British man has died in hospital after being attacked two weeks ago near his hotel in Portugal.

Ian Haggath, 50, from Dunston near Gateshead, was beaten up in Albufeira. He died from his injuries last Wednesday.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "I can confirm the death of a British national in Faro on May 25. We are in touch with the family and we are providing consular assistance."

According to reports Haggath suffered serious head injuries after being attacked by four people. There is speculation that the same gang is responsible for attacking two other tourists this year.

According to the Daily Mirror, David Hoban, 44, from Dublin was stabbed in the same area of Albufeira in April but survived.

A few days before Darren Lackie, 22, a soldier from Fife, was found in the street with a head injury and died.

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Authorities in the Czech Republic and Austria have taken some Spanish-grown cucumbers off store shelves over fears they are contaminated with E.coli.

The move came after illness in Germany caused by infected cucumbers led to at least 10 deaths.

The cucumbers, believed to have been imported from Spain and contaminated with E.coli, left people ill with hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS).

Hundreds of people are said to have fallen sick.

Officials in the Czech Republic said affected cucumbers may also have been exported to Hungary and Luxembourg.

Austria's Agency for Health and Food Safety said some tomatoes and aubergines had also been included in the ban.

Meanwhile a European Union spokesman said two greenhouses in Spain identified as sources had ceased their activities.

They were now being investigated to see whether the contamination occurred there or elsewhere.

'Predominance of women'
The aggressive form of E.coli is known to cause kidney failure and affect the central nervous system.

Most of the cases have been in the area around Hamburg.

The Sweden-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said this outbreak was "one of the largest described of HUS worldwide and the largest ever reported in Germany".

It said: "While HUS cases are usually observed in children under five years of age, in this outbreak 87% are adults, with a clear predominance of women (68%)."

HUS cases have also been reported in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK, and linked to German travel.

A scientist from Munster university, Helge Karch, warned that the spread of infection was not over, and secondary infections could be passed from person to person.

Czech authorities said the European Union's rapid warning system had told them of an importation of the cucumbers into the Czech Republic.

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Carol Anne Sievwright is being investigated by authorities in Spain over a crash which left two of her friends dead.

A Scots woman faces a manslaughter probe after two pals in the hire car she was driving died in a Spanish road crash.
An investigating judge quizzed Carol Anne Sievwright, 58, at a private court hearing in Alicante yesterday after she allegedly jumped a red light and was hit by a bus.
Passengers Jean Hardy, 71, and Margaret Clarke, 62, died instantly when the bus smashed into their Fiat Panda around 11pm on Monday.
Mrs Sievwright, originally from Auchencairn, Dumfriesshire, suffered shock and bruising.
Another female passenger, Sheila Johnson, from Suffolk, was also injured.
The dead women were travelling in the back of the hire car, which ended up on its roof after being hit by the bus.
Police said they believed the car driver had jumped a red light and was crossing the main carriageway to try to change direction when the accident occurred.
The four British women, thought to live in San Fulgencio, are believed to have driven from nearby Alicante airport.
Dramatic TV images showed the car on its roof by the side of the road and the dead women's bodies wrapped in blankets near an ambulance. No one on the passenger bus was injured.
A police spokesman said: "Our understanding is a bus hit a car which was trying to change direction and had jumped a red light.
"Four British women were in the car. The bus hit the back of the car, which was where the two women who died were seated.
"The front seat passenger was injured along with the driver.
"The driver, who was not seriously hurt, has been handed over to a judge heading a double manslaughter probe."
A source close to the case added: "The circumstances are still being investigated. But it may be that the women took a wrong turn and jumped the light in their confusion.
"The car was a hire car and it's possible the driver was unfamiliar with the area."
Mrs Sievwright was released on bail after giving a statement to the investigating judge yesterday.
She is thought to have told the court she remembers little about the accident - and wasn't aware she had allegedly jumped a red light.
She passed a breath test at the crash scene.
Mrs Sievwright is expected to be called back to the court at a later date to give more evidence before the investigating judge makes a recommendation on whether she should face trial.
She has not been charged with any crime at this stage.

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36 year old man from Sweden was injured in the early hours of Wednesday in the second ‘balconing’ incident in Magaluf this week.

He fell from the third floor of a hotel on Calle Cala Blanca at around 4.30 am in the Calvià holiday resort, landing on the roof of the hotel’s dining room. There is no firm news on the extent of his injuries, but he is understood to be under treatment on the Son Espases Hospital.

Just two days earlier, a 19 year old from Britain survived a fall from the seventh floor of another Magaluf hotel, in what is thought to have been another case of balconing, when people jump from balcony to balcony or towards the hotel’s swimming pool.

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26 flights between the UK and Spain were cancelled on Tuesday

26 flights between the UK and Spain were cancelled on Tuesday, because of the ash cloud from the new eruption of the ‘Grimsvotn’ Icelandic volcano.

The Ministry for Development is meeting with technicians from AENA, the Spanish Airports Authority, to discuss the effects on Spanish air space.

The ash cloud is over Scotland and Northern Ireland today, and by tonight will also cover the south of the Scandinavian peninsular, Denmark and parts of the north of Germany. This morning, Wednesday, Denmark, Norway, Sweden Finland and Germany are the most affected.

