Marbella has given a renewed vote of confidence Angeles Muñoz.

Marbella has given a renewed vote of confidence Angeles Muñoz. The Popular Party mayor yesterday successfully defended the majority that has ruled since 2007 and has done so with a slightly higher percentage of votes that year to above 50 percent, but loses a mayor in the allocation of seats. In an election that escaped the general trend of increased participation, Marbella abstention rose 5 percent, the PSOE has sunk into votes and council, and will have three seats less in the plenary hall.

The big news of this election is the entrance Sampedreña Option (PSO), which manages to break into the City with three councilors and the United Left moves as the third political force. This training, however, improves the results of four years and get a mayor more.

The two major parties have been most affected by abstaining, to lose more than a thousand votes PP and PSOE, more than four thousand. Before them, OSP gets double the votes of 2007, when he ran to the door to get a mayor, and United Left improved slightly.

Four years after the recovery of democratic normalcy in the City and economic hardship that has prevented its management were translated into a poorly functioning municipal administration, Ángeles Muñoz has managed to win back the trust of the residents of Marbella. It has done so exhibiting the achievements of his administration and with the promise that the worst is behind us.

The mayor, who will be elected by the full establishment of the new corporation to be held on June 11, he raised the election as a referendum on his work during these four years. He did virtually the same team (eleven of whom were repeat its 16 councilors and also includes two people from his team and an area director), with a speech by a marked continuity in management and a highly focused campaign in Fig. The strategy devised by the PP seemed to be based on the premise that even in sectors where the party can not reach, it can do the charisma of Ángeles Muñoz. The candidate made a campaign much like four years ago, touring the neighborhoods one by one, meeting with associations and groups, with the endorsement of the achievements, adoption of the General Plan, recovery of the image of Marbella, institutional normality, and a speech highly critical of the Junta de Andalucía and central government, whom they accuse of having abandoned Marbella and financially exhausted. Has been strengthened and a political endeavor that transcends the boundaries of the municipality, although the argument repeated during the election campaign was his commitment to complete the term until 2015. It is difficult to imagine what might happen next.

The PSOE is facing a new electoral failure. Since 1991, when Francisco Parra left the City Council to give the chair of Mayor Jesus Gil, the Socialists fail to get a foothold in the city. Although they have won some regional and general elections, do not give a mayoral candidate who successfully do battle in a city. After the fiasco of García Marcos, in 2007 they tried to Paulino Plata, which garnered a resounding failure. This year opted for Jose Bernal, a candidate who had a diametrically opposite profile but has won four thousand votes less than its predecessor.

Next to Angeles Muñoz, OSP is the big winner of this election. With nearly 4,500 votes and three aldermen already part of the political landscape. Are to a result that exceeds the most optimistic forecasts. Izquierda Unida has established in the municipality, but the weakness of the PSOE and its own difficulties that can impede growth become a decisive force. UPyD and political experiment led by the Socialist exedil Antonio Martín (IMA + S) have not received sufficient support and have been very far from achieving representation.

POLICE are targeting British-registered cars in a series of roadblocks along the coast.

POLICE are targeting British-registered cars in a series of roadblocks along the coast.
The campaign, which also includes inland areas around Ronda and Antequera, has been launched by the Guardia Civil in a bid to crackdown on vehicles which are not properly registered.Any


British car has to be registered onto Spanish plates within six months of arriving in Spain and vehicles are now being confiscated until the owners have completed the necessary forms.
It follows the recent seizure of six luxury cars on the same night in Puerto Banus as part of the initiative.
During the evening raid one of the cars, a Porsche, was dropped onto its roof while being loaded onto a lorry.
A tourist who watched the events unfold told the Olive Press: “It was a real smash and grab raid. Police were moving quickly and had no intention of letting anyone off.
“There were a lot of groans when the Porsche fell onto the road upside down.”

 

 

The Hotel Guadalpín, a symbol of the corruption in Jesús Gil’s Marbella, has been closed

The Hotel Guadalpín, a symbol of the corruption in Jesús Gil’s Marbella, has been closed today on the orders of the judge after a long legal process which was accelerated two years ago when the hotel’s owners, Aifos, applied for bankruptcy protection.

President of the company committee, Susana González, told El País that ‘it is a very sad day, but on the other hand we feel somewhat freed’ referring to the enormous difficulties and sacrifices seen by the 129 workers.

The rooms at the Guadalpin are privately owned, while Aifos is the owner of the public spaces.

The hotel was built without a licence, and there are allegations that backhanders were paid, those claims are being investigated as part of the Malaya case.

The death of Luis Núñez Moreno de Guerra came just a few weeks after Juan Pedro Domecq was killed in a traffic accident

The leading bull breeder, Luis Núñez Moreno de Guerra, owner of ‘Los Derramaderos’ breeding estate, has been confirmed as one of the three victims of a pile-up in Dos Hermanas, Sevilla, late on Wednesday night.

His son, Luis Núñez Núñez, aged 37, was also killed and it’s understood that Europa Press both men are to be buried on Friday in San Fernando, Sevilla.

The accident happened at kilometre 16 of the AP-4 road when a car travelling on the wrong side of the carriageway crashed head on into a lorry. The 4x4 in which father and son were travelling smashed into the lorry and was then hit from behind by another car.

The driver of the car which caused the accident was also killed. None of the others involved were seriously injured.

70 year old Luis Núñez Moreno de Guerra lost anther son, Carlos, just a few months ago, who died after a long illness in November.

Wednesday night’s accident is the second tragedy for the world of bullfighting in a little more than a month, after the death of Juan Pedro Domecq in a traffic accident in Huelva on April 18.

The PYR Hotel Marbella in Puerto Banus will be hosting the 8th edition of Marbella's National Young Chef Competition from 2-4 June.

At a press conference held this week in Marbella, Juan Acosta, secretary of AJECOMAR, summarized the competition's history since the 1st edition held in 2000. Likewise, he informed those present about the activities programmed during the event, starting with a gala dinner on 2 June and ending with the awards ceremony scheduled for 4 June at the PYR Hotel Marbella.

The competition's 12 competitors, coming from different Spanish provinces, will be expected to prepare a turbot-based dish and another one of their choice.

The winner of the competition will receive a prize of €2,000, and the two runners-up €1,000 and €500, respectively. The vice-chairmen of AJECOMAR, head chefs Albert Benisty (Albert&Simon Restaurant) and Sergio Garrido (Vincci Estrella del Mar Hotel), stressed the importance of this competition for discovering young up-and-coming chefs in Spain. They also stated how satisfied they were with the association and thanked the suppliers, hotel and local authorities for their inestimable collaboration, without which it would have been impossible to organize the 8th edition of the Marbella National Young Chef Competition and, therefore, continue to support young Spanish chefs.

