BESOTTED comedian Johnny Vegas has got hitched to his girlfriend of two years, Maia Dunphy.

Johnny Vegas, who starred in ITV show Benidorm, tied the knot during a small ceremony at a ranch in Spain. The comic, 39, whisked PR consultant Maia, 34, to the picturesque country estate outside Seville for the nuptials in front of 120 family and friends.

Maia, who invited her priest from her native Dublin to preside over the marriage, is rarely seen in public with Johnny but he has described her as his soulmate. An insider revealed: “It was a beautiful and very romantic ceremony in a gorgeous setting. Maia looked stunning.

“Johnny is clearly besotted with her and they never stop smiling when they’re together. It was very touching.

“It meant a lot to Maia that her own priest from Ireland could carry out the service and both families seemed to be delighted with the ceremony.” Johnny, who is famed for drinking escapades, made sure everyone had a good time.

The source said: “Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of sore heads next morning.”


Guests were treated to a traditional Mediterranean menu including gazpacho, cured meats and salad.

While enjoying gallons of refreshments, guests danced the night away to Johnny and Maia’s favourite songs, which were played on the groom’s iPod.

The couple have now flown off on honeymoon.

Johnny, who is from St Helens in Merseyside and whose real name is Michael Pennington, began his relationship with Maia a year after his divorce from first wife Catherine came through in 2008.

Catherine, known as Kitty, and Johnny married in San Francisco in 2002 after a whirlwind romance.

But the relationship was reported to have broken down a year later.

Johnny, who was in comedy Benidorm until 2009, said her drinking had become excessive. She denied the claims.

This is the biggest fraudulent use of public money in Spain, records of over 6,000 public employees are being scrutinised after the Junta was linked to a sleazy 647 million euro early-retirement fraud.

Resignation calls are flooding in after it emerged that at least 70 people were falsely listed as company employees in order to defraud public funds.
It comes after former employment minister Francisco Guerrero admitted the Junta had used a ‘slush fund’ to pay bogus employees for early retirement between 2001 and 2010.
Many of them had never even worked there, but still received cash payoffs.
In the so-called ERE retirement scandal, names were often simply added to the lists of companies that were going into liquidation or failing.
The workers were then given early retirement as part of so-called ‘staff cutbacks’.
Much of the money, it is understood, came from direct grants from the EU.
A spokesman for the PP party Esteban Gonzalez said: “This is the biggest fraudulent use of public money in Spain.
“We want to know the whole truth and this has only just begun.”
The Junta has agreed to cooperate and is investigating its own records.

Spanish MEP Pablo Zalba said he had been "deceived" by the Sunday Times undercover reporters and had not accepted their offer of cash.

fourth Euro MP caught up in a "cash-for-laws" scandal has denied wrongdoing as the European Parliament investigates corruption allegations.

Spanish MEP Pablo Zalba said he had been "deceived" by the Sunday Times undercover reporters and had not accepted their offer of cash.

But he said he did amend draft legislation at the request of the reporters posing as lobbyists.

Two other MEPs have resigned in the affair and a third has left his party.

Mr Zalba, of Spain's centre-right Popular Party (PP), said he was the victim of a "trap", in which the pretend lobbyists had requested two amendments to draft legislation on consumer protection.

He said he rejected the first amendment but agreed to put forward the second because he thought it would help protect small investors, Spain's El Pais news website reported.

According to the UK's Sunday Times newspaper, the undercover team made it clear to Mr Zalba that he would be paid for his services.

Fernando del Valle faces a possible 17 years in prison and a fine of 36 million €.

The hearings in the Ballena Blanca money laundering case concluded last December, and there have been unconfirmed reports from Diario Sur that sentencing has been drawn up and will be announced this Thursday.

The paper reported on Tuesday that all parties involved have been called to the court at 9.30 on Thursday morning, where they will be informed of the court’s decision.

The main suspect in the case is the lawyer from Chile, Fernando del Valle, who is accused of laundering millions of Euros through his Marbella offices.

The trial commenced in March last year, five years after the investigation first hit the news with a police raid on del Valle’s offices. The lawyer told the court on the last day of the trial, ‘I have committed many errors in life, but I have never committed any crimes’.

He faces a possible 17 years in prison and a fine of 36 million €.

Families looking for a relaxing trip to Bilbao this spring and summer can make good use of a new twice-weekly service from Portsmouth to the Spanish coastal town.

Launched last weekend, Brittany Ferries’ new route from the UK to Spain will make it even easier for holidaymakers to head to the continent for a self-drive holiday.

Connecting travellers to the rest of Spain, Portugal and France, Bilbao is perfectly positioned to reach many well-knoen sunny holiday destinations in Europe.

But Bilbao itself is also becoming increasingly popular with sun-seeking Brits.

Mike Bevens, Brittany Ferries Group Passenger Commercial Director said, ‘Bilbao has forged a reputation as a destination in its own right in recent years, not least due to the iconic Guggenheim Museum and Norman Foster-designed metro system..

The ferry operator is already sailing between the UK and Santander in northern Spain. The addition of this new Bilbao link means that Brittany Ferries will now provide up to five return UK-Spain crossings each week.

With last year’s air travel disruptions still in people’s minds, travellers are increasingly choosing to travel by sea.

half-completed housing estates, Spanish call them ciudades fantasma: ghost towns.

half-completed housing estates, often vast areas of empty flats and foundations and property-developers' hubris. Now they are nearly deserted. The Spanish call them ciudades fantasma: ghost towns.

Anyone who wants to understand the challenges facing Spain – and by implication the rest of the eurozone – should visit one. Take the route I did, to a place called Valdeluz in Guadalajara. It's easy enough: board the fancy high-speed train from central Madrid to Barcelona and get off half an hour later. If my experience is anything to go by, only a handful of passengers will spill out on to what is a nearly new station. And there, beyond the bored security guards and the metal railings is … nothing. Another platform for cheap commuter trains, completed but never used, and then acres of red dust and weeds.

Valdeluz was meant to be a dormitory town, with 9,500 houses for nearly 30,000 residents. But the lead developer hit the rocks a couple of years ago, with only around 1,500 units completed and 700 people moved in.

Joaquín Ormazábal is one of those Valdeluz residents. Forty-four years old and separated from his partner, he bought a three-bed flat in the development four years ago for €240,000 (£211,000). Four years later, it's now worth less than €140,000.

His black Mazda is the only car on the road up to Valdeluz. As we go, he points out the sights we should be seeing but that were never completed.

That side, a parking lot for 2,000 cars (nothing). Over there, a shopping mall (less than a storey completed). A school (with 300 pupils rather than the intended 1,700). Every so often a couple of residents walk by, but the development is so empty they look more like middle-aged squatters.

"We thought the Spanish property market was one giant party, in which prices would always go up and up and up," Ormazábal says. Parking on a hill, we look down at a giant plot of land that is only a quarter built. It's a vast rut from which for the foreseeable future homeowners will not be able to move without losing 40% or 50% of their equity. "Some mornings I feel like such an idiot." As a joke, he mimes sticking a knife into his chest.

And there in a nutshell you have the recent history of the Spanish economy: a giant game of pass-the-parcel in credit and real estate on which the clock was suddenly stopped, and an entire country got caught out. That applies to the government, too: at the start of 2008, even as the great banking disaster loomed, the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, dismissed nail-biting economists and voice-of-doom rightwingers as "anti-patriotic", and declared that very soon the Spanish economy would leapfrog France.

In some ways, it's a tale that echoes Britain's. Just like the UK, it was not the government that borrowed too much in the good years, but families and businesses. Just like Britain, the social-democratic government asked few questions during the bubble, but just used the artificially high tax revenues to fund a programme of good works and social justice. Now the leftwinger Zapatero is having to push through spending cuts, just as Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling were preparing to do last year. Oh, and policy-makers in both countries like nothing more than to lean back in their chairs and talk airily about a "new growth model" in which the economy is "rebalanced".