Eurocontrol has said that the ash could ‘possibly’ move south, to reach France and Spain, maybe on Thursday, although they admitted it is difficult to forecast. Latest forecasts on Wednesday seem to indicate that Spain could escape.

Michael o’Leary, Chairman of Ryanair, said they had flown a plane through the cloud, and that it is a myth. He said his airlines cancellations are fruit of ‘bureaucratic inefficiency’, and described Met. Office charts as ‘rubbish’.

Meanwhile Barcelona flew to London on Tuesday night, two days early, just in case there are problems later on from the ash cloud ahead of the Champions League Final against Manchester United on Saturday.

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The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it was likely that flights from parts of the country would be disrupted on Tuesday by an ash cloud billowing from a volcano in Iceland

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it was likely that flights from parts of the country would be disrupted on Tuesday by an ash cloud billowing from a volcano in Iceland.

The Met Office is predicting a plume of ash from the Grimsvotn volcano would cover all of Ireland, Scotland and parts of northern Britain by 7 a.m. British time on Tuesday.

Asked whether this would cause some disruption to flights, a CAA spokesman said: "That's the way it's looking certainly at the moment."

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The British energy company that has angered British environmentalists by drilling off Greenland is exploring for oil off the sun-drenched beaches of southern Spain.

The British energy company that has angered British environmentalists by drilling off Greenland is exploring for oil off the sun-drenched beaches of southern Spain.

Cairn Energy, which is run by former Scottish rugby player Sir Bill Gammell, has won the rights to operate oil rigs in 4,000 square kilometres in the Gulf of Valencia.

The Edinburgh-based group confirmed it was in the "very early stages of the exploration process" and having obtained two licences from the government in Madrid. It is evaluating data on the area and did not expect any drilling to start for at least two years. The acreage which takes in water depths of up to 1,000 metres has been handed out as part of a drive by ministers to increase the country's self-sufficiency in energy. Oil and gas rights have also been recently handed out to other companies off the Costa del Sol causing panic in the town hall at Marbella where the local mayor insists it is incompatible with the area's crucial tourism industry.

Angeles Muñoz, the mayor of Marbella, is quoted in local media as saying the oil company activity "puts our coast and eco-system in danger. We cannot tolerate them [central government] playing with the future of the Costa del Sol and our coastline".

Ex-patriate British websites in Spain have been humming with comments. "Given the appalling health and safety in Spain it would be madness to allow an oil/gas rig off the coast. If it had a blow-out, the whole coast could be unusable. Is that really worth the risk?" asked "Fred" on the Olive Branch Newspaper site.

But others disagree. "Ben" said: "These people have allowed the construction of the 'concrete collar' along the coast and resist at every opportunity the construction of proper infrastructure including water treatment works on the grounds of cost, so continue to allow part-treated sewage to be discharged metres from tourist beaches and now they object to the creation of jobs and tax revenues at sites miles out at sea."

Spain has been more in the energy news in recent times for its strong support for setting up solar arrays and wind farms but has always had a very small offshore oil industry. BP owns the Castellon refinery on the Mediterranean coast and keeps the European head office of BP Solar in Madrid. Local oil company, Repsol, has been active off the coast of Tarragona since the 1970s.

The appearance of Cairn could excite investors if not holidaymakers. The company made a name for itself by making major discoveries in Rajasthan in India on acreage that was handed over by Shell after it had failed to find anything.

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Hundreds of demonstrators in Spain are planning to extend their protests against the Spanish government's austerity measures and the political parties that they blame for soaring unemployment.

A show-of-hands vote at a meeting in Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square, where demonstrators have erected a makeshift camp, saw protesters indicate that they planned to stay at least until May 29.

"We have decided to stay at least until Sunday at 12pm [10:00 GMT]," a protest organiser declared after the vote.

Tens of thousands of Spaniards have demonstrated in the past week in city squares across the country ahead of local and regional elections that are now under way.

The protesters have called on Spaniards to reject the Socialists and the centre-right Popular Party, the two main political options in Spain.

But they are not expected to shift the outcome of the voting for 8,116 city councils and 13 out of 17 regional governments, where the centre-right Popular Party is expected to make major gains at the expense of the ruling Socialists.

As Spaniards went to the polls on Sunday, protesters in Puerta del Sol square were cleaning up, handing out donated water and suncream to passers by and maintaining a "guerrilla garden" where they had dug out flowers to plant vegetables.

Polls show the Socialists could lose strongholds such as the Castilla-La Mancha region, where they have controlled the regional legislature for decades, and the city of Sevilla, where they have been in power for 12 years.

If forecasts hold true, the outcome will be a rebuke for Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, who has been applauded abroad for his fiscal discipline during the euro zone crisis but is unpopular at home as the economy stagnates.

The elections are the first major vote since the government passed huge spending cuts and unpopular reforms.

The demonstrators are flouting a national ban on political protests on the eve of elections and the day of the vote.

Although Spain's electoral commission on Thursday declared that protests on Saturday and Sunday would be illegal, the government has not sent in police to enforce the ban, fearing violence after a week of peaceful protest.

"The government has not given such an [evacuation] order" and "this will continue provided that there are no riots or crimes," an interior ministry source said.

