city, remnants of previous civilizations are around every bend, with Phoenician, Roman, Moorish, and Reconquista Christian sites especially visible—and more still being found all the time. In 1951, during the construction of a new library, a fantastic first century B.C.E. Roman Theater was unearthed, and it's now one of Málaga's main attractions. More recently, during the construction of the Vincci Selección Posada del Patio Hotel on Pasillo Santa Isabel, remains of both the Roman and Arab walls of the city were found, and can be viewed by all from a specially designed underground walkway. THE INSIDERS GUIDE WHERE TO STAY WHERE TO PLAY WHERE TO EAT WHAT TO DO Pablo Picasso and Antonio Banderas are two of Málaga's most famous sons, and while you have a slight chance of seeing the latter on one of his frequent visits to town, you certainly won't miss homages to the former, known to his mother and many a modern tour guide as Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. The fabulous Museo Picasso, while just one of three major museums devoted exclusively to the artist's work (the others are in Barcelona and Paris), contains perhaps the most intimate and revealing collection, with more than 220 works donated directly by Picasso's daughter-in-law and grandson. Also worth a visit is the Museo Casa Natal (Birthplace House Museum), which features thousands of works by Picasso, his contemporaries, and those he influenced. Just up the hill from the Roman Theater is the Alcazaba, a Moorish fort started in the eighth century but mostly taking its present form in the mid-11th century. Farther up the hill (but further forward in time) is the Castillo de Gibralfaro, where the Moorish people of Málaga famously waged a three-month battle (albeit ultimately unsuccessfully) against the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1487. Inside the castle is a small but interesting archaeological museum, but most visitors come for what's outdoors: breathtaking views of the city below. For a royal hotel stay, the Parador de Málaga Gibralfaro, part of Spain's exceptional state-owned Paradores system, is actually attached to the castle itself. Continuing onward chronologically, Málaga's post-Reconquista city center Cathedral is known locally as La Manquita, or "one-armed lady," thanks to her clearly missing second tower, a victim of depleted coffers in the 18th century. She's still stunning, and her one beautiful outstretched arm manages to crop up in photos all around the old town. CLICK FOR SLIDESHOW OF COSTA DEL SOL When you're ready for a break and some Málaga tapas, the nearby La Moraga is unparalleled, the local outpost of Michelin-starred chef Dani García's growing gastronomic family. Once sustained, try out Málaga's plentiful shopping options, especially the city center pedestrian street Calle Marqués de Larios, which is lined with chic shops, boutiques, and cafés. Málaga also has a Corte de Inglés (part of the much-beloved, Spanish, one-stop, department store chain), as well as several malls and countless specialty stores spread across the city. One of Málaga's most famed festivals is its vivid Holy Week (or Semana Santa), during which massive ornate tronos (thrones, or floats), made of gold and silver and often weighing more than five tons, are carried through the streets, accompanied by music and song. Things turn especially dramatic on Good Friday, when shops and streetlights go dark to better showcase the solemn procession. Antonio Banderas sometimes still takes part in the festivities, as he did here in his youth. The festival dates back more than 500 years to the Catholic Reconquista, and its long history is commemorated at the Museo de la Semana Santa (Holy Week Museum). Somewhat less holy but even more famous is the Feria de Málaga, a nine-day, mid-August festival that's one of Spain's largest. Shops and offices close so everyone can enjoy the food and drink. Meanwhile, traffic is stopped so the streets can fill with music and dancing. Traditional costumes are everywhere, with many women in colorful flamenco dresses and many men dressed as sexy vaqueros (or cowboys). While it's not nearly as big as Holy Week or Feria, Málaga has its own Pride event as well called Hoy Málaga es Gay (Today Málaga is Gay), taking place annually in late June. LGBT life is thriving in Málaga, which boasts a growing number and variety of gay bars and clubs, many situated around Plaza de la Merced. For a fun dip into the local queer scene, start out with the lively Bohemian loungy-ness of El Carmen, then move on to the throbbing disco action of Reinas (Queen). The refreshingly small (just 50 rooms) and colorful Room Mate Lola Hotel is a great place to lay your head in Málaga, with cool design, a central location, a hip clientele, and a friendly staff. Even more centrally located (right next to the Cathedral) is the AC Málaga Palacio Hotel, which boasts a rooftop pool and restaurant/bar with 360-degree views of the city, making it a consummate setting for that impromptu Spanish same-sex wedding. For venturing beyond Málaga proper and onward to the splendid Costa del Sol, your best bet is to rent a car. This can be ridiculously cheap, as low as $60 a week depending on when you travel, your vehicle preference, and Euro conversion rates. Taxis are plentiful, but distances between towns are fairly large, so fares can be high. Buses are available as well, but they run sporadically. Trains, running about every 30 minutes, also connect Málaga to Torremolinos and Fuengirola, but the latter is only about halfway to Marbella, so you'll still need a cab or car to take you the full distance there. Less than ten miles south of Málaga lies Torremolinos, long the gay capital of the Costa del Sol region. Though it began like many towns in the area as a sleepy fishing village, people were here and queer as early as the late 1950s. By 1962, Toni's Bar, Spain's first-ever gay bar, had opened. Even during the oppressive Franco regime, homosexuals were mostly given wide berth to behave as they liked in Torremolinos—as long as they spent their tourist pesetas while doing so. By the early 1970s, gay life was booming here, centered (as it still is) around La Nogalera in the heart of town. Torremolinos lost much of its cachet in the mid-70s when down-the-coast Marbella came into full bloom, but with the decriminalization of homosexuality in Spain later in the decade, the town began to attract more and more gays from all over the country, and eventually from across Europe. After an upswing in the 1980s and much of the 90s, another downturn followed just before the millennium, as Eurogays bored of a destination that'd become too routine and gone stale. Somewhat surprisingly, Torremolinos has undergone yet another powerful resurgence in the last few years, proving it a gay Spanish phoenix that simply refuses to go quietly. As Spain's magnetism draws in more and more international LGBT travelers, Torremolinos, virtually unknown to Amerigays until recently, is now finally being discovered by those looking beyond the tried and true Madrid-to-Barcelona-and-Sitges route. Interestingly, Torremolinos also draws many heterosexual Nordic and British types, leading to odd amalgams like a Finnish bar atop a gay disco, as in the case of the popular and very fun Home. Other current LGBT hotspots (among some 20 in Torremolinos) include Parthenon and Passion discos, both always packed on weekends. Since Torremolinos isn't yet exactly teeming with upscale lodging options, many visitors choose to stay in Málaga and make the journey by taxi at club time—in fact, it's what many Malagueños themselves do every weekend. For those who'd rather be able to stumble home, Hostal Guadalupe is a solid Torremolinos choice. Beyond the packed nightclubs and visible renovations around town, another clear indication that Torremolinos' star is again on the rise was the 2010 debut of Expo Gays, an international gay business expo that drew some 180 exhibitors and 15,000 visitors to the city's 60,000-square-foot Palace of Congresses and Exhibitions over three days in mid-October. Of course, one of the main reasons people flock to Costa del Sol is to soak up the ever-present local sun. Torremolinos itself has several lovely stretches of sand, including the once gay but now mixed Poseidon Beach. Most locals will assure you, however, that the best gay beach in Costa del Sol is farther down the coast, between Calahonda and Marbella at Cabopin. While this naturist beach isn't exclusively gay, it boasts a large pink stretch (commencing about 200 yards to the west of the parking lot) that includes a very cruisy and action-packed dune area. Whether you lay or play, Cabopin makes for a nice rejuvenating stop on the journey south from Torremolinos or Málaga to Marbella.

Undercover agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, working with their Mexican counterparts, helped transfer millions of dollars in drug cash and even escorted a shipment of cocaine via Dallas to Spain

2012-01-10T22:45:00.001Z

The covert activities were undertaken as part of an operation to infiltrate and prosecute a major Colombian-Mexican narco-trafficking organization moving cocaine from Colombia to Mexico and the United States. The undercover operation, detailed in Mexican government documents obtained by the New York Times, first came to light via a Monday dispatch by Times reporter Ginger Thompson. The documents "describe American counternarcotics agents, Mexican law enforcement officials and a Colombian informant working undercover together over several months in 2007," Thompson reported. "Together, they conducted numerous wire transfers of tens of thousands of dollars at a time, smuggled millions of dollars in bulk cash—and escorted at least one large shipment of cocaine from Ecuador to Dallas to Madrid." The documents "show that in 2007 the authorities infiltrated" the operations of an accused major Colombian cocaine trafficker, named Harold Mauricio Poveda-Ortega, Thompson wrote. Poveda-Ortega, also known as the Rabbit, "was considered the principal cocaine supplier to the Mexican drug cartel leader Arturo Beltran Leyva." Leyva was killed in 2008 in a shootout with Mexican naval forces. Poveda-Ortega was arrested in Mexico City in November 2010. The Mexican government documents include testimony from a DEA special agent "who oversaw a covert money laundering investigation" into Poveda-Ortega, Thompson reported. The documents form part of the file supporting a Mexican Foreign Ministry extradition order for Poveda-Ortega from last May 2011. The United States, however, has declined to indicate whether Poveda-Ortega was extradited to the United States, Thompson writes. A Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney similarly told Yahoo News Monday that the department is "not in a position to comment on the specific matter." The Drug Enforcement Administration defended the undercover operation in a written statement given to Thompson. "Transnational organized groups can be defeated only by transnational law enforcement cooperation," the agency wrote. "Such cooperation requires that law enforcement agencies — often from multiple countries — coordinate their activities, while at the same time always acting within their respective laws and authorities." Former DEA agent Robert Mazur, who posed as a money launderer in a similar undercover DEA investigation targeting the banks supporting the Medellin drug cartel, said such undercover operations are necessary and legitimate. Covert drug stings are critical, he says, in lining up evidence to successfully prosecute the top command and control figures of organized crime cartels. "This is a law enforcement technique that has been used for decades," Mazur told Yahoo News in a telephone interview Monday. "If we were to embrace the concept that these undercover money laundering operations shouldn't be conducted because in a small way, they for a brief period of time create a short term benefit for the criminal, we would be doing criminal organizations around the world the greatest favor they could get. We would be closing door to one of the most effective methods available to attack what law enforcement calls the command and control of these global organizations." The organizations targeted in these intricate DEA stings "are not people selling dime bags of crack on the street, but people trying to create terrorists states around the world," continued Mazur (Mazur, who retired from the DEA in 1998, has recounted his experience infiltrating the BCCI bank accused of money laundering for the Colombian drug cartel, in a book, The Infiltrator.) Mazur also disputed any comparison between the undercover DEA case exposed by the Times Monday and the recent controversy over "Fast and Furious," the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) program that allegedly put guns in the hands of Mexican drug gangs. "I would never agree in any circumstances it's worthwhile to put 2,000 weapons in the hands of criminals," he said. "Each of these operations needs to be professionally managed and individually scrutinized. This one, from what I read, is very common place, and I don't see anything in there that disturbs me in the least." Recent DEA undercover operations have led to the apprehension and successful prosecution of two major global arms traffickers, including the Russian-born, so-called "merchant of death" Viktor Bout, who was convicted in November on four counts of plotting to sell anti-aircraft guns and other weapons to Colombia's FARC rebels; and the Syrian-born "Prince of Marbella," Monzer al-Kassar, who was sentenced by a New York court in 2009 to 30 years in prison.

Trial begins in giant Spanish corruption scandal

2012-01-10T21:39:00.001Z

top Spanish former official went on trial Monday at the start of legal proceedings into a raft of corruption scandals in which King Juan Carlos' son-in-law is also accused. Jaume Matas, the ex-head of the regional government of the Balearic islands who had also served as environment minister, appeared at a court in Palma de Majorca alongside three other suspects. They have been charged with embezzlement, fraud, falsifying documents and influence peddling. Matas was charged in March 2010 and was released after paying a record bail of 3.0 million euros ($3.8 million). Prosecutors are demanding an eight and a half years jail term. Matas served as president of the government of the Balearic Islands between 1996-1999 and then between 2003-2007. He was environment minister between 2000-2003. The so-called "Palma Arena affair" as the Spanish press has dubbed the corruption scandal centres on the suspected embezzlement of public funds during the construction of a velodrome in Palma de Majorca between 2005-2007. An investigation concluded that the cycling track had an unjustified cost overrun of 41 million euros. That led authorities on the archipelago to uncover other cases of suspected embezzlement of public funds, including one allegedly involving royal son-in-law Inaki Urdangarin. The 43-year-old ex-Olympic handball player is scheduled to appear in court on February 25 as part of a probe into corruption at a non-profit organisation, Instituto Noos, which he headed between 2004 and 2006. The probe centres notably on a payment of 2.3 million euros to Instituto Noos for organising a tourism and sports conference in 2005 and 2006. Urdangarin, who has the title Duke of Palma and is married to the king's youngest daughter, Princess Cristina, has denied any wrongdoing. Last month the royal family suspended the the duke from official engagements and the palace's highest official, Rafael Spottorno, gave an unprecedented rebuke, telling Spanish media his behaviour "does not seem exemplary".

