La Manga Club in Murcia filed for bankruptcy protection

La Manga Club in Murcia filed for bankruptcy protection. Owned by George Soris’s company MedGroup, the company says that they will continue to trade, but will take ‘very strong measures’ to make the company viable.
They purchased the club from P&O for 102 million pounds in 2004. It includes three golf courses, 28 tennis courts, 8 football pitches, a spa, 1,800 private villas and apartments, and a 5 star Hyatt Regency hotel. It’s one of the most complete tourist complexes in Spain and one of the best in Europe, and currently employs 700 workers.
The Concurso Voluntario de Acreedores was placed in the mercantile court in Murcia, but the judge has yet to make any decision on the case.
The situation implies that the firm has problems meeting debts which are pending. Some reports say that its banks have declined to re-finance part of a 97 million € debt, despite its assets being valued at 170 million.
The La Manga Club is well known internationally as it has been used by many tennis stars, such as Anna Kourniokova and football teams such as Manchester United and Real Madrid for training.

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Posted in: La Manga Club in Murcia

severe fall-off in bookings is alarming tourist authorities and businesses.

The severe fall-off in bookings is alarming tourist authorities and businesses.
Figures from the Spanish tourist industry reveal that the number of Britons who visited Spain in November, for example, was down by 15% on 2007.
The fall has closely tracked the decreasing value of the pound. Britons began to turn their backs on Spain in September, when numbers were down 5%, reaching 7% in October. Last month's dramatic decline came after the pound had lost 25% of its value against the euro in a year. With the pound and the euro now apparently heading for parity, tourist authorities fear that worse will come ? with the all-important summer season now looking grim. Thousands of Britons are dropping traditional holidays to Spain because of the weakness of the pound and fears over the after-effects of the banking crisis. "We are seeing principal markets fall away," explained Marien Andr?, of the Catalan government's Tourism Observatory. "Everything has become very volatile." That is causing alarm in a country which relies on a steady flow of Britons to keep its tourism sector buoyant. Some 17 million British tourists land at Spanish airports or drive across the border every year, according to the Foreign Office, accounting for almost one in three tourists who visit Spain, which earns 11% of GDP from tourism. The Canary Islands, where the mild winters attract many of end-of-year British tourists, have seen the number arriving this winter fall by 15%, while the Costa del Sol area around Malaga suffered even worse, with visitors down by 17%. Spanish hotels have dropped their prices by 2% this year, but this has not been enough to hang on to British tourists - many of whom now prefer to rent houses and apartments online or off friends and relatives. While British people are abandoning their Spanish holidays, however, Spaniards are beginning to fill the budget airline seats that they are leaving empty. The weakness of the pound has made England suddenly seem cheap to Spaniards who previously found Britain's most popular tourist spots too expensive. With the euro also stretching much further in British shops, Spaniards who last year traveled to New York to hunt for bargains in the post-Christmas sales have been booking into London hotels. Spanish internet hotel booking sites report increases of up to 70% in London bookings for immediately after Christmas. Bookings for flights plus hotels were up 80%, according to one portal. One route, from the northern city of La Coruna, to London is carrying double the number of passengers this year compared with 2007.
"The attraction of London is very strong,'' said one travel agent. "It is not that far away and its currency is weak." Newspaper travel supplements in recent weeks have been full of the bargain prices in London, with iPods now 25% cheaper there than in Spain. Barcelona's La Vanguardia newspaper filled three pages on Monday to explain to its readers the advantages of traveling to London in the coming months.
"No one doubts that this year London will be the favored destination for those who, despite the economic crisis, still want to keep traveling," the paper said.
Not all Spaniards, however, were mourning the disappearance of the British tourist. "They only ever spend their money on alcohol and then they have to be carted off to hospital after they get drunk and pass out,'' said a comment posted on La Vanguardia's website. "Perhaps we can start bringing in quality tourism now."

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Posted in: They only ever spend their money on alcohol and then they have to be carted off to hospital after they get drunk and pass out

arrest of 20 members of a suspected international counterfeit money distribution network, operating in Spain and Portugal.

code-named ‘Margarita-Kuskus,’ in Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, Malaga, Almeria and Lugo provinces, has led to the arrest of 20 members of a suspected international counterfeit money distribution network, operating in Spain and Portugal.
The operation, carried out in collaboration with the European Union's criminal intelligence agency (Europol), also resulted in the seizure of 150,000 fake euros in 50 and 20 euro denominations destined for distribution in Spain.

The investigation was launched toward the end of last year after in increase in false bank notes was detected in circulation in Alicante and Lugo Provinces. Given that the modus operandi of these crimes was the same in both provinces, Guardia Civil officers from both agreed to work in partnership on the investigation.

Once the distributors, mostly of North African origin, were identified and located, they were arrested. One of those arrested, a Torrevieja resident, with dual Spanish-Moroccan nationality who had worked as a judicial interpreter, now faces further charges of passing confidential information relating to the case to the criminal gang.The investigation revealed that the main distribution point in Spain was in Alicante Province, between Callosa del Segura and Torrevieja. The boss of the gang was identified as being from Torrevieja and three of his partners in crime were from nearby Callosa del Segura.Towards the end of October this year, Guardia Civil officers followed the head of the gang and stopped him at a toll-booth on the A-7 in Puzol, Valencia. It is believed he was on his way to southern Italy, with the intention of purchasing a large quantity of fake notes. When they searched his car, they found six wads of 20,000 euros in 20 euro bills. He was arrested along with another two men of North African origin, whose job was allegedly to make contact with other gang members, resident in Italy, where the counterfeit notes were printed by the Calabrian Mafia, ‘Ndrangheta’, one of the most powerful and violent known crime organizations in Italy.It is believed that other members of the organisation periodically travelled to Italy where they purchased the false money and smuggled it back into Spain hidden in specially designed compartments in their vehicles. As a security measure, the vehicle carrying the cash was always escorted ahead by a second vehicle whose purpose was to act as a look-out for any police presence or checks.

Once the money was in Spain, it was stored and at several premises between Callosa del Segura and Redovan, in the Orihuela area. From there, the notes were then distributed throughout Spain, Portugal and North Africa.

In a similar pattern to that known to be used by drug- trafficking gangs, the organisation had a further network of people who would purchase the fake notes at prices between 30 and 40 per cent of their face value. They would then introduce the money into the legal economic system, making small purchases that generally managed to avoid detection.Once the money had been changed into authentic cash, it was laundered through the purchase of properties, vehicles and other goods, often in other people’s names to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

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Posted in: Portugal and North Africa,Spain

purple €500 notes are so rarely seen that they have earned the nickname “Bin Ladens”.

Spain is estimated to have one of the biggest black economies in Europe, accounting for between 20 and 23% of annual GDP. Spanish tax authorities are investigating 12,000 big transactions involving €500 notes.

It is, perhaps, the strangest idea yet for pumping extra liquidity into Europe’s troubled banking system. Spanish officials were yesterday reported to be looking for ways of encouraging Spaniards to remove the estimated 108m €500 notes they have hoarded in safes or under floorboards and take them to the bank. That averages out to at least two per Spaniard, or a total of €54bn, circulating outside the country’s banking system.

A combination of tax-cheating and a long-standing mistrust of banks, means Spain soaks up a quarter of all the €500 notes - one of the world’s highest denomination bank bills - released every year.One option for getting the notes into the banking system, by offering a no-questions-asked fiscal amnesty, was ruled out by the finance minister Pedro Solbes yesterday. El Mundo newspaper reported, however, that there had been pressure from within the government’s finance team to consider a fiscal amnesty. Spain’s tax inspectors, whose job it is to root out the notes when they are used for tax fraud, were among those opposing the idea.The purple €500 notes are so rarely seen that they have earned the nickname “Bin Ladens”.Most are used in real estate deals, where property is often bought and sold in a mixture of fiscally opaque cash and fiscally transparent bank transfers. The price of property deals reported to the tax authorities is, therefore, often much lower than that really paid.Other notes circulate in the country’s black economy. Sectors including the footwear industry, construction or silversmiths are thought to do much of their business in black currency.

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Posted in: Spain is estimated to have one of the biggest black economies in Europe

Banco Santander SA,hit by worlds largest fraud

The $7.3 billion Fairfield Sentry Fund invested solely with Madoff, taking a cut of 1 percent of assets and 20 percent of gains, which averaged about 11 percent annually in the past 15 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Fairfield Greenwich is one of at least 15 hedge-fund firms and private banks, including Tremont Holdings Group Inc. and Banco Santander SA, that earned similar fees for sending customers’ cash to the 70-year-old money manager. “It’s mind-boggling that people like Tremont and Fairfield Greenwich had been doing this for so long,” said Brad Alford, who runs Alpha Capital Management LLC in Atlanta, which helps clients choose hedge funds. “It’s the job of these funds of funds to be doing due diligence. That’s why they get paid.” Madoff was arrested Dec. 11 after he allegedly confessed to running a “giant Ponzi scheme” that may have bilked investors of $50 billion. That fraud escaped the notice of Fairfield Greenwich, Tremont and other funds of funds that had at least $17 billion invested with Madoff. Hedge-fund investment adviser Aksia LLC said the managers should have seen “red flags,” such as Madoff’s use of a little-known, three-person auditing firm. Hedge funds that have disclosed holdings with Madoff were due at least $290 million in fees this year, based on reported assets, fees and Bloomberg data. The calculations don’t include fees of as much as 5 percent that clients paid for some funds when they first invested. Madoff didn’t assess fees for his money-management services, getting paid instead through commissions from his brokerage business for trading the stocks in the accounts. Investors ensnared by Madoff include Fred Wilpon, the owner of the New York Mets baseball team, clients of private bankers in Geneva, wealthy Jewish families in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, and institutions including BNP Paribas SA in Paris that loaned investors money to increase their bets. Losses have been reported by a pension fund in Fairfield, Connecticut, New York hospitals and a charity in Salem, Massachusetts.
While Madoff didn’t run a hedge fund, his alleged crime may accelerate investor defections from the $1.5 trillion industry, already hit by its worst losses since at least 1990 and redemptions that may reach $400 billion this year, according to estimates by Morgan Stanley. In a Ponzi scheme, returns to early investors are paid with money from later ones, until there isn’t enough cash to go around. Madoff’s alleged scam unraveled when he received $7 billion in redemption requests that he couldn’t meet. Funds of hedge funds such as Fairfield Greenwich act as middlemen, raising money from investors and farming it out to other managers that they vet. The go-betweens manage 44 percent of hedge-fund assets, according to data compiled by Hedge Fund Research Inc. Their investments lost 19 percent on average through November, a little more than a percentage point more than single-manager funds, the Chicago-based firm says. Institutions including New York State’s $154 billion retirement system and the endowment of Baylor University have been cutting back their investments in funds of funds to save the extra layer of fees -- generally 1 percent of assets and 10 percent of profits -- that they charge on top of the underlying managers’ take. Last year, for the first time, more than half of the hedge-fund assets of the 200 largest U.S. pension plans were invested directly with individual managers, according to data compiled by Pensions & Investments magazine.