An estimated 30,000 were on Madrid's Puerta del Sol plaza on Saturday night and protesters also gathered in Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao and other cities.

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The homeless Bulgarian man who brutally attacked and murdered Jennifer Mills-Westley in a Tenerife shop last week has been described as drug-addicted psychopath by Bulgarian, British and Spanish media alike.

The homeless Bulgarian man who brutally attacked and murdered Jennifer Mills-Westley in a Tenerife shop last week has been described as drug-addicted psychopath by Bulgarian, British and Spanish media alike.

Hailing from the northern Bulgarian riverside town of Rousse on the border with Romania, Deyan Deyanov has been described by the Daily Mail as the son of a "wealthy family" that was part of the communist nomenklatura. But despite coming from a "healthy, wealthy and educated" background, his life turned irreversibly for the worst.

He became addicted to hash and heroin from a young age, and deserted from the ranks of the Bulgarian army, Bulgarian mass circulation daily 24 Chassa reported. He grew up up in luxury but the constant use of cannabis, cocaine and heroin meant that he became estranged from his family, who wanted nothing to do with him, the report said.

Prior to the attack on Mills-Westley, Deyanov was described as a violent and rowdy person who kept people awake at night in the Los Cristianos resort, as he would walk around talking to himself, and bark and howl at the moon.

He would yell and randomly attack people. Once he attacked a man and knocked out several teeth simply because the victim refused to give him a lighter. Despite several warnings that he was dangerous to the public and the growing concerns about his mental health, he was detained in a psychiatric hospital for only five days for assessment and then freed on bail, the Daily Mail reported.

It also emerged that Spanish police had described him as a danger to the public three months before he beheaded Jennifer Mills-Westley.

After another round of random violence, a Spanish judge had issued on May 10, just three days before the Mills-Westley's death, a nationwide arrest warrant. Because Deyanov was homeless and did not have an exact address, he was never picked up. According to Bulgarian media reports, "the Spanish police knew exactly where he was, but probably played down the importance of his case".

Deyanov is said to have freaked out after his girlfriend left him because of manic behaviour and drug use. According to British tabloid The Sun, Deyanov spent two spells in a psychiatric hospital, including once in the UK for a month. It was after that particular incident that a cousin of Deyanov who lives in the UK told British press that Deyanov's father decided that he had had enough and wanted nothing more to do with him anymore.

The day he killed Mills-Westley, Deyanov went into a store to ask for a knife "that big" so that "he can go off and kill someone". The shop-owner, named in Bulgarian media as Carlos, told Deyanov to leave his store and that he did not sell knives. Somehow, Deyanov got his hands on a knife that he used to decapitate and stab Mills-Westley.

"If it had been dealt with differently this terrible crime could have been avoided. He should not have been released from the psychiatric hospital," The Daily Mail quoted local politician Manuel Reveron as saying.

Deyanov remains in prison, having been refused bail and pending a psychiatric evaluation.

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Bulgarian who beheaded British grandmother released five days after previous assault

Scottish police are investigating whether the Bulgarian vagrant who allegedly beheaded a British grandmother in a Tenerife supermarket is linked to unsolved crimes after it emerged he recently worked in Edinburgh.
By Fiona Govan in Los Cristianos, Tenerife 10:00PM BST 17 May 2011
His former flatmate in the Leith area of the city, Vlad Chmurny, 36, from Slovakia, said Deyan Deyanov, spent hours smoking drugs and “weeping” over his lack of friends.
He also suggested that Deyanov was a fantasist who boasted of a wealthy family and lots of girlfriends, although he only ever saw one woman at the flat.
Mr Chmurny said the Bulgarian left Scotland about a year ago after losing his job in the construction industry, before turning up unannounced three months ago, when he refused to allow him to stay.
A Lothian and Borders spokesman said officers would investigate whether he was linked to any crimes in the force area, but added that they had not been contacted by authorities in Tenerife.
Meanwhile in Tenerife, a security guard who was attacked by 28-year-old Deyanov four months ago, spoke about his ordeal.

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A British teenager has drowned after rescuing his brother while swimming on a Spanish beach known for its dangerous currents.

The search - involving two helicopters, three boats, a jet ski and beach patrol units - had widened across the stretch of coast 
The 18-year-old was last seen swimming off Playa de la Bota, a two mile stretch of white sandy beach in Punta Umbria on the Huelva coast in southwestern Spain, on Sunday evening.
It is understood that the youth, who has not been identified, did not return to the shore after going to the aid of his brother, who also suffered difficulty in the water.
Emergency services were called to the beach at 7.15 on Sunday by a caller who said a young man "was having problems getting out of the sea".
But they were unable to locate the young man and by late Monday afternoon coastguard services were still searching for him.
The search – involving two helicopters, three boats, a jet ski and beach patrol units – had widened across the stretch of coast.

The director of emergency services for the Huelva district said there was little chance of him being found alive. "Every year incidents like this occur along this coast of Andalucia," Francisco Huelva told CanalSur television.
"Unfortunately many of these, though not the majority, are due to imprudent actions," although he was careful to add "I'm not saying that is the case here."
The beach, the name of which translates as "the boot", is notorious for its strong currents made worse by a constant shift in sandy sediments.
Several drownings have occurred on the same beach in recent years including a 16-year old who died at the same location last summer.
Signs warn of the dangers and advise people to bathe with extreme cautious.
A spokesman from the British Embassy in Madrid said: "We can confirm that a British national has been reported missing in Huelva, Spain.
"We stand ready to provide appropriate consular assistance to the family if needed."