THE ex-lover of Holby City star Laila Rouass has been jailed for nine years in a £250m VAT fraud.

2012-01-08T16:54:00.001Z

• NASIR KHAN WAS FOUND GUILTY OF ALLOWING CRIMINAL GANGS TO LAUNDER MONEY THROUGH A STRING OF HIS COMPANIES

Nasir Khan, 39, who lived in Gibraltar, was found guilty of allowing criminal gangs to launder money through a string of his companies.

Khan who divided his time between a flat at Atlantic Suites and a six million euro villa in Marbella, ‘deliberately cheated the public purse,’ heard London’s Southwark Crown Court.

The businessman who dated Rouass, also a contestant in Strictly Come Dancing in 2009, managed to amass a fortune of 50m euros and was regularly seen driving luxury sportscars or in his £40,000 yacht moored.

The lynchpin was able to make huge amounts of money in VAT rebates in a clever mobile phone scam.

The son of a Surrey bus driver, he borrowed £2,000 from friends and was named the Bank of England’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year when his mobile phone company The Accessory People took off in the 1990s.

At the age of 29, he was valued at £45million, but as the accessory market declined around 2001, his company began a fraudulent wholesale trade in mobile phones, boosting turnover from £13million in 2002 to £219million in 2003.

The scam involved bogus UK companies buying high value mobile phones in Europe.

The phones were then moved through a number of British firms before being sold back to Europe.

Through a series of rapid transactions, often taking place in less than a day, the fraudsters were able to exploit UK tax laws and claim vast sums in VAT rebates.

Khan used his company and other firms, including Direct Accessories Ltd, to launder the cash.

Michael Parroy QC, prosecuting, said: “The loss of tax revenue ran into millions of pounds and those involved made a lot of money.”

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: “Quite why somebody who had been as successful as you would decide to become involved in fraud I very much doubt this court will ever know.

“I suspect the enormous profits which were available in the fraud were too great for you to resist, the figures speak for themselves.”

Mexican footballer arrested on kidnappings

2012-01-08T15:36:00.001Z

Mexican goalkeeper Omar 'The Cat' Ortiz has been arrested for his alleged role in a group of kidnappers whose victims included the husband of singer Gloria Trevi. The 35-year-old - capped once by Mexico in 2002 - is alleged to have singled out potential targets for the gang, who are apparently linked to the Gulf drugs cartel. "He (Ortiz) was an accomplice to the gang and his role was to target future victims," a spokesperson for Nuevo Leon security department said on Sunday. "He was paid for that. He has confessed to being implicated in at least two kidnappings and receiving for that more than 100,000 pesos (about $A7000)." The spokesperson refused to say whether Ortiz - whose chequered playing career included a two-year doping ban back in 2010 - was involved in the kidnapping of Trevi's husband in October last year.

Arrested Omar Ortiz "El Gato" Striped former goalkeeper for kidnapping

2012-01-08T15:22:00.001Z

Omar Ortiz, former goalkeeper Rayados of Monterrey was presented by the PGJNL to the media along with three others accused of the crime of kidnapping was linked to the kidnapping of the husband of Gloria Trevi.

Former Mexican goalkeeper Moterrey club, Omar 'El Gato' Ortiz, suspended in 2010 for doping, was arrested by members of a gang of kidnappers whose victims are the husband of singer Gloria Trevi, said Saturday the government of Nuevo León .

"It became an accomplice of the band to bring to the victims (kidnapping) and received payments for their active participation in these cases, has confessed to at least two, which received more than 100 thousand dollars," he said at a press conference the spokesman Security of Nuevo Leon, Jorge Domene.

The band he belonged to "The Cat", which was presented to the press Saturday after being arrested in recent days, kidnapped the husband of singer Gloria Trevi in October 2011, said Domenico, but did not say whether the former goalkeeper took on plagiarism.

Three other alleged hijackers were presented to the press and authorities say confessed to have participated in at least 20 kidnappings, each of which demanded a million dollars. The band is connected to the Gulf cartel, Domene said.

Two members of the Italian mafia have been arrested in a Marbella villa.

2012-01-08T15:13:00.001Z

The two Italians are from the Mazzarella clan of the Camorra mafia and were arrested last Wednesday morning by UDYCO police on the Costa del Sol working with Italian police. They face charges of belonging to a criminal organisation dedicated to the traffic of drugs into Europe from Morocco. They have been named as Clemente Amodio and Pasquale Mazzarella. European arrest warrants are in place and the two men have been taken to Madrid where the National Court will handle the extradition. The Italian anti-mafia prosecutor has said that these arrests are more confirmation that the south of Spain in general, and the Costa del Sol in particular, has become one of the favourite refuges for members of the Camorra. Meanwhile in a separate incident, police have arrested a 24 year old Frenchman, named with the initials Y.K. in Torremolinos. He’s wanted in France on charges of attempted homicide and drugs offences, and was seized on December 28 after being stopped at a routine control. Police noted that his driving licence photo looked nothing like him.

50 year old buildings in Spain to get an ITE inspection

2012-01-08T15:10:00.001Z

Buildings which are more than 50 years old are to be obliged to have a so-called ITV/MOT inspection from July. The new legislation affects buildings older than 50 years in towns of more than 25,000 inhabitants. Buildings will be obliged to display a certificate before any flats can be sold. The ITE Inspección Técnica de Edificios has been in existence for some time, but only from July 7 2012 will it become obligatory. The buildings will be subjected to a complete technical inspection by a competent architect or engineer who will draw up a report on the state of the building, indicating any deficiencies detected and whether they are serious or not. In the case that work needs to be done, a further inspection is needed when the work is completed. Fines of 1,000 – 6,000 € are envisaged for those who don’t comply. The process will have to be repeated every ten years.

King Melchor had a heart attack and died while sitting atop his float.

2012-01-08T15:06:00.001Z

Drama of an unexpected sort in the Valencia town of Pobla de Farnais, during the Three Kings Parade on Thursday night. Levante EMV reports that King Melchor had a heart attack and died while sitting atop his float. The man, who was in his 50’s and a great fan of the local fiestas and traditions is reported to have told people to carry on with the procession, although he was not feeling well. Finally witnesses reported that J.M. Martínez fainted and fell unconscious from his chair.

Prison for father and son in connection with Barcelona Senegalese killing

2012-01-08T15:04:00.001Z

Two of the four people arrested in connection with the death of a Senegalese man, Ibrahima Dyey in Barcelona last Tuesday have been sent to prison on remand, while the other two have been granted provisional release by the judge in Instruction Court 12 in Barcelona. The father of a gypsy clan, Antonio F.P., is one of those being held in custody, along with one of his sons, 28 year old Antonio F.G who is believed to have actually carried out the killing. The tragedy has caused serious friction between local gypsy residents and the Africans in the Besòs district of the city. The judge ordered that the other two sons face charges of making threats and causing injury and they have to report every day to the court. Their passports have been removed and they are not allowed to leave Barcelona, or be closer than 500m to any of the witnesses called to the court.

MAN has been arrested in connection with a violent attempted robbery on a bread delivery man in Malaga.

2011-12-29T17:42:00.001Z

The delivery man was on his way to his vehicle at Plaza Roja in Velez Malaga when he was attacked by a robber wielding an axe, at 6.45am on September 29.

The attacker, with a balaclava on his head and socks on his hands, was carrying an axe.He demanded the bread man hand over money.

Thankfully a passer-by chased the attacker off, but not before he had planted his weapon into the bread delivery man’s neck.

A 46-year-old man has now been arrested, said police.

MOTHER who killed her newborn baby has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.

2011-12-29T17:39:00.000Z

The 28-year-old woman, originally from Paraguay, hit her baby girl over the head after giving birth at a house in Malaga.

She then put the infant in a plastic bag which she placed outside under another bag, to ensure that her baby would suffocate.

The baby suffered a fracture to its skull, loss of blood through its umbilical cord and suffocation.

The woman had been living unofficially in Spain along with her other daughter, who is three.

Having been taken on by a Spanish family to help care for their relative who had Alzheimer’s, she and her daughter had been kept on after the relative died.

The woman had hidden her pregnancy from the family for fear of their reaction.

But when she suffered heavy bleeding from the birth, she was forced to go to hospital.

A doctor realised what had happened and called the police, who later discovered the dead baby outside her house.

The woman claimed she had not intended to kill the child.

She said she had dropped her twice after giving birth and that she had tried to resuscitate her.

Doctors however said the blow the child had suffered was of a ‘high intensity’.

Malaga’s provincial court ruled that she had hit her child ‘consciously and deliberately, with intent to kill her,’ and that she had placed the child in the plastic bag ‘with the clear intention of getting rid of it’.

The court ruled that this crime constitutes premeditated murder.

THE BRITISH government has rubbished reports that it is drawing up plans to rescue tens of thousands of British expats from Spain in the event of a banking collapse.

2011-12-29T17:34:00.000Z

The story - which appeared in several UK national newspapers at the beginning of the week, based on an article in the Sunday Times - had caused wide-spread panic amongst expats along the Costas.

The reports alleged that the Foreign Office is putting contingency plans in place to help thousands of Britons if they were unable to get to their money in the event of a ‘catastrophic banking collapse'.

They stated that the Foreign Office is concerned that those who have invested savings would face losing their homes in Spain if banks called in loans and they were unable to access money.

An article in the Daily Mail alleges: "Among options being considered for a 'nightmare scenario' include sending planes, ships and coaches to evacuate expats - some through Gibraltar.

Junta de Andalucía accused of dragging feet over Astapa investigation in Estepona

2011-12-29T17:31:00.002Z

The judge says the Junta should send him some technicians to help the investigation.

Estepona Town Hall raided by police in November 2006 - EFE

The Junta de Andalucía cannot continue to refuse to supply technicians to speed up the ‘Astapa’ case investigating corruption in Estepona Town Hall.

Anti Corruption Prosecutor, Valentín Bueno, has said in a letter that to refuse to help is ‘unaffordable’ because the legislation obliges the public entities to collaborate with the judges and the courts during the processes.

Judge Jesús Torres asked for the help from the Junta hacienda technicians back in August, asking that they investigate eight developments which are under suspicion. The Junta refused, and referred to article 95 of the Ley General Tributaria, which narrows the collaboration with judges and courts. Anticorruption did not accept that have underlined their request.

Meanwhile Judge Torres has managed to get an inspector from Agencia Tributaria who will revise the contracts for works and services awarded by Estepona Town Hall between 2003 and 2008. Police have sent all the documentation to the court so the work can start.

Spain Makes Banks Pay Double To Deposit Guarantee Fund

2011-12-03T13:49:00.001Z

The Spanish government Friday said it has approved a decree that will make banks more than double their contribution to the Spanish deposit guarantee fund, a measure aimed at getting lenders to shoulder a bigger part of the cost of financial sector restructuring. Under the new legislation, banks will have to pay an annual fee of 0.2% of the deposits they hold into the deposit guarantee fund, up from between 0.06% and 0.1% now. Finance Minister Elena Salgado said she expects banks to contribute EUR1.5 billion to EUR1.6 billion to the fund per year after the change. "The restructuring of the financial system will have zero cost for the tax contributor, and today's law reinforces that idea," Salgado said at a press conference following the outgoing Socialist government's weekly cabinet meeting. The move follows a recent government initiative to merge the deposit guarantee fund of the commercial banks with that of the savings banks, and use its funds to cover losses resulting from sector cleanup, part of a wider plan to slash a gaping government budget deficit. The deposit guarantee fund currently holds a total of EUR6.59 billion. The move didn't go down well with bankers. The AEB, a banking association which represents Spain's commercial banks and not the savings banks, said it is "surprising and unfair" that the banks are being forced to pay more to the fund. Until now, none of the listed banks has taken state aid, while several savings banks have been bailed out. Economists and analysts are concerned that the mounting cost of the cleanup of Spain's ailing banks will undermine Spain's efforts to bring down the deficit. Spain's state-backed Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring injected EUR7.55 billion in its banks to help them meet new minimum capital requirements the government set earlier this year. This comes on top of around EUR10 billion the FROB earlier provided to banks. But the total amount falls far short of the capital needs estimated by many independent analysts. Just last month, the Bank of Spain seized Banco de Valencia SA (BVA.MC), a lender with EUR24 billion in assets that like many Spanish lenders had made big and ultimately fatal bets on lending to real-estate developers. That took the tally of nationalized banks to seven since 2008, after a massive real-estate bubble burst. Only two of these have so far been auctioned off. The Bank of Spain next week is expected to finalize the auction of Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo (CAM.MC), by handing it over to midsized lender Banco de Sabadell SA (SAB.MC). Central bank Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez recently called CAM "the worst of the worst" of the country's ailing banks, and is offering the buyer sweeping guarantees against future loan losses resulting from its exposure to the real-estate sector. The prime minister elect, Mariano Rajoy of the conservative Popular Party, has said cleaning up the banking sector is one of his main priorities when he assumes power later this month, though he has yet to spell out how he plans to conduct this cleanup

Hundred million euro plan to expand Marbella port gets go ahead

2011-12-03T13:31:00.001Z

109 million euro plan to expand Marbella’s fishing port has finally been given the green light. The long planned transformation of La Bajadilla into one of the most luxurious marinas on the Mediterranean can now take shape after the Junta de Andalucia, Marbella town hall and The Nasir Bin Abdullah & Sons Consortium signed a contract allowing construction to begin. The move comes just weeks after the Andalucian High Court overruled objections to the scheme – submitted by Sheikh Abdullah Al-Tani, a member of the Quatari Royal family and owner of Malaga CF – that it would cause irreversible damage to Marbella. Work will now being within six months and will see the port undergo intense renovation and rescaling to make it ready to receive cruise liners and other large ships. In particular the plan, which is expected to take four years to complete and will create 750 jobs, includes a commercial area of 23,000 square meters, car parking with around 250 spaces, a five star hotel and three times the current number of moorings. It marks the first public private partnership to finance a sports marina in Spain and will give the contractor development rights for 40 years. According to the mayor of Marbella, Angeles Munoz, the scheme will also attract other projects to the Costa del Sol town and is particularly welcome in the current economic climate. “It is a great opportunity not to be missed,” she said.

