MARBELLA without La Concha would be like Cape Town without Table Mountain.

<p><br />Wherever you are in the town you catch sight of its seductively symmetrical form, rising volcano-like above the coast. Its appearance constantly changing as the sun slips round the horizon. And from the top? Well, the views are mesmerising: east and west along the coast, south to Morocco and all the way to the Sierra Nevada on a clear day. This classic route up the mountain numbers among Andalucia’s most special walking adventures. You approach the peak from its northern side, setting out from Refugio de Juanar (it’s a wonderful place to overnight). From here the walk leads you past a hidden, flat-bottomed valley before you climb steeply up through pine forest towards the Cruz de Juanar. After crossing a first col you follow a ridge for most of the way to La Concha: on this section you’ll occasionally feel safer using your hands as well as your feet. That said, so long as you have a reasonable head for heights you shouldn’t find the walk intimidating: a friend regularly takes her teenage kids up and down this route and even sleeps out on the summit. One of Andalucia’s most stunning adventures, an ascent of La Concha is one of the harder trails in my book though well within the capabilities of anyone in good health who walks on a regular basis. Getting to the beginning of the walk From the A7 motorway exit for Marbella/Ojen on the A355. Continue on towards Ojen via two roundabouts. Passing by two turnings off right towards the village, cut left from the A355 at a sign Refugio de Juanar along the MA5300 which you follow all the way to the Refugio. The Walk The walk begins at the entrance of the car park of El Refugio de Juanar. From here descend 100m to a junction then turn right at the sign that says ‘Mirador’. Looping up through the pines you reach a parking area then pass a green metal gate. Passing by a sign pointing left towards Ojen, continue along the track following a sign GR243.1 Istan. Head on along the eastern edge of a flat- bottomed valley where an abandoned olive grove is bordered to both sides by a thick stand of pines. After passing a ruined stone hut you reach a sign that says PR-A 168 La Concha pointing right off the track. (20 mins) Here, cut right away from the track towards the green mesh fence of Cortijo de Juanar then angle hard right down through an olive grove for 100m to a four-way junction. Cutting left into a stand of pines you come to a threeway junction. Here angle left following another sign that says PR-A 168 La Concha. The pines thin out as the path becomes sandier and climbs more steeply: you’ll soon see a fence running to your left. To your left the Cruz de Juanar is visible as you climb on up the left side of the valley. Reaching the top of the ridge, head straight on for a few metres then angle right and continue along the ridge, now heading almost due west between low-growing ilex oaks. Big views now open out to the south and to the Mediterranean. Having run just left of the ridge the path cuts up right to its highest point and passes a large cairn (1 hr 10 mins) before descending for a short distance, now just north of the ridge. Cairns mark the way as well as P.R. waymarking. Angling slightly left, the path passes beneath a steep cliff face, El Salto del Lobo, where there are steep drops to the right: care should be taken on this section. Zigzagging steeply up left (a hands-on approach at this point will be useful) it then drops steeply back down to a more level path which runs on towards La Concha. Climbing back to the top of the ridge the sea and Marbella again come into view as the path angles right, adopting a southwesterly course. Cairns and P.R. waymarking still mark your path as you head on just south of the ridge before angling back up to the top of the ridge as you head on round the south side of the Cerro del Lastonar. A massive panorama opens out to the south as you reach a cairn where you’ll see blue and red stripes on a rock. At this point you’re actually a few metres higher than the official summit of La Concha. From here angle down left following cairns and red and blue waymarking, sticking close to the ridgetop. The Istan reservoir comes into view to the west. The path runs a few metres beneath the ridge, on its southern side, before cutting up to a 3 way marker post. (1 hr 45 mins) Here carry straight on following a sign saying La Concha 15 mins along the ridge to a large cairn. Here the path angles right, descends, then picks up the continuation of the ridge before climbing steeply once more (where you may feel safer using your hands from time to time: there are steep drops to your left). Red and blue flashes still mark the way and lead you up to the summit of La Concha (1215m). (1 hr 55 mins) It’s worth continuing on along the ridge for 60m to the southern edge of the Concha, from where the views down to Marbella are even better. A trig point here marks 1203m. After gulping in the amazing panorama, retrace your footsteps back to the Refugio. (3 hrs 45 mins)</p>

MARBELLA without La Concha would be like Cape Town without Table Mountain.

Wherever you are in the town you catch sight of its seductively symmetrical form, rising volcano-like above the coast. Its appearance consta...

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Spain Approves Canary Islands Oil Exploration

<p><br />The Spanish government approved Friday a controversial permit to explore for oil offshore the Canary Islands, in an area that could become by far the largest source of oil production in a country heavily dependent on crude imports. Approval of an exploration license marks the latest move in Spain's shift away from a policy of subsidy-dependent renewable energy projects as it seeks ways to improve its trade balance and steady its budget, but will likely face opposition from environmentalists and local government officials concerned about the threat of damage to the island's tourist-friendly, white-sand beaches.</p>

Spain Approves Canary Islands Oil Exploration

The Spanish government approved Friday a controversial permit to explore for oil offshore the Canary Islands, in an area that could become b...