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Spain’s regional and local administrations have “hidden” debt, not included in the official accounts

Spain’s regional and local administrations have “hidden” debt, not included in the official accounts, amounting to about 26.4 billion euros ($37 billion), according to research by Freemarket Corporate Intelligence, a consulting firm, the Financial Times reported.

The latest figures from the Bank of Spain show that the country’s 17 autonomous regions have almost doubled their public debt, to 115 billion euros, since 2008, while municipal and provincial debt has risen to 35 billion euros and central government debt stands at 488 billion euros, the newspaper said.

However, public companies owned by local and regional governments also have substantial debt, and in many cases it doesn’t have to be included in the figures under European Union guidelines, the FT reported.

This “hidden” debt is likely to be revealed by new regional and local administrations to be elected on May 22, the newspaper said.

Freemarket Corporate Intelligence is run by Lorenzo Bernaldo de Quiros, a critic of Spain’s devolved system of government, the FT added.

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Europe faces extinction of many species

The Iberian lynx that prowls the grasslands of southern Spain. The Mediterranean monk seal swimming waters off Greece and Turkey. The Bavarian pine vole that forages in the high meadows of the Alps.
These are among hundreds of European animal species — up to a quarter of the total native to the continent — that are threatened with extinction according to a warning issued this month by the European Union.
"Biodiversity is in crisis, with species extinctions running at unparalleled rates," said a statement from the European Union's Environment Commissioner, Janez Potocnik.
The threatened species include mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and butterflies. Plant life is under threat as well. The crisis is due to several factors, including loss of habitat, pollution, alien species encroachment, climate change and overfishing.
Critics say the EU's proposed solutions don't go far enough and lack funding.
"Life is possible because of biodiversity," said Ana Nieto, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. "Everything comes from biodiversity. Everything comes from having well-functioning ecosystems."
The crisis threatens humans as well, potentially wreaking economic and social havoc in Europe, said Potocnik spokesman Joe Hennon.
The continuing loss of birds can allow insects to breed at alarming rates, harming crops, Hennon said. A reduced number of bees inhibits plant pollination. Diminishing forests mean water is not cleaned naturally and the soil is loosened, too, making floods and mud slides more likely.
All of that, Hennon said, means governments should spend money preserving species from extinction.
"People say, 'Yes, but we don't have the money to spend on environmental protection. Surely growth and jobs are more important,'" Hennon said. "You have to say, 'Well, look what happened in Pakistan last year. You can have catastrophic flooding because forests have been cut down. So it ends up costing you more in the long run."
The strategy proposed this month by Potocnik sets a variety of targets — among them, halting the loss of species in the European Union countries by 2020, putting management plans in place for all forests, restoring at least 15 percent of degraded ecosystems, controlling invasive species, and more.
Environmentalists have generally welcomed the targets but expressed skepticism.
"There needs to be funding and there's not really funding," said Nieto.

 

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HEAVY rain has put up the price of tomatoes by 61 per cent – and they could get even more expensive.

Downpours in Spain have delayed planting, with crops in Andalucia down 35 per cent and those in Extremadura 22 per cent, says analyst Mintec.

One importer said: “It’ll be OK if the weather lifts. But if it’s still raining in a week or two, that is bad.”

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The British woman who was brutally beheaded on the island of Tenerife had complained just minutes before the attack that she was being followed.

The British woman who was brutally beheaded on the island of Tenerife had complained just minutes before the attack that she was being followed.

The Sunday Times of London reports Jennifer Mills-Westley, 60, went to a shopping centre Friday morning in the town of Arona on the Spanish island and walked into an employment centre to complain to staff that she was being followed.

Guards at the centre had told the man to go away. Mills-Westley, a British retiree, then walked over to a Chinese supermarket nearby. Soon after, she was stabbed and then beheaded.

Sarah Mears, one of Mills-Westley's two daughters, told the Times her mother was "full of life, generous of heart and would do anything for anyone.

"We now have to find a way of living without her love and light."

Mears said her mother had been living in Tenerife for 10 years and made regular trips to visit her other daughter and six grandchildren in France and Mears in Norfolk, England.

CCTV footage shows a security guard running after the man who was leaving the market in the Los Cristianos neighbourhood with the head. Two guards held him down until police arrived.

A 28-year-old man was arrested in connection with the attack. Police identified him as a homeless Bulgarian man, Deyan Valentinov, who had been living on the beach in Los Cristianos.

Local reports said the man had received treatment at a hospital in February after being involved in previous violent incidents.

Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands off the north west coast of Africa, is a popular destination for British holidaymakers and retirees. It gets 10 million tourists a year.

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British tourist dies on Morgán beach

41 year old British tourist suffered a heart attack while on the Morgán beach in Gran Canaria. It happened in the early hours of Monday morning, according to the Canarias 7 newspaper.

The woman was on the waterfront with her boyfriend and failed to respond to the efforts of the SUC Canaries Emergency Service when they arrived. They could only certify her death.

