Granada city chunk of his ear was partially severed during the biting attack.

man has been arrested by the Civil Guard for assaulting four people who were changing a flat tyre outside his home in La Zubia, Granada province, last Friday night. Annoyed by the noise they were making as they were putting on the car’s spare wheel, the Civil Guard said one of the four was admitted to the Traumatology Hospital in Granada city after a chunk of his ear was partially severed during the biting attack.Another man had five stitches to a bite wound on his hand, while the third was bitten on the shoulder.Granada Hoy said the fourth man escaped with bruising.

Doctor who was fatally shot while on duty at the local health centre in Moratalla

Doctor who was fatally shot while on duty at the local health centre in Moratalla this March has received a posthumous award with the title of ‘Adopted Daughter’ of Moratalla. The distinction of ‘Adopted Son’ goes to Juan Miguel Moya López, the ambulance driver who was injured while trying to save her life. La Verdad newspaper reports that the extraordinary council meeting which took the decision on Saturday also approved a special mention from the corporation for the three police officers who overpowered the gunman who fired the shots.34 year old María Eugenia Moreno Martínez was shot on 10th March 2009, dying in hospital the following afternoon. The gunman was a 74 year old retired taxi driver who claimed to the judge who remanded him to custody that he had received poor treatment when he had attended the health centre earlier that day.A monument in the doctor’s honour was unveiled on Saturday in the gardens outside the health centre which now bear her name, Doctora María Eugenia Moreno Martínez.

Sixth person has been arrested for suspected involvement in the fatal shooting two years ago of the Partido Popular Mayor of Polop de la Marina

Sixth person has been arrested for suspected involvement in the fatal shooting two years ago of the Partido Popular Mayor of Polop de la Marina, Alejandro Ponsoda, over, it’s thought, his failure to support a real estate project. The suspect arrested on Friday night is identified by El País as the owner of the Mesalina nightclub on the outskirts of Benidorm where the murder is believed to have been planned. The nightclub’s Uruguayan manager was arrested earlier last week and, along with the first two suspects, was remanded to prison by the judge.The two alleged Czech hit men believed to have killed the Mayor outside his home in Xirles on the night of 19th October 2007 were also taken into custody on Friday, in Benidorm and La Cala de Finestrat. They are reported to have had links to suspect No. 1, Raúl Montero Trevejo, who already has drug trafficking charges against him.The lawyer acting for the local businessman from Polop suspected in the case revealed indications last week that there are protected witnesses in the case. According to information from El País, five protected witnesses linked to prostitution were questioned again by detectives on Saturday morning.

Recovered the body of a German man who had been reported missing while paragliding in Barbate

Rescuers on Sunday recovered the body of a German man who had been reported missing while paragliding in Barbate the previous day.The 56 year old, who has not been named in reports, disappeared while paragliding with a friend over Barbate’s Hierbabuena Beach on Saturday afternoon. An intensive search was mounted involving five Civil Guard patrols, two helicopters, a Coastguard boat, Red Cross personnel and a team of specialist Civil Guard divers.EFE reports that his body was found in a rocky area of difficult access on the Barbate coast near the Torre del Tajo.

Bank of Spain will be introducing new rules in the next few weeks to double the amount written off by Spanish banks and Cajas

Bank of Spain will be introducing new rules in the next few weeks to double the amount written off by Spanish banks and Cajas (saving banks) when the banks hold repossessed properties for longer than a year.Currently, the banks and cajas, by law, must have provisions of 10% on the appraisal values for repossessed property that have been owned for a year or longer. This figure will now increase to 20%.
There are currently several theories for the this change being implemented by the Bank of Spain. The first is that this is a warning to the banks to stop trying to disguise their bad debts by swapping debt (from promoters/developers) for properties. Many banks have been successfully swapping debt for property with the long term view of recouping their money instead of simply writing of the bad debt.
The second theory, is to help motivate the banks to liquidate their property assets sooner rather than later by getting them to drop the prices. In theory this is a possibility as it is estimated that the Spanish banks currently hold 36 billion euros with of property assets. So we are talking about an additional write down 3.6 billion! In theory at least. Unfortunately the reality is that several of the largest banks, including BBVA and Santander, already make provision of 20%, so there will be no additional motivation to try and sell their properties faster.

Two weeks to go before lines for pay-as-you-go mobile phones will be automatically deactivated if their owners have previously failed to register

Two weeks to go before lines for pay-as-you-go mobile phones will be automatically deactivated if their owners have previously failed to register their details with their operators.The move comes under a new law which came into effect in November 2007 as a consequence of the Madrid train bomb attacks on 11th March 2004, when the bombs were set off by pre-paid mobile phones. Registration has been obligatory since the law came into force, but 20 million such phones bought before that date are estimated to still be in use.To date, 12.5 million people have registered their details, but some 8 million have yet to do so and could find themselves automatically cut off if they fail to register on or before the deadline of 8th November. Operators are then legally obliged to deactivate any which remain unidentified.Registration for each user is at one of their operator’s points of sale, where they must provide either their DNI identity document, passport or foreigners’ residency papers. Businesses must provide their fiscal identification card.

27 year old girl has died in Residencial Monte Marbella at Artola Alta in Marbella

27 year old girl has died in Residencial Monte Marbella at Artola Alta in Marbella after falling to the ground as she tried to get into her own home through a window after forgetting her keys inside.EFE news agency quotes municipal sources as saying the victim is a foreigner, but her nationality has not yet been released. Named with the initials A.K. she was returning home after celebrating her birthday and had climbed a pergola to reach the window. Reports indicate that girl suffered a head injury in the fall, and had already died before emergency services arrived at the scene.

Benitatxell attacked by hundreds of angry bees

German man out for a countryside walk with his wife in Benitatxell on Wednesday found himself suddenly attacked by hundreds of angry bees while he was passing a site which is used for commercial beekeeping. Diario Información notes that there are warning signs about the hives in the area.Named by the paper as 70 year old Hans Klaus V., a resident of Benitatxell, he was rushed to the local health centre in Teulada, where staff removed 300 stings from his body, before he was sent on to hospital in Dénia. He was kept under observation there for some hours, where doctors were surprised, despite the numerous stings, that he suffered no allergic reaction to the bee attack.

Prostitutes who ply their trade on the public way in Granada City will soon face a fine of up to 3,000 €

Prostitutes who ply their trade on the public way in Granada City will soon face a fine of up to 3,000 € under a new local by-law which comes into force next month. The measure also affects their clients.The new regulations, effective from 10th November, ban sexual relations or their negotiation in all public places, with the maximum sanction to be imposed if they take place within 200 metres of schools and residential and business areas.Granada Hoy newspaper said the money collected in this way by City Hall will be spent on social programmes and helping the women who work as prostitutes, particularly those who want to leave the profession.

Search for a missing 13 year old German boy who fell into the sea at Calpe on Thursday was called off

Search for a missing 13 year old German boy who fell into the sea at Calpe on Thursday was called off last night as rough seas continued to affect the area. The child had fallen into the sea from the breakwater on the Playa de la Fosa.
The weather conditions complicated the search and lead to some of the firemen taking part being injured.Witnesses had reported seeing three people fall into the water, of whom two managed to get out, one unaided and a second thanks to another man who was in the area.These two are both reported to be foreigners, one of them is Senegalese according to reports, who had also tried without success to reach the German boy, but who finally had to be rescued himself.The Alicante Fire Service was called out, generally because of wind damage, some 100 times on Thursday between 1030 and 1930. Most of the calls came from Elche, Alcoy, Concentaina, La Nucía, Benidorm, Orihuela, Torrevieja and San Vicente del Raspeig.

officers allegedly took advantage of a prostitute’s illiteracy by charging her 600 € for a document they claimed was a residence permit

Four National Police officers, including a former Chief Inspector and his deputy, will sit on the accused bench along with a Civil Guard officer after their arrest following an 18 month internal investigation into illegal immigration, prostitution and drugs. The officers are accused of charging payments in return for turning a blind eye to local alternative nightclubs and, in one case, blackmailing the owner of one of the clubs who was in the country illegally.Officers arrested two years ago in the police corruption case in Ronda will go on trial at the Málaga provincial court next March, when 42 witnesses, 14 of them protected, will be called to give evidence in the case.La Opinión de Málaga highlights one instance when two of the officers allegedly took advantage of a prostitute’s illiteracy by charging her 600 € for a document they claimed was a residence permit. It turned out to be a registration form for the municipal register of inhabitants.

Mark Porter, 29, and 24-year-old Michelle Clydesdale died after they left their hotel in the resort of Salou, near Tarragona

Mark Porter, 29, and 24-year-old Michelle Clydesdale died after they left their hotel in the resort of Salou, near Tarragona, to go swimming in the early hours of Wednesday.They were with three other friends when they got into trouble and drowned.
Ms Clydesdale was from Scotland but it is not known where Mr Porter was from in the UK.A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "We can confirm the death of two British nationals (Mark Porter and Michelle Clydesdale) in Salou, Spain.
"The next of kin have been informed and we are offering consular assistance to them. We understand that they went swimming and got into difficulties."It is understood the pair were found on the beach after being washed up by large waves.Their bodies were taken to the regional capital of Tarragona on the north-eastern coast of Spain for post-mortem examinations.They went missing shortly before 2.30am and their three friends raised the alarm.The local fire department said the weather was stormy at the time, with waves some 7ft high.

