Barclays has settled a legal claim raised by a senior member of the Qatari ruling family over an alleged €50m (£48m) fraud. The settlement, which has been secretly thrashed out over the past few weeks, related to claims from Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Thani, brother of the Emir of Qatar, that €50m had been stolen from his account at Barclays in Marbella between 2001 and 2003. The sheikh's wife Princess Kasia Al-Thani, who first discovered the fraud and has been spearheading the legal action,
The case was a cause of embarrassment for Barclays, headed by John Varley, which had been battling the sheikh's claims while raising billions of pounds from Qatar's state investment funds. The bank recently turned to Qatar for the bulk of its £7bn capital raising. Qatar also backed a £4bn fund-raising by the bank earlier this year. Last month Barclays was reportedly ordered to post €20m as security with a Spanish court as part of a legal battle. At the time a settlement was said to be still some way off after a letter from the sheikh in the summer which vowed he would pursue every legal route possible to recover his money. The sheikh, who is now a minister attached to the embassy in Paris and who was Qatar's Opec representative, accused Barclays of gross negligence for allowing an employee of his to take about €4m a month from a personal account in Marbella. The sheikh claims a former employee set up a bank account at Barclays' Marbella branch, using his own name and the sheikh's. The sheikh claims he had no knowledge of this and his signature was forged. It is alleged money from another of his accounts was siphoned to the joint account, and later withdrawn or transferred to Monaco, the British Virgin Islands and Switzerland. Despite the sums allegedly involved, the billionaire sheikh did not notice until his wife spotted the irregularities. Princess Kasia said: "I just saw some papers on my husband's desk and noticed something was wrong. We added the figures and found all the money we thought had been going into the bank had been going straight back out again." She said: "People said I was mad. But I strongly believe there is a gap in the market for an easy and efficient service with a range of gifts you would want yourself. We've been taking sales for a month and already we've had 95,000 hits and strong sales. Of course people are being more cautious but this is a long-term business." Barclays declined to comment about the claim.

The 50-year-old man was arrested by officers from Strike Force Gamut this afternoon at a home at Ashfield in Sydney's inner west. alleged multi-million dollar identity fraud and money-laundering syndicate have charged a man after a raid on a Sydney house. He was taken to Burwood Police Station where he was questioned and later charged with participating in a criminal group, dealing in the proceeds of crime and fraud-related offences. He has been refused bail to appear at Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday. Strike Force Gamut has been investigating the alleged activities of an organised crime group, which steals cheques and personal banking details from mailboxes. The personal details are then used to produce high quality counterfeit identity documents, including drivers' licences and Medicare cards, police said.
It's alleged the gang uses the documents to open bank accounts used to launder money and send it offshore. Investigators have released images of four men and three women they believe are involved and are appealing for the public's help in identifying and locating them.

Anchorage man who got into a lover’s spat with his girlfriend after allegedly kissing another woman outside his Spenard home early New Year’s Day wound up hospitalized after he pulled a gun on his girlfriend and she fought back, Anchorage police said Friday. Asipeli Vatuvei, 28, has been charged with felony assault and reckless endangerment following the dispute at about 5:30 a.m. New Year’s Day, police said.Police say that’s when they were summoned to the apartment at 1406 West 47th Ave. to the report of a man shot once in the back. Vatuvei and his girlfriend had been drinking, according to police, when he was spotted by the girlfriend smooching another woman. Vatuvei’s girlfriend confronted him and the pair began arguing, police said. During the spat, Vatuvei allegedly pulled a gun on his girlfriend and fired a shot at her, missing her, police said. His girlfriend then charged him, trying get wrest control of the weapon away, according to police. During the struggle, the weapon discharged and grazed Vatuvei in the back, police said. Vatuvei was taken to a local hospital, where he was treated for his injury and released, police said. He has since been arrested on charges of third-degree assault and reckless endangerment. He was booked at the Anchorage jail with bail set at $40,000, police said.

Police in southern Italy have arrested three men suspected of beating and setting fire to a rival as part of a local feud in the Calabrian town of Filadelfia. Investigators said the prime suspect, Santino Accetta, 34, had a conviction for drug dealing and was linked to the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian version of the Mafia notorious for its ferocity.The victim, Cristian Galati, 24, was found in a field by a farmer on New Year's Day. He had allegedly been picked up by the three suspects in Filadelfia the previous night and driven out into the countryside, where he was severely beaten, tied up and then set alight. Italian television news yesterday showed pictures of bloodstains and charred clothes.Investigators said Mr Accetta organised the beating because he suspected Mr Galati of setting fire to his car, a Volkswagen Golf, some months ago. Mr Galati is said to have been tricked into confessing while chatting on the internet. Police said two of the three suspects had admitted responsibility for the attack, which has left Mr Galati in a critical condition.Mr Galati's brother, Valentino, 19, . There have been six cases involving men under 29 in the Filadelfia area over the past 10 years, and there had been speculation that Mr Galati may have been attacked to discourage him from investigating his brother's disappearance.Antonio Sisca, an Italian journalist who has written about the disappearances for the local Gazzetta del Sud, said he did not believe that was the case. "He was a soft-hearted lad. I don't think he would have had the ability or the character to investigate that murder," Sisca said in a telephone interview. He said the motive for the attack was more likely to be connected to local rivalries.

Islamic administration in Burhakaba town southern Somalia which is 190 KM away from the Somali capital of Mogadishu had Friday morning executed two men who have committed banditry, as an Islamic officer stated. Osman Barur, a spokesman for the Islamists told local media that the execution of the two men was carried out according to Islamic law, and he has also warned any body commits any evil thing against Islamic law. These people were arrested from the outskirt of the city as they were looting the travelers and other innocent people" said the spokesperson.
Somali Islamists now control most of southern and central regions where they impose strict rules which drawn the world criticism on the way they practice the Islamic Sharia like execution remarkably the recent killing of 14-year old girl in Kismayo, the southern part of Somalia where the Islamists accused her of adultery.
The Islamic militants vowed to continue the fighting even if the Ethiopian troops withdraw the country and indicated to face against the secular government to put an effect the Islamic Sharia law on all corners of the country. Meanwhile three Ethiopian soldiers were killed in a road side bomb in southern Mogadishu on Friday, inhabitants stated. Muse Ali a dweller said, after the blast the Ethiopians fired pullets to all directions and they have killed 7 people, including people passing near the area. Ethiopia said before it will be pulling its troops out from Somalia in first days of this month.

Two men and two teens have been arrested on suspicion of gang-raping a woman last month in the San Francisco Bay area while allegedly taunting her for being a lesbian, police said Thursday.Officers arrested Humberto Hernandez Salvador at his Richmond home Wednesday night, Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan said. The 31-year-old is being held without bail on gang rape, kidnapping and carjacking charges.Police on Wednesday also arrested a 15-year-old Richmond boy and a 16-year-old Hercules boy, who were being held at a juvenile detention center on similar charges. Their names were not released.Josue Gonzalez, 21, turned himself in Thursday after police announced they were searching for him. He was wanted on charges of gang rape, kidnapping and carjacking.Gagan said Gonzalez asked for an attorney when he turned himself in but said nothing about his alleged role in the attack."We feel that while these four suspects were at large, a large cross-section of our population felt unsafe," Gagan said. "Now that the fourth one is behind bars, we can all breathe a sigh of relief."Police would not detail each person's alleged involvement. Tips from local residents led to the arrests.Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked on Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The alleged attackers made comments indicating they knew she was a lesbian, police said.Authorities have characterized the case as a hate crime. Police said the victim lives openly with a female partner.The 45-minute attack started when one of the men approached the woman in the street, struck her with a blunt object, ordered her to disrobe and sexually assaulted her with the help of the others, according to detectives.When the group saw another person approaching, they forced the victim back into her car and took her to a burned-out apartment building. She was raped again inside and outside the vehicle and left naked outside the building while the alleged assailants took her wallet and drove off in her car, police said.

Authorities say a Gardnerville man awaiting court proceedings on a drug charge was back in custody after he tested positive for cocaine.20-year-old Iqbal Singh was arrested Wednesday after he was accused of using cocaine in violation of terms of his release.He was arrested in July on a charge of sales of a controlled substance after allegedly selling cocaine in an undercover sting. East Fork Justice Jim EnEarl set a Jan. 30 preliminary hearing on the sales charge. EnEarl said Singh would be under house arrest with electronic monitoring if he posts $25,000 bail.