Cristobal Rueda, chairman of AJECOMAR, put the accent on how important this competition is for Marbella so as to continue promoting gastronomy as one of the municipality's tourist attractions. Lastly, Jose Luis Hernandez, head of tourism of Marbella Town Council, congratulated the organizers for contributing to the international promotion of Marbella from a gastronomic standpoint, as well as the professionalism of the young chefs participating in the competition, which will coincide with the event Luxury Weekend.

Borja Thyssen claims his mother took works by Goya and Giaquinto that his adoptive father left to him

One of Europe's wealthiest and most fractious families has returned to feuding mode after the son of the Spanish art collector Baroness Carmen Thyssen took her to court in a battle over two paintings – valued at €6m (£5.2m) – by Goya and Giaquinto .

Borja Thyssen had previously visited the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum in Madrid with his lawyer and a notary to demand it hand over Goya's A Woman and Two Children by a Fountain. He says that both the Goya and Giaquinto's The Baptism of Christ were gifts to him from his deceased adoptive father, Baron Hans Heinrich von Thyssen.

The baron adopted Borja after marrying his mother, a former Spanish beauty queen and ex-wife of Lex Barker, who played Tarzan in 1950s Hollywood. She was the Swiss-Hungarian industrialist's fifth, and final, wife.

But Borja believes he was cheated out of part of his inheritance. The baron's art collection forms the backbone of the museum in Madrid. Borja said he had been promised the paintings before the baron died eight years ago.

His quest for proof lead him to rifle through his mother's papers at her Madrid home, taking a film cameraman with him to record the moment. The film was later shown on Spain's Antena 3 television station. Sources at the museum said both pictures are now back in the baroness's hands.

Baroness Thyssen – who only recently publicly named Borja's biological father, a Spanish advertising executive – does not get on with her son's wife, but has also recently fallen out with many other people. The director of the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza museum in Malaga, which displays paintings from her personal collection, resigned last month just three weeks after it opened.

Director María López and art historian Tomas Llorèns, who was on the board, resigned together after an executive manager was put in overall control. "The museum no longer has, in my opinion, the degree of historical and artistic credibility that one would hope for in a museum of this kind," Mr Llorens said.

The baroness has also recently fought with both Spain's culture ministry and with her daughter-in-law, Francesca Habsburg. That row started because the baroness wanted to sell The Lock, by John Constable in the Madrid museum. The museum owns much of her late husband's collection but also has temporary rights to part of her personal collection.

Francesca Habsburg and fellow museum patron Norman Rosenthal used their vetos to prevent the removal of the Constable. Habsburg declared in a letter published by El Paìs that her stepmother was "unreasonable, and completely isolated from reality".

Part of the baroness's collection hangs in a special extension to the Madrid museum that was built by Spain's culture ministry seven years ago. It has reportedly been valued at £600m.

An 11-year free loan finished in February, with the baroness agreeing to a one-year extension. Spain's culture ministry had wanted a two-year loan while it negotiated the purchase of the collection. "This postponement is only prolonging the agony of these seemingly endless negotiations," Habsburg complained, claiming that the baroness had reneged on earlier promises – which the baroness denied.

 

 

volcanic ash cloud has cleared from the UK and now disrupts European airspace, but forecasters predict its return to Britain later this week.

The National Air Traffic Service has confirmed that UK airspace is now clear of ash from the Icelandic eruption and should remain clear for some time to come.
But Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said the ash plume, although now less intense, is expected to return as winds shift.
"The volcano has paused so at the moment… but it is predicted to come back later in the week," he told Sky News.
Pressure is mounting on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to reduce impact on travel plans as families across Britain prepare to jet off on half-term school holidays.
"The Met Office and the CAA will be doing a lot of modelling work to minimise disruptions," Mr Hammond said.

The Met Office has released a cloud spread prediction for 6pm tonight
Meanwhile BA has conducted an approved test flight into the ash cloud's red zone, with boss Willie Walsh announcing that no damage occurred to the plane.
His company has submitted a safety case to the CAA asking for permission to continue flying its planes.
Around 500 flights have so far been cancelled in the UK this week, leaving many stranded at airports in Scotland and northern England.
But now those travelling to and from Europe face further chaos, as the cloud begins to blow over northern countries.
Volcanic Ash Cloud: Live Blog
German air traffic control said Bremen and Hamburg airports would close from 5am and 6am, and warned of Berlin's closure from 10am.
Ryanair issued a warning to customers awaiting flights from Germany that their travel may be disrupted, with all flights to and from Bremen, Lubeck and Magdeburg airports cancelled until 2pm local German time.
EasyJet urged passengers travelling from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Amsterdam, Dortmund, Berlin, Copenhagen or Hamburg to check before leaving for the airport.
BA has made at least three cancellations so far - on flights inbound and outbound from Hamburg.
KLM cancelled flights from Amsterdam to Newcastle and Scottish destinations and to other spots across northern Europe and Scandinavia, while BMI stopped flights between Heathrow and Berlin and Hanover.

seeking a luxury brand and management deal for the 105-room Mountain Spa Marbella, a proposed luxury mountain resort development in Istan

Specialist hotel real estate broker, Soric International, told OPP this week that it is “, 15 minutes from the Mediterranean coast.”
 

The site overlooks Lake Concepcion to the hills of the Sierra Real Natural Park and, says Soric, “a flexible master plan and all essential planning permissions and licences are in place for a proposed four-star plus resort of up to 24,000 square metres. The Málaga regional government planning authority granted planning permission on the site in 2004.”

 

Soric managing director Mark Blick told OPP that because of the “lack of comparable luxury properties in the area, the Mountain Spa Marbella provides an opportunity to exploit a niche in the market. The site would be particularly well suited to a luxury, boutique brand.”

 

The 105-room full-service resort will have 64 bedrooms in the main hotel and 41 detached one, two and three-bedroom suites of 140 square metres to 217 square metres, each with its own infinity pool.

 

There will be a large luxury spa with tiered pool, a number of bars and restaurants and a boat house on Lake Concepcion. Guest activities will include a range of water sports, fishing, cycling, horse riding and walking.

 

The facts and figures behind the opportunity, according to Soric are an “ADR set at €325 in year one, inflated by 5% in year two and 3% per annum thereafter.” And then “sales and marketing is set at 4% of total revenue and includes any assumed centralised marketing fee from the operator. A base management fee of 3% of total revenue is included. A management incentive fee of 8% of adjusted gross operating profit is also included.”