Marbella has suffered from a scandal that has blighted the town for a decade.

2011-12-03T13:25:00.001Z

Eighteen thousand homes were built illegally by developers during the boom years up to 2006 and thousands of people bought them in good faith. The Marbella administration has sought to resolve the issue by fining the developers and devising a plan that effectively legalises 17,500 homes. Where developers cannot be found, homeowners pay the fine.

Until now, the Andalucia regional council, within whose jurisdiction Marbella lies, had opposed the town council’s policy of legalising illegally built homes. However, the Andalucian authorities have announced they will issue a decree before the end of December agreeing to allow illegally built homes to remain standing.

However, Marbella and Andalucia agree that 500 homes remain illegal because they break multiple laws. The courts want them demolished, but Marbella’s town council is reluctant to destroy them.

“The politicians don’t want to be seen putting people out of their homes,” says Campbell Ferguson, director of Survey Spain Network of Chartered Surveyors. He advises buyers to consult a lawyer before putting in an offer on a property to find out whether it was licensed or has any fines attached to it.

Laurent Coulée, sales director at Fine & Country estate agents, says; “While nothing was built for the last five years, in the last few months we have seen some villas being constructed.”

Sierra Blanca Estates is building 36 apartments at its Reserva de Sierra Blanca scheme in the north of the town. Prices start at €1.15m for the three-bedroom apartments which are scheduled for completion in 2013. Half have been sold off-plan, with Russians the biggest buyers. Coulée says developers are gaining confidence from five infrastructure projects, three of which are under way.

First, the San Pedro Bypass, which is scheduled for completion in early 2012, will divert traffic from Marbella city centre, relieving congestion during busy summer months. Second, Marbella’s beach promenade, the Paseo Maritimo, is undergoing €10m of upgrades and extensions. Third, Malaga Airport, where a third terminal opened in March 2010, is scheduled to have a second runway completed in the first three months of 2012.

Other infrastructure schemes include the redevelopment of Marbella’s La Bajadilla marina and fishing port. Qatari developer Nasir Bin Abdullah & Sons wants to build a €400m marina with 858 moorings, including six for super-yachts, and a 200-metre pier for cruise liners. It will build shops, bars, restaurants and a five-star hotel to line the quayside and at least four blocks of apartments, by 2015. The town hall is an enthusiastic supporter of this project because it believes it will help Marbella compete with rival tourist destinations, the Côte d’Azur and Sardinia.

Also in the pipeline is a plan to extend Malaga’s commuter railway from Malaga Airport to Marbella, giving visitors and residents an alternative to travelling by road.

Assuming all five schemes are completed, Coulée says their effect on the town’s property market will be transformative. The transport schemes would make it easier for holiday homeowners to access Marbella, while the new marina would draw tourists, providing opportunities to rent out properties, he says.

Despite renewed demand, Marbella remains a buyers’ market. In prime areas, such as the city centre and along the Golden Mile, a stretch of dual carriageway lined by hotels, luxury homes and businesses, property prices need to be 40 per cent below 2006 valuations to make them saleable, says Barbara Wood of buying agency The Property Finders. If the market continues to follow the pattern of previous downturns, prices will flatline in 2012 and 2013 before rising in 2014, she forecasts.

Kristina Szekely, owner of Kristina Szekely Sotheby’s International Realty, says the eurozone crisis, coupled with Spain’s economic and debt problems, is having a negative effect on the Marbella market, but that some buyers are taking advantage of this to buy properties at relatively low prices.

Coulée says Swiss and Scandinavians are buying Marbella homes to take advantage of the fall in value of the euro relative to their national currencies. Other buyers come from Spain, Britain, Russia, Qatar and Dubai, and tend to be cash buyers who do not need a mortgage.

La Casa Loriana is on the market for €50m

Buyers have some interesting properties to choose from. Fine & Country is marketing what it says is Spain’s most expensive home, the €50m La Casa Loriana which overlooks the Marbella beach and promenade. The main house, guest house, beach house and staff villa provide 4,000 sq m of accommodation, including 10 bedroom suites. Features include two swimming pools, a cinema and sweeping driveway.

Marbella’s developers and estate agents are celebrating the Popular party’s general election success in November because they believe the conservatives will support the town’s infrastructural improvements and that they may extend the previous Socialist administration’s temporary VAT cut on newly built homes. Whether that will keep housebuilders at work while the eurozone debt crisis takes its toll on Spain’s economy remains to be seen.

550 kilos of cocaine hidden in bananas intercepted in Algeciras

2011-11-24T12:41:00.001Z

National Police have found more than 550 kilos of cocaine hidden in boxes of ‘top quality bananas’ which were being introduced into Spain via the port in Algeciras. The drugs were hidden in the plastic linings inside the cardboard boxes containing the bananas, found in containers which had come from Ecuador. The drug runners benefitted by the quicker customs procedures for fruit. 11 people have been arrested in Madrid, including the alleged head of the gang. The police investigation started in the middle of last year as a group of Ecuadorian and Colombian men who were planning to send a large amount of cocaine from South America to Spain were uncovered. The members of this gang had top security measures to avoid detection by the Police. Thanks to the methods discovered in that organisation, with the drug hidden in the plastic, it has been possible to make these latest arrests.

Five injured in Canary Island Hotel gas explosion

2011-11-24T12:36:00.001Z

Five people have been injured, four of them seriously in a gas explosion in a hotel in Gran Canaria. The propane gas escaped during transfer of the gas from a tanker to the Hotel Cordial on the Playa de Mogán and caused an explosion which led to a fire. Five people were affected by burns, four of them are reported to be in a very serious condition, according to the emergency services coordination centre. Four of the injured are workers from the hotel and the fifth is a foreign tourist. The driver of the gas tanker escaped unhurt as he was on the other side of the tanker when the explosion happened. 1,000 tourists were evacuated from the hotel after the blast. They will be allowed back after fire experts have inspected the building. The emergency services were alerted just after 9am on Wednesday, and they immediately sent a medical helicopter, five ambulances and a rapid intervention vehicle to the scene.

A NEW breed of super-rich is crawling out of the mahogany woodwork in Australia.

2011-11-19T00:18:00.001Z

A NEW breed of super-rich is crawling out of the mahogany woodwork in Australia. With the recent mining boom and strengthening dollar, a new report has revealed that more than 2500 individuals are worth at least $US30 million. The report, the first conducted by Sydney-based Wealth-X - which describes itself as a wealth intelligence firm - showed that 2750 Australians earned at least $US30 million (30 of them are billionaires). Wealth-X Australia vice-president Adrian Jenkinson said the number of ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals reflected the strength of the resources boom. "A lot of the wealth is a result of the current economic environment ... (especially) around mining and mining-related services," he said. "It's directly linked to the commodities boom." Clive Palmer did not make the cut with the survey valuing him at a paltry $1.27 billion, far below the Sunday Mail Rich List estimate of $6 billion. But Queensland-born Chris Wallin, of QCoal, made 7th position with a net worth of $US3 billion. The top three were Gina Rinehart, with a net worth of $US10.1 billion, Ivan Glasenberg at $US9 billion and Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest $US4.9 billion. Mr Jenkinson said the majority of UHNW individuals had become wealthy for the first time. "Unlike Europe, where you have large pockets of old wealth . . . these are people who are becoming very wealthy for the first time," he said. He said the new generation would retain its newfound wealth through smart banking and investing, but they were still willing to indulge in luxury "playthings". "They're interested in luxury goods - art, watches, boats, planes and helicopters," he said, adding that traditional investments such as property and motor vehicles would always be popular. Mr Jenkinson said Wealth-X had only recently been introduced to Australia but the organisation planned a number of connected studies on the rising number of ultra-rich individuals. He said people would always be interested in the studies, with the public and media constantly fascinated by the ultra-wealthy lifestyle. "They're always interested in what the ultra-wealthy are doing and what they're buying," he said. But he said the survey also helped the wealthy individuals to better connect with each other. "It helps people in the overall investment community understand where the money is," he said.

SIX people have been arrested for their involvement with a gang which stole jewellery from elderly people

2011-11-18T23:53:00.001Z

SIX people have been arrested for their involvement with a gang which stole jewellery from elderly people. They are believed to be responsible for more than 120 robberies in 19 provinces throughout Spain, including Almeria, where some of the members were based. Around 450 pieces of jewellery have been recovered and will be exhibited at the Almeria Guardia Civil station for owners to identify. The way they operated was by one of them asking people over the age of 65 for directions to distract them while taking their belongings, or in other cases, they would offer to sell them cheap jewellery which they put on them while removing the valuable items they were wearing. They travelled in high-range vehicles all over Spain and chose small towns, isolated areas, and locations surrounding homes or centres for the elderly. On some occasions if the victim resisted, they would take the jewellery by force and had knocked down some of the victims.

ONE of Europe’s most powerful hashish smugglers was arrested in Estepona

2011-11-18T23:49:00.001Z

ONE of Europe’s most powerful hashish smugglers was arrested in Estepona, National Police said. The arrest of the 33-year-old man was part of an operation against drug traffickers based in Huelva in which more than 3,620 kilos of hashish were seized from a pneumatic boat at a shipyard in Isla Christina, Huelva. The two men on board were dressed as Guardia Civil officers so as not to arouse suspicion. They were arrested along with eight others. The criminal organization smuggled drugs to Spain via Malaga and Huelva from Morocco. Two days later, National Police the leader of the organization, who had a prison order against him from 2010 for drug-related crimes, was arrested in Estepona. He is considered by police to be one of Europe’s most powerful drug barons. In the operation, police seized 100 mobile phones, documents, three computers, four vehicles, a jet-ski, a motorbike, two satellite phones, six GPS devices and €27,000 in cash. The documents led to the arrest last month of a Guardia Civil officer who allegedly provided the gang with information on vehicles and their owners.

The World Bank today approved $297 million in loans to Morocco to help finance the Ouarzazate Concentrated Solar Power Plant Project

2011-11-18T16:18:00.001Z

The World Bank today approved $297 million in loans to Morocco to help finance the Ouarzazate Concentrated Solar Power Plant Project, taking a historic step toward realizing one of the first large-scale plants of this kind in North Africa to exploit the region's vast solar energy resources. With this approval from the Bank's Board of Executive Directors, Morocco takes the lead with the first project in the low-carbon development plan under the ambitious Middle East and North Africa Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Scale-up Program. A $200 million loan will be provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the part of the Bank that lends to developing country governments, and another $97 million loan will come from the Clean Technology Fund. "The World Bank is proud to provide the financing needed to make this large-scale renewable energy investment possible," said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick. "Ouarzazate demonstrates Morocco's commitment to low-carbon growth and could demonstrate the enormous potential of solar power in the Middle East and North Africa. During a time of transformation in North Africa, this solar project could advance the potential of the technology, create many new jobs across the region, assist the European Union to meet its low-carbon energy targets, and deepen economic and energy integration in the Mediterranean. That's a multiple winner." The 500 megawatt (MW) Ouarzazate solar complex, as the first power site, will be among the largest CSP plants in the world and is an important step in Morocco's national plan to deploy 2000 MW of solar power generation capacity by 2020. The World Bank has supported Morocco's national Solar Power Plan since it was launched in 2009 and is now making this significant loan to co-finance the development and construction of the Ouarzazate Project Phase 1 parabolic trough plant through a Public Private Partnership between the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) and a private partner. Ouarzazate Phase 1 will involve the first 160 MW and will help Morocco avoid 240,000 tons of CO2 equivalent a year. The Ouarzazate project will also contribute to Morocco's objectives of energy security, job creation, and energy exports. As a regional frontrunner in clean energy, Morocco is rising to the challenge of its international commitments made in the last two United Nations' climate summits and under the "Union for the Mediterranean." "The Ouarzazate first phase is a key milestone for the success of the Moroccan solar program," said Mustapha Bakkoury, President of MASEN. "While answering both energy and environmental concerns, it provides a strong opportunity for green growth, green job creation, and increased regional market integration. It will pave the way for the positive implementation of the regional initiatives sharing the same vision (Mediterranean Solar Plan, Desertec Industry Initiative, Medgrid, World Bank Arab World Initiative). The support of international financial institutions, like the World Bank, through development financing but also climate change dedicated financing, is essential to help bring the overall scheme to economic viability," added Bakkoury. Relevant Links North Africa Aid and Assistance Morocco International Organisations Energy Environment The Ouarzazate loan is in line with the World Bank's commitment to scaling up funding that helps developing countries cope with climate change and embark on a low-emission development path. The World Bank Group's renewable energy portfolio increased from a total of $3.1 billion between fiscal years 2008-09 to $4.9 billion in 2010-11. Given the simultaneous expansion of the overall energy portfolio during the same period, the renewable energy proportion rose from 20 percent to 23 percent. About the project: The World Bank, the Clean Technology Fund, the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Agence Française de Développement, European Union Neighborhood Investment Facility, and the Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau are working with MASEN and a competitively selected private partner to implement Ouarzazate I.