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Posted in: Banco Santander SA

Man driving his car against the traffic at 120 kms/hour with a woman hanging on for dear life on the bonnet.

Police in Marbella could not believe what they saw. A scene more at home in a Quentin Taratino film than on the local N340 road. A man driving his car against the traffic at 120 kms/hour with a woman hanging on for dear life on the bonnet.
It happened at 4am in the morning last Tuesday, but details have only now been released. Diario Sur newspaper reports that witnesses said the driver was zigzagging and appeared to be trying to get the woman to fall from the car bonnet. The police patrol radioed for support in an attempt to block the way of the car which refused to stop to their sirens. After a long chase with the woman hanging on to the windscreen wipers, a second patrol car managed to stop the vehicle. The 31 year old Brazilian woman told the police that the driver, a 34 year old Spaniard, was her boyfriend and that he had been trying to kill her. He has now been arrested accused of attempted murder.

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Posted in: Marbella

Fortuna Land scam was run out of offices on the Costa del Sol using companies registered in places like Cyprus and Delaware (USA).

The Spanish land investment scam run for years by Fortuna Estates has finally been busted, with the Spanish fraud squad swooping last week on several office in Mijas and Fuengirola, arresting at least 2 people, and questioning 20 others. This could be one of the biggest Spanish property scams to date, with hundreds, if not thousands of British and Irish victims. The Spanish authorities estimate that Fortuna Estates made at least 65 million Euros out of this fraud.Still under official secrecy orders, the police have released few details about “Operation Fuentespino”, but the Spanish press reports that there could be more than 2,000 victims, mainly middle class investors from the United Kingdom and Ireland.Fortuna Estates, which had changed its name to Fortuna Land (Investment) by 2007, snared its victims with the promise of high returns from land reclassification projects in rural Andalucia.

“Watch your investment in raw undeveloped land turn into commercial projects with multi-million euro potential,” promised Fortuna Estates, which started selling ‘shares’ in its projects in 2002.

Fortuna Estates contacted potential investors at through property exhibitions, cold calls and mailing lists, and a fairly substantial advertising campaign in the British quality press.Claiming to be the “leading land investment agency based in Southern Spain,” Fortuna Estates offered its clients ‘shares’ in greenfield projects purporting to turn land in out-of-the-way parts of Andalucia into hot commercial property investments.
“Working primarily in the commercial sector of land development, Fortuna Estates has developed a program of investment techniques that bring this highly lucrative sector within the grasp of the ordinary investor,” claimed Fortuna. Targeting the ‘ordinary investor’ was a key part of Fortuna’s strategy. It claimed it was making high-return land investments accessible to people who could not otherwise afford them. Many of Fortuna’s victims probably invested the minimum of around 10,000 Euros, and the vast majority probably had no experience of land reclassification or the realities of investing in Spanish property.Fortuna sold various different projects over time, starting with a project called Bella Fortuna, then going on to sell projects called Sierra Fortuna, and Cazadores Reales.An insight into how Fortuna hooked its clients with talk of high returns, backed up with invented figures, can be gained from Fortuna’s sales material. “These factors have contributed towards the success of the Bella Fortuna project,” goes the patter. “This plot of stunning Andalucian countryside is over 400,000m² in size and located midway between Malaga and Granada, next to the town of Zafarraya. This project was first released to private investors in Sept 2002 at a price of €6.80m² and closed at a price of €9.20m² 14 months later. In Oct 2004 official planning permission for the Hotel Zafarraya complex was granted and the land was then independently valued at €37.59m².”The valuations were meaningless, as Fortuna made them up to make it look like investors were making big profits, on paper at least. This was enough to keep filling the pipeline with new investors, and convince existing clients to invest more money in new projects. Some of Fortuna Land’s hapless investors are thought to have invested in as many as 3 of their projects.Fortuna also beguiled it clients by doing all transactions through ‘independent’ lawyers and notaries, and giving clients “legally notarised title deed to the land in which they have invested.”
“ Whether your investment is for 5 acres or just a quarter of an acre, every investment is secured by physical ownership of the title document,” Fortuna assured its investors.
The plans Fortuna had for its land reclassification projects, and the way in which it kept changing them and announcing delays should have had investors’ alarm bells ringing. Plans veered around from hotels with a wedding chapel, to retirement homes, to solar farms. At one point, after long delays, they claimed they had received ‘verbal’ planning permission, but there is no evidence that Fortuna were serious about delivering on their promises.Most of the victims of this scam are thought to be British, though Irish and Germans investors are also thought to be involved. As an article in the Spanish daily ‘El Pais’ points out, the British have fallen for numerous scams on the Costa del Sol over the last decade, mainly involving property.
The Fortuna Land scam was run out of offices on the Costa del Sol using companies registered in places like Cyprus and Delaware (USA). Currently the Fortuna Land website (fortunaland.es), claims they have “implemented a strategic relationship with The Oanna Group to realise your investment projects in Spain,” and instruct visitors to direct all future communications to oannagroup.com. The Oanna Group appear to have an office in London.Despite making several arrests, the Spanish police do not think they have nabbed any of the masterminds, who are thought to have disappeared, and may already be working on their next scam.Indeed, ‘El Pais’ reports that victims of the Fortuna Estates fraud have already been targeted by new scam that promises to recover their money for a fee of 10% of their investment paid up front.

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Posted in: Fortuna Estates fraud

Death of the Beach Bars,500 bars and restaurants in the Malaga province alone have been built on the sand in contravention to planning regulations

Coastal authority of Andalusia has announced plans to enforce a 1988 law designed to prevent construction within 100 yards of the waterline. An estimated 500 bars and restaurants in the Malaga province alone have been built on the sand in contravention to planning regulations, authorities claim. Around 300 of them will be forced to close when their concessions end next year. Javier Hermoso, the chief of beaches on the eastern Costa del Sol, said closing the bars and clearing the coastline had become his main objective since taking office in September. "It will be a long complicated process because nothing has been enforced for 20 years," he told local newspaper La Opinion de Malaga. Critics of the move fear that the clamp down will lead to huge job losses at time when the area is already suffering a downturn in the tourist industry. "We are talking about making 7000 people out of work in Malaga alone with this move," said Norberto Del Castillo, of the Federation of Beach Businesses of Andalusia. Others said it would drive tourists away. "A beach without a beach bar is one lacking the essential elements," said one commentator in Malaga. "They are a tourist must-have. Eating and drinking with the sea nearby and one's feet in the sand is one of greatest delights of the beach."

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Posted in: 7000 people out of work in Malaga alone with this move

15 self-proclaimed anarchists stormed the Greek embassy in Berlin

Protests at the killing of Athens teenager Alexandros Grigogorpoulos have spread abroad. About 15 self-proclaimed anarchists stormed the Greek embassy in Berlin, saying Greece itself bears responsibility for his death. There was no violence reported, but the group displayed a banner saying the youth was killed by the Greek state. Berlin police sealed off the embassy while talks began on ending the stand-off.

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Posted in: Berlin

Greece has been hit by a third day of unrest

Greece has been hit by a third day of unrest, as anger continues to boil over at the police killing of a teenage boy on Saturday. Rioting erupted again in the Athens suburb of Exarchia, where 15-year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot dead, and also in the northern city of Salonika. The Greek Communist Party called a popular demonstration in Athens and a 24-hour strike against the police’s action. This morning papers carried dramatic pictures of the weekend’s rioting, with blazing headlines like ‘Athens under siege’ and ’48 hours of horror.’ “The trouble, for me, simply highlights the lack of education in this country,” said lawyer Haralambos Samaras. “It is the most important thing we lack, both here in Greece and across Europe.” Dozens of people were hurt in the worst rioting in years in Greece, as gangs rampaged through the streets, goading police and destroying shops and businesses. Despite the arrest of two officers connected with the teenager’s death, general unrest is simmering beneath the surface. There is widespread youth resentment at the widening gap between rich and poor, a situation only made worse by the global financial crisis.

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Posted in: Greek Communist Party

falling pound poses a serious danger for millions of ordinary British people since almost every daily essential, from food to fuel and manufactures,

A falling pound poses a serious danger for millions of ordinary British people since almost every daily essential, from food to fuel and manufactures, is imported. The dominance of finance capital has left the UK with a manufacturing sector that accounts for no more than 16 percent of GDP, while the service sector, much of it related to finance, accounts for 73 percent.Joining the euro does not offer a lifeline, since it would not offer a solution to the economic and fiscal problems that underlie the falling pound. With government borrowing now set to rise to 57 percent of GDP, it might not even be possible.Britain’s borrowing requirement puts it well outside the convergence criteria originally set for euro membership. The criteria might be relaxed because so many existing member countries are now outside those criteria, too. They have also had to borrow vast amounts in response to the credit crunch. Ultimately, the decision is a political one, and as national tensions increase in Europe, the other members may be unwilling to admit Britain.
Even as a member of the euro, Britain would still have to raise money by selling bonds on the international markets to finance its fiscal policies. The cost of doing so depends on the perceived risk that a government will default on the bonds it issues.The markets use credit default swaps (CDS’s) to insure against government bond defaults. The price of CDS’s has risen for all the major economies. Simply being in the euro does not protect a government against the risk of default. Italy, a euro member, has the highest CDS price because its debt-to-GDP ratio is now the highest in the Eurozone, at 103 percent.But the price for British CDS’s has risen the fastest. The price of insuring £10m of UK debt against default over five years has risen from £8,000 last February to £60,000 in the middle of November, and has now reached £110,000 (US$162,000)
According to the Financial Times, “It now costs more to ensure the UK against default than some of its banks such as HSBC and Lloyds.”
“No one expects the UK to actually default,” said Roger Brown, global head of rates research at UBS, “but the risk is higher because of the amount of debt.”No one may expect a country like the UK to default, but until recently no one expected a major bank to go under either, still less a whole string of banks. Amid so many unknowns, one thing is certain. The experts may disagree on the correct response, but they are all agreed on who should bear the cost of the recession that is engulfing the world economy—the working class.

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Posted in: ” said Roger Brown,“but the risk is higher because of the amount of debt.”,global head of rates research at UBS,No one expects the UK to actually default

Sweden cut its rates by a massive 1.75 percent, bringing the base rate down from 3.75 percent to 2.00 percent.