 

The area is a 15 minute drive from Marbella and Puerto Banus. The Manolo Santana Racquets Club and many of the Costa del Sol’s premier golf courses are also within easy reach says Soric and Málaga International Airport is 45 minutes away by car.

 

Soric International specialises in real estate, investment, branding, operational and related advisory services to the mid-scale and luxury hotel sector.

 

Currently, the company is working in Sardinia, Rome, London, Milan, Paris, Marbella, Madeira, Bucharest, Dubai, Cote d’Azur and Vienna. The company has offices in Paris, London, Milan and Dubai. A new office is expected to open in Dakar in 2012.

Florida deep-sea explorers are asking a federal appeals court to overturn a judge's ruling that 17 tons of treasure recovered from a sunken Spanish galleon belongs to Spain.

Florida deep-sea explorers are asking a federal appeals court to overturn a judge's ruling that 17 tons of treasure recovered from a sunken Spanish galleon belongs to Spain.

The Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration is asking a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Atlanta to give it the rights to an estimated $500 million in silver coins and other artifacts salvaged about four years ago.

The federal judge in Tampa ruled in 2009 that Spain is the rightful owner of the treasure from a ship that's believed to be the navy frigate Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes y las Animas.

Odyssey counters that it is entitled to most of the loot because historical records show the vessel was on a commercial mission when it sank under fire in 1804.

Spanish cyclist Xavier Tondo dies in freak accident

The top Spanish cyclist Xavier Tondo has died in a freak accident as he was setting out from the Sierra Nevada ski resort on Monday for training in preparation for the Tour de France.

The 32 year old was driving his car out of the garage of a building in the Pradollano resort shortly after 10am on Monday when he noticed that the door was about to come down on the vehicle. He died after getting out of the car to keep the garage door open, but was crushed to death when the car rolled forward, pinning him against the door.

It’s understood that his Movistar team mate, Beñat Intxausti, was in the passenger seat when it happened.

Tondo, who was born in Tarragona, had won 14 races during his career as a professional cyclist, including the Vuelta a Castilla y León earlier this year. He had only recently moved over to Movistar from Cervélo.

 

If volcanic emissions continue with the same intensity, the cloud may reach west French airspace and north Spain on Thursday

ASH from Iceland's most active volcano may reach north Scotland by Tuesday, sweeping through Britain to hit France and Spain on Thursday if the eruption does not die down, air safety officials said.

The ash cloud was expected in northern Scotland by Tuesday, the European air safety organisation Eurocontrol said in a statement on Sunday.

'If volcanic emissions continue with the same intensity, the cloud may reach west French airspace and north Spain on Thursday ...,' it added

Spain's ruling Socialists reeled on Monday from stinging losses in local elections

Spain's ruling Socialists reeled on Monday from stinging losses in local elections and now have to balance voter anger over high unemployment and investor demands for austerity measures.

A week of protests by Spaniards fed up with the stagnant economy and the EU's highest jobless rate preceded Sunday's elections, which left the Socialists out of power in most of the country's cities and almost all of its 17 autonomous regions.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Sunday night conceded the Socialists (PSOE) had lost heavily but said he planned to stay on to the end of his term in March next year.

The centre-right opposition Popular Party (PP) has called for the Socialists to resign several times in recent months, but leader Mariano Rajoy did not call for early elections at a victory rally on Sunday night.

The Socialists have avoided losing budget votes and having to call early elections with the support of small parties like the Basque Nationalist

The ash could force the authorities to shut airports and close UK airspace

The ash could force the authorities to shut airports and close UK airspace, in a move which could disrupt many thousands of passengers almost exactly a year since a different Icelandic volcano closed airspace across Europe.
The latest warning is based on five-day weather forecasts but experts said the wind patterns were changeable and could yet sweep the cloud away from the UK.
Aviation authorities yesterday said no disruption was expected to European or transatlantic airspace over the next 24 hours.
However, if the eruption continues at the same rate and winds do not change, ash could reach northern Scotland by tomorrow and spread to England, France and even Spain by Thursday or Friday, forecasters said.
Grimsvoetn, Iceland’s most active volcano at the heart of its biggest glacier, began erupting late on Saturday, sending a plume of smoke and ash 12miles high.

Cairn Energy run by Sir Bill Gammell, has won the rights to operate oil rigs in 4,000 square kilometres in the Gulf of Valencia

The British energy company that has angered British environmentalists by drilling off Greenland is exploring for oil off the sun-drenched beaches of southern Spain.

Cairn Energy, which is run by former Scottish rugby player Sir Bill Gammell, has won the rights to operate oil rigs in 4,000 square kilometres in the Gulf of Valencia.

The Edinburgh-based group confirmed it was in the "very early stages of the exploration process" and having obtained two licences from the government in Madrid. It is evaluating data on the area and did not expect any drilling to start for at least two years. The acreage which takes in water depths of up to 1,000 metres has been handed out as part of a drive by ministers to increase the country's self-sufficiency in energy. Oil and gas rights have also been recently handed out to other companies off the Costa del Sol causing panic in the town hall at Marbella where the local mayor insists it is incompatible with the area's crucial tourism industry.

Angeles Muñoz, the mayor of Marbella, is quoted in local media as saying the oil company activity "puts our coast and eco-system in danger. We cannot tolerate them [central government] playing with the future of the Costa del Sol and our coastline".

Ex-patriate British websites in Spain have been humming with comments. "Given the appalling health and safety in Spain it would be madness to allow an oil/gas rig off the coast. If it had a blow-out, the whole coast could be unusable. Is that really worth the risk?" asked "Fred" on the Olive Branch Newspaper site.

But others disagree. "Ben" said: "These people have allowed the construction of the 'concrete collar' along the coast and resist at every opportunity the construction of proper infrastructure including water treatment works on the grounds of cost, so continue to allow part-treated sewage to be discharged metres from tourist beaches and now they object to the creation of jobs and tax revenues at sites miles out at sea."

Spain has been more in the energy news in recent times for its strong support for setting up solar arrays and wind farms but has always had a very small offshore oil industry. BP owns the Castellon refinery on the Mediterranean coast and keeps the European head office of BP Solar in Madrid. Local oil company, Repsol, has been active off the coast of Tarragona since the 1970s.

The appearance of Cairn could excite investors if not holidaymakers. The company made a name for itself by making major discoveries in Rajasthan in India on acreage that was handed over by Shell after it had failed to find anything.

 

Michael O’Leary, Chairman of Ryanair, has been talking about his airline’s threat to reduce their presence at El Altet airport in Alicante.