670 million euros laundered money in Marbella

Money thought to have been laundered during the infamous ‘Malaya’ case in Marbella has been calculated at around 670 million euros.Most of this involves payments received in exchange for ‘favours’ relating to building development in the city, say police.It is said to have been laundered by up to 26 people who worked according to the orders of the alleged ringleader, former town planning assessor for Marbella Juan Antonio Roca.The suspects are spread across Spain and include six lawyers from a firm in Madrid.In addition to property development corruption on the Costa del Sol – and particularly in and around Marbella – the ‘Malaya’ case is believed to have involved homes built in Los Alcázares (Murcia).

Autopsy carried out on the body of the Boyzone singer, Stephen Gately

autopsy carried out on the body of the Boyzone singer, Stephen Gately, has determined that the 33 year old died from a severe pulmonary oedema, fluid on the lungs, according to sources quoted by El Mundo newspaper this Tuesday. He was found dead on Saturday after a night out while on holiday with his husband, Andrew Owles, on the island of Mallorca, and there has been speculation in the UK press that he may have choked on his own vomit.

A Bulgarian man, Georgi Dochev, told the Sun newspaper that it was he who found the body after accompanying the couple back to their holiday apartment after their night out and found Stephen lying lifeless on the sofa the next morning.

In further information from the Guardian newspaper, a court official on Mallorca is reported to have said the singer’s family will now be permitted to take his body home to Ireland for burial. The paper noted that police on the island have said there are no signs of suspicious circumstances in the 33 year old’s death.

Two ETA terrorists have already been found guilty for the attempted car bomb attack at Málaga Airport eight years ago

Two ETA terrorists have already been found guilty for the attempted car bomb attack at Málaga Airport eight years ago, but a third suspect comes before the National Court this Thursday where he will face a possible 14 years in prison for his part in the attack.The device was deactivated by the Tedax bomb disposal squad before it could go off, but the security lockdown put into place after the warning phone call came early on 26th July 2001 caused extensive disruption to the airport and to the flights which were scheduled that day.The man on trial is Ismael Berasategui Escudero who, with Javier Zabalo Beitia, one of the two found guilty, set up a car washing company in Guipúzcoa as a cover for the stolen vehicles their commando used for the car bombs. The third suspect, Ainoa Barbarín, was responsible with Berasategui for transporting the cars loaded with explosives to the target selected by ETA leadership.The car parked at Málaga Airport, loaded with 53 kilos of Titadyn dynamite, was set to explode at 8am that day, with the warning call coming just under 45 minutes before the explosion was timed.Diario Sur said the bomb attack came in retaliation for the death of an ETA member 48 hours previously, who died in Torrevieja, Alicante province, while handling another bomb.

Delta Airlines direct link between Málaga and New York

Delta Airlines direct link between Málaga and New York, re-launched in June 2008, is to end for the winter, although the company foresees restarting the route at the end of March 2010.The last flight until then will be next Sunday, 18th October, despite average occupancy levels during the time it’s been in operation of 78%. Sources at the company described their basis for the decision to Europa Press as operational and strategic. The news agency quotes figures from the Junta de Andalucía that some 16,000 passengers have flown into Málaga from New York’s JFK on the 119 aircraft which have made the trip to the Costa del Sol since the launch date more than 16 months ago.

Growing anger in Spain over British "health scroungers" has led to accusations that the country's health services are increasingly being used

Spanish doctors' trades unions are leading the charge against what has become known as "scalpel tourism", with easy-to-get hip and cataract operations allegedly attracting Britons who temporarily install themselves in Spain to skip queues at home.Growing anger in Spain over British "health scroungers" has led to accusations that the country's health services are increasingly being used by the estimated one million British people with homes in Spain to plug holes in the NHS.The Simap trade union said that non-Spanish EU nationals in Alicante, where Britons are by far the largest group, now accounted for 15% to 20% of people treated in local hospitals.
"Spain's health service is quick, free and offers a wide range of services," said Dr Juan Benedito of Simaptoday. "It is not surprising that people come here."
The Socialist former head of the Extremadura region of Spain, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra, warned this week that "scrounge tourism" was bleeding money out of Spain's health service.Málaga's Costa del Sol hospital is among those to notice an increase in the number of British patients. "We get an increasing number of cases of foreigners who, taking advantage of the fact that they own a home on the Costa del Sol and that their own country does not cover all that we offer in Andalucía, decide to come to a hospital [here]," the hospital's general manager, Antonio Pérez, told Sur newspaper.Spanish media have been filling up with reports of so-called health scroungers. "Thousands of people from Britain, Germany and Scandinavia travel to Spain every year for operations that, frequently, are not covered by their own health system," the ABC paper claimed recently.One letter-writer to the 20 Minutos newspaper, Federico Avila, said his neighbours in Murcia, south-east Spain, travelled to their holiday home for an operation and then went back to Britain as soon as it was done. "As soon as he was allowed out of hospital they packed their bags and went home, not without first thanking us Spaniards for everything," he said.

Charity workers who help Britons with health problems in Spain say there is evidence that some who live in both countries – known in expat jargon as "dippers" – cherrypick the best health services from each place.

"I haven't come across anyone who has come to Spain specifically for an operation, though," said Pat Lee-Patten, of the Help charity in Alicante province, who rejected the idea that expats' activities amounted to health tourism.Lee-Patten said added confusion was caused by British residents who did not bother to sign on with Spanish health authorities and then asked for treatment using health cards meant for tourists.Bryan Arthur, an "on-and-off" resident of Britain and Spain, chose to have an aortic valve operation at a Costa Blanca hospital because he could get it in two months rather than six, he said."The surgeon in the Costa Blanca hospital spoke English quite well, said I was in urgent need of attention and could accept me in two months and the charge would be on their national health service," he wrote on the euroresidentes website. "So I signed the papers, had the preliminary catheterisation and eventually was admitted."Squabbling over funds is at the root of the complaints, with health authorities in Spain saying that they do not receive adequate compensation for treating EU citizens.

Scrounging foreigners? British expats accused of health tourism in Spain
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 19.15 BST on Monday 5 October 2009. A version appeared on p9 of the UK news section of the Guardian on Tuesday 6 October 2009.

Stig hanging out in Puerto Banus

Stig hanging out in Puerto Banus. Well the Top Gear blog have has now confirmed that the duo were out in the Costa del Sol filming for a new DVD that will hit the shelves in November.The DVD called Duel will showcase a number of speedy challenges and races. The challenge in question involved a night time street race between Clarkson and the Stig from the Ascari circuit to a bar in Puerto Banus.

Antonio Banderas home ‘La Gaviota’ at Los Monteros in Marbella still under threat

Andalucía High Court has overruled an order suspending demolition of part of the propertyThere has been another set back for Antonio Banderas regarding his home ‘La Gaviota’ at Los Monteros in Marbella.The Andalucian High Court of Justice has rejected the ruling which had suspended the demolition of 150 of the 780 square metres of the villa, as well as the swimming pool for the property, considering that the land invades an area marked on the urban plan as being for beach equipment.
It means that the High Court has agreed with an appeal presented by the Community of Owners of the Los Monteros Urbanisation, against the hopes of both the actor and Marbella Town Hall, which had granted the suspension order until the town’s new PGOU Urban Plan is carried out. Under the new PGOU the house would have been made legal.
The lawyer representing the Community of Owners, Inmaculada Gálvez, told El País that to avoid demolition she had offered Banderas a deal under which he would compensate the community with a quantity equivalent to the loss of value of his property should the demolition take place – a sum estimated at 2.1 million €. But now the lawyer says that the talks are over and the demolition must take place. Marbella Town Hall is expected to launch an appeal.

