The Fred Goodwin story

 Fred Goodwin's life in the banking premier league was shattered as the taxpayer rescue of his wounded bank turned him into a target for public anger. Fred "the Shred", whose nickname derives from his zealous cost cutting, earned more than £4 million in 2007 in his position as the chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland. He was credited with building RBS into an empire, with operations in 54 countries and sponsorship deals...

Demi Moore’s 911 call released: Star ‘smoked something’

 The call made to emergency services when Demi Moore was taken to hospital on Monday night has just been obtained and it seems to imply actress was convulsing after smoking a mystery substance. Advertisement >> A friend of Demi can be heard at the beginning of the 911 call on US website TMZ.com trying to get an ambulance to the star’s Beverley Hills home. There is confusion as the phone operator tries to determine which...

Spanair applies to stop all its flights

The decision of Qatar Airways not to take a 49% share means the operation is not viable.Archive Photo EFE Qatar Airways has decided not to invest in Spanair, and the Barcelona Generalitat regional government has announced they will no longer inject funds into the airline. It means the airline will not get the 150 million € which it was expecting from Qatar for a 49% share. It seems Qatar have decided to turn away for fear of sanctions...

MacAnthony Realty International (MRI) developed resorts in several countries from its Marbella headquarters and sold furniture packs to clients.

  Hugely popular on the holiday market, MRI had hundreds of Irish customers and boasted an annual turnover greater than €100m before the credit crunch. It made the 35-year-old Dubliner, who now owns Peterborough Football Club, a multi-millionaire. However, a group of 51 Irish and British buyers claim that €492,000 worth of furniture, ordered more than five years ago for apartments in Morocco, Bulgaria and Cape Verde, was never...

Family of cocaine dealers arrested in Benalmádena

 Officers from the Málaga National Police have broken up a Colombian drugs gang based in Benalmádena which employed a team of drug mules to deliver cocaine to their Costa del Sol base. The leader is a middle-aged Colombian woman who ran a local shop selling Colombian foodstuffs, which she used as a cover for her criminal activities. Eight people have been arrested, including the woman’s boyfriend, her father, brothers and daughters....

Marbella court takes victims' statements in fraud case against Irish real estate firm

 50 former client of the real estate firm MacAnthony were in Marbella on Wednesday to ratify in court their complaint for fraud and misappropriation against the owner of the business, Darragh Stewart MacAnthony. Most of those affected are British and Irish, and accuse MacAnthony of keeping the 15,000 € each had paid him for the furniture he had undertaken to buy at a low price for the properties they had bought from the company. It...

two tons of cannabis seized in Andalucía

 Two Moroccan were caught in the act attempting to smuggle more than two tons of cannabis onto shore in San Fernando, Cádiz province, early on Thursday. The Civil Guard were alerted after a suspicious boat was detected by the SIVE electronic surveillance system near the Caños de Gallineras area at around 5am. Officers found 69 bales of the drug on board the boat with a total weight of 2,070 kilos. It came after another drugs boat...

Warrant issued for arrest of ex Marbella councillor

 A warrant has been issued for the arrest of the former Marbella councillor Esteban Guzmán in connection with the caso ‘Minutas’, relating to irregularities in work invoiced to the Town Hall by the Sevilla lawyer and President of Sevilla FC, José María del Nido. Guzmán was sentenced to 6 years and 1 day in the case, and the decision to issue the warrant was taken after he failed to report to the court after being given an extension...

THE number of offenders caught smuggling tobacco into Spain from Gibraltar has more than tripled in just three years,

Spanish customs officials stopped a staggering 2,899 people carrying illegal numbers of cigarettes in the first nine months of last year.This compares to just 985 people stopped on the frontier in the whole of 2008.The Spanish National Tax Agency (AEAT) statistics show an alarming year-on-year rise, with 1,226 people stopped in 2009 (192,560 packets) and 2,112 people (283,203 packets) in 2010.By the end of September last year 409,095 packets...

Catalan police under investigation for murder suspect's suicide

 Officers from the Catalan police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra are under investigation after a suspect in custody for a domestic violence murder managed to escape custody and committed suicide by throwing himself down a stairwell. It happened at his parents’ home in Sabadell on Sunday, where the suspect, 40 year old T.P., had fled with the couple’s two children after killing their 33 year old mother in Santa Coloma de Queralt, Tarragona,...

Costa del Sol opposes drilling for oil and gas

 IGNORING longstanding local opposition, energy giants will continue the search for gas and oil deposits off the Andalucia coast. The first outcries were heard years ago from the tourist sector, coastal towns and environmentalist groups after the Ministry of Industry granted permits for offshore prospecting. Disapproval has now increased following authorisation for Canadian multinational CNWL to begin prospecting in the Mar de Alboran...

Spain Plans Budget Law as Drug Firms Owed $8.4 Billion by States

 Spain pledged to set spending limits for regional governments in a new law tomorrow as the country’s pharmaceutical lobby said the regions owe companies $8.4 billion for drugs. The People’s Party Cabinet plans the budget-stability law to flesh out a constitutional amendment that the party helped the former Socialist government pass in September. Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro said “early warning” and “automatic correction” systems...

