30 year old grape farmer from Villanueva de Alcardate (Toledo) found dead last night, died of heat stroke.

30 year old grape farmer from Villanueva de Alcardate (Toledo) found dead last night, died of heat stroke. According to local mayor, Jorge Luis Garrido, the dead man, Pedro Pablo MP, left for his vineyard at around 5pm yesterday afternoon to install a new irrigation system. After he failed to return by nightfall, his father and brother went out to look for him, but only managed to find his car.
After Local Police and Guardia Civil officers joined the hunt, Pedro was eventually found at around 11.30pm. Maximum temperatures in the Castilla La Mancha region soared above 40ºC yesterday, and the heatwave is expected to last for a few more days at least

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Police in Mallorca investigating sunbathers death

Police in Mallorca are investigating whether a 29 year old Bulgarian man who passed away in Son Llàtzer Hospital last Tuesday, died as a result of heat or sunstroke.
Vladimir suffered severe sunburns last Saturday on Cala Major beach in Palma.
The alarm was raised by a lifeguard who noticed that the man had not moved for several hours.
Police are not ruling out the possibility that the man might have worn himself out while bathing, and fallen asleep after reaching the beach.

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Ryanair said that its winter cost cutting programme is going to hit Majorca.

Spanish airline industry was rocked by the announcement by the Palma-based airline Spanair that it plans to shed a third of its workforce, Ireland low-cost carrier Ryanair said that its winter cost cutting programme is going to hit Majorca.
While Ryanair has a number of new routes planned out of its Palma hub for December, it will first be suspending all its Palma operations between November 4 and December 19.Ryanair sources explained yesterday that while it is having to battle rising operating costs at Stansted Airport (see Business) the combination of rising fuel prices and Palma being one of the most expensive airports to operate from in Spain makes flying in and out of Majorca during what is considered a relatively quiet period, financially unviable at a time when all airlines are trying to reduce costs.
A total of 372 flights and 56'000 passengers will be affected by the Palma suspension and, according to Ryanair, the airport will lose some seven million euros in revenue from airport unpaid taxes. “If Palma airport had lower operating costs, it would not be necessary for us to reduce our operations and Majorca would not have lost 56'000 potential visitors,” said Ryanair Chief Executive Michael Cawley in a statement released yesterday afternoon. “High fuel prices and Palma’s expensive operating costs make it very difficult for us to keep our airfares down,” he added.
Balearic President Francesc Antich yesterday said that he and his government are “very worried” about the futures of the 1'100 Spanair employees which face losing their jobs here in the Balearics and on the mainland.Antich announced that the government will do all it can to help those made redundant as a result of Spanair’s restructuring plan and also ensure that none of Spanair’s inter-island and Balearic domestic routes are affected. Spanair yesterday confirmed that a total 1'100 jobs are going to be lost.

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100kg of coc aimne were stolen from police headquarters and replaced with talcum powder

Police in Seville have been left red-faced after more than 100kg of drugs were stolen from police headquarters and replaced with talcum powder, a spokesman said.
The missing drugs, amounting to 95% of the cocaine seized in police operations, would be worth about five million euros on the black market. All the signs are that the thief or thieves who took the drugs were regular visitors, and might even be police officers themselves as there was no sign of the door having been forced.
According to the newspaper El Pais, the keys were usually kept by the head of Seville’s organised crime unit, although he sometimes handed them over to other officers.Seville police when asked to comment, would only confirm that narcotics stored at the police station had “gone missing” and that the internal affairs department had begun an inquiry.The theft was discovered when police carried out a routine final analysis of the drugs before they were destroyed, only to find they were nothing but a harmless material.

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British man threatened members of a gypsy clan known locally as ‘Los Pertolos’ which, according to the court, is well known for its acts of violence.