The cut in British interest rates was part of a general move by the world’s central banks in response to the deepening recession. The European Central Bank (ECB) cut its rates by three quarters of a percentage point. By the standards of the ECB, this is a huge cut. Over recent months, it has never cut by more than one half of a percent. Interest rates in the Eurozone now stand at 2.5 percent.Sweden cut its rates by a massive 1.75 percent, bringing the base rate down from 3.75 percent to 2.00 percent. Sweden’s action was in response to worsening economic data. Growth of 0.1 percent had been anticipated, but the latest figures point to a contraction of 0.5 per cent in Sweden’s export-oriented economy.Even in this context of sharply deteriorating economic conditions across Europe, the situation facing the British economy looks more serious than elsewhere because of its dependence on finance capital and cheap credit.The fall of the pound has led to speculation that Britain may have to join the euro. European Commission president José Manuel Barroso recently said that he thought British membership was “closer than ever before.”
“Some British politicians have already told me: ‘If we had the euro, we would have been better off,’ ” Barroso told French radio.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, are thought to be the most likely government figures behind these rumours. But even the Conservative shadow chancellor, George Osborne, has adopted some of the arguments being advanced by economist Buiter, a strong advocate of the euro.Osborne warned that the government’s fiscal stimulus package and the huge increase in government borrowing that it entails could cause a run on the pound. His concerns were ridiculed by Anatole Kaletsky in the Times of London, who argued that “…in the modern world of paper money and floating exchange rates, there is no such thing as a ‘reserve currency’—only different currencies that are traded and used as stores of value in the same way as other assets.”Kaletsky agreed with Sir Samuel Brittan of the Financial Times, who recently wrote: “The most frequent objection is to ask: ‘Where will the money come from?’ The short answer is: the Bank of England printing works in Debden. This is not just a debating reply. In a paper currency system there is no fixed pot of money, but a total influenced by human action.”While this could, Kaletsky admitted, lead to Zimbabwe-style inflation, under present deflationary conditions such an outcome was not inevitable.Kaletsky’s articles are in their way quite chilling. They demonstrate that policy options that would until quite recently have been denounced as actions reserved for megalomaniac dictators have entered into the realm of, if not the desirable, then at least the possible, for sections of the British political elite.

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Posted in: European Commission president José Manuel Barroso recently said that he thought British membership was “closer than ever before.”

If you feel any insecurity in your job you are not going to go out and buy a house

The government’s hastily unveiled plan to reduce the number of home repossessions was dismissed by leading UK house builder Bellway. Finance director Alistair Leitch said it would have “absolutely zero effect on new housing. It will not entice Joe Public to buy a new property.” Leitch identified concerns about unemployment as the major factor in slumping house sales. “If you feel any insecurity in your job you are not going to go out and buy a house.”His impression was confirmed by a new survey of job trends, which showed that the UK job market is weakening rapidly.
“The UK jobs market is heading downhill at breakneck speed,” said Mike Stevens at KPMG. “Employers in almost all sectors have drastically cut recruitment plans and are shedding contract and temporary staff as fast as they can.”The contraction of the job market is reflected in record falls in pay levels for both permanent and temporary staff.In the latest round of job losses in the finance sector, Nomura has cut 1,000 jobs in London after it acquired the European branch of Lehman Brothers. Up to 800 jobs are under threat after Honda decided to withdraw from Formula One racing. The job losses cover all sectors of the economy. Some 3,000 jobs are threatened in the tax service.The same pressures on jobs and credit are reflected in new car sales, which fell by 37 percent last month, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. At the top end of the market, Aston Martin’s sales fell by 73 percent. But the high volume brands were also hit by falling sales.“The scale of the downturn in the UK manufacturing PMI [Purchasing Managers Index] data during November is unprecedented,” said Rob Dobson, an economist who has just carried out a survey of manufacturing industry in Britain. The decline in manufacturing has reached “absolutely horrific levels,” he said.“We are already seeing a pretty rapid pace of contraction in hard manufacturing activity in the UK,” said Alan Clarke at BNP Paribas, “and it is going to get even worse.”

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Posted in: The scale of the downturn in the UK manufacturing PMI [Purchasing Managers Index] data during November is unprecedented

The UK jobs market is heading downhill at breakneck speed

The reason for the drastic fall in the pound is the state of the British economy. “The outlook for the British economy is particularly dire,” the Economist warned, “because it has been hit so hard by the banking crisis.” As a result, “Lending to the sectors that matter—households and non-financial companies—has essentially stalled since the summer.”Lending has dried up because banks are attempting to shrink their balance sheets so that they can stay in profit. But the effect of every bank doing this is to send the whole economy into a further downward spiral. The banks are shifting the risk from their own balance sheets to other companies and to working people who lose their jobs and homes.Recent economic data has pointed to Britain entering a deeper recession, and at a more rapid rate, than was expected. Recent surveys of manufacturing, services and construction show that British gross domestic product (GDP) is falling by 0.8 to 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter, as compared to 0.5 percent in the third quarter.
House price inflation was one of the results of the flood of money into the UK. Britain came top of the house price inflation league of industrialised countries earlier this year. The fall has been correspondingly dramatic. Prices have fallen by 18 percent since their peak last year. The average house price fell by £144 a day in November.The fall in house prices has not made it easier to buy a home. According to Bank of England figures, just 32,000 new mortgages were approved during November. The monthly average in 2007 was 104,000.

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Posted in: outlook for the British economy is particularly dire

It now costs more to ensure the UK against default than some of its banks such as HSBC and Lloyds

Bank of England cut its interest rate to 2 percent on Thursday, bringing the UK base rate to its lowest level since 1951. This historically low level reflects the scale of the crisis that has hit the British economy after decades of being the favoured destination for global flows of speculative money.In the run-up to the interest rate cut, the pound fell to US$1.45. This is its lowest level against the dollar for six years. As recently as July the pound was trading at US$2.00. From its peak, the pound has fallen by a total of 30 percent against the dollar.The pound hit its lowest ever level against the euro at €1.1 and a 10-year low against the Japanese yen. It has lost 45 percent of its value against the yen since last summer. The extent of the fall in the pound is comparable to its collapse in 1992, when it was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.Market analysts expect the pound to come under further pressure in expectation of more rate cuts over the next weeks. Markets are anticipating that the benchmark UK interest rate will hit zero early next year.

Many economists have argued that the best policy would be to go straight to that level. Professor Willem Buiter, a former member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, has argued that all the major economies should cut interest rates to zero.“If zero is the floor, there is no reason not to go there immediately,” Buiter wrote in the Financial Times. “The recession in the US, the UK, the Eurozone, Japan and the rest of Europe is, with probability verging on certainty, going to be so deep and so prolonged that the zero lower bound will be reached even by the most anal-retentive gradualist central bank before the middle of 2009. So why not get it over with in December 2008 and possibly do some good in the mean time?”Other commentators see zero percent as an immediate necessity for the UK and regard the latest rate cut, unprecedented though it is, as insufficient. “There’s no point in saving bullets when there’s nothing left to shoot,” said Neil Jones of Mizuho Capital Markets after the Bank of England cut its rate. “The impact on sterling will be negative.”

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Posted in: impact on sterling will be negative.

British pensioners living overseas should be stopped from raking in millions of pounds in winter fuel payments

British pensioners living overseas should be stopped from raking in millions of pounds in winter fuel payments, campaigners are insisting.Charities and OAP groups will next week protest that more than £10million a year is being paid to those who have escaped the chilly UK and retired to the sun.Some 50,000 elderly Britons who have moved permanently abroad are claiming the yearly allowance, worth between £200 and £300, which is supposed to help with winter heating bills.Campaigners have hit out at winter fuel payments made to those living in sunny climates abroad, while elderly UK residents struggle with rising energy bills
Even those living on Spain's Costas and in Portugal, Greece and some tropical islands are benefiting from taxpayers' money.As long as they register for the allowance in Britain, they are entitled to continue claiming if they move to any of 29 European countries or their overseas territories.Under European law, benefits acquired in one member state must be paid to those who move to another.

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Posted in: British pensioners living overseas should be stopped from raking in millions of pounds in winter fuel payments

Guardia Civil and the National Police have seized 26,199 kilos of drugs in the Campo de Gibraltar so far this year

The Guardia Civil and the National Police have seized 26,199 kilos of drugs in the Campo de Gibraltar so far this year, compared to the 25,001 kilos seized in 2006 for the same period. More facts: during the first three months of this year they have caught more than the total for 2006; the total street value of the hashish hauls alone amount to €37 million.

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Posted in: Guardia Civil and the National Police

Colombian and Spanish members of a drug trafficking gang have been arrested in Elche

23 members of a drug trafficking gang have been arrested in Elche. Those arrested are Colombian and Spanish and all residents of Elche and Santa Pola. The police found the drugs hidden in cartons of wine which had been brought to Spain from Colombia on regular drug runs.24 kilos of cocaine, 4.4 kilos of marihuana and a field planted with the drug, and 200 grams of heroin were found in the police operation which started observing the gang some six months ago.The drug runners were a family clan, based in the town, and who had connections to sell in Dolores, Villena and Torrvieja. The alleged head of the group, a woman with the initials M.A.D. remains at large according to some reports.

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Posted in: Dolores,Villena and Torrvieja.

Captain of a Spanish fishing trawler arrested off the Co Cork coast has lost a High Court bid to stop his trial on charges alleging obstruction

Captain of a Spanish fishing trawler arrested off the Co Cork coast has lost a High Court bid to stop his trial on charges alleging obstruction of fisheries protection officers by allegedly cutting nets to release the boat's catch into the sea after the vessel was boarded.The case centred on whether the State, in the context of the aims of the EU Common Fisheries Policy, is entitled to prosecute such charges on indictment and to choose a penalty of mandatory forfeiture of a boat's catch and gear.Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill yesterday ruled for trial on indictment and said the sanction chosen was appropriate.Deterrence of future offending was a requirement of the regulation, he noted. He was giving his judgment dismissing proceedings by Augustin Ferradas Martinez aimed at preventing his prosecution before Cork Circuit Criminal Court.The case arose after the MV Playa de Lagos , of which Mr Martinez was master, was arrested by the LE Eithne on May 31st, 2006, after being boarded and inspected.Mr Martinez was initially charged with two summary offences of obstructing a sea fisheries protection officer by "slipping" the nets, inferring the nets were cut to release the catch into the sea. The catch on board was valued at €27,000.
A further charge was later brought under section 11 of the Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act 2006, which may be tried summarily or on indictment. This alleged Mr Martinez contravened an EC regulation in obstructing inspection of his vessel, an offence carrying a penalty of mandatory forfeiture of all fish and gear and a fine of up to €100,000. The State opted for trial on indictment.Mr Justice O'Neill said the principal issue was whether mandatory forfeiture of catch and gear, plus the procedure whereby the charges were brought on indictment, was disproportionate and unconstitutional.He ruled that the Attorney General had discretion whether to try offences summarily or on indictment. The exercise of that discretion was non-reviewable unless bad faith could be shown and this did not arise.
On the proportionality of the penalty of mandatory forfeiture, he said this must be decided against the backdrop of the aims of the common fisheries policy. These made it imperative fisheries protection officers be able to inspect vessels without being frustrated by the kind of conduct alleged against Mr Martinez.