FIVE members of a British family have been arrested for stealing 156,700 litres of diesel oil from a Malaga pipeline.

2011-11-18T15:21:00.001Z

FIVE members of a British family have been arrested for stealing 156,700 litres of diesel oil from a Malaga pipeline. The highly-organised team are alleged to have used their plumbing knowledge to puncture the pipe and set up hidden hoses leading to their rented finca in nearby Campanillas. In early October oil company CLH noticed a drop in pressure in the pipe supplying Malaga airport and filed a complaint with the Guardia Civil, who immediately launched operation ‘Rudolf 2011’ to catch the thieves. Police located the leak and discovered a hut hiding the extracting devices. They traced the pipes to the Campanillas house where they arrested a man who was controlling the device. They also discovered a 500-litre capacity van connected to the supply with a hose. Later they arrested four more members of the family of thieves, who it is thought planned to sell the fuel on illegally. The Guardia Civil have said this is the first case of its kind in Andalucia. Rudolf 2011 will now investigate whether the group is part of a larger criminal organisation. Worryingly, much of the oil had leaked onto the ground through holes in the clandestine system, which was made using a high-pressure tap and household plumbing equipment.

ARRESTED 60-year-old, who is originally from Blackpool, but has been living in the Marbella area of Spain

2011-11-12T13:46:00.001Z

Armed Naval and Gardai personnel with cocaine which was seized from a yacht off the west coast of Ireland

A BLACKPOOL man has been arrested for allegedly being part of a £250m international cocaine smuggling racket.

Police, acting under orders from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) – dubbed Britain’s FBI –swooped in the town to capture John Alan Brooks.

The 60-year-old, who is originally from Blackpool, but has been living in the Marbella area of Spain, was found at an address in Marton.

His arrest comes as part of a major investigation which was launched in 2008 when a 1.5 tonnes shipment of cocaine was seized off the coast of Ireland.

The luxury yacht Dances With Waves was carrying drugs with an estimated value of 300m euros or £250m.

Naval officers boarded her after she got into trouble 170 miles off the south west coast of Ireland.

Brooks is known to have had addresses previously in both the Commonedge Road area of Blackpool and in Lytham and St Annes.

It is believed he was visiting family members in Blackpool when police moved in.

A spokesman for SOCA confirmed: “A man allegedly linked to a plot to smuggle 1.5 tonnes of cocaine into the UK on board the boat Dances with Waves was arrested as part of a Serious Organised Crime Agency investigation.

“John Alan Brooks has been charged with conspiracy to import cocaine.

“He is originally from Blackpool, but has been living in the Benahavis area of Spain,

“He appeared at Birmingham Magistrates Court on Monday. He has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Birmingham Crown Court this coming Monday.”

The drugs seizure was reportedly the largest in Irish history when it was made in November 2008.

Dances With Waves – a 60ft ocean-going yacht – had set sail from Trinidad and was heading for the UK when it got into difficulties in stormy weather.

It was reported 70 bales of cocaine were on the verge of capsizing when Naval officers moved in.

Authorities were forced to board the ship in “horrendous weather conditions” to prevent evidence being lost in the seven-metre swells.

Experts said although the yacht could travel at high speeds, it was not designed for rough weather.

Under armed guard, the crippled yacht was sailed to Castletownbere, west Cork, where plastic-wrapped bales which filled the hull were unloaded and stacked on the quayside.

n Philip Doo, 52, from Brixham, David Mufford, 44, of Torquay, and Christopher Wiggins, 42, with an address in Spain’s Costa del Sol were arrested on the yacht.

They later pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply.

All received 10-year sentences at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in May 2009

Foreign Office is urging Britons to remember that its services are reserved for people in real difficultly

2011-11-12T10:07:00.001Z

Foreign Office is urging Britons to remember that its services are reserved for people in real difficultly, and not for finding out Prince Charles' shoe size The Foreign Office has issued a reminder to Britons travelling and living abroad that embassies, high commissions and consulates exist to offer assistance to those in real difficultly, and are not 'concierge services'. To demonstrate their point the Foreign Office decided to reveal some of the odd requests they have received over the last six months. One man in Sofia asked if the Consulate would sell his house for him, whilst another rang the Consulate in Sydney to find out what he should pack for his holiday. A lady in Moscow called the embassy complaining about a buzzing noise in her apartment, a caller in Spain wondered the shoe size of Prince Charles, and a man stranded in an airport asked the Foreign Office to contact his dominatrix. With around two million consular inquires every year, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) needs to dedicate its time to helping British citizens abroad in the case of hospitalisation, death, arrest, forced marriage and child abduction. Jeremy Browne, Minister for Consular Affairs, said: “It is important that people understand the level of help we can offer. Our priority is to help people in real difficulty abroad and we cannot do this if our time is diverted by people trying to use us as a concierge service. We need to be able to focus primarily on helping victims of serious crimes, supporting people who have been detained or assisting people who have lost a loved one abroad.” The Foreign Office has recently set up a call centre in Malaga to filter out some of the non-consular inquires from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Andorra, allowing embassy and consulate staff to focus their time on more important issues at hand. So just remember, there are simply some things the Foreign Office cannot help with, and where to get a Christmas lunch in Malaga, the location of the best fishing spots in Greece and meeting pets in customs in Dubai are some of them.

Holiday villa belonging to a Sevilla family was left in a heap of rubble after thieves stole it brick by brick

2011-11-12T09:56:00.001Z

holiday villa belonging to a Sevilla family was left in a heap of rubble after thieves stole it brick by brick. Gloria Moreno had a villa in the urbanization of Boticaria (Sevilla), near a luxury. Now he has nothing. They have stolen the building brick by brick. When the rafters were taken the ceiling came down and what was supposed to be a beautiful holiday home has become a pile of rubble. Her family bought the home ten years ago as a second home in an area that promised to become a luxurious area. He family lives in Sevilla and thought this place could be good to spend weekends and days off. It was close to the pine forests and was a newly established residential area in quiet environment. However, the construction of the urbanization stopped leaving the villa isolated. For a time they had rented it out, but upon the departure of the tenants, it was targeted by vandals and thieves. These could operate at night with peace of mind they would not be seen by anyone. Inside the house began a process of selective demolition. First, they took doors and windows. They also dismantled the mechanism of purification of the pool. On one visit she saw various holes in the roof, dismissing it as pure vandalism. What she did not know was that vandals were trying to determinte the material of the roof beams. When iron was found they proceeded to disassemble them one by one to take them and sell them as scrap. By removing the beams the roof collapsed leaving only the walls. But there was something else to steal. In one of the last visits the son of the family saw how someonehad been removing bricks one by one, cleaning and stealing them. What was once a beautiful holiday home is now only a heap of rubble and a hazard.

Joseph Patrick John Lagrue handed himself in at Solihull police station in September after the brawl between members of the Hell’s Angels and Outlaws biker gangs

2011-11-10T16:13:00.001Z

One of Birmingham’s ‘Most Wanted’ crooks is facing justice over a battle between rival bikers at the airport in which one man nearly died.

Joseph Patrick John Lagrue handed himself in at Solihull police station in September after the brawl between members of the Hell’s Angels and Outlaws biker gangs in January 2008.

Up to 30 people, some armed with hammers, machetes, knuckledusters, knives and a meat cleaver, were involved in the fight following a trip to Spain.

Families of holidaymakers were forced to dive for cover as the violence swept through the terminal.

A police source said Lagrue, 43, understood to be a member of the Outlaws, had played a “key role" in the violence.

But he was not tracked down following the incident and, in January last year, detectives named him as ‘wanted’ and added his face to their website.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said that following his arrest on September 27 he appeared before magistrates in Solihull charged with rioting.

He has pleaded guilty to the offence and will be sentenced later this month.

“Joseph Lagrue was wanted by police in connection since the investigation commenced and our efforts to track him down never ceased,” the spokesman said.

“This was a significant disturbance played out in the full glare of a busy international airport terminal.

"Families returning to Birmingham from their holidays were forced to take cover as two groups attacked each other with gratuitous violence.

“Weapons were produced and used and there were a number of injuries.

“The arrest of Joseph Lagrue brings this significant investigation to a close.”

The mob violence exploded near the arrivals hall of the airport after rival members discovered they were on the same flight from Alicante, in Spain.

Members of both gangs were met by associates, who provided them with weapons, as they arrived at the airport and began brawling in front of terrified families.

Several men were injured and one almost lost his life after suffering a serious head injury.

In July 2009, Neil Harrison, then aged 46, of Bell Green Road, Coventry; Paul Arlett, then 35, of Cradley Road, Dudley; Mark Price, then 50, of Westbury Road, Nuneaton, Warwickshire; Sean Timmins, then 38, of Brewood Road in Coven, Staffordshire; Leonard Hawthorne, then 52, of Penn Road, Wolverhampton; Mark Moseley, then 46, of Orchard Rise, in Birmingham, and Jeremy Ball, then 46, of Plant Street, Cheadle, Staffordshire, were each jailed for six years after being convicted of rioting.

Another man, Mark Larner, then aged 47, of Tudor Road, Upper Gornal in the Black Country, fled to South Africa “with a substantial amount of money” before being sentenced. He later handed himself in to police in Bristol and was jailed in November 2009 for six years.

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said Lagrue had pleaded guilty and was remanded in custody until later this month when he is due to be sentenced at Warwick Crown Court.

The King of Spain’s son-in-law was at the centre of a corruption storm today as he came under investigation for siphoning off public money.

2011-11-10T15:59:00.001Z

Inaki Urdangarin - the husband of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia's youngest daughter Infanta Cristina - is suspected of misappropriating cash paid into an NGO.

The former handball player now faces a possible interrogation by investigating judge Jose Castro and risks causing huge embarrassment for the royals.

It is claimed that his non-profit company, Instituto Noos, was given an enormous 2.3million euros (just under £2million) by the Balearic Islands’ regional government to organise two conferences on tourism and sport in 2005 and 2006.

The judicial investigation is looking into whether the bills for the events were inflated and if the money ended up in private companies run by Urdangarin, who is Duke of Palma, the capital of Majorca.

Urdangarin, 43, left Instituto Noos in 2006, months after the exorbitant sums paid by the Balearic government were revealed by the Socialist Party.

He said today: 'I cannot comment about on-going judicial proceedings.'

The prosecution claims Urdangarin and his associate Diego Torres created a network of societies with which they diverted public and private funds received by Instituto Noos.

Under suspicion: The former handball star is charged with creating a network of societies into which he diverted private and public funds

Regal scandal: Princess Cristina and Urdangarin (far right) pose with Spain's royal family King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, Crown Prince Felipe and wife Princess Letizia and Princess Elena

They are under investigation for document falsification, corruption, fraud and embezzlement, and Torres’s home has been searched.

The Royal Household expressed its 'absolute respect' for the legal decisions and added that it has 'nothing to say at this moment' as this is 'an investigation which must follow its course'.

The Duke and Duchess, who married in 1997, now live in Washington, DC. The couple have four children.

Urdangarin played in Spain’s national handball team at three Olympic Games, captaining the side for Sydney 2000.

A Romanian man wanted for murder and robbery in Portugal has been arrested in Torre del Mar.

2011-11-10T15:28:00.001Z

27 year old from Romania escaped to Spain after he was sentenced for the death of a woman who was killed in Portugal in 2005

EFE archive

Named by El Mundo newspaper as 27 year old Ioan R., he fled to Spain after a Portuguese court sentenced him to 15 and a half years in prison for the death of a woman in 2005. The victim was smothered to death in her bed during the course of a robbery.

