In Andalucia, 37 arrests have been carried out and, apart from the ten in Málaga, eight homes have been searched in Seville, two in Huelva, three in Almería, five in Cádiz, four in Granada and two in Jaén. 10 million files of pornographic images of children, which have been described by Guardia Civil officers as nauseating, have been seized from ten individuals who have been arrested in the province, in one of the biggest operations against child pornography ever carried out in the country. More than 120 individuals have been arrested so far. Those accused in Malaga were set free with charges after testifying before investigators and will be recalled by the legal authorities. Police sources stated that arrests in the province started four days ago, after the magistrate’s court number five in Madrid sent out formal requests and arrest orders to the corresponding courts and the Violent and Specialised Crime Unit (UDEV) of the Provincial Police Force. Researchers from this group have made seven arrests in the capital and also in Velez-Malaga, Antequera and Nerja, and have searched a dozen homes where huge quantities of child pornography have been seized. The individuals arrested belong to a wide range of social groups, from waiters to building workers or caretakers, making it difficult for investigators to describe an accurate or reliable offender profile.Some 800 national policemen have participated in this operation, 210 homes have been inspected in 42 provinces, and paedophile files containing what is described as extremely hard material have been seized.

Lauren Cullen, and her 14 year old daughter also called Lauren, have died when crossing a flooded ravine in their car at L’Olleria in Valencia.
When the two women saw they could not get across in their car, they tried on foot with two other British people who managed to survive.The tragedy happened at a place known as La Palmera at 8pm last night, and firemen recovered their bodies in the early hours of this morning some 1.5km away from where they had tried to cross the ‘barranco’.The storms in the Valencia area have dropped 60 litres of water per square metre in an hour, but more than 200 litres per square metre has fallen in the complete storm, causing flooding to tunnels, basements and garages in the city.

Mother of Rocio Wanninkhof, the youngster from Mijas Costa who was murdered in October 1999, has called for a new court case because she thinks that the man found guilty of killing of her daughter, the Briton Tony King, could not have acted alone.
The family lawyer has made an application to the Málaga Provincial Court to re-open the case, basing his arguments on the evidence from the case in which King was found guilty. King was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the case, but the Wanninkhof family considers that two people would have been needed to carry out the crime and move the body. Lawyer Marcos García-Montes explained that they were not looking for new evidence, only to determine once and for all their ‘single obsession’ if Dolores Vázquez took part in the crime or not.She is the woman who was a family friend, and had a lesbian relationship with Rocio’s mother and who was initially found guilty of the murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2001. Later that verdict was deemed as unsafe and overturned by the Andalucian High Court.

25-year-old Argentinean woman has died in Nerja after being stabbed 15 times by her former boyfriend, Hicham B. Cecilia Natalia Coria Olivares was attacked as she arrived for work in the town centre on Sunday morning.
The victim was a waitress in one of the cafés near the Church of San Salvador on the Balcón de Europa which is where her attacker surprised her at about 9.20 am as she was setting out tables on the terrace. He produced a large knife and stabbed her in the back puncturing a lung. As she tried to fend him off, she suffered additional injuries to her arms and was stabbed a total of 15 times. A passer-by took a chair from the café terrace and struck the man in an effort to stop him, at which point the assailant fled towards Plaza Cavana. Waiters and other staff from nearby businesses rushed to help the girl by using tablecloths to stem the blood flow. She was still alive and able to identify her aggressor, but the emergency services were unable to revive her and she died at the scene. Within a short time, the Guardia Civil arrested a 29-year-old Moroccan alleged to have been responsible and who is reported to have been under a court restraining order, prohibiting him from approaching the victim. The couple are reported to have ended a two-year relationship recently, since when he had been threatening her verbally and in text messages. Cecelia had reported her alleged killer to the police on three occasions, the last time the evening before she died, telling them that he had threatened her saying he was going to kill her “with a knife, a gun or the first thing he could find”. When asked by officers if she thought he would carry out his threat, she replied yes.

Spanish police interrupted the wedding banquet of a suspected drug trafficker, detaining him and 10 guests, police said Tuesday. Police used the wedding party in Madrid to capture all the suspects, most of whom were Colombian citizens. The ring was suspected of importing cocaine hidden in shipments of legal merchandise, distributing it in Spain and legalising the actions by using real companies as a cover. Nineteen other people were held earlier in Spain and Colombia. Spanish police took 250 kilos of cocaine in a previous phase of the operation, which was launched in 2006.

National Court Judge Baltasar Garzon came under more fire from the press last week when it was revealed that two dangerous Turkish drug traffickers had been released from jail through an oversight on his part. The men walked free in July when their two-year provisional imprisonment ended and the judge failed to extend it. Erden Vardar and Sahin Eren were detained on July 12th, 2006, in Huelva as they tried to smuggle 12 kilos of heroin into the country. Their arrest led to the dismantling of one of the biggest heroin smuggling rings in which another Turk, one Croatian ten Spaniards were detained and 30 kilos of heroin were seized. Judge Garzon had just arrived back from a visit to Colombia where he had opened a seminar, just days before the two-year provisional sentence was due to end, and a few days later left Madrid again. He finally ordered the extension of the men;s provisional imprisonment a few days after it should have been done. As a result, their lawyer was able to get them out of jail. The judge said their release made no difference because they were still in the country and were due to appear in court again later this month

Gary Glitter has been threatened with a 1million pounds bounty on his head if he ever leaves the UK for Spain.Glitter had made plans to start a new life on the Costa Del Sol, but when gangland bosses heard of it, they vowed that they would kill him if he ever set foot in Spain.If Gary Glitter sets foot in Spain, hes dead. One of the biggest British gangsters in Spain is so concerned about him trying to start a new life over here he has offered 1million pounds to anyone who takes him out, Daily Star quoted a gangland source as saying.
What he has done to all those kids is just disgusting and he should be locked up for life. But as the courts have decided to set him free, people over here have decided to take the law into their own hands…and there are plenty of people who would be happy to kill him.The money is just a bonus. Most of the gangsters would be happy to bump him off for nothing, the source stated.Glitter, 64, was planning to buy a posh pad in Puerto Banus in Marbella, but was stopped by police from going to Spain via France last week, and a Foreign Travel Order was granted banning him from leaving the country.The area is a popular celebrity spot, and Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, had been hoping to lose himself among them, but the area also happens to house a number of families with young children, making drug barons and gangsters, who run the resort, want him out.There are a lot of guys out here who are violent men on the run from the police in the UK. They have nothing to lose by wiping out Glitter, the source revealed.No one wants him here and even though these are bad guys, they care about kids and they dont want him preying on the youngsters who come here for a nice holiday, the source added.Glitter has been banned from travelling to France or Spain by Ashford magistrates.

Spanish radio station has published on its web site what it says is a 2005 Spanish Defense Ministry intelligence report - replete with official insignia and stamped "confidential" - that says Pakistan's premier intelligence service supplied the Taliban with explosives with which to assassinate senior Afghan officials.News reports say the Spanish government declined to comment on the document. Such silences usually speak for themselves.U.S. military and intelligence officials have long privately alleged that officials of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate continued supporting the Taliban after Islamabad officially ended its patronage of the Islamic movement following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The document published on the web site of Cadena Ser, Spain's main station for news and information, appears to be the first official report to enter the public domain that makes that allegation. There are more than 700 Spanish troops with NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.Pakistan has repeatedly denied ISI complicity with the Taliban post-Sept. 11, although the agency's director was replaced this week under pressure from the United States. The shakeup follows charges by unnamed U.S. officials that ISI operatives were involved in the July 2008 bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul. The Afghan government also accused the ISI of complicity in a June 2008 attempt to assassinate President Hamid Karzai.
The document published by Cadena Ser is dated August 2005. It says that the ISI supplied improvised explosive devices to the Taliban "to assassinate high-level" Afghan government officials "from a distance.""They (Taliban) are going to place them (bombs) in vehicles although their targets have not been specified," says the document.The document says it "is possible" that the ISI was training Taliban fighters to use improvised explosive devices at camps inside Pakistan.
The use of the devices in Afghanistan was "inspired" by the use of similar bombs in Iraq, it says.