Leighton Richardson arrested in Tenerife after his girlfriend was found dying in a pool of blood at her apartment has been released from custody after being held since Christmas Eve.Before making his bail decision the judge studied police information which – despite earlier reports – said no baseball bat had been found at her flat.
But while investigations continue Leighton Richardson, born in Wrexham and who grew up in Mold, remains a suspect.He has been ordered to report daily to the court at Arona, on the holiday island’s south coast, where the investigating judge in charge of the case is based.Richardson has also had to surrender his passport to the court.
He was arrested in the early hours of Christmas Eve after Lisa McConway, 28, from Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland, was found by police at her flat in the brash resort of Playa de las Americas.She was in a critical condition and had severe bruising to much of her body.She was rushed to hospital but died at 1pm that day.
Reports said police had gone to the flat after neighbours telephoned just after 3am to report a violent row was taking place.The investigating judge decided to grant Richardson “provisional liberty” – the Spanish term for bail – after studying a written report by pathologists following an autopsy.
The experts were reported as concluding Miss McConway, who had a British passport, could have died either as the result of a beating or following a fall, it was reported yesterdayAlthough her injuries were consistent with an attack the autopsy revealed she suffered from a blood clotting condition which could cause extensive bruising as the result of a fall, court sources told local journalists.
Before making his bail decision the judge had also studied a police report which despite earlier reports said that no baseball bat had been found at Miss McConway’s flat.Nor had any witnesses been found to back-up the claim reportedly made by the initial caller a serious row had taken place.But two witnesses had said earlier Miss McConway had been “drinking a lot” and they had seen her “drunk”. The witnesses said she had fallen down opening a gash in her head.For his part Richardson had emphatically denied throughout his time in police custody and later at a closed door hearing in front of the investigating judge he had beaten Miss McConway.
Following Miss McConway’s death Jose Antonio Batista, the Spanish Interior Ministry representative in Tenerife, described the scene which greeted officers at her apartment as a “Dantesque spectacle”.He was quoted as telling local reporters: “All the furniture was overturned and there was blood on the floor and the walls.”
The official also said Miss McConway had telephoned Richardson, who lived elsewhere, at 3am last Wednesday to say she felt unwell. The boyfriend arrived shortly afterwards at her flat.Reports yesterday said the couple’s young son would be handed over to Richardson on his release.

Leighton Richardson has been arrested following the brutal murder of Lisa McConway, 28, from Dublin, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat in Tenerife on Christmas Eve.Richardson was arrested yesterday morning by Spanish police and is to appear at a closed hearing before a magistrate will decide whether or not to press charges.He is understood to be the father of Lisa McConway's three-year old son. It's believed the boy was in the apartment when his mother was attacked. Police were called when neighbours heard a violent row.McConway was taken to a local hospital where she died at around midday on Christmas Day.

Spanish anti-Corruption prosecutor is to investigate who sold funds organised by the disgraced New York broker, Bernard Madoff, in Spain. The prosecutor wants to establish if the agents acting here took an active part in the fraud which has been carried out, and it means that the Optimal and Banif funds from Santander will be under inspection along with all those who distributed the funds.

Army Major Arturo Gonzalez, who was arrested this week, allegedly received $100,000 a month to track the president for powerful Mexican drug gang leaders and is suspected of selling weapons to drug gangs and training their hit men, said the official, who asked not to be identified.army officer in the Mexican presidential guard is accused of selling secrets about the movements of President Felipe Calderon to drug cartels, a government official said."The major was part of the presidential guard and a protected witness said he received money to pass information about (the president's) official visits," the official said.Local media reported the drug gang leaders wanted information on Calderon's movements to ensure they were never in the same location as the president and his heavily armed guard.Gonzalez, whose arrest was announced on Friday, was detained as part of "Operation Clean-up," which has netted several high-ranking officials accused of collaborating with the Beltran Leyva brothers, who split off from the Sinaloa cartel run by Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.
Most of the officials arrested recently are senior policemen, including Mexico's liaison to Interpol and the head of the country's organised crime unit.
The presidential guard is a specialized army unit responsible for protecting the president and his family. Gonzalez's suspected collaboration with drug traffickers was revealed by a protected witness who was a member of the Beltran Leyva cartel, the government official said.Since taking office in 2006, Calderon has deployed thousands of troops and federal police to drug hot spots to take on the powerful cartels.The offensive by the government has failed to curb soaring drug violence. More than 5,300 people have been killed this year, more than twice as many as 2007, as traffickers fight each other and the government over drug smuggling routes.
Calderon deployed the army to fight organized crime partly because soldiers have traditionally been seen as less corrupt than police.Military men across the ranks have said they too are being offered thousands of dollars to ignore drug shipments or tip off cartels. Last weekend, in the worst attack yet against the army, police found the beheaded and tortured bodies of eight soldiers in a town near Acapulco, their heads stuffed in a black plastic bag and tossed outside a shopping centre.

Notorious gangster Pappu Ganjeri, 25, was shot dead at Shivaji Nagar in Chandpur Bela locality under the Jakkanpur police station on Saturday
evening.Police said criminals opened fire at Ganjeri when he was loitering near a pond close to his residence at Shivaji Nagar. Before the locals could react, the assailants escaped. Ganjeri was taken to PMCH where he succumbed to his injuries.
Patna DIG Amit Kumar said Ganjeri was involved in over 20 cases of murder, extortion, loot, dacoity and Arms Act lodged in different police stations of Patna.
Police said Ganjeri had differences with his old friends, and they might have killed him. Sources said there was no Section left in the Indian Penal Code under which he was not booked. "His killing has brought relief to people and police," said a police officer.

The new owners of the Hotel Los Monteros, the Russian petrol group, North West Oil, are reported by El País to have sacked 72 of the hotel’s 180 workers, some 40%.
Gonzalo Fuentes, the Regional Secretary of the Commerce Federation of the Union Comisones Obreras, said that the workers are to take legal action, and say they have not been paid any compensation for the sackings or three months back pay which is owed. They are planning strike action on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and say the stoppage could become indefinite. A final decision on strike action will be taken by the workers on Friday.A statement from the hotel said the decision was taken for economic reasons.

Spain’s government is to help home-seekers buy or rent one million homes in the next four years, it said on Friday, as it seeks fiscal catalysts as well as props for the hard-hit housing sector.

Under the plan, which was approved by the cabinet on Friday, Spain will spend 10.1 billion euros ($13.4 billion) to help the poorest families, the elderly, young people, the disabled and victims of domestic violence find a home through a system of subsidies to developers.

It also throws a lifeline to Spain’s struggling builders who have seen revenues crumble following a shuddering halt to a decade-long boom.That, added to a lack of credit, could see many more go the way of Martinsa Fadesa — at one time Spain’s biggest builder — which filed for administration earlier this year.The Housing Ministry said in a statement that the plan dedicated a third more than the plan’s previous draft and would increase the number of homes available by roughly 380,000 as Spain looks to infrastructure projects to head off what analysts forecast will be its worst recession in 50 years during 2009.Spain has announced fiscal stimulus totalling over 50 billion euros of tax breaks, low-cost loans and public works spending.

75-year-old woman was killed last night when the bedroom roof of her cave house collapsed in on top of her as she was sleeping. The incident occurred at around 2.30am at number 19, calle Castellana, Rojales (Alicante), a small town with a population of just over 7,000 inhabitants some 4km inland from Guardamar del Segura.
The rest of the property was unaffected. Emergency medics were unable to revive the victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

legal firm in Murcia, acting under instruction from several banks and almost bankrupt real estate developers, is offering properties for sale at really bargain basement prices. Some of the deals on offer are the result of property being embargoed, whilst others are due to an excessive building programme.

For example: a brand new home with three bedrooms and all the attendant services, set on the coast and near a golf course, is being priced at just one hundred thousand euros.

Agents of the National Police Corps, assigned to the Special Response Group against Organized Crime in Ibiza, have proceeded to the dismantling of a complex criminal organization composed of Ibiza citizens who were very much related to the world of the night. It is the largest network of introduction and distribution of narcotic substances by residents on the island, according to the police stressed in a statement. investigation, which began in mid-May, found that detainees introduced and distributed the goods among traffickers involved in sales at bars and nightclubs on the island. The head of the organization, PPR, was in charge of making contacts with the mainland to stock up on drugs. The ringleader had numerous rented in the name of third parties in order to avoid such as leaseholder appear. Distributed the goods among all the homes, located in spots strategically placed to detect police presence This subject was traveling in rented vehicles, also on behalf of third parties, to avoid being detected. To provide this infrastructure was in charge of other detainees, TIT, who gained a certain amount of money held by each administration. December 8 players GRECO detected how the organization had anticipated the arrival in the island of a significant quantity of drugs, which sought to distribute at Christmas. After ascertaining that the goods were in Ibiza led to the arrest of those surveyed. Once the ruling was timely house searches and a half intervened four kilos of cocaine in rock of high purity, three cars (a BMW 330, a Volkswagen Golf and Volkswagen Polo), 4,000 euros in cash, precision scales, numerous mobile phones and 18,000 euros were frozen in several bank accounts.