Still, two key differences apply. First, the Spanish boom was a lot more straightforward than ours: whereas Britain had rampaging investment bankers and weirdly acronymed toxic assets, Spain had semi-imperialistic property developers often fuelled by loans from cajas, the national equivalent of building societies. In the short term, that could mean that clearing up the aftermath of the bubble is less complicated and eventually cheaper – or so central-bank officials hope. However, set against that is the second big difference: Spain will have to rebuild its broken economy while playing by the rules of the single-currency club.

One of the methods used by the UK to get out of its slump is by engineering a posh version of a peseta crisis. British policy-makers have let the pound fall by around 25% in value against other currencies (we call it "depreciation" rather than the more brutal "devaluation", of course) and have also allowed the economy to down a small shot of inflation (which reduces the real value of our debts). Locked into the 17-member euro area, with an interest rate set in Frankfurt, the Spanish have no such options.

Former boxer George Walker, who has died of a heart attack aged 82 in the South of France,

From East-End gangster to millionaire wheeler-dealer who married his daughter to a Marquess, his was a classic rags-to-riches story.

Former boxer George Walker, who has died of a heart attack aged 82 in the South of France, certainly left his mark on the British scene.

He will be forever remembered as the man who invented the shopping centre — he gave birth to the pioneering but brutally ugly Brent Cross in North London, the first of the great shopping complexes which have defined life since the Eighties.

He masterminded his talented boxing brother, Billy Walker, who challenged Henry Cooper unsuccessfully for the British heavyweight title.

He also kick-started Joan Collins’s once-ailing career when he helped finance The Stud, the film in which a near-naked, 40-something Joan caused a sensation by besporting herself on a garlanded swing in close proximity to the manly Oliver Tobias.

Such entrepreneurial success was a far cry from George’s humble beginnings. Born in Stepney, the son of a £2-a-week drayman, Walker left school at 14 to work as a porter at Billingsgate fish market.

Then, while doing National Service in the RAF, he became interested in boxing: he got out of square-bashing in full kit and heavy rifle by volunteering for the boxing squad.

George took up the noble art as a light heavyweight, becoming known as the Stepney Steamroller and winning the British Amateur Boxing Championship. At one point, he was ranked No7 in the world, but an injury in the mid-Fifties put an end to his fighting days.

At this, the lowest point of his life, he also found himself on the wrong side of the law.

Having been befriended by Billy Hill, gangland’s famous criminal mastermind who mentored the Kray Twins, he served nine months in jail for stealing nearly £2,000 worth of nylon stockings and woollen goods.

MARBELLA has seen a 20 per cent drop in rental prices since the start of the recession.

Marbella Average rentals have fallen by around 300 euros a month.
A two-bed apartment in the town will now rent for what was previously the price of a small studio.
The drop has not been helped by the number of rental properties coming onto the market, with 40 per cent more available now than three years ago.

Sterling hovered close to 2011 lows versus the euro on Friday and was poised for further losses on concerns over UK economic growth and uncertainty over the timing of a Bank of England rate hike.

Sterling hovered close to 2011 lows versus the euro on Friday and was poised for further losses on concerns over UK economic growth and uncertainty over the timing of a Bank of England rate hike.

The single European currency narrowly extended its 1 percent rise on Thursday when weaker-than-expected UK consumer spending data raised concerns over growth which could further push back the timing of an interest rate rise from the Bank of England.

"The pound is under pressure. Weak retail figures, a somewhat dovish tone from the MPC minutes on Wednesday as well as George Osborne cutting the UK growth outlook and rate hike expectations being pushed back, are putting sterling on the backfoot," said Geraldine Concagh, economist at AIB Treasury Group.

UK finance minister George Osborne downgraded the government's projections for UK growth to 1.7 percent for this year in his budget statement on Wednesday, while Thursday's weaker retail sales data was a reminder that the UK consumer is being hit by a fiscal squeeze and rising inflation.

Money markets are now pricing in the first rate hike in the UK for August. On Tuesday, after inflation jumped to its highest in two-and-a-half years, they had expected the first hike in July.

"Trichet and others have made it clear that they will hike rates as intended despite news events around the world. The discrepancy between the BoE and ECB is pulling euro/sterling higher. There is a good possibility that the pair can go as high as 90 pence," said Beat Siegenthaler, currency strategist at UBS.

The euro was helped on Friday after German business sentiment fell less than expected in February, though concerns over the Portuguese economy undermined the currency.

The single currency rose to 88.12 pence, its highest since November 4. It later eased to 87.85, close to unchanged on the day.

Technical analysts said the outlook for the euro remained positive after a break above key trendline resistance at 87.60, drawn from the all-time highs around 98.05. Analysts at CMC markets said a close above the trendline would open the way for further euro gains.

Portugal’s credit rating was downgraded and its borrowing costs hit record-high levels

Portugal’s credit rating was downgraded and its borrowing costs hit record-high levels Thursday, a day after the collapse of the government in Lisbon raised expectations that the country would be forced to seek an international bailout.
Prime Minister Jose Socrates after announcing his resignation on Wednesday.
Portugal’s prime minister, José Sócrates, offered his resignation late Wednesday after his minority Socialist government failed to win parliamentary backing for another package of austerity measures. Over the past year, Lisbon had already implemented three rounds of spending cuts and tax increases, apparently without persuading investors that it could clean up public finances.

Portugal needs to borrow about €10 billion, or $14 billion, in April and June to refinance existing debt. A political vacuum now only adds to the chances that the government will have to seek financial support from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund — as Greece and Ireland have already done.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of E.U. leaders in Brussels, Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg who also presides over meetings of euro zone finance ministers, estimated Thursday that an aid package for Portugal would probably reach around €75 billion, in line with what analysts have predicted. That would provide Portugal with a financing cushion for several years, depending on how much would be required for recapitalizing banks.

During an interview with France 24 television, however, Mr. Juncker also insisted that Portugal’s woes should not be compared to those of Spain, a much larger euro economy that has also been in investors’ line of fire over the past year because of its budget shortfall.

“It would be absurd for financial markets to target Spain were Portugal to apply for a bailout,” Mr. Juncker said.

In fact, investor concerns Thursday appeared to be focused on Portugal.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Portuguese government bond rose to 7.7 percent, the highest level since the inception of the euro, before falling back slightly. The Philippines currently has cheaper borrowing costs for bonds of the same duration. Meanwhile, the yields on the bonds of other euro zone members like Germany, France, Italy and Spain were stable.

“The markets agree that the fundamentals are in Spain’s favor but the situation is not without risks,” said Luís Cabral, an economics professor at IESE, a Spanish business school.

Portugal’s debt rating was downgraded two steps by Fitch Ratings and placed on review for a possible further cut. The rejection of austerity measures has “significantly increased the chances of Portugal requiring multilateral support in the near term,” it said.

The Portuguese government had argued that a further austerity package was needed to cut its budget deficit from an estimated 7.3 percent of gross domestic product last year to 4.6 percent this year. Instead, Eurostat, the E.U. statistics office, suggested that Portugal’s 2010 deficit needed to be revised slightly upward to take into account debt held by state-owned companies.

Analysts said that they anticipated an upward revision of both the 2010 debt and deficit figures.

A further challenge for Portugal is that its banks, which have been shut out of the markets over the past year, need to raise additional money by the end of April to comply with stricter capital requirements.