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Spain's public debt soars to record high

<p><br />Spain's public debt soared to a record high at the end of 2011, Bank of Spain figures showed Friday, as Madrid struggled to slash costs and escape the eurozone debt crisis. Public debt amounted to 734.96 billion euros ($960 billion), equal to 68.5 percent of annual economic output at the end of 2011 -- up from 66 percent three months earlier and 61.2 percent at the end of 2010. The accumulated debts breached the European-Union agreed limit of 60 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) but was still below the eurozone average, which approached 90 percent in the third quarter last year. It was the highest public debt ratio recorded in Spain since statistics in the current format were first published in 1995. Spain's public debt is rising fast because of runaway annual public deficits that have shot past EU-agreed targets, in part owing to high spending by regional governments. The previous Socialist government, ousted by the conservative Popular Party in November elections, had forecast a debt of 67.2 of GDP for the end of 2011, aiming to curb it to less than 70 percent in 2014. But the European statistics unit Eurostat was not so optimistic. It forecast a public debt of 69.6 percent in 2011, 73.8 percent in 2012 and 78 percent in 2013. Spain's conservative government, which took power in December, has yet to announce a new public debt target. The public debt ratio has grown without interruption since the first quarter of 2008 when, after nearly a decade of fast growth and budget surpluses, which trimmed the debt, it amounted to 35.8 percent of GDP. The situation in the 17 regions is particularly worrying: at the end of 2011 their accumulated debt rose to 140.1 billion euros, or a record 13.1 percent of national GDP, from 11.4 percent a year earlier. Municipal debts, however, eased over the year to 35.4 billion euros or 3.3 percent of GDP. Regional governments enjoy a high level of autonomy, prompting concerns in financial markets that their spending could compromise the central government's deficit-cutting goals. Spain had agreed to cut its annual public deficit to 6.0 percent of GDP in 2011 but it overran that target by a wide margin and ended up reporting a deficit of 8.51 percent of GDP. After winning a slight relaxation from Brussels in its goals for this year, Spain is now aiming for an annual deficit of 5.3 percent in 2012 and 3.0 percent in 2013. But the regions are not entirely to blame. The central government's finances also deteriorated in 2011, as its public debt rose to 52.1 percent of GDP at the end of the year from 46.4 percent a year earlier.</p>

Spain's public debt soars to record high

Spain's public debt soared to a record high at the end of 2011, Bank of Spain figures showed Friday, as Madrid struggled to slash costs ...

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Cadíz second bridge delayed until at least 2013

<p><br />The Ministry for Development has announced a delay in the opening of the second road bridge into Cádiz which will now not be open to traffic until 2013. Minister, Ana Pastor, said that not with all the money in the world could a 2012 opening be achieved. 2012 was the target date so that it coincided with the bicentenary of the 1812 Spanish Constitution which was signed in the city on March 19 1812. The General Courts of Spain were transferred there while in refuge from the Peninsular War. The Minister added, ‘It will take at least another 15 months, and that only if there is no wind’. The Ministry of Development says the suspension bridge is now 75% complete, but a fundamental part of the project, linking to the 13 pivot bases which are already showing in the middle of the Cádiz Bay is still to be done. The bridge is the largest road infrastructure project in Spain and has a cost of about 300 million € and will link Cádiz with Puerto Real. It will be known as the Puente de la Constitución de 1812, and not the ‘Puente de la Pepa’ which was the name given by the previous Minister, Magdalena Álvarez.</p>

Cadíz second bridge delayed until at least 2013

The Ministry for Development has announced a delay in the opening of the second road bridge into Cádiz which will now not be open to traffic...

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Place your bets on Euro Vegas

<p>IT MAY just be the single largest contrarian bet in the euro zone. Sheldon Adelson, a casino tycoon, is expected soon to choose between Madrid and Barcelona for a €16 billion ($21 billion) gambling resort. The euro-zone turmoil does not faze him: “It will take us four to five years,” he told Forbes magazine. “By then everything will be solved.” Mr Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands (LVS) hopes to create a “Euro Vegas”, capable of attracting the 1 billion people who live in the 50 countries within a five-hour flight from Spain. He chose the country because of the weather and because its unemployment rate, now at 23%, “assures us the support of the government”. The numbers are certainly eye-popping. LVS would invest €6 billion in a first phase to build four hotel strips—eventually reaching 12—as well as casinos, shops, restaurants, golf courses and convention centres. LVS says the project could create 260,000 indirect and direct jobs, enough for nearly half the unemployed in Madrid. Spain is already the fourth-largest holiday destination in the world, but LVS reckons Euro Vegas would attract 11m new tourists on top of the 57m a year Spain already gets, increasing tourism spending by €15.5 billion over the next ten to 15 years. In this section News of the world Good for you, not for shareholders Zimplats happens Watch this space »Place your bets on Euro Vegas Luxury on the cheap Nazis in space The view from Liverpool Reprints Related topics Gambling Barcelona Madrid Spain Madrid and Barcelona, used to battling it out on the football pitch, have won a promise of neutrality from the central government. Barcelona admits that Madrid has the edge so far, since it has been talking to Mr Adelson on and off since 2007. But Barcelona has not given up. Mr Adelson recently visited a beach-front site near the city’s El Prat airport, which like Madrid’s Barajas has plenty of spare capacity. National and local leaders are keen on the project but opponents are sceptical of LVS’s claims about job creation, and worry that the casino will become a “fiscal and legal paradise” of tax breaks and exemptions from labour laws—a charge which regional officials deny. However, LVS is thought to be seeking a relaxation of Spain’s ban on smoking in public places, and lower gambling levies. Whichever city won would also have to bear the cost of such things as transport links to the resort. Given Spain’s precarious public finances, and considering that, as Mr Adelson puts it, there are “tens of billions to be made” from the resort, the authorities ought to resist any temptation to splash out taxpayers’ money to win the deal. They will have to assuage public fears of encouraging gambling addiction, infiltration by organised crime and the environmental impact of such a giant construction project. As in Singapore, where LVS recently opened a big casino resort, Spanish officials play down gambling as a small part of the overall package. Another worry is that the project will not happen at all. Spain has had its share of unrealised property developments. A €17 billion casino complex in the desert of Aragon, proposed in 2007, remains unbuilt. But LVS has withstood the global downturn pretty well, and the success of its Macao and Singapore operations gives it plenty of financial firepower. LVS boasts that its Marina Bay Sands development has “moved the needle” in Singapore, with record tourism figures one year after its opening. Euro Vegas would be much larger. A casino resort may lack the prestige of, say, a technology cluster, but Spain will have to take a few gambles to get its soaring unemployment under control.</p>

Place your bets on Euro Vegas

IT MAY just be the single largest contrarian bet in the euro zone. Sheldon Adelson, a casino tycoon, is expected soon to choose between Madr...