He has confirmed that they airline is studying ‘significantly reducing’ operations at El Altet if the Spanish Airport Authority, AENA, continues in its demand that the budget airline use the passenger airbridges, and be charged for doing so, although he said that they would not be leaving completely.
O’Leary said the obligation is unjust and discriminatory, and considered that AENA is abusing its dominant position in imposing the use of the ‘unnecessary’ airbridges.

The Ryanair boss also mentioned a similar situation in Girona, although in that case it is, according to O’Leary, the Catalan Government has not respected its agreements with the company.
O’Leary then went on to attack airport policy in Spain, describing the construction of the new terminal in Alicante as ‘unnecessary’, along with investments in El Prat in Barcelona. In his opinion these airports are making charges only to satisfy regional politicians. He said AENA was ‘wasting thousands of millions of Euros constructing marble palaces’.

O’Leary also hit out at the fines which had been imposed on his airline by diverse bodies in Spain, such as consumer groups and regional governments which amount to a million of Euros, describing the fines as illegal. He claimed that fines cannot be imposed without informing Ryanair of the allegations made against it, as it did not give the airline chance to defend itself. He mentioned a fine from a consumers’ agency on the Baleares, which when investigated did not originate with a complaint from a user, describing the situation as ‘clearly ridiculous’.

He also said he thought that privatisation would not reduce airport tariffs in Spain, describing AENA’s monopoly is bad for consumers and competition, and warned that the airport taxes could make travelling to and from Spain unattractive.

He suggested Spain followed the same strategy designed by the British competition authorities which had broken the monopoly of the airport operator BAA, owned by Spanish company Ferrovial, by forcing it to sell Gatwick, Stansted and one of its Scottish airports separately.

Jamie Dempsey,suspected of being behind an £80m cocaine empire has been arrested in Marbella after an international hunt.

A man suspected of being behind an £80m cocaine empire has been arrested in Spain after an international hunt.

Jamie Dempsey, 33, of Essex, had been wanted by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) since spring 2009.

Mr Dempsey, who allegedly conspired to supply 299 kilos of cocaine, was held during a raid on a property in Marbella.

His arrest comes after police released the details of 10 suspected criminals hiding out on the "Costa del Crime".

Dave Cording, of Crimestoppers, said: "This is another great result which means that now 50% of the most recent batch of wanted individuals have been arrested."

A professor in Murcia is claiming that he is persecuted for writing a book about how corrupt the system of higher education is in Spain:

A Spanish university has denied that disciplinary proceedings against one of its professors are a response to a book he wrote alleging corruption at the institution. José Penalva, professor of education at the University of Murcia, has been accused of absenteeism and could face dismissal. He told Times Higher Education that he believed the real reason for the action was a book, published last month, in which he claimed that political influence and nepotism were rife in Spanish universities. Corrupción en la Universidad (Corruption in the University) describes what Professor Penalva sees as the incestuous relationship between Spanish universities and local politics, which he believes is a major factor in the "mediocrity" of the country's higher education institutions. "The rector always is a person who has a lot of power in the local community, and is always supported by a bunch of deans and politicians who scratch each other's backs," Professor Penalva told THE. "This explains why Spanish universities are at the bottom of the international rankings: there is no accountability, so the quality of research is very low," he said. . . Professor Penalva said Spanish universities were legally obliged to advertise academic positions, but that the majority of the members of the selection panels were appointed by the university's rector and the dean of the department in question. "This explains why 98 per cent of lecturers and professors in Spanish universities are 'local candidates' who have already worked in the department and have a 'godfather' there," he said.
I have no idea whether Dr. Penalva is, in fact, guilty of absenteeism, but I do know that he is absolutely right in his charges against the higher education system in Spain. I love Spain and have dedicated my life to the study, teaching and promotion of its culture. However, I have to agree that Spanish higher education is for shit.

When I first started out as a student in Hispanic Studies, my dream was to do my PhD in Spain. Then, gradually, I began noticing certain things that made me reconsider this plan. All of the brightest Hispanists I knew were doing all they could to leave Spain. When I asked them why they didn't want to look for a professorial position or a grad school program in their country, they would tell me that they didn't have the kind of connections it took to be successful in Spanish academia. The quality of courses in the Humanities is, more often than not, abysmal. Sexual harassment, nepotism and exploitation of graduate students are rife. As a result, scholars who want to do actual research and advance on their merits and not on the number of anuses they have been able to wipe clean with their tongues abandon the country.

It is not humanly possible to dedicate enough energy and time to research while simultaneously trying to cultivate connections with everybody who might be remotely "useful." Of course, I have seen academics here in the US who choose ass-licking (and I don't mean in a good, sexually fulfilling kind of way) over doing scholarship. Eventually, however, brown-nosers realize that this is a losing strategy and nobody in the academic community respects them. In Spain, it is just the opposite. As a result, students end up receiving sub-standard education and the prestige of Spanish college diplomas evaporates.

The sun-drenched Spanish resort of Marbella is set to be turned amber and chocolate as Sutton United's title-winning squad arrive to celebrate promotion in style.

The players, coaches and staff are all travelling to the party town for three nights from next Thursday for a trip the players have been saving for themselves.

It will bring to an end the celebrations since the club lifted the Ryman Premier trophy on April 25.

"The lads have been putting money aside from their wages for four months and the whole squad is going," said manager Paul Doswell.

"It might get very messy so the management and staff are staying in a different hotel to the players and good luck to them.

"They have deserved this and they put all the money in themselves and decided they wanted to do this rather than have a Christmas party this year."

While other managers have been putting their feet up since the end of the season, Doswell has been as busy as ever.

"There's been no break for me yet," he said.

"We have got to get players back on contract and tell the players we are not keeping and try to get hold of some we want to come to us.

"It is not until the end of May that things tend to die down and I like to have the whole of June off if I can.

"We have made decisions already on who to offer contracts to and who not to but we are going to wait until we get back from Marbella to announce that."

Two players certain to be staying are striker Craig Dundas and goalkeeper Kevin Scriven, who swept the board at Saturday's annual awards night.

Dundas picked up player of the year and players' player of the year, while Scriven was voted player of the year by sponsors A-Plant and also supporters' player of the year.

"I think that was the right call," said Doswell.

"They both deserved something and it was very much a team effort, everyone contributed.

"We won the league because the whole squad has been playing to their potential, we haven't had anyone who has not performed.

"But those two in particular have been outstanding."