For Spanish banks, meanwhile, their combined exposure of €77 billion to Portugal is by far the largest among European institutions. Weighed down by bad loans to the property market, Spanish banks are also struggling to raise additional funding. Moody’s Investors Service added pressure Thursday by downgrading the credit ratings on 30 Spanish banks. Moody’s left untouched the ratings of the country’s three largest banks.

With a rescue of Portugal seen now by most analysts as almost inevitable, the debate shifted Thursday to its likely timing — and whether any bailout would precede the formation of a new government in Lisbon following an expected general election in about two months.

“They need to move sooner rather than later,” said David Schnautz, an interest rate strategist in London for Commerzbank. “They probably have the cash buffers to make it through April, but not June.” Mr. Schnautz said it was not clear exactly how much cash remained in the Portuguese Treasury, “but they can’t let it run down to the last €200 million or so without new lending agreements,” he said. Given that, he said, investors would expect to see some form of funding deal in place by late May.

On top of two benchmark government bonds expiring April 15 and June 15, Lisbon has €2.3 billion in shorter-dated bills expiring in July. It will also need to raise additional funds to cover domestic liabilities like social security, but has yet to formally schedule its next bond auctions.

The number of foreign visitors to Spain's Canary Islands soared in February,

The number of foreign visitors to Spain's Canary Islands soared in February, official data showed Tuesday, as sunseekers shunned rival resorts in Egypt and Tunisia because of anti-government uprisings there.

The archipelago located off the coast of Morocco received 903,985 visitors last month, an 18.5 percent jump over the same time last year, bringing total arrivals this year to 1.77 million, up 13.5 percent, the tourism ministry said.

That helped bring the total number of visitors to Spain in February to 2.8 million, a 4.3 percent increase over the same month last year. During the first two months of the year Spain received 5.5 million visitors, a 4.5 percent rise.

The country has struggled in recent years to compete with beach destinations in Egypt's Red Sea and Tunisia's Mediterranean coast which are cheaper and of a similar flying distance from its key markets like Germany and Britain.

But since the unrest sweeping the Arab world began in Tunisia in early January, tourists have been changing their travel plans and many have opted for the Canary Islands which tend to offer all inclusive packages like those in the seaside resorts of Tunisia and Egypt.

Spain slipped from third to fourth place among the world's most visited countries in 2010, behind France, the United States and China, according to figures from the UN World Tourism Organisation.

A Gibraltar-registered British taxi presented by the Socialist Party in Marbella as their campaign car for the local elections is now in the municipal pound

 after police discovered that it did not have the required documentation to be on the roads in Spain.

Diario Sur reports that the 80 year old taxi was lent to PSOE by a supporter and was displayed with the image of the Socialist candidate for Mayor of Marbella, José Bernal. But the paper reports that the paperwork problem could now mean a fine of up to 500 € for the Socialists, and up to a six-month wait to sort out the documentation. The local elections will have been long over by then.

PSOE’s spokeswoman at Marbella Town Hall, Susana Radío, said in a statement on Tuesday that the Partido Popular, which is in power in the local government, ‘has started its dirty electoral campaign.’ She described it as suspicious that the vehicle had been driven on the roads of Marbella for the past month without any problem, ‘and just when we put the image of our candidate on it, they take it away’.

‘It’s a clear case of political persecution by the PP,’ she said.

Óscar Benavente told the court in the Malaya case that he had little direct involvement in managing Roca's companies

Óscar Benavente told the court in the Malaya case that he had little direct involvement in managing Roca's companiesEFE archive


As the Malaya court case continues in Málaga, Óscar Benavente, one of the main right hand men to the man at the centre of the corruption, Marbella’s ex municipal real estate assessor, Juan Antonio Roca, was questioned by the court.

Benavente faces six years in prison and a fine of 100 million € on charges of money laundering and falsifying documentation.
He claimed that he was not involved in managing Roca’s companies, apart from two specific cases, and had no idea if Roca’s funds were illicit or not. Benavente said he first started working for his boss in 1996 in Madrid, and was then brought to Marbella where he was given a house and paid 900 € a month.

There, he said he oversaw building work on Roca’s house and his farm, took care of his boss’s day to business, took his children to school and helped out his wife. His monthly wages were always paid in cash.

Benavente admitted to direct involvement in two of Roca’s companies but, even then, followed instructions. As far as the others were concerned, he said he only did as he was told by his boss.

El País reports that it was Óscar Benavente who signed the 8.6 million € insurance policy for the ex real estate assessor’s collection of art. He however claimed in court to have no idea of how Roca acquired the paintings.

The paper notes that, unlike Roca’s other confidantes, the two men signed a contract agreeing to put Benavente at the head of his companies, with the condition that Roca would be recognised as the true owner. Another of the confidantes is the lawyer Montserrat Corulla, who was in charge of Roca’s hotel businesses. Benavente admitted that it was he who put his boss in touch with his childhood friend.

Ireland and Spain share a "vital interest" in ensuring the European Union emerges from the financial crisis as a "united, strong and effective vehicle" for the future

Ireland and Spain share a "vital interest" in ensuring the European Union emerges from the financial crisis as a "united, strong and effective vehicle" for the future, President Mary McAleese has said.

During an address on the state of the Irish economy at the New Economic Forum in Madrid today, Mrs McAleese spoke of both countries facing difficult odds in the past and overcoming them.

The President told the forum of business people the Government is "strongly committed" to the retention of the current corporate tax regime and that its agenda will be dominated by "recovery, renewal and restoration".

She said: "This is not blind optimism. Ireland has a firm, solid base on which to build our recovery and intensive efforts are underway to correct our public finances, increase our competitiveness and stabilise our banking system."

In a wide-ranging question and answer session following the address Mrs McAleese was asked about the pressure being applied by France on Ireland in relation to the 12.5 per cent tax rate and the chances of restructuring the State’s debt.

Mrs McAleese said the corporate tax is part of an “integrated platform of strengths that will help pay off our debts and grow the country”.

She said she is hopeful the issue of "sustainability and payability of debt" will be taken on board at the EU summit in Brussels later this week. However, she added that as she is not an "active politician and not partial to any of the decisions" it would be wrong of her to comment further.

One reporter asked Mrs McAleese if she agreed German lending was partly responsible for the financial crisis in Ireland to which she replied the country is "very grateful" for Germany’s support and that Ireland has been "major beneficiaries" of the main European power.

Others asked if she considered China a threat, her views on same-sex marriage and the parallels if any between the Basque conflict and the north.

CRIMEWAVE is turning Torrox into the Beirut of southern Spain, local expats believe.

CRIMEWAVE is turning Torrox into the Beirut of southern Spain, local expats believe.
Local residents are demanding action following a string of burglaries and arson attacks in the town.


They claim that almost every home has been burgled in the last two years, while seven cars were set alight just last week. Local resident Margaret Riordan, 55, who has lived in Torrox for 11 years said: “There’s not enough police presence here.”
The worst incident saw a stolen car torched, with the flames spreading to six other vehicles. The attacks are allegedly down to a crime feud, with five cars later having tyres slashed in Nerja.
At Christmas, a number of expats’ homes were raided while they were asleep. An expat neighbours association has taken a petition of 200 signatures to the mayor and local police.
“They said they would review our ideas and get back to us in a week. I look forward to it,” said president Ernest Hole.

expat chef armed with a bottle of Famous Grouse chased off two machete-wielding robbers who tried to rob her local bar.

expat chef armed with a bottle of Famous Grouse chased off two machete-wielding robbers who tried to rob her local bar.
The 5ft 4ins heroine Suzie – whose nickname is ‘Rambo’ – grabbed the bottle of whisky off the bar, smashed it and threatened the masked pair.
Incredibly, the balaclava-wearing duo were so terrified of the former soldier they fled in panic, with her chasing them down the street.
“I don’t know what came over me,” Suzie told the Olive Press. “I just went into a zone.
“I realised no one was going to do anything so I decided it was up to me.”
The chef, from Plymouth, in Devon, had been drinking in JJ’s bar in Riviera del Sol, when the pair, described as Moroccan and in their 20s, came in just before closing time.
They walked straight up to the bar and demanded the barmaid put the day’s takings into a white plastic bag.
It was then that the red mist decended and chef Suzie – who asked not to give her surname – jumped into action.