Foreign Mans Death Cause's riots in Roquetas de Mar Southern Spain

Immigrants went on a rampage in a southern Spanish town overnight throwing stones and bottles at police after a Senegalese man was stabbed to death, police and Spanish media said on Sunday. Police would only say that the killing of a man in the town of Roquetas de Mar, had sparked "altercations throughout the night in which immigrants were involved." Spanish media said African immigrants were enraged by the death of the Senegalese man, 28, who was stabbed in a fight. Daily newspaper El Mundo's website said African immigrants threw stones and bottles at police, and burnt down two homes and two police cars. It quoted emergency services as saying that rioters set up barricades, burnt rubbish bins and cars. A policeman who went to the scene told national radio station RNE that firefighters were called to a false alarm and were directed by a group to where a fire was supposed to be. "They began to throw stones at the cars... They ended up destroyed, with broken windows, dents in the doors, at the front. The only thing there wasn't was injuries," policeman Carlos Manuel Ruiz said. Police arrested three immigrants, the media reports said. Madrid Reuters

Richard Henry Roberts, 36,found guilty of the murder of nightclub bouncer Daniel Hastelow

Richard Henry Roberts, 36,found guilty of the murder of nightclub bouncer Daniel Hastelow after a trial.But another Merseyside man, jointly accused of the killing in the popular resort of Palmanova in January last year, was acquitted by the jury of nine because of “lack of proof”.Roberts admitted stabbing the 26-year-old victim, from Walsall, seven times.But he claimed it was self defence when the four-day trial began on Monday.Yesterday, the jury rejected his claim he grabbed a knife from a table to defend himself when Mr Hastelow attacked him, delivering heavy blows.They convicted Roberts of murder, rejecting a defence plea for a manslaughter

Paul Anthony Griffiths aquitted in Daniel Hastelow murder case

The jury accepted the defence argument that evidence was not produced to support prosecution claims that Paul Anthony Griffiths, 23, also from Liverpool, took part in the deliberate killing of Mr Hastelow.It was alleged Griffiths beat the victim with a baseball bat as he lay sleeping in an apartment in the resort on the island’s south coast.Griffiths admitted being present when Mr Hastelow was killed, but denied taking any part in his death.The jury also dismissed a charge against both accused of breaking into the apartment where Mr Hastelow died.After the verdicts, Judge Eduardo Calderon formally acquitted Griffiths and dismissed him from the court.
The state prosecutor then asked for an 18 year prison sentence for Roberts.He also asked Judge Calderon to order Roberts to pay compensation of 90,000 Euros – around £81,000 – to the victim’s family.The judge’s written sentence will be known later.

Daniel Hastelow murder case

36 year old Briton, Richard Henry Roberts, has been sent to prison for 18 years for killing his compatriot, Daniel Hastelow in January 2008. The court in Palma de Mallorca heard how the accused had stabbed the sleeping victim eight times.
A second Briton arrested at the time, Paul A. Griffiths, was found not guilty and released without charge.The court and jury considered it proved that after an argument in a bar earlier the aggressor, Richard H Roberts, went to the apartment where the victim was sleeping under the effects of alcohol and drugs, broke in and stabbed the victim with a 20 cm long and 4cm wide knife eight times. The other Briton Paul Griffiths looked on.The two were arrested at the airport the following day.Richard Robert has also been ordered to pay 90,000 € compensation to the victim’s family. He has a previous record for violent theft, causing injury and robbery.

Torremolinos Arco Iris will become the first real estate project in Spain that is aimed at LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) clients

Arco Iris (Rainbow)will become the first real estate project in Spain that is aimed at LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) clients, with an added condition: residents must be over 55 as the development will also take on the role of a care centre.The building will be located in the very heart of Torremolinos, a town that in recent years has become a favourite holdiay resort for homosexuals. This has given rise to the opening of numerous gay-orientated businesses from clothes shops to bars and restaurants, although nearly always geared towards a younger clientele.
“You would think that all homosexuals are young, beautiful and healthy, but we get old too”, says Antonio Gutiérrez, a veteran gay rights activist who hopes that projects such as this one “will help find a solution for the human dramas suffered by older homosexuals who often have a limited family environment to fall back on as their parents have died and they have no children”.“Loneliness is one of their greatest concerns but many homosexuals we have spoken to believe that moving into a traditional home for the elderly would be like going back to the closet”, explains Íñigo Armengod, director general of Grupo Imnova, the firm promoting the scheme.
The building will have 27 apartments with comforts and services such as cleaners, a social club, a nurse station, and even care for pets, although the main attraction will be a day centre which will be open to residents as well as other members of the general public, regardless of their sexual condition. The apartments will range between 100,000 and 240,000 in price but as yet no date has been set for construction work to start, possibly after next summer.However the gay and lesbian association Colega does

Tax hikes announced by Spain’s Socialist government will increase the cost of the average newly-built property by 2,000 Euros

Tax hikes announced by Spain’s Socialist government will increase the cost of the average newly-built property by 2,000 Euros, thanks to an increase in VAT from 7% to 8% on new home sales. The government will hike VAT (known as IVA in Spain) on new home sales in 2010 to try and plug the country’s gaping fiscal hole.In areas like Madrid and Barcelona, where property is more expensive, the cost will go up by an average of 3,000 Euros, according to José M. Galindo, President of the Association of Developers and Constructors of Spain (APCE). He warns that higher costs will reduce demand for newly built homes, at a time when the market is struggling to digest a glut of them.The more expensive the home, the more VAT to be paid. New homes costing 1 million Euros – fairly common in areas like the Balearcis and upmarket areas of the Costa del Sol, will now cost buyers 10,000 Euros more in VAT, or 80,000 Euros in total.As transaction taxes are not typically financed by mortgages, buyers will have to finance the higher cost from their own capital. The only good news is the increase won’t come into force until July 2010. So if you are planning to buy a new home in Spain, you might want to do so before then.The G-14 group of Spain’s leading developers describe the tax increase as just “another difficulty” for a sector where “all the news is bad”. The G-14 developers (13 of them in total, several of whom are in bankruptcy proceedings) have also revealed that they started just 59 private homes (excluding social housing) between them in the 8 months to August.

Three men from Merseyside on the run in Spain

Three men from Merseyside are on a top ten most wanted list of suspected criminals on the run in Spain.Crimestoppers are asking for ex-pats' help to trace the men, who they believe have fled to the Costa del Sol.They include 40 year old Paul Walmsley, from Liverpool, who's suspected of supplying heroin and cocaine.Another Liverpudlian making the list is Mark Ronald Brown - a 44 year old who's believed to have led a gang who smuggled class As into the UK.Jody Michael Flynn, 28, from Birkenhead, is wanted on a GBH charge.

Woman who suffered years of abuse has called for her attacker to be brought to justice from his hide-out on Spain’s Costa del Crime.

Woman who suffered years of abuse has called for her attacker to be brought to justice from his hide-out on Spain’s Costa del Crime.Investigators want the public to help them trace 10 “most wanted” fugitives thought to be on the run in the Costa del Sol region, including Martin Smith, 44, of North Shields, who is wanted in connection with the rape of a child aged under 16 and gross indecency with a girl under the age of 16.The 44-year-old is accused of raping and indecently assaulting a girl, under the age of 16, over a period of 10 years.He was arrested by police in North Cumbria after his victim found the courage to speak out about the years of abuse she endured throughout her childhood. But he skipped bail in January last year and has been on the run ever since.Last night, as pictures of Smith and nine other dangerous criminals were being circulated among the British community in Malaga, his victim spoke out about the years of abuse that left her feeling dirty and worthless.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she wanted to see her attacker caught so that he would never put another person through the same ordeal.“It was regular abuse. It made me feel awful, small and dirty, and like I had done something wrong and I was the liar and you don’t think anybody is going to believe you. You think it’s all your fault,” she said. “I felt like I needed to have justice done because otherwise it could happen to other people and I don’t want anybody else to go through what I went through. It wasn’t a life, it was torture.”
Smith, who was born in North Shields, but has travelled around the UK, is wanted in connection with the rape of a child under 16, gross indecency with a girl under the age of 16, indecent assault of a girl under 16 and attempted rape of a girl under 16.
The alleged attacks, on one victim, occurred between 1995 and 2005.

Local council in the Costa del Sol resort of Marbella – an area traumatised by years of corruption involving politicians and residential developers

Local council in the Costa del Sol resort of Marbella – an area traumatised by years of corruption involving politicians and residential developers – is seeking to retrospectively "legalise" 18,000 homes, which are now found to have been built without appropriate construction licences. But three schemes, all close to the water, have not been included in this de facto amnesty and instead face demolition.
They were built since the introduction of the 1988 Coastal Law (called the Ley de Costas) designed to protect the coastline by prohibiting construction within 100 metres of the high-water mark. "These buildings are practically in the sea," says Barbara Wood, a buying agent, who runs The Property Finders in this part of Spain.

love padlocks being placed on the Isabel II bridge which links the city centre to the area of Triana.

Sevilla is a pretty romantic place, but the City Hall says it no longer wants to see love padlocks being placed on the Isabel II bridge which links the city centre to the area of Triana.The idea of couples placing a padlock on a fence or bridge is thought to have started in the 80’s in Pécs, Hungary, and has proved very popular in Sevilla where many couples have placed their locks thinking that they would never be opened.But the City Hall considers the padlocks damage the aesthetics of the bridge and have removed more than 1,000 of them already.
Público reports that locals are divided on the move.
‘Is the love represented by the lock broken?’, they ask.
The Municipal Junta for the Triana district has made up its mind and on Wednesday placed a motion that the padlocks be taken away every 15 days. They note that the Triana bridge is the only one in the city declared to be a Monument of Cultural Interest

Benalmádena bullfighter, Josélito Otega, says he’s not worried that many will think he is gay.