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55 security guards arrested with fake qualifications

<p> </p><p>55 false security guards working in sensitive positions have been arrested in Madrid, Toledo, Cuenca and Badajoz. The National Police arrested the 55 who have all be established to have been working fraudulently, and some with jobs looking after explosives or acting as bodyguards. A statement from the National Police said those arrested lacked the necessary preparation for the work and were employed because of falsified qualifications. Some of them have a previous criminal record.</p>

55 security guards arrested with fake qualifications

  55 false security guards working in sensitive positions have been arrested in Madrid, Toledo, Cuenca and Badajoz. The National Police arr...

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The Spanish Government is to increase the tax on diesel vehicles

<p> </p><p>The Spanish Government has revealed that it wants to increase the tax on diesel vehicles because they ‘contaminate more’. The change will be a modification on the vehicle matriculation tax. The Secretary of State for the Environment, Federico Ramos, gave the news after meeting with the environment experts and said that in principle the regional administrations are in agreement. The local City and Town Halls say they now want to first analyse the financial consequences for them. Diesel vehicles not only pollute with CO2 but also emit Nitrogen Dioxide, and particles in suspension.</p>

The Spanish Government is to increase the tax on diesel vehicles

  The Spanish Government has revealed that it wants to increase the tax on diesel vehicles because they ‘contaminate more’. The change will...

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The ex Mayor of Alcaucín in Málaga, José Manuel Martin Alba, who was arrested for a second time with seven other people

<p><br />The ex Mayor of Alcaucín in Málaga, José Manuel Martin Alba, who was arrested for a second time with seven other people on Tuesday in the ‘Tristan case’, which comes from the ‘Arcos operation’, made a statement on Wednesday to the investigators of the UCO central operations unit of the Guardia Civil. La Opinión de Málaga reports that he denied knowing the land registry civil servants that he allegedly manipulated with false data to obtain the classification of building land. These plots were often purchased by foreign investors with the idea of building on them. However, the Guardia Civil has said that the land was not buildable and therefore a crime of fraud had taken place, and this part of the investigation is still under reporting restrictions. The declarations continue from the arrested civil servants from the land registry, some in payments, others in Hacienda, as well as three management auxiliaries. The Guardia Civil says that the civil servants, ‘coordinated by a lawyer, modified the data base of the land registry with the end of introducing the false information to give legal coverage to the construction of homes on non-buildable land. The Guardia Civil contends that in exchange they received illegal commissions. Rafael Yus from the Nature Studies Group GENA said that he was not surprised by the ex-Mayor’s new arrest. He said the modification to the land registry was ‘part of what they do here’ and claimed it was ‘a corruption which extends to other municipalities, but which it difficult to demonstrate’.</p>

The ex Mayor of Alcaucín in Málaga, José Manuel Martin Alba, who was arrested for a second time with seven other people

The ex Mayor of Alcaucín in Málaga, José Manuel Martin Alba, who was arrested for a second time with seven other people on Tuesday in the ‘T...

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Card firm in breast implant refund

<p> </p><p>A Midlands woman who was given PIP breast implants that ruptured has recouped the full cost of the surgery from her credit card company. She said Lloyds TSB refunded her £3,700 on the grounds that she was sold faulty goods. The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) said the move should offer a "ray of hope" to other patients with PIP implants. The woman, a hairdresser in her 40s from the Midlands who does not want to be identified, underwent a breast enlargement operation in 2008. She discovered she had been given PIP implants last September when she found a lump and went to a breast cancer clinic. "I was quite worried, but I was told it was just a rupture of my implants. It was only later I realised there was a health risk. I was really quite poorly with it," she said. The woman had the implants removed on the NHS in October, and contacted a firm of solicitors to see if she could get her money back. Because the company that performed the surgery had gone into administration, she was advised to check if she paid by credit card. Having discovered that she did use plastic to pay for the procedure, she applied to Lloyds TSB for a refund and received the money in full three months later. The woman said the credit card company were "wonderful" and stressed that she only had to fill in one form to get the reimbursement. "If I had gone through the solicitors they would have taken a sizeable part of it. Women need to be aware they can easily do it themselves," she said. Fazel Fatah, a consultant plastic surgeon and president of BAAPS, said: "We're delighted that at least a proportion of women who chose this method of payment should now have recourse to securing reimbursement for what are clearly defective, substandard goods." Around 40,000 women in the UK received implants manufactured by the now-closed French company Poly Implant Prostheses (PIP), mostly in private UK clinics. The implants were filled with non-medical grade silicone intended for use in mattresses. Lloyds TSB said it could not comment on the woman's individual case. But a spokeswoman for the bank said: "One of the advantages of using a credit card to pay for goods and services is that consumers can make a Section 75 claim if there has been a misrepresentation or breach of contract, providing the cost is above £100 and less than £30,000. Every Section 75 claim is different and each one will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis."</p>

Card firm in breast implant refund

  A Midlands woman who was given PIP breast implants that ruptured has recouped the full cost of the surgery from her credit card company. ...