Bride whose husband fell to his death from a sixth-floor balcony during their honeymoon in Spain is preparing to fly home with his body, it emerged yesterday.
Steven and Sarah Waddington, from Hollin, near Middleton in Greater Manchester, were in Benalmádena on the Costa del Sol. They married six weeks ago after an 18-month engagement.Mrs Waddington, a 28-year-old health worker, was said to have walked into their hotel room on Saturday night to find her husband hanging from the balcony rail, crying for help. Mr Waddington, 35, lost his grip and fell. It is thought that he had spent the night drinking in their hotel."We were in love and I will never ever be able to get over this loss," said Sarah Waddington. "Nobody could ever take away this pain. We don't deserve this, it's so unfair. Steven was so popular. He just brought a ray of sunshine into all our lives. He would do anything for anyone and he was like a big brother to a lot of people." The couple lived with their adopted daughter Caragh, 14, Sarah Waddington's cousin, and her son, Harry, who is three. Caragh, whose mother died of cancer in 2004, said: "Steven was the perfect father figure to me and Harry."Steven Waddington, a former pupil of Langley primary and Queen Elizabeth high school, was a talented amateur boxer. Nicknamed The Whip, he won a British super middleweight title in August. Sarah Waddington's best friend, Clare Lancaster, said: "He was the happiest he had ever been and so in love with his beautiful wife, Sarah, and children Harry and Caragh." Terry Ham, a friend and fellow boxer said: "I'm going to miss our training together and our arguments, even when we were both in the wrong, but the next day we would both be in the pub drinking together the best of mates."Thinking of it all now not only brings a tear to my eye, but also makes me laugh. All the boys and my family are truly upset like you can't believe ... Life will never be the same without my spar."
Waddington was described by his employer, Danny Hornsby, as a "sound" amateur boxer.
"I'd known Steven for a couple of years. He was a popular lad and a sound boxer," he said. A spokesman for the Foreign Office said it was looking into the incident.

The Tambov gang hails from St. Petersburg and takes its name from the city in southwest Russia that its founders were born in. It is thought to have several hundred active members. Twenty Russians suspected of being members of the gang and involved in laundering the proceeds from organized crime were arrested by Spanish police in June in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as Malaga, Valencia and the Balearic Islands.
Spanish ABC newspaper reported that during intercepted telephone calls between Tambov gang leaders Gennady Petrov and Leonid Khristoforov, the Russian mafia bosses bragged about paying "some 50 million" to ensure that Zenit would win their games against Bayern and Rangers. Neither the currency involved, nor the exact methods used to 'fix' the games were stated. It is also not clear what the gang had to gain from their alleged fixing of the results.
Accusations of match-fixing are common in Russian soccer, but the claims exclusively involve domestic games. Bayern's goalkeeper in their 4-0 defeat in St. Petersburg was the legendary Oliver Kahn. The German keeper retired from soccer at the end of last season, and had often stated that he dreamt of taking his bow in the UEFA Cup final. "There have been a number of media reports quoting various sources in Spain that concern the reputation of FC Zenit. The performances by Zenit in the games against Bayern and Rangers are the best proof that these victories were achieved in honest and uncompromising battles," a statement on the Zenit website read.
"At the moment, Zenit's lawyers are evaluating the context of the original publications," the statement added. The press secretary for state-run energy giant Gazprom, which has a controlling stake in Zenit, added that there was "no doubt that the victory was honest." He also said that at present, Gazprom lawyers are not involved in the bid to clear the club's name. "We know about this story and it is something that our investigations unit would obviously be keen to look into." "Allegations of this nature are always worrisome to hear. It is important that we find out what is factual and what is only speculation or part of a newspaper story," he added. Zenit's Dutch coach Dick Advocaat, who was also the Glasgow Rangers' manager from 1998-2002, told the Daily Record: "This is incredible. All I can say is, let them play the tapes so we can hear what has been said. Then everyone will know what a big lie it is. Everyone knows the simple truth - we had a better team than Rangers. That's why we won the UEFA Cup." "There is a lot of jealousy about what we have achieved with Zenit in such a short space of time. People don't like the fact that we have been so successful so quickly. But that has nothing to do with bribes or dirty money. It has everything to do with the quality of the players and coaching staff," he added. The vice-president of the Russian Football Union, Nikita Simonyan told the Sport Den Za Dnem website: "We are used to this kind of thing. Even some of our so-called fans have a tendency to see everything negatively. If we lose, we played badly. If we win, that means we bought the game. This is nonsense." "I've even heard stories about how we bought our Euro 2008 victory against Holland - I've been told the exact sum," he added, going on to say that clubs like Bayern Munich "don't play dirty matches." Ordinary Russian fans were also skeptical, with one supporter, Dmitry Dudenkov, telling RIA Novosti that the claims were "rubbish."
"We bought everything of course! The win against Holland, the ice-hockey world championships, and Dima Bilan's Eurovision victory!" he said.

Case against Michael Dermot McArdle is underway at the Málaga Provincial Court.
After a delay from Monday because of a bomb hoax at the provincial court building in Málaga, the case against the Irish man accused of throwing his wife to her death off a Marbella hotel balcony, finally got underway on Tuesday.39 year old Michael Dermot McArdle, from Dundalk, denied throwing his wife Kelly-Anne off the fourth floor balcony of the Melia Don Pepe hotel on February 11, 2000 after a row, saying she tripped and fell when she went to attend to her son.However a witness, who was staying in the adjacent room in the hotel, Roy Haines, told the court that he told McArdle to put the mother of two down when he heard noises and saw him lifting her above his head. He said he heard shouts of ‘help’ and that there had been no child on the balcony. Later he said McArdle came to his room with a child with him – the boy said simply ‘My Mummy is dead’.Spanish police said that McArdle first claimed his wife had committed suicide, before later changing his story saying she had fallen by accident.

young son of balcony death mum Kelly-Anne Corcoran told a relative after her death: "Daddy bold; Daddy pushed Mammy", a murder trial heard today.Kelly-Anne’s brother-in-law, Peter Moran, recounted to gardai what the boy said about his mother’s fatal fall from a Spanish hotel balcony. Det Sgt Brian Mohan gave evidence of the interview on the second day of the trial in Spain of Ms Corcoran’s husband Michael McArdle who is charged with her murder. The mother-of-two died after a horrific fall from the balcony of a four star apartment complex in Marbella in February 2000. Mr McArdle from Haggardstown, Dundalk denies his wife’s murder. He insists her fall was an accident. Malaga’s provincial court also heard today that a Spanish police officer who took the accused’s statement noted McArdle seemed calm and not like someone whose wife had just died. The accused was in court today with his sons who are now 10 and 11. His new girlfriend Clare Dollard was also with him and watched proceedings from the back of the mostly empty courtroom. Det Sgt Mohan told the judge and jury through a translator that “everyone was very upset” when he spoke to members of Kelly-Anne’s extended family, the Corcorans and the Morans.
Responding to questions by defence lawyer Luis Casaubon he said he was a friend of the Corcoran family but insisted he acted impartially and properly throughout his involvement in the investigations. Det Sgt Mohan explained he was attached to the crime unit at Dundalk Garda Station. He said he took several statements following requests from Interpol. Kelly-Anne’s sister Caroline Moran had telephoned him on February 12, 2000 and asked him to inform her mother of the tragic events in Spain as she did not want to do so herself. He told Interpol in his report to them that the Corcoran and Moran families had information that would assist the investigation.
Ms Moran’s husband Peter told him in an interview that one of Kelly-Anne’s children said to him a day or two after her death: “Daddy bold; Daddy pushed Mammy”.
Det Insp John O’Mahony, now a Chief Superintendent told the court of a mutual assistance request received by the gardai from the Spanish authorities in relation to the investigation. He said when the Spanish police travelled to Ireland to speak to Mr McArdle he found it “surprising” that the accused “all of a sudden didn’t want to speak”. He was surprised because Mr McArdle had agreed to be interviewed, he said. “His solicitor told me that he had changed his mind, I asked him again would he reconsider as there had been a number of discrepancies found by the Spanish police,” Chief Supt O’Mahony said. “The solicitor went and spoke again to Mr McArdle and he came back a second time and said on legal advice he was not going to speak”.
Supt O’Mahony understood that the Spanish police in subsequent investigations had found a number of contradictions with Mr McArdle’s statement and now wanted to interview him to clarify those contradictions. Supt O’Mahony did not believe that Sgt Mohan had acted improperly adding “in fact it was his duty to have enquiries carried out”.

Eight people were arrested in Majorca on Monday in the latest investigation of corruption by the previous Popular Party regional government of the Balearic Islands.
Antonio Ordinas, the former head of the islands' public-run Economic Development Consortium (CDEIB), and his wife, the historian and opera singer Isabel Rosselló, were arrested as key suspects in the case. Their home, a two-storey mansion with a seven-car garage outside Palma, was searched by police along with the offices of advertising firms and consultancies connected with Ordinas. The investigation involves illegal contracts, false accounting and theft at the CDEIB until 2007, when the PP administration of former premier Jaume Matas lost power, leaving a EUR 8 million loss in the CDEIB's accounts. The current investigation was started by the Socialist officials who took over the consortium and found EUR 17,000 in unexplained expenses charged by Ordinas. Further examination of accounts revealed false expenses and questionable contracts worth up to EUR 1 million. At least three other corruption cases were opened relating to Matas' rule.