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Posted in: MV Playa de Lagos

Police operation was mounted to smash an international organised crime ring based on the Costa del Sol

police operation was mounted to smash an international organised crime ring based on the Costa del Sol.300 officers swooped on 21 addresses in Tile Hill, Canley, Stoke, Brandon Marsh and Balsall Common yesterday morning in what police said was an "unprecedented" operation.Twenty people aged between 19 and 64 were arrested and another two are being questioned on the Costa Del Sol in Spain.Tens of thousands of pounds was seized along with a large amount of drugs, believed to be destined for the streets of Coventry and Warwickshire.Police were continuing to search homes across the Coventry area as part of the largest ever crime crack-down the city has ever seen.It began in the early hours yesterday when 320 officers were briefed before embarking on the unprecedented operation.West Midlands Police officers stormed into the homes and businesses ow ned by people suspected of being members of an international organised crime group in Tile Hill, Canley, Stoke, Brandon Marsh and Balsall Common.The 21 people arrested as part of the raid, code named Operation Closedown, were today still being questioned by detectives at police stations across the city.Two further men are being questioned by officers in Spain, while police continue to search two villas in the Costa Del Sol.Tens of thousands of pounds in cash was seized during the raids, along with a "significant" amount of drugs, which are yet to be identified.The raids follow years of investigative work carried out by West Midlands Police and further raids have not been ruled out.Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Mirfield, of West Midlands Police, said:"The arrests are the culmination of a long term investigation into an organised crime g roup trafficking drugs in the Coventry and West Midlands area."It is not just about today, this is about the long term investigation of an organised crime group.

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Posted in: villas on the Costa Del Sol

European Commission said Thursday that it is pursuing legal action against Spain over three breaches of European Union (EU) environmental law.

European Commission said Thursday that it is pursuing legal action against Spain over three breaches of European Union (EU) environmental law. Two of the breaches relate to obligations for the treatment of waste water, with more than 400 towns and cities listed as not having water treatment up to EU standard. The third case regards Spain's open-cast coal mining in a protected nature site. Spain will receive final warnings on the three breaches of EU legislation. In the first case, the commission considers that some 343 Spanish towns and cities are discharging urban waste water into already designated sensitive or potentially sensitive areas without appropriate treatment. This constitutes a breach of an EU directive that by the end of 1998 requires that cities of more than 10,000 inhabitants that discharge water into environmentally sensitive areas be equipped with a treatment system that meets the most stringent quality standards. A commission assessment also confirms that six potentially sensitive areas remain to be designated and an area designated as less sensitive in the Cantabria region does not meet the directive's requirements. The commission has therefore decided to send Spain a final warning letter over the case.
In the second case, the issue at stake is the lack of compliance with a separate directive concerning larger towns and cities. Under the directive, urban areas with more than 15,000 inhabitants were required to have adequate waste water collection and treatment systems by the end of 2000. The commission considers59 cities not compliant. A final warning letter has also been sent in the case. A third case concerns a long-term investigation by the commission into several open-cast mining projects in Laciana Valley in the Castilla y Len region. The projects are located inside an important nature site called Alto Sil that is home to the brown bear and the Capercaillie grouse, critically endangered species protected under EU legislation. A first warning letter was sent to Spain in February 2008. After a site inspection, the commission still considers that the mining activities are likely to adversely affect the endangered species and has decided to send a second and final written warning. Spain has two months to respond satisfactorily to the issues. The commission, the executive body of the EU and guardian of its laws, may decide to take the cases to the European Court of Justice if Spain fails to respond within the time limit or if the responses are deemed unsatisfactory.

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Posted in: Spain has two months to respond satisfactorily to the issues

Thousands of Nissan workers took to the streets of Barcelona in protest at the company's plan to lay off 1,680 workers.

Thousands of Nissan workers took to the streets of Barcelona in protest at the company's plan to lay off 1,680 workers. The demonstration, which began at 7pm in the Plaza Urquinaona, passed off without incident as the protesters made their way to regional government headquarters building in the Plaza San Jaume, where they were met by a representative from the Catalan government.The trade unions are calling on regional and national government leaders to intervene directly with the management of the Nissan-Renault alliance to negotiate solutions for the companies' Spanish factories. They also warn that this week's demonstrations may only be "the start of a grave social conflict" if Nissan is allowed to follow through with its plan to cut 1,680 jobs - or 40% of the total workforce - at its Zona Franca and Montcada i Reixac plants with inevitable knock-on effects for components manufacturers and other suppliers.

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Posted in: Nissan

Monzer Al Kassar Prince of Marbella international arms dealer.

June 5, 1990, Monzer Al Kassar and his wife opened an account, number 1964, at the Audi Bank in Switzerland. Al Kassar and his wife used their real names and both signed the documents, highly unusual for a bank account that would later be used in an illegal arms deal. The initial purpose of the account is unknown. The bank records from this account and others would later become evidence used by a Swiss prosecutor to freeze Al Kassar's proceeds from the illegal sale of Polish arms to Croatia and Bosnia. Subsequent events provided the necessary ingredients for an embargo-breaking arms deal: a war, an attempt by the international community to stop it, and a broker able to work around it. Croatia and Slovenia declared themselves independent from Yugoslavia in June 1991. A bloody civil war ensued. The United Nations Security Council voted on September 25, 1991, to impose an arms embargo on Yugoslavia, whose constituent republics were not yet recognized by the international community as independent countries. Bosnia declared its independence in March 1992, which was followed by an even more bloody and complicated civil war. Like many other states, the Swiss Federal Council adopted the arms ban -- U.N. Security Council Resolution number 713 -- on December 18, 1991, making the embargo Swiss law (RS 514.545). This later formed the basis for Swiss legal proceedings against Al Kassar. U.N. embargoes mean nothing unless they are adopted by the legislatures of individual U.N. member states and enforced by their respective legal systems.
Shortly thereafter, a Croatian couple, Snejana and Zeljko Mikulic, holders of an account at Die Erste Bank in Vienna, ordered $2,649,000 in bank transfers to the account of Bassam Abu Sharif, one of Yasser Arafat's closest advisors, at Arab Bank in Geneva. A Die Erste Bank document states that the transfers were for a shipment of sugar, powdered milk and tea to Croatia. A few days later, Sharif began a series of transfers, ultimately totaling $2.3 million, to account number 1964 at Audi Bank, the account belonging to Monzer Al Kassar. In turn, Al Kassar transferred $2,549,135 to the Luxembourg bank account of Cenrex, the Polish state arms company. On March 10, 1992, a Honduras-registered ship, the Nadia, docked at Ceuta, Spain (a Spanish territory in Morocco) for supplies. When port officials examined the cargo documents, they found the papers in order. The 27 containers of arms and ammunition were being sent by Cenrex in Poland to the defense ministry of Yemen. After the ship was allowed to proceed, it headed not to Yemen but to Rijeka, Croatia, where it unloaded. In 1992, Spain arrested Al Kassar on charges of piracy and providing the arms to the Abu Abbas-led PLF terrorists who hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship and murdered American Leon Klinghoffer. Western intelligence agencies concluded that Al Kassar flew Abbas to safety aboard one of his private planes after the hijackers surrendered. One prosecution witness, Ahmed Al Assadi, while spending time in Vercelli prison for participating in the hijacking, changed his story and refused to go to Spain to identify Al Kassar as the person who supplied the hijackers' weapons. After Al Kassar's arrest, another accuser, Ismail Jalid, fell to his death from a fifth-story window in Marbella, Spain, in what the coroner called "an alcoholic coma." During the 1995 trial, in a highly publicized standoff with police, a third witness's children were kidnapped by Colombian drug traffickers shortly before he testified. The witness blamed Al Kassar, who denied involvement and stated, "I have nothing to do with the kidnapping and I hope that it is over as soon as possible. Children are sacred for Arabs. No one, not even your worst enemy, deserves this." Al Kassar was later acquitted of all charges. While building the case, Spain requested that Switzerland seize Al Kassar's bank accounts. Swiss officials then opened their own preliminary inquiry into money laundering, lack of vigilance in financial operations, and fraudulent documents and foreign certificates. Following this inquiry, Swiss authorities began to investigate Al Kassar's arms sales using Swiss banks.Questioned on December 9, 1993, by Swiss prosecutors, Al Kassar explained that he was a diplomatic representative of Yemen in Poland and therefore could not answer questions about government-to-government affairs. A search of Al Kassar's Spanish address revealed documents confirming his relationship to the Croatian Zeljko Mikulic and containing the codes used for the ship's contents: "Tea" meant TT pistols (Tula-Tokarev pistols, developed in the U.S.S.R. in the 1930s and subsequently manufactured by other Eastern Bloc countries), and "tea bags" meant bullets. Bassam Abu Sharif was questioned by Swiss officials while passing through Geneva in 1994. He claimed that he had only met Al Kassar once in 1979 and twice thereafter. He explained that he had been asked by the Yemeni government to use his bank account to transfer money for an arms sale organized by the Yemeni ministry of defense to buy arms for Bosnia and Croatia. He said that he learned only later that Al Kassar had organized the sale.

A Determined Swiss Prosecutor Freezes Al Kassar's Millions

Geneva Cantonal prosecutor Laurent Kasper-Answermet upheld his 1992 freeze on $6 million belonging to Al Kassar, arguing that his financial investigation found the funds to have come from criminal activities. The financial side of an arms deal leaves a paper trail, whereas arms hidden in shipping containers, guerilla armies and corrupt government officials leave none. In 1998, a Geneva appeals court upheld the seizure but released $3.7 million not directly linked to the arms deal.

"If Yemen does a deal with Bosnia and Croatia, how can I control it?" asked Al Kassar, dismissing accusations that he is an embargo-busting arms dealer. Under existing legal controls, his question is reasonable. The case is the first of its kind in Switzerland and is expected to set a precedent. The arms did not touch Swiss territory and did not involve Swiss citizens or the country in any way other than through its banking system. Switzerland is not directly affected by the small-arms trade but has an interest in maintaining the respectability of its banking system. Such cases, as well as that of Leonid Minin ,an Israeli citizen arrested in Italy for selling Ukrainian weapons to Liberia and Sierra Leone, are pushing existing legislation in new directions in an attempt to discourage the illegal arms trade. Al Kassar has lost successive court appeals and has one final chance to have his $2.3 million returned in an appeal to a Swiss federal court.