The 47-year-old chef, who works at the nearby Garden Bar, explained: “I was in the army for 16 years and it is just in my nature to protect people.
“I honestly wasn’t even scared,” she continued. “Everyone else was left very shaken but I slept like a baby.”
Bar owner Jesma Mackie, 61, praised the heroics. “She’s either very brave or very stupid. She was as cool as a cucumber. I don’t think the robbers will ever come back .”

HOLIDAYMAKERS were given hope of a reprieve from strike chaos last night

HOLIDAYMAKERS were given hope of a reprieve from strike chaos last night after a truce was called by Spanish airport workers.
Unions had threatened 22 days of walkouts, including key dates over the Easter weekend and the peak summer holiday season.
The strikes would have closed all of the country’s 47 airports, which see nearly 100,000 passengers flying between Britain and Spain each day during popular times.
The unions have now reached a preliminary agreement with Spanish airport operator Aena to avert the disruption.
A draft plan will be put to ground staff in a referendum next week. The strike, due to start on April 20, was initially called because of concerns about the conditions and job security of nearly 13,000 employees in the face of proposed privatisation.
Yesterday Aena said in a statement: “The agreement was reached after nearly 20 hours of talks.”
The proposal offers to guarantee the airport workers’ jobs and their current working conditions.

Spain’s government said yesterday that it would review security measures at all its six nuclear power plants in the wake of the ongoing disaster in Japan.

“A review of the security systems of all the reactors in the country will take place to learn as many lessons as possible from” what happened in Japan, Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian told parliament.
“Specifically, a supplementary seismic survey has been requested as well as a study on the risk of flooding,” he added.
However, he said that the country’s atomic power plants were “safe”.
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told parliament that the government has set up a “monitoring unit” which would “be in contact with the Spanish citizens in Japan, offer full support to workers and materials to the government of Japan ... and assess the consequences of what happened to Japan’s nuclear system”.
Zapatero vowed during general elections in 2004 and 2008 to gradually phase out nuclear power when the lifespan of the country’s six nuclear plants expired.
But he has since softened his stance, and in July 2009 the government said it would extend the operating licence for the Garona plant for another two years until July 2013.
Built in 1971, it is the country’s oldest nuclear reactor.
Ecologists in Action, a Spanish environmental umbrella group urged the government Tuesday to close the Garona plant, which it described as the “twin” of Japan’s quake-hit Fukushima plant.
“For Ecologists in Action, what happened in Japan marks a before and after for nuclear power plants,” it said.
“No one can seriously argue that Garona – which is in worse shape than was (Japan’s) Fukushima I plant – can continue to operate for several more years,” the organisation warned in a statement.
The group will stage protests calling for a “sensible” timetable for the closure of Spain’s six nuclear plants tonight in 25 Spanish cities, including Madrid.
Activist Greenpeace on Sunday also urged the Spanish government to stick to its promise to shut down  the country’s nuclear plants in the wake of the crisis in Japan.
“What has happened in Japan reminds us that nuclear energy is very dangerous, even when it is developed in a highly advanced country like Japan,” Carlos Bravo, director of Greenpeace’s anti-nuclear campaign in Spain, told public television TVE.

Ex-pat community on Spain’s Costa del Sol to receive long-awaited Finnish social worker in the autumn With growing Finnish community, need for help with various issues has increased

Ex-pat community on Spain’s Costa del Sol to receive long-awaited Finnish social worker in the autumn
With growing Finnish community, need for help with various issues has increased

A long-held wish of the permanent Finnish residents of Spain’s Costa del Sol region is about to come true: the area will receive its own Finnish social worker, even if this will only be on a part-time basis, on a one-year contract in the first instance.
     
The social problems within the Finnish colony have increased with the growth of the community. Currently there are a small town’s worth of ex-pat Finns living in the region, more than 20,000 in all.
      The hiring of the social worker was announced by Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb (Nat. Coalition Party) and Minister of Social Services Paula Risikko (Nat. Coalition Party) at the beginning of March.
      “Of course you hear all kinds of stories here. It is clear that a social worker is needed”, says Susanna Hannikka, while walking her oldest child to the gate of the Finnish School in Fuengirola on Costa del Sol.
      Customarily such stories include accounts related to alcoholism, lonely elderly persons, and individuals with long-term illnesses who need help.
      In the last ten years, families with children have discovered Fuengirola, and they have also brought some quite new problems in their wake.
      “In the end the need for a social worker may well focus on these child protection cases”, says Timo Sainio, the vicar of the Finnish Lutheran Parish on the Costa del Sol.
     
The spectrum of the extreme cases requiring taking children into protective care on the Costa del Sol is starting to look as colourful as it is back in Finland.
      There are families who moved into the area with their last savings and now do not have enough money to feed the children, let alone pay their school fees.
      There are also parents on leave of absence whose heads get stuck in party-animal mode. Eventually the family’s preteen child may be the one running things at home.
      Sometimes there are school-age children who fail to complete their compulsory education. There are also stories of 15-year-old teenage girls’ liquor-fuelled evenings with older men.
      Juha Helvelahti, the headmaster of the area’s Finnish school, explains that the school normally contacts the Finnish authorities with regard to child protection cases a couple times a year.
      Next year the school’s student population will exceed the 300 mark.
      The filing of a child protection case has primarily been used as a preventive measure. In the space of the last ten years, there has been only one transfer of guardianship case.
      According to Helvelahti, in most cases the issues on the Costa del Sol are the same as in Finland.
      The problem is that even though there are ten Finnish hairdressing salons, there are doctors, car dealerships, and even a Finnish-run protection society for homeless dogs in Fuengirola, there are no social services.
      The social issues have therefore accumulated primarily on the shoulders of the Finnish congregation and the Finnish school.

Glenn Hoddle appears to have parted company from his youth project team, Jerez Industrial, documents originally drawn up for the deal, may not even be legal.

Glenn Hoddle appears to have parted company from his youth project team, Jerez Industrial. The project from the ex England international player saw him take over the third division side and place 22 British players in the squad of 24. 

The deal was that the Glenn Hoddle Academy took over the club which was about to vanish last Summer, and supplied a loan, reported to be 150,000 €, as well as the players, while the club provided the ground and the facilities set up at Montecastillo near Jerez.

The plan proved successful at least on the field with the team climbing up the league, but it seems that financial matters off the pitch were not so flourishing, and the loan to Hoddle has not been repaid by the local council by the date agreed in the contract.

Last weekend Jerez Industrial were beaten 5-0 by Pozoblanco after the President of Jerez International, Juan Manuel Delgado, refused to guarantee accommodation for 12 players offered in a last minute agreement by Hoddle. Hoddle then refused to let the players travel and the side was forced to field the youth squad. Several in the crowd called for the resignation of Delgado.

La Voz Digital newspaper reports that now the youth team and fans of Jerez Industrial will travel to Sotgrande on Thursday to demonstrate outside the house which Glenn Hoddle has in Sotogrande in an attempt to find a solution to the situation.
The local Spanish press claims that the documents originally drawn up for the deal, may not even be legal.

European Commission said on Monday it was taking France and Spain to court for taxing telecoms companies

European Commission said on Monday it was taking France and Spain to court for taxing telecoms companies to offset the end of paid advertising on public TV, saying the practice breached EU rules.