The wanted man was traced to the Axarquía district of Málaga province and was arrested near a bar in Torre del Mar on November 4. He has now been transferred into the custody of the National Court for extradition to Portugal.

Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_32623.shtml#ixzz1dJgywORG

Nigerian scam case deflates in Málaga

2011-11-10T15:18:00.001Z

Nilo Case has reached court in Málaga, judging the largest ever swindle carried out mostly by Nigerians who sent out letters to try and capture their victims. Under the scam thousands of letters were sent from Málaga around the world, informing their recipients that they had won a prize in the Spanish lottery, and calling for them to pay a management fee so they could receive their winnings. There are 247 known victims of the fraud from Belgium to Australia and in the United States and even the UAE. The network collected 2.98 million € in ‘management fees’, via phone booth businesses on the Costa del Sol. 168 people from 14 countries were accused in the case, but the procedure was deflated somewhat on the first day on Wednesday when 55 of the accused could not be located by the court to serve them with the summons to appear. Of the 113 remaining, plea bargains were established with 87 to give them 23 months and 15 days in jail and a 1,800 fine each. That means that if they have no previous record, they will not have to go to prison, just having to pay the fine. Another group of just 16 refused to accept the plea deal, which implies them admitting their guilt, and they will be called back for the oral hearing of the case which will start on December 15. During the instruction of the case 84 people found to be in Spain illegally were deported back to Nigeria.

The Civil Guard have asked for help from the public in identifying a body

2011-11-10T15:14:00.001Z

The unidentified man - EFE

The Civil Guard have asked for help from the public in identifying a body which was found floating in the waters of Tarragona Port at the end of October.

The deceased is a man aged between 55 and 65, 1.60 metres tall, with short greying hair and a beard. He was wearing blue Lois jeans when he was found, with a white vest, a blue T-shirt with the words ‘Out One Jeans’, a brown ‘North Face’ fleece, and brown Paredes sports shoes.

His body was found on October 31 and is thought to have been in the water between 10 and 16 hours.

Any member of the public with information on the man’s identity should contact their nearest Civil Guard barracks or call the central Civil Guard emergency number, 062.

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Hundreds of foreign residents could lose their homes after mortgage scam in Spain

2011-11-10T15:08:00.001Z

A group of some twenty foreign residents of the Costa del Sol have denounced a fraud under which they could lose their homes. They have formed a platform to denounce a mortgage fraud which had the objective of getting large amounts of money which was then invested in financial havens such as Luxembourg or the Channel Islands. There were foreign victims, mostly all retired, along the entire Spanish coastline and on the islands, from the Costa del Sol to the Costa Blanca, Baleares and Canaries. The scam was headed by foreign banks and foreign financial advisors, nearly all from Denmark, who had been working for some years in Spain, many without the correct authorisation of the National Commission for Market Values. They told the foreigners purchasing property that they had to get a mortgage as otherwise they would be hit with high Spanish taxes. The sales patter for these inverted mortgages claimed that residents’ homes were in danger from the Spanish taxman, claiming Spain would claim between 70 or 80% in succession tax. In effect the scheme invited the foreigners to defraud the Spanish Hacienda tax authorities. The lawyer representing those affected in Málaga, Antonio Flores, from Lawbird in Marbella, said the victims signed up for ‘predatory mortgages’ which offered the possibility of mortgaging their homes for nearly five years at a value above the level of the official appraisal and investing the money outside Spain, mostly in Luxembourg, in order to obtain a profit which covered their costs and gave them an extra payment. Some 800 contracts for the scheme were taken out between 2004 and 2009, and now the foreigners’ platform on the Costa del Sol is appealing to the National Court that those contracts be declared null and void. The total fraud is estimated at 250 million €. The mortgages were signed in Spain, with Spanish notaries and the investment contracts were signed in offices which the financial agents had in Spain, or in some cases in the client’s home. Nearly all those offices are now closed and the financial agents implicated have abandoned Spain. The clients’ money went on the purchase of currency or bank bonds in operations which soon lost money, leaving many of them now facing the possibility of losing their homes.

Man decapitates his daughter in Girona saying the devil ordered him to kill her

2011-11-10T15:03:00.001Z

Latin American man was arrested at his home in Girona on Thursday morning after telephoning emergency services to say he had killed his two year old daughter. His other daughter, aged six, was found with him at the family home on Calle Oviedo unhurt. She is understood to have been watching television when it happened. Her sister’s decapitated body was found lying on the bed when a medical team arrived at the property with police. The father is reported to have claimed that the devil had ordered him to kill her.

Civil Guard have arrested 18 members of a drugs network which had its main base in Bilbao

2011-11-10T14:58:00.001Z

Some of the drugs recovered. Photo - Civil Guard

The Civil Guard have arrested 18 members of a drugs network which had its main base in Bilbao and smuggled cocaine into the country from Colombia for sale on the Canary Islands.

They used drug mules to bring the cocaine into Spain on regular flights to Madrid, who were often made to practice before the trip by swallowing capsules containing a similar volume of flour. Once in Spain, the cocaine was cut at their base in Bilbao and sent on to the island of La Palma for distribution.

The suspects are 14 Colombian citizens, three Spaniards and another from Venezuela. They include six couriers, including two who were arrested in Colombia as they were about to board a flight to Spain and another at Lanzarote Airport. This last was found to be carrying more than one kilo of cocaine inside his body.

Eight addresses were searched as part of the operation, when 11 kilos of cocaine, 6 kilos of cannabis and 1.5 kilos of an adulterating substance were seized.

Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_32647.shtml#ixzz1dJZ9i2Hx

Dogs crap can cost a fortune in Marbella municipality

2011-11-10T14:53:00.001Z

The fine for not picking up dogs crap is raised in Marbella municipality up to 30.000 Euros. Around the street with lovely Marbella apartments, Marbella villas and property Marbella is it full with dog crap. Marbella municipal leaders want to strengthen measures to remove animal waste from the city streets. Therefore it has been assumed increased fines. . A first-time offense will be punishable by between 75 and 500 Euros in fines. Relapses can lead to penalties of up to 2.000 Euros, while cases that are considered particularly serious will be punished with up to 30.000 Euros in fines. The interesting thing about this is how the Marbella municipality is going get any money from the dog owners who miss behaving mostly are poor low class people with no money.

Robert Dawes was finally arrested in Dubai on an international warrant but is now living free on the Costa del Sol.

2011-11-04T22:33:00.001Z

For five years a man named in a British court as "the general" has been pursued by detectives in a multimillion-pound operation.

Over the past decade Robert Dawes has moved from a two-up, two-down terraced house on an estate outside Nottingham to a base in Dubai and finally to a villa on the Costa del Sol.

Police believe he has left a trail of destruction as one of the heads of acrime syndicate that flooded the UK with millions of pounds of cocaine, heroin and cannabis. He has been identified in nine UK investigations involving large scale shipments.

Dawes is wanted in the Netherlands in connection with the murder of a teacher, Gerard Meesters; in Spain, where police have identified him as "the boss of an important English drug trafficking organisation"; and in the UK, where Nottinghamshire detectives are seeking him over the alleged commissioning of the murder of David Draycott in October 2002.

So when investigators from the Serious Organised Crime Agency, working with Spain's Guardia Civil, had Dawes secured in a Madrid prison this spring to face trial over the seizure of 200kg of cocaine, the belief was that the reign of a man described by Soca as a "highly significant international criminal" had ended.

But the Guardian has discovered that Spanish judges have been forced to drop the trial and free 39-year-old Dawes because the British authorities had failed to respond for months to a request for assistance.

Dawes is now back in his enormous villa near Benalmádena on the Costa del Sol with his wife and three children, enjoying his freedom.

After Dawes's release a few weeks ago, the Spanish courts issued a statement which made clear their hand had been forced by the failure of the British to respond to a request for documents sent in April through the highest diplomatic channels.

"The provincial court in Madrid has revoked the indictment of Robert Dawes ... and so he is at liberty," the statement said. "The magistrates ... understand that... it is necessary to wait for a response from the Commission of Dubai, with reference to the searches in the case, and, above all, the Commission of the United Kingdom.

"When the judicial authorities of those countries respond with evidence the case will be taken up again, but neither of the two commissions has yet commented and there is no indication of when they might do so."

Soca officials have been left embarrassed by the bureaucratic bungling. They say the request via a letter rogatory – the official method of requesting assistance between countries – was only received by the Home Office in August before being forwarded on to them in the same month.

The letter rogatory was sent to the Home Office via Eurojust, an organisation based in The Hague that is supposed to speed up co-operation on major criminal investigations between EU countries.

Asked by the Guardian this week about the case, Soca officials said they were planning to send an official to hand deliver the documents. A spokesman said: "We are supporting this Spanish-led investigation. Upon receipt of their request for evidence we took immediate action, in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service, to collate the material required.

"This process must take into account various legal and operational issues but it is Soca's intention to provide the material to the Spanish at the very earliest opportunity."

But it is not the first time that Dawes has slipped through the net, and some of his former associates have refused to co-operate with the authorities in the past because they believed he was an "asset" who was being protected.

Dawes grew up on the Leamington estate in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, and is thought to have began his criminal career in the 1990s working as an enforcer. By 2000 his name was cropping up in investigations from Scotland to London, where he is known to have associated with some of the UK's most notorious crime syndicates including the London-based Adams family.

By this time Dawes and his brother John – later jailed for 24 years for drug dealing and money laundering – had allegedly moved into large scale shipments of heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis.

In the Netherlands he became known in thousands of phone taps carried out by Dutch police as the "Derbyman".

In 2001, fearing the police net was closing in, Dawes left the UK for the Mijas Costa area of Spain – but could not resist making fleeting trips back to his old estate where he still owned two terraced houses that had been knocked together.

Soca began Operation Halbert in 2006 to target Dawes and his lieutenants. In August 2007 they seized £13m worth of drugs including 65kg of heroin in a major raid in Ruddington, Nottinghamshire. A month later, after receiving intelligence from Soca, officers from the Guardia Civil drug unit seized almost 200kg of cocaine just outside Madrid that was allegedly linked to Dawes.

But by then Dawes had fled Spain to set up a base in Dubai. He was eventually extradited in April this year to face trial in Madrid until his release by the Spanish a few weeks ago.

Italy government hangs by thread as coalition crumbles

2011-11-04T15:29:00.001Z

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's fate hung by a thread Friday and desertions from his crumbling centre-right coalition may have already robbed him of the parliamentary numbers he needs to survive. Berlusconi, caught in the crossfire from European powers and a party revolt at home, agreed at a G20 summit in France to IMF monitoring of economic reforms which he has long promised but failed to implement. But this may soon be irrelevant for the Italian leader, who will return to Rome later Friday to face what looks increasingly like a deadly rebellion by his own supporters. With financial markets in turmoil over the situation in Greece and Italy viewed as the next domino to fall in the euro zone crisis, calls are mounting for a new government to carry through reforms convincing enough to regain international confidence. Berlusconi has consistently rejected calls to resign and says the only alternative to him is an early election next spring, rather than the technocrat or national unity government urged by many politicians and commentators. Yields on 10-year Italian bonds reached 6.36 percent by early afternoon, creeping closer to 7 percent, a level which could trigger a so-called "buyers' strike" where investors take fright and refuse to buy the paper. Two deputies from Berlusconi's PDL party this week defected to the centrist UDC, taking his support in the 630-seat lower house of parliament to 314 compared with the 316 he needed to win a confidence vote last month. But at least seven other former loyalists have called for a new government and could vote against the 75-year-old media magnate. "The (ruling) majority seems to be dissolving like a snowman in spring," said respected commentator Stefano Folli in the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore. Other commentators spoke of an "inexorable" revolt against Berlusconi. Even Defence Ministry undersecretary Guido Crosetto, a Berlusconi loyalist, said on television: "I don't know how many days or weeks the government has left. Certainly a majority relying on a few votes cannot continue for long." PATRONAGE Berlusconi, one of Italy's richest men, still has significant powers of patronage and he and his closest aides are expected to spend the weekend trying to win back support for a parliamentary showdown Tuesday. Some rebels have already threatened to vote against Berlusconi in the vote to sign off on the 2010 budget. Berlusconi faced concerted calls to resign when he lost a previous vote on this routine measure, which was almost unprecedented. Although it is not a confidence motion, he would come under huge pressure if he suffered a second defeat. "Unpopular prescriptions are necessary and this challenge cannot be faced with a 51 percent government," said UDC leader Pier Ferdinando Casini, in a reference to Berlusconi's weakness and a widespread feeling that the reforms can only be passed with a broad consensus. The premier has promised European leaders that he will call a formal confidence motion within 15 days to pass amendments to a budget bill incorporating new measures to stimulate growth and cut Italy's huge debt. That will be in the Senate where he has a more solid majority but it could still bring him down. Berlusconi, beset by a string of sex scandals and court cases, has consistently resisted pressure from groups ranging from a powerful business lobby to the Catholic Church to stand down.