Two ambulances from the SUC went to the scene with members of the Local Police and Guardia Civil, the latter are organising the paper work ahead of the repatriation of the body.

 

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Ryanair appeal against Alicante airbridges turned down by the court

mercantile court in Elche has thrown out an appeal from Ryanair against the new rules from AENA Spanish Airports which oblige airlines to use airbridges for passenger access to and from their planes at the new terminal at Alicante Airport.

Ryanair claims these are ‘unnecessary facilities’ which will cost them more than €2 million a year, and has threatened 80% cutbacks at its Alicante base from October if AENA does not reverse its decision.

It’s understood from EFE that the company had based its appeal on the financial losses the new regulations would incur and the ‘irreversible’ damage to its image as a low cost airline. Ryanair also claimed in the appeal that the airbridge system at El Altet would cause delays in its operations at the airport, but the judge considered that the airbridge system which the airline currently uses at other Spanish airports appears to have no adverse effect on its operations.

Although rejecting the airline’s appeal, Mercantile Court No. 3 has however, as part of its ruling made public this Wednesday, asked AENA to reconsider whether the airbridges measure is necessary. EFE reports that Judge Luis Seller has called on the Spanish Airports Authority to study the viability, from a safety and efficiency point of view, of allowing Ryanair passengers to embark and disembark on foot at Alicante Airport.

The judge adds that, if AENA should decide to do so, it must also offer the same facility to any other airline which may request it.

 

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Two teenage boys have been found guilty of the murder of a 71 year old British pensioner who was found dead at his holiday home in Arona last year

Two teenage boys have been found guilty of the murder of a 71 year old British pensioner who was found dead at his holiday home in Arona last year, the UK’s East Riding Mail reports.

The guilty ruling was handed down on what would have been his 72nd birthday.

Peter Cockshutt from East Yorkshire was found dead at his home on an urbanisation on the Costa del Silencio, on the south of Tenerife, on February 9 2010. He had been stabbed twice in the chest and once in the leg, in what the court considered was a burglary which had gone wrong.

Two youngsters from Latin America, aged 14 and 16, were arrested in connection with his death later that day.

Sentencing in the case has yet to be announced, but it’s understood that the two teenagers face a possible sentence of eight years in a young offender’s institute.

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earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale shook parts of the Murcia Region shortly after 5pm on Wednesday, with the epicentre 7 kilometres to the east of Lorca.

earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale shook parts of the Murcia Region shortly after 5pm on Wednesday, with the epicentre 7 kilometres to the east of Lorca.

There were no reports of any injuries, but locals say the quake, which was followed by a smaller tremor, caused table lamps and other household items to fall over and shook loose parts of cornices from buildings.

EFE reports that many people in Lorca rushed out into the street for fear of injury from the quake, and the 112 emergency service was inundated with calls.

The tremor was also felt in the nearby towns of Totana, Mazarrón and Águilas, and even as far away as Murcia City and Cartagena. The National Geographical Institute said it was also felt in some parts of Almería province and Albacete.

Almost 1,000 homes were damaged in outlying areas of Lorca in a 4.6 magnitude earthquake which hit the area in January 2005. It was followed by 500 aftershocks.

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FIRE in the leading telephone exchange in the city of Málaga has left residents all over the Costa del Sol with no connection since Saturday.

Telefónica says it is unable to confirm when the problem will be resolved.

About 50 per cent of users are now back on the telephone, whilst others are still waiting.

The situation is thought to have affected thousands of residents in Marbella, Fuengirola, Benalmádena, Mijas and  Benahavís, among other towns.

Some  200 telephone engineers are working in the region the clock to restore the connection, which Telefónica says is 'completely burnt-out' and 'cannot be  used'.

A new line altogether will have to be installed.

The company believes in the region 50,000 people have no telephone line and 4,000 have no ADSL internet connection as a result of the fire at the exchange on the Cádiz road.

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The Spanish government is ruling out help for thousands of Britons who have lost money – and sometimes their homes

The Spanish government is ruling out help for thousands of Britons who have lost money – and sometimes their homes – despite promising to overhaul its house-buying process to avoid such problems in the future.

Beatriz Corredor, the Spanish housing minister, has visited Britain to launch what she calls a "roadshow" publicising "a wide range of real estate at more accessible prices than a few years ago". She has met British pension funds and other investors to encourage them to buy some of the country's 700,000 empty new homes. Some 61% of these are holiday properties on the coast which have remained unsold for up to four years.

But while Corredor is trying to ease the pressure on her country's banks – which seized many of the empty homes when developers went into administration and now must sell them to ease their own debts – she has refused to pledge help for British victims of three Spanish property scandals in the past 10 years.

First, some developers were given permission by local authorities in coastal regions, chiefly Valencia, to demolish homes already owned by Britons thank to retrospective changes in planning rules. These are the so-called "land grabs".

Second, many thousands of coastal properties were found to have been built and sold illegally, without planning consent, because of corrupt deals between local politicians, planners, architects and developers. Some homes are to be demolished as a result while the owners of others have faced years of uncertainty over their status. As a result, they are unable to sell.

Third, since the 2007 Spanish housing market crash, many British buyers who paid deposits on new homes into "independent" bank guarantee schemes have not had their money reimbursed after the homes were abandoned by bankrupt developers. Banks have cited previously unpublicised loopholes, or in some cases simply said they could not afford to pay.