France introduced the charge in March 2009, requiring telecoms operators to pay 0.9 percent of revenues above 5 million euros, generating an estimated 400 million euros in annual revenues for the state coffer.

Spain imposed a similar charge in September 2009 which was expected to raise about 230 million euros for the government last year. "The Commission considers the 'telecoms taxes' in France and Spain to be incompatible with EU telecoms rules," the European Union executive said in a statement, confirming what a source had told Reuters earlier on Monday. [ID:nLDE72D09V]

EU regulations allow for specific charges on telecoms operators only if they are directly related to covering the costs of regulating the telecoms sector.

The Commission also opened infringement proceedings against Hungary for its telecoms tax introduced in October last year, with a rate of up to 6.5 percent of revenues.

Hungary has two months to respond.

Barclays Bank fails stress test and the worst hit by a demand to inject €552m to reach a core capital ratio of 8%.

Spain's banks have been told to find an extra €17bn (£14.5bn) to shore up their finances and prevent a collapse in confidence after ratings agency Moody's shocked the markets with a downgrade of the country's debt.

The Spanish units of Deutsche Bank and Barclays were among several banks to fail tests set by the Banco de España, Spain's central bank, with Barclays the worst hit by a demand to inject €552m to reach a core capital ratio of 8%.

The central bank said that both banks were committed to taking measures to cover their capital needs, but the markets took fright, concerned that Spain had underestimated the extent of bank debts, especially among the country's beleaguered cajas or regional savings banks.

The FTSE 100 index fell more than 90 points to end the day at 5845.29 while the spreads on Spanish and Portuguese debts, which determine the cost of financing the government's budget deficit, widened to all-time highs. The Portuguese parliament tonight rejected a vote of no confidence in the minority socialist government. The motion had been put forward in protest at the government's painful austerity drive, designed to ease the country's debt.

Moody's, which downgraded Spain to its third highest rating of Aa2, highlighted the cost of rescuing its banking sector as a particular concern. The ratings agency said the cost would be more than double the Banco de España estimate and would rise to more than €100bn under a rigorous stress test.

It said the government's recently announced acceleration of efforts to restructure the cajas was likely to strengthen the country's banking industry, but there remained "a meaningful risk" that the eventual cost of recapitalisation would be higher. Moody's now believes the rescue package will cost between €40bn and €50bn – more than twice its own earlier estimate of €17bn.

51-year-old notary Pierre Falzon, from St Paul’s Bay, who was arrested in Marbella, Spain,

51-year-old notary Pierre Falzon, from St Paul’s Bay, who was arrested in Marbella, Spain, on 26 February on the strength of a European Arrest Warrant, was yesterday granted bail against a personal guarantee of €20,000 by Magistrate Doreen Clarke.

Mr Falzon, who stands accused of defrauding some of his clients, had an arrest warrant requested by the Malta police earlier this year, and was brought back to Malta on Thursday. Prosecuting Police Inspector Ian Abdilla pointed out that the accused only arrived back in Malta two days ago because while he was in Spain, he had been given a 15-day medical recovery period with orders not to go out.

After his arrest, his wife claimed that her husband went purposely abroad because he was ill, which was why he subsequently missed a court sitting.

Inspector Ian Abdilla called on the court to take into consideration the gravity of the case when granting bail. He said the accused should not approach either the Malta International Airport (MIA) or seaport and should sign for more than once a day at the Qawra police station. The need for strict bail conditions was necessary, he added, to ensure that Mr Falzon will not abscond again.

Magistrate Clarke agreed with much of what Inspector Abdilla said, but told the accused when granting him bail that he only needs to sign in at the Qawra police station once a day, between 6.30am and 9am, and banned him from approaching the MIA or seaport at any time.

Mr Falzon was defended in court by lawyer Michael Scriha.

“MILLION EUROS OF ART” exhibition in Casino Marbella, Nueva Andalucia complex, opens March 31st

The “MILLION EUROS OF ART”   superb collection is being arranged in the privileged  Marbella casino exhibition displayed in main Casino venue, the entrance areas and  walls s have been allocated for maximum and convenient  effective visibility. A great deal of thought and  consideration  was made especially for evaluating the painting or sculpture for the viewer’s personal intent, whether to add  to your art collection, use in home decorating,  purchase for resale, for the art connoisseur interpreting repetitive symbolic touches by the artist, etc, etc and most important – write into  the family inheritance will 7/testament.

The “MILLION EUROS OF ART” exhibition in Casino Marbella, Nueva Andalucia complex, opens March 31st and runs through to May 4th, viewing time – Casino Marbella opening hours.

9 Detained, more than 1 ton of cocaine seized in Spain - Fox News Latino

9 Detained, more than 1 ton of cocaine seized in Spain - Fox News Latino: "Nine people were arrested in Spain in an operation that led to the seizure of roughly 1,100 kilos (1.2 tons) of cocaine hidden in two containers.

The gang dismantled in the operation - mainly made up of Spaniards - had extensive infrastructure in South America, the National Police said Friday.

A first container had been offloaded at the northeastern port of Tarragona, in the Catalonia autonomous region, and later taken to an industrial complex, where the police arrested three people and seized 627 kilos of cocaine hidden in a false bottom."

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British holidaymakers to Spain face a triple whammy after taxi drivers and bar owners joined airport workers in announcing strike plans.

British holidaymakers to Spain face a triple whammy after taxi drivers and bar owners joined airport workers in announcing strike plans.

Hopes of averting 22 days of strikes by Spanish airport ground staff were dashed yesterday when peace talks failed. Nearly 12,000 workers will stage 24-hour walkouts from April 20 until the end of summer, over government plans to sell off part of the airport authority. Up to 2,000 taxi drivers in the Canary Islands and bar and restaurant owners in the Balearics said they, too, are taking industrial action.

The cabbies will strike from April 15 to 17 over unlicensed minicab drivers who they claim take their trade. No date has been announced for the closure by bars and restaurants on Ibiza and Formentera over a law banning smoking in public places. About 15 million Britons a year holiday in Spain. Ryanair alone has calculated it must cancel 300 flights for thousands of passengers over Easter unless the airport strikes are called off.

sentenced Banco Santander SA (STD) Chief Executive Alfredo Saenz to three months in jail and barred him from banking for the same period for making false criminal accusations in a case dating back to 1994.

Spain's Supreme Court Thursday sentenced Banco Santander SA (STD) Chief Executive Alfredo Saenz to three months in jail and barred him from banking for the same period for making false criminal accusations in a case dating back to 1994.

But one of Spain's most powerful executives is unlikely to serve the sentence because he has no prior criminal record, a court official said. Meanwhile, Saenz plans to appeal the ruling and remain at the helm of the euro zone's largest bank.

Santander said in a filing with Spain's stock market supervisor that its board "reiterated its confidence" in the bank's CEO. Saenz is credited with the successful expansion strategy that positioned Santander as a global retail banking powerhouse and the euro zone's biggest bank by market value.

A bank spokesman added that Saenz would appeal the Supreme Court's ruling with the country's Constitutional Court, in a legal process that could extend from two to four years and in the meantime suspends the sentence. Saenz also plans to appeal to Spain's Justice Ministry and file a request to commute the sentence.

The Supreme Court slightly watered down a ruling from a lower tribunal that in 2009 sentenced the CEO to six months in prison for making false criminal accusations when he was head of Banco Espanol de Credito SA (BTO.MC), or Banesto.

Saenz first made a name for himself by turning Banesto around after Santander bought it in 1994. He became Santander CEO in 2002 and played a key role in many of its cross-border acquisitions over the last decade, including landmark deals such as the 2004 takeover of the U.K.'s Abbey National PLC and the 2007 acquisition of Brazil's Banco Real.