Maurice Boland launches iTalk FM radio

2011-11-03T16:57:00.001Z

THIS month radio presenter, Maurice Boland, will launch iTalk FM, a new radio station on the Costa del Sol. The radio station will be based at the Five Star Kempinski Hotel in Estepona, according to Boland. Presenters include: Mat Court, Jack Jackson, Stephen Ritson, Sheila Sanderson , David Jelley, Richie Allan, and Maurice Boland, according to a statement from the presenter.

A man who fled to Spain after being charged in connection with a terrifying robbery has been jailed for 10 years

2011-11-03T14:31:00.001Z

A man who fled to Spain after being charged in connection with a terrifying robbery has been jailed for 10 years. Stephen Devalda provided a motorbike used by two robbers to get to and from the scene of a cash-in-transit raid. The robbers, who were carrying an imitation firearm and a machete, attacked a security guard collecting money from an Asda supermarket. Devalda, of Stanton Avenue, Salford, was arrested and charged in 2007 but he went on to skip bail and fled to Spain. A joint operation between the Serious and Organised Crime Agency and Spanish police was launched – and they tracked him down in Malaga in March. CCTV of the robbery Devalda, 28, who pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to rob and a bail offence, has now been handed a sentence of 10 years and three months behind bars. Detective Inspector Simon Cheyte said: “This was a pre-planned and violent attack which has left the security guard so traumatised and distressed that he has not been able to return to his normal work duties. “This investigation was carried out by a small team over a protracted period of time. They showed dedication and determination to bring this offender to justice and their resolve to succeed has lead to the conviction of a member of an organised and dangerous criminal gang from the Salford area of Manchester. “Thankfully these types of offences are extremely rare but we take them very seriously and are committed to carrying out full and thorough investigations to identify those responsible. “This should demonstrate the lengths Lancashire Constabulary will go to in order to arrest people and bring them justice. I am pleased with the sentence and hope it sends a clear message that this type of offence will not be tolerated.” The court heard how the armed robbery was carried out at Asda, in Colne, in May 2005. Two men in crash helmets arrived on a motorbike. The security guard was attacked with a machete after being knocked to the ground. The victim had a handgun pushed into his neck and a demand was made for money. He was then hit over the helmet with such force that he fell to the floor. One of the robbers shouted 'kill him' to his accomplice. He was ordered to tell a colleague to pass money out. The terrified guard curled up in a ball as the machete was used to rain blows to his head and upper arms. The court heard how the ordeal left him with both physical and psychological injuries. He had three lacerations to the upper arms and £25,000 in cash was stolen. The robbers made off on the motorbike and later switched to a getaway vehicle. Devalda pleaded guilty on the basis that he had been recruited by someone else. His role had been limited to providing the motorbike. A second man, Andrew Moran, 25, from Salford, was also charged with conspiracy to rob in connection with the raid. He appeared at Burnley Crown Court in March 2009 after a six week trial and was remanded into custody by the judge pending the result of the jury’s deliberations. Moran then assaulted a Group 4 security member, vaulted over the dock and ran from the court building. The jury later returned a guilty verdict and he was convicted in his absence of conspiracy to rob, for which he is to be yet sentenced. Moran is still missing and this week was named one of Britain’s most wanted criminals as part of a national Crimestoppers appeal. Det Insp Cheyte said: “We are determined to get Moran back before the courts to serve the time for his crime and I would urge anyone with any information as to his whereabouts to come forward and contact the police.” Moran is described as being around 5ft 8in, of stocky build with cropped fair hair. He has a Manchester accent

Gangster suspect Freddie is bailed in Spain

2011-11-01T07:07:00.001Z

SUSPECTED gangland boss 'Fat' Freddie Thompson is enjoying the Spanish sunshine after being freed on bail following a brief court appearance. Mr Thompson (30) was allowed to leave a Costa del Sol court a free man yesterday after more than a fortnight in jail in Ireland and Spain. He was told he was suspected of offences including drugs trafficking, money laundering and unlawful assembly, at the private court hearing in Estepona near Marbella. But he was spared more prison time after agreeing to bail conditions including the surrender of his passport and a ban on leaving Spain. Accomplices He has also been ordered to sign on at the court twice a month -- a requirement likely to bring him into contact with alleged accomplices John Cunningham and Christy Kinahan's sons Daniel and Christopher. Suspected gang boss Christy is in jail in Belgium after being extradited there in August. Mr Thompson's bail address has not been made public. A court source confirmed yesterday: "Frederick Thompson has been released on bail. "He has been informed he is under investigation for crimes including money laundering, unlawful assembly and drugs trafficking. Court "The three conditions of his bail are that he cannot leave Spain, hands in his passport to the authorities and signs on at court twice a month on days fixed by the court." Mr Thompson consented to extradition after being arrested in Dublin on a European arrest warrant on October 14. He spent 13 days in Cloverhill Prison before being flown to Spain last Friday. He is thought to have spent the weekend in prisons in Madrid and Alhaurin de la Torre near Malaga. He is said to be facing nine years in prison in Spain if convicted. Under Spanish law, he has not been officially charged with any crimes.

Fat FreddieThomson has been wanted in Spain for the past 18 months

2011-11-01T06:44:00.001Z

30 year old Irishman, Freddie Thompson, known in the criminal world as ‘Fat Freddie', was arrested by the Garda in Dublin on October 21.

The arrest order dates from 18 months ago and was issued by the courts in Estepona, Málaga. The police consider that Thomson was a member of the Irish gang led by Christopher Kinahan, which was broken up by police in May 2010 in an operation codenamed ‘shovel’ which saw the arrest of more than 30 people in Spain, Ireland and the U.K. They were all linked to large scale drug and arms trafficking, as well as money laundering and other crimes committed on the Costa del Sol.

Thomson is now expected to declare before the court in Estepona this week. Police had thought that he could have been hiding in Holland.
He has been the most famous prisoner in the Clovenhill prison since his arrest.

Marbella police arrested a man considered to be a ‘frontman’ for the group, who was paid a monthly sum for the use of his name. Officially he owned luxury cars and businesses, when in fact he was almost pennyless.

Most of the money is thought to have been laundered in Brazil where real estate was purchased. 60 properties worth an estimated 150 million € have been impounded on the Costa del Sol in connection with the case.

Welcome to Oculto Café – Cordoba’s infamous Satanic saloon.

2011-10-31T23:51:00.001Z

GLASSES shoot across tabletops, busty vamps serve blood-red cocktails, and twisted locals raise a toast to an image of Aleister Crowley. Welcome to Oculto Café – Cordoba’s infamous Satanic saloon. The bar is situated in a maze of narrow, winding streets in the ancient ‘Old Town’ district. Stepping outside for a Marlboro, I scan my surroundings. It’s a chilly, moonlit night and the streets are deserted. Strain your ears, however, and you’ll hear muffled voices coming from dark balconies. It’s like a scene from Interview with the Vampire. As I re-enter, the room falls silent. A cross-eyed chap stares at me… well, I think it’s me… it’s hard to tell. Had my gothic guy-liner run, or had he caught a whiff of fresh meat? In this insular atmosphere, I feel as welcome as Gary Glitter at Tivoli World! Forget fruit machines and pool tables, it’s ouija boards and tarot cards that keep these punters amused. A little weakened, I seize a newspaper and hide in the corner. Alongside ads for ‘Black Angels’ and ‘Colombian Swallowers’, the classifieds are swarming with clairvoyants. I’m shocked! Isn’t Spain supposed to be a God-fearing country? But the truth is, up until the Inquisition (1478), Iberia was a hotbed of magic and sorcery. With the coming of Catholicism, however, mystics – including ‘witches’ and ‘healers’ were round-up and executed. For survival’s sake, Spaniards severed their ties with the ‘other side.’ Today, however, there is growing evidence that Spain is returning to its supernatural roots. Church-going is down (just 14.4%), and stories of Satanism are everywhere. In March 2011, an Almerian church was littered with satanic scrawls. Investigators claimed that the site had been used for a “black mass.” Tenerife’s Arona Cemetery has also been targeted by sinister cults. In 2008, graves were desecrated and animals sacrificed during “bizarre nocturnal rituals”. For sceptics, it’s easy to blame rebellious youth or drug-addicts for these atrocities. However, as someone who’s experienced dark forces – first hand – I try to keep an open mind. It all started in 2001 when I was filming a documentary at Devon’s Berry Pomeroy. In the castle grounds, I indivertibly captured an inhuman figure on camera. Whilst replaying the footage to BBC colleagues, the office computers went wild. In 2009, I moved my family to a 15th century cottage on the West Pennine Moors. Unbeknown to us, our ‘dream house’ was built on a Quaker burial site. During our six-month stay – we endured stamping noises, icy chills and orbs zipping round the lounge. At night, the constant thumping would deprive us of sleep, and we’d trudge into work like a couple of zombies. However, my most recent spooking occurred right here in Andalucia. One evening, I watched a can of Asturiana cider move sideways, hover and then drop off the table! Earlier that day, an old drinking buddy had been buried in Devon – was this his final ‘chin-chin’? Whatever it was, it scared the bejesus out of my missus and she hasn’t slept properly since. Two weeks on, and we’re sitting in Oculto, trying not to blush at orgy paintings. After some Dutch courage, I enquire about a séance at the bar. A black-toothed midget points towards a battered wooden door. Timidly, I wander down the corridor and knock on wood. It’s opened by a raven-haired gypsy. She’s both beautiful and grotesque: Penelope Cruz’s mum meets the Bride of Chucky. Without speaking – she beckons me in with a long, black talon. With low ceilings, purple walls and an absence of windows – the room is claustrophobic and unsettling. Under flickering candlelight, the Victorian death portraits seem to eyeball you from the walls. But it’s the cold air and fetid stench that’s really sending shivers down my spine. The woman glides over to a monolithic Ouija board and orders me to sit. She lays out a clutch of cards, including The Hanged Man, The Fool, The Stig, Jeremy Clarkson, Dog the Bounty Hunter, The Archbishop of Canterbury and Boy George. Okay… I lied about Boy George – but it’s all the scary ones! Suddenly, my stomach churns and I shout ‘Stop!’ I apologise for wasting her time – but I’ve got the heebie-jeebies. A floating cider is hardly The Ring – so why risk opening a fresh can of worms? I chat to Jose, a Pepe Reina lookalike in his late 20s. Around us, weirdoes chuck darts at an image of the Pope (only joking….it’s Desmond Tutu!) Jose is erudite and speaks fine English. Over Osbourne brandies, I pose the question: “So….Are you a Satanist?” “Of course”! Jose replies: Usually, I’d grab my coat, but by now, I’m immune to the madness. After dispelling myths of “priest-beating” and “baby-eating”, Jose insists that Satanists are “Perfectly normal.” Apparently, the only difference is they choose “indulgence over abstinence’, and prefer “vengeance” to forgiveness. Oh…..and they enjoy kinky sex and coke-snorting – but hey… so does the cast of Skins. By 1am I’m craving a Horlicks and a late night snack. I thank Jose and wish him a “hell-of-a-life.” We leave Occulto and hot-foot it to the Corredera for a greasy kebab. After filling our faces, we clamber into a taxi. We’re only 10-minutes from the hotel – but I’m bloated on beer and lamb offal. Back at the room, Jose’s words haunt me. Having spent the last five hours binge-drinking, ogling rude pictures and eating crap – could I be accused of “indulgence”? If Christianity equals modesty, chastity and turning the other cheek, what about all those times I’ve bought designer togs, belted a thug or lusted over lesbians? Perhaps I’m more Satanic than I thought? By bedtime, I’d seen no demons, virgin sacrifices or people snacking on goats’ head soup. This said, not everyone was as friendly as Jose, and the yokels at the bar seemed quite menacing. I’ve yet to decide whether Satanists are ordinary folk – daring to be different, or psychopaths to be avoided at all costs. I DO know, however, that pentangles are not for me. For one – I like animals too much to put their heads on sticks – and secondly, I root for the “goodies” when it kicks off on Buffy. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my time at Occulto and found the experience enlightening. Whatever they are (or aren’t), there’s a pub full of them in Cordoba, and if you ever feel like taking a walk on the wild side, you know where to head.

Body found in boot of crashed car on Alicante motorway

2011-10-31T16:51:00.001Z

Firemen called out to an accident on the A-31 Alicante-Madrid motorway early on Monday found an unidentified body in the boot of a car which had crashed into the central reservation at Sax and then burst into flames. The body was partially burnt but appears to be that of a man. Reports indicate that the deceased had been tied up and gagged. No other occupants were found at the site and the Civil Guard are now trying to identify the victim and the cause of death.

Two British tour operators who come to Spain go bust

2011-10-30T00:47:00.001+01:00

Two British tour operators who bring tourists to Spain have gone bust. Romano Travel ceased operations on October 26, a day after Airborn Limited. Romano Travel specialized in package holidays to Spain and Turkey and had been operating for 30 years. There were no more than half of dozen or so pending bookings from the Buckinghamshire firm which was fully protected with an ATOL licence and was a member of ABTA. Airborn Limited operated as Airborn Direct and Holiday Hero, and was based in Romford, Essex. It sold packages to Spain, Cyprus and Turkey, and sold its products to other operators. The CAA says there are many clients who have purchased flights with the firm using a credit card, and these flights should be operating normally. If in doubt passengers can confirm with the airline.