Inspectors working for Hacienda tax authorities in Spain appear to have unearthed around €16m of unregistered income from town planning licences issued between 2003 and 2004 by Estepona Town Hall, Costa del Sol, indicating potential VAT fraud.
The inspectors, who claim to have had their investigation hindered by the Town Hall, have now submitted the documentary evidence to the Prosecutors’ Office. Manuel Reina, a former politician, is responsible for the accounts, and is currently being detained in connection with the Astapa court case.

new whistleblowers' hotline to help catch benefit cheats living it up on the 'Costas' was launched today in Spain. In the first trial of its kind, ex-pats in Alicante who suspect benefit fraud will be able to report their concerns on a local number. Cases will be passed by the operator to investigators in the UK, who will also be able to draw on the team's on-the-ground intelligence. Anti-Benefit Fraud Minister, James Plaskitt said: "Most ex-pats are law-abiding and outraged by people who abuse the system. Helped by this hotline, the sun will now set on the cheats."
The cost of benefit fraud committed abroad is an estimated £93 million a year. It involves a range of scams such as people on means-tested benefits going abroad but not declaring their absence, an individual working while "sick" and legitimate payments taken over after the rightful recipient dies. The pilot will test the usage and quality of information provided and posters advertising the line will appear across Alicante from today. The initiative is part of a growing relationship between Spain and the UK on social security issues that already includes agreements to data-match and share death notifications. Later this week James Plaskitt will sign a Memorandum of Understanding to cement the Anglo-Spanish partnership. James Plaskitt added: "Benefit fraud is a crime no matter where it happens. We are forging strong relationships with governments across Europe to help us catch the thieves who pick our pockets from beyond our shores." The Spanish benefit fraud hotline number is 900 554 440. It is free and confidential and will initially operate 8am and 4pm, Monday to Friday. Of British ex-pats living in Spain, recent figures suggest seven in ten are based in the "Costas" region, with around 300,000 living in Alicante. The hotline will be run and funded by the Department for Work and Pensions, working with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

The group had some 60,000 clients, most of them British, between Benidorm in Alicante and Vera in Almería. The Judicial Police from the Torrevieja Guardia Civil has broken up an international gang which had been pirating British satellite television signals and then distributing them to British clients resident in the provinces of Alicante, Murcia and Almería in an area between Benidorm and Vera.
The group, based in an industrial estate at Algorfa, Alicante, had more than 60,000 clients, most of them British who paid 590 € for the installation of the system and then a monthly subscription of between 18 and 22 €. A total of 500 million € is thought to have been defrauded by the group which made no tax payments to Hacienda.
A total number of 14 people have been arrested, including eight Spaniards, three Britons and a Byelorussian, Rumanian and Russian.Investigations started following a complaint placed by Sogecable, the owners of the Spanish Digital Plus satellite system

The victim was said by witnesses to be a man in his 30's from Liverpool who has been resident in Marbella for some years.
A man in his 30’s, first reported to be Eastern European by some sources, but now considered to be British by most media, has been injured in a shooting incident in a cafeteria in Puerto Banús, Marbella. At least five shots were fired in the port at 7,30pm last night, according to emergency service sources, with four of the shots hitting the man in the face after a first shot to the knee. He is reported to be seriously injured. Witnesses described the victim as a tall and athletic blonde man, and say he is British, from Liverpool, and has been living in Marbella for several years. They say the shooter, who is also thought to be British, talked to him for some time before opening fire.Police think that what was the third shooting in the town in less than a month, was a possible settling of criminal scores.The man was shot as he left a cafeteria in Calle Ramón Areces, to walk to his car, a dark blue British registered BMW which he had left illegally parked with the windows open.

Authorities in Fuengirola are to bring charges against the company responsible for carrying out roadworks on the access approach roundabout to the popular Miramar shopping centre. The action has been brought following an incident which occurred after two pipes from the drainage system burst open, allowing the outflowing water to mix with sewage material and carry waste and toxic substances into the Rio Fuengirola. This has resulted in the death of numerous fish and animals in the surrounding area.The local council reacted swiftly by banning bathing on the nearby Castillo beach, raising the red flag and restricting access to the coastline for 100 metres on each side of the river. According to the council, the clean-up operation was supervised by the local healthcare authorities, and municipal workers were employed to block the mouth of the river and to recover the dead animals. The councillors responsible for the maintenance of beaches, housing and the environment, Isabel Moreno, Ana Mula and Jesus Pascual, respectively, visited the area to oversee the clean-up operation and assess the environmental impact . Mijas Town Hall expressed concern that the roadworks had caused the pipes, which run parallel to the sewer, to fracture, which subsequently allowed the dirty water to seep in.
The construction company has managed to block one of the pipes and is currently working to cleanse the area and repair the second pipe.

Two Chileans, about to board a flight to Spain, and one Immigrations inspector were arrested on Friday evening. Yesterday morning, three more arrests were made of another inspector and one customer service officer, as well as an Argentine lawyer.
Airport Security Police (PSA) trustee Marcelo Saín revealed at midday yesterday that the Immigrations customer service officer was the “ringleader” of the drug trafficing group.A separate PSA source revealed how the smuggling operation was carried out: “Immigrations employees made contact with the ‘mules’ after they passed through security checks.

Possible compensation for the families of 130,000 people who disappeared in the Spanish Civil War edged closer yesterday as a judge was given the names of victims with the aim of starting a formal investigation. Court officials said 22 church and human rights groups handed to Judge Baltasar Garzon the names of 130,137 people contained in a dozen files, each the thickness of a telephone directory.
Judge Garzon, who tried to exile former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, had earlier requested the names with a view to launching a formal investigation into abuses committed during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War and the subsequent dictatorship of Gen Francisco Franco. Many of those who went missing were shot and buried in mass graves scattered across the country. If Garzon decides he has jurisdiction and enough evidence to open a criminal investigation to determine the circumstances of the deaths, it could lead to compensation for victims' families.
Prosecutors oppose an investigation due to a statute of limitations and because no charges can be made against former members of Franco's forces due to an amnesty law in 1977. But campaigners say the move is long overdue and that as Spain's Supreme Court has pursued atrocities by military regimes in Chile and Argentina, it should also do so in its own country. "Every crime possible against human rights was committed: genocide, forced disappearances and even war crimes. And it went on until the '50s, after the Nuremberg trials," said Fernando Magon, a lawyer acting for the groups. Although Franco died in 1975, successive governments preferred to forget the past and concentrate on transforming Spain from a poor dictatorship into a modern democracy.

"go-fasters " – drug-traffickers who zoom in almost ostentatious convoys of three or four cars from Spain to large French cities .The drivers, often young men from the troubled multiracial suburbs of French cities, can earn as much as €50,000 (£40,000) for one dash at speeds of up to 200kph (120mph) from southern Spain to Paris, Marseilles, Lyons or Lille. The French police and gendarmerie have developed increasingly sophisticated methods of disrupting the smugglers, including the use of satellite tracking and the creation of fake traffic jams to try to bring the speeding cars to a halt. Twenty-two "go-fast convoys" were intercepted in France last year and four so far this year – but the authorities fear that these represent just a fraction of the total tradeTwenty-two "go-fast convoys" were intercepted in France last year and four so far this year – but the authorities fear that these represent just a fraction of the total trade. A French thriller film, Go Fast, based on the high-speed road smuggling business, will premiere on 1 October. In a book published this week, Au Coeur du Trafic, Bruno di Maio, 32, tells of his experiences as a "go-faster" who was never arrested by the French or Spanish police.
The term go-fast was originally applied by American authorities to the high-powered launches used by drug traffickers in the Caribbean. Similar methods were adopted by smugglers in the late 1990s to dodge customs and naval vessels in the Mediterranean and to move cannabis and cocaine from north Africa to Spain. The idea was extended to the roads about seven years ago and has become one of the principal means of transporting drugs to French cities in the past two years. The method might appear to be absurd. Why would traffickers want to draw attention to themselves by speeding along motorways at 200kph? By travelling at high-speed in convoy, the smugglers hope to make it too difficult, and too dangerous to the public, for the police to intervene. "Go fasters" usually stop dutifully at motorway toll booths but have sometimes smashed through the barriers if pursued by police. Their favoured cars – mostly stolen in Germany but sometimes bought – include Citroë*or Mercedes limousines, or top-of-the-range four-wheel drive "Chelsea tractors", fitted with extra fuel tanks to reduce stops at service stations.
"These people should not be romanticised," said a gendarmerie colonel, Marc de Tarlé. "They are thugs who are interested only in easy cash. They work for a few years, earn a fortune and retire." But there does seem to be an element of bravado or sport involved in the go-fast trade. French police say that many of the drivers are recruited from the young men who hold so-called "rodeos" – impromptu races with stolen cars – on roads close to the poorer tower-block suburbs of French cities.