Married couple have been sentenced to four years in prison by Almeria Provincial Court for extorting money and the ownership of a car from a British man living in Arboleas. The couple, aged 41 and 46, are members of a gypsy clan known locally as ‘Los Pertolos’ which, according to the court, is well known for its acts of violence. The couple threatened the British man, who ran an estate agent’s business in the Arboleas area, showing him a pistol which they told him had “already been used to kill a person” and telling him at the same time that they could “become enemies”. Later they went to the man’s home where other unidentified members of the clan surrounded him and forced him to sign a contract giving work to the accused.
The victim was also forced to give them a document which they then used to transfer ownership of his son’s car to the married couple. The car was later returned to the victim by the Guardia Civil.

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Expat living in Calpe will be extradited if found guilty of a massive robbery

Expat living in Calpe will be extradited if found guilty of a massive robbery in his home country. The 60-year-old German national is said to have an international arrest warrant hanging over him in connection with a raid on a supermarket in the town of Herne. Guardia Civil officers say criminal damage to the value of 2,200€ was caused and around 30,000€’s worth of goods stolen during the theft in May 2005. The accused has been transferred to the national court in Madrid for trial following his arrest at the weekend.

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Miguel Merida Gallardo old time Bandido

Miguel Merida Gallardo, a minor thief wanted for around 100 robberies in 1994, followed the example of the Maquis – the Spanish resistance to Franco - and lived in caves for 14 years, subsisting on food and supplies stolen from market gardens and farmsteads. He was last heard of in Baena (Cordoba) in February 1994 and reappeared on July 13 2008 in Alcaudete (Jaen) after a suspicious resident reported him to the PolicÌa Local. Miguel Merida, now aged 48, had two principal “residences” – a cave in Luque (Cordoba) and another in Alcaudete where he kept provisions that included tinned food and a battery-operated television. After being released on parole and spending the night of July 14 in a municipal hostel in Alcalzar La Real, Merida has again disappeared and as a result the Guardia Civil are looking for him once again. However, his whereabouts are apparently still unknown.

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The biggest corporate failure in Spanish history, Martinsa-Fadesa on Tuesday filed a petition for court administration after accumulating debts of EUR

the biggest corporate failure in Spanish history, Martinsa-Fadesa on Tuesday filed a petition for court administration after accumulating debts of EUR 7 billion.
Anecdotal evidence apart - the number of creditors affected in this recourse to court administration is the largest in Spanish economic history - the disaster is clearly due to the profound recession that the Spanish property market is now going through, after two decades of the real estate bubble, in which building companies embarked on a dizzy spiral of indebtedness and excessive construction.
They believed that they were looking at an endless party, but they have now come up against the financial institutions' difficulties in maintaining the necessary flow of loans in a situation of worldwide tightening of liquidity.It would not be fair to take a too distant view of the causes of this particular cataclysm. In trying to understand the reasons for the crash in the building industry, there is a need to keep in mind the long list of absurdities committed in recent years by property developers.One of the main causes is to be found in the obvious imprudence with which the construction industry has been managed.More than a few construction company executives - among others, the president of Martinsa, Fernando Martín - persistently denied that prices of construction company shares were going to fall, or that a contraction of the market was around the corner, even after the disturbing summer of 2007.With such a lack of perception, combined with indigestible deals such as the purchase of Fadesa, it can come as no surprise that Martinsa, with assets of more than EUR 10 billion and a debt amounting to nearly EUR 7 billion, had erred in its calculations and found that it now cannot obtain a EUR 150 million credit.
The financial institution creditors have examined the accounts of Martinsa and have determined that it does not generate sufficient income to back new loans.
This is a rigorous market analysis that ought to have been carried out during the 10 fat years. Had this been done, the firm might now be in a position to weather the storm.The other source of unease now apparent in this crisis is the painful situation of the financial market.The abnormal restriction of credit may mean the coup de grâce for businesses that rely on assets inflated by speculation, as seems to have been the case of Martinsa, but it will also tend to stifle the regular financing of solvent companies.This is the exact point at which the responsibility of the government comes into the picture.It is not a question of the public sector coming to the rescue of the property developers, though there may be many firms as sick as Martinsa.The rules of the game demand that excesses in supply and prices must be paid for.But the government must recognise the real gravity of this crisis. And one of the best ways of doing so is to consider how the drought of credit may be corrected.That way, the innocent will not have to pay for the misbehaviour of the guilty.