"There are 850,000 Britons living in Spain and these problems apply to fewer than 1%," says Corredor. She says compensation will be paid to Britons only "if the courts order it" – meaning those buyers unable to afford lengthy legal action, or who are unable to prosecute developers who have gone bust, stand no chance of compensation.

Campaign groups such as Spanish Banks Guarantee Petition and the Finca Parks Action Group, made up of British victims of the scandals, have branded the roadshow an insult. Protestors picketing the Spanish embassy were denied a meeting with Corredor but one victim - Keith Rule, whose £50,000 deposit was not returned to him by a bank despite his home not being built – was granted a discussion with three officials. They "asked questions, made notes and took paperwork" without guaranteeing they could resolve the problem, he says.

Corredor insists the measures she is introducing will avoid a repeat of the fiasco. In future, for the first time developers will have to provide buyers with the paperwork for building consent and planning zoning. There will also be a property register website – to be made available in English later this year – listing properties for sale with their legal status. There will be new police teams and what she calls "a special prosecutor" charged with tackling the town hall corruption that led to previous scandals. This will take the sales process to "the standard of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors" claims the minister.

Her visit and presentations in London are being repeated in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Russia. These are being funded by the Spanish taxpayer but Corredor promises the second phase of the roadshow "in the next two months, before the summer" will consist of "approved" developers and estate agents marketing properties at shows they will organise privately.

Although the Spanish national government h as launched this charm offensive to woo British buyers, other elements of the country's property industry are being more combative. A minister in the Andalucian regional government has accused complaining Britons of lacking respect for "the culture of planning" in Spain. Purple Cake Factory, a Spanish-based PR firm with several property clients, used its Twitter feed to call Labour MEP Michael Cashman an "idiot" for urging Britons to avoid investing in Spain until victims of planning and corruption scandals were recompensed.

With unemployment and debt problems escalating, Spain's anxiety over unsold homes is likely to increase. Whether the property roadshow will help the situation, however, is another matter – given recent events, Britons may need more convincing before they believe that buying property in Spain is as safe as houses.

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BRITISH expat wanted for dodging a five star hotel bill has a track record for conning people on the Costa del Sol

BRITISH expat wanted for dodging a five star hotel bill has a track record for conning people on the Costa del Sol, the Olive Press can reveal.
A host of victims have come forward to denounce ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ charmer Alwyn Funke – who fled the Gran Hotel Guadalpin Banus owing 1,200 euros two months ago.
Over half a dozen readers insist they have lost tens of thousands of euros after falling victim to the gardener, who was struck off as a company director for 12 years in the UK.
“He is a conman by habit – not for lack of money – and he is very clever,” explained florist Zoe Strutton, 48, from Nueva Andalucia.
It comes after Strutton’s business Flowers Inc found itself hundreds of euros out of pocket after undertaking work for Funke last year.
“He promised faithfully to pay but said he was waiting for funds from a job he had done in the UK. There were lots of excuses,” she added.
This is seemingly the modus operandi of Funke, whose gardening business The Flower House Group racked up debts of nearly two million euros in the UK.
By the time it was struck off it had 10 insolvent companies, with Funke and partner Alexe Meddings misappropriating funds, misusing bank accounts and failing to do proper accounting.
This, of course, is little consolation to expats, such as Elizabeth Rostron, 58, who lost 10,000 euros to Funke after she hired him in Elviria nine years ago. “He seemed a nice man, as all conmen do, and we initially accepted his quote for the work,” she said.
But as soon as the job started he told them he needed more money and then, after receiving a lump sum of 10,000 euros, he vanished.


“After four months we decided to cut our losses. The garden was in a worse state than before. We had no choice but to get a new landscaper which cost us another 12,000 euros on top. Every time we have seen him since he has done a runner before we can speak to him.”
Sally Duffy, 54, from Dublin, had a similar experience when she hired him to fence her garden in 2006.
“He said it would cost about 10,000 euros and we gave him 5,000 euros up front to buy materials. But later he rang and said the patio had ‘dropped’ and he needed more money to fix it.
“In total we gave him 11,000 euros and the patio was never built. In the end we had to pay someone else to do it.”
Others who lost out to Funke include friends Steve and Diana Elson, who lent him 1,000 euros over a number of months, only getting a small amount back.
Referring to him as ‘the scarlet pimpernel’, Steve, 55, said: “He charms you into lending him money and, as he seems so genuine, you do. But he is a compulsive liar, and has ripped many people off. One girl we know ended up giving him thousands, which she never got back.”
He added: “He is always looking for the next person to con. He just can’t help himself.”
When the Olive Press managed to track Funke down he insisted it was ‘all untrue’.
Funke, who lives in Nueva Andalucia, said: “This is unbelievable and a vendetta started by an old friend.
“Why didn’t these people mention this before? It is years ago. If someone ripped me off 10,000 euros I would get a solicitor. I have nothing to answer.”

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MARBELLA Mayor Angeles Muñoz fears the town may not be able to recover the millions owed following a ruling against nine people, including the four children of former mayor Jesus Gil.