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Posted in: Marbella

Attempted robbery a supermarket near Antonio Machado Promenade in Malaga

Attempted robbery a supermarket near Antonio Machado Promenade in Malaga, went wrong. Wearing a motorbike helmet, he entered the supermarket, wielding a kitchen knife. He approached the cashier and demanded money but, when she refused, he grabbed the till and ran away with it.As he made his way to a 125cc motorbike, which he had parked at the entrance, the actions of a customer, who blocked his way with a shopping trolley and a supermarket employee who was chasing him, caused him to drop the till and the motorbike keys. Not prepared to leave his motorbike, he hid the number plate with a piece of cardboard and pushed the vehicle up the street.Police later found it parked nearby, together with a wallet containing his identity card. They arrested the owner and have also charged him with two other robberies.

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Posted in: Antonio Machado Promenade in Malaga

Eight years and six months for House Jacking Gang in Alicante

Two members of the violent gang this week began jail sentences of eight years and six months each after admitting armed robbery and kidnap in a plea bargain deal.A third was sentenced to a year and a half in prison by a court in Alicante after being convicted as an accomplice.Two men involved in the April 22 2004 kidnap are still on the run.Mr and Mrs Yarwood were playing cards as they relaxed after dinner at their home in Moraira on Spain's southeastern coast when the gang burst in.The couple were threatened with pistols and a knife and told they would be killed unless they paid 600,000 euros - the equivalent of £400,000 at the time of crime. The pair, from Frodsham, Cheshire, were terrorised overnight and the following morning, Mr Yarwood, 72, a retired electrician was driven to the local bank and told to withdraw all the money in his account.But he wrote a note on the back of a cheque begging for help and the bank manager alerted police who called in a specially-trained kidnap response unit.Speaking of their ordeal at the hands of their Romanian and Spanish kidnappers, Mrs Yarwood who ran a guest house in Cheshire for 27 years, said afterwards: "They terrorised us all night, constantly pointing the guns at us and cocking them."When my husband tried to escape out of the back door they punched him in the face and kicked him repeatedly."I was convinced we were going to die.Her husband added: "I was praying the bank would try and help and I wrote a note on the back of a cheque saying, 'Please give me the money because someone has kidnapped my wife."The gang leader kept saying that if he didn't see the money by the following day I would never see Pat again."

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Posted in: Alicante

"It was like a scene from a gangster movie."Darren Coupland, 41, has been arrested over claims that he killed German Oliver Johaht and shot the other

Civil engineer Darren Coupland, 41, has been arrested over claims that he killed German Oliver Johaht and shot the other man in a row over a drug debt.
Johaht, 33, was found bleeding to death in the street outside the Briton's luxury home on the Costa Dorada. Italian Carmelo Mazara had been beaten with an iron bar and shot in the neck but managed to escape to a nearby health clinic, where he was found by police.Coupland was found bleeding heavily at the nearby property business he ran with his wife and sister-in-law in the seaside town near Barcelona.
The married father-of-two from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, had been stabbed in the throat. A police source said: "It was like a scene from a gangster movie."Coupland was taken to hospital where the stab wound was treated and he was arrested. Police are hunting a second Briton who they believe may also be involved.

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Posted in: Costa Dorada

Spain, has been deemed unsafe by international watchdogs

Spain, has been deemed unsafe by international watchdogs. a car bomb, thought to be the work of terror group ETA, injured 17 people in a university car park in northern Pamplona, a town which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to its annual bull-run every year. According to the British Foreign Office, the threat to foreign travellers from terrorism in Spain is high. Since July, there have been at least 11 explosions in well-known tourist towns around the country including Torremolinos, Malaga and Benalmadena. Last week, the quiet medieval streets of Lucerne in Switzerland, one of the safest tourist destinations in the world, witnessed a savage assault on a British man who died of severe head injuries. Meanwhile, the once-peaceful island of Bali is back on high alert exactly six years after terror blasts on a nightclub killed 202 people. Although tourist numbers have recovered reaching an all-time high this year, there are acute fears that the Indonesian island could be targeted by terrorists again when the bombers responsible for the attacks are executed by firing squad in the coming weeks. As peak season in the Caribbean approaches, tourist numbers to the palm-fringed island of Antigua have plummeted since the brutal murder of British honeymoon couple, Catherine and Ben Mullany, in July. The ferocity of the crime, the tenth murder on the island this year, left many questioning the West Indies' reputation as a safe haven for holidays. Two vicious attacks on tourists in the last month have further damaged the region's tranquil image. In an ordeal that lasted more than an hour, a masked man sexually assaulted and robbed two British women a fortnight ago on the tropical island of Tobago. Earlier in the month, a Swedish couple were killed on the island in an apparent robbery. Travellers are being urged to be cautious when renting villas on the island and stay in hotels with tight security measures such as a 24-hour guard. A recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit revealed that the English-speaking Caribbean, stretching from the Bahamas in the north to Trinidad and Tobago in the south, has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with an average of 30 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, the murder rate in Ireland is 1.5 per 100,000. Another part of the world whose image as a dream destination has been shattered in recent weeks is India's most famous tourist hotspot, Goa. The recent rape of a 14-year-old German girl in the beach resort has rocked a country already marred by the rape and murder of British teenager, Scarlet Keeling, at Anjuna beach earlier this year. Police in Goa are also investigating the death of a 65-year-old Australian tourist who was violently killed after complaining of poor service in a restaurant at Calangute.

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Posted in: threat to foreign travellers from terrorism in Spain is high

WANTED Adam Hart, 29, who is suspected of conspiracy to supply cocaine and who escaped arrest in August 2007 as police officers searched his workplace

Adam Hart, 29, who is suspected of conspiracy to supply cocaine and who escaped arrest in August 2007 as police officers searched his workplace

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Posted in: 29,Adam Hart,who is suspected of conspiracy to supply cocaine and who escaped arrest in August 2007 as police officers searched his workplace

Costa Blanca hideaway for British criminals

Crimestoppers, the UK crimefighting charity, together with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), issued a new list of ten most wanted British suspects, including their photographs, details of their crimes and their aliases.British and Spanish authorities are targeting the Costa Blanca in southeastern Spain in a bid to round up those notorious villains thought to have fled to the tourist haven which has become a favoured hideaway for British criminals.Law-abiding citizens who recognise those on the list are being urged to ring the dedicated hotline and provide anonymous tip-offs on their whereabouts. Any information deemed useful will be passed on to Spanish police, who will execute the arrest warrants and send the suspects back to Britain to face trail.Bill Hughes, Director General of SOCA, said the campaign, part of Operation Captura, was "delivering a simple message to criminals; you won't escape to the sun, we will find you and bring you back."
The latest appeals include individuals wanted for murder, sex offences, drug trafficking, fraud and kidnap. The initiative follows the success of an earlier operation on the Costa del Sol which led to the arrest of 13 criminals on a list of thirty most wanted. Denise Holt, the British Ambassador to Spain, said: "Both British and Spanish residents on the Costas did a fantastic job in 2006 in helping Crimestoppers track down some notorious criminals. We're appealing for your help again. There are ten new names and faces of dangerous people that you can help put behind bars."

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Posted in: Costa Blanca hideaway

National Police have arrested four people in connection with a local cocaine trafficking gang

The National Police have arrested four people in connection with a local cocaine trafficking gang. They also dismantled a laboratory and recovered half a kilo of the drug, some cash and two cars, one of which had allegedly been used to bring the drug to Elche from Madrid.

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Posted in: Elche

Vall de Gallinera, Alicante growing 130 marihuana plants

27 year old man has been arrested for allegedly growing 130 marihuana plants in Vall de Gallinera, Alicante. He was discovered as he was pruning the plants. The Civil Guard said the weight of the uprooted plants was more than 25 kilos.

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Posted in: Alicante

Paxi C captain was killed in a fight with one of the crew.

Crew of a Guardia Civil coastal patrol boat has boarded an Italian merchant vessel - the 'Paxi C', sailing from Alexandria (Egypt) to Gijón - anchored off Fisterra since its captain was killed in a fight with one of the crew. They were sent to take charge of the investigation after an SOS message sent at 6.20am by the ship's first officer, who was ordered to drop anchor and prepare to be boarded after explaining what had happened.

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Posted in: Guardia Civil coastal patrol boat

France's most wanted criminal was arrested in Salou

One of France's most wanted criminals was arrested in Salou last Saturday. Emile F (56) had been on the run since his conviction in 2004 for a kidnapping and murder committed in August 1995 in Jouy en Josas, near Paris, in a feud between rival drug trafficking gangs. In a joint operation involving French police, the man was arrested along with his son, who has since been released on provisional bail after questioning. Both were using false IDs, but were identified using forensic records supplied by the French investigation team.

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Posted in: Salou

Mark Lewis has been left in charge of the town hall in San Fulgencio after the mayor, deputy mayor and four senior councillors were arrested

A British expatriate who speaks only a smattering of Spanish has become the "accidental mayor" of a town on Spains Costa Blanca after a wave of corruption arrests. Mark Lewis, 58, has been left in charge of the town hall in San Fulgencio after the mayor, deputy mayor and four senior councillors were all taken into police custody following allegations of real estate corruption. Mr Lewis, who lives in Spain with his wife and daughter, was given the title by default on Wednesday on the grounds that he is one of only two councillors from the ruling coalition not to be arrested.
"Mr Lewis has taken charge of the council on the grounds that he is the fourth deputy mayor. Everyone above him in the pecking order has been arrested," the source added. "Everything is in a state of chaos since these arrests and we are left with someone who speaks only a few words of Spanish," said a source at the town hall.
Mr Lewis refused to comment on his new position except to say: "It's only temporary I hope. I'm sure this will all be sorted out very quickly and everything will return to normal." The town hall was thrown into disarray when deputy mayor Manuel Barrera Garcia, 61, was detained by the National Police on October 20 after a video showed him allegedly accepting a 5000 Euro bribe from a property developer. Socialist mayor Trinidad Martinez, and councillors Juan Antonio Gamuz, Juan Antonio Gonzalez Palenca, Mariano Marti and Fina Reme were arrested on Wednesday lunchtime as the corruption probe widened. Police raided the town hall and seized documents, in a move that mirrors the investigation into the Marbella scandal of March 2006 when the entire planning committee were arrested.
Mr Barrera was allegedly caught on camera saying: "It's better if you give me big bills, they take up less space". He denies any wrongdoing and claims he was set up by political rivals. "I am completely innocent. The video was manipulated to make it look like I accepted a bribe," he said after being released on bail.
The Spanish government have vowed to clamp down on corruption by town officials and rid the nation of its reputation for underhand dealings.