Saenz couldn't be reached directly but his lawyers have denied he was involved in any wrong-doing.

The case against Saenz related to efforts made by Banesto in 1994 to recover a EUR3.8 million loan and involved four of the bank's clients.

Banesto filed a criminal complaint against the four clients in an attempt to force them to pay back debts, court documents from an earlier trial show. That complaint was later dismissed and the clients filed counter charges against Banesto and Saenz, accusing them of lodging a false criminal complaint.

Saenz disputed this claim, but a lower court ruled against him, sentencing Saenz to six months in prison in late 2009. The case then reached the Supreme Court, following an appeal from Saenz.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI promised sweeping constitutional reforms,

Morocco's King Mohammed VI promised sweeping constitutional reforms, including real powers for a popularly elected prime minister instead of a royal appointee, as well as a free judiciary.
In his first speech after uprisings across the Arab world and less than a month after protests erupted in Morocco for more social justice and limits on royal powers, the king Wednesday pledged to draw up a new draft constitution.
"We have decided to undertake a comprehensive constitutional reform," King Mohammed said, underlining his "firm commitment to giving a strong impetus to the dynamic and deep reforms... taking place."
He outlined seven major steps, including the way the prime minister is chosen.
Instead of being appointed by the king, the prime minister will be drawn from "the political party which leads in the elections" in parliament, he said.
The prime minister will have "effective executive power" and be "fully responsible for the government, public administration... and implementing the government's programme," the monarch said.
He also pledged "expanded individual and collective liberties and the reinforcement of human rights in all dimensions" and spoke of the "will to set up an independent judiciary."
The Moroccan monarch announced the formation of a commission to work on the constitutional revisions, with proposals to be made to him by June. A referendum will then be held, he said, without giving a date.
The live broadcast was the first time the king has delivered an address to the nation since thousands of people demonstrated in several cities on February 20 demanding political reform and limits on his powers.
They were the first protests in the country since the start of the uprisings across the Arab world that toppled the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt this year.

Police believe that at least 400 schools in Andalucia fell victim to the ‘Escritores Jovenes’ competition, where the parents paid 13 euros to have their children’s work published.

Ian Walton, who was questioned on suspicion of fraud by his company Forward Press, insisted he was a “victim of the recession.”
Speaking to the Olive Press, Walton insisted he was not guilty of defrauding 9,100 pupils at 1,400 schools around Spain.
Police believe that at least 400 schools in Andalucia fell victim to the ‘Escritores Jovenes’ competition, where the parents paid 13 euros to have their children’s work published.
As the Olive Press revealed in January the company’s two offices in La Cala and Malaga shut after failing to deliver 35,000 books that had been paid for.
Police believe that the company took at least 160,000 euros fraudulently.
In the following issue, we reported how the publisher had set up similar schemes in Italy and France, now confirmed by police using a separate company Bonacia.
A UK report in the Mail on Sunday later claimed he had shrugged off a 1.6m debt and continued to live a luxurious lifestyle.


However, Walton insists that he and his business were casualties of the financial crisis.
“The Spanish authorities need to decide whether I committed fraud or whether I am a genuine victim of the recession,” Walton explained.
“I maintain my innocence and hope they will see I have not committed any crime.”
He claims that when Forward Press went bust in the UK last year, reportedly owing 250,000 euros, the Spanish arm couldn’t survive.
“I poured 320,000 euros into the Spanish business but we still couldn’t cover the rents, staff costs, etc.
“I still have every intention of publishing all the books we promised.”
However, Guardia Civil detectives claim he was arrested last month after renting new premises in Marbella.
They confirmed that his second firm Bonacia was already taking in new orders elsewhere in Europe.
The prosecutor leading the case requires Walton to report in every two weeks while they build the case against him.

Spain is in deep trouble.

Spain is in deep trouble. Ahead of a planned refinancing of its banking sector, the ratings agency Moody's has downgraded the country's debt.

As far as the markets are concerned, the entire Iberian peninsula is overburdened with debt. Portugal is already considered a sure-fire future candidate for a European bailout. Spain, which has considered itself too big to fail, could be closer than it thinks to a rescue.

Spain's problem, like Ireland's, is a banking and property sector burdened with hundreds of thousands of unsold properties, many of them still listed on balance sheets as high-grade assets when they are in fact worth a fraction of their former value – and in effect junk.

The key risk - a caja meltdown - seems more remote

The Bank of Spain is expected to show on Thursday which banks need to raise funds to meet government targets, part of measures to inject credibility into the financial system brought low by a property bust.

Market attention is likely to focus on Bankia, the newly christened merger of seven lenders led by Caja Madrid, which is Spain's biggest savings bank by asset value.

Bankia had a capital ratio of 7 percent at the end of last year, falling short of the minimum target for listed banks.

Spain's Socialist government has estimated the banking system has a funding shortfall of 20 billion euros ($28 billion), while analysts' estimates rise to as much as 100 billion euros.

The cost of borrowing for Spain rose late last year on fears its banking system would need bailing out like Ireland's due to huge loans to property developers, many of whom went bust after the real estate bubble burst.

Measures taken by the government to force savings banks, known as cajas, to seek private capital have calmed those fears, and funding costs for the sovereign have shrunk since the beginning of the year.

"The key risk - a caja meltdown - seems more remote," said Goldman Sachs in a recent research note.

BRITISH boy has died in a freak snowplough accident on a skiing holiday in the Pyrenees.

BRITISH boy has died in a freak snowplough accident on a skiing holiday in the Pyrenees.

Federico Nicholls Lopez, five, was playing by a chairlift when the driver buried him under a huge pile of snow.

His dad Thomas and other skiers desperately tried to pull him to safety.

But his heart stopped after he was trapped for about a minute.

Resort workers were unable to revive him and the lad died in intensive care 11 days later.

An investigation has been launched and the snowplough driver could face manslaughter charges.

Resort director Roberto Buil said yesterday: “We would like to express our condolences to the family and will give them all the support we can following this tragic accident.” Federico, of Islington, North London, was at the Baqueira Beret ski resort in the Aran Valley, Spain, with parents Thomas Nicholls and Ana Lopez.

The snowplough driver was clearing a path to a ski lift and had not seen the lad playing when he accidentally buried him on February 25

credit ratings agency Moody's downgraded Spain's rating to 'Aa2' with a negative outlook

European stock index futures extended their losses on Thursday mor


ning after credit ratings agency Moody's downgraded Spain's rating to 'Aa2' with a negative outlook.

GROUP of nuns is being investigated for possible tax evasion after reporting a huge sum of cash stolen from their convent.

GROUP of nuns is being investigated for possible tax evasion after reporting a huge sum of cash stolen from their convent.

The elderly Cistercian sisters reported £1.3million missing, but later lowered the figure to £344,000.

Police are probing the theft from a cupboard in Zaragoza, Spain, while a magistrate looks at whether to bring tax evasion charges.

Jesus Garcia Huici, the nuns’ lawyer, said they paid tax and the cash was for giving alms to the poor.

70 locals from the inland Málaga village of Almogía have shut themselves up in the Town Hall in an indefinite sit-in

70 locals from the inland Málaga village of Almogía have shut themselves up in the Town Hall in an indefinite sit-in which began on Monday to demand repairs to the road which connects the village with Antequera.

It’s the old road from Málaga to Antequera and has been closed for the past 14 months after it subsided after heavy rainfall. Its closure has affected some 200 families who now have to travel an extra 23 kilometres to reach the capital of the Costa del Sol.

The alternative route is however also subject to problems, and can be cut off at the crossroads with the River Campanillas in heavy rain.

The group of protesters criticise the lack of support from their Town Hall in meetings to discuss the problem with a representative from the Junta de Andalucía.