MARBELLA Mayor Angeles Muñoz fears the town may not be able to recover the millions owed following a ruling against nine people, including the four children of former mayor Jesus Gil. This followed news that a court sentenced the Gil’s children to pay back more than €105 million to the town.

Between 1994 and 1999 Jesus Gil was deemed responsible for ‘causing losses’ to Marbella Town Hall estimated at €66.5 million to the town hall.

His death does not relieve him of the civil or financial responsibility derived from his position as mayor, which instead is passed on to his children, since they accepted his inheritance, and therefore his obligations.

Gil’s four children, Jesus, Miguel Angel, Fernando and Maria Angeles will now have to pay the €66.5 million plus €39.2 million in interest.

The sentence is in response to a lawsuit brought against them by the Public Prosecutor in November 2005 in which the town hall, with Angeles Muñoz as mayor, became involved three years later.

Also sentenced were: former deputy mayor, Pedro Roman, who will have to pay €66m, former councillors, Marisa Alcala (€7.4m), Rafael Gonzalez (€92.9m) and Antonio Luque (€15.5m), and former Mayor Julian Muñoz, sentenced to pay €15.5m.

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Footballer Marcos Alonso could face trial after a woman died in a car crash in Madrid.

The Bolton Wanderers defender crashed a BMW into a wall near Real Madrid's former training complex, not far from the Bernabeu, on Monday morning.

One woman suffered fatal injuries and another was seriously hurt. Mr Alonso's brother Miguel and former Real Madrid teammate Jaime Navarro were also hurt.

Mr Alonso, who was uninjured, allegedly failed a breathalyser test afterwards.

Police have not revealed what the breathalyser and subsequent blood test showed.

'Formal suspect'
Mr Alonso, 20, appeared before an investigating judge at a closed hearing on Monday evening.

The judge will have to decide if the player caused the accident and the girl's death. If the judge rules he caused the crash he could face a trial accused of involuntary manslaughter.

In a statement, the court said: "Magistrates' Court number four in Madrid yesterday released the footballer Marcos Alonso Mendoza after naming him as a 'formal suspect' in an alleged crime against road safety, a crime of intoxication, of accidental killing and causing accidental injury.

"In addition the judge has removed his driving licence as a precaution and he is banned from driving in Spain for the entire period of the court process."

Night out
Mr Alonso, who joined Bolton Wanderers from Real Madrid last summer, was at home in the Spanish capital on a weekend break.

It is understood he had been on a night out with his brother and Mr Navarro when they met the two women.

The emergency services said the car crossed into the opposite lane, overturned and collided with a wall.

One woman, who has been named only as Barbara, received severe head injuries and died 30 minutes after arriving at hospital.

The other, Teresa, suffered injuries to her thorax and is described as being in a serious condition.

Miguel Alonso also remains in hospital with three broken ribs and bruising to his lungs.

Mr Navarro broke his collar bone and was later released from hospital.

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Residents announce a hunger strike in Almogía to demand repairs to a local road

The group of locals in Almogía who have been holding a sit-in at their Town Hall since the beginning of March have announced a hunger strike, which Europa Press reports starts on Thursday, as they continue with their protests to demand repairs to a local road.

Eight kilometres of the A-7075 have been closed to traffic for the past 15 months, since it was affected by subsidence after heavy rainfall.

The group said in a statement on Wednesday that they want a written commitment from the Junta de Andalucía of the regional government’s support in addressing the problem. The group has accused both the Town Hall and the Junta of extortion, manipulation and obstruction during their two month protest.

 

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hunting club of Cartaya, Huelva province, is coming to the rescue to address the rabbit problem which is affecting Sevilla Airport.

The hunting club of Cartaya, Huelva province, is coming to the rescue to address the rabbit problem which is affecting Sevilla Airport.

The club’s president, Manuel Botillo, told El Mundo newspaper that the rabbit population around the airport is so great that the birds of prey they attract pose a serious threat to aircraft.

The club’s members have captured 100 rabbits in the past month, using ferrets to drive them out into nets which have been placed around the burrows. They were all set free in the designated hunting area of the Cartaya countryside last weekend, an area where the rabbit population has been seriously depleted by disease.

The club has applied for permission to deploy their ferrets and nets at the airport again this month, and hopes to repeat the operation periodically throughout the year.

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Spain's centuries-old Almadraba bluefin tuna fishing trade threatened by overfishing