The 16-year-old vanished from Mijas Costa, in Spain, on January 1 after telling friends she was going to walk home. Amy had been at a friend’s home in the tourist resort of Riviera del Sol, on the Costa del Sol, when she went missing. Mum Audrey Fitzpatrick met with Mr Cowen last week and said the Irish ruler had promised to “do all within his power to help find Amy”.
She said: "Basically he's the boss of the country. He has more contacts than us and more contacts with people who speak Spanish. I'm sure he will do what he can."
Spanish cops issued an appeal for information about a white Ford Fiesta with a UK number plate owned by a family friend, which went missing at the same time as Amy.
A government spokesman in the region said it was “difficult” to believe the youngster left voluntarily. Police are now looking for a second car connected to the case, although no description has yet been released. There has been no sign of Amy despite extensive searches in the region. She has black hair, is 1.65m tall and was wearing black tracksuit bottoms and a Diesel T-shirt when she was last seen.

The parents of missing teen Amy Fitzpatrick are facing financial problems after being hit with a 10k mobile phone bill.
Distraught mum Audrey Fitzpatrick and Stepdad Dave Mahon are being crippled by the cost of calls in Spain and Ireland but have vowed their search will go on.
And now pals have set up a fund and trust fund to help with the search for Amy before the family are completely BROKE.
Audrey 40 said “The bills are quite overwhelming at the moment, but no matter what we will never give up.
“Were not looking for money to help with the bills it’s the things like Posters and travel and stuff where you always require help. All the little things add up”
“Ideally we would love to hire a private investigator, that would be brilliant, but at the moment we just can’t afford it.”The parents of Madeleine McCann spent more than 1 million on private investigators after their daughter vanished in Portugal.
But Audrey and Dave cannot afford that and are heading back to Spain from Dublin to continue the search themselves.Audrey said “We don’t like being away in case she comes home and were not there”
Amy 16 vanished without a trace on new year’s day this year- and so far Spanish cops have drawn a blank in their hunt for clues.
She disappeared after leaving a friend’s house at about 10pm to walk to her home in Riviera del sol near the village of Mijas in AndalucíaOriginally from Dublin Amy lived in the village with her mother, stepfather and Brother Dean. Her Father Christopher Fitzpatrick lives in Donaghmede Dublin.Last week Audrey and David met with Taoiseach Brian Cowen while visiting Ireland and he vowed to do “all within his power” to help in the search.
The pair met Mr. Cowen for just under an hour at Government Buildings to ask for his help in finding the 16 year old.But now Family and Friends have launched a fund and websitewww.missingamy.com to raise awareness and Money for the struggling Family.
Pal Antoinette McLoughlin said “we are setting up a fund to help out Audrey and David as they are basically going broke trying to keep the campaign alive.”We are trying to highlight the pain and suffering they are going through and raise some money to assist them. “Their last phone bill cost them nearly 10k because of roaming charges and they are suffering from travelling between Ireland and Spain.

Ángeles Muñoz, is about to order the first two empty illegal buildings to be pulled down. One is in the Golf Río Real area of Marbella and the other in Linda Vista Alta in San Pedro.The two demolition orders were approved by a local government commission presided over by Muñoz on Tuesday. Both involve unfinished buildings that did not comply with the 1986 development plan and have not been legalised within the new PGOU as they stand on land reserved as green zone.
The Golf Río Real building, not far from the Costa del Sol Hospital, was put up by the firm Naviro Inmobiliaria SA, owned by the Granada businessman José Ávila Rojas who faces charges in the Malaya case. The project has no planning permission, although this was not detected until 2006 when the local Planning Department investigated work the same firm was carrying out on adjoining land. Construction was then halted by the Town Hall.The second development to be demolished, consisting of six houses, was being constructed by the firm Prosavi in Calle Boreal in Linda Vista Alta, San Pedro Alcántara. The project was given planning permission by the GIL-run Town Hall, based on the 1998 PGOU that was never legal. Municipal sources claim that an agreement regarding the demolition has already been reached with the developer.

The five directors of a real estate company in Alicante, Riviera Invest, have been arrested in connection with an alleged fraud which is thought to have affected between 600 and 1,000 clients.The arrests were carried out by the Economic Crimes Unit of the Judicial Police on the orders of the National Court judge, Santiago Pedraz, and took place at Alicante airport when the five directors were trying to escape on a private jet to Morocco.
Among those detained, the chairman of the company, Claude Roch, a well known businessman in the Benidorm area. The five were taken to the main police station in Alicante, and will appear in court shortly and the possibility of more arrests in the case has not been ruled out.Several clients of Riviera Invest across many Spanish provinces had complained that they had never received the 6 or 7% income promised to them by the company derived from the rental of property they had purchased.

High stone walls totally surround the huge estate of 16,000 square metres, Mature Egyptian palm trees grace the grounds, which can be entered only through electronically controlled gates specially made of high-quality Arabic ironwork, lavishly adorned in gold leaf. A sentry will stand guard in a box outside the property night and day.
Named Villa Loma Five, it is a mere five minutes from southern Spain’s biggest international horse-riding stables and livery, the Escuela de Arte Ecuestre.
It seems an obvious major attraction for Owen, a huge racing fan, racehorse owner, and also owner of a new state-of-the-art training complex.
Property expert Paul Grimshaw believes the estate’s main villa resembles a set from the film Lawrence of Arabia, and revealed that it contains several hand-carved Portuguese marble pillars to support a three-story Arabic palace that comprises a cinema, gymnasium, sauna, massage suite, spa baths and physio rooms.Michael Owen has taken delivery of confidential plans for a massive £12million wonderland theme park on the Costa del Sol.So if he is down in the mouth about missing out on England duty in Croatia last night, striker Owen can console himself with the retreat he has earmarked in the secluded Marbella foothills for his palatial dream home.
Perhaps he needs something to give him a lift. He is no longer walking in a Keegan wonderland, as the fans’ song at Newcastle goes, but his plans for recreation in Spain are impressive.Owen, who could pocket £21m in a fresh Newcastle contract if he decides to stay at the crisis-hit club, received the plans direct from a Walt Disney Corporation insider.

Higher UK airport taxes from February to reduce carbon emissions could impact the prices of properties, according to an international estate agency.‘There has been more discussion and calls for action recently over the impact that air travel is having on the environment,’ they say, ‘And one of the most obvious ways to cut air travel is to raise the price of travelling through taxes. It’s a win-win situation for governments, more tax revenue and being seen combating global warming at the same time. It’s only a matter of time before cheap air fares on the scale we see it today comes to an end’.Owning a second home and a property abroad has shown to be an aspiration for the majority of UK residents by recent surveys, and low cost carriers have opened up new overseas property markets by flying to destinations not covered by other airlines, or forcing flight prices down where they compete directly with more established carriers.Property prices within a one hour drive of regional airports served by the low cost airlines have tended to escalate in recent years, and it is these areas that would be hardest hit by any increased taxes on flying.
The areas which would feel least impact according to the estate agency would be northern France, which many UK second home owners access via ferry and the Channel Tunnel, and areas where owning a property abroad was in vogue long before the new airlines started, and when air fares were proportionately higher than they are today. Access to France from the UK has improved recently with Eurotunnel cutting the journey time by twenty minutes.But there is a warning that the lower priced end of the market could be hit more than the top end.

Highly contagious sheep and goat plague has hit Morocco and could spread to southern Europe.Agency spokeswoman Teresa Buerkle says the outbreak has reached 29 Moroccan provinces and has largely affected sheep.She says the viral disease is known by its French name peste des petits ruminants (small ruminants' plague), or PPR.The disease is closely related to cattle plague and is transmitted to goats, sheep and wild small ruminants through close contact between animals.Buerkle says it poses no risk to human health.She told a UN briefing Tuesday that there is a concern PPR could reach southern Europe because of the close trade Morocco has with countries including Spain.

Four youngsters have been hospitalised, with two of them in a serious condition, after they went out in Torremolinos for a night of drinking and drugs.The four, three men and a woman aged between 20 and 33, were found intoxicated on Sunday afternoon outside a well known venue in the Nogalera area of the town and now two of them remain in Intensive Care in the Carlos Haya hospital in Málaga.

Body of a man, estimated to be 38 years old, has been found on the AP7 tool motorway according to the 112 emergency services.They say the man had suffered a blow to the head and was spotted by another driver on the ground in the middle of the road at the 219 km point on the direction Málaga side of the road at 10,30pm last night.
When the Guardia Civil and ambulance crews arrived at the scene they could do no more than certify the victim as dead.There is no news about the victim’s identity as yet.

fire raged across the southernmost tip of mainland Spain had burning more than 480 hectares of cork forest and scrubland by Thursday night in what environmentalists described as the worst ever disaster in the Strait of Gibraltar Natural Park. More than 1,000 people were evacuated as the blaze raged in a forested area between the city of Algeciras and the popular windsurfing resort of Tarifa. Andalusian regional Premier Manuel Chaves said the fire, which began on Wednesday, was probably started intentionally and stressed that authorities will "do all they can to find those responsible".Firefighters, helped by helicopters and water-dumping planes, said they expected to bring the fire under control overnight.
The Strait of Gibraltar Natural Park is a haven for birds migrating between Europe and Africa.