Football great John Barnes, tennis legend Pat Cash, cricket's Darren Gough and rugby's Martin Corry and Martin Offiah are just some of the high profile figures who were promised luxury apartments if their names could be used to promote overseas developments that many fear will never be built.The promises were made by a Spanish company, which was closely involved with Sean Woodhall, a 43-year-old fraudster who disappeared after a light aircraft carrying him and other debt-ridden businessmen crashed in a Brazilian forest in May.The sportsmen have been offered holiday homes at the proposed "five-star" resort in Tafedna Bay, Morocco, which does not have planning permission, where not a spade has been turned and yet on which sales agents have already been taking cash from British customers.Former England rugby captain Corry this week cancelled his involvement in the project after police warned him about the potential fraud."He no longer wants anything to do with it," his spokesman said. Pat Cash is also reconsidering his contract. In another closely related suspected scam, a group of well-known footballers, including one ex-England international, are preparing to sue Midlands-based Ocean View Properties, which the as having left hundreds of customers millions out of pocket.The company is also believed to have conned two serving police officers. Ocean View, which has debts of more than £100million, this week took down its website "for maintenance". Both police and Government fraud agencies are now investigating the company and a multimillion-pound black hole. The suspected swindles involve four central characters and their cross-border labyrinth of companies, which lured people to invest in "off-plan" holiday-homes in Spain, Morocco and the Dominican Republic.
Buy-to-let millionaire Colin Thomas is the owner of Ocean View Properties; Woodhall, whose body has never been recovered, was Mr Thomas's dealmaker in Spain; Adam Sargent was Mr Thomas's expert salesman in the sports world; and Spaniard Ricardo Miranda was the supposed developer in all three countries.Mr Thomas formed Ocean View in 2001, the year that Woodhall moved to Spain after being convicted for a franchise fraud in Birmingham.Woodhall found sites in the Costa del Sol, while in Britain Mr Thomas created a network of franchise agents to sell off-plan apartments.
These agents were part of Ocean View's "one-stop shop" property service, which allowed it to control cashflows and direct customers to its own recommended mortgage brokers, travel agents and Spanish conveyancing lawyers-a practice criticised by the buy-to-let industry's own trade body.
Among these agents was Mr Sargent, a financial adviser to star footballers. He helped Ocean View sponsor Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion, and Leicester City.
They told cash rich footballers there were guaranteed rental yields and high capital profits abroad. Among the many footballers to invest in discount deals were Villa's Gareth Barry, Newcastle United's Alan Smith and Shola Ameobi, and ex-Liverpool midfielder Steve Staunton.In return they allowed their names to be used on promotional material. Similar deals were also struck with England cricketers Duggie Brown and Paul Nixon, who still advertise their involvement with Ocean View on the Professional Cricketers' Association website.Customers would exchange contracts with a Spanish developer and hand over typical deposits of £70,000 to Ocean View in Britain.Mr Thomas said he would then transfer the bulk of the deposit to the developer. Many of the properties were built, but some were sub-standard, according to customers. However, cracks surfaced when the Costa del Sol property market collapsed amid a widespread corruption scandal in 2006. It then emerged that Ocean View and Mr Miranda's development company, Sungolf, had been taking deposits for the proposed Estepona Beach and Country Club near Malaga, a site that did not have planning permission and which has yet to be built.That was not allowed under Spanish law, legal sources have said.They have also said that Ocean View's practice of charging customers Spanish VAT on the full purchase price rather than on just the initial deposit was also illegal.Customers, many of them preparing legal cases, are now claiming they were deliberately duped. Last week, Ocean View's owner Colin Thomas said because Sungolf had all the cash, it would be starting a refund scheme in February.However, Mr Miranda's spokeswoman denied that was the case, claiming they had "proof" the money had already been "returned" to Ocean View.Meanwhile, Ocean View has also been telling unhappy customers they can transfer their contracts to another of Mr Miranda's developments-Morocco's Tafedna Bay, a site where Mr Sargent has been touting for business through his new company, Zenith Overseas Investments.The links between the businessmen can also be traced to Mr Miranda's Punta Perla development in the Dominican Republic, an empty site where Newcastle's Alan Smith has also invested.Last week, Ocean View's Mr Thomas said he had no involvement there, but the Sunday Express has obtained a sales document, which states that cheques for deposits in Punta Perla should be sent to his company in Staffordshire.Mr Thomas also said last week that he had severed relations with conman Woodhall in 2004. However, Ocean View was acting as agents for Woodhall's now-defunct Punta Perla Caribbean company from late 2005. Two weeks ago Woodhall's other company, Worldwide Destinations, was expelled from the industry's trade body, the Association of International Property Professionals, for allegedly selling non-existent mortgages in Egypt.Mr Thomas, Mr Sargent, and Mr Miranda have all strongly denied any wrongdoing. Mr Sargent said: "I took on an Ocean View franchise for five years and recommended it as a pension replacement and pension supplement scheme to my clients."The idea was to get people to buy properties, then get them built, and put them into a rental programme with its own travel arm."Generally, they've done that to a degree. The travel arm wasn't as successful as everybody had hoped, but we've managed to put people into a long term rental contract and I've been a lot more hands on than most in the sense that I've tried to manage the clients expectations."

Spain's top-selling newspaper El Pais on Sunday revealed details of CIA secret flights taking prisoners to Guantanamo bay using Spain as a stop-over. According to the paper, the National Court of Spain is investigating the false names given by crews of several CIA-operated civilian flights that stopped over in Palma de Mallorca in 2003 and 2005.Egyptian Mustafa Osama Nasr and German-Lebanese Hamed Al Masri, who were kidnapped and tortured by CIA agents in Milan and Macedonia, respectively, were in those airplanes, together with others prisoners, says El Pais.
It also reports crews in those flights used false identities during stopovers in Spain, as stated in evidences given by the British organization Reprieve to Spain Justice. If the false identity crime is finally proved, National Court of Spain will demand CIA agents be taken to court, judicial sources affirmed.El País paper talks about eight of the passengers, who made phone calls to US from Royal Plaza Hotel, Ibiza, on February 6-12, 2005, and describes them as a team that participated in seven kidnappings and illegal traffic of people. The two pilots of CIA planes were registered as James Richard Fairing and Eric Matthew Fair, but their real names are James Kovalesky and Eric R. Hume, according to Reprieve’s investigator Olivier Minkwitz.

Jürgen Sauer is the co-founder of the Kempinski Hotel in Estepona and the owner of the Sauer real estate company. He has real estate interests in Mallorca, Tenerife, Sotogrande, Mijas and Marbella. His current offices are in the annexe of the Laguna Beach Hotel. Judicial sources have told El País that he is accused of money laundering and has been granted bail at 150,000 €.German businessman has been arrested in connection with the Hidalgo money laundering case in Marbella. Eighteen months after the case, based in the lawyers Cruz Conde, broke, police have now arrested a German businessman based on the Costa del Sol and have once again searched the offices of the Marbella lawyers Cruz Conde.The Anti-Corruption prosecutor is investigating the creation of 800 companies in the Cruz Conde offices, allegedly used to launder money from illicit origins.

Parliamentary investigation into fuel poverty is to investigate £12 million a year of winter fuel payments made to British pensioners living abroad. Michael Jack, chairman of the Select Committee for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said the issue had emerged as a “key” area of concern in their inquiry. He said: “For many pensioners in the UK at the moment the winter fuel payment is the difference between turning on the heating or not. With the sharp rise in fuel bills we wish to check the deployment of this benefit and how effective it is. “It certainly seems very unusual that this remains a universal benefit, payable to every pensioner at 60 and is not even means-tested.” The select committee is expected to make recommendations about possible changes to the winter fuel payment scheme in a report to Ed Miliband, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, in the new year. Under official rules the £200 winter fuel allowance is paid to anyone living in Britain on their 60th birthday on a state pension, even if that person intends to retire or spend winter months in wamer countries. The payments rise to more than £300 for the over-80s. There is not even a requirement for the money to be used for heating bills. The payment is only made if British citizens move to one of the 29 countries in the European Economic Area. It is part of the European Union portable allowances scheme and cash is paid into overseas bank accounts. It does not apply to anyone moving to Commonwealth countries such as Australia, New Zealand or Canada, who have their pension and fuel payments frozen once they leave Britain. A coalition of pensioners’ groups is lobbying for these payments to some 50,000 Britons living abroad to be switched to help those at home struggling to pay bills to combat the cold. The Fuel Poverty Advisory Group (FPAG) claims that gas and electricity bills in Cyprus, for example, which enjoys some 300 days of sunshine a year, are £500 cheaper than in Britain. Derek Lickorish, chairman of the group, is angry about the inequity of the payments and is to speak against them when he gives evidence to the MPs’ inquiry on Monday.
“We are urging the Government to review its policy. Many of these countries do not even get cold in the winter months yet the payments are automatic. And many of the pensioners who receive this cash are higher rate taxpayers - the wealthy - and they have less need for them.” He added: “Obviously there will always be extreme circumstances in which some pensioners living abroad will be in need of funds for winter fuel but there is an overwhelming case for the payments to be better targetted.” Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, called for these payments to expatriates to be scrapped immediately. “It is ludicrous that people on the Costa del Sol are getting winter fuel payments,” he said. “These benefits are meant to help hard-up pensioners in Britain get through the winter, so they shouldn’t be paid to expats. It beggars belief that the taxpayer is forking out for all these people living it up overseas, who are taking us all for a ride.”
Pensioner couples such as Jim and Hilary Ross, of Rochester, Kent, have seen their own fuel bills rocket an extra £360 a year. This has effectively cancelled out the winter fuel payment sending them into fuel poverty. Any household spending 10 per cent or more of its income on gas and electricity is defined as fuel poor. Mrs Ross said: “The winter fuel payments do not help us as much as they could - they should be means-tested because clearly pensioners living in Cyprus or Spain are not going to be as cold as us. It just doesn’t seem fair.” Any change will have to win the backing of Gordon Brown. The issue is a cross-departmental matter between Ed Miliband responsible for energy and James Purnell, Work and Pensions Secretary, whose staff make the payments to pensioners.
A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions said: “It is a universal benefit. The majority of people receiving the payment need and appreciate the financial assistance. There are strict eligibility rules and people must be 60 to qualify. It cannot be claimed by anyone aged 58 or 59 who takes early retirement and goes to live abroad. It is also only paid to former UK residents living in the European Economic Area or Switzerland if they qualified for it before leaving the UK.”

Teenage boy is under arrest after police say he took a loaded handgun to Valley High School. Staff received word that a student may bring a gun to school. Police and staff located the suspect near the cafeteria, but he ran away. A school resource officer followed him and Metro Police took him into custody. Police said the teen had a .22 caliber Derringer. Jefferson County Public Schools representative Lauren Roberts said the boy is charged with unlawful possession on school property. He also faces a long-term suspension. No injuries were reported.