Spain no longer the main destination for Brit's second homes

2011-10-30T00:41:00.001+01:00

A new survey carried out by the HomeAway holiday rentals company and real estate group Savills International has concluded that Spain is no longer the first choice among the Brits for their second residence. 1,700 British property buyers were questioned. More Britons now prefer France because of its better economic stability and the moderation in its house prices. 40% of Brits who buy in Spain later rent out the property, sometimes obtaining an income of as much as 34,500 € a year, but 24% still say that Spain is the place they have chosen for retirement. Despite the change away from purchasing a second home, Spain continues to be the most popular holiday destination for the Brits. In France, Italy and Switzerland the British purchasers usually opt for restored old properties, while in the United States, Cyprus and also in Spain and Portugal, they tend to go for more modern or new constructions.

Malaga on the Mediterranean coast, in the Southern Spanish region of Andalucia, was the city you avoided

2011-10-30T00:35:00.001+01:00

The city of Malaga on the Mediterranean coast, in the Southern Spanish region of Andalucia, was the city you avoided. An industrial port encircled by a tired ring of Franco-era low-rise apartment buildings, it was always the city tourists dashed by on their way to Torremolinos or Marbella further down the Costa Del Sol.

Being out of favor from the 1970s onwards – when torrid overbuilding ruined the Spanish coast – has served Malaga well, and the tired city around the old port has gone through a revival in recent years: The pedestrian-only squares and streets are washed clean, filled with a mix of fashionable shops selling Ermenegildo Zegna suits and Omega watches, and old men hawking lotto tickets and blanched Andalucian almonds wrapped in paper cones—all in the shadow of the city’s baroque cathedral where the 17th century choir stalls are carved from mahogany and cedar.

The city is still no great beauty, but its unpretentious charm stems from the fact it remains a middle-class working port. The first night I arrived I dined on a plate ofpata negra (thinly-cut slices of cured ham, with a rich marble of fat, made from black pigs that feed on acorns) and some grilled sea bream served with French-cut beans. As I drank my copa de vino tinto, contentedly observing the town’s life from the sidewalk café, a guitar-banging gypsy dashed by, twitchy as a heroin addict, followed by an old man selling to local tapas bars the snails slowly crawling the walls of his white bucket.

Two newly-opened institutions have greatly contributed to Malaga’s cultural revival. The crowd-puller is the Picasso Museum, and I am sure it is a lovely collection, but, in all honesty, I couldn’t bear to see yet another second-tier Picasso Museum. (The Spanish painter, for all his greatness, would have benefitted considerably from being a little less prolific.)

My interest was, however, very much piqued by the new museum housing the collection of Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kaszon.

The Thyssen family, dating back to the 17th century, famously made their fortune supplying the industrializing German state with steel. But they were also great collectors of art, and the late Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza aggressively added works to his father’s stacks of Old Masters until the family’s 1,600-strong collection became the second largest private art collection in the world, second only to the British Royal Family Collection.

Ranging from Hans Holbein to Edward Hopper, the collection was originally housed in the family’s Villa Favorita in Lugano, Switzerland. (The Thyssen family left Germany for Switzerland in the 1930s.) In the mid 1980s, however, the Swiss unwisely barred the baron from expanding his museum at Villa Favorita—they were unimpressed he wanted to show more of his collection to the public.

Enter Spain. In 1985 the baron married his 5th wife, Carmen Cervera, a former Miss Cataluna, just as his battle with Swiss small-mindedness was heating up. The Catalan beauty was instrumental in getting her husband to move his art collection to more flexible Spain, where it now sits in its own museum next to the Prado in Madrid.

But Baroness Carmen Thyssen herself began collecting in the late 1980s, all under her husband’s tutelage, and she focused on Andalucian art of the mid-19th to early 20th century. It was this collection, critically praised throughout Spain when it was first exhibited in the late 1990s, which was squirreled away in the newly-converted palace called the Museo CarmenThyssen Málaga.

The mid-19th century Andalucian works in the collection were largely painted for middle-class European tourists of the day who wanted to return to London and Paris with reminders of their Andalucian holidays. So the first floor of the museum is devoted to these so-calledColumbrista painters, and provides a panoply of chocolate box scenes of idealized Andalucian landscape romanticism: sultry gypsy dancers and battling bandoleros in mountain caves and young fishermen wooing flower girls.

But as the 19th century progresses, so does the sophistication of the paintings. Two paintings in particular stayed with me long afterwards: the dark Columbrista painting of 1851 by the Frenchman, Alfred Dehodencq, painted for the duke occupying the Palace of San Telmo. It’s of a procession through the town during Holy Week. Hooded monks, like an all-black vision of the Ku Klux Klan, are the candle-carrying advance guard of the Mater Dolorosa, and they walk a gauntlet of rapturous women in black mantillas. Powerful stuff.

Later, in 1867, the Spaniard Mariàno Fortuny Marsal painted a bullfight with quick, almost impressionistic brushstrokes that seems to foreshadow what is yet to come in the art world. Called Exquisite Realism, or the Précieux Style, the intense brushstrokes of the “Bullfight” give a blurry sense of speed and movement at the breath-holding moment when a gored picador is carried dying from the ring and another picador is trying to weaken the bull with the hard thrust of his lance. It’s hard to tell who is going to live or die, and it’s a very modern work, in a 19th century way.

Five arrested for road rage attack in Madrid

2011-10-30T00:21:00.001+01:00

National Police have arrested five people, two of them underage, for a brutal road rage attack in a tunnel on the M-30 motorway in September. They were taken into custody after they were identified on video footage from security cameras in the tunnel. The aggressors were travelling in two vehicles on the evening of September 17, and were seen on film chasing another car into the tunnel, speeding ahead and cutting across it to bring it to a halt. The eight occupants of the two cars are then seen getting out of their vehicles and dragging the three people travelling in the third car out onto the roadway. They are beaten and kicked, and their car is vandalised. Some personal items were also stolen and one of the victims was stabbed in the back. The reason for the attack was because the victims had criticised their assailants for a dangerous manoeuvre a few kilometres previously. The Interior Ministry released news of the five arrests this week, and said the search continues to locate the three other suspects involved.

32 arrests in luxury car scam in Spain

2011-10-30T00:16:00.001+01:00

National Police in Spain have arrested 32 people accused of stealing 25 vehicles worth over a million € from counties such as Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland, to be sold on in Spain. The sale of the vehicles were helped by official dealers and the gang even had the collaboration of workers at several ITV/MOT centres which issued certificates to say the vehicles had no signs of being manipulated. The Ministry of the Interior says that the gang was made up mainly of Hungarians, Romanians and Spaniards, and the vehicles were sold on with false documents in dealers in Madrid, Santander, Tarragona, Castellón, Valencia, Alicante, Cuenca, Almería, Córdoba, Jaén and Granada.

Spain's first private airport goes bust

2011-10-30T00:09:00.001+01:00

Spain’s first private airport has closed. The Ciudad Real Airport was opened in December 2008, considering that it could act as a Madrid overflow for residents in the south, but that just has not happened. The very last flight, operated by Vueling and with just 45 passengers, took off for Barcelona on Saturday at 2,45pm. The airline lasted less than a year at the Ciudad Real airport which has been dogged by bad luck from the start. It had problems with the environmental agency in 2005 as it is located in a special bird protection area, there were complaints that as much as 50% of the building works were illegal, it needed a continued supply of capital, and the intervention of the Bank of Spain in the CCM Castilla La Mancha savings bank revealed more irregularities. The airport closes with the company, CR Aeropuertos, owing its creditors more than 290 million €. It opened with debts of 1.7 million, and a poster declaring ‘Our dreams take off’, can still be seen in the Cuidad Real City Hall. The airport had hoped to attract seven million passengers a year, and managed to attract the airlines, Air Nostrum, Air Berlin and Vueling, with the attraction of a AVE high speed train station at its door, and one of the longest runways in Europe, but the facility never attracted more than 500,000 travellers in the first year. It was not long before some flights had more crew than passengers. There has been a rash of private airport projects in Spain, started during the economic boom, and there were six projects in total in Cataluña, Aragón, Valencia, Murcia, Andalucía and in Ciudad Real. Only one has opened, and today, has now closed for business.

Man stabs three people to death in Valencia

2011-10-29T23:58:00.001+01:00

A man has stabbed three people to death and injured another two in a hamlet close to Valencia. It happened in Castellar-Oliverar to the south of the city on Friday night at about 9pm. A 48 year old is reported to be very seriously hurt and is in the intensive care unit of the La Fe Hospital. Another 44 year old man has injuries to his back and head, and is stable in the General Hospital. Two of the dead are father and his 13 year old son, while the third is a female pensioner. 33 year old local resident and neighbour to the dead and injured, named as J.P., has been arrested in connection with the triple homicide. Municipal sources say the man carried out his attacks in several flats connected to the stairway of his block after ringing the door bells. A local policeman then saw the man in the street, covered in blood, and asking what had happened. It seems that the case is linked to a dispute between the neighbours, and it is still unclear if the attacker is related in any way to the victims. Several neighbours have described him as ‘a normal man’ who was married and had a young daughter and who had never caused any problems.

Gang ringleaders: Mehmet Sirin Baybasin (left) and Paul Taylor (Pic: PA)

2011-10-27T23:46:00.001+01:00

A GANG of drug dealers planned to flood Britain with £4 billion of cocaine - arranging the plot from a phone box.

The Liverpool and London-based gangsters were planning to smuggle 40 tonnes of cocaine from South America by sea, hidden inside tins of fish and wooden pallets.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the drug would be bought at a "wholesale price" and then sold to other dealers who would dilute it and sell it on.

If all the cocaine had made it to the streets of the UK and it was cut before being sold, the court heard it could have been worth around £4 billion.

The head of the Liverpool operation used a phone box in Old Hall Street, in Liverpool city centre, to arrange the deal with his London counterpart.

But the gang were being watched by undercover officers from the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca).

The phone box on Old Hall Street used by one of the drug dealers

The group was led by Mehmet Sirin Baybasin, 48, of Fairfield Crescent, Edgware, north-west London, who was jailed for 30 years at a hearing last week after he was found guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine.

The court heard that Baybasin was one of a total of 24 defendants brought to justice as part of the Soca investigation and that he was "at the top of the pyramid".

Judge David Aubrey QC said the offences had "at their core the evil and pernicious trade of drug dealing" and were indicative of the gang's "desire for the good life".

He said he was satisfied that the amounts they were talking about were not "pie in the sky" and that the wholesale value of 1,102lb (500kg) of uncut cocaine alone was worth a potential £17 million

Fresh appeal launched to find man living abroad accused of murdering Nantwich man

2011-10-27T12:04:00.001+01:00

NEW appeal has been launched to capture a man wanted in connection with the murder of a Stapeley market trader. Christopher Guest More, 33, of Lymm, near Warrington, is one of 10 individuals wanted in the latest campaign being run by Crimestoppers and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). He is suspected to have been part of a gang involved in the torture and murder of market trader and cannabis farmer Brian Waters, who was killed in a barn in Tabley, near Knutsford, in June 2003. Three of his alleged accomplices, Otis Lee Matthews, James Stuart Raven and John Godfrey Wilson, received life sentences for their part in the brutal attack. More is also sought in connection with the attempted murder of Suleman Razak and for the alleged false imprisonment and assault of other victims present during the incident. It is believed he fled to Spain just 24 hours after the incident. The appeal is part of crime charity Crimestoppers’ ‘Operation Captura’ campaign, which is trying to locate wanted criminals abroad. Crimestoppers’ regional manager Gary Murray, said: “This extremely heinous crime saw an individual lose their life and the person responsible needs to be tried for their actions. “I’d urge anyone with information to contact Crimestoppers on our 0800 555 111 number or use our online form on our website – we guarantee your anonymity.” Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Smith said: “Eight years on, we still remain determined and committed to finding and arresting Christopher More for his alleged involvement in the brutal murder of Brian Waters. “Cheshire Police will not close this case until the family of Brian Waters sees justice done.”