Somali pirates have freed two Spanish officers

Somali pirates have freed two Spanish officers who were aboard a Mozambican fishing vessel with a crew of 14 seized in the Mozambique Channel at the end of December, reports said on Saturday.
The online edition of El Pais daily said the captain of the Vega 5, Juan Alfonso Rey Echeverri, and first officer Jose Alfonso Garcia were safe aboard a vessel of the Pecanova company which employed them.
The Indian navy had recovered the 140-tonne Vega 5 in March but the two Spaniards were not aboard. Photographs showed them on dry land surrounded by armed men.
The Spanish foreign ministry said Saturday it could not confirm the release of the two officers, and the media reports quoting government sources gave no details.

Thousands of people have spent the night outdoors in the southern Spanish town of Lorca after an earthquake which killed at least eight people.

 

 

Two earthquakes struck south-east Spain in quick succession, killing at least 10 people − the country’s highest quake-related death toll in more than 50 years − injuring dozens and causing major damage.

The epicentre of the quakes − with magnitudes of 4.4 and 5.2 − was close to the town of Lorca and the second came about two hours after the first, the Murcia regional government said.

Dozens of injured people were being treated at the scene and a field hospital was set up in the town of about 85,000 people.

About 270 patients at a hospital in Lorca were being evacuated by ambulance as a precaution after the building sustained minor damage, the Murcia government said.

The prime minister’s office put the death toll at 10 and the Murcia administration said the deaths included a child and occurred with the second, stronger quake.

Large chunks of stone and brick fell from the facade of a church in Lorca as a reporter for Spanish state TV was broadcasting live from the scene.

A large church bell was also among the rubble, which missed striking the reporter, who appeared to be about 9m away when it fell.

The broadcaster reported that schoolchildren usually gathered at that spot around that time and if it had happened 10 minutes later, a “tragedy” could have occurred.

Spanish TV showed images of cars that were partially crushed by falling rubble, and large cracks in buildings.

Many residents decided to spend the night camped out in parks and other open spaces, fearing aftershocks and because of structural damage to their homes, according to state TV footage.

It was the deadliest quake in Spain since 1956 when 12 people died and 70 were injured in a quake in the southern Granada region, according to the National Geographic Institute.

It says Spain has about 2,500 quakes a year, but only a handful are actually noticed by people. Spain’s south and south east are the most earthquake-prone regions.

IBEROSTAR Marbella Coral Beach Hotel has seen its official opening with very special host, Antonio Banderas, on hand for the celebrations.

The world renowned actor from Malaga, who has been the face of this hotel chain since 2010, did not want to miss out on the chance to be part of the expansion of IBEROSTAR Hotels & Resorts on the Costa del Sol.

As well as Antonio, the Mayoress of Marbella, Maria Ángeles Muñoz, and other representatives of the Marbella City Council were present on the night including executive vice-president of the IBEROSTAR Group, Sabina Fluxá Thieneman and managing director of marketing of IBEROSTAR Hotels & Resorts, Luis Herault, who highlighted the strategic importance of this destination for the group.

Herault said: “The IBEROSTAR Marbella Coral Beach Hotel is our flagship hotel on the Costa del Sol, a top destination on a national and international level. 

“With hotels like this one, we enrich our portfolio and we perfectly respond to the chain’s vocation to offer high-category services and facilities to its clients on the most appealing coasts.”

A beachfront hotel, just one kilometre from Puerto Banús, this hotel is situated in the heart of the Costa del Sol, in one of the most exclusive residential areas of Marbella.

IBEROSTAR Hotels & Resorts has remodelled the building, inspired in Andalusian and Arab cultures, improved its facilities, including 170 rooms divided among four floors (126 double rooms, 14 junior suites, ten suites and 20 communicating rooms), with views of the lovely Mediterranean Sea and terraces overlooking two swimming pools, gardens and common grounds. 

Antonio Banderas expressed his satisfaction: “About a year ago, I began collaborating with IBEROSTAR, a Spanish company with which I have a lot of things in common, such as its philosophy about its international profile.

“But today it is time to celebrate the presence of IBEROSTAR in Marbella, in Malaga, my home.

“This shows their firm commitment to this land, which makes me proud to be a Malaga native.”

10 people were killed by a pair of unusually severe earthquakes that shook south-east Spain on Wednesday evening, the Spanish interior ministry said.

Worst hit was the town of Lorca, in the Murcia region, where several buildings were badly damaged. A church bell was seen lying amid rubble on the ground.

“Almost all the churches are damaged,” Francisco Jodar, Lorca’s mayor, told the Cadena Ser radio station. He said people had been hurt in cars and buildings by falling debris. “We are looking inside the collapsed houses to see if there are people inside.”

Mr Jodar said residents were all in the streets for fear of further shocks. “Above all people must avoid panic,” he said.

The second and severest earthquake, shortly before 7pm local time, registered as a 5.3 magnitude tremor, sending frightened residents into the streets of Lorca. Although much weaker than the powerful quake in Japan two months ago that caused a huge tsunami and left nearly 25,000 dead, the tremors were felt across much of southern Spain.

In the capital Madrid, the defence ministry said it was sending army units to Lorca to help deal with the aftermath of the quake. Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, deputy prime minister, is to travel to the region to inspect the damage today.

Although Spain is not considered a high-risk zone for earthquakes, tremors are not uncommon. Six years ago, the same region was struck by a slightly smaller quake.

According to Efe, the Spanish news agency, Wednesday’s lethal quake was the country’s most deadly since 1956 and the first since 1969 in Spain to claim lives. In April 1956, 12 people died, 70 were injured and hundreds of buildings damaged in the area around Granada, also in the south.

Strong earthquake near Lorca and Murcia

UPDATE 17:37 UTC : As confirmed by sources close to Europa Press, many buildings have been affected, such as the Belfry of the Church of San Diego, the roof of the asylum, the Torre del Castillo de Lorca Ram and a wall could have stopped someone trapped.
UPDATE 17:35 UTC : Among the material damage for the moment, there have been highlights the collapse of the roof at the nursing home Caser Lorca, who have been evacuated. (these data were already reported after the first shaking)
UPDATE 17:31 UTC : At least one person has died after the earthquakes in Lorca this afternoon. Apparently, according to  sources consulted by this writing, a ledge could have fallen on the victim when she was walking down the
street. And after the first earthquake, there has been a new earthquake or shook her area of Lorca , this time with greater intensity of 5.2 degrees on the Richter scale, according to provisional data from the National Geological Institute , which returns to feel part of the Region of Murcia.
They have evacuated the area near the City Hall of this town and have more people affected.

 

Spanish judge says probes have ruined his career

Spanish investigative judge Baltasar Garzon, who faces charges of abusing power after he pursued a series of sensitive cases, said on Wednesday his career at the High Court has been ruined even if he is cleared.