Jason Alexander who was married to Britney Spears for 55 hours in 2004 - was arrested in L.A. Wednesday on a probation violation.As part of his parole stemming from a 2006 DUI arrest, Alexander, 27, was ordered to complete an alcohol education program. According to court papers, a judge sentenced him to 10 days in jail Wednesday after he blew off a second appointment visiting the county morgue.The judge also ordered him to readmit to a six-month alcohol program.
He's currently being detained at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, California.

Yadkinville police officer's hunch about the comings and goings from the parking lot of the Days Inn motel last year led to one of the largest drug busts in the town's history.And one of the larger drug money seizures in the state last year, authorities said.
Not only did the arrest take a major drug trafficker off the street, but it helped to dismantle a drug smuggling operation based in Mexico with ties to North Carolina.
The arrest of Alejandro Alvarron Alvarado on Dec. 12, 2007, netted more than $2 million worth of cocaine and methamphetamine and $401,880 in cash, said Delbert Richburg, an assistant special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.Richburg presented a commemorative check for $400,000 today to officers in Yadkin, Iredell, Forsyth counties as well as the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation. The presentation at 11 a.m. was at the Yadkinville Police Department. The agencies will share the drug money based on their level of participation in the investigation.
"Many times the public is not made aware of significant achievements made by law enforcement agencies," Richburg said. He added that many of the details of the case were kept low key during the investigation.
The Yadkinville police officer was watching the motel parking lot the night before the arrest. First, a woman got out of a Jeep Liberty and into a Dodge Durango. Then, a group of men outside the hotel got into the Jeep and left, according to a search warrant. When they returned, they switched vehicles again and drove away.
The officer found that suspicious and called for backup from Yadkin County's drug-interdiction team.
And with that call local officers also got help with surveillance from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency's El Paso Intelligence Center.
The Durango made stops in Hamptonville, North Wilkesboro, Hayes and Winston-Salem before returning to a house at 4428 Wiles Road in Hamptonville, where Alvarado lived.
Within hours, the team raided the house and seized 8 kilograms of cocaine as well as methamphetamine.
Alvarado, 36, was charged with trafficking cocaine, trafficking methamphetamine, and maintaining a vehicle for drug purposes. As part of a plea bargain with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty Aug. 27 in Yadkin Superior Court to attempted trafficking in cocaine and was sentenced to 61 to 83 months in prison. Alvarado is an illegal immigrant and will be deported to Mexico after the sentence.
Large-scale drug organizations depend on nation's highways to reach varied communities, authorities say. Alvarado worked for a drug organization that focused in the Yadkinville area but had transportation routes up and down the East Coast.
Alvarado had been in the Yadkinville area for some time, Richburg said. He would take cash back to Mexico, and on his return, would bring drugs into Yadkin.
The Durango and the Jeep were equipped with non-factory installed hidden compartments to hide money and drugs.
Yadkin Sheriff Mike Cain said sometimes drug dealers do big deals in rural counties because there is less law enforcement. But Yadkin was able to get a hold of Alvarado because they were working with other agencies, he said.
Yadkinville and Yadkin County are expected to receive about $80,000 each of the drug money that was seized.
ICE will receive $100,000, the SBI $100,000, Iredell $20,000 and Forsyth $20,000.
The money will be used to purchase equipment and help with future investigations.
"It's about saving the taxpayer money by getting things to help fight crime that they don't have to pay for," Parks said.

Former Rome businessman Mario Armas was in court again on Thursday, this time pleading guilty to masterminding a home invasion that occurred in 2004.The home invasion reportedly was an attempt to steal nearly 1.5 million dollars and recoup losses in incurred in drug smuggling.Armas was sentenced to 20 years in which 10 will be served. The sentence will be served concurrently with the federal sentence he received last year for drug smuggling and money laundering.

Brazil City Police Captain Terry Harrison confirmed to The Brazil Times that preliminary charges are in the process of being filed against William E. Baugh, 45, Terre Haute. Officials believe Baugh is one of two suspects using a 4-door bronze-colored vehicle to follow a local elderly lady as she went shopping around town and then robbed her of her groceries and purse when she arrived home around 2 p.m.
Currently incarcerated at the Vigo County Jail, Baugh was taken into custody Monday evening after a high-speed pursuit with law enforcement that started in Paris, Ill., and ended in West Terre Haute. Vigo County Jail officials confirmed Baugh is currently charged with two preliminary counts of residential entry and one count each of criminal mischief, resisting law enforcement, driving while never licensed and a parole violation. There is also a court-ordered arrest warrant issued from Clark County Illinois. Although facing two $50,000 cash bonds, officials said Baugh would not be released due to the hold issued by Clark County Illinois. Harrison confirmed an arrest warrant was being issued for a second unidentified suspect in the case.

It was a quick response by Richmond County Investigators. Within minutes of two suspects robbing the Georgia Bank & Trust, authorities set up an intense perimeter blocks from the crime scene. Witnesses at the bank say they saw two guys get into this green Chevy. Investigators say the getaway car was found between Parnell and Emmett Street. That is where authorities set up and searched the area with k-9’s.Lieutenant Scott Pebble, Richmond County Sheriffs Office: “We are searching under peoples houses looking for signs of any fresh disturbance around the houses.”
Investigators tell us red dye from the stolen money pack exploded inside the car. Authorities believe the suspects fled on foot leaving a trial of money behind. Some in the neighborhood watched as the operation unfolded.Tommie Stacy, Augusta: ‘’It’s just amazing to me how some people are.”Fraendy Clervaud, Reporting: “With the perimeter set, investigators checked several cars coming in and out of the area to make sure none of the suspects were hiding out in them.”Three schools were placed on lockdown including Tubman Middle.Tommie Stacy, Augusta: “I feel that was the right thing to do to keep the kids safe and all you never know these guys are desperate to get away some times. No telling what they might do.”Investigators say the thieves can run but they can’t hide the fact that red dye is all over them. Lieutenant Scott Pebbles, Richmond County Sheriffs Office: “That dye will be very hard to get off. It’s likely if it got on the skin that taking it off the skin will be a bit painful and will probably cause abrasions it’s not something that can be wiped off easily.”

Spanish property developer said Tuesday it will hold a raffle to unload 31 apartments near Spanish property developer said Tuesday it will hold a raffle to unload 31 apartments near Barcelona which have been difficult to sell amid a collapse in the real estate market.Tickets for the raffle cost 50 euros (63 dollars) and they will go on sale on Wednesday, a spokesman for developer Grupo de Empresas Rob told AFP.The company hopes to sell 7,000 raffle tickets for each apartment which will be awarded, meaning it would raise 350,000 euros per dwelling.If the developer does not sell at least 6,500 tickets for a particular apartment, the raffle will not go ahead for that property and participants will receive a refund.The raffle, which will be supervised by a notary, will be held in the coming months, the spokesman said.
All of the apartments -- which are between 50 and 90-square metres (970-square feet) -- are all located on the same street in the Barcelona suburb of Santa Coloma de Gramenet.After a decade-long boom, Spain's property market began to slump last year due to rising interest rates, oversupply and tougher lending conditions introduced in the wake of the global credit crunch.Property sales declined 28.2 percent during the first nine months of this year compared with the same period of 2007, national statistics institute INE said last week.The drop in sales has led developers to come up with innovative promotions to try to sell properties.In October another Spanish developer, Salsa Immobiliaria, offered a one bedroom apartment to anyone who bought one of its four-bedroom townhouses near the beach in Terrazas de Miraflores on the Costa del Sol.In May a man who could not meet mortgage payments on his apartment near Madrid tried to organise a raffle to unload it but he had to call off the contest because he failed to get the proper authorisation.

Spain's police have unveiled the plans of the Georgian-born crime boss Zakhar Kalashov, who was trying to influence the judiciary and free him from the Spanish prison. Spanish newspaper ABC reports that Kalashov has created a whole structure which had to work on his release from prison, just the way he used to do in Russia. Oleg Vorontsov and Alexander Golfshtein were the key figures in this secret plan. Vorontsov was the first advisor of Russia's ex-president Yeltsin years ago.As the author of the article reports, Golfstein brought a very serious amount of money collected from Russian criminal network to Spain, which had to be spent on the release of the crime-boss Kalashov. Kalashov was arrested in Dubai in 2006, as he was returning from a 'congress' of criminal authorities.

Michael Wilks, 34, of Barking is being held along with four others thought to be part of a trafficking ring trying to smuggle drugs into the UK.Amanda Goodwin, 48, from Brighton, David Mead, 45, of Beckenham, Martin James Veryard, 39, and a Romanian man were also arrested.The huge stash of cannabis was found in compressed blocks in the back of a van in Benijofar, south of Alicante in Spain.After discovering the drugs armed officers swooped on an address in El Garrucha in Murcia, a stolen luxury car and a gun were found at the property.Spanish police said the operation, codenamed Rostel, was part of a sting on a common drug trafficking route from north Africa to south Spain.All five suspects are awaiting trial in Spain on crimes against public health; the foreign office was unable to comment.

The fishing vessel, “Venturer”, is currently anchored in Port Williams, outside the capital Stanley, next to another trawler belonging to the same company.