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Families in Spain face eviction over stranger loans

<p> </p><p>Fighting eviction for failing to pay the mortgage on his home in Spain's capital, Nelson Castillo is now grappling not only with his own debts but also those of a family he does not know. The 39-year-old and his wife acted as guarantors of another Ecuadoran family's loan under a programme run by an agency that negotiated loans for immigrants. In return, that family acted as the guarantor for Castillo's loan. Now, both families are in arrears. And each of them is legally responsible for its own loan and for the loan it guaranteed. "We were two families and we did not know each other. Ecuadorans are like that. We had to sign the papers and that's it. Goodbye, and each side went its own way," said Castillo. Dozens of anti-eviction activists had gathered outside his Madrid apartment building on Tuesday to prevent court clerks and bank officials from ejecting Castillo and his family from their home. Inside the apartment a volunteer psychologist tried to comfort Castillo's wife, 40-year-old Kelly Herrera, who sat in distress on the couch while the couple talked to police. The couple were given until March 30 to pay their debt of 222,000 euros ($291,000) claimed by the bank. And they are still liable for the loan given to the other family. "Today they are demanding my loan. But later on they will demand the second," said Castillo. The couple's lawyer Rafael Mayoral had requested that the eviction be blocked for "humanitarian reasons" because their two children are minors and a knee injury prevents Herrera from working at the moment. But above all the lawyer argued that the couple are "victims of a swindle". The couple and nine other families are suing an agency, Central Hipotecaria del Inmigrante, which ran a system of "cross guarantors" for loans among people that did not always know each other. "It was a pyramid scheme of financial risk management," said Mayoral. Despite the investigation under way into the agency, the courts have refused to issue a moratorium on evictions. Last week the government approved a voluntary "code of conduct" for banks that aims to help poor homeowners settle their debts and reduce a wave of evictions brought on by Spain's economic crisis. For families whose members are all out of work and have no other source of income, the code obliges signatory banks to restructure their mortgage debt by for example lengthening the term of the loan or reducing its interest rate. The goal is to reduce the number of evictions in Spain, which amount to about 300,000 since the collapse of a property bubble in 2008. But the new code will not help Castillo and his family. "The bank did not give me any option, I wanted to give them the apartment in exchange for clearing my debt but they were not interested," he said. Castillo, a waiter, said with pride that he "only spent a few months out of work" since he moved to Spain in 1996. In 2006 he and his wife decided to buy an apartment while Spain was still in the midst of a property boom. The couple took out a mortgage with a variable rate that started out with a monthly payment of 900 euros. But as Euribor interest rates rose, their monthly mortgage payment shot up to 1,420 euros. "It became impossible to pay. I earned 1,000 euros a month and my wife also did not earn much. Things became complicated. I tried to reach an agreement with the bank but it was not possible. I stopped paying," said Castillo. Castillo said he did not know if the family which signed as the guarantor of his loan has suffered any consequences because he stopped making his mortgage payments. "I only met them the day we signed the papers," he said.</p>

Families in Spain face eviction over stranger loans

  Fighting eviction for failing to pay the mortgage on his home in Spain's capital, Nelson Castillo is now grappling not only with his o...

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Troubled Spain, Portugal now desperate for rain

<p> </p><p>Fernando Luna, a burly Spanish farmer, yanks a barley sprout from a field as dry as powder. He examines its roots, which are mostly dead, then tosses the stunted shoot away in disgust. "Worthless! This is worthless!" Luna shouts. Spain is facing its driest winter in more than 70 years and bailed-out Portugal next door is in similar straits. Thousands of jobs and many millions in agricultural output are in jeopardy. Both nations are desperately short of so much: tax revenues, bank credit, jobs, hope for the future. Now, it won't even rain. The landscape in northern Spain is now a palette in shades of ugly. Pale brown fields without crops or pasture stretch off into the distance. A pond for watering sheep has shriveled into a dustbowl. An irrigation canal down the road holds only stagnant water, murky from so much sediment and so little flow. Luna waves this way and that, distraught over fields he says are doomed to yield zero harvest. He has given up his winter crop for lost. "Imagine, the color of vinegar! They should be green, green, green," he says of the barley fields that lack shoots. Stalks should be reaching halfway up the shin at this point. Spain got less than 30 percent of its normal precipitation from December through February. There is a slim window of 10 days or so for it to rain and help farmers like Luna salvage at least part of their winter crops of wheat, barley and oats. And not all regions are as bad off as Huesca, a northern province where the Pyrenees lie and where Luna is president of a chapter of the ASAJA farmers association. But the March weather forecast is not good for farmers — just more blue skies, says Fermin Elizaga of the national weather service. "Out in the countryside, the situation is probably going to get worse," he says. A key concern is how full Spain's reservoirs will be for watering the lucrative fruit and vegetable crops that are the pride and joy of the country's euro40 billion ($52 billion) agriculture and livestock industry. Nationwide, reservoirs are at an average 62 percent of capacity — not that bad — but in Huesca they are just 20 percent. That means farmers get only 20 percent of the water they are normally allotted for irrigation and will have to leave much of their land idle. ASAJA estimates this will cost Huesca province around euro1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) in lost revenue from drastically smaller harvests of peaches, cherries, almonds and grapes. In a good year, 6,000 people work in the Huesca harvest and another 2,000 in canning, packaging and related services. It could be a lean year for them, as it will be for much of Spain, with its nearly 23 percent jobless rate — the highest in the 17-nation eurozone — and an economy expected to slip into its second recession in three years. In Galicia, Spain's lushly green northwestern corner where it usually rains all the time, pastures have no grass this year. Farmers there and elsewhere are being forced to ship in fodder for sheep and cattle at a cost of euro2 million ($2.6 million) a day, according to ASAJA national spokesman Gregorio Juarez. "They're all burned up," says Juarez. Being so used to plentiful rain, Galicia and other parts of northern Spain have fewer reservoirs, so they are less prepared than the often blazingly hot south, where places like Andalusia and Extremadura on the border with Portugal catch every drop of precious rain. In Huesca, one reservoir built in the 1950s is now so low you can see the ruins of a submerged village, Mediano. At the best of times, the tip of its 16th-century church belltower peeks out of the water and boaters row up and touch it. These days, the water is so low you could walk into the church itself if the front door were not sealed up. In Portugal, Joao Dinis, a spokesman for Portugal's National Farms Confederation, said the drought has added to hardships caused by the country's acute financial crisis, which forced it to ask for a euro78 billion ($102 billion) bailout last year, making credit scarce. Farmers are enduring "a very, very difficult" period, with cereal crops badly hit and grazing land in short supply. "It's the worst situation in living memory," Dinis said. He says Portuguese farmers need emergency aid of euro25 million ($33 million). The Farm Ministry is calculating the damages and negotiating exceptional grants for farmers with the European Union. In Robres, a speck of a village in Huesca, barley farmer Jose Manuel Allue is taking the rare step of watering his crop, grains like wheat and barley that are normally fed by rain alone. And he is blowing his entire irrigation quota in just two days, using 6-foot-high (2-meter) sprinklers to soak a piece of land as big as 40 football fields. The pole-like devices shower water with a pleasant, rhythmic spritzing sound. "After that is gone, it is just a matter of looking to the sky and hoping," Allue said, taking long drags on a strong, thick Spanish cigarette as the earthy smell of a pig farm wafts by. Seconds later, something does appear in the sky, but it's not clouds: three water-dumping fire planes returning from a mission further north. Forest fires — a staple of Spanish summers — have broken out in recent weeks because of the dry conditions, awfully early in the year for such blazes. Ditto for Portugal. Allue checks the weather forecast on the Internet or TV first thing each morning and hears talk of little else at the town tavern, but he has a herd of 1,100 pigs to tide him over if his barley crop proves worthless. Juarez, of ASAJA's Madrid office, says a drought is the last thing Spain needs now on top of its economic distress. He used a Spanish adage that when a stray dog is emaciated and mangy, it probably has other problems too. "For a skinny dog, it's all fleas," he says. Translation: When it rains, it pours.</p>