Gardai in Spain for 'Fat' Freddie handover deal

2011-10-20T11:02:00.001+01:00

DUBLIN detectives have travelled to Spain to negotiate the handover of gangster 'Fat' Freddie Thompson. Sources say that gardai are spending a number of days with their Spanish counterparts examining evidence against Thompson. "This is standard procedure in a case like this," a source said. Thompson is due to appear before the High Court today where he is expected to apply for bail after being remanded in custody on Friday when he was arrested on a European Arrest Warrant. laundering Spanish authorities want to extradite him to Spain and they allege that Thompson operated as a bodyguard and chauffeur for the Christy Kinahan drugs organisation, which was targeted in a massive international police operation in May, 2010, known as Operation Shovel. Spanish authorities say that the Kinahan organisation is heavily involved in gun crime, drug trafficking and money laundering through a complex network of companies. Sources have revealed that in the weeks before his arrest, Thompson had fallen out of favour with the Kinahan mob -- organisation who his gang has been sourcing drugs from for over a decade. A European Arrest Warrant has also been issued for Thompson's close pal Gary Hutch (30) but gardai have not been able to find him. The Herald has previously revealed that Thompson's arrest warrant contains explosive details about a phone call tapped by Spanish police in December, 2009, between 'Fat' Freddie and Hutch in which the two criminals discuss firearms. The warrant also alleged that 'Fat' Freddie and Hutch travelled together to Portugal in November, 2009 and Amsterdam in May, 2010, to organise drug shipments. The warrant also states that Hutch and Thompson lived together in Spain and were "right-hand men" of Daniel Kinahan -- the son of Ireland's richest drugs trafficker Christy Kinahan. Also mentioned on the warrant is Ross Browning (27) from north inner city Dublin who is alleged to have collected a major Irish criminal from Malaga Airport in May, 2010, in a car which was also regularly used by the notorious criminal Hutch. violence Browning was one of around 30 people arrested by police investigating Kinahan's drug organisation last year. He was released without charge after being questioned for a number of days by Spanish authorities. Since being sent to Cloverhill Prison on Friday, Thompson has been placed in the protection unit in the jail because of fears that he may become a victim of a feud related attack or that he may orchestrate violence within the prison. It is understood he has had no visitors in jail.

Spanish town rushes to wed gays before election

2011-10-20T04:31:00.001+01:00

Spanish town is offering gay couples fast-track marriages before a likely November election win by the conservative Popular Party, which opposes same-sex marriage. The mayor of the small southwestern town of Jun, Jose Antonio Rodriguez, said he offered the service across Spain after hearing from gay couples fearing a change in the law after the November 20 vote. “People are very afraid, they are starting to realise that there could be a real change and they will lose a hard-fought right,” the Socialist mayor told AFP. “I felt it was important to reassure people and find a way so that people who want to get married could do so,” he said. Rodriguez said the town had received 52 requests from same-sex couples wanting to be married in the past week after he announced on Twitter he would offer speedy gay marriages before the general election. The town of just over 4,000 residents carried out just 11 same-sex marriages during all of 2010. The wedding applications are handled entirely online in about five days, complete with marriage certificate delivered by e-mail. The mayor said he had made the town’s park available for wedding ceremonies but the vast majority of couples opt for the electronic marriage and would not need to set foot in Jun. Under Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain has been on the vanguard of Europe in terms of gay rights. In 2005 — a year after Zapatero was first elected — Spain passed a law to allow same-sex marriages, making it only the third member of the European Union after Belgium and the Netherlands to do so. The law, part of the ruling Socialistsâ€™ aggressive agenda for social reform, also lets gay couples adopt children and inherit each other’s property. Since then more than 20,000 gay couples have tied the knot. The conservative Popular Party, which is riding high in the polls, has appealed the gay marriage law to Spain’s Constitutional Court. Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy has pledged to reform the same-sex marriage law if elected but as the general election has neared he has stressed that any legislative action will come only after the court issues its ruling. Polls show two-thirds of Spaniards back same-sex marriage, one of the highest levels of support in Europe.

Choose your petrol station carefully in Malaga Province

2011-10-20T04:25:00.001+01:00

UP to €4.50 can be saved be choosing the cheapest petrol station to fill up. The average price per litre for unleaded petrol in Malaga Province is now up to €1.34, 13 per cent more than the same time last year, according to the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce and the highest in the whole of Spain. Diesel is €1.29 on average, 16 per cent more than October 2010. The cheapest place to fill up with 95 octane is Distreax-22, Velez-Malaga, at €1.29 per litre. The most expensive place to fill up with 95 octane is E.S. El Torcal, Villanueva de la Concepcion (Malaga), at €1.38 per litre. The cheapest place to fill up with diesel is Galp, Antequera, at €1.24 per litre. The most expensive place to fill up with diesel is Cepsa, Manilva at €1.31 per litre.

¡Ole! Spain drives legality into mobile services with Sybase 365

2011-10-18T16:26:00.001+01:00

Spain was one of the first countries to start to lay down laws relating to old non-registered pay-as-you-go SIM cards for anti-terrorism reasons i.e. you MUST tell the authorities your name and address and get a new SIM if you had one of the old anonymous ones. Following on from this "mobile legality" theme, news this week bubbles of Sybase subsidiary company Sybase 365 working with Spanish mobile operator Yoigo. The two firms have joined forces to offer registered SMS, a new service allowing companies to send customers confirmation text messages with the same legal standing as registered mail. According to Sybase, "Officially certified by the Spanish Real Casa de la Moneda (The Royal Mint of Spain) the Sybase 365 and Yoigo service recognises an SMS confirmation as legal proof of delivery of important documents and information. These certificates can then be used as evidence in judicial proceedings in Spain for enterprises wishing to demonstrate correspondence with their customers. This will enable companies and their customers to resolve disputes in a timely manner, avoiding the cost of court proceedings." With registered SMS, financial institutions, utility companies and enterprises will be able to use SMS where previously they would have used registered mail. Developers working to build in legally approved services into mobile (or desktop for that matter) applications should perhaps take note of Sybase 365's suggestion that an SMS provides a number of advantages over registered mail including five times better response rate over traditional mail and is read 288 times faster than email. "No other communication medium has the ability to reach more people than SMS, said Howard Stevens, senior vice president, global telco and international operations, Sybase 365. "Consumer acceptance and enterprise adoption of the mobile channel is fuelling the growth in volume, availability and sophistication of mobile services and the registered SMS services we're launching confirms this trend."

Catholic Church Child Trafficking Network

2011-10-18T16:17:00.001+01:00

Spain is reeling from an avalanche of allegations of baby theft and baby trafficking. The trade began at the end of the Spanish civil war and continued for 50 years – hundreds of thousands of babies are thought to have been traded by nuns, priests and doctors up to the 1990s. This World reveals the impact of Spain’s stolen baby scandal through the eyes of the children and parents who were separated at birth, and who are now desperate to find their relatives. Exhumations of the supposed graves of babies and positive DNA tests are proof that baby theft has happened. Across Spain, people are queuing up to take a DNA test and thousands of Spaniards are asking ‘Who am I?’ Katya Adler has been meeting the heartbroken mothers who are searching for the children whom they were told died at birth, as well as the stolen and trafficked babies who are now grown up and searching for their biological relatives and their true identities.

Spain’s property bust is only getting worse.

2011-10-18T16:08:00.001+01:00

: AFP; Cranes erecting the Pelly tower under construction in Seville.

Spain’s property bust is only getting worse. The wonder is that the country’s economy and banks are still this resilient.

The Spanish government said Tuesday that housing prices remained in free-fall in the third quarter, dropping 5.5% from a year earlier, the biggest decline since 2009.

This makes Spain, in many senses, the worst case of a property bust in the developed world—the country is already deep in its third consecutive year of falling prices, with no rebounds.

Last year, the pace of decline slowed significantly, signalling some light at the end of the tunnel, but another metaphor is called for instead: that last year’s respite was nothing more than a dead cat’s bounce.

The good news should be the overall amount of the decline, since Spain’s government says prices are only down 18%, in nominal terms, since their peak in early 2008.

But that doesn’t include the effect of Spain’s persistent inflation, one of the highest in the euro zone, which makes the real drop closer to 30%—Spain’s government didn’t provide real price data in today’s release.

After earlier predictions of a short-term correction have been smashed, some analysts now say prices may keep falling for the next two years, eroding Spain’s household wealth and banking balance sheets.

Meanwhile, banks are struggling to keep up with the loss in value of the collateral against €400 billion worth of loans to construction and real estate firms, an amount that remains unchanged since 2008.

For Luis Garicano, a professor of economics and strategy at the London School of Economics, this number is perhaps the most dangerous of those related to the bust, since it indicates the banking sector exposure to such loans hasn’t diminished.

He estimates that a possible explanation is that banks have exchanged some non-performing loans for property that they now own, but not enough to offset the rising interest on the loans.

Many, if not most of these loans, are being rolled over to keep zombie developers in business, in the hope that the market will recover.

All the same, banks have also turned into property developers now.

Walk into any Spanish bank branch, looking for a mortgage, and you will see that is much easier to get it if you’ll just take one of the many, many houses the bank acquired from a bankrupt developer. But many will say why worry? The same house will be even cheaper next month.

MAN ARRESTED FOR ASSAULTING POLICE OFFICER

2011-10-18T11:55:00.001+01:00

Police have arrested a man identified as DFM, accused of assaulting a police officer and of driving his car whilst under the influence of alcohol in Roquetas de Mar. Command sources indicated to Europa Press that the incident occurred on Sunday when, at around 20.00hrs the 27 year-old man came by car to the Guardia Civil headquarters in Roquetas de Mar in an evident state of drunkenness to formulate a complaint against his former partner. At that time, and as a result of the attitude displayed by the man, agents requested the presence of local police officers who, once arrived at the barracks, were asked to carry out a breath test to the individual, yielding a rate of 0.83 milligrams of blood alcohol per litre of air breathed. As a result the man was arrested. He tried to fight of the agents and the arrest, struggling to get free of the police and came to attack one of them causing a bruise to the officer's head, resulting in the man being charged with assaulting an officer. The detainee, whose steps were performed at the same time, has also made a complaint to the Court for an alleged crime of abuse of authority. He is due in Court of Instruction No. 1 of Roquetas de Mar.

MARBELLA Urban Planning Department is currently working on the legalization of more than 500 houses.

2011-10-15T23:42:00.001+01:00

The new General Plan for Urban Development in the town gave promoters who had built illegally the opportunity to pay compensation in order to make some complexes legal so that the homeowners would not be affected by demolitions as they had bought the properties in good faith. This had to be done within a year, although the period could be extended to two years. However, in cases which were classified as minor, where too many houses were built on a plot, no period for them to be legalized was given, and promoters have not come forward voluntarily to do so. Therefore, the town hall has now given them two months to legalise the buildings by giving the town hall 10 per cent of the benefits they have obtained from the projects. Once the two months is up, the town hall will chase the promoters who have not come forward to demand the compensation.

BODY discovered on a property in Mijas is that of missing Finnish teenager, Jenna Lepomaki

2011-10-15T16:38:00.001+01:00

BODY discovered on a property in Mijas is that of missing Finnish teenager, Jenna Lepomaki, Malaga National Police have confirmed. Nevertheless, an autopsy and DNA tests are being carried out on the body, which police are 99 per cent certain belongs to Jenna. Four people have been arrested, three of them in Finland, thanks to a joint operation between Finnish and Spanish police. The 19-year-old came to the Costa del Sol on holiday invited by two Finnish men, aged 18 and 20, who she had met online, as the mother of one of them lived in Mijas. Her family attempted to dissuade her from coming, but the men paid for her trip and she arrived on June 20. She spent the first few days in a hostel in Fuengirola, but when the young man’s mother, 37, and her partner, 47 and also Finnish, went away, Jenna moved into the house. In July, her family reported her missing in Finland, and this was communicated to the Spanish police. They discovered that the teenager had reported them to the Guardia Civil in Mijas because they had allegedly attacked and threatened her when she refused to transport cocaine from Spain to Finland. She also reported that they had taken away her passport. From June 29, her mobile phone was turned off. Spanish police discovered that the two men had left Spain, travelled to Ireland and then back to Finland, where they have now been arrested, and focused their investigation on them both for their involvement in Jenna’s disappearance and their possible links to cocaine trafficking. Last Thursday, the Spanish police searched the house in Los Espartales area of Mijas, where the girl had been staying which was hired by the mother’s partner. He was arrested, and the two young children living with him were taken into the care of the Junta de Andalucia. She was also arrested in Finland. The search later continued in the area surrounding the house, where an almost mummified body was found wrapped in a sleeping bag hidden amongst some bushes and leaves. The body was missing both legs and one arm. Part of the arm was found in a barrel located on a construction site nearby. They report that it appears she was killed inside the house and the killers attempted to cut her body into pieces and then burn her remains, but having failed to do so, they hid it.

Spewing volcano forces Spain to close island port

2011-10-15T16:30:00.001+01:00

Spanish authorities say activity by an underwater volcano has led them to close access to a port on El Hierro island. Ships have been ordered away from waters around La Restinga and aircraft have been banned from flying over the island's southern tip. The port's 600 residents were evacuated Tuesday after volcanic activity began. The regional government of the Canary Islands says scientists have detected airborne volcanic fragments called pyroclasts rising from the sea off La Restinga. The government said it awaited scientific reports on the danger posed by pyroclasts, but a research vessel that was collecting samples there has been ordered to desist. TV channel La Sexta reported Saturday that journalists also have been told to clear the area.