Royal Falkland Islands Police confirmed that they had made a seizure of cocaine worth over one million pounds from a fishing vessel co-owned by Spanish and local company. Falklands’ Chief Police Officer Paul Elliot said that a joint operation involving the Falkland Islands Customs and Immigration Department, the JSPSU Dog Section and the Royal Falkland Islands Police resulted in the arrest of six foreign seamen and the seizure of a large quantity of a class A drug, namely over 30 kilos of cocaine with an estimate street value of over one million pounds (1.6 million US dollars).Apparently the drug was sniffed by a dog which has a previous live find.
Mr. Elliot reported that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are aware of the catch and have informed the appropriate British authorities.A representative from the local Falklands’ company Fortuna, Stuart Wallace made a brief statement on the incident: A number of employees of one of our group companies have been arrested in connection with the possession of an illegal drug.Mr. Wallace said that the Company is of course co-operating fully with the ongoing investigation being carried out by the relevant authorities.Reliable Falklands’ sources have said that as the tightening of routes from cocaine producing areas to Europe via United States and the Caribbean, “we shouldn’t be surprised these things happen, but I believe the Falklands are prepared for such a challenge”.The Falklands main source of income is fisheries, particularly squid most of which is transhipped in the Islands or in the Uruguayan port of Montevideo for export to Europe.Recently Uruguayan authorities working on tips from the US and Spain busted an international organization that sent illegal drugs taking advantage of frozen fish exports from the port of Montevideo to Spain.

It seems that the Police in Spain are investigating $125,000 in missing designer jewelry last seen on Winona Ryder at an event on Sunday. She was loaned an incredible Bulgari bracelet and ring to wear to a Marie Claire event in Spain last weekend. Now the jewelry is apparently missing.Supposedly Winona left the diamond encrusted bracelet and ring in an envelope and handed them to front desk staff at her Madrid hotel. But closed circuit TV doesn’t show her returning anything.
And even though Winona was arrested for shoplifting at Saks Fifth Avenue in 2001 and there was this incident with a CVS Pharmacy, police are not considering Winona a suspect in the jewelry case at this time.

Aifos, a holiday home developer based in Marbella, has been forced into receivership by one of its creditors , the Spanish press reports.The company is reported to have 850 million Euros of debt, which would make it one of the biggest developers to date to go into administration, after Martinsa-Fadesa and Tremon. Its biggest creditor is Banco Popular, which it reportedly owes 200 million Euros, followed by Banco Pastor, which it owes 150 million Euros, though Banco Pastor claims its exposure to Aifos is only around 30 million Euros.Gestión de Obras y Reformas Ltd, one of Aifos’s suppliers and creditors, started bankruptcy proceedings against Aifos last week in a court in Malaga. Press reports speculate that the failure of the Spanish developer Tremon might have prompted the bankruptcy proceedings against Aifos.Aifos, one of the biggest developers in Andalucia, has been on course for liquidity problems since 2006, when it was caught up in Operation Malaya, a police operation against municipal corruption. Jesús Ruiz Casado, the owner of Aifos, and Jenaro Briales, the then MD, were arrested on the suspicion of paying bribes. Aifos is also accused of unethical conduct by many of its clients, and has serious, unresolved client problems at many of its developments, some of which have been illegally built.
Aifos’s frustrated clients, some of whom made stage payments 7 or more years ago and still have no home to show for their payments, will need to keep a close eye on proceedings if they wish to avoid losing all hope of recovering their money.

Spanish leader General Francisco Franco's daughter has revealed that her father feared that Adolf Hitler would kidnap him to force Spain into the Second World War.
Carmen Franco Polo, 82, said that her father had even nominated three substitutes to assume power at a conference in 1940, just in case he was actually abducted by the Nazi leader. She has written about her life with El Caudillo in her book 'Franco, My Father', published in Spain on Friday. The only daughter of General Franco, who ruled Spain for about four decades, also reveals that her father ordered troop reinforcements to the coast at the end of the Second World War because he believed that the Allies would invade his country. According to her, her father thought that he had a good relationship with British leader Winston Churchill during the war, but did not get on with the then US President Franklin Roosevelt.She even describes Roosevel's wife, Eleanor, in novel terms. The Americans liked my father but not Roosevelt, whose wife was very pro-Communist, Times Online quoted her as writing in the book. Carmen said that the reason why her father liked the British was his belief that they were law-abiding. He admired England a lot, especially the people, because they did what they had to do and obeyed the law. This he found very admirable, she said. She said that when Franco went to meet Hitler in 1940 in Hendaye, a French town on the Spanish border, he was afraid that Hitler could kidnap him just like Napoleon had kidnapped Spanish King Carlos IV in 1808 during peace talks.It was due to that fear, she added, that her father had nominated a general and two others to assume control of the country should he be kidnapped.
She revealed that Franco angered Hitler by refusing to enter the Second World War, and found their meeting a bad-tempered affair. To my father it seemed very, very different. When they talked it didn't have the good atmosphere which happened with a later meeting with Mussolini, she wrote.Carmen's book consists of a series of interviews with the Spanish historian Jesus Palacios and Stanley G. Payne, an American expert on Spain. She has also mixed her own memories about world events with reminiscences about day-to-day life

Former Northumbria Police officer has been found guilty of passing on police information to a murder suspect. Newcastle Crown Court was told that Det Con John Jones became the "eyes and ears" of gangland leader Allan Foster. The court heard his actions meant that Mr Foster, wanted for the killing of a South Tyneside drug dealer, could stay one step ahead of the law. Jones, from Seaham in County Durham, was found guilty of four charges of misconduct in a public office. He will be sentenced on Wednesday. The jury heard that Jones began associating with Mr Foster, who worked out at the same gym. At one point they went to London for a night out in London involving prostitutes and cocaine. After the murder of David "Noddy" Rice in South Shields in 2006, Mr Foster, now 32, was able to stay one step ahead of the authorities and spirit himself out from the country. He is now believed to be hiding in Spain. After he was arrested, Jones told officers he associated with Mr Foster in all innocence, but accepted he had been foolish. Det Supt Ian Daws, head of the Northumbria Police Integrity Unit, said the corruption investigation began soon after Mr Rice was killed. He said: "Witnesses were refusing to speak to detectives because they believed Allan Foster had 'a cop on the payroll'. "Jones' failure to respond to the request for information in the murder investigation severely impaired the progress of that case in its early stages." Det Supt Barbara Franklin said: "We are still actively seeking Allan Foster and would ask anyone with information to contact the police."

Three unidentified men forced their way into a home in the 4600 block of 10th Avenue West this morning , put the occupants into a bathroom and stole $2,000 cash and electronics, according to a Manatee County Sheriff s Office report

Only 2,500 properties for residential tourists have been sold this year |Sales of holiday homes on the Costa del Sol have plummeted in the last year, down 89 per cent. In fact we have to go back 25 years to find figures similar to this year?s thanks to the economic crisis that is affecting not just in Spain, but also the other countries whose citizens once flocked to the Costa del Sol to buy a holiday home.According to the President of the Malaga Builders and Developers Association (ACP)

Jose Oliveira e Costa, Former chief of Spain's BPN bank Banco Portugal de Negocios (BPN) between 1997 and early 2008, was arrested Thursday on charges of suspected tax fraud, money laundering, forgery, abuse of credit and illegal gains. Portuguese judicial authorities have detained the former president of financially troubled small commercial bank BPN on charges including alleged tax fraud and money laundering, local media reported Thursday. The Central Criminal Tribunal in Lisbon sentenced Costa to three months of preventive detention Friday after an eight-hour hearing, the Portuguese daily Diario de Noticias reported. The detention aims to prevent the suspect from escaping and destroying documents that may contain incriminating evidence, the paper said, quoting court officials. The court will decide whether to extend Costa's detention after the three-month period expires, said the report. The government said earlier this month that BPN had suffered losses worth about 700 million euros (880 million U.S. dollars) due to bad management and malpractice. It also decided to nationalize the bank in a bid to prevent a financial crisis chain reaction in Portugal. Following the government's announcement, local media revealed that police had long started investigations into BPN, which is suspected of being involved in money laundering. Portugal's banks have weathered the financial crisis relatively well as they hold no U.S. subprime assets and have relatively conservative lending practices.

Judge at Fuengirola court has indicted twenty individuals of different nationalities with conspiring to defraud around 200, mostly British, foreign property investors in a scam estimated to have netted the gang more than €65 million euros. They are accused of selling shares in fictitious construction properties on the Costa del Sol and face charges including fraud, falsifying documents, money-laundering, and tax evasion. Two of the suspects were arrested last Wednesday in a series of raids across Málaga province.