Troubled Spain, Portugal now desperate for rain

  Fernando Luna, a burly Spanish farmer, yanks a barley sprout from a field as dry as powder. He examines its roots, which are mostly dead, ...

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Spanish House Prices Tumble

<p> </p><p>Spanish house prices tumbled at their fastest pace on record in the fourth quarter, a sign that a long-running property bust will continue to weigh on Spanish households and banks. House prices fall over 11.2% in the fourth-quarter of 2011-the fastest contraction on record. WSJ's Sara Schaefer Munoz has been looking at the data and analyzes how this affects its efforts to deal with its debt crisis. House prices fell on average by 11.2% in the fourth quarter from the same period a year earlier, well below the 7.4% decline in the third quarter, while prices of used homes was down 13.7% in the period, the country's statistics agency INE said Thursday. Both readings are by far the worst since INE started recording countrywide prices in 2007, the peak year for Spain's decade-long property boom. Previously, annual price declines had bottomed out at 7.7% in 2009, and analysts say house prices have only rarely fallen year-to-year since at least the 1970s. The drop indicates Spanish property prices are now correcting at a similar pace to that seen in the U.S. soon after the 2008 financial crisis, and may fall further at least this year. In previous quarters, price drops were somewhat contained, the result of support efforts by the government and banks, fearful of the effect of a housing collapse. Spanish banks hold more than €400 billion ($521.32 billion) worth of loans to the construction and real-estate sector, backed by collateral that loses value as property prices slide further. The amount is equivalent to around 40% of Spain's gross domestic product. TK Raj Badiani, an economist at IHS Global Insight, said government data indicates Spanish house prices are down more than 20% from the 2007-2008 peak, even though other evidence points to a possible drop of more than 30%. "The continued imbalance between the supply and demand of housing suggests that house prices will continue to fall throughout 2012," Mr. Badiani said. "The outlook remains bleak, with the demand for housing expected to shrink throughout 2012 with debt-laden households struggling to cope with a devastated labor market and limited access to credit." Last month, Spain's Finance Minister Luis de Guindos presented a clean-up plan that will force banks to set aside an additional €50 billion this year to cover losses from souring loans, mostly property-related. The plan also seeks to allow a faster correction of the property market this year, so that lower prices trigger some demand in the moribund sector. Earlier this week, INE data showed Spain's property sales continued their recent slide in January, with a 26% annual decline. Last year, just over 361,000 homes were sold in Spain, less than half the number sold in 2007. The clean-up plan and other reforms may only have a delayed effect on the euro zone's fourth-largest economy, the Ernst & Young consultancy said in a report. A lack of demand amid an economic contraction that may stretch until 2014 should keep house prices falling for the next three years, Ernst & Young added. Meanwhile, Spain's bond auction was a mixed bag Thursday, with the Treasury selling slightly less than the maximum targeted amount but paying mostly lower yields to investors. The infusion of cheap cash from the European Central Bank has buttressed bond markets across the 17-nation euro zone, but not always equally. Spain's government bond market hasn't kept pace, while Italy, which at the end of last year had been lumped together with Spain as possibly becoming the "next domino," has swapped places with Spain as the country having to pay less of a premium on its debt. The contrasting fortunes also reflects the market's confidence in Italy's ability to make progress on the fiscal front while Spain falters. Italy's economy is likely to record a primary surplus in 2012. Spain unilaterally revised its budget deficit targets and analysts are skeptical if even those targets will be met.</p>

Spanish House Prices Tumble

  Spanish house prices tumbled at their fastest pace on record in the fourth quarter, a sign that a long-running property bust will continue...

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American Airlines flight attendant restrained after taking over PA system and screaming 'we're going to crash'

<p> </p><p>A flight attendant had to be restrained by passengers and crew on an American Airlines flight after she started ranting that the plane was going to crash over the PA system. According to news.com.au, she told passengers on the flight from Dallas to Chicago: "We are not taking off. We're having technical difficulties. We are heading back to the gate." First class travellers helped cabin crew subdue the woman after she started screaming things like, "I am not responsible for crashing this plane", talking about 9/11, and rambling about American Airlines' bankruptcy.</p>

American Airlines flight attendant restrained after taking over PA system and screaming 'we're going to crash'

  A flight attendant had to be restrained by passengers and crew on an American Airlines flight after she started ranting that the plane was...

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A Moroccan teenager killed herself after a judge forced her to marry her rapist.