Garzon, who won fame for trying to extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, faces three separate cases in the Supreme Court over his investigations into corruption and into human rights abuses during Spain's 40-year dictatorship.

Such charges made it difficult for him handle further cases. "Any interested party could use as an argument in his defence the fact that the judge has been on trial... for his independent interpretation of the law," Garzon told a news conference.

The Supreme Court decided in April to try him for violating the rights of defendants in a corruption case involving members of the opposition Popular Party (PP), by ordering phone taps of suspects' calls with their lawyers.

Garzon, who has been suspended and may end up in the dock before the defendants themselves, says he ordered the taps to monitor any possible attempt by the suspects to use their lawyers to launder proceeds from the corruption ring.

"I was trying to balance two rights: the fundamental rights of the defence, as well as the rights of the public, for these crimes to be investigated," he said, adding that there were signs that money laundering was still going on at the time he authorised the taps

 

Ten people accused of a timeshare scam which operated from Fuengirola and defrauded some 300 victims reached agreement with the prosecution

Ten people accused of a timeshare scam which operated from Fuengirola and defrauded some 300 victims reached agreement with the prosecution as the trial commenced on Monday and have accepted sentences ranging from one to two years in prison.

Diario Sur however notes that none will serve a custodial sentence.
There were originally 18 accused in the case, but one has since died and 7 failed to appear. Six of the accused have admitted their guilt for the crime of fraud, and the remaining four for illicit association. They must also, between them, meet the cost of the 500,000 € which were defrauded.

The paper reports that the group used a telesales system to contact their victims, offering an attractive price to manage the sale of their timeshare properties, giving information on a possible buyer who, in reality, never existed. An up-front payment was requested for the services offered which, in the event, never materialised.

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair has threatened the Spanish Government with reducing their number of routes and people employed in Spain unless 65 fines issued against them removed.

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair has threatened the Spanish Government with reducing their number of routes and people employed in Spain unless 65 fines issued against them removed.
Expansion newspaper reports that the CEO of the airline, Michael O’Leary, has called on the Ministry for Industry to remove the fines which total 1.23 million €.

In a letter dated last January 24, O’Leary asks Minister for Industry, Miguel Sebastián, for an urgent meeting ‘to put an end to these unjust fines and guarantee that the regulatory bodies support the multimillion € investments being made in Spanish airports and tourism, instead of putting the growth of Ryanair in danger with unfounded fines’.

O’Leary claims the regulatory bodies do not contact the airline until the fine is issued and describes their action as ‘disproportionate and discriminatory’, claiming they have ‘a vindictive policy’.

Last summer Ryanair overtook Iberia as the largest airline in Spain and ended the year with a 30% growth in passenger numbers at 22.89 million.

Currently Ryanair operates from 44 bases, offers more than 1,500 flights and forecast it will transport 73 million passengers this year, 30 million of them in Spain.

Meanwhile the OCU Consumers Union in Spain has warned the Government that they will take them to court if they give in to the blackmail from Ryanair.

In a press release on Monday, the OCU says they want to express their absolute rejection of the unacceptable request from Ryanair. The OCU say they can only once again lament the null respect for the law from Ryanair, which repeatedly fails to meet its obligations to travellers.

Fellow consumers’ group FACUA has also described the Ryanair move as ‘blackmail’. It notes the airline carried out 65 infractions in two years, although none of them were safety related. FACUA considers that the blackmail comes ‘as a consequence of the weakness of the Government and the Autonomous Regions in the face of Ryanair’s continuous frauds’.

at least 90,000 people losing their phone service along the Costa del Sol as far away as Marbella, Mijas, Fuengirola and Benalmádena.

A fire in a Telefónica sub-exchange in Málaga city on Friday night resulted in at least 90,000 people losing their phone service along the Costa del Sol as far away as Marbella, Mijas, Fuengirola and Benalmádena.

Telefónica say given the size of the blaze it is unclear how many clients were affected in total. Several mobile phone masts were also affected, as were some emergency numbers including 112, 061 and the Police for a time.

Málaga firecrews said the fire started in Calle Eduardo Marquina, for reasons still being investigated just before Midnight on Friday night. They had extinguished the blaze by 4am.

A 150 strong emergency team from Telefónica have been working on site since then to restore services. Initially they forecast 50% of the lines will be back at 11pm on Saturday night and the rest should be fixed during Sunday, but then later it emerged that the problem was far more serious.

The emergency team was upped to 200 and a statement on Sunday explained that the Málaga-Sol exchange was divided into two. One half, with 50% of the lines, has now been restored and is working normally, however the other half ‘is practically burnt thorough and therefore totally unusable’.

The team now has to assemble brand new equipment for these lines and connect it to emergency exchanges to restore the service. Telefónica has said it is unable to say exactly how long that could take.

Telefónica said that it was the most serious breakdown ever seen in Málaga province. ‘If it was a normal breakdown, the lines would be diverted by other alternative routes, but there problem is that there has been a fire’, said a spokesman.
4,000 ADSL users in Málaga city centre have also lost their access.

Golf great Ballesteros dies at 54

Spanish golf legend Seve Ballesteros has died after a protracted battle with cancer.

The 54-year-old passed away surrounded by his family at his home in Pedrena, northern Spain, in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Ballesteros was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2008 after losing consciousness at Madrid Airport.

The five-time major winner had four operations to remove the tumour as well as undergoing chemotherapy.

In a statement, the Ballesteros family expressed gratitude for the "support and gestures of love" it had received and asked for "respect and privacy at such a painful time."


Ballesteros, who claimed 87 titles over his career, won the Open in 1979, 1984 and 1988 and became the first European to win the Augusta Masters in 1980, repeating the feat in 1983.

He also enjoyed a successful Ryder Cup career as both player and captain - playing in eight Ryder Cups and winning 20 points from 37 matches before guiding Europe to victory over the United States as a non-playing captain at Valderrama in 1997.

But it was his daring and flamboyant style that made Ballesteros special, transforming the image of golf and bringing a whole new audience to the sport.

BBC golf correspondent Iain Carter said: "No golfer did more to popularise the game in Europe than Seve Ballesteros.

"He played a fearless, exciting and charismatic brand of the game. It thrilled sport fans all over the world."

Tennis star Rafael Nadal described Ballesteros as a "reference point" for Spanish athletes.

"He's one of the greats of this country without a doubt," he said.

BBC golf commentator Peter Alliss added: "He was a fighter - feisty, skilful, cheeky and loveable.