Spanish and British journalists kidnapped in northern Somalia refused a police escort and arranged for their own security through their translators, who are suspected of having abducted them, officials said on Thursday.
Spanish freelance photographer José Cendón and British journalist Colin Freeman, who were working on a report on piracy for Britain's Daily Telegraph, were kidnapped on Wednesday in the port of Bosasso, the capital of the semi-autonomous Somali state of Puntland.
"On arrival, the authorities warned them to take a police escort, but they turned this down and hired their own security from an unknown militia group hired by their translators, who we suspect of being the kidnappers," Puntland Information Minister Abdirahman Mohamed Bankah said in a press conference.
Puntland's authorities "are doing everything possible to obtain information on their whereabouts and taking the necessary measures to free them," Bankah said.
The journalists' driver, Liban Said Omar, told Efe that the two journalists had been in Bosasso for a week working on a story about piracy when they were abducted.
In recent months, pirates from Puntland have become more active, seizing several dozen ships, including the Saudi-owned supertanker MV Sirius Star and the Ukrainian cargo ship Faina, which was carrying arms.
The pirates are still holding the two vessels, along with about 15 other ships, and demanding the payment of ransom.
There are reports that the kidnappers have taken the journalists to a mountainous area north of Bosasso.
Puntland presidential spokesman Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade, meanwhile, said the journalists were in the region illegally.
"They were not here legally because they did not report their identity to police on arrival," Mohamoud Qabowsade told Shabelle Radio.
Mohamoud Qabowsade told Efe on Thursday by telephone that the three translators and facilitators hired by the journalists were behind the kidnapping, but he did not provide any evidence to back up his allegations.
"I have warned journalists who come here that they should not make contact with independent press facilitators because they have links to armed gangs and could kidnap them. If they come here, they should have police escorts," the presidential spokesman said.
Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said on Thursday in Brussels that Spain and Britain had created a "crisis group" to deal with the journalists' kidnappings.
Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos, meanwhile, said Spain had not yet received any ransom demands from the kidnappers.
The Venezuela-born Cendón has won several awards for his work covering conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa, including the 2007 Oskar Barnack Leica Prize for the story "Fear in the Great Lakes," which took him to psychiatric hospitals in Rwanda, Burundi and Congo.
The 34-year-old Cendón currently works out of Addis Ababa.
The Spanish photojournalist's family is anxiously awaiting word from the kidnappers, Cendón's brother-in-law, Manuel Canedo, told Efe from the northwestern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela.
"Up to now, we knew wherever he was, he was fine, because every few days he would call or send an e-mail ... but the situation is different now. You don't know anything," Canedo said.
Two other Western journalists are still missing in Somalia, where they were abducted in August along with a Somali cameraman, and they have reportedly been taken to a hideout in the country's southern region by an armed group.
Last December, a Spanish doctor and an Argentine nurse working for Doctors Without Borders were kidnapped in Puntland.
Spanish Dr. Mercedes García and Argentine nurse Pilar Bauza were released in January after $200,000 in ransom, according to Somali officials, was paid.

The European Commission has decided to take Spain to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg for not taking measures to stop the amount of advertising shown on TV screens here. Advertising on Spanish channels regularly breaks the 12 minute per hour limit fixed by European legislation, often by several minutes.EU Commissioner for the Information Society, Viviane Reding, described the situation in Spain as ‘saturation’, and said that previous EU warnings, starting in July 2007, had been ignored.

fifth largest real estate company in Spain, Habitat, has filed for bankruptcy protection. Habitat has a reported debt of 2.3 billion €.
The company is thought to have over-extended itself when it purchased Ferrovial Inmobiliaria, before the real estate bubble burst, and can no longer sustain such a high level of debt. A statement from the company said the objective was to preserve, in the best way possible, the rights of all the creditors and to proceed to a restructuring of the financial situation, which will allow the continuation of the business.It’s the second largest company failure in Spain, behind only that of the Martinsa-Fadesa last summer. The Tremón Group also declared itself insolvent just over a week ago with a debt of 900 million.Meanwhile another large real estate company, Colonial, has warned that it too could declare itself insolvent. The company is trying to disinvest itself from its investments in FCC, SLF, and Riofisa, otherwise it too says in a statement published today that it will be unable to restructure its debt in the long term.Staying with real estate companies, Metrovacesa has proposed the sale of the HSBC head offices in London for 1 billion €. The operation would mean a loss of 97.9 million for the Spanish firm. Metrovacesa has asked HSBC to consider ‘any refinancing proposal that comes along’.
It comes as, on November 27, Metrovacesa is faced with the refinancing of a 1billion € debt it took on to buy the building.The cabinet on Friday approved as expected the new 11 billion € plan to stimulate the Spanish economy. The plan is intended to create 300,000 jobs, and most of the money, 8 billion €, goes to the local town and city halls.The fall in the Euribor rate which ends November at a monthly rate of 4.35% means that mortgages are to be cheaper for the first time in three years. The number will be confirmed by the Bank of Spain on December 10.
The daily Euribor rate has fallen in just six weeks from 5.512% to 3.951%.Spain has once again recorded the largest increase in the unemployment rate in all of the European Union. The country remains with the highest rate of men out of work, but it is the youngsters who are most affected by the labour market. In October 12.8% of the active population was on the dole, up 4.3% over the year, according to the data from Eurosat.Inflation in Spain has fallen to 2.4% for the harmonized rate, its lowest since August 2007. The fall in November is 1.2%, the largest monthly fall since 2001. Oil prices an foodstuffs led the price reductions. It’s not all good news however, experts are now warning of the very real risk of deflation in Spain.
The number in November is used to set the pensions level for next year and it means the state will have to find 624 million more than forecast for pensioners.
Car sales for November in Spain will be the second worst month of all time, with early data indicating a fall of 48.2% compared to November 2007 at just 64,800 units.
Meanwhile lorry drivers are demonstrating that diesel prices are still 11% more expensive than before the petrol price bubble and they have called on the government to force the oil companies to pass on the lower price of crude.The National Court is investigating the ex Chairman of Real Madrid, Lorenzo Sanz, for an alleged fraudulent sale. He has been called to make a statement on December 3, in a case where he faces charges of money laundering and the falsification of documents.
The National Energy Commission in Spain is proposing a price rise for domestic Natural Gas in the first three months of next year of less than 2 percent. Over tariffs will be up by 2.02%Leader of the opposition, Mariano Rajoy, has said he is to ask for a parliamentary commission to be established to investigate the Lukoil petrol company. The PP leader said he wanted to know who Lukoil are, and what is their past, ahead of their possible purchase of Repsol shares.The European Commission has decided to take Spain to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg for not taking measures to stop the amount of advertising shown on TV screens here. Advertising on Spanish channels regularly breaks the 12 minute per hour limit fixed by European legislation, often by several minutes.

Armed robbers escaped with millions of rands worth of watches in Pretoria, South Africa, during the weekend, Pretoria News reported. The seven-member gang reportedly hit the Brooklyn Mall taking an estimated ZAR 2 million (about $198,000) in watches from Grieg and Meinke jewelry store. They were wearing motorbike helmets and carried an assault rifle and hammers to smash through the store. The theft came shortly after another gang attacked RSA Diamonds at Woodlands Boulevard in Garsfontein, holding up staff before fleeing with cell phones, jewelry and personal belongings, Pretoria News said. The two, possibly unrelated, attacks are believed to have collectively netted the gangs nearly ZAR 3 million ($298,000) in jewelry, it added.A gang of heavily armed robbers on motorbikes on Sunday made off with millions of rands worth of watches and jewellery in one of Pretoria's most daring robberies.The theft of an estimated R2-million in jewellery from Grieg and Meinke jewellery store in Brooklyn Mall by the gang early in the morning has left shopping centre management and police shocked by the audacity of the attack.The attack saw seven men wearing motorbike helmets and carrying an assault rifle and hammers, smash their way into the store just before 10am.The theft came shortly after another gang attacked RSA Diamonds at Woodlands Boulevard in Garsfontein, holding up staff before fleeing off with cellphones, jewellery and personal belongings.The attacks are believed to have collectively netted the gangs nearly R3-million in jewellery.While the thugs who attacked Brooklyn Mall were able to get into the centre, break into the store and then get away scot-free within 10 minutes, security guards swarmed around a Pretoria News team in less than three minutes of the photographer and reporter entering the shopping centre in an effort to speak to shoppers, staff and to photograph the smashed windows.Guards were unable to explain why reporters were stopped within minutes of arriving at the mall, yet the robbers got away unchallenged.The Pretoria News team eventually went back into the centre and took pictures with a cellphone camera and got away undetected while a security guard stationed near the barricaded-off crime scene, spoke to someone on a cellphone for about 10 minutes. Shoppers, who notified the Pretoria News about the robbery, said the attack had been like a whirlwind.Said a centre employee: "They came rushing in. They were everywhere all at once. Some were smashing at the shop windows while others were standing guard."They were wearing helmets so you could not see their faces. They grabbed jewellery in the windows and then fled on their motorbikes.
"It was over within minutes."More than 30 jewellery stores are believed to have been hit in Gauteng's malls this year, including Fourways Mall, Sandton City, East Rand Mall and Eastgate, with a number of attacks also occurring in Brooklyn and Garsfontein.One of the year's biggest jewellery robberies occurred in September at Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, where an estimated R4-million in jewellery was stolen.According to police the sudden spiral in attacks on jewellery stores across Gauteng over the past couple of months show that gangs are now turning their attention to "softer targets" such as jewellery stores, especially as the festive season approached.The gangs are believed to be linked to international crime syndicates which put out special "shopping lists" for highly sought after items such as watches. The Jewellery Council and the Diamond Council, according to earlier media reports, believe that the attacks are showing similarities to the highly organised cash-in-transit heists. Inspector Klaas van der Kooi, confirming Sunday's two attacks, said the robbery at Woodlands Boulevard took place first."A gang of four gunmen entered RSA Diamonds and held up staff, taking cellphones and personal belongings along with a large amount of jewellery which they snatched from the showcases," he said.He added that the men fled in a Green Toyota Cressida which was found abandoned close to the centre."The car was stolen in Sunnyside earlier in November," he said.Commenting on the robbery at Brooklyn Mall, Van der Kooi said the gang arrived at the centre on "superbikes"."With their helmets still on, the robbers, who were armed with a rifle and hammers, rushed to the store and smashed open windows before they grabbed jewellery, the majority of which were watches.
"The robbers then put their loot into bags and fled from the centre on their motorbikes," he said, adding that the bikes were last seen travelling at "high speed" on the N1 towards Johannesburg.