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father of a San Diego State University student whose body was pulled from a river in Spain says he has not ruled out foul play in his son's death.

Local resident Manuel Calderon, a retired military engineer, right looks over into the river Manzanares beside a memorial of flowers and candles for U.S. student Austin Bice, in Madrid Wednesday March 9, 2011. The body of San Diego State U.S. exchange student Austin Bice, was found Tuesday in the river 10 days after he went missing following a night out, a police official said. The sign says 'Murdered in Madrid, Americans demand Justice', even though a Spanish official says forensic experts are still to carry out an autopsy but it could take weeks before the result is known. (AP Photo/Paul White)

An unidentified youth looks at a memorial of candles and flowers for U.S. student Austin Bice, by the river Manzanares in Madrid Wednesday March 9, 2011. The body of San Diego State U.S. exchange student Austin Bice, was found Tuesday in the river 10 days after he went missing following a night out, a police official said. The sign says 'Murdered in Madrid, Americans demand Justice', even though a Spanish official says forensic experts are still to carry out an autopsy but it could take weeks before the result is known. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Police cover up the body of a U.S. exchange student, in Madrid, Tuesday March 8, 2011. The body of a U.S. exchange student was found Tuesday in a river in Madrid, 10 days after he went missing following a night out, a police official said. The cause of death was not known but there were no immediate signs of foul play in the death of San Diego State University business student Austin Bice, who was 22, the National Police official said. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Larry Bice said Wednesday in Carlsbad, Calif., that he hopes Spanish authorities will provide answers soon.

Bice says he spent nearly a week searching for his 22-year-old son, Austin, near the Madrid nightclub where he was last seen. He says the river was across the street and was walled, and that friends told him his son was not drunk.

Bice says his son was a good swimmer and that there were ladders along the walls of the river.

Spanish police conducted an autopsy on the 22-year-old exchange student. They said there were no immediate signs of foul play.

Bice says he hasn't yet received results of the autopsy

Betfair PLC relocating a major part of its business offshore to Gibraltar.

Betfair PLC, the the world’s largest betting community, has announced that it is following its competitors Ladbrokes and William Hill in relocating a major part of its business offshore to Gibraltar.

Although it will remain a UK-registered company, the company announced that it would move its critical technology and 120 staff to offices in both Gibraltar and Dublin, Ireland. Around 1,200 staff will remain in the UK.

The move has been prompted by the differential tax rates in Gibraltar and UK, and also by the objective of avoiding double taxation. This is incurred when Betfair has to pay taxes in the country where its customer is located as well as the taxes levied in the UK. The company pays 15 per cent corporation tax in the UK, whereas in Gibraltar this will be 1 per cent. The move will save £10 million in the coming financial year and an estimated £20 million a year thereafter.

As one of the leading players in British horse racing, Betfair has also announced that it will voluntarily carry on paying the £7 million it currently pays to the industry as the Horse Racing Levy.

Forensic experts were expected to perform an autopsy Wednesday on the body of a California college student pulled from of a Madrid river

Forensic experts were expected to perform an autopsy Wednesday on the body of a California college student pulled from of a Madrid river, but it could take weeks before the result is known, a judicial official said.

This recent but undated family photo shows Austin Bice, a San Diego State University exchange student from Carlsbad, Calif., who is missing in Madrid, Spain. Friends said Bice, 22, was last seen outside a discotheque in the early hours of Feb. 26 and hasn't been seen since. Bice had a full beard, not seen in this photo, when he disappeared. (AP Photo/Courtesy Bice Family) NO SALES

San Diego State University students hold candles during a vigil for missing student Austin Bice Monday, March 7, 2011, in San Diego. Police, family and friends have stepped up a search for a San Diego State University exchange student who went missing in after visiting a nightclub in Madrid more than a week ago. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A poster of missing U.S. student Austin Bice, is stuck to a lamp post , near to La Riviera Discotheque, as people walk past on the street in Madrid, Monday March 7, 2011. Police, family and friends have stepped up a search for the San Diego State University exchange student who went missing after visiting a nightclub in Madrid more than a week ago.(AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

Local resident Manuel Calderon, a retired military engineer, right looks over into the river Manzanares beside a memorial of flowers and candles for U.S. student Austin Bice, in Madrid Wednesday March 9, 2011. The body of San Diego State U.S. exchange student Austin Bice, was found Tuesday in the river 10 days after he went missing following a night out, a police official said. The sign says 'Murdered in Madrid, Americans demand Justice', even though a Spanish official says forensic experts are still to carry out an autopsy but it could take weeks before the result is known. (AP Photo/Paul White)

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It will be up to the judge handling the case to determine whether the findings of the autopsy for 22-year-old Austin Bice are made public, said a spokesman for Madrid's Superior Justice Tribunal who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department rules.

While initial results will be forwarded immediately to the judge and will be given to Bice's family, toxicology test results could take weeks if the judge asks for them, the spokesman said.

In Spanish cases where investigations determine that no one else had a role in the death, the results are almost always kept secret and forwarded only to the family to protect the privacy of the victim, the spokesman said.

Police said they found no signs of foul play after Bice's body was spotted in a stretch of the slow-moving Manzanares River that had been drained as part of the search for the San Diego State University student on a semester abroad in Madrid.

He had been missing since Feb. 26 after saying goodbye to friends outside a nightclub several few hundred meters (yards) from the place in the river where his body emerged.

Bice, from Carlsbad, California, was studying international business at Carlos III University and had been in Spain since January. Roommates had reported him missing after he failed to return home following the night out.

The site where Bice's body was pulled from the river borders a pedestrian walkway and a park. Bouquets of flowers had been placed there Wednesday, along with candles and a picture of Bice glued on a makeshift American flag with the words: "Murdered in Madrid. Americans Demand Justice!!!"

There was nothing to indicate who had placed the sign there, and retired military engineer Manuel Calderon said he thought it was premature for people to conclude that Bice was a homicide victim.

But Calderon, 78, said it was also difficult to understand how Bice might have fallen into the river because a three foot- (one meter-) wide stone wall separates long stretches of the walkway from the water.

"I just don't understand it. Maybe he was lying or sitting on top the wall and somehow fell in," said Calderon.

Calderon and other residents said the area is very safe, even long after midnight, and that young adults heading home from nights out on the town frequently walk along the river in the park because crime isn't a problem. None could remember anyone ever falling into the river.

Family members and friends said Bice was enjoying his time in Madrid. He posted glowing reports on his blog touching on themes ranging from Spanish food, to a trip to Valencia, his initial difficulty with Spanish, heavy homework assignments and Madrid's vibrant nightlife.

Spanish woman who killed daughter's rapist goes free pending official pardon

Spanish woman who killed daughter's rapist goes free pending official pardon "Mari Carmen Garcia set fire to the man found guilty of raping her youngest daughter in 1998 when she was 13 years old.
The man, identified only as Antonio C.V, had been sentenced to nine years for the crime but was on day release from prison in June 2005 when he approached his victim's mother at a bus stop near her home in Benjuzar, near Alicante, on Spain's Costa Blanca.
When he asked after her daughter, Mrs Garcia became so enraged she went and fetched a bottle of petrol, doused him with fuel and then set him alight. He died in hospital from the burns several days later.
Her case won her sympathy across Spain but a judge sentenced her to nine and a half years in jail, a sentence that was reduced to five years on appeal to the Supreme Court.
The court this week agreed to suspend her sentence pending an application for an official pardon for her crime after a petition bearing 5,000 signatures was handed to judicial authorities in her support. She had served a total of one year and ten days in prison."

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The former deputy chairman of Leyton Orient Football Club and stockbroker Nicholas Levene has been charged with 16 offences relating to investment fraud.