Benalmádena bullfighter, Josélito Otega, says he’s not worried that many will think he is gay. There’s little more macho in Spain than the world of the matador, but now that is set to change as Josélito Otega has accepted the sponsorship on his pink cape, of the new ‘Gay Up’ energy drink brand. Not only is it the first time that sponsorship has appeared on a bullfighter’s cape in Spain, but the product itself is sure to lead to a great deal of additional publicity. The 'Gay Up' company is Colombia based, but it is a Málaga company which has the franchise in Spain. They had previously tried to The 'Gay Up' energy drink
sponsor Málaga football team, but the attempt reportedly floundered in prejudice, and quite how Spain’s ‘National Fiesta’ responds to this new 21st century challenge remains to be seen. The purists are not likely to be happy.Gay Up’s Chairman, José María Terrón, told El Mundo that the bullfighting world should open up to the gay market, to renew itself and survive.José Otega himself told the press, ‘I am a bullfighter. That is not going to change. I am going to go out into the ring as I have done until now, to risk my life, and the seven goring wounds on my body prove that,’ he said. ‘If the gay community welcomes me as an image or a symbol, that is fine.’

Religious beliefs cannot be above civil law

witness called before the National Court in Spain on Wednesday in a case where nine alleged Islamists were in the dock, facing allegations of sending Mujahidin to carry out suicide attacks in Iraq, has been expelled from the court by Judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez, after she refused to lift or remove her burka.Before expelling her from the chamber the judge explained that in Spanish courts it is obligatory to declare with the face uncovered, and at the end of the session he called her to his office, with the prosecutor, Dolores Delgado. After some debate the witness has agreed to attend the court again on Monday, wearing her burka, but lifting it to show her face to the judge, but with no cameras and no public.The woman is the sister of Hassan Hssisni, a suicide bomber who carried out his attack in Iraq in January 2005.The judge commented that ‘Seeing her face I can see if she is lying or not, or if any question surprises her or not’. He said that he did not want to charge her with disobedience, but underlined that religious beliefs cannot be above civil law.

Javier Rodrigo de Santos, former town planning councillor, spent more than 50,000 € of public money

ex Partido Popular councillor found guilty of misuse of municipal funds in Palma de Mallorca has been sentenced to two years in prison, for using the City Hall credit card to pay for sex and cocaine.Javier Rodrigo de Santos, former town planning councillor, spent more than 50,000 € of public money between 2005 and 2007 and claimed at his trial that he only went to the alternative night clubs to buy the cocaine. In fact, his addiction to drugs formed a strong part of his defence and EFE reports that Judge Carlos Izquierdo took that into account in deciding the length of the sentence. Also key was the fact that de Santos has paid back the money he spent to Palma City Hall.In addition to the prison term, he gets a four year ban from public office.

Electrical storm in Els Poblets blew an enormous hole in the roof of the Swiss couple’s house

Swiss couple with a holiday home in Els Poblets were fortunately away in Switzerland for the summer when their house was hit by lightning. A German woman who looks after the property while the owners are away visited the house on Wednesday and told Diario Información that she is convinced they would have been dead if they had been inside when the house was hit.The electrical storm in Els Poblets blew an enormous hole in the roof of the Swiss couple’s house, lifted up the floor with the impact and the fire it caused destroyed all the furniture inside.Its understood the owners had renovated the property only recently.

Council meeting in Estepona has approved abolishing three local taxes under the austerity plan presented by opposition Partido Popular councillors

Council meeting in Estepona has approved abolishing three local taxes under the austerity plan presented by opposition Partido Popular councillors which, while good news for the pockets of the people of Estepona, will have a serious effect on the municipal purse.The local tax councillor, Francisca Bernal, told Europa Press that the move approved by the opposition, which has a majority in the local corporation, will reduce Town Hall income by around 20 million € next year: 18 million € in the abolished rubbish collection tax, a further 1.5 million € in the drainage tax and the remainder in opening licences granted to new businesses.Most of that income would normally have been spent on paying Town Hall salaries, the councillor said.
The opposition move is being seen by some of the press as a continued attempt by the Partido Popular to achieve the dissolution of the Town Hall.

Armed robbers in Ronda

Police in Ronda are examining CCTV footage to identify the three armed robbers who got away with 300 euros after raiding a BP petrol station on the Campillos road some three kilometres away from Ronda. According to the 46 year old shop assistant who was working at the time, three armed individuals burst into the shop and demanded the contents of the till. They got away with only 300 euros as the petrol station’s policy is keep no more than that amount in the till, while the rest is put into a safe to which employees do not have access. The shop assistant and a customer who was filling up at the time told the police that the three suspects made off in an Opel Corsa driven by a getaway driver.

British director, Michael Radford, has started shooting in Córdoba for his film, ‘La Mula’

British director, Michael Radford, has started shooting in Córdoba for his film, ‘La Mula’ – ‘The Mule’, his movie on the last months of the Civil War. Adapted from the book of the same name by the author from Jaén, Juan Eslava Galán, it’s a true life story which tells the tale of a young soldier who comes across a mule in the middle of a battlefield.He decides to keep the animal so he can take it home with him at the end of the war and allow him to earn a living for his family.The joint production by Spain, Britain and Ireland stars Mario Casas as the young soldier and is budgeted with 7 million €.

Motion of censure will oust the Benidorms Partido Popular Mayor, Manuel Pérez Fenoll.

Partido Popular Mayor claims in an open letter to the people of Benidorm that the motion against him is based on liesThis Tuesday is expected to see the end of 16 years of Partido Popular government in Benidorm, when, saving any last minute surprises, a motion of censure will oust the town’s Partido Popular Mayor, Manuel Pérez Fenoll.It was presented by the 12 Socialist councillors at the Town Hall – who have since resigned from the party – and a ‘turncoat’ PP councillor, José Bañuls, who left the ranks of the Partido Popular in June and is now a non-affiliated councillor. El País reports that he hopes to stand as Iniciativa Benidorm’s candidate for Mayor in the 2011 local elections.The candidate for Mayor on this occasion is Agustín Navarro, who until the mass resignation from PSOE after the motion was presented on 11th September was Socialist spokesman at Benidorm Town Hall. La Verdad newspaper reports that he and his 12 fellow councillors have checked into an undisclosed hotel from this Sunday night, where they will remain until the vote takes place on Tuesday.It’s a strategy which opposition councillors in Marbella, Málaga province, also followed in 2003 in the motion which ousted Julián Muñoz from the local Town Hall and elected Marisol Yagüe in his place.Manuel Pérez Fenoll claimed in an open letter to the people of Benidorm printed in ABC newspaper this Sunday that the motion against him is based on lies, predicting that the 2011 municipal poll will, he said, ‘return everyone to their proper place’.

Friend of the 16 year old Spanish girl, Celeste, found dead in her doorway in Valencia early on Saturday has been arrested

Friend of the 16 year old Spanish girl, Celeste, found dead in her doorway in Valencia early on Saturday has been arrested in connection with the teenager’s death. He is understood from the Levante newspaper to be one of the two friends who accompanied her home after attending a botellón street drinking party on Friday night and stayed talking with her in the doorway after the other youngster left at around 2.30 am on Saturday.There are unconfirmed reports that the victim was raped and is believed to have died after hitting her head on the steps at the first floor landing where her body was found.The other friend who was with the teenager before she died told the newspaper that the man in custody, named as Braulio M.R. was born in Colombia and adopted by Spanish parents and had no relationship with the teenager other than their friendship.An autopsy is expected to be carried out on Monday to determine the exact cause of death.

Juan Carlos Benavides faces a possible payout of more than 30,000 Euro over comments he made about a Socialist councillor

The Convergencia Andaluza Mayor of Almuñécar, Juan Carlos Benavides, faces a posible payout of tens of thousands of euros in a slander case which will be heard by Criminal Court No. 1 in Motril in December.The case comes to court after legal action taken by the Socialist Party’s former spokesperson at the Town Hall, Rocío Palacios, over insulting comments the Mayor made about her during a council meeting on 31st January 2006. Benavides suggested at the meeting that Palacios had climbed the political ladder only because of an ‘intimate relationship’ he claimed she had with her party’s provincial secretary, Francisco de la Chica.He also called her a ‘zorra’ – a tart.The prosecution service sees the Mayor’s words as seriously affecting the two Socialist politicians’ family lives, as the press, as they are for each council meeting, were present at the Town Hall meeting. EFE reports the Mayor faces a possible fine of 21,600 € and, in addition to that, 10,000 € compensation to the two politicians.The controversy over the insult led the Mayor to resign from the Partido Andalucista over what he said was a lack of support from provincial party leadership, joining, with most of his P.A. councillors, the new party, Convergencia Andaluza, in March 2006.

Trial starts of two British men, named as Richard Henry Roberts, 35, and Anthony Griffths, 22,

Trial starts of two British men, named as Richard Henry Roberts, 35, and Anthony Griffths, 22,who are accused of killing another Briton, 26 year old Daniel Hastelow, and breaking into his home in Magaluf on Mallorca in January this year.The attack came at 4am on the morning after the victim’s birthday in an apartment in Calle Contra almirante Riviera in Magaluf, but an argument had started before that in a local pup. This allegedly led the attackers to go to the home of the victim, armed with a baseball bat and knife. The victim was stabbed several times and the two suspects were arrested at Palma airport afterwards when trying to flee Mallorca. They have been held in prison on remand since January 15 this year.A statement from the Supreme Court said that the case will get underway at 9,30am this morning with the selection of the jury, and is expected to continue in both morning and afternoon sessions until Wednesday.