Spain’s de Guindos Says Home Prices to Fall With Bank Cleanup

 A cleanup of real estate on the books of Spanish banks will contribute to a decline in property prices that will make homes available to more people, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said. Spanish banks are “filling up” with real-estate assets such as apartments that aren’t going to market because they’re not being priced properly, de Guindos said in an interview with state broadcaster TVE today. When they are priced at their real...

RUSSIAN Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, is not planning to buy a property in Marbella, Benhavis or anywhere else on the Costa del Sol.

This was revealed exclusively to EWN by the Prime Minister’s press office which rubbished widespread reports in the Spanish and at least one local English language newspaper. Citing Spanish gossip magazine Vanitatis, these reports claimed Putin was ‘keen to snap up’ a mansion in La Zagaleta, Benhavis, described as ‘Europe's most exclusive residential development’, according to lazagaleta.com. Several reports said Putin was convinced to...

3 years after US accident, boat washes up in Spain

 As he swam toward the coast of Nantucket, Mass. in August 2008, Scott Douglas, 58, watched his yellow fishing boat disappear, carried away by the swelling surf. He thought it would be the last time he'd ever see the Queen Bee. But yesterday, more than three years after Douglas and his brother-in-law were tossed off the boat by a wave, the U.S. Coast Guard called to say the vessel had washed up on the Spanish coast. It was rusty...

Eating fried foods didn't hurt the hearts of Spaniards who follow a Mediterranean diet

Eating fried foods didn't hurt the hearts of Spaniards who follow a Mediterranean diet, but the findings are too good to be true for Canadians, experts say.A study in Wednesday's issue of the British Medical Journal suggests that frying foods in olive and sunflower oils is not associated with an increased risk of heart disease or premature death.The Mediterranean...

Underworld bankers Daniel Keenan and Andrew Barnett who laundered £17m of drug money are jailed

 Two underworld bankers who laundered more than £17million in drug money have been jailed for a total of 17 years. Daniel Keenan, 41, and Andrew Barnett, 45, used a stolen identity to clean up proceeds from a massive cocaine and heroin dealing operation by making currency exchanges They were caught out when police stopped Barnett with £500,000 in cash stuffed into a satchel. The pair were subsequently linked to Ian Kiernan, who...

Drug smugglers and dealers to get law thaw in UK

 Drug smugglers and street dealers could avoid prison in the UK even if caught with heroin, cocaine or thousands of pounds worth of cannabis, under new guidelines on drug offenses published by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales on Tuesday. The new guidelines, to come into force next month, on February 27, were put out following a three-month public consultation. They cover importation, supply, production, permitting premises...

London hospitals write off 'over 90%' owed by foreign patients

 London hospitals have written off more than 90% of what they are owed by foreign patients not entitled to free NHS care, BBC London has learned. A Freedom of Information request showed Newham Hospital Trust wrote off 96% of what it had invoiced last year. Meanwhile, Basildon and Thurrock wrote off 97% of what it was owed, having previously recovered £68,061 out of £116,561 of its debt. In total, £7.6m was written off by 33 NHS...

Suspect held in Spain in killing of Connecticut jeweler

 A man wanted in connection with the killing and robbery of a Connecticut jeweler has been arrested in Spain, U.S. authorities said Tuesday. Andrew Robert Levene, also known as Robert Thomas, was arrested Monday, said U.S. Attorney David Fein and local and state law enforcement. The 41-year-old Levene was charged with federal murder, robbery and firearm offenses in the Dec. 8 shooting of Yekutiel Zeevi, the owner of YZ Manufacturers...

Spain’s Two Finance Ministers Clash on Budget Amid Recession

 Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said Spain is sticking to its deficit goal even as the economy shrinks, underlining a rift in the month-old Cabinet over whether the nation can halve its shortfall during a recession. De Guindos said the government’s commitment to budget cuts is “total” and there’s “no change” to this year’s target. His comments in Brussels today came after reporters asked him about Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro’s...

Italian fugitive arrested in Almería

 An Italian fugitive has been arrested in Almería on a European arrest warrant for pending sentences amounting to almost 10 years behind bars. His crimes include drug trafficking, violent robbery, illegal possession of weapons and falsifying documents. It’s understood from EFE that his criminal record goes back for more than 20 years. The man, named as Maurizio R. aged 56, was arrested in Almería City in the early hours of Friday...

Vladimir Putin is moving to Marbella

 The Russian Prime Minister is currently buying a property in the luxury La Zagaleta urbanisation in Benhavís. Website Vanitatis reports Putin has been convinced of the charms of the area by the ex Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, who already lives in the urbanisation which he describes as ‘my place in the world’, where he has planted fruit trees and install three hives which give ‘a fantastic honey’. Those who live in the urbanisation...

Suspect held in Spain in killing of Conn. jeweler

 A man wanted in connection with the killing and robbery of a Connecticut jeweler has been arrested in Spain, U.S. authorities said Tuesday. Andrew Robert Levene, also known as Robert Thomas, was arrested Monday, said U.S. Attorney David Fein and local and state law enforcement. The 41-year-old Levene was charged with federal murder, robbery and firearm offenses in the Dec. 8...