The season for an ancient and spectacular tuna-fishing technique has begun off Spain's southwest coast amid fears it could disappear because fleets of factory ships in international waters are overfishing stocks.
In this method called almadraba in Spanish, fishermen here have stretched maze-like nets from sandy beaches to catch Atlantic bluefin tuna since a time when Phoenician traders sailed to these shores 1,000 years before the birth of Christ.
This laborious harvest, which includes lifting nets heaving with fish onto ships, is timed to coincide with annual migrations by tuna from the Atlantic to lay eggs in warm Mediterranean waters.
The fish, some as large as 10 feet (3 metres) long and weighing more than 1,430 pounds (650 kilograms), are hoisted on to ships and, while hanging from their tails, are drained of blood by slitting their gills to concentrate flavour in their deep red flesh. The churning sea water below turns red with blood.
Today bluefin tuna are a prized delicacy in top Tokyo restaurants where a thin slice prepared as sushi can fetch 2,000 yen ($24). Most of the catch is flash frozen and flown to auction at the Japanese capital's vast Tsukiji market. One large specimen fetched a record 32.49 million yen, nearly $396,000, in January.
These prices translate to about $526 (€350) per pound, a tempting booty for fishermen equipped to chase down and land almost any amount of fish at sea.
The seemingly insatiable demand for Atlantic bluefins has led to a serious depletion of stocks by fishing ships using the latest technology, including advanced sonar and spotter planes, to follow shoals and catch as many tuna as they can, said Marta Crespo, spokeswoman for a local association of almadraba fishermen.
"In recent times we have had seasons where almost no tuna were caught by us," said Crespo.
She said one of the problems was that factory ships have been allowed to indiscriminately catch and sell tunas as small as 6.4 kilograms (14 pounds).
"A tuna reaches maturity at 30 kilograms (66 pounds), so if people are allowed to fish and consume juveniles it will not be long before stocks are extinguished forever," Crespo said.
Most environmental groups say the almadraba technique does not represent a serious threat to the survival of bluefin tuna, but they agree overfishing by factory ships needs to be cut drastically to save the species.
Crespo said almadraba fishermen support environmental activists fully in a quest for greater regulation because they are worried their age-old trade could vanish.
In November, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas voted to reduce the bluefin fishing quota in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean from 13,500 to 12,900 metric tons annually — about a 4 per cent cut. It also agreed on measures to try and improve enforcement of bluefin quotas.
The decision was strongly criticized as inadequate by environmental groups. They hoped to see stronger action taken against large-scale bluefin fishing. Almadraba people favour a slashing of quotas to preserve tuna stocks.

 

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US special forces stormed Osama bin Laden's $1million hideaway in Pakistan.

Buildings went up in flames during the firefight which claimed the al-Qaeda leader's life.

Bin Laden was holed up in a house in a two-story house in the town of Abbottabad, about 60 miles north of the capital Islamabad.


US reports said it was one of the largest in an affluent neighbourhood. Built around five years ago, it was estimated to be worth around a million dollars (£600,000).

Surrounded by 18ft walls topped by barbed wire, the only access was through two security gates. A third-floor terrace was shielded by a seven-foot privacy wall.

Suspicions are understood to have been roused by the fact that no phone lines or internet cables ran to the property and the residents burned their rubbish rather than putting it out for collection.

The premises were located close to a military academy.

US Navy Seals launched a helicopter raid on the compound and killed bin Laden and three other men, including one of his son's.

Four choppers swooped in a pre-drawn raid.


Pakistani officials and a witness said bin Laden's guards opened fire from the roof of the building and one of the choppers crashed. The sound of at least two explosions rocked the small north-western town of Abbottabad where the al Qaida chief made his last stand.

The US said no Americans were harmed in the raid.

Bin Laden's remains were taken into custody and American officials said they were being handled in accordance with Islamic tradition. 




Abbottabad, home to at least one regiment of the Pakistani army, is dotted with military buildings and home to thousands of army personnel.

Surrounded by hills and with mountains in the distance, it is less than half a days drive from the border region with Afghanistan, where most intelligence assessments believed bin Laden was hiding.

Abbotabad resident Mohammad Haroon Rasheed said the raid happened at about 1.15am local time. "I heard a thundering sound, followed by heavy firing. Then firing suddenly stopped.

Then more thundering, then a big blast," he said. "In the morning when we went out to see what happened, some helicopter wreckage was lying in an open field."

A Pakistani official in the town said fighters on the roof opened fire on the choppers as they came close to the building with rocket propelled grenades.

Another official said four helicopters took off from the Ghazi air base in north-west Pakistan.

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Former comedian killed in Morocco blast

Former stand-up Pete Moss has been named as one of the 16 victims of a bomb that exploded in a Marrakech café yesterday.
The father-of-two, who became an acclaimed travel writer after his time as a comedian, was thought to have been in the popular Argana café when the blast ripped through the building.
The Foreign Office confirmed that a Briton had died, but has not yet confirmed his identity. However, Mr Moss was named by the Jewish Chronicle, a paper he used to work for.
The 59-year-old had left his family property business in the Nineties to become a stand-up, then ‘reinvented’ himself again, as a travel writer.
In an interview with The Independent in 1994, Moss explained how he turned to comedy after receiving therapy to help him accept his emotions, rather than bottle them up.
He said: ‘Through therapy I have found my true vocation as a comedian. I could never have done it before. You can't make people laugh if you can't communicate with them.
‘I don't see [the therapist] any more. I guess I've just graduated to a different form of therapy. Comedy is my therapy now.’
He performed more than 2,000 times on the comedy circuit before finding his new vocation as a writer.
His friend Laurie Margolis told the BBC yesterday: ‘[Moss]was always trying to be someone other than what he was, and what he was was someone from a fairly wealthy background.
'He always wanted to be somebody different, and it made sense to be a stand-up comic.
‘And then he reinvented himself as a travel writer.'
Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said: 'I am deeply saddened by yesterday's explosion in Marrakech.
'We believe that a British national was amongst the 16 people killed. My thoughts are with their friends and families and all those affected by this distressing incident.
'We are in touch with next of kin and are offering them full consular support.’
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the remotely-triggered bomb.

 

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