The former deputy chairman of Leyton Orient Football Club and stockbroker Nicholas Levene has been charged with 16 offences relating to investment fraud.

Levene was last week charged with 11 offences of fraud by misrepresentation,
two offences of possession of an article for use in a fraud, two offences of money laundering and one offence of false accounting.

The former stockbroker was charged at Snow Hill police station in London following a 15-month investigation and has been released on conditional police bail to appear before City of London magistrates court on 11 March 2011.

The investigation was conducted by the Serious Fraud office with assistance from the City of London police economic crime unit and a number of overseas authorities.Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.

Banks in Spain are now the country's largest real estate owners, a situation they don't want to be in

These days, house buyers expect estate agents to try to sell them a mortgage as well as a property, but in Spain now it works in reverse.
Visit a Spanish bank, or regional caja, to discuss your home loan prospects and they may well tempt you with a selection of properties. And if you opt to buy from them – rather than a private individual or builder – they'll be far more generous with the finance terms they offer you.
Such is the situation across Spain following the meltdown of the country's construction industry in 2008. When the credit crunch really bit, scores of developers began defaulting on loans, leaving their financial backers no choice but to swap loans for assets, ie to repossess thousands of new, often incomplete properties.
The extent of the situation is unprecedented. Last month, a former adviser to Spain's housing ministry, Ricardo Verges, calculated that since 2004, 2.3 million homes have been started but not purchased in Spain. At the height of the boom in 2005, 800,000 new homes were started, about four times the level for the UK.
Most banks now have their own real estate arms, such as Santander's Altamira, but while they're fine selling to Spaniards, most don't have the resources to market effectively to foreign buyers. That's a job for agents, such as Propertyrepossessions spain.com, one of a number that have formed alliances with banks to focus on selling their repossessions.
the banks] are trying hard to remedy this by offering substantial incentives to buyers, including discounts of up to 60 per cent, 100 per cent interest-only mortgages with low fixed rates and excellent rental packages.

"We're selling two- and three-bed apartments in southern Spain, 500m from the beach. Last week these were ¤198,422 (£170,642) and ¤258,797. We are now selling them at a discount of circa 60 per cent for ¤80,120 and ¤100,540." Dependent on buyers meeting the bank's conditions, these are available with 100 per cent interest-only mortgages, fixed at 3 per cent for three years, making the monthly mortgage payments ¤202 on a two-bed apartment and ¤252 on a three-bed."

Paul and Emma Whiteman from Leeds recently bought a bank-owned flat in Murcia for ¤161,000 through Propertyrepossessions spain.com. The couple are financing their purchase through an interest-only mortgage from the bank, with a rate of 2.5 per cent fixed for three years.

"We chose a two-bedroom penthouse at Mojon Hills, a new development in the resort of Isla Plana, 30 minutes west of Cartagena," said Mrs Whiteman. "We viewed the property last October, returned in November and then completed on 14 January. We've bought as a long-term investment and for holidays with our six-year-old son, Jack. We may rent it out too and we're thinking about buying a second property in the future." Mojon Hills has communal pools, 180-degree views of the Med and is a 10-minute walk from amenities in Isla Plana.

Murcia is a region that, with the southern end of the Costa Blanca, around Orihuela and Torrevieja, has a particularly high concentration of bank-owned property. One reason to buy there could be the recent announcement that Paramount Pictures has given the green light to build what will be Europe's largest theme park. The boost to the region's economy and long-term investors is obvious, but owners at one particular resort, Condado de Alhama golf resort built by Polaris World, would benefit more than most as it's next door to the likely site of the Paramount Park.

"We have brand new bank-owned apartments at Condado de Alhama from ¤82,958," said Rupert Gehmacher from agent Quality Homes Costa Calida Manga (qualityhomescostacalida.com), which works with Banco Popular and sells across most of Polaris World's six resorts. "We only sell new bank-owned property, not properties repossessed from individuals, which could come with all sorts of outstanding debts against them and aren't always left in the best condition. The banks do full legal checks and due diligence on their repossessed properties before marketing them, and they're responsible for communal running costs, meaning they're not keen to hang on to properties."

In the UK, two further avenues for tapping into the Spanish repo market have just opened up. Firstly, estate agency Connells (connells.co.uk) has formed a partnership with Spanish bank Caja Mediterraneo (CAM) to promote its stock of 15,000 repossessions via the UK chain's high street branches and website. In preparation, CAM has equipped its own estate agency arm with 150 English-speaking staff. To encourage interest, it has also introduced a "try before you buy scheme", which allows prospective buyers to rent a repossessed property at the local market rate for up to seven years, and if they decide to buy within two years, rent paid to that date can be put towards a deposit.

Elsewhere, Spanish agency Basico, which sold repossessions to the domestic market by the hundreds last year, has set up a UK arm (basicohomes.co.uk). The company is well qualified in this sector: it was formed when two of Spain's largest developers, Ferrovial Inmobiliaria and Metrovacesa, went under and a group of laid-off sales staff set up to help banks offload their repossessed projects.

Inevitably, with a market flooded with bank-owned property, not everything is going to be a bargain. Banks' commissions aren't known for being large, so agents might be subsidising this further. And many properties were overpriced before the crash, so even being "discounted" now might not make them especially cheap.:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.

Most Expensive Painting Ever Sold On Show | National News | News Centre - Isle of Wight Radio

Most Expensive Painting Ever Sold On Show | National News | News Centre - Isle of Wight Radio: "Pablo Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust - has gone on display at the Tate Modern in London.

The 1932 painting set a world record when it was snapped up by a mystery bidder for $106.5 million dollars (£65.5m) at New York's Christie's auction house in May.

It will be the first time the painting has been displayed anywhere since 1961 and prompted the London museum to create a new Pablo Picasso room to house the loaned work.

The museum's director Nicholas Serota said: 'This is an outstanding painting by Picasso and I am delighted that, through the generosity of the lender, we are able to bring it to the British public for the first time.'

Mr Serota said the work was among a series 'widely regarded as amongst his greatest achievements of the inter-war period'.

The painting depicts the Spanish artist's lover and muse, Marie-Therese Walter, lying nude with the painter looking on.

Picasso met Walter when he was 45 and she was 17 outside the Galeries Lafayette in Paris in 1927, while he was still married to Olga Khokhlova.

He kept their relationship a secret from his wife and only began to paint Walter four years later."

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Drug trafficker in 'healthy cocaine' released in Madrid

Drug trafficker in 'healthy cocaine' released in Madrid: "Romanian drug trafficker who sold ‘healthy’ cocaine has been found not guilty in the Spanish Supreme Court on appeal. The drug had been cut so much the remaining content of cocaine was so low, it was considered to have null effect on users.

The court heard evidence that to have any ‘psychoactive’ effects content has to be 0.05 grams, but in the drugs sold in this case the content was 11.7% pure at just 0.045 grams. The defence argued that there could be no crime against public health, the description for drug trafficking in Spain, because the drugs were so adulterated. They noted the 0.05gram content had been established by the Supreme Court in 2004 as the minimum considered to be a danger to health.

The court thus overturns a previously guilty verdict from the Madrid Provincial Court, which had handed down a three year prison sentence."

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Spain's Foreign Ministry says the country will freeze assets belonging to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime.

Spain's Foreign Ministry says the country will freeze assets belonging to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime. A ministry official says Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez told reporters of the freeze Wednesday en route to Tunis with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. The official says the Libyan assets include a sprawling piece of land in Malaga in southern Spain.

Spain is acting in line with sanctions approved over the weekend by the UN Security Council. The EU has issued travel bans and an asset freeze against senior Libyan officials. Switzerland, Austria and Britain also have frozen Libyan assets.:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.