Prosecutors urge Spain court to halt judge's trial

 Spanish prosecutors called Tuesday for the dismissal of charges against top judge Baltasar Garzon on the opening day of his trial for abuse of power in probing Franco-era crimes. Public prosecutors and the defence agreed that Garzon, who won international fame with his attempt to extradite Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet from London, had done nothing wrong. They called on the Supreme Court to throw out the case, which was opened...

Princes William and Harry fly to Spain for secret weekend hunting trip

 They bagged themselves several brace of pheasant at Sandringham over Christmas. But at the weekend Prince William and Prince Harry set their sights on bigger game. The brothers flew to Spain on Friday for a secret hunting trip to celebrate the end of Harry's advanced helicopter training. The royal pair were staying on an estate in the backwaters of rural Cordoba owned by the Duke of Westminster, Gerald Grosvenor, Britain's third-richest...

British peer calls for abolition of time limit on expat voting

 Britons who live abroad currently have no voting rights if they have been out of the country for more than 15 years An estimated 5.6 million Britons currently live abroad but, under UK law, those who have been out of the country for more than 15 years have no right to vote in British elections. There has been support for changes to the law in a recent debate on electoral reform in the House of Lords. The Telegraph reports this week...

British driver arrested after Sevilla hit and run

 23 year old Briton has been arrested in Campillos, Málaga, by the Guardia Civil in connection with a hit and run accident at a petrol station in Gillena Sevilla last Thursday. A petrol station worker was injured and had to be admitted to the Virgen del Rocio Hospital, and the driver failed to stop. The Briton lives in Campillos and has been named with the initials W.A.F., and has been taken to Sevilla to attend the court which has...

Bad news for foreign victims of Costa del Sol mortgage scam

 The National Court will not be investigating the mortgage fraud which was reported last year by twenty foreign residents of the Costa del Sol and which affected victims all along the Spanish coastline. Most of the banks and foreign financial advisors involved were from Denmark who informed their clients that, if they died without a mortgage on their Spanish property, their heirs would be subject to hefty inheritance taxes which they...

Court orders Spanish woman to return her children to her husband in the UK

 Spanish woman resident in Valencia, named by EFE as Carolina A.G., has been ordered by a local court to return her children to their father in the UK, where the family moved in 2008. Her estranged husband is a Nigerian man who obtained Spanish nationality after they married in Spain in 2003. The couple has three children, now aged 8 and 5 years old and, the youngest, just 4 months. Their mother says she has suffered abuse from her...

Spanish tourism received a welcome boost last week with UK travel agents reporting a rise in interest and bookings to the country.

 Spanish tourism received a welcome boost last week with UK travel agents reporting a rise in interest and bookings to the country. The news came when on Friday the Post Office revealed evidence that resort prices have crashed by as much as 40% compared to 5 years ago. That, combined with political unrest in some other popular tourist destinations and the fact that the pound is at a 2 year high against the euro has once again made...

Crash and burn time for Spain's crusading judge?

 He indicted late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on genocide charges and became an instant hero to many around the world. A decade later he launched a similar crimes-against-humanity probe over atrocities by the right-wing victors of Spain's Civil War. Now Judge Baltasar Garzon is finding himself in the dock. On Tuesday, Garzon goes on trial for allegedly ordering illegal jailhouse wiretaps in a domestic corruption probe. A week...

3 ETA suspects arrested in France

    French police acting alongside Spanish counterparts have arrested three men at a railway station in France on suspicion of belonging to Basque separatist group ETA, the Interior Ministry said Sunday. One of those arrested in Joigny, 150 kilometers (93 miles) southeast of Paris, was identified as 33-year-old Jon Echeverria Oyarbide, for whom there is an international arrest warrant. Police said he was in possession...

M&S workers pose nude for charity calendar sold under the counter

M&S workers pose nude for charity calendar sold under the counterA calendar with pictures of scantily clad Marks & Spencer staff has raised £2,500 for charity despite having to be sold under the counter.The M&S workers were asked to keep the calendar under the counter (Picture: SWNS)The publication features naked and topless workers in Calendar Girls-type...

Three people were found alive on Sunday as rescuer workers continued to search a partly submerged Italian cruise ship

 Three people were found alive on Sunday as rescuer workers continued to search a partly submerged Italian cruise ship resting just off this small island near the Tuscan coast. Multimedia Map Map of the Area Where the Italian Cruise Ran Aground Photographs Cruise Ship Runs Aground in Italy Cruise Ship Runs Aground Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Enlarge This Image...

Anthony Read was found dead in the sea in the port town of Puerto De La Duquesa

Anthony Read was found dead in the sea in the port town of Puerto De La Duquesa – on the country’s Costa del Sol – the morning after a night out drinking with friends in March last year.Yesterday, at an inquest, mum and dad Jacqueline Jenkins and Martin Read criticised the investigation into the tragedy carried out by the authorities in Spain.Anthony, 33,  had visited a number of pubs during the evening and took a taxi back to a pal’s...