<p> </p><p>The 16-year-old girl, named as Amina Filali, ate rat poison after a Tangier court which was supposed to be punishing her 26-year-old attacker decided that they should instead be wed.</p><p>This is because Moroccan laws exempt a rapist from punishment if he agrees to marry his victim.</p><div><img alt="Sentenced: A judge in Tangier (pictured) ordered the rapist to marry his victim as 'punishment'" height="322" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/14/article-2114884-06489F8F0000044D-465_468x322.jpg" width="468" /><p>Sentenced: A judge in Tangier (pictured) ordered the rapist to marry his victim as 'punishment'</p></div><p>Traumatised by the rape and the forced marriage, Moroccan newspaper al-Massae said she committed suicide at her husband's house.</p><p> </p><div> </div><div><h4></h4></div><p> </p><p>Hafida Elbaz, director of the Women’s Solidarity Association, criticised the law and said rapists often believed they could avoid punishment by marrying their victims.</p><div><div><img alt="Rape victim: Gulnaz, who was pardoned by the Afghan president earlier this month, with her daughter in a Kabul jail. She was today released" height="468" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/12/02/article-2069066-0ECB6F6500000578-115_468x468.jpg" width="468" /><p>Rape victim: Gulnaz, who was pardoned by the Afghan president earlier this month, with her daughter in a Kabul jail. She was today released</p></div></div><p>The incident throws more light on the way women are treated in Islamic countries.</p><p>Last year Afghan 21-year-old Gulnaz was jailed for 'adultery by force' after she was brutally raped by her husband's cousin.</p><p>Her attacker was jailed for seven years for the crime that left her pregnant.</p><p>A global outrage saw the President of Afghanistan personally pardoning her and releasing her from Kabul's Badam Bagh jail, with no pre-conditions.</p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff;"><br /><br /><br /></span></p>

A Moroccan teenager killed herself after a judge forced her to marry her rapist.

  The 16-year-old girl, named as Amina Filali, ate rat poison after a Tangier court which was supposed to be punishing her 26-year-old attac...

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Goldman Sachs director quits 'morally bankrupt' Wall Street bank

<p> </p><p>A Goldman Sachs director in London has resigned after publishing a devastating open letter accusing senior staff of being "morally bankrupt" and bent on extracting maximum fees from clients by offloading unsuitable investment products. Greg Smith, who has left his post as executive director of the firm's equity derivatives business in Europe, claimed that chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and president Gary Cohn have "lost hold of the firm's culture on their watch". He added that "this decline in the firm's moral fibre represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival".. Smith's charges, which were swiftly denied by the bank, were published in Wednesday's New York Times and raised questions about the firm's relationship with existing clients, whom Smith claimed were referred to as "muppets". Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat peer and his party's former Treasury spokesman in the Lords, said the matter raised questions about any relationship between the UK government and Goldman. Smith, who joined Goldman as a summer intern and worked at the firm for 12 years, first in New York and then in London, claimed managing directors made their remarks about "muppets" in internal email. "I attend derivatives sales meetings where not one single minute is spent asking questions about how we can help clients. It's purely about how we can make the most possible money off them." Selected as one of 10 people, out of a firm of 30,000, to appear in a Goldman recruiting video which is played on college campuses around the world, Smith has hired and mentored new recruits and managed a summer intern programme for the bank. "I knew it was time to leave when I realised I could no longer look students in the eye and tell them what a great place this was to work," he wrote. He said junior analysts are absorbing a culture in which the most important question is "how much money did we make off the client?", and that hearing talk of "muppets," "ripping eyeballs out" and "getting paid" will not turn them into "model citizens". "Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and doing the right thing. Today, if you make enough money for the firm (and are not currently an axe murderer) you will be promoted to a position of influence." In response, Goldman Sachs denied that Smith was giving an accurate view of life at the company. "We disagree with the views expressed, which we don't think reflect the way we run our business. In our view, we will only be successful if our clients are successful. This fundamental truth lies at the heart of how we conduct ourselves," the bank said. Fast-track to promotion Smith claims to have advised the five largest US asset managers, Middle East and Asian sovereign wealth funds, and the world's two largest hedge funds. His letter did not name them, but Bloomberg ranks Man Group and Bridgewater Associates as the biggest hedge funds. The LibDem peer Oakeshott said: "We know in the City that Goldmans help themselves before their clients. Now here's the proof. Greg Smith says you get promoted there if you make enough money for the firm and you are not an axe murderer - and the people of Greece and the rest of the eurozone are paying the price after Goldmans cooked their books and Greece joined the euro at an unsustainably high exchange rate. Until this culture is stamped out, Goldmans are not fit and proper to receive a penny of British taxpayers' money or advise our government in any way." Goldman is among the gilt-edged market makers which help to facilitate trading in UK government bonds. Smith claims the fast-track to a Goldman promotion involves persuading clients to invest in stocks or other products "that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit"; getting clients to trade "whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman" – referred to internally as "hunting elephants" and securing a job trading "any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym". Goldman has lost the "secret sauce" that allowed it to endure for 143 years and is at risk of losing its clients' trust, wrote Smith: "Goldman Sachs is one of the world's largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act in this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for."</p>

Goldman Sachs director quits 'morally bankrupt' Wall Street bank

  A Goldman Sachs director in London has resigned after publishing a devastating open letter accusing senior staff of being "morally ba...

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Escaped prisoner Anthony Downes arrested and held in Amsterdam

<p> </p><p>Anthony Downes, who was arrested in Amsterdam, escaped from a prison van while being transported from HMP Manchester to Liverpool Crown Court in July last year. He had been facing trial for conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to cause damage with intent to endanger life. He was convicted in his absence at Woolwich Crown Court and is due to be sentenced at the end of this week. Downes, 26, featured as part of Crimestoppers’ latest Operation Captura Campaign in October 2011, which seeks to locate wanted fugitives believed to have fled to Spain, who are wanted by UK law enforcement agencies. Lord Ashcroft, KCMG, Founder and Chair of Crimestoppers, said: “This is yet another example of how criminals on the run will eventually be caught and I am delighted to hear that this individual has been arrested. “Crimestoppers is seeing huge success with its fugitive campaigns and the fact that we now have 48 arrests out of 65 appeals from our Captura campaign proves that wanted criminals will eventually be brought to justice.” Deputy Chief Executive, Dave Cording, added: “This arrest comes less than six months after the fifth anniversary of Operation Captura. “Through close collaboration with the Spanish police, SOCA and the public, these individuals have nowhere to hide and those still on the run should think about handing themselves in before they are caught next.” This latest arrest brings the total number of those located to 48 out of 65 appeals since the campaign launched in October 2006. Operation Captura is the successful multi-agency campaign which identifies serious criminals believed to be on the run in Spain.</p>

Escaped prisoner Anthony Downes arrested and held in Amsterdam

  Anthony Downes, who was arrested in Amsterdam, escaped from a prison van while being transported from HMP Manchester to Liverpool Crown Co...

