The prices of private housing fell 4.8 percent in the second quarter of 2011 in Andalusia in relation to the same quarter last year, reaching 1514.2 euros per square meter, while nationally there has been a decrease of -5.2 percent to 1752.1 euros, according to the Ministry of Development.
British tourists, in the last year accounted for 19 percent of the foreign market and seven percent of all travelers in Andalusia, also recorded the largest share of visitors aged 45 and over (65.1% versus 48.5% of total). However, according to the Balance of Year 2010 prepared by the Tourist Board, this market was the most active issuer in the Internet when collecting information about the destination, 64.6 percent versus 46.4 percent of the Spanish and 50.1 percent of Germans, second foreign issuer.
The prosecutor is demanding a three year prison sentence for those responsible from the AIFOS architecture and real estate promotion company, Jesús Ruiz Casado and his wife, who have been accused by a British couple of keeping the money they paid for an off-plan home in Benalmádena which was never built.
According to the provisional conclusions of the prosecutor, those responsible agreed a deal to build the home in February 2005, as part of the ‘Hacienda Marina’ development in Benalmádena.
Europa Press has seen the Ministry’s initial case, which notes that a date of completion was not included and that Aifos also failed to provide details of the characteristics of the property, the construction of the development, or the progress on a works licence.
Instead the documents spoke of ‘approximately 20 months’ as when the property would be handed over.
The public accusation dates from July 2008 when the couple realised that ‘no movement had started for the construction of the building in question’, and when they checked with the local Town Hall, found out that Aifos did not even have a construction licence.
The amount of money paid by the British couple was 72,751 €.
If found guilty both Ruiz Casado and his wife will also face a 7,200 € fine, and will have to compensate the couple returning all the monies paid.
Andrew Milroy died from a single stab wound to the chest in Lloret de Mar during the early hours of yesterday morning.
Police are thought to be hunting a gang of French youths of north African origin Andrew is said to have had an altercation with.
The killing happened in the shopping centre of Lloret de Mar during the early hours of Sunday morning
His mother Jackie, originally from Richmond, Surrey, has spoken of her devastation.
She runs American diner, called Route 66, in the Costa Brave resort with her husband, Andy.
Mrs Milroy, who emigrated to Spain 26-years-ago, said: 'I can't think straight at all, I'm just in so much shock.
'We haven't spoken to the police yet so we don't really know what happened.
'I'm hoping things will become a bit clearer later.
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'All we do know they're still looking for the person who killed my son.'
Andrew, who was born in Spain, was attacked around 4am in Lloret's central shopping district.
A nearby hotel security guard called police after being alerted by the boy's friends.
Ambulance workers found him lying in a pool of blood in an alleyway by a clothes shop.
He died after being rushed to Sant Jaume Hospital in the nearby town of Blanes, 40 minutes drive north of Barcelona.
A post-mortem was due to be carried out later today.
A spokesman for the Mossos d'Esquadra, the local police force investigating the crime, said: 'An investigating judge has imposed a secrecy order over the case which prevents us from going into detail about what happened.
'All we can confirm is that a British 15-year-old who lives in Lloret de Mar was stabbed to death in the town around 4am on Sunday morning.
'An investigation is underway. There have been no arrests yet.'
A spokesman for the British Embassy in Madrid added: 'We are aware of the death of a British national in Lloret de Mar and we are offering consular assistance to his family.'
Tragic Andrew was born in Spain and attended a local school called Inmalucada Concepcion.
A friend left a Twitter message which read simply, 'Rest in peace Andrew.'
His parents used to run a pub popular with ex-pats and holidaymakers in the resort called Sergeant Peppers Fun Pub.
They also had a bar called Braveheart's International Pub before opening their current business.
The stabbing was the third involving a British youngsters in the past week in Spain.
Another British teenager was rushed to hospital last Wednesday after being stabbed in the groin.
Spanish police have seized (EURO)25 million ($35 million) in the house of a suspected international money launderer in what they say is the biggest seizure of cash in a raid in Spain.
Seventeen people were arrested in Spain and four in the United States in the operation over the past four days.
A police statement Monday said the money seized in Madrid was found underneath a floor in a house.
A U.S. prosecutors statement Thursday said the alleged leader, Alvaro Lopez Tardon, of Miami Beach, Florida, had allegedly received $26 million in drug proceeds from Spain since 2004.
Police said the gang acted as money launderers for traffickers selling cocaine from Colombia in Spain by using drug proceeds to buy and sell luxury vehicles.
The remains of 59 people have been uncovered in a mass Civil War grave which has been excavated over the past week in an area known as La Legua, in Aranda de Duero, Burgos.
The work was carried out by volunteers from the local Historical Memory Association whose spokesman, José María Rojas, told Europa Press that, although the grave was prepared to hold more bodies than were found, part of it was never used.
It’s understood that the victims are all male and include two teenagers. Personal objects were also found, including a large crucifix and a glass eye. One skeleton was found dressed in an orthopaedic corset, and is thought to be that of a man who was reported missing during the Civil War. DNA samples are to be cross-matched with those of a relative to confirm the identity.
The Partido Popular Mayors of Marbella and Mijas have asked for explanations from the Ministry for Development, after the speed limit on the coastal A7 road was reduced last Friday from 120km/h to 80 km/h. The Mayors claim it is a measure which has not been announced previously, and they reject the idea in letters sent to the Ministry.