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Posted in: San Fulgencio

Equatorial Guinea’s exiled opposition leader, Severo Moto, has been arrested in Spain after allegedly trying to transport illegal weapons

Equatorial Guinea’s exiled opposition leader, Severo Moto, has been arrested in Spain after allegedly trying to send illegal weapons to the oil-rich African nation.
The arrest was the latest twist in a tangled case that has implicated figures such as Mark Thatcher, the son of the former British Prime Minister, and Simon Mann, the Eton-educated mercenary, who is facing trial in Malabo for his alleged role in a failed 2004 coup attempt. Mr Thatcher, who now lives on the Spanish Costa del Sol, was given a suspended jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to unwittingly financing the coup attempt and breaking the anti-mercenary laws of South Africa. The arrest of Mr Moto raises questions about whether a fresh coup attempt was under way.
According to Spanish court sources, he was arrested on Monday on the orders of a judge after weapons were found in the boot of a car in the port of Sagunto, near Valencia, on March 6. Mr Moto has run a self-proclaimed government-in-opposition from Spain, where he has had political asylum since 1986. He was sentenced in absentia to 62 years in prison in Equatorial Guinea for his alleged role in the failed coup against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. His status as a political refugee was revoked by Spanish authorities in 2005 after they accused him of using the country as a base for several coup attempts against the Government in Equatorial Guinea. The Spanish Supreme Court overturned the ruling on appeal last month, stating that Mr Moto posed no danger to Spain. Mr Moto has denied any role in the attempted overthrow of the Government. Critics have accused the Spanish Socialist Government of being too close to the regime of Mr Obiang, which is considered to have one of the worst human rights records in Africa. The former Spanish colony is the third-largest African oil producer. Equatorial Guinea issued an international arrest warrant for Mr Thatcher last month, accusing him of being a prime instigator behind the plot to overthrow Mr Obiang on behalf of Mr Moto, in return for access to the oil wealth of the country. Mr Thatcher has admitted to paying $275,000 (£128,000) to charter a helicopter used in the coup attempt. He claimed he thought that it would be used for commercial purposes.
The prosecution in Equatorial Guinea said that Mr Mann implicated Mr Thatcher in the plot. It said: “Thatcher knew all about the operation. If we can gather enough evidence we will start a case against him.” Armengol Engonga, the deputy opposition leader in exile of Equatorial Guinea, urged caution yesterday over the arrest of Mr Moto.
“As long as we don’t know what this accusation is based on and the nature of the charges, we cannot say anything,” he told the AFP news agency. Mr Obiang has called parliamentary elections for May 4, about a year earlier than expected. The trial of Mr Mann, who was arrested four years ago, is expected to begin after the vote and could be embarrassing for Britain and Spain as he seeks to show he had official support for his alleged attempt to overthrow the Government.

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Posted in: Equatorial Guinea

Gary Glitter planning to buy a posh pad in Puerto Banus

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Posted in: Gary Glitter planning to buy a posh pad in Puerto Banus

BANKSY Art Destroyed,Westminster Council, which has voted to remove the 23ft high piece entitled One Nation Under CCTV

Jude Law, Angelina Jolie and Christina Aguilera are among those who have been prepared to pay high prices for one of his works. Westminster Council, which has voted to remove the 23ft high piece entitled One Nation Under CCTV from a wall in Newman Street, London, said it did not want to see the art destroyed, but was trying to take a stand against graffiti.
The mural depicts a red-hooded figure painting the words "ONE NATION UNDER CCTV" on the wall, while a US-style police officer holding a camera and a brown dog look on.
Deputy council leader Robert Davis said: "We are not saying the owners need to paint over this mural as we can see it has value in the right location, such as an art gallery. "We simply want it removed from this wall and the owner is perfectly entitled to remove it and sell it if they wish. "I take the view that this is graffiti and if you condone this then what is the difference between this and all the other graffiti you see scrawled across the city? "If you condone this then you condone graffiti all over London." The price of works by the elusive street artist have soared as his popularity has increased. Last night, a Banksy oil canvas, entitled Tesco Value Tomato Soup, was sold for £117,600 - smashing its £80,000 estimate at auction house Bonhams' Urban Art sale. Last year a drawing sprayed onto steel by the street artist sold for 20 times its estimate at £288,000.
Westminster Council said it was considering removing another Banksy mural to help fund council services. The slogan "What are you looking at?" appeared overnight opposite a CCTV camera in an underpass at Marble Arch. "We are currently considering what to do with another Banksy in an underpass at Marble Arch," Mr Davies said.
"One option would be to remove it and sell it and invest that money into council services." But not everyone has been happy to find Banksy's work adorning their property. Transport for London sparked a furore when it ordered its workers to paint over a piece by the artist which had appeared outside Old Street Tube station. The image, showing a scene from Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction, with Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta holding bananas instead of guns, was thought to have been worth £300,000. Speaking at the time the company said the work created a "general atmosphere of neglect and social decay which in turn encourages crime".

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Posted in: Westminster Council

"European banks are five times more exposed to emerging markets than American and Japanese banks,"

"European banks are five times more exposed to emerging markets than American and Japanese banks," said Stephen Jen of Morgan Stanley. "Pressures on emerging market economies therefore could have a particularly negative boomerang effect on European banks." Concerns have suddenly shifted from liquidity and bad balance sheets to exposure to economies like Bulgaria, Latvia and Romania, where currencies are declining and economies faltering. In the last week, Eastern European currencies have slid by around 10.0%. The central banks of Hungary and Denmark have sought to prop up their currencies by raising interest rates, but the sell-off of emerging market currencies continued on into Friday. (See "Flight To Dollar And Yen.")
"Currency is what people are focusing on now because it can exacerbate the problem of nonperforming loans," said Pedro Fonseca, a senior analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. If, for example, a Polish borrower's mortgage is in Swiss francs, but they are earning Polish zloty, then they are more likely to default on the payments of their house if the zloty depreciates. Many European banks will now pull back on making these so-called FX loans, which are linked to low-yielding currencies like the Swiss franc. Such lending is popular among the Western European banks that dominate Eastern Europe, making up 52.0% of all lending in Hungary and 54.0% in Romania.

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Posted in: Eastern European currencies have slid by around 10.0%. The central banks of Hungary and Denmark have sought to prop up their currencies by raising interest rates

Croatian police continue to examine the crime scene of two murdered journalists in Zagreb.

Croatian police continue to examine the crime scene of two murdered journalists in Zagreb. Ivo Pukanic and Niko Franjic died after a bomb was placed under their car. The recent wave of mafia style attacks has prompted Croatia’s Prime Minister to act. Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said: ‘‘There is no need to declare a state of emergency in Croatia, but we will introduce extraordinary measures.’‘Pukanic, the owner of leading independent newspaper Nacional, had been targeted before in April, but escaped unhurt when a gunman opened fire outside his house. However Nacional, which often ran stories on organised crime, reported Pukanic believed he would be killed.
Earlier this month the daughter of a prominent Croatian lawyer was also murdered after being shot in the head. Croatia has been warned to tackle organised crime and corruption with the violence threatening to scupper its bid to join the EU.

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Posted in: Croatia

Alexander Kindred,was arrested after HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) officers intercepted him at Dover docks in Kent

Alexander Kindred, 55, of Glennturret Terrace, Perth, Scotland,sentenced to three and a half years in prison
He was arrested after HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) officers intercepted him at Dover docks in Kent on April 26 last year.They discovered 4,229,200 cigarettes among the crates of biscuits, which he claimed had been loaded into the vehicle in Germany to be transported to the UK.A jury at Maidstone Crown Court heard that the revenue evaded on the tobacco amounted to £580,000.HMRC spokesman Bob Gaiger said: "We will not hesitate to take action against those dealing in smuggled goods and evading duty."This sentence will serve as a deterrent to others. Selling smuggled tobacco products is not a harmless tax fiddle - it cheats the Government of revenue, which can be used to fund vital public services, and jeopardises the trading of law-abiding tobacconists."

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Posted in: Perth,Scotland

Russian regulators have halted Google's attempt to acquire one of the company's major online advertising firm.

Russian regulators have halted Google's attempt to acquire one of the company's major online advertising firm.Google may have broken through American and European governmental opposition to its high-profile mergers in the past, but a new attempt to partner with a Russian company has left the company stymied by Moscow. According to the New York Times, Russia’s antitrust authorities nixed Google’s attempt to acquire online advertising firm Begun on Friday.The proposed merger would have given Google access to a network with 40,000 advertisers across 143,000 Russian Web sites. The Federal Antimonopoly Service put a stop on the deal, but didn’t provide many details as to why, besides a generic desire to foster competition.“We are very disappointed to hear that FAS has come to this decision,” Google said in a statement, according to the Times. “We strongly believe that this acquisition will enable us to significantly improve opportunities for Russian users, advertisers and publishers as well as the entire industry.”Google had previously overcome the scrutiny of both American and European regulators to seal a deal with advertising firm DoubleClick in both respective markets.

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Posted in: Russia’s antitrust authorities nixed Google’s attempt to acquire online advertising firm Begun

Russia's wealthiest 25 individuals have collectively lost $230bn (£146bn).