Mallorca-based charter firm, Futura International Airways, suspended its flights yesterday and has filed for administration. Futura, which is one of Europe's biggest medium-haul charter flight companies, runs flights between Palma and a number of major British towns and cities, including Belfast, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Bournemouth and Glasgow. Like many of its competitors, it has been badly hit this year by rising fuel prices despite posting a 14% increase in turnover in 2007 to €334.6 million euros. Notwithstanding, company directors hope to resume normal operations today, and have been given until the end of the week to present contingency plans to enable the Spanish Transport ministry to make a definitive decision about the company's future. These plans, which will need to be approved by the trades unions, are thought to include a 50% reduction in the total workforce of 1,200 and the same reduction in its high season fleet of 22 planes. Futura was founded in 1989 in a joint venture also involving Aer Lingus, which sold off the balance of its shares last year having offloaded the majority back in 2002.

According to a report issued by the United Nations, the Iberian Peninsula is the main entry point for most drugs trafficked across Europe. Spain is the most used of the two countries for cocaine smuggling, with authorities having seized 50 metric tonnes of the substance in 2006. With tonnage as follows: Holland (11), France (10) and Italy (5) are the countries with most drug apprehensions.The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), based in Vienna, explained that 66% of apprehensions occurred whilst the cocaine was still at sea, 11% via other means and 6% at airports.The most frequent locations for apprehensions in the last couple of years, together with the traditional Atlantic Spanish Ports such as Galiza, were in Andalusia, Barcelona and Valencia, with the drugs arriving by air.The report also confirmed the existence of local cocaine production in Spain, despite authorities having dismantled ten drug laboratories in 2006. All substances apprehended before reaching the Spanish coast were arriving from South America, more specifically from Venezuela (31% of all confiscated drugs), Dominican Republic (8%), Ecuador (6%), Brazil and Argentina (5%) and Colombia (4%). However, gangs trafficking the substances are from Colombia in 23% of cases, Morocco (11%), Dominican Republic (6%), Romania (3%) and United Kingdom, Portugal and Italy (2% each).The report also drew the conclusion that the main reasons for the rising drug consumption in Europe is due to the steady price of cocaine and the level of purity remaining high over the last decade, despite drug apprehensions being more frequent.

Scrub fire in the Sierra de Mijas was finally brought under control on Friday after affecting some 75 hectares of scrub. The regional Environment Department said that 70% of the land affected would recover naturally, while the Junta de Andalucía said that there were suspicions that the fire was started deliberately. The fire started at 7,10pm close to an urbanisation and that was quickly put out, but then two other centres of fire were seen, indicating that it was started deliberately.Meanwhile police in Algeciras are relating the fire which affected 500 hectares of nature park near Tarifa on Wednesday with drug traffickers. 80 kilos of hashish, in bales, was found in the burnt out area.

Prince home. 3 bedrooms ensuite, posibility to expand to 6 ensuite. Plot of almost 6.000 m2, surrounded by golf courses with sea and mountain view. Located in the hills above the New Golden Mile, only a 5 minutes drive away from San Pedro, surrounded by different golf courses and only 10 minutes away from Puerto Banus and a couple of minutes away from the beach with many beach restaurants.

Forest fire which broke out in Mijas yesterday evening at about 7,45pm, has seen the evacuation of 300 local residents from the Buenavista urbanisation in the town overnight. The local sports centre at Las Lagunas is being used as a reception centre for the people.10 fire-fighting units and a team of 70 people continued to work against the flames overnight, while the Mayor of Mijas, Antonio Sánchez, told the press that the fire had been started deliberately.A statement made at 3,15 this morning said that one front was now under control, while another was still active. Access to Mi jas from the A7 and the A-368 has been cut.
Infoca says that local firemen from Mijas, Fuengirola and Benalmádena have been supported by others from Sevilla, Córdoba and Granada.

A woman is in a serious condition after jumping from the interior balcony of her home in Las Chapas, Marbella to avoid an attack from her 41 year old Colombian partner who was wielding a knife.Police say that the alleged attacked, named with the initials J.L.S.L. has no legal residence in Spain and was about to be deported last June.The 37 year old victim, also from Colombia, is now in the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella where she reported to be serious but stable.

Audrey Fitzpatrick, and her partner, Dave Mahon, met Mr Cowen at Government Buildings for half an hour during which they updated him on the investigation

Taoiseach Brian Cowen met the mother of missing Irish girl Amy Fitzpatrick The 16-year-old disappeared after leaving a friend's house at about 10pm on January 1st to walk to her home on the Costa del Sol in Spain.A spokesman for the Taoiseach said Mr Cowen offered the assistance of the Irish embassy in Madrid to help the couple deal with Spanish authorities in the search for Amy.Originally from Clarehall in north Dublin, Amy had been living with her mother in the Riviera del Sol tourist resort in Mijas for the past few years.Her family last month appealed for financial help to hire a private investigator. Her father, Christopher, also called on Spanish authorities to release CCTV footage from the track along which Amy is understood to have walked home.Her aunt, Christine Kenny, said Spanish authorities were still working on the case, but the family had not received any news since June. "We've done as much as we possibly can, but we simply don't have the manpower to search the entire area," she said.

Raised levels of consumption of water during the summer months is a major factor contributing to the threat of water shortages in the coming winter. If the rate of consumption which a popular tourist area like Malaga province experiences in August were to continue, our water reserves would be sufficient for just six more months.
In the hot, dry, tourist-filled summer months, even greater quantities of water are used to clean the streets, feed the gardens and fill the pools, in order to maintain the area as an attractive tourist destination. On top of this, the huge swell in the local population over this period places even greater stress on the level of domestic water-use. But the province of Malaga faces this current crisis with its reservoirs at just 22.2 per cent of their capacity and the situation is becoming more serious, year-on-year, as the long-term dry-spell continues.
Concerned about this steadily deteriorating situation, Cuenca Mediterranea and Emasa have been looking at alternative sources of supply, including natural underground sources and desalination plants, whilst, at the same time, taking positive steps to increase public awareness of the very real dangers of drought. Although not too significant, some minor water restrictions are already being imposed in the worst-affected areas in Axarquia, Guadalhorce and the capital.

Mijas authorities on the Costa del Sol have issued fines to 20 owners of what they deem to be illegal homes in the municipality, after they repudiated demands to bulldoze their properties, according to Spanish Property Insight. The homeowners will now have to pay the fines, which are believed to be around 10% of the property value, or face having their assets frozen. “With help from friends you can cope with the first fine, but after that it gets more difficult,” one of the fined owners said in an interview with Spanish newspaper ‘El Pais’. “They can issue you with up to a dozen fines, and there is no budget that can deal with that.”It’s been reported that there are around 8,000 homes in the Mijas area that possess planning problems, approximately a quarter of which are being threatened with demolition.
Back in January, a British couple became the first expatriates to have their Spanish property, located in Almera, bulldozed after government officials ruled that their £570,000 villa had been constructed illegally.

Guardia Civil stopped a Volkswagen Golf at 10pm in Roquetas de Mar, at a checkpoint making random inspections of passing cars, they came across more than they expected.
After identifying the five occupants, officers searched the vehicle and found several articles of clothing which appeared to be brand new and with the price-tags still attached. They also found a suitcase and a bag, both of which were lined with aluminium foil – a method frequently used by thieves to fool shops’ security systems, containing more new items of clothing. On searching the five occupants of the car, one of them was found to have yet more similar items hidden in the clothes he was wearing. A total of 12 articles of clothing were found with a value of 740 euros.Those arrested were identified as Gheorghe C., aged 23, Gheorghe S. R., aged 23, Buta L., aged 37, Cristian F. M., aged 27 and Lidia C., aged 29. All were said by the Guardia Civil to have previous criminal records.

Police in Ronda have arrested a mother and son for having performed around twenty opportunistic robberies in the town. According to police, the criminals always committed their crimes in shops, taking advantage of shop owners and customers being distracted in order to steal wallets and items off the shelves. Thanks to CCTV cameras, the woman (aged 44) was caught red handed by police in a jewellery shop and her son was arrested shortly afterwards. The pair are also believed to have committed similar offences in Malaga, Seville and Cadiz.