John David W.S. He faces a six-month sentence and a two-year ban from his profession

Partido Popular Mayor of Sorbas faces a possible six months in prison and a 7-year ban from public office for granting planning permission for a development in a protected area of the Sierra Cabrera. The building licence was granted in 2006 for 3 new homes on a plot in Los Pérez, which the prosecution service claims Mayor José Fernández was fully aware was classified as land unsuitable for development.
Other suspects in the case are the municipal technician who drew up the report recommending the licence could be granted, the project’s technical director and the property developer for the three homes. This last is a British man who is named by Europa Press as John David W.S. He faces a six-month sentence and a two-year ban from his profession, as well as having to share the 9,400 € cost of demolishing the illegal construction with his technical director.The construction project had not got past the foundations stage when the prosecution service ordered the building licence to be annulled last year.
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Family of murdered Seville teenager accuse suspects of desecrating the body

Parents of Marta del Castillo, the 17 year old who disappeared in Seville this January, were greeted with applause by the crowd waiting outside Instruction Court No. 4 in the city this Wednesday morning, as they arrived to hear the four accused in their daughter’s death formally informed of the charges against them.Inside the court, the private accusation brought by Marta’s parents added an additional charge against the four adult suspects in the case: desecration of the teenager’s body, which an intensive search has been unable to locate. Her self-confessed murderer, Miguel Carcaño, first claimed her threw the body in the Guadalquivir River, then changed his story to dumping it in a rubbish bin near the flat on Calle León XIII where Marta died.The family’s lawyer charges Carcaño with murder and rape, with a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. The other three suspects –his friend, Samuel Benítez, and his elder brother, Francisco Javier Delgado, and María García, Delgado’s girlfriend – are charged by the family with covering up the crimes.The fifth suspect, a youngster known as ‘El Cuco’, is to be tried by a juvenile court.
Security was tight as the four suspects arrived at court on Wednesday, and it’s understood that police had to intervene to protect Delgado and his girlfriend as they left the court to stop them being assaulted by the crowd.Miguel Carcaño remained inside after the other suspects left the building, making a statement to the judge at his own request.El Mundo reports that Carcaño told the judge that he did not rape Marta, but that he did kill her with an ashtray, thus returning to his first version of his confession.

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Fuente Álamo Civil Guard arrest man for a double stabbing on a beach in Mazarrón

Spanish man has been arrested for a double stabbing on a beach in Mazarrón this Saturday, where he attacked his estranged wife and her new boyfriend in broad daylight. La Verdad newspaper said the assault was witnessed by the couple’s two teenage children.The two victims were both seriously hurt – the woman, with a stab wound in the stomach, and her boyfriend in the back. He was prevented from causing them any further injury by witnesses who saw what happened on the Playa del Castellar in Puerto de Mazarrón and threw rocks at the assailant.Named by the paper as M.F.H., he was captured by the Fuente Álamo Civil Guard early on Saturday evening after escaping the beach by car.

Andalucía High Court of Justice has ordered the demolition of 80 homes and a 4-star hotel in the Guadalmina area of Marbella

Ruling from the Andalucía High Court of Justice has ordered the demolition of 80 homes and a 4-star hotel in the Guadalmina area of Marbella, which contravene current planning regulations in force in the town – the local urban plan of 1986. The hotel is named as part of the Barceló chain.News of the sentence was published by El Mundo newspaper this week, a ruling which was given this June when, the paper said, the magistrates who took the decision were aware that the town’s new urban was shortly to be approved. In fact, Marbella’s new PGOU general urban plan was approved by the Town Hall last week and it makes these two buildings due for demolition legal.
Speaking to the EFE news agency, the Junta de Andalucía’s territorial planning and housing councillor, Juan Espadas, said the aim is to push through regional government approval of the plan as soon as possible, hoping to pass it in half the time set down by law. Legally, the Junta has a time limit of five months to give its definitive approval.Felix Romero, spokesman for the Partido Popular local government in Marbella, told Europa Press on Wednesday that the Town Hall will ask the court to postpone carrying out the sentence, saying there is ‘no common sense or logic’ in demolishing the buildings.

Official limousine stolen in Spain

Ulla Schmidt flew to Alicante at her own expense, but her driver drove the nearly 2410km journey in her $196,000 limousine to Spain from Berlin to ferry her to and from official meetings with German retirees in southeastern Spain.

"Her chauffeur's accommodation was broken into and the car keys were stolen," said a Health Ministry spokesman.

Germany's Social Democrat (SPD) health minister came under pressure to explain why she took her official limousine, complete with chauffeur, to Spain where the vehicle was stolen.Opposition politicians demanded Ulla Schmidt provide more details about the affair.The incident could damage the SPD who trail Merkel's conservatives by more than 10 points in opinion polls in the run-up to a September 27 federal election.

Increased usage of antidepressants and tranquillizers

In Spain, 24 percent of women use antidepressants and 31 percent use tranquillizers -- sometimes used to help people sleep, researchers said. Lead author Sonsoles Perez of the Las Aguilas Health Centre in Madrid and colleagues studied 121 women in Madrid ages 25-65 using family dysfunction surveys and the additive scale used to evaluate social readjustment. The psychopharmaceuticals analyzed were antidepressants and benzodiazepines -- sedatives, anxiety reducing, anti-convulsant or muscle relaxants. Although one might think that family conflicts lead to greater consumption of psychopharmaceuticals among women, we did not find any such relationship Perez said in a statement. Some people with family, work-related or financial problems do not feel able to tackle their problems and fall back on the use of drugs.The study, published in the journal Atencion Primaria, also found in 78.6 percent of cases, these drugs are prescribed in primary health centers. The diagnosis is recorded in the patient's medical records in 64.5 percent of cases, with the primary causes being depression at 11.6 percent, anxiety at 9.9 percent and 3.3 percent of insomnia. The researchers found benzodiazepine use increases with age, but there was no similar finding with antidepressant use.

Marbella constructor José Ávila Rojas, arrived at the prison in Albolote

Marbella constructor José Ávila Rojas, arrived at the prison in Albolote on Wednesday morning to complete an eight year sentence for four counts of tax fraud. His appeal against last year’s sentence from the Granada provincial court was turned down by the Supreme Court last month, and it left no other means open to try and avoid entering prison.The fraud relates to the purchase and sale of two properties in Marbella, Málaga province, at the beginning of this decade, calculated as amounting to 3.5 million € in unpaid IVA and income tax. The sentence from the Granada court last summer also ordered the businessman to pay a fine of 10 million €.
EFE reports he was due to spend Wednesday in the prison’s admissions department before being assigned to a cell at some stage on Thursday.

Beach sewers and pumping stations that are still in use on the Western Costa del Sol.

Old concrete structures covered in graffiti they have to take a detour around while strolling along the shore are sewers and pumping stations that are still in use. And they may never learn, unless perhaps just after a spell of rough weather, that beneath their feet is a fragile network of pipes. Some of these structures have been there for 40 years, but it is only now that serious plans have been made to remove them. After all the authorities are not short of reasons. The sewers and pumping stations are not only an inconvenience to bathers but they are also in a kind of legal limbo as they occupy the strip known as the public maritime domain protected by the Coasts Law. They also complicate beach regeneration work and are in places so fragile that breakages and sewage leaks onto the beaches are not uncommon.
The plans for the first phase of the 60 million euro scheme have already been drawn up by Acosol, the water company that belongs to the Mancomunidad de Municipios on the Western Costa del Sol.

No official figures for the number of Britons going home, because nobody is counting.

The change from the peseta to the euro caused inflation that ended the "cheap living" forever.

No official figures for the number of Britons going home, because nobody is counting. But Spain is certainly counting its unemployed, up to 17% with more than four million out of work. And that has a painful effect for the Britons who prospered during Spain's boom times. Jim and Caireen Candlin met in Spain, married in Gibraltar and decided to raise their young children on the Costa Brava.Estate agent Marion Atkins is quitting Spain to run a pub in Britain Aberdeen-born Caireen says: "I think Spain is ideal for bringing up children. That's why I'm staying here while he goes back to the UK." Jim is heading home to retrain as an electrician after building work dried up. He says: "We've both worked for firms that have gone bust in the past year. "When we couldn't pay the rent one month and had to phone our parents for help, we realised economically it wasn't working here. We couldn't carry on like that." So now the couple have decided to leave the area, and possibly the country.Like Jim and Caireen, Barnaby Griffin and his wife Rebecca have been forced to live apart by a search for work. Rebecca returned after two years in Orihuela Costa to do temping in London, while Barnaby stays on as a performer in the local bars. "All my friends our age are struggling," he says. "People talk about living the dream but all it seems to be is sunshine, cheap cigs and wine. This area had low wages anyway and we're fed up living hand to mouth."