As well as from the Mayors, there have been protests from representatives of the tourist sector, the Mancomunidad, and residents’ associations. Juan Sánchez from the Mancomunidad described the measure as ‘barbaric’ and said that it was another way to collect a toll, but this time via fines.
The provincial traffic chief, Trinidad Hernández, has confirmed that the decision was taken based ‘on reports on traffic accidents carried out by technicians from the Ministry for Development’.
Perhaps, the actress was never amused anywhere in the world while shooting as much as she did in the beaches of Spain. Not since she was asked to pose with semi-dress, but looking at the number of people who surrounded her while on shoot.
Wonder why should she get amused looking at the people around? Well, those people who surrounded her were wearing minimal or traditional wears??!!
Katrina says, shooting on the Spain beaches was very funny, it is amusing for female actors, but not for male actors!
The shooting went on for two days at the beach Lloret De Mar, Costa Brava in Spain.
Their spirit and convictions undiminished by age, British veterans of the Spanish Civil War were honoured this weekend at a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the epic conflict.
The International Brigades fought for the Republican side against fascism. And though General Francisco Franco won the 1936-39 war, the deaths of their colleagues was not vain and the eventual return of democracy in Spain had made it all worthwhile, speakers said.
The event took place at the International Brigade Memorial in a park by the River Thames in London. Relatives and supporters of veterans raised one-fisted salutes, laid wreaths and sang songs of solidarity.
The guests of honour were David Lomon and Thomas Watters, two of only four known British volunteers still living.
"I was Jewish, I was an anti-fascist. Hitler and Mussolini were all over Europe. Mosley was stirring up trouble in London. I had to do something," said Lomon, now aged 93, of his decision to join the International Brigades.
The war broke out on July 18, 1936, with a military uprising against the reformist Republican government. Franco was supported by Hitler and Mussolini. Russia aided the Republicans but Britain and other powers followed a non-intervention policy.
But some 35,000 British, American and other nationalities joined the brigades, many of them dockers, miners or other workers who saw Spain as the frontline against a global threat.
Lomon told Reuters he volunteered just after his 18th birthday through the Anti-Communist League and was given a train ticket to Paris.
From there he was taken to the French-Spanish border, walked over the Pyrenees into Spain, and after a few weeks training found himself at the frontline manning a Maxim machinegun.
"It was scary. It was an education for me," he said. "The people were so wonderful. The peasants suffered but they helped us so much, they made it all worthwhile."
"I fell in love with Spain. It was worth fighting for," he said, dapper and still sharp-minded at the age of 93.
Lomon was captured by Italian troops during the Republican retreat of 1938 and spent several months in a prison camp until he was repatriatad.
"When I came back I decided I would carry on the fight."
With the outbreak of World War Two, he joined the Royal Navy and served on minesweepers in the English Channel and Asia.
Watters, 98, served with the Scottish Ambulance Unit. Born in Alloa, he trained as a medic while working as a bus driver in Glasgow and his main motivation was to help people.
"I had to go. There were many wounded. They asked for volunteers and I had to do it. I wasn't political," he told Reuters.
He was at the Battle of Jarama in February 1937, where both sides suffered huge casualties. After two years in Spain, he returned to his job on the buses.
WAR STILL RESONATES
Last week, the British government released intelligence files that said about 4,000 British and Irish men and women joined the anti-fascist fight, some 1,500 more than previously thought. Around 500 are known to have been killed.
Britain's MI5 spy agency kept records on them into the 1950s due to its fears of their possible communist links.
Among then were Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell, who wrote about his experiences in "Homage to Catalonia", and author Laurie Lee.
In the decades since the conflict, it has become a reference point for many other foreign interventions and civil wars, particularly during the Central American wars of the 1980s.
This year British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd both evoked it when calling for international action in support of Libyan rebels.
Cuba's Fidel Castro compared the NATO bombings to the German and Italian support for Franco.
And as the anniversary nears, the war is still controversial in Spain, which has been wary of reopening old wounds.
Peter Preston, regarded as the war's leading historian, said in remarks at the ceremony organised by the International Brigade Memorial Trust that after the war, Franco "brainwashed" people into thinking he stood for freedom.
Recent attempts to account for the thousands of dead from extra-judicial killings during and after the conflict had been stymied, he said, noting the removal from office by the conservative judiciary of investigating judge Baltasar Garzon.
"The struggle continues," Preston said, quoting the Republican rallying cry.
Still, a Spanish diplomat attended the ceremony and praised the foreign veterans.
"Their solidarity, their generosity, their courage and their decency is an example to the younger generation," said Fidel Lopez Alvarez, cultural counsellor at the Spanish Embassy.
In 2007, Spain passed a law giving citizenship to the veterans. Lomon said he had received his passport two weeks ago.
"You deserve it," Lopez Alvarez told him.
The Councillor for Public Highways, Jose Eduardo Diaz, announced that the town hall plans to create a municipal law which will require billboards to be legalized or removed. It will give companies or owners of the billboards eight days to comply with the law, and those who fail to do so will face fines of up to €1,500.
There will be a group of Public Highway Inspectors to make sure that the laws are abided by and enforced throughout the town.
2009 ·MARBELLA CONFIDENTIAL by TNB