A total of 25 marijuana plants were seized by local police from a house in Callosa de Segura.They also arrested two people in the raid identified.
The plants were being cultivated in plastic bags on a terrace.

no company based in Spain has a licence to show BBC public service channels.
They stated that it is illegal to rebroadcast these channels in Spain without a licence from them.The BBC and Sky have both said that companies that do this are breaking copyright laws.A spokesman for the BBC explained this week that the BBC’s public service channels –BBC1, BBC2 and the digital channels – are produced for broadcast in the UK only.He added that although European law allows channels that are broadcast in an EEA (European Economic Area) country to be licensed for cable redistribution in another EEA country, the BBC only currently licenses cable redistribution in the Republic of Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
“The BBC’s public service channels are not licensed for broadcast in any other countries,” the spokesman added.“Our international news channel, BBC World News is distributed in Spain.“BBC Worldwide’s international general entertainment channel, BBC Prime, is licensed directly to individual subscribers in Spain but is not currently licensed to a cable, satellite or other platform.”
But he added that cable operators in Spain could come to an agreement with the BBC, as they have done in the Benelux countries.
He continued: “If a cable operator wishes to redistribute the BBC’s channels it must enter into a licence with the BBC and other underlying rights holders.
“The BBC can choose whether or not to license the BBC’s public service channels for redistribution in this way.” BskyB has already stated that it is illegal to receive its programmes in Spain.
A spokesman said: “We authorise the reception of Sky TV in the UK and Ireland only.
“Our terms and conditions expressly prohibit reception elsewhere in Europe.”
BBC Prime clients can use their own equipment to view English programmes with more information available at www.bbcprime.com
It is an encrypted channel and customers need to buy a subscription to receive a smart card which enables them to receive up to 50 channels with BBC Prime being just one of them.A BBC Prime spokesman added: “Live coverage or highlights of sporting events is not something that BBC Prime includes in its schedules.
“We do not have international transmission rights to the action.
“International rights to the pictures have to be bought on the open market and payment made for European or global transmission.
“Often the international rights are held by a number of different channels with exclusivity clauses for their territory, and so are unavailable to us.”
Also this week the Guardia Civil revealed that the investigation into Costa Blanca rebroadcasting company Telmicro Levante SL remains ongoing.
A Guardia Civil spokesman in Alicante said: “We cannot give any information about the investigation.“The judge must establish when the investigation is finished and when we are allowed to give information.“Clients interested in getting information must go to Torrevieja’s court.
“They can present a formal complaint if they have a contract signed with Telmicro and they feel the contract has been broken.“The judge would then decide whether the complaint is accepted or not and which crime if any the company might have committed.”

Thompson is now “a dead man walking”, according to senior gardai.
'FAT' Freddie Thompson is this evening in hiding in Dublin after he was forced to flee Spain by a Russian drugs gang.The thug had originally fled Dublin and was in hiding on the Costa Blanca after the INLA ordered him dead. Now garda sources have revealed that a Russian gang have been upset by the inner city thug, and want him dead. Caught in no man’s land, Thompson is now moving between addresses in Clondalkin and Rathcoole as various criminal and republican elements try to track him down.
A senior garda monitoring the situation “He doesn’t know what he’s doing from one hour to the next. He is constantly on the move. "He has at least three locations in Dublin alone which he uses to put his head down at night."
Thompson has been subjected to at least two attempts on his life since he returned to the capital earlier this month. On Monday, a bomb threat was made to Lowe's pub in Dolphin's Barn where Thompson was expected to be following the removal mass of an associate. Despite the threats, Thompson appeared in the open for the funeral of his girlfriend's brother this week. Leslie Dempsey, who was just 26-years-old when he died last week, was a sister of Vicky, Thompson's girlfriend. At his funeral on Tuesday, Thompson made a rare public appearance causing a stir among mourners and undercover gardai. He arrived at the funeral in Crumlin just as proceedings were about to get underway and quickly mingled with a group of men at the back of the church. His sudden appearance caused a bustle among his gang, who appeared to gather around him eagerly. Two of the men immediately caught each other's attention and nodded towards the door of the church before leaving swiftly as if to scan the perimeter of the building. They arrived back a short time later when it appeared the coast was clear. Freddie Thompson appeared relaxed, wearing a striped shirt out over his denim jeans. He was clean-shaven, with his head also freshly shaved. The only occasional hint of stress from Thompson was a few times when he rubbed his face while glancing around at the crowd in the church. But it was those around him that appeared most nervous. About 15 minutes into the funeral mass Thompson was approached by a man who appeared to give him a tap on the arm as he passed towards the door, leading Thompson and his group to follow. And then in the warm summer haze, Thompson, incredibly, stayed in open territory, chatting with his group and having the odd laugh with them. The fact that he was in wide open view to everybody did not seem to faze him, and there he stayed until the funeral mass was over and the body of his girlfriend's brother was carried from the church.
Freddie Thompson appears fitter and healthier than his cohorts in most of the photographs that people are used to seeing in the media. Usually guarded about appearing anywhere an enemy could be lying in wait, he used the presence of the gardai as protection, as well as the presence of a large number of friends.
It is rare that Thompson stands still long enough to be pictured in public without something like a baseball cap to help shield his image from prying eyes, but old-fashioned funeral etiquette meant that this appearance was always going to be different. And despite initial attempts to keep his return to the city under wraps, Thompson has been repeatedly spotted and targeted. Two social occasions attended by the 27-year-old in the past two weeks have both been targeted by hoax bomb threats -- leaving Freddie in no doubt that he is still a marked man.
Gardai too intend to keep a close an eye on the hood.

family say that an alleged sighting of Amy Fitzpatrick, in Portugal was never followed up, even though Amy's aunt reported it to both the Spanish and Irish police. Amy's father, Christopher Fitzpatrick, is now attempting to raise funds in order to employ the private detective. "To be honest, not for one second did he ever think he would need to trouble anybody for help with funds but Spain is so far from Ireland and the costs to get anything done is crazy," said Amy's aunt Christine Kenny. "This is the first time Christopher has asked for help with funds and it will only be used to hire a private detective and any funds left over will go to the missing organisation in Ireland www.miss.ie to help other families in this situation." Amy disappeared on the evening of New Year's Day, 2008, at approximately 10pm. After she left her friend's house in the tourist resort of Riviera Del Sol, on the Costa Del Sol in Spain, to take the 10-minute walk to her own house, Amy was never seen again. Adding to the family's trauma were hoax texts which had been sent to Amy's mother's phone claiming to be Amy.
One message read: "(Hi) mum n dad i am fine so stop worrying."
However, Amy's mother, Audrey Fitzpatrick, knew that it wasn't her daughter who sent the text in question. "She wouldn't call me mum, she calls me something else," said Audrey. "If I get a message with that name then I'll know. "There's been a few (hoax messages) like that. I've had texts on my phone saying, 'It's me, I've no money, could you put free credit on my phone'. Plenty of them got free credit with that one," Audrey said.
"There have been some on the Bebo site as well. But the first thing I notice is the wording, it's not her," added the mother-of-two. Burglars broke into Audrey's home this month and stole a laptop the family were using in the search for her.
The stolen computer contained designs of search posters as well as hundreds of vital contact numbers Audrey and Amy's stepdad Dave Mahon had gathered during their eight-month search for the 16-year-old.
"There are numbers on there we'll never be able to recover," Audrey said.

Prince Kardam of Bulgaria is in a critical condition after a traffic accident yesterday afternoon in El Molar (Madrid). His wife, Doña Miriam Ungria y López, was also injured. The accident occurred at around 2.50pm yesterday afternoon on the Madrid-bound carriageway of the N-1 (km 42) when the couple's Jaguar veered off the road, then collided with a tree before flipping over onto its roof. The prince, who has lived his whole life in exile in Madrid, sustained severe head injuries as well as "catastrophic" damage to both hands, which doctors will probably have to amputate. Princess Miriam is believed to be much less seriously injured, but suffered a broken elbow as well as extensive bruising. Prince Kardam is the eldest child of former prime minister of the Bulgarian Republic, Tsar Simeon II, and Doña Margarita Gómez Acebo y Cejuela. After achieving a degree in economics from an American university, Kardam married in 1996 and has since fathered two sons. Bulgaria abolished its monarchy in 1946.

John Michael Daykil, died on Barayo beach (Valdés) yesterday afternoon shortly after being pulled unconscious from the sea by some of his fellow bathers as his wife looked on. Mr Daykil was pronounced dead at the scene at around 2.45pm after a member of the public tried for around twenty minutes to resuscitate him.
According to local officials, Barayo beach, which is not patrolled by lifeguards, was quite busy yesterday despite the choppy sea conditions.

The value of non-performing loans held by Spanish banks almost tripled in the 12 months to June as a combination of higher interest rates, rising unemployment and a collapsing property market drove many consumers to default.As a proportion of bank's total loan portfolios, money in the hands of delinquent borrowers stood at 1.61 percent of the total, a level that government officials say remains relatively small and does not put the health of the Spanish financial sector at risk.However, with non-performing loans already amounting to EUR 28.4 billion, there are fears that banks will start to suffer if the slowdown continues and an increasing number of clients finds it hard to make ends meet.The government expects interest rates to fall later in 2008 and early in 2009, offering consumers some relief.