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Expats in Spain warned of faulty hip replacements

<p><br />Therapist Carol Duquemin, 59, decided to act after being forced to have her hip replacement removed after just four months. Duquemin – whose ordeal came after the manufacturer recalled the faulty product in 2010 – has teamed up with free health care service Medilink to provide advice and support to expats. “Up to 9,000 people in Spain could have been affected by the implants,” Duquemin said. “People are still not aware of the problem and the danger it poses to their health. “The law says you have to have it removed in the country where you had the operation but some hospitals here are not giving the help and information that they should, and it is a big operation that causes a huge trauma to the body.</p>

Expats in Spain warned of faulty hip replacements

Therapist Carol Duquemin, 59, decided to act after being forced to have her hip replacement removed after just four months. Duquemin – whose...

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Moroccan appeal court confirmed a death sentence

<table style="font-family: Arial; background-color: #ffffff; width: 600px;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td id="text2"><div id="storytext"><p id="text2">A Moroccan appeal court confirmed a death sentence Friday against the mastermind of the April 2011 Marrakesh bombing that killed 17 people, and handed a death sentence to one of the others convicted.</p><p id="text2">The chief judge of the court confirmed the death sentence against Adil Al-Atmani, the mastermind of the bombings, in which 17 people -- Moroccans, French and Swiss nationals -- were killed and dozens more wounded.</p><p id="text2">And it converted the life term handed down to his chief accomplice Hakim Dah to a death sentence.</p><p id="text2">But the death sentences are unlikely to be carried, with capital punishment in the process of being taken off the statutes.</p><p id="text2">The court also increased the jail sentences against six of the other men convicted at the original trial in October from six to 10 years and confirmed a two-year sentence against a ninth man.</p><p id="text2">The appeal trial went ahead after the prosecutors appealed the original sentences.</p><p id="text2">The appeal court sentences were in some respects harsher than what the prosecution had asked for. The prosecutor on Wednesday had only asked for the life sentence against Dah to be confirmed.</p><p id="text2">But he had wanted harsher sentences against the seven other people convicted.</p><p id="text2">The defendants denied many of the charges against them during the trial.</p><p id="text2">The Marrakesh bombing was the deadliest in the north African kingdom since attacks in the coastal city of Casablanca in 2003 which killed 33 people and 12 bombers.</p><p id="text2">The defendants had denied the charges against them during the trial.</p><p id="text2">One of the defendants' lawyers, Khalil Idrissi, criticised the "harsh" sentences, which he said were an "act of complacency" towards the families of the victims and their countries.</p><p id="text2">Another defence lawyer said the "court increased the punishments of several defendants who had nothing to do with this crime".</p><p id="text2">But relatives of the French victims welcomed the tougher sentences.</p><p id="text2">"Now I can grieve," Jacques Maude, who was close to one victim, said.</p><p id="text2">Capital punishment has not been carried out in Morocco since 1992 and is about to be formally wiped off the book, with a new constitution voted through in July explicitly affirming "the right to life".</p><p id="text2">The Marrakesh bombing was the deadliest in the north African kingdom since attacks in the coastal city of Casablanca in 2003 which killed 33 people and 12 bombers.</p></div></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/meoicons/headers/newsb.gif" /></td></tr></tbody></table>

Moroccan appeal court confirmed a death sentence

A Moroccan appeal court confirmed a death sentence Friday against the mastermind of the April 2011 Marrakesh bombing that killed 17 people, ...

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Protests Spread in Morocco's North Rif Mountains

<p><br />Anti-government protests in Morocco's impoverished northern Rif mountains are spreading after a second village clashed with police resulting in serious injuries and 10 arrests, reported the state news agency. For the past 10 days, there have been demonstrations in the small village of Beni Bouayache following the arrest of a local activist. On Sunday they spread to the nearby town of Imzouren. The state news agency said a number of police were injured when they stopped a protest march at Imzouren headed for Beni Bouayache. The report said some injuries were grievous without further details. Chakib al-Khayari, an activist with the Rif Association for Human Rights, said 20 policemen had been injured in Sunday's clashes, but he didn't have figures for the locals wounded. "We don't know the number of wounded because they can't go to the hospital for fear of arrest," he told The Associated Press by telephone. Morocco's Rif mountains, which parallel the Mediterranean coast, are one of the poorest parts of the country and have been historically marginalized with little government investment. On March 2, plainclothes police snatched Bachir Benchaib, a leader of the local chapter of the February 20 pro-democracy movement, as he was leaving the mosque following evening prayers. The state news agency described Benchaib as a violent gang-member implicated in robberies and other criminal activities. In subsequent days, supporters demonstrated for Benchaib's release, blocking the road to the port city of Al Hoceima, 280 miles (450 kilometers) northeast of Rabat, and carrying out sit-ins in front of the police station and government buildings. Starting Wednesday, police began dispersing demonstrations with tear gas and water cannons and carrying out a campaign of arrests. Clashes with security forces generally now take place at night, said al-Khayari, who estimated that some 24 people had been arrested. He predicted that the protests, which have included demands for more electricity and water in their village, would continue. "They want their rights and a better life," al-Khayari. "They have nothing in this region." The Rif mountains were once an independent republic in the 1920s, until the region was reconquered by the French in 1926. After independence from France, the region revolted against the new Moroccan central government in 1958, before the rebellion was crushed. The people are primarily from the Berber ethnicity, North Africa's original inhabitants with their own language, and during demonstrations they waved flags from the Rif Republic as well as the flag of the North Africa-wide flag of the Berber movement.</p>

Protests Spread in Morocco's North Rif Mountains

Anti-government protests in Morocco's impoverished northern Rif mountains are spreading after a second village clashed with police resul...