Russia's wealthiest 25 individuals have collectively lost $230bn (£146bn). Tycoons like Oleg Deripaska - Russia's richest man and friend, we now know, of British politicians - have seen their fortunes vaporised. On paper, Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea FC owner, has suffered a $20.3bn wipeout. Alisher Usmanov, the Arsenal shareholder-tycoon has lost $11.7bn, Bloomberg estimates. Analysts say that private jets could soon be going for bargain basement prices, while some super-rich are scrambling to sell off their villas in Sardinia and Surrey. In Moscow, elite nightclubs have relaxed their strict entry rules - there aren't enough customers. The capital's top restaurants, meanwhile, have stopped accepting credit cards.Not that Russia's oligarchs are in the mood for entertaining. Since hosting Peter Mandelson and George Osborne on his yacht in Corfu this August, Deripaska has slithered into a classic Westminster political scandal. The aluminium magnate's British-related woes do not stop there: a former business partner, Michael Cherney, is suing him for $4bn in the high court. Rumours suggest he's even been forced to lay off his servants. A spokesman said Deripaska does not comment on private matters.
The twilight of the oligarchs is closely linked to the meltdown in Russia's stock market. Since May, Russia's RTS index has lost 71% of its value. It is no secret that Deripaska borrowed money from western banks using shares in his companies as collateral. The share price crashed; the banks then asked for their cash back. Deripaska is now in danger of being sucked into a black hole of debt. Others have money stuck in Iceland.Is, then, the era of the oligarch now over? Not everyone agrees with this thesis. But it does seem that Russia's rich are experiencing a moment of historical catharsis. After a giddy decade characterised by the acquisition of yachts, football teams, villas in Kensington, west London and the South of France, and even submarines, there is a distinct sense that Russia is moving into a different, more chastened, epoch. "My stocks were worth $1bn. They're now worth $300m. OK. So what?" says billionaire Alexander Lebedev, sitting on a brown leather sofa in his comfortable three-storey Moscow townhouse. Lebedev, a Russian businessman and former KGB agent unkindly nicknamed the spy who came in for the gold, is unperturbed by his loss of fortune. Until recently, he had $3.1bn - and was 39th on Forbes' list of Russia's top 100 billionaires. "It doesn't make any difference to my life," he says.Lebedev is also a former deputy in the Duma and a member of Russia's beleaguered intelligentsia. He says he has survived the crisis that has been aggravated by Russia's war in Georgia better than many of his peers. They took generous loans from Russian banks, bought shares, and then took out more loans from western banks against the value of these shares - a pyramidal arrangement that is now collapsing. Asked how Russia's oligarchs are bearing up, Lebedev is almost puckishly cheerful. He says: "They are suffering." He adds: "I think material wealth for them is a highly emotional and spiritual thing. They spend a lot of money on their own personal consumption."Lebedev is a patron of the arts and last week met Tom Stoppard, John Malkovich, and Kevin Spacey to discuss a new Chekhov festival in Crimea, Ukraine. In general, he is scathing of oligarchs as a class - describing them as a bunch of uncultured ignoramuses. "They don't read books. They don't have time. They don't go to exhibitions. They think the only way to impress anyone is to buy a yacht," he observes.Does he think the crisis might make Russia's elite reconsider their arguably solipsistic lifestyle and values? Lebedev thinks not. "[Friedrich] Nietzsche once said that when something doesn't kill you it makes you stronger. But it isn't applicable in this case," he says. Most oligarchs were not very interested in social injustice, he points out.This spring Forbes magazine estimated that Russia has 110 billionaires - a record. The top 100 had a combined wealth of $522bn - almost four times higher than in 2004, it said. (At the same time 18.9 million Russians live below the poverty line, federal statistics suggest.) According to Lebedev, some members of this exclusive list - known as the golden 100 - are now down to their last $100m, the über-rich equivalent of skid row. "Worst hit are the property developers," he says.

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Posted in: twilight of the oligarchs

Paris Hilton is planning a permanent move to London.

Paris Hilton is planning a permanent move to London.
The hotel heiress is currently in the British capital filming her new TV show Paris Hilton’s My New BBF (British Best Friend). And she is ready to leave Hollywood for good and settle down in the UK.
She told friends, “I love it here, I am going to move here permanently. I have already been here for one month and am much, much happier here.
“I love guys with English accents. I have met a really cute English guy, but its early days.”
I can hear many people rejoicing with this piece of news. I am not rejoicing, just so you know. Do you honestly think the UK is going to allow Paris to move to London?
So maybe she didn’t commit a crime, but really, allowing Paris to move to London is like waging war to the UK.

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Posted in: Paris to move to London is like waging war to the UK.

National Police officers received a tip off that the group was transferring ‘hashish’ in a van to the United Kingdom

The gang were stopped by National Police officers after they received a tip off that the group was transferring ‘hashish’ in a van to the United Kingdom. According to the National Police, they carried out operation ‘Rostel’ in a bid to stop the gang, after they discovered that there was an organised group based in south-east Spain who had managed to smuggle a large quantity, thought to be about a tonne, of the drug through a Murcian port. They said that they suspected the drugs were bound for the UK and that they expected it to be transferred in vehicles through France and across the Channel. Police discovered a member of the group getting ready to load a van at a villa in Garruchal, where one of the gang’s main members resides and following extensive investigation, they raided a house in the Benijófar area. They arrested three people at the house in Benijófar and found a van outside the house containing 500 kilograms of hashish. Later, following a judicial court order, the National Police raided the house in Garruchal and arrested two more people, as well as seizing a Russian manufactured pistol and removing a luxury car from the property for further investigation.

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Posted in: Garruchal

1kg of heroin, Cleveland Police stopped a Vauxhall Vectra driving from North Yorkshire towards the Guisborough area and arrested the driver.

Officers from Cleveland Police stopped a Vauxhall Vectra driving from North Yorkshire towards the Guisborough area and arrested the driver.
A search of the vehicle discovered 1kg of heroin. At the same time, on Sunday afternoon, officers stopped a BMW on the A19 near Crathorne, near Yarm, before raiding addresses in Guisborough, Redcar and Middlesbrough, where cash and more drugs were found. In total, nine people were arrested for conspiracy offences, four males – three teenagers and a man in his 40s – and one woman in her 40s, have been released on bail pending further inquiries. The four men initially arrested, were charged with conspiracy to supply heroin and were remanded to appear at Langbaurgh East Magistrates’ Court. Detective Inspector Dave Mead, of Cleveland Police, said: “This was a very pleasing outcome to our investigation.

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Posted in: Cleveland Police

CONSTRUCTION worker who was sexually harassed has been awarded a total of €49,700 by the Equality Tribunal.

CONSTRUCTION worker who was sexually harassed has been awarded a total of €49,700 by the Equality Tribunal. The worker took a case under the Employment Equality Act against his former employer - "a construction company" - for whom he worked from June 1996 until April 2006.He said he was sexually harassed and that the company "treated him in a discriminatory manner and victimised him when it changed his conditions of employment, placed him on sick leave and ultimately made him redundant," said equality officer Bernadette Treanor in her report.In 2000 and 2001, he complained about sexual harassment to his foreman, who took written statements from him and the alleged harasser."The only result of the complaint was that [he] was moved to another site. The complainant is satisfied that as as result of that early incident, his employers were aware of his sexual orientation," the report states.There were further incidents in May 2005, involving a number of workers for another contractor and he complained to their foreman. The men later approached him and apologised. "After these complaints which the complainant perceived as sexual harassment, incidents continued to take place," the report adds.Later in May 2005, his own foreman asked him what was going on. A few days later, the company director arrived on site to talk to him with the foreman. He was not told it was part of an investigation or that he could have someone with him at the meeting. At the meeting, he mentioned earlier suicidal thoughts that arose because of the incidents.The next day, he was told he was no longer to work at heights and he was asked to see the company doctor and later a psychologist. In November 2005, he was put on compulsory sick leave, which continued until May 2006 when he was made redundant. The firm said it was made aware in 2005 of "serious allegations of harassment by the complainant".
Advice was sought from the Construction Industry Federation and an investigation started. The worker and alleged harassers were interviewed. The firm's director was "genuinely alarmed" about the worker's statement about suicidal thoughts.The firm said its decision to put him on sick leave was due to a recommendation from their psychologist that he should not continue working. It was later recommended that he return to work, but there was less work available. Along with 35 other employees, he was made redundant.

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Posted in: Ireland

One in 20 Irish people and almost one in 10 young people has taken cocaine

One in 20 Irish people and almost one in 10 young people has taken cocaine, a major all-Ireland study of the use of the drug has established.Men are twice as likely to use cocaine as women and regular and even daily use of the drug is increasing, according to the drug prevalence study carried out for the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD). North Dublin, where almost 16 per cent of young people reported use of the drug, emerges as the country’s cocaine blackspot, but prevalence rates are rising steeply throughout the country.Use of the drug by 15-34-year-olds has risen five-fold in the north-eastern counties over the past five years, and more than three-fold in the midlands and the west. The vast majority of cocaine users start taking their drug in their early twenties and the most popular means of obtaining it is from friends and family, the study finds. One in four people said they knew someone who took cocaine, compared to 14 per cent in the last all-Ireland survey carried out in 2002/03. The study reveals that cocaine users are taking the drug more often, with one-in-four users snorting the drug once a week and 7 per cent reporting daily use. No-one reported daily use in the earlier survey. Overall lifetime use now stands at 5.3 per cent, up from 3 per cent in the last survey. Some 1.7 per cent of respondents reported using the drug in the previous year, up from 1.1 per cent, and 0.5 per cent said they had taken cocaine in the previous month, up from 0.3 per cent. “While these figures are of concern, we should not lose sight of the fact that they are reasonably low and that any perception that ‘everyone is at it’ is far from the true situation,” commented Minister of State with responsibility for drugs strategy, John Curran. The survey also shows that cocaine use varies greatly between different regions, with the highest rates recorded in the more densely populated areas in the east of the country, roughly from Louth to Cork. “The challenge is to ensure that the lower rates are kept at such levels while the problem is tackled comprehensively in the areas of higher use. Mr Curran said the risks attached to cocaine use were often ignored or underestimated by users. “Cocaine use is linked to heart conditions, strokes and to various other physical complaints that vary depending on the route of administration of the drug. Frequent (or long-term) use of cocaine can also have a powerful effect on the user’s mental health, through depression, anxiety, agitation, compulsive behaviour and paranoia.” He defended the efforts being made to tackle drug misuse, pointing out that the over €61 million was allocated to the area in last week’s Estimates. The Government is spending over €200 million on measures aimed directly at problem drug use, he said. Almost 7,000 people were surveyed north and south for the study, which was carried out between October 2006 and May 2007.

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Posted in: Ireland

Taxi mafia, Forced to pay a thousand kroons for a ride from the city centre to the Tallinn Airport.

Italian friends promised recently never to return to Estonia after he was forced to pay a thousand kroons for a ride from the city centre to the Tallinn Airport.
“This is daylight robbery!” said the Italian who had not asked how much the ride would cost assuming that it would be normal price for a 15 kilometre ride. When arriving and being asked to pay a thousand kroons he asked the taxi driver for a price list which said 65 kroons a kilometer. “I pay twice less at home although the distance is three times longer,” he said.Sooäär writes that the lack of interest of Savisaar’s city government to stop such daylight robbery leads one to believe that this taxi mafia is secretly funding the City Government. According to the MP, Savisaar is not understanding that such problems affect the image of Tallinn as a tourist destination. Cities that are friendly to tourists have the taxi business under control.“Taxi is almost the first point of contact and the first impression of a tourist who arrives in Tallinn for the first time. We have renovated the airport terminal, but the taxi situation is the same. I don’t know any other town in Europe where the taxi business is so out of control. Many cities have established maximum allowed tariffs, but not Tallinn. So we have Laki Takso where a kilometer costs 5.90 kroons and on the other end FIE Fiat that charges 65 kroons per kilometer. Such gap is outrageous.”Sooäär says that while otherwise the state or government should not interfere with regulating free business, the situation with the tax business is different since it affects the whole image of the country. Moreover, there are reportedly areas in Tallinn Old Town where taxi drivers that do not pay to mafia cannot wait for customers. If they do they will have their tires punctured or may be beaten up. What’s worse is that the city has no control over who taxi companies hire as driver which means that even convicted criminals or people with bad traffic record may freely operate as taxi drivers.