Russian crime gangs on the Costa del Sol are injecting kidnap victims with what they claim is an experimental KGB virus

Russian crime gangs on the Costa del Sol are injecting kidnap victims with what they claim is an experimental KGB virus to terrify them into paying ransoms. In the latest case, four Russians told their victim that he would die within 24 hours if he did not pay them €12,000 (£10,000). But the businessman called their bluff and alerted the police, who arrested the gang. The kidnappers had seized the Russian businessman in the middle of a street last week in Estepona, a Spanish resort popular with British tourists and expatriates. They put a hood over his head and bundled him into a waiting car. After being held for two days, during which he was subjected to threats, beatings and electric shocks, he was injected with a substance which the gang claimed was an experimental virus developed by the KGB, the former Russian security service. The man was told that he would develop a fever, start sweating profusely, feel sick, then begin vomiting. Soon afterwards, they said, he would die. The businessman did start sweating and feeling sick, and the gang tried to convice him that the only way they could save him was by injecting an antidote which they possessed. When they took him to get the cash from a bank they let him slip away, believing that he would return with the money. Instead, heavily armed police surrounded them. The Spanish Organised Crime Unit arrested three men and a woman. All were Russian nationals aged between 24 and 57 and they have been charged with kidnapping, torture and possession of illegal fire arms. Police seized a mobile phone from one kidnapper, in which he had photographed the way the gang tortured the victim. Officers said that there had been a spate of kidnappings in this part of the Costa del Sol. In March, the wife and daughter of a Russian businessman were kidnapped in Estepona. The gang threatened to kill them unless the husband paid a €2 million (£1.7 million) ransom, but they were rescued within 24 hours. The Russian mafia has been gaining ground in Spain since the decade-long property boom allowed many gangs an easy outlet to launder money. But police operations have detained two leading members of Russian crime cartels in the past 12 months. Last year, Gennadios Petrov, the head of the Tambovskaya-Malyshevkaya gang, was arrested at his neo-classical mansion in Calvi, one of the most exclusive villages in Majorca. In a major operation, codenamed Troika, 20 alleged members of the organised crime organisation said to have been led by Petrov were arrested in Majorca, Málaga, Alicante, Valencia and Madrid. Police seized 23 luxury cars including Bentleys and Ferraris and €200,000 (£170,000) in cash. Last weekend, Tariel Oniani, a Georgian considered to be the No2 in the Russian criminal empire in Spain, was arrested in Moscow. In 2005, Oniani fled his mansion near Barcelona after a tip-off from a corrupt Spanish official on the eve of a major police operation against Russian crime gangs. He is expected to face charges of laundering illicit cash obtained from criminal activities in Russia into property, restaurants and car sales in Spain.

George Lavery, aged 42, was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay £5,500 in compensation. John Hamilton,was sentenced to 2 and a half

George Lavery, aged 42, from Clapham Common in London was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay £5,500 in compensation. John Hamilton, aged 51, from St Leonards in Sussex was sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison and ordered to pay £4,500 in compensation. Neither of them were present at the sentencing so warrants have been issued to trace them.Lavery, formerly of High Street in Berkhamsted at the time of the offence, works as a psychic medium and had been contacted by the victim, who wanted to contact a girlfriend after their relationship had broken down. Lavery, also known as Simon Lavery, told the victim that he could help him rebuild
the relationship.Lavery and Hamilton then contacted the victim pretending to be the ex girlfriend via a mobile phone the victim had bought for them. They persuaded him to part with thousands of pounds of money under the pretext of a wedding between the man and his ex girlfriend. This included an engagement ring.The victim, a man from Watford, eventually realised that he had been defrauded when he saw the mobile phone he had bought at Lavery's house. He then contacted the ex girlfriend on her usual mobile number, but she knew nothing of the wedding. The offence took place between October 1 2007 and 2 June 2008.Lavery and Hamilton were found guilty in their absence today after originally pleading not guilty in September 2008 to fraud by false representation.Detective Constable Phil Freebrey, the officer in the case, said: "These are robust and positive sentences for a cruel and callous crime against a man who was at a vulnerable time in his life."It is unusual for offenders to be sentenced in their absence. We would strongly urge anyone who has seen either of these men to get in touch so they can now serve their sentences and pay the compensation."It is possible they could be in the London or Sussex areas where they come from, Gibraltar where Lavery was due to hold an event on June 9, the Costa del Sol where there was an event on June 11."I am also keen to hear from anyone else who thinks they may have been defrauded by these two individuals. We would ask them to get in touch so we can investigate."

Polaris World property developer based in the region, is in talks to reduce its debt by handing over some of its property assets to the banks

Murcia newspaper, La Verdad, reports today that the Polaris World property developer based in the region, is in talks to reduce its debt by handing over some of its property assets to the banks it is in debt to.The company is reported to have taken on loans totalling nearly 900 million € over recent years and is reported to now be offering both land and housing to the banks.The newspaper reports that if the talks are successful the company could clear its debt to leave it in a good position for the future. The main banks concerned are Bancaja, CAM, Banco Popular, Banco de Valencia and Cajamurcia.Given the collapse in the British market for homes in the region, Polaris World has recently concentrated its promotions on the Spanish market.

Judges in Málaga say they will support strike action on June 26

Judges in Málaga say they will support strike action on June 26 if the final call to do so comes from their union. The judges in the city consider that the advances made in talks with the Ministry for Justice to be ‘insufficient’. A further stoppage is reported to have 90% support.The last 24 hour stoppage was on February 18 this year as the judges protest against what they consider to be a serious lack of resources.

Deborah Hatto, from Crawley, was stabbed to death as she slept in her apartment in Coin, near Malaga, Spain, last June.

Deborah Hatto, from Crawley, was stabbed to death as she slept in her apartment in Coin, near Malaga, Spain, last June.The mother's blood-soaked body was found in bed by her 10-year-old daughter after she was stabbed as she slept. Her German boyfriend Jimmie Willis, who was described as “cold and calculating” by forensic psychologists, has been found guilty of her murder. Ms Hatto's daughter, who was just ten at the time, told a Costa Del Sol court via video link how she discovered her mother's lifeless body on the eve of her 42nd birthday. Forensic scientists, who examined her body, said there was no sign of a struggle and Ms Hatto was most likely asleep in bed when she received the single fatal stab wound. The murder weapon was discovered next to the mother’s body. Officers from Spain's Guardia Civil said Willis, 60, originally from Frankfurt, had claimed he struck because "he couldn't take it any more." They also said they found traces of her blood on his neck, behind his ear. The Scientific Police of Madrid stated that the wound inflicted on the victim coincided with the knife found at the side of the bed. But in court, Willis said the biological father of Ms Hatto's daughter was responsible for the killing - a claim that was rejected by the court. Willis' lawyers also tried to persuade the jury of five women and four men that he should be charged with unlawful killing with extenuating circumstances. A public prosecutor called for him to receive a 15 year sentence for unlawful killing, but the jury agreed with Javier Florido Martin, representing Ms Hatto's family who said the charge should be murder. Mr Martin said: “I maintained from the outset that this was a matter of murder and not unlawful killing. “The forensic psychiatrists stated that Jimmie Willis was in a perfect mental state, that he was not clinically insane and that he knew perfectly well what he was doing. “The forensic psychologist - in response to questions asked by the prosecution – described Jimmie Willis as 'cold and calculating', 'insensitive' and 'with no remorse whatsoever'. “The jury reached a verdict and declared the accused guilty of murder with no extenuating circumstances. They were 100% in agreement with the family.”

Keen traveller Ms Hatto, grew up in Horsham and moved from Crawley to Spain with her daughter three years before she was brutally killed.

Willis is due to be sentenced next week.

Salvador Alberto M.M.has been charged with the murder of his ex girlfriend

Salvador Alberto M.M.has been charged with the murder of his ex girlfriend, Isabel Canino Rivero, whose body was found on May 20 in the septic tank of the accused’s home.It comes after he gave a statement to the judge on Sunday, with the judge then enforcing reporting restrictions.The victim had been missing for some two months.

New bylaws introduced in Tossa de Mar near Girona have banned sex on the beach.

New bylaws introduced in Tossa de Mar near Girona have banned sex on the beach. Those caught face a 400 – 1,800 € fine from Monday.Many youngsters, and those not so young, are protesting against the new regulations which they consider to be exaggerated, and which also ban alcohol and stag night parties on the sand. Protests are being organised over the internet, and some local buildings now show graffiti which says in English ‘Sex on the beach’.

Spanish bullfighter Israel Lancho was seriously gored by the sixth bull as the San Isidro fiesta continued in Madrid on Wednesday.

Spanish bullfighter Israel Lancho was seriously gored by the sixth bull as the San Isidro fiesta continued in Madrid on Wednesday. He reached the bullring surgery conscious but is now said to be in a very serious condition in hospital after being gored 20cms deep at great speed upwards in the chest. Doctor Máximo García Padrós operated on him in the bullring surgery under general anaesthetic.The matador is now in a very serious condition in the Clinica Virgen del Mar in the Spanish capital.