"He had hair as black as raven's wing, a wonderful set of teeth and a lovely smile. When Seve was in a good mood the world was happy. I will always remember that smile.

"He had a very sad end but I will remember all the good things."

Ballesteros sprang to prominence as a 19-year-old, finishing second to Johnny Miller at the 1976 Open and becoming the youngest winner of the Claret Jug three years later.

His final round of 70 featured an astonishing recovery shot from a car park to set up a birdie at the 16th hole.

He became the youngest winner of the Masters at the age of 23 in 1980 and made his Ryder Cup debut later that year.

Ballesteros topped golf's world ranking for 61 weeks between 1986 and 1989 and won the World Match Play Championship five times, equalling Gary Player's record.

With his game starting to decline because of back problems, Ballesteros won the last of his record 50 European Tour titles in 1995.

And although he continued playing intermittently until 2007, he was generally a pale imitation of his former self and rarely featured on leaderboards.

Ballesteros appeared in public for the first time following the surgery in May 2009 when he went to watch his local football team Racing Santander and was given a standing ovation.

He had called his battle against the tumour the "hardest challenge of my life."

Spanish Police begin issuing smaller residence certificates for EU citizens

The National Police are reported to have started issuing new, smaller European Union Citizens’ Registration Certificates, easier to carry than the A4 size document which has replaced the previous residence cards for EU citizens in Spain.

These certificates, while certifying the holder’s NIE number and the date from which they have had permanent residency in Spain, state that they are ‘only proof of inscription in the Central Registry of Foreigners’ and are ‘not valid as proof of either the holder’s identity or nationality’.

This new system which has been in place since March 2007 means that EU residents in Spain should now always carry with them another form of identification. The British Embassy in Madrid says on its webpage, ‘We are aware that this caused inconvenience to British Citizens living in Spain. We can assure you that we have raised the matter with the relevant authorities both in the UK and Spain, however ultimately this is a matter for the Spanish government. At present the only legitimate form of ID for British Citizens that is recognised by the Spanish authorities is the British passport’.

The Embassy however notes that a photo driving licence or a certified copy of your passport may be accepted as identification for making payment in shops, but there is no obligation to accept either of these forms of ID.

Spain’s Illegal Homes Overshadow Minister’s U.K. Sales Pitch

Jose Blanco, Spain’s development minister, tried to persuade U.K. investors today to purchase unsold vacation homes in a country where more than 50,000 home buyers have lost the legal rights to their properties.

“This is an ideal time to invest in Spanish real estate,” Blanco, 49, told reporters after his presentation. “There has been a significant drop in prices, while all the competitive advantages we offer still exist,” the minister said. He will deliver the same message to investors in France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Russia.

The campaign follows renewed calls from European Parliament members including Marta Andreasen, Roger Helmer and Michael Cashman to freeze some of the funds the European Union gives Spain until it resolves legal shortcomings that have stripped once-legal buyers of ownership rights. A non-binding 2009 report by the parliament’s petitions committee criticized the country for applying restrictions on coastal property retroactively and showing “judicial laxity” toward corruption and speculation.

“It’s inconceivable that anyone would want to invest in property in a country that has shown itself to be lawless when it comes to property rights,” Andreasen, a member of the U.K. Independence Party, said in a telephone interview. “Andalusia has 300,000 illegal homes alone. If we extrapolate that to the rest of Spain, a million homes is a conservative number.”

Andalusian Properties

Andalusia, a popular tourist destination in southern Spain, is one of the worst affected areas, according to the committee’s report. A spokesman for Andalusia’s regional government, who asked not to be cited by name, said an inventory of illegal properties in the region is being compiled. So far, 25,000 have been identified, he said.

Marisa del Valle, a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor responsible for cases involving town planning and the environment, said there’s no way of knowing how many homes have been built illegally in Spain. Eva Santiago, a spokeswoman for the Ministry for Transport and Development, said her department doesn’t have an estimate.

About 50,000 owners of beachside properties have lost rights to their homes after Spain’s coastal law was amended and applied retroactively, according to PNALC, a group representing owners affected by the coastal law. As many as 500,000 could eventually be affected by the law, the organization said.

Maria Jose Cejas, a spokeswoman for the Ministry for the Environment, said that fewer than 2,000 home owners have lost their property rights under the new coastal law.

British Buyers

British nationals account for about 31 percent of all foreign-owned homes in Spain, the transport and development ministry estimates.

Each of Spain’s 8,116 town halls has the authority to make planning decisions and issue building permits with little oversight from the regional or national governments. At the peak of the housing market in 2007, municipal governments collected 40 billion euros ($59 billion) from real estate activities such as building permits and land sales in that year alone, according to Jose Antonio Perez, a professor who teaches about real estate at the Instituto de Practica Empresarial in Malaga.

As property prices more than doubled in the 12 years to 2007, some local officials found unlawful ways of profiting from home construction. There are now 340 cases under investigation of officials and politicians suspected of crimes, according to Jesus Sanchez Lambas, head of the Spanish office of Transparency International, an organization that documents corruption.

In some cases, developers were given permission to build on unclassified land or were allowed to proceed without the appropriate permits, in return for cash or other incentives.

‘Isolated Cases’

A spokesman for the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, who declined to be named in line with policy, said “isolated cases of irregularities” don’t detract from the work carried out by local government officials. The federation has a good governance code that aims to improve transparency and fight corruption, he said.

The national government set up a website in 2009 to enable buyers to see the development plans of more than 900 cities to check whether a property has been built within legally approved areas, Santiago said. It has also increased the number of investigators focusing on real estate corruption and imposed harsher penalties for civil servants who break the law.

Leo Levett-Smith, a 68-year-old retired traffic policeman from Cheshire, England, and his wife were told that the three- bedroom retirement home they bought in 2005 in Catral near Alicante for 220,000 euros was illegal three years after the transaction was completed.

‘Legal Limbo’

The couple made the purchase through a registered real estate broker, hired a Spanish notary to oversee the deal and got a 130,000-euro mortgage from a Spanish savings bank. They also paid 300 euros for an independent survey on the property.

“We left no legal stone unturned and paid property tax to the local government to buy the place,” Levett-Smith said. “Three years later, I was told it had been built without a sufficient permit. I’ve spent three years living in a legal limbo and the Spanish authorities have done nothing to address the issue.”

Spain built 675,000 homes a year from 1997 to 2006, more than France, Germany and the U.K. combined, according to a report by a unit of Spanish savings bank Cajamar.