Santa Barbara County sheriff's detectives arrest a Carpinteria man accused of selling heroin. Investigators searched the home of 26-year-old Matthew Reimel last Thursday. They said they found more than three ounces of heroin, drug paraphernalia, and $10,000 in cash. The department said the drugs have a street value of $9,600.
Reimel was booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail.

Two Israelis convicted of drug trafficking were sentenced to death by a Thai court. The two men plan to appeal the sentence. The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem confirmed the report. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced that she may intervene in the affair should the sentences not be changed. Ministry officials noted that similar sentences were annulled in the past.The two Israelis, 34-year-old Vladimir Akronik and 37-year-old Alon Mahluf, were detained in the vicinity of Bangkok's Kao San Road in possession of 23,000 ecstasy pills about a year ago. Thai media reported that the two arrived in Thailand from Europe and were detained after authorities received information about them from American officials.Mahluf's family told Ynet that news of the dire sentence had shocked them. Y, a friend of Mahluf, called on the Israeli authorities to help him. "I call on the prime minister and the foreign minister to prevent this horrid deed. Bring him to Israel," he said.Y added that he had visited Mahluf in the Thai prison, and that its conditions were inhumane. "Every day of imprisonment there is like life in prison. There are diseases, 200 people in a room, it's suffocating and smelly. You can't describe it, it's every Israeli's worst nightmare," he said."He has a family, a wife and two kids. His wife gave birth two months ago. It's a disaster, we have to bring him back," Y pleaded. He said his friend was innocent, and that the Thai authorities had arrested him because he had stumbled into the vicinity of a drug dealer.Alex Avidan, who maintains contact with Israeli prisoners in Thailand, attested to Akronik's innocence. He told Ynet: "Vladimir arrived in Thailand as an innocent backpacker, and a week later found himself imprisoned on drug trafficking charges. He told me he was entrapped. He said he arrived in Thailand in order to backpack, and someone asked him to hand over a key to someone else. He admitted that he was foolish."Avidan said that the death penalty in Thailand is very rare, noting that the gravest offence in the country is the rape of minors, followed by drug trafficking.

Three tornados have been filmed off the coast of the mediterranean Island of Mallorca. The eyes of the storms had winds in excess of 100kmh. Fortunately the twisters remained at sea and no damage was done.

A song off of Forte's 1998 album: Grammy Award-winning rapper and music producer originally sentenced to 14 years in prison for smuggling cocaine is one of 16 people receiving pardons or reduced sentences from President Bush.John Edward Forte of North Brunswick, N.J., a graduate of the elite Phillips Exeter Academy prep school who later became a producer for the rap group The Fugees and released two albums on his own, was caught in 2000 at Newark International Airport with two briefcases filled with $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine, according to court documents.Forte, 33, a first-time offender, was convicted of possessing the 31 pounds of cocaine with intent to distribute and was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years at Fort Dix, N.J. With the commutation, Forte will be released Dec. 22, after serving just over seven years. He still faces five years of supervised probation.Among vocal advocates on Forte's behalf have been singer Carly Simon, along with her son James, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).
"Now is the perfect opportunity for John to be given the chance to provide positive benefits to society through his considerable musical talents," Hatch wrote to Bush in a January 2007 letter.Forte was one of two inmates who received reduced sentences.

Jermaine Grant of the 1500 block of Washington and Bilal Gordon of the 600 block of Ferry Street were sent to Northampton County Court following their preliminary hearings this morning before District Judge Michael Koury Jr.Grant is charged with two counts each of possession of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. He was arrested Sept. 5 when police executed a search warrant on his Wilson Borough home.Gordon is charged with delivery of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, possession of a controlled substance and criminal use of a communication facility.Gordon is accused of selling heroin Aug. 14 to a source who was cooperating with police, court records said. He was arrested Sept. 5 along with Grant and 15 others who were believed to be involved in the heroin distribution operation, police said.Gordon was not arrested sooner because police were trying to protect their larger investigation into the accused dealers, Easton police Detective Tom Beiser testified today.Attorney Christopher Shipman represented both Grant and Gordon. Shipman presented no argument on Grant's charges, but argued the charges against Gordon should be dismissed.Shipman said because police did not witness the exchange of drugs between Gordon and their cooperating source, the evidence does not support the charges. Koury said he would have agreed, but a memo from Northampton County Court President Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden said the hearsay evidence is admissible.

British Olympic boxer Bradley Saunders has been questioned by police on suspicion of dealing cocaine, it emerged on Tuesday.Saunders, 22, who was a big medal hope at the Beijing Games, was held after a police sniffer dog found what was believed to be £12,000 of the drug in his back garden.A warrant was executed at his semi-detached home in Cragside, Sedgefield, County Durham, at 1pm on Monday. The boxer was taken away for questioning with his girlfriend Stephanie Elliott, also 22, and the couple were held overnight at Spennymoor Police Station. A Durham Police spokesman said the couple were later released on police bail.The dog alerted officers to a tin which contained more than 300g of white powder. It was sent away for analysis.Saunders was tipped to bring back a gold medal from the summer games and was criticised after he said he was relieved to be going home to his young family after a shock defeat in his second fight.

|Human skeleton has been found in a dry river bed next to the MA-387 road in Mijas. Pathologists at the Institute of Legal Medicine are analysing the skeleton in an attempt to identify it. Whilst a preliminary examination suggests it is that of a large, middle-aged man who died about one year ago, existing environmental conditions may have delayed or accelerated the putrefaction of the body. Investigators have found what appears to be a bullet hole in the back of the skull and are investigating all disappearances reported up to one year ago. In recent years, no fewer than five bodies have been found inside suitcases in the province of Malaga.

Instruction Judge, number 13, has denounced 19 Guardia Civil officers for alleged bribery offences. The officers are alleged to have taken money from Malaga airport passengers to speed up or skip the customs process. An Asian passenger has also been accused of paying the officers to allow him to take food through customs.The defendants were all arrested in February, 2006. Some of the officers are charged with allowing the transit of foodstuffs which are banned due to security measures implemented to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease and bird flu.It has been revealed that some passengers, especially members of the Chinese community, were told by friends and family to carry a 50-euro note in their hand in order to avoid possible problems with their luggage at the airport.

Local Police officers have arrested eleven young men, aged between 16 and 23 years, who assaulted a 25-year-old Moroccan passenger on a bus travelling from Malaga to Torremolinos. When the gang, who have been described as skinheads, wearing jackets emblazoned with nazi emblems and military boots, threatened the victim, he got off the bus at the next stop and started to run, but ten of the eleven young men chased him, assaulted him and attempted to stab him with a pocket knife.Meanwhile, the bus was hijacked by another of the gang members, who threatened the driver and forced him to wait. When the gang re-boarded the bus and it was on its way once again, the gang broke the seals of the emergency hammers and removed them. They also sprayed tear gas inside the bus, forcing passengers to move to the front of the vehicle.
Local Police from Malaga eventually intercepted the bus and, having identified and searched the gang members, took them all into custody.