Charlie Bronson hopes to move to Costa del Sol and open a pub

Charlie Bronson hopes to move to Spain and open a pub when he finally gets out of jail.The 58-year-old former Ellesmere Port resident wants to buy a bar on the Costa del Sol – and has already talked over plans with his brother Mark Peterson, who lives near Aberystwyth, Wales.Mark said: “He would love to end up running a bar in Spain.“But first he plans to settle with me to be near our mother Eira who is now 78.”A prison source told Sunday newspaper The People: “Bronson has been talking about moving to the Costa del Sol when he gets out of prison for ages now.“It has always been a bit of a Utopia for prisoners and criminals and he thinks he would live the rest of his life there.”Bronson is currently awaiting a parole board hearing after being transferred to Category C Long Lartin prison, Worcestershire, from top-security Wakefield prison.He was initially jailed for armed robbery in 1974 but a series of attacks and hostage-taking kept him locked-up and earned him the reputation of the country’s most violent inmate.Labelled Britain’s most dangerous prisoner, he has been the subject of a film – Bronson – which is partly autobiographical and partly surreal fantasy.Earlier this year on it’s cinema release, his family, some of whom still live in Ellesmere Port, travelled to London to watch the premiere of the movie, which has been accused of glorifying his violent acts.It is due out on DVD soon. Aside from a few months of freedom, Bronson has spent 34 years behind bars, most in solitary confinement.

Contacted 27 owners of properties in Marbella requesting documentation proving their entitlement to enclosures of land

Coasts authority has contacted 27 owners of properties in Marbella requesting documentation proving their entitlement to enclosures of land which has been legally part of the public domain since boundaries were determined in the 60s and 70s. Owners have been given until next week to provide documentary proof of the legality of walls, fences, pools, sheds and gardens, otherwise they will be required to draw back their boundaries. One of the homes affected is in the name of Cayetan Fitz-James Stuart, Duchess of Alba, whose garden wall appears to enclose 32 square metres of public land. Others include part of the Hotel Marbella Club gardens, and a wall on the Cortijo Blanco beach belonging to Marbella Town Hall.
‘Costas’ will be moving its attention next to more recent buildings which may infringe the rules of the 1988 Coasts Law, which imposed new zoning rules and gave greater protection, for example, to sand dunes. By the time compliance with all the more recent regulations is enforced, it is estimated that 68,341 square metres of seafront land may be restored to public ownership.Spain’s Socialist government, keen to clean up the ugly concrete jungle along its costas, has taken a dim view of the duchess’s turreted summer residence on the Costa del Sol and wants parts of it bulldozed. A wall and a lawn leading to Casablanca beach in Marbella may contravene the so-called Coastal Law which states that all land within 100m (328ft) of a shoreline is public property and bans building within that area. Any private building falling within this zone can be knocked down depending on a local authority’s interpretation and enforcement of the legislation. The law has ramifications for thousands of British expatriates who bought villas next to the Mediterranean and now face the prospect that their properties could be reduced to rubble. Homes owned by Spaniards have already been knocked down in Tenerife and Cantabria in northern Spain. Francisco Javier Hermoso, head of the regional Coastal Authority, said that the Duchess had eight days to prove that her property was built with legal permission. If it is deemed to have broken the law part of the sumptuous residence could be knocked down. If the bulldozers roll up, it will be the latest humiliation for the fiery-tempered aristocrat. A regular face in Spain’s prensa rosa — or gossip press — her love life has recently provided succulent reading after it emerged that her children opposed her planned marriage to a family friend 24 years her junior. “They don’t want me to marry, but they change partners more often than I do,” she told the Spanish media. The waxen-faced duchess, whose full name is Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva — she counts the Stuart king James II of England among her ancestors — is often photographed at society gatherings and bullfights, where her former son-in-law, Francisco Rivera Ordóñez, a popular matador, is the star attraction. As well as not having to kneel before the Pope, her other ancient rights include the unique privilege of being able to ride into the immense Seville Cathedral on horseback. A previous Duchess of Alba was the model — and supposed lover — of Francisco de Goya. Two of Goya’s most famous portraits, The Clothed Maja and The Naked Maja, hang in the Madrid palace where the present Duchess was born. She was a dazzling beauty in her youth and her wedding in 1947 to Luis Martinez de Irujo y Artacoz was described as “the most expensive in the world”. After her first husband’s death, she stunned public opinion by marrying Jesús Aguirre y Ortiz de Zárate, a free-thinking former Jesuit priest, in 1978. Today the duchess cuts a strange figure with her high-pitched voice and frail health. She was recently photographed in a wheelchair at a society wedding and nearly choked to death on orange juice. About 500,000 British and other property owners fear that the Government is not content with enforcing the Coastal Law but wants to make it retroactive. After condemnation of the law by the European Parliament and pressure from the British and German Governments Spain has agreed to allow owners to sell affected properties.

Margaret Moran MP Padre Eterno, near Orgiva

Margaret Moran reportedly ‘flipped’ her second home between Westminster, Luton and Southampton, claiming thousands on each in turn.At the same time, she has rented out the four-bedroom villa in Granada at various times since buying it in 1984.
The Labour MP, who charged taxpayers £22,000 for dry rot treatment at a home her husband owns in England, used a local agent to organise the rentals.
Holiday lettings agency Rustic Blue confirmed to the Olive Press that it had rented out the luxury property in Padre Eterno, near Orgiva on a number of occasions.
“Moran is supposed to be a Labour MP but she is behaving like an English imperialist from the days of the Raj. She should buy herself a villa in Marbella and be done with it”While the agency, based in Bubion, is no longer renting out the property, which is joint owned by her brother John, a spokesman said: “I remember the house. We used to rent it, but it is no longer on our books.“I can’t remember what it was on for, but we used to rent it through a local friend, who was in charge of the property and garden.“It was a popular place and in a charming spot.”
While there is no suggestion of impropriety over the rentals, her true socialist values were called into question after she bulldozed an access path to dozens of neighbours’ homes.The Olive Press reported how she had been forced to call police after becoming embroiled in a vicious neighbour’s dispute over the path.Her neighbours called a protest, insisting that the path had been used for more than 20 years by verbal agreement.Eventually the MP for Luton South was ordered by a judge in 2007 to reopen the path. She later lost an appeal.At the same time Miss Moran was accused of breaching parliamentary rules by pinning a notice to her gatepost using official House of Commons paper.The notice, which she denied to the Olive Press, had warned neighbours not to come on her land.When the story appeared in the British Press, Miss Moran contacted solicitors then claimed their £881.25 bill through her Incidental Office Expenses account, which is meant to cover the running of her constituency office.The claim was waived through by the fees office. However in 2007-08, she bought a fridge and blinds that were delivered to her Luton property. The House of Commons said: “you wouldn’t be able to use the IEP to furnish homes”.
The fees office did reject some of Miss Moran’s claims, however. It refused to pay a £47 bill from a printer for Christmas cards and £164.50 for birthday cards.
As The Daily Telegraph disclosed, Miss Moran ‘flipped’ her second homes over four years, spending thousands of pounds on decorating each one in turn.First, she installed a new £4,756.40 kitchen, fitted a £2,678 carpet and bought a bed worth £527.20 for a flat near the House of Commons.Miss Moran then switched her second-home designation to Luton and spent £2,350 on the garden, £1,823.09 on bathroom repairs, £212.50 on bedding and £4,200 on decorating.Finally, she changed her second home to the semi-detached property in Southampton, which her husband has owned since 1988, and soon after claimed £22,500 for the dry rot treatment, a fraction less than the maximum allowance available for the whole year.The fees office said she had broken the “spirit” of the rules, but admitted it was powerless to reject her claims.
Miss Moran said: “It is all within the claims policy and that’s why I’m angry about this because it gives the incredibly misleading impression that somehow we’ve been dodgy, that we’ve been fraudulent or we’ve been corrupt.After losing her battle to block access paths in 2007, neighbours described her behaviour as “mean, bloody-minded and tawdry.”“It was completely unsocialist behaviour,” said neighbour Nick Nicholson, who works in the oil industry.Another neighbour Nuri went further. “Moran is supposed to be a Labour MP but she is behaving like an English imperialist from the days of the Raj. She should buy herself a villa in Marbella and be done with it.”

The Brits to Spain holiday market is in meltdown at the moment.

"Unless prices drop soon, dozens of hotels, restuarants and tourist attractions in Spain and its islands risk closure."Last year 15.8million UK tourists holidayed in Spain, representing 27 per cent of all visitors to the country.But while Spain remains our No1 destination, the number of Brits going there is down by 23 per cent so far this year.The explanation is simple. In January 2007 Britons travelling to Spain got 1.5 euros for a pound. Now they get just 1.1.By comparison, Turkey, Egypt and other non-euro countries look very good value for money.A recent survey by Thomas Cook found the average holiday expenditure in Majorca was £42.40 per person per day. In Egypt it was £33.93, in Turkey £30.12, in Cuba, £27.44 and in Goa just £12.58.But great deals in mainland Spain and the Balearic and Canary Islands could be just around the corner.Steve Endacott, Chief Executive of travel agents On Holiday, confirmed: "Destinations like Minorca and Majorca have been hit particularly badly."But the majority of late charter flight seats left to sell are to Spain and at really low prices. I,ve never seen such low prices for flights to Spain. Basically, there are a lot more Spanish holidays to sell, while most deals to Turkey, Egypt and the like have gone."Spain has also seen a huge slump in domestic bookings.And many Spanish hoteliers are ready to slash rates much more aggressively than Greek or Turkish hotels.Britain's leading travel group TUI Travel announced earlier this week that almost HALF of its holidays had yet to be sold.Overall, the beleaguered tourism industry has seen bookings fall by an estimated quarter of a billion pounds this year. The total number of all foreign trips booked this year has fallen by nearly 20 per cent, as cautious Brits, fearing that they could lose their jobs, wait until the last minute before buying.The pound is also much weaker against the US dollar than it was and trips to North America have slumped by 29 per cent.
Travel industry expert Kevin May advised families to look for bargains in June and July. He said: "Firms are not filling up all their plane seats and hotel rooms, so once we get into June and there's still capacity to fill, prices will have to come down."A spokeswoman for Which? Holiday said: "There will be bargains. But one market that is holding up well is Britain. Camp sites and places like Center Parcs are 99 per cent booked up." Surprisingly, one overseas destination worth checking out for cheap deals is pig flu-hit Mexico.The Foreign Office has lifted its ban on non-essential travel and flights resume on May 24.Experts said travel agents are set to cut prices on Mexico.