Falling Prices

Spanish residential property prices fell in real terms for the first time in more than a decade during the first quarter of 2008 and have dropped by an average of 20 percent since then, the Transport and Development Ministry said in a report today. In large coastal towns, prices have fallen by as much as 40 percent, according to the report, which was distributed in London before Blanco’s presentation.

The collapse of the housing boom beginning in 2008 left Spanish banks with 320 billion euros worth of property assets and loans to the real estate and construction industries after they were forced to take on properties and land in return for canceling debt to bankrupt developers, according to the Bank of Spain. Over the past two years, more than 2,600 real estate and construction companies went out of business, according to credit insurer Credito y Caucion, pushing unemployment to 21.3 percent, the euro region’s highest.

The country has a surplus of more than 1 million empty homes, both new and existing, according to RR de Acuna & Asociados, a Madrid-based research company. The Development Ministry said in today’s report that there are fewer than 700,000 unsold homes in Spain. About 61 percent of those are in Coastal areas, the ministry said.

Building Restrictions

In 1988, the country increased restrictions on coastal development and applied the law retroactively to properties that were already built. Owners of those homes can apply to extend their stay in the property for as much as 60 years, though they can’t sell it or pass it on to children. The concession can be rescinded at anytime by the authorities if deemed to be in the public interest.

Cliff Carter, a 62-year-old former engineer from northern England and his Spanish wife, Maria, a retired teacher, say investors should steer clear of Spanish property, after they lost the rights to a 200 square-meter home on the coast of Valencia that has been owned by their family for 40 years.

The Carters sold their home in the U.K. in 2003 to retire to Spain assuming they had equity in the Spanish house, which was built in 1970 and handed down by Maria’s late mother in 1998. In 2008, they were informed that it had been awarded to the public domain after amended coastal law shifted the boundaries of where development was banned.

Rights Lost

“We’ve been awarded a concession to live here for 30 years and then they throw us out,” Carter said in an interview. “I can’t sell the property and my children can’t inherit it.”

Diana Wallis, vice president of the European Parliament, said that no member state should be allowed to apply laws affecting property rights retroactively or arbitrarily.

“I’d like to ask Mr. Blanco how he thinks that anyone can buy property in Spain and have peace of mind,” Wallis said.

Malaya court case, on the corruption based in Marbella Town Hall, the longest trial in Spanish history.

The court and the prosecutor consider that the oral phase of the proceedings will last for more than two years, and then the drawing up of the sentence will take another six months.

The case, which started on September 27 2010, was initially expected to finish at the end of this year, but the process against Juan Antonio Roca and the 94 other accused will probably still be continuing at the end of 2012.

That makes it longer than the Colza oil case in 1987 which lasted 15 months, and the Madrid Train Bombings case in 2007 which lasted four and a half months.

The President of the Málaga Court, Francisco Javier Arroyo, alerted last Thursday that the duration of the case is ‘unsustainable from a organisation point of view’, give that the magistrates are having to dedicate themselves to the case almost exclusively.

The case is now into its second section, on money laundering, and it’s hoped that section will be completed before the August break.

ex Mayor of Marbella, Jesús Gil y Gil’s children have been ordered by the Tribunal de Cuentas to return more than 100 million € to the accounts of Marbella Town Hall.

ex Mayor of Marbella, Jesús Gil y Gil’s children have been ordered by the Tribunal de Cuentas to return more than 100 million € to the accounts of Marbella Town Hall.

News has only just emerged about the ruling which was emitted on April 12, and which places the estimated damage suffered by the Town Hall at 66.5 million €. To that sum more than 39 million € has been added in interest.

The four children have been deemed to be directly responsible for the accounting irregularities in the Town Hall between 1994 and 1999, and are named as Jesús, Miguel Ángel, Fernando and María Ángeles Gil Marín. Also facing a payment is the ex deputy Mayor, Pedro Román, and the ex GIL councillors, Marisa Alcalá, Rafael González, Antonio Luque and the ex Mayor Julián Muñoz.

The Tribunal de Cuentas considers that the death of Jesús Gil y Gil did not end the civil responsibility in the case, and that this was transmitted to his ‘beneficiaries as being directly responsible for succession’.

The case originated with a demand for accounting responsibility placed by the Ministry for Hacienda in November 2005, which was added to by action from the Town Hall itself three years later when Ángeles Muñoz had taken over control for the Partido Popular.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security expects "threats of retaliation" from al Qaeda in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's death

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security expects "threats of retaliation" from al Qaeda in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's death, a department official told CNN early Monday.
"We certainly anticipate threats of retaliation -- this is an organization that declared war on the United States more than a decade ago -- threats from al Qaeda are not a new phenomenon," the official said.
The development comes as the United States put American diplomatic facilities around the world on high alert and issued a global travel warning for Americans, shortly after President Barack Obama announced that the terrorist leader had been killed in Pakistan.
"Given the uncertainty and volatility of the current situation, U.S. citizens in areas where recent events could cause anti-American violence are strongly urged to limit their travel outside of their homes and hotels and avoid mass gatherings and demonstrations," the State Department said in a worldwide travel warning issued early Monday. "U.S. citizens should stay current with media coverage of local events and be aware of their surroundings at all times."
The Homeland Security official said the agency remains "at a heightened state of vigilance," although the national terror-threat level was not immediately raised following bin Laden's death.
"We remain at a heightened state of vigilance and our security posture, which always includes a number of measures both seen and unseen, will continue to protect the American people from an evolving threat picture both in the next days and beyond," the official said.
"Secretary (Janet) Napolitano has been clear since announcing the NTAS (National Terrorism Advisory System) in January that we will only issue alerts when we have specific or credible information to convey to the American public," the official said.
The range of precautions comes as the United States braces for potential retaliatory attacks in the aftermath of bin Laden's death at the hands of U.S. special forces.
Adding to the concern is a Defense Department report released last week by the WikiLeaks website that a Guantanamo detainee had knowledge of al Qaeda possibly possessing a nuclear bomb somewhere in Europe.
The detainee, Abu al-Libi, said he was told by al Qaeda associate Sharif al-Masri that he believed if bin Laden were captured or killed "the bomb would be detonated" in the United States.
Al-Libi said al-Masri told him during the summer of 2004 that the terrorist network was having difficulty moving the bomb, but if it could move it "al Qaeda would find operatives to use it."
Local authorities also took precautions.
In New York, where a pair of hijacked commercial jetliners took down the twin towers of World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, police were wary.
"While there is no information indicating a specific threat to New York City, members of the service are reminded to remain alert in the aftermath of the announcement that Osama bin Laden has been killed," New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
The Philadelphia Police Department said it was doing hourly checks on mosques and synagogues, following the president's address, according to Lt. Raymond Evers.