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ex Mayor of Marbella, Julián Muñoz six month prison sentence

The Provincial Court in Málaga has confirmed the six month prison sentence handed down against the ex Mayor of Marbella, Julián Muñoz and five GIL party councillors, Rafael González, Manuel Calle, Mario Jiménez, Marisa Alcalá and José Marino Pomares, for real estate corruption in the Incopromar case.
The group of six were also banned from holding public office for seven years in the case which came as a result of a licence being given to the Incopromar company to build 68 homes, shops and parking on land not classified for building in the Avenida del Mar in the town.

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Mijas Costa bridge came down when a crane got caught underneath it, and the blocked A7 motorway caused traffic chaos for the rest of the evening,

Four of the six injured in the accident caused by the collapse of a pedestrian bridge over the A7 motorway in Mijas Costa on Monday afternoon have been allowed home from hospital, while the two men who were in the first car which was crushed by the falling bridge remain in a serious but stable condition in the Costa del Sol hospital in Marbella.
The men aged 44 and 30 had to be rescued from the remains of their crushed vehicle by fire-crews. One has suffered head, abdomen and neck injuries, the other facial and head injuries.
The bridge came down when a crane got caught underneath it, and the blocked A7 motorway caused traffic chaos for the rest of the evening, not least because a breakdown in communications led to a delay in the opening of the toll motorway to all traffic amid several scenes of road rage from frustrated drivers.The company which has the toll concession has meanwhile been warned by the Ministry for Development following their taking an hour to obey a Ministry instruction and lift the tolls following the accident on Monday. The company was ordered to lift charges at 1850 but it was not until an hour later that the barriers were lifted, causing serious delays to thousands of travellers.

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British holidaymaker Mark Day,has died after falling 40ft from a hotel during a forfeit for losing a game of poker.

British holidaymaker has died after falling 40ft from a hotel during a forfeit for losing a game of poker.
Mark Day, 20, plunged to his death in a freak accident on Sunday night during a holiday with university friends at the three-star Majorca Beach Hotel in the resort of Magalluf. Police sources revealed that after losing a game of cards he was dared to strip off and run along a hotel corridor in just his socks and underpants.
But he lost his balance at the end of the passageway and smashed through a fifth-floor window, falling to concrete below. He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics shortly after 8pm. Mr Day's friends, Marc Smart and Steve Kimberley, both 21, who studied with him at the University of Essex, are helping police piece together the events leading up to the incident. A source said: "We're not clear yet whether he slipped because he lost his balance as he ran with just his socks on or whether he was running too fast and couldn't stop in time. "But he crashed through the window and fell more than 40 feet from the corridor which was on the fifth-floor. "We believe the victim had been drinking and that may also have impaired his judgement." The hotel refused to make an official comment but a receptionist said: "The dead man was with two friends who are talking to the police at the moment. We don't expect them to return to the hotel." The pair, who were sharing room 519 with the victim, have been moved to another hotel by travel firm Thomas Cook. Although police have ruled out anything suspicious related to the death, an investigating judge has now taken charge of a routine investigation. The 11-storey hotel Majorca Beach Hotel is located directly opposite the beach in Magalluf and is popular with British holidaymakers. Mr Day death is the third accident of its type this year so far in Majorca and comes amid high season at holiday resorts across the Mediterranean. An 18-year-old holidaymaker was seriously injured last Monday after falling from his fifth-floor hotel balcony in Magalluf. A fortnight ago another teenager was injured after falling from his apartment in the Port of Alcudia in the north east of the island.

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