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Naked cyclists in Spanish city protests

<p> </p><p>Thousands of naked cyclists took to the streets of Madrid, A Coruña, Valladolid and other cities across Spain on Saturday to demand greater use of bicycles and more infrastructure for cyclists. The cyclists say they feel ‘naked’ in the heavy traffic of the cities and that they were showing their ‘fragile bodywork’ to demand greater respect from other road users.</p>

Naked cyclists in Spanish city protests

  Thousands of naked cyclists took to the streets of Madrid, A Coruña, Valladolid and other cities across Spain on Saturday to demand greate...

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525 hectares affect by fire at Tossa de Mar

<p> </p><p>Fire fighters brought a fire on the Costa Brava under control on Saturday after it had affected some 525 hectares. The famous local Tramutana northerly wind complicated matters, and dozens of residents had to be evacuated from their homes in Tossa de Mar and Llagostera. The fire started on Friday and was out by Saturday afternoon after firemen opened a firebreak by the road which goes between Sant Grau and Tossa de Mar so they had better access to the fire. Airborne resources, three helicopters and four planes, were key in the controlling of the fire on Saturday after land based equipment was using during Friday night. The cause of the Girona fire, and of the four fires in the Pyrenees which are now extinguished is being investigated.</p>

525 hectares affect by fire at Tossa de Mar

  Fire fighters brought a fire on the Costa Brava under control on Saturday after it had affected some 525 hectares. The famous local Tramut...

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44 year old British angler, named as Andrew Latham, has died while out fishing for carp at the Amadorio dam

<p><br />44 year old British angler, named as Andrew Latham, has died while out fishing for carp at the Amadorio dam inland from Villajoyosa. He died instantly last Wednesday morning, at about 1130am, when his fishing line hit a power cable after he lifted his rod above his head after catching a fish. A fellow anger called the emergency services, when he saw the body floating in the reservoir, but they were unable to revive the Briton. Spanish police say they are treating it as an accident. It’s not yet clear whether Andrew Latham was a resident of Spain or on holiday.</p>

44 year old British angler, named as Andrew Latham, has died while out fishing for carp at the Amadorio dam

44 year old British angler, named as Andrew Latham, has died while out fishing for carp at the Amadorio dam inland from Villajoyosa. He di...

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British man falls to his death in Benidorm

<p> </p><p>42 year old father of four, Tyrone Jones, known as Ty, has died trying to climb into his apartment after locking himself out on the last day of his holiday. He had been visiting Benidorm for two weeks with a friend. The motor trader from Exeter in Devon fell off a four metre wall and suffered fatal head wounds. Reports indicate the top bricks of the wall were loose. His grieving relatives report that he must have been lying on the ground for up to five hours before he was seen. His parents flew out to Spain when they heard about the tragedy and Ty was on life support in hospital. His organs have been donated to save the lives of three other people, with use being made of his kidneys, pancreas and liver.</p>

British man falls to his death in Benidorm

  42 year old father of four, Tyrone Jones, known as Ty, has died trying to climb into his apartment after locking himself out on the last d...

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Nicolas Sarkozy threatens to pull France out of Schengen zone

<p><br />His call came as the French centre-Right threw its full firepower behind their candidate in Villepinte, near Charles de Gaulle airport, in a huge, glitzy show of force designed to breath new life into his flagging campaign. Hailed like a prizefighter, Mr Sarkozy climbed the huge white stage to the strains of his campaign anthem and an amended slogan: "Strong France with You". Actor Gérard Depardieu lent some star power to proceedings, along with Mr Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and her predecessor as First Lady, Bernadette Chirac. Days after telling France that he would give up politics if he lost the forthcoming elections, Mr Sarkozy told supporters "I have lost none of my desire to act" before launching into a series of protectionist proposals for France and Europe. These included suspending France's participation in the Schengen visa-free zone signed by all 27 EU states bar Britain and Ireland if its rules were not revised to fight illegal immigration in the coming 12 months.</p>

Nicolas Sarkozy threatens to pull France out of Schengen zone

His call came as the French centre-Right threw its full firepower behind their candidate in Villepinte, near Charles de Gaulle airport, in a...

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Helicopter rescue for crew of ship aground

<p> </p><p>Coast guards in Italy have used helicopters to rescue the crew of a cargo ship after it ran aground on a reef off Sicily in stormy seas. All 19 crew members were ferried to shore by helicopters after the captain of the Gelso M gave the order to abandon ship. Weather conditions are deteriorating in the area near the city of Syracuse on Sicily's south-east coast. There were no reports of any cargo aboard the Italian-flagged vessel. Coastguard spokesman Cosimo Nicastro said four helicopters had been used to airlift the crew to safety, and all of them were well. Helicopters were needed for the evacuation because the ship's position on the reefs had made it impossible for the crew to lower lifeboats or for rescue vessels to approach. The ship's double hull meant there was a low risk of pollution but the environment ministry was alerted nonetheless, AFP news agency reports. Rescue service sources quoted by the agency suggested that, given the weather conditions, the captain had been sailing too close to the coast. The incident comes two months after the cruise ship Costa Concordia hit rocks off the island of Giglio on Italy's west coast, capsizing with the loss of 32 lives.</p>

Helicopter rescue for crew of ship aground

  Coast guards in Italy have used helicopters to rescue the crew of a cargo ship after it ran aground on a reef off Sicily in stormy seas. ...

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