Marbella proceedings started against properties owned by Marbella Town Hall and the Hotel Marbella Club.

Demarcación General de Costas is reported to have started proceedings to recover the land, declared to be public shoreline, on which nearly 30 homes and other buildings have been constructed in Marbella.Among those affected is the Duchess of Alba, Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, who faces losing 32 square metres of her property on the Casa Blanca beach. A wall with gated access to her land has to go, according to the latest official provincial bulletin.The coastal authority has also started proceedings against properties owned by Marbella Town Hall and the Hotel Marbella Club. Owners have an eight day period to present their complaints against the orders. Then, if no complaints are made, or if the complaints are considered non-applicable, ‘the necessary measures will be taken to recover the occupied public land’, and that can include what is described as ‘administrative eviction’ as outlined in the Ley de Costas.Similar inspections are expected to result more cases in Fuengirola, Benalmádena and Torremolinos later this month and in June as the coastal authority moves East.

Margaret Moran in southern Spain, parliamentary stationery may not be used for ‘personal, business or commercial correspondence’

British MP who was ordered to let neighbours use a right of way across her land in the Alpujarra could now face an investigation for allegedly using House of Commons notepaper to warn them off.The Daily Telegraph reports this Thursday that their journalists have located a piece of stationery with the Commons crest which reads, ‘Please note – this road is private & closed. Please remove your motorcycle from our land’. They say it’s written in English and Spanish, in handwriting which is an exact match to the MP’s.The note was reportedly in the possession of a British man who lives near the home owned by Margaret Moran in southern Spain. Two years ago, a court in Órgiva ordered the Labour MP to allow locals to use a right of way over her property in Carataunas, a small village in the Alpujarra, after she installed a gate to block the way. The Briton found the note pinned to his motorbike and has told the Telegraph that he decided to keep it to pin up on the wall above his toilet.Another neighbour claimed back in 2007 that he had also found a note from Ms Moran written on House of Commons paper, an allegation which the MP denied. Under House of Commons regulations, parliamentary stationery may not be used for ‘personal, business or commercial correspondence’, and it’s understood the Commons has been informed of the matter reported this week by the Telegraph.

Fuengirola criminal attempts to remove his finger prints

Police in Fuengirola have arrested a 30 year old criminal who had several warrants out for his arrest and a long criminal record. The suspect was caught a few days ago when he and another criminal of the same nationality jumped a police checkpoint. Officers chased the suspect, who was driving a rented Opel Corsa, and managed to corner him.Inside the vehicle officers found a suitcase, clothes and a safe which they discovered had been stolen from a tourist who was staying at a hotel. Once taken to the police cells, the man was caught rubbing his fingers against the wall to try and remove his fingerprints to stop the police from identifying him. When approached by an officer, the suspect tried to take his gun off him in order to escape. He was finally restained and now awaits a court date.

Charles Stabler, 65, never woke from a coma after being hit around the head last month.

Charles Stabler, 65, never woke from a coma after being hit around the head last month.A neighbour called emergency services after seeing smoke coming from the flat, in the seaside resort of Benalmadena.Fireman found Mr Stabler lying unconscious on the floor of the flat and he was taken to the Carlos Haya hospital in Malaga.
The burglar fled after ransacking the apartment and setting it on fire.A 44-year-old Spaniard was arrested 17 days later and is in prison on remand accused of the crime.He is thought to have followed Mr Stabler home from a local bar and forced his way in at around midnight on April 9.Mr Stabler had stayed at the resort, next to Torremolinos on the southern Spanish holiday coast, for some years.

20minutos reports that Pantoja broke off with the ex Mayor by giving the news first to Hola! Magazine.

Spanish Prensa Rosa gossip press are waiting to see what will happen between diva Isabel Pantoja and the ex Mayor of Marbella, Julián Muñoz, also now considered to be the singer’s ex.
According to reports Pantoja sent a fax to Muñoz a month ago, giving him a month to remove his things from her Marbella home ‘Mi Gitana’. The fax also asked him to stop using her four wheel drive vehicle.However Muñoz has shown no intentions of going anywhere and some reports say that he says the Marbella property is his home and he will not leave by the back door.He says that he will only leave if told to by a judge saying that he has lived there with Pantoja since 2003 until he was sent to jail, and she headed to her other home in Madrid.20minutos reports that Pantoja broke off with the ex Mayor by giving the news first to Hola! Magazine.

Guadalpín Banús and the Guadalpín Marbella announced a suspension of payments, the procedure ahead of bankruptcy.

Two hotels owned by the Aifos company in Marbella have announced a suspension of payments, the procedure ahead of bankruptcy. The new judge in Marcantile Court 1 in Málaga, Afredo Elías, announced the move on April 27 against the Promociones y Servicios Hoteleros Guadalpin company which has been running both hotels concerned, the Guadalpín Banús and the Guadalpín Marbella.
It means that both hotels will now be run by three administrators who are a lawyer, an economist, and a representative from the Caja Publicidad company, who comes from one of the four companies owed money and who had called for suspension of payments. Also reported to be demanding the process were several owners of apartments in the Marbella hotel. Total debt of the two hotels has been reported in El País as reaching 1.17 million €. Some 300 workers are employed across both establishments.

Three dead bodies have been found on the 'Los Naranjos' property in less than a year.

The man arrested in connection with their deaths is the owner of the finca and testing for gunpowder residue is being carried out on the dead men’s hands to determine if either of them shot at the suspect now in custody. There are some reports that both were carrying pistols, and the owner of the finca is reported to have claimed that he defended himself when the two men attacked his property.Autopsies carried out on the bodies of two men found dead on the finca ‘Los Naranjos’, on the Camino de los Martínez in Alhaurín de la Torre, on Saturday night have confirmed that they were shot at close range with a hunting shotgun. Neither man was carrying documentation and has yet to be identified, although reports from El Mundo newspaper indicate they could be from South America and are possibly from Colombia.Civil Guards have arrested the owner of a house in Alhaurín de la Torre where the bodies of two men were discovered on Saturday night.
The men, who were not carrying any identification, had been shot dead with a shooting rifle. The owner of 'Los Naranjos' allegedly shot the two men and says that he was defending himself. It is thought that the two men had entered the property with the intention of burglarly.Apparently, at around 10.30 p.m. the owner was alone in the house when he was alerted to the presence of the two men, who were carrying guns, in the grounds by the barking of his dogs, the owner claims that the two intruders fired their weapons first and he pulled the trigger of his to defend himself. However, before this is confirmed, the police will have to examine the gun shells and the bullet wounds on the bodies of the victims.
Autopsies are being carried out and the police are trying to identify the victims. The same sources said that they could be Colombian and the police are working with the Colombian embassy.
Three dead bodies have been found on the 'Los Naranjos' property in less than a year.On April 30th last year a teacher in Alhaurín de la Torre, worried that a mother hadn't come to collect her daughter, called a neighbour. When the neighbour found the villa all closed up she called the police.When the police arrived they found the body of the ex-wife of the owner floating in the pool. She had a serious wound on her mouth and her neck had been cut. It later came to light that she had been alive when she entered the water.The victim (35) lived in the home of her ex-husband, who she had reported to the police several times for threatening behaviour.
The ex was questioned by police but he had a solid alibi. He said that he was on a trip to Cadiz.In the area, the owner of 'Los Naranjos' is known for being an animal lover. He cared for many exotic species and abandoned animals.

Len and Helen Prior,Constitutional Court has ruled the proceedings which led to the demolition to be invalid

There was some good news last week for Len and Helen Prior, the British couple whose home in Vera was demolished as illegal in January last year: the Constitutional Court has ruled the proceedings which led to the demolition to be invalid. The court states that the Priors were not informed of those proceedings and were therefore denied their right to effective judicial protection. The demolition itself has also been declared as invalid.The house was bulldozed on a court order which ruled that it was built illegally on rustic land, despite the fact that planning permission was granted from Vera Town Hall. The Priors have been living in their garage ever since, with no running water or electricity supply . Europa Press reports the couple have claimed 600,000 € from the Town Hall in compensation for the demolition.