It has been revealed that a camera could have recorded Amy on the track she is thought to have taken on New Year's Day, the day she disappeared.
Amy Fitzpatrick disappeared on the evening of New Year's Day 1st January 2008 at approximately 10pm when she left her friends house in the tourist resort of Riviera Del Sol on the Costa Del Sol, Spain to take the 10 minute walk to her house.Amy was 15 at the time of her disappearance; on 7th February Amy turned 16, Amy has black/Brown hair, blue eyes and has a pale complexion. She is 1.65m tall and was wearing brown crushed velvet tracksuit bottoms and a black T-shirt with the word "DIESEL" in various different colours when she was last seen. She had no money, phone or passport. Amy is originally from Clarehall Dublin but was living in Spain the last few years. Tuesday 26th August 2008 Amy will be 34 weeks missing. We have discovered a sighting that was reported to Christine Kenny Amy's Aunt of Amy in Portugal was never followed up that Christine reported to both the Spanish and Irish police. Christopher Fitzpatrick Amy's father needs to raise funds to hire a private detective to help with the search for Amy. To be honest not for one second did he ever think he would need to trouble anybody for help with funds but Spain is so far from Ireland and the costs to get anything done is crazy. Please note this is the first time Christopher has asked for help with funds and it will only be used to hire a private detective and any funds left over will go to the missing organisation in Ireland Miss.ie to help other families going through this situation.

Police in Spain are investigating if an overnight shooting in Marbella is linked to a gun attack on an Irishman in the Costa del Sol this week.
A 42-year-old man and one other person were shot in the early hours of this morning, outside a disco bar.On Thursday night 39-year-old Peter Mitchell, a former associate of convicted drugs dealer John Gilligan, was shot in a bar in Puerto Banus by a masked gunman.He remains under guard in hospital in Spain after narrowly surviving the assassination attempt, while two other men caught up in the shooting received minor injuries.

Peter Mitchell was sat outside the El Jardin bar in Puerto Banus, when the hitman opened fire at 11.40pm on Thursday.The gunman tripped as he fired off four shots, and injured two innocent bystanders as he chased after his target. Mitchell, 39, escaped with two bullet wounds to the shoulder. An eyewitness, who asked not to be named, said: "The gunman tripped as he chased after Mitchell and that saved his life. His weapon went off as he was falling to the ground and the bullets went off in different directions. Mitchell was running towards the back of the bar to try and find some cover and got hit in the shoulder. The other two victims just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It all happened so quickly, the gunman was up and out of the bar before anyone could react properly."

Nikki Beach is a favourite of the celebs who flock to the up-market resort of Marbella in the summer. Trendy beach nightclub Nikki Beach, near Marbella, Hollyoaks actress Jennifer Metcalfe was dancing with friends. One man was gunned down and another injured after a fight broke out after 2am.Jennifer -- who plays Mercedes McQueen in the soap -- left in tears as the two male victims were rushed to hospital. The 25-year-old actress was thought to have been with former Big Brother contestants Brian Belo and Ziggy Lichman. Onlookers described how a fight broke out in the club and shots were fired.One witness, who asked not to be named, said: "It was like the Wild West. The people fighting were throwing anything they could get their hands on at each other. Chairs and bottles were flying."It was absolute pandemonium. Some people ran for cover as it all kicked off and others just dropped to the ground and covered their heads."The minute they realised someone had been shot there was a mass surge for the door as people tried to get out of the club as quickly as they could."A Malaga police spokesman confirmed that three people were injured, two with gunshot wounds. Several premiership footballers, and David Beckham's sister, Joanne, are regular visitors. Calum Best was pictured sunbathing at the beach club this year.

Irish holidaymakers sparked a massive air and land rescue -- after getting lost as they tried to climb a Spanish mountain in 90 degree heat.The Dublin trio phoned friends after running out of water and succumbing to dehydration as they attempted to reach the summit of La Concha overlooking the Costa del Sol resort of Marbella.
And their pals made matters worse after alerting emergency services -- by trying to reach the stricken men in their beachwear and forcing a second separate rescue after losing their way too. Last night the cost of the rescue was being put at more than €25,000. A source on the rescue team said: "The rescue involved more than more than 40 people on foot, in cars and a helicopter including civil protection officers and police. "The cost is going to run into several thousand pounds. "Trying to climb a mountain in southern Spain at midday on one of the hottest days of the year without enough water or proper clothes and equipment is a pretty stupid thing to do," the source said. "They'd run out of water by the time we found them and were pretty exhausted. "They could quite easily have died if we hadn't got to them in time."
The three men, all in their 20s, set off just after midday on Tuesday to try to reach the top of La Concha, a striking mountain 1215 metres high sitting at the end of the Sierra Blanca mountain range. The three-hour-trek is popular with locals and expats in spring, autumn and winter. Rescue workers were alerted just after 3pm by friends of the men who were thought to have been sunbathing when they received a call on their mobile phones from their distressed pals. They were taken to hospital suffering from dehydration

100 people have been killed after a passenger plane swerved off the runway at Madrid's Barajas airport, Spanish officials say. Many others were hurt when the Spanair plane bound for the Canary Islands left the runway with 172 people on board.
There were reports of a fire in the left engine during take-off. TV footage showed smoke billowing from the craft. Helicopters were called in to dump water on to the plane, and dozens of ambulances went to the scene. TV footage later showed several people being carried away on stretchers.The exact number of casualties is still unknown, with several reports suggesting just 26 people survived the crash, which happened at about 1430 local time (1230 GMT).
Officials confirmed to the BBC and Spanish news agency Efe that the death toll had passed 100. Spanish journalist Manuel Moleno, who was near the area when the accident happened, said the plane appeared to have "crashed into pieces".
"We heard a big crash. So we stopped and we saw a lot of smoke," he said.
Mr Moleno said he had seen as many as 20 people walking away from the wreckage.
The plane, which was destined for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, came down during or shortly after take-off from Terminal Four at Barajas. TV footage showed that the plane had come to rest in fields near the airport. Spanair issued a statement saying that flight number JK 5022 had been involved in an accident at 1445 local time. The airline's parent company, Scandinavian firm SAS, later said the accident happened at 1423. According to Spain's airport authority, Aena, the plane had been due to take off at 1300 local time.
No details of the nationalities of the passengers on board have yet been released.
But the plane was a codeshare flight with German airline Lufthansa, which said it was investigating whether German passengers were on the flight.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero was on his way to the scene after cutting short his holiday, his office said. The aircraft was a MD82, a plane commonly used on short trips around Europe, Spanair, a subsidiary of Scandinavian carrier SAS, had a very good safety record. Reports say it was the first crash at Barajas airport, some 13km (8 miles) from central Madrid, since 1983

Following the plight faced by many local residents; foreign property owners in the Marina Baixa region of Valencia’s Alicante province have formed a group called Veins de L’Alfàs (Residents of L’Alfàs). It’s designed to defend their rights as homeowners against the town council and local property developers. The homeowners are threatened with the prospect of having some or all of their land taken away from them, under the controversial ‘land grab’ law. The local mayor intends to build around 2,000 new homes on the collective private holdings. The 100-member group plan to take legal action against the mayor in both Spain and EU courts. Some would argue that this is long overdue, as many homeowners in the Valencia region have been the victims of local corruption.

Thousands of holidaymakers trying to reach Malaga Airport were caught in six-mile-long traffic jams as police closed the access road to the airport to search for an ETA bomb thought to have been planted along a nearby motorway. Tourists landing this afternoon were also prevented from leaving the airport as security services tried to locate the device. A spokesman for EasyJet said: "No-one can reach or leave the airport at the moment. "We haven't been asked to evacuate the airport at the moment but there's not many people to evacuate. "Everyone's pretty calm at the moment but there's no doubt this is going to cause travel chaos around Europe.
"We have a flight which is supposed to be leaving Malaga Airport for Gatwick at 4.50pm local time but it will have to be delayed. "Even if the passengers were here on time, which they're not going to be, there wouldn't be a flight crew. "The air crew and pilot are currently stuck in a hotel near to where the first bomb went off and they can't leave the building to get to the airport. Authorities received warnings of three devices planted across the southern coast, forming part of the Basque's separatist group's summer bombing campaign.Thousands of holidaymakers were evacuated shortly before the first bomb went off around 1pm local time by the Tryp Hotel in Guadalmar Beach near the popular tourist resort of Torremolinos.
An hour later police were forced to evacuate shops and a beach at Benalmadena Port - along with thousands more bathers at the nearby beaches of Malapesquera and Fuente de la Salud - after being alerted to a second bomb. Police said that more than 10,000 people had been evacuated from the yacht marina and three nearby beaches before the second bomb exploded. The bomb had been left near the harbour's underground car park.
Police are on alert for attacks in the Andalusia area of southern Spain after they arrested members of an Eta unit last month and found evidence that the group were planning attacks in the region. The group often set off mainly small bombs in Spanish resorts during the busy summer holiday season to target the tourist industry as part of its four-decade fight for an independent Basque homeland. Last month they detonated a small bomb in the sand near a bustling promenade in Torremolinos, also on the south coast. It followed four small explosions at holiday resorts on Spain's