Syrian arms dealer argued Wednesday that he was merely helping Spanish intelligence when he explored a deal to sell weapons to Colombian terrorists for use against the United States.The attorney for Monzer al-Kassar, 62, told a Southern District of New York jury in closing argument that his client never intended to sell weapons to the Colombian rebel group FARC and was only continuing his long history as an intelligence asset to Spain."There is no case here," attorney Ira Sorkin told the jury in Judge Jed Rakoff's courtroom. "This was a sting against an individual in Spain created out of whole cloth by the [Drug Enforcement Administration] using paid informants to get al-Kassar."But prosecutor Brendan McGuire came back in rebuttal to call the defense of aiding Spanish intelligence a "cat-and-mouse claim.""Al-Kassar and Moreno are guilty of all the charges in the indictment," McGuire said. "This is not a close case. The evidence is overwhelming."McGuire and Boyd Johnson, Assistant U.S. Attorneys for the Southern District, have spent 2 1/2 weeks trying to prove that al-Kassar and co-defendant Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, 59, conspired to provide support to foreign terrorists and kill Americans. The pair allegedly agreed to sell millions of dollars in weapons to two undercover informants posing as rebels with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC.According to the government, they agreed to arrange the delivery of weapons purchased in Eastern Europe and shipped to Suriname for transport overland to Colombia. The weapons in the alleged deal included anti-aircraft missiles to be used by FARC against U.S. helicopters in Colombia as well as grenade launchers, machine guns and millions of rounds of ammunition.Their cover was a purportedly legitimate sale of arms brokered between Romania and Nicaragua.During the sting, more than $400,000 was wired from New York to Spain as down payment, but no weapons ever changed hands.Al-Kassar has been described by prosecutors as one of the world's most prolific and shadowy arms dealers. The government says that since the 1970s he has provided military equipment to violent factions in Nicaragua, Brazil, Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Somalia, Iran and Iraq.The alleged conspiracy took place between February 2006 and May 2007, and culminated with al-Kassar's arrest in Spain and the arrest of Godoy in Romania on June 7, 2007.The evidence at trial included a tape recording by an informant of a December 2006 meeting in a Beirut hotel room and accounts of three days of meetings in February 2007 with the two purported FARC representatives, Carlos and Luis, at al-Kassar's house in Marbella, Spain. The Marbella meetings were not recorded -- a fact the defense tried to exploit as a hole in the prosecution.The evidence also included conversations between al-Kassar and his high-level contact with Spanish intelligence in the first three months of 2007 and two recorded phone calls on June 7, 2007, the day he was arrested with a briefcase full of incriminating materials.The conversations and the calls were painted by the defense as evidence that al-Kassar was keeping the intelligence officer informed as to the progress of a deal he never intended to complete.But the prosecutors said that testimony and the recordings show al-Kassar was lying to the official because he never mentioned FARC and continued to present the deal as a legitimate one between Romania and Nicaragua."It's about al-Kassar protecting himself," McGuire said Wednesday, adding that the calls were all "about his risk of arrest."Johnson, in his closing on Tuesday, said the "cat-and-mouse" defense, in which the defendants say "they were trying to investigate the informants themselves for Spanish intelligence, is a defense that makes absolutely no sense.""Al-Kassar lied to the very intelligence officer he claims was working on the deal," Johnson said. "They were working for themselves."The motive, Johnson said, was that the two men "were obsessed with the money" -- more than 3 million euros in exchange for providing missiles, rifles, explosives and other material.And the two men, he said, "knew that the weapons were going to be used to shoot down the Apaches, the Hawks" -- U.S. helicopters in Colombia.Sorkin, of Dickstein Shapiro, tried to turn it around in his closing, saying the materials in al-Kassar's briefcase were so extensive that his client must have been planning to turn them over to his intelligence contact on the day he was arrested, for there was no reason he would otherwise be carrying them.The materials included end user certificates for the shipment of materials, correspondence with the Romanian arms maker and a company brochure, photographs of the alleged arsenal, a map showing Suriname and Colombia, and a schematic of the ship that would carry the arms and even a picture of the ship."The government would have you believe he would be running off to show pictures of the ship to the No. 2 FARC guy" in Bucharest, Sorkin said."We know also that this whole thing was developed by the DEA," he said. "It was a sting operation. It wasn't real and, at no time in this case ... did Godoy or Kassar ever say they were out to kill Americans or blow up Americans or harm Americans."Roger Stavis of Gallet, Dreyer & Berkey represents Godoy. In his closing on Tuesday, Stavis said that "al-Kassar was not an informant and Moreno was not an informant doing the bidding of Spanish intelligence -- they were assets. They provided information over the years."By contrast, Stavis said, the government informants were former narcotics traffickers themselves who "were paid millions of dollars over the years" to do the DEA's bidding, including "hundreds of thousands of dollars in this case.""The DEA's investigation of this case was an absolute disgrace," Stavis said. "You can't trust it and if it's the foundation for this prosecution, then their case is crumbling."The two men are charged with money laundering, and four conspiracies: conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization; conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals; conspiracy to kill U.S. officers or employees; and conspiracy to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile.
If convicted the pair face possible life sentences. After being charged by Judge Rakoff, the jury began its deliberations and had yet to reach a verdict by the end of the day.

The Córdoba builder and businessman, Rafael Gómez Sánchez, known as Sandokán, told the court on Saturday that he has no links to Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Municipal Real Estate Assessor in Marbella. Gómez is implicated himself in the Malaya case, facing charges of bribery, and last week some 410 works of art were found on his premises in Marbella, which investigators think belong to Roca or the businessmen Carlos Sánchez or Andrés Liétor.Sandokán claimed he has collected the artworks so he could face the debts of his Arenal 2000 construction company has with the taxman. He had been paying 1.5 million € a month to Hacienda, but El País reports those payments stopped in September.The raid took place on the outskirts of Cordoba city, in Parque Joyero de Córdoba, where police officers discovered around 410 paintings in warehouses belonging to Rafael Gómez, who known as 'Sandokán' and is the owner of the construction company Arenal 2000. Gómez is involved in the 'Malaya' case and is a partner in Marbella Airways of Juan Antonio Roca, alleged ring leader of the corruption.

According to the president of the Malaga Provincial Court, Francisco Javier Arroyo, 80 per cent of money laundering cases uncovered in Europe are linked to the town of Marbella. Speaking at the inauguration of the new term at the Escuela de Seguridad in that municipality, he told the press that the number of cases of money laundering in the town requires judges to “establish greater links with foreign authorities” and demonstrate a level of complete professionalism in their duties. “Money is laundered in places where the benefits are greatest, and because of its services, climate and proximity to Gibraltar, Marbella is seen as an ideal location,” said Arroyo, who called for greater collaboration between authorities to combat corruption. He also explained that since March this year, judges in Marbella have been able to specialise in dealing with this type of corruption, something which does not occur anywhere else in the country.

Anthony Kearney, 43, and his partner Donna McCafferty, were held after an anonymous call from a neighbour.Both are wanted for a string of fraud offences.
Nabbed: Anthony Kearney and his partner Donna McCafferty have been arrested in Spain just hours after Crimestoppers issued the above photographs.They were held in the Costa Blanca town of Benissa, 45 miles north east of Alicante, on Thursday evening.
Kearney was carrying false documents in the name of James Murray, one of nine aliases police knew him to use, when he was detained at 5.30pm.
His partner McCafferty was held two hours later.Armed officers swooped on the town after the Civil Guard received an phone call on Thursday lunchtime.

Two fishermen from Galicia are under arrest in the Falkland Islands after nearly 30kg of cocaine with a street value of around €1.3 million euros, was found hidden on board the British-registered 'Venturer' during a search in Port Stanley harbour last Friday. Three other Spaniards and a Chilean national, who were arrested at the same time, have since been released after questioning. 'Venturer', which is adapted for squid fishing, has a total crew of forty, around half of whom are from Galicia. It had been due to return to Spain some time this week.The identities of the two men that remain in custody have been confirmed as Rogelio CP (41) and Jaime CM (26), both of whom are from Cangas (Pontevedra).

Jury was picked on Monday for a trial of a suspected Syrian arms dealer extradited from Spain on charges of planning to supply arms including surface-to-air missile systems to Colombian rebels.Opening arguments in the trial of Monzer al-Kassar, 62, a longtime Spanish resident known as the "prince of Marbella" for his rich lifestyle in the glitzy seaside town, are due to start on Wednesday.He is accused of planning to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to protect a cocaine-trafficking business and attack U.S. interests.
Kassar, whom U.S. prosecutors call one of the most prolific arms dealers in the world, sat in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Monday as his lawyers and prosecutors picked a jury of twelve from a pool of more than 120 people.He has pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiring to kill American nationals and officers, conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles and providing support to a terrorist organization.Kassar was extradited from Spain in June after Spain received assurances from U.S. authorities he would face neither the death penalty nor a life sentence without chance of parole.He was arrested at the Madrid airport in June 2007 after his U.S. indictment said he knew the FARC kidnapped U.S. citizens to dissuade American efforts to disrupt the cocaine trade.The U.S. government has designated the FARC as a foreign terrorist organization. The rebels have been fighting for socialist revolution since 1964 and have at times run large swathes of Colombia.
At the time of his arrest, prosecutors said Kassar had met with two confidential sources working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration at his home in Marbella and discussed the sale of weapons, including assault and sniper rifles and rocket propelled grenade launchers, to the FARC.Kassar also offered to send 1,000 men to fight with the FARC against U.S. military officers, prosecutors allege.
The U.S. Embassy in Madrid said Kassar has been selling weapons since the 1970s to the Palestinian Liberation Front and clients in Nicaragua, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq and Somalia.Questions asked to the jurors included what concerns they had about terrorism, if they had ever heard of the FARC and whether they could give a fair trial to people whose business involved the sale of military weapons.Two other men charged in the same case, Tareq Mousa al Ghazi, 61, of Lebanon and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, 59, of Marbella, pleaded innocent in October 2007 to terrorism charges.
They were arrested in Bucharest, Romania but only Moreno Godoy will be prosecuted with Kassar after Ghazi's case was moved to a later date due to medical reasons.

41 year old British man, named with the initials G.P.F. spent an entire night next to the body of his wife after their car came off the windy A-7207 road between Cómpeta and Torrox in heavy rain around midnight. The car fell down a drop of some 70 metres and was completely destroyed. The husband was seriously injured and had to be rescued by the fire service, and taken by helicopter to the district hospital in Torre del Mar.There was another fatality on the roads of the province on Sunday in Casabermeja, where a car carrying three men came off the A45 road close to the first tunnel and crashed into a barrier. The man who died had been sitting in the back of the car, without a seat belt. Two other occupants in the car were only slightly hurt.
Nationally there were 17 deaths on Spain’s roads over the weekend, seven more than seen this weekend last year, with the weather playing its part in many of the accidents.

David and Victoria Beckham can't sell their mansion in Madrid. The Beckhams have been trying to sell their luxury villa for 17 months but have yet to find a buyer.
The Beckhams' five bedroom villa in Madrid was put on the market last year when they left Spain for the US, according to the Daily Star.Posh and Becks were asking £5m for their property, dubbed 'Casa Beckham', but there have been no offers. As a result they have dropped the asking price to £3m."The house is incredible, but the market is in such a terrible state right now and the Beckhams have had no offers....They're going to have to take a lot less than the original price to have a realistic chance of selling the house," a source told the paper.The Madrid mansion is set in two acres and has an outdoor heated swimming pool, tennis courts, a small football pitch and a play area. The property is located in the suburb of La Moraleja.
The Beckhams paid £4.5m for the villa in May 2005 and spent £500,000 refurbishing it. The home was put up for sale when David signed a £125m contract with football team LA Galaxy."It's a lovely place with lots of charm, beautifully and tastefully decorated," the source continued."But even the super rich have been hit hard by the credit crunch."