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Posted in: Estonia taxi mafia

Emilio Di Caterino, had become an informant. Di Caterino and his wife and three children are already in the witness protection programme

More and more important mobsters are turning state's evidence, the DNA said. Oreste Spagnuolo, one of a killing squad suspected in 15 murders over the last five months, ''inflicted a major blow'' to the clan when he decided to help the police earlier this month, investigators said. The DNA is confident of turning more Camorristi, they said. On Monday that another clan member, Emilio Di Caterino, had become an informant. Di Caterino and his wife and three children are already in the witness protection programme, it said.Camorra clan Italy has sent the army against is feeling ''hunted'' as turncoats desert it, Italian anti-Mafia police said on Monday. Hundreds of police and troops are stopping the Clan dei Casalesi from going about its business, the Anti-Mafia Directorate (DNA) in Naples said. ''They feel hunted and are having trouble on the ground,'' the DNA said.
The suspected leader of the Casalesi murder squad, Giuseppe Di Setola, heads the police's most wanted list. Despite his reputation for being the mob's top hitman, Di Setola is still trying to convince police he is in fact blind, the DNA said. They said he had sent a letter to a local newspaper claiming to be an innocent bystander, accompanied by a photo showing him with a bandage over one eye and leaning on a walking stick. ''He's trying it on again,'' the DNA said. The brutal empire of the Casalesi was exposed in a book by writer and journalist Roberto Saviano, who said last week he would have to leave Italy to escape their threats.Six Nobel Prize winners - Dario Fo, Mikhail Gorbachev, Gunter Grass, Rita Levi Montalcini, Orhan Pamuk and Desmond Tutu - wrote an open letter to his newspaper La Repubblica on Monday. They urged the Italian state to do more to protect the author of 'Gomorra', saying ''it is intolerable for this to happen in Europe in 2008''.

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Posted in: Gunter Grass,Mikhail Gorbachev,Orhan Pamuk and Desmond Tutu,Rita Levi Montalcini,Six Nobel Prize winners - Dario Fo

International Monetary Fund believes that more banks in the European Union could fail

The International Monetary Fund believes that more banks in the European Union could fail as efforts to raise additional capital begin to slow.According to the IMF's annual review of the European economies released on Tuesday, the need for banks to rely more on government support will grow as investors and sovereign wealth funds show less inclination to put money into banks and volatile money markets.

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Posted in: International Monetary Fund

Three banks belonging to the Greek buyout firm Marfin Investment Group said they will not participate in the government's bail out.

Three banks belonging to the Greek buyout firm Marfin Investment Group said they will not participate in the government's 28 billion euro ($37.09 billion) bank rescue plan.The three are the first Greek banks to respond officially to the conservative government's plan, worth up to 11.4 percent of its GDP, to help lenders ride out the global financial crisis, although Greek banks had little exposure to toxic assets."Marfin Popular Bank (MRBr.AT: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Marfin Egnatia Bank EGMr.AT and Investment Bank of Greece do not need and do not intend to use any state aid of any nature whatsoever," they said in a statement.Banking sources said on Tuesday many Greek banks would not participate in the plan until they see the exact terms, although they welcomed it as a future safeguard.A senior finance ministry official said the draft bill with all details would be submitted to parliament by the end of the week. The plan enables the state to guarantee capital market loans and buy preferred shares in banks, while it sets a ceiling on banking executives' salaries, the ministry has said."There is a willingness from all banks to participate in this plan," said the official, who requested anonymity. "Our aim is to facilitate the economy in the future."
In other countries, banks participating in similar plans have had to give up their independence and limit executive salaries.

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Posted in: Bank of Greece

HSBC announced a $607m (£351m) deal in Indonesia yesterday which allows Britain's largest bank to double its presence in the world's fourth-most popu

HSBC announced a $607m (£351m) deal in Indonesia yesterday which allows Britain's largest bank to double its presence in the world's fourth-most populous nation.
The arrangement to buy an 88.9% stake in Bank Ekonomi follows frenzied speculation that HSBC would buy a troubled investment bank or bail out one of Britain's banks. Instead, it defied the rumours and stuck to its preference of making acquisitions in emerging markets. It is able to fund the deal from its own resources.
The transaction is the latest illustration of the banks' divergent approaches to dealing with a crisis that has forced Lloyds TSB, HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland to raise capital from the government. Barclays, however, has bought the Wall Street businesses of collapsed Lehman Brothers in a signal it is determined to expand in the face of market adversity. Alex Potter, banking analyst at Collins Stewart, believes three strategic strands are developing. The first is the move by strong banks such as HSBC and French bank BNP Paribas to conduct deals in the mayhem. BNP Paribas is now the largest retail bank in Europe after buying assets from the distressed Dutch-Belgian combine Fortis.The second are those banks hunkering down for the financial crisis by taking government support and the third are the "select few that fall between the two - which externally look weak but have internal confidence", said Potter. Barclays, which has avoided the government-backed bail-out of the banking sector by promising to raise funds in the private sector, falls into this category.Sandy Flockhart, chief executive of HSBC in Asia, stressed HSBC was not moving to buy distressed assets. "This is not a bust bank or a bank with problems behind it. It's a conservative, well-managed bank and in view of that it should be easier to take it through to the next stage," said Flockhart.

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Posted in: HSBC

The International Monetary Fund believes that more banks in the European Union could fail as efforts to raise additional capital begin to slow.

The International Monetary Fund believes that more banks in the European Union could fail as efforts to raise additional capital begin to slow.According to the IMF's annual review of the European economies released on Tuesday, the need for banks to rely more on government support will grow as investors and sovereign wealth funds show less inclination to put money into banks and volatile money markets.

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Posted in: International Monetary Fund

Prudential speculation that the insurer is working on a potential deal to buy part of US insurance giant AIG.

Prudential shares jumped by 22% yesterday on speculation that the insurer is working on a potential deal to buy part of US insurance giant AIG.
The Pru's shares had slumped by almost 30% in two sessions at the end of last week, amid worries that an economic downturn could put pressure on insurer solvency. The Financial Services Authority had helped to stoke the anxiety by admitting it was in discussion with insurers over the issue. An FSA briefing note had raised concerns over "weaknesses" in the calculation of capital ratios.Yesterday Standard Life shares rallied by 4.4% and Legal & General by 3.4% though Aviva shares were flat.
But investors cheered the hope that the Prudential was interested in raising money to fund a potential deal, rather than to bolster its balance sheet. They also hope that the insurer will reassure on its trading position when it publishes third-quarter new business figures today.Asia has been the growth engine for Prudential in recent years as the UK disappointed, and acquiring a major operation in the region would help to offset a slowing in the pace of organic growth.The plan is thought to involve Middle Eastern and Chinese investors taking a 20% stake worth over £1bn in the company to help it finance a bid for the Asian business of AIG, which had to be rescued by the US government in a £49bn bailout last month.Mark Tucker, chief executive, was reportedly holding talks with AIG over the potential acquisition last week. But analysts said he could face opposition to the deal from other potential buyers including French insurance giant Axa and Holland's ING.Meanwhile, ING yesterday became the latest European bank to seek government funding, after agreeing to a 10bn (£7.8bn) cash injection as well as scrapping executive bonuses and its year-end dividend.Following a weekend of intense negotiations, after seeing its share price crash by over 25% on Friday and the partial nationalisation of rival Fortis two weeks ago, ING sought help to shore up its core capital and restore investor confidence.It is now thought that insurer Aegon may be looking to strengthen its solvency, after becoming the only institution apart from ING to admit that it was "looking at" the Dutch government's announcement that it was ready to pump 20bn (£15.6bn) into its financial institutions. Aegon UK employs 3000 in Edinburgh.Most of the smaller listed Dutch financial companies have indicated that they did not plan to ask for capital support. ING, which has a major savings business in the UK, has this month taken over the savings accounts of Iceland' s Heritable Bank and Kaupthing Edge.ING's chief executive Michael Tilmant said: "The market environment has changed over the last two weeks and the expectations for capital levels have changed following massive capital injections in financial institutions worldwide."

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Posted in: US insurance giant AIG

Bank Failures in Iceland Cause UK Council Delay Funds for Genome Analysis Center

Norfolk County Council last week postponed to November its plan to award a £1 million grant toward the center — which would be the first of its kind in the UK — after it learned how much of a £32.5 million investment in three failed Icelandic banks it will lose.

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Posted in: Genome Analysis Center

Russia, Iran and Qatar, holders of more than half of the world's natural gas, agreed to form a ``gas troika'' for joint exploration and production

Russia, Iran and Qatar, holders of more than half of the world's natural gas, agreed to form a ``gas troika'' for joint exploration and production, OAO Gazprom said.
``We have agreed to create a technical committee, and one of its missions will be to review projects that can be implemented in a trilateral way,'' said Alexei Miller, chief executive officer of Russian gas exporter Gazprom. Miller spoke to reporters in Tehran after talks today with Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari and Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah.

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Posted in: ``gas troika''

Tamboskaya mafia organisation Vladislav Reznik being investigated on the orders of a Spanish judge

Vladislav Reznik, a deputy of Putin's United Russia party and the chairman of the State Duma Financial Markets Committee, is being investigated on the orders of a Spanish judge for alleged links to the Tamboskaya mafia organisation.The gang is accused of a series of serious crimes including murder, kidnap, arms and drugs trafficking, money laundering and racketeering and has been mentioned in connection with match fixing UEFA cup games.A luxury villa belonging to Mr Reznik in the exclusive La Toro resort on the island of Majorca was raided by the Guardia Civil who seized computers, files, and works of art including paintings and sculptures.
Cars, including a Mercedes SL 600, a Toyota SUV and a Renault Clio, were also confiscated from the property, which is reportedly protected by a sophisticated security system.Mr Reznik, who was not at his Spanish home at the time of the raids, is being investigated over his supposed connections with fellow Russian Gennady Petrov, the suspected kingpin of an international crime organisation that allegedly used a network of Spanish registered companies to launder money earned through illicit activities.Petrov, who also has a property on the Balearic Island, was arrested in June along with more than a dozen others as part of the ongoing Operation Troika, led by Spanish Judge Balthasar Garzon.It has emerged that Mr Reznik, who declared earnings of $47m in 2006, bought his Majorcan villa – named Casa Artemis – from Petrov several years ago and the pair were regular seen together on the island.According to local sources, Mr Reznik was a well known member of the island's Russian billionaire elite and regularly attended services at Majorca's Russian Orthodox Church and played alongside Petrov in golf tournaments held exclusively for Russian visitors at the local club.It is thought that Judge Garzon is seeking an international arrest warrant for Mr Reznik but is being thwarted by his immunity as a Senator of the Russian state.

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Posted in: La Toro resort on the island of Majorca