Amy Fitzpatrick went missing on New Year's Day. She had left her best friend's house on the Riviera del Sol, Costa del Sol at around 10pm after spending the day with her visiting amusement arcades. Amy had almost decided to spend the night with her best friend Ashley Rose and had been getting ready for bed, but her friend's mum Debbie had been concerned that she hadn't touched base with her family. It was for this reason that 15-year-old Amy went home.She had brought no clothing with her, no telephone and most important of all, she had no money or passport. And she was never seen again.It makes her disappearance all the more sinister. From being out there, speaking to her best friend Ashley and her mum Audrey Fitzpatrick, Amy had no plans of running away, and my own experience of investigating missing person cases backs this up.She left that night around 10pm, the investigators should discount any idea that this girl ran away. We all must give up the myth that this child ran away. Amy Fitzpatrick, in my opinion, has been abducted.
Here we are more than 220 days later and the family have searched extensively for Amy. They have delivered missing person posters around Europe and attended the EU parliament. There have been sightings as far away as Algeria, but still Amy remains missing.I imagine that Amy's last-minute decision to go home is vital in the investigation -- there could be no premeditated plan.My own belief is that this is an opportunistic crime. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The road she travelled home is a lonely place. I believe Amy was walking that perilous lane on her own when an opportunistic predator saw her.
Spanish officers searched for Amy, but could more have been done? I saw the ravine they searched. It was half a mile long and 200ft to 300ft deep, a canyon, the search, from my experience as a garda, couldn't be said to be conclusive.
Amy's parents remain inconsolable. Their biggest hope may soon become to recover her body for a Christian burial, to have closure.You can never think of Amy's disappearance without thinking of that of Maddie McCann, who went missing in the neighbouring country of Portugal.I was out in Spain during the initial search for Amy. It never got the publicity of Maddie McCann's disappearance.
I understand not as a former garda but as a parent of a child that they still have hope and I don't want the Fitzpatrick family to lose hope.

A source tells me that some lawyers on the Costa del Sol are up to no good again. Now that their astronomical fees from conveyancing have dwindled to a trickle in the market freeze, they are having to come up with new ways to part clients from their money. This time they have come up with a ruse to sell non-performing mortgage loans as ‘distressed homes’. Investors looking for distress sales on the Costa del Sol should beware.I’m not sure exactly how it works, as it wasn’t explained to me in much detail, but it goes something like this:Banks have clients who aren’t paying their mortgages, and the banks would very much like to off-load those mortgages onto someone else. Lawyers are helping the banks out, for a fee, by finding buyers for those debts. But, so I am told, some lawyers are misleading potential investors by presenting the deal as a distressed home purchase, or bank repossession, rather than an investment in bad debt. So investors think they are buying properties at distressed prices, but in reality they are just non-performing mortgage loans.
There is nothing wrong with investing in distressed debt. Some people have made massive fortunes in financial markets out of doing so. The problem here is that small investors on the Costa del Sol are being mislead into buying bad debts when they think they are buying property on the cheap. I’m told there are various lists of ‘deals’ in circulation from banks which lawyers are using to try and snare investors.
“They are sharks these lawyers, now there’s less work about they are all trying to screw money out of people in other ways,” one estate agent told me.
So if you are an investor looking to take advantage of this market, just make sure you know what you are buying.

Who is going to shell out for all this whitewashed concrete, even at today's knock-down prices? Spanish property developers are frantically asking the same question, with buyers for unfinished projects down up to 60%. With their credit lines garrotted by the credit crunch, the developers are expiring in droves.Property prices have fallen by a crushing 35% over the past 12 months, four times faster than in the UK, and haven't stopped plunging yet. This spells disaster for an economy where investment in housing is worth 10% of GDP and employs 13% of people in the private sector.I had a small insight into the shambles while holidaying in the Atlantic coast town of Rota, near Cadiz, a couple of weeks ago.I briefly hovered outside an estate agency window when a wild-eyed woman charged out and tried to manhandle me inside. I explained, with the help of my girlfriend's Spanish, that I was merely browsing and had no desire to buy a two-bedroom villa overlooking a building site, even if it was €40,000 cheaper than yesterday, and made good my escape. The crestfallen agent trudged back to her empty office.I knew the Spanish property market was going through a tricky time, but until I saw the fire sale prices and the desperation in her eyes, I hadn't realised things were so bad.
And it's going to get worse. Next day, we drove along the Costa del Sol to Malaga and were awestruck by the pace and scale of construction along the coast, massed ranks of half-built villas and apartments squeezed into every dusty hollow and ditch alongside the motorway.The Spanish property market bubble has been well and truly pricked, but sadly too late to save the beauty of the country's coastline.
I've followed the coastal Spanish property market with interest ever since an editor dispatched me to report on a get-rich-quick property seminar around six or seven years ago.On a rainy February night in Croydon, a pint-sized Irishman with a ponytail warmed the assembly of small-time investors with visions of great profits as retired people poured in from northern Europe seeking golf, cheap booze and sunshine. And to be fair, he was right for a time.Another 2 million built properties have been built since then, with 3 million more in the pipeline (although many may never be completed).Up to three-quarter of a million Britons have been seduced by the Spanish dream, but many have now come unstuck. Some are spending their final years stranded in a half-built golf resort while others have watched their home demolished before their eyes because their builder hadn't got the right planning permission. The local planning process is notoriously corrupt and thousands of trusting Britons have paid the price.Everybody wants their little plot in paradise, and my heart goes out to them. Flying out from drizzly Britain, it is easy to be blinded by the Iberian sun. Too many Britons have left their brains at Gatwick, but unfortunately, taken their bank details with them.

Drive along the coast south of Alicante and the results of the Spanish property bubble are there to see: serried ranks of exquisitely tasteless, often empty, villas advancing in close order up isolated, parched hillsides. Many have been built in locations totally unsuitable for housing: by the sides of dual carriageways, away from shops and amenities – anywhere that developers could find a landowner willing to sell. Property has driven the Spanish economy like no other in the European Union. Last year, housing investment accounted for a tenth of GDP and 13 per cent of private sector jobs. More than four million dwellings have been built in the last decade, a boom fuelled partly by an influx of British retirees (some three-quarters of a million Britons now reside in Spain). Britain's Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors says the number of homes built last year would be excessive even given steady market conditions, never mind a downturn.
But it's on the Costas where the developers are really hurting. La Axarquia is part of Malaga province, a constellation of 29 coastal and inland councils. Ask about the number of illegally built properties in La Axarquia and the official figure will be about 10,000. Local environmentalists put that at more than 20,000.
"In Marbella, the local council is calling on the regional authorities to retrospectively authorise illegally built properties because otherwise mortgages cannot be raised on them," says Mr Rhys-Jones. "In other words, they want to draw a line under the old era." However, he does not believe the property industry will be cleaned up any time soon. "In my town of Estepona, the mayor was elected in May on an anti-corruption ticket. He is now awaiting trial, charged with money laundering, and influence-peddling relating to planning permission." Housebuilding was popular with ordinary Spaniards, struggling to match the living standards of their more developed partners in the EU. Unfettered building was a vote-winner with local electorates because of the money it injected. Smallholdings, worth next to nothing as agricultural land, suddenly took on great value. Helping it all in recent years was the pound's strength against the euro, making Spain an attractive destination for elderly British couples wanting to maximise their pensions. Now, the pound has dropped and the developers are finding fewer takers from the UK. The result is an enormous glut. Prices are falling relentlessly on the Costas, destroying the hopes of Britons who bought properties as investments. Tina Reeves, who has worked as an estate agent in Spain for the last 18 years, says tortuous planning laws are part of the problem. "Licences granted by local councils to developers are being rescinded by the regional authorities," she explains. "It's not the fault of the developers, it's the fault of local councils granting licences and not passing it by the region. Also, not many Spanish banks are lending at the moment. They are getting uptight because even they don't know whether anything is legal any more."

Spanish authorities are secretly preparing to deal with a significant terrorist attack in one of the country’s popular tourist resorts, and have ordered police to step up security measures, according to an internal memorandum distributed to regional forces last week.The warning comes after a spate of minor bombings by the Basque separatist group ETA, timed to disrupt Spain’s tourist industry at its busiest period.The latest attack, a blast outside the Sol Aloha Puerto hotel, in the Costa del Sol resort of Torremolinos, was the fifth in 10 days and, although nobody was hurt in the explosion, local police say the device was “perfectly capable of killing”.The Spanish interior minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, said that he had no doubt the bombing was the work of ETA, adding that the discovery of a rucksack containing bomb-making equipment in a quarry on the outskirts of the town showed further attacks were planned.