US preacher warns end of the world is nigh: 21 May, around 6pm, to be precise

Harold Camping has been broadcasting his Doomsday predictions around the worldThe end of the world is nigh; 21 May, to be precise. That's the date when Harold Camping, a preacher from Oakland, California, is confidently predicting the Second Coming of the Lord. At about 6pm, he reckons 2 per cent of the world's population will be immediately "raptured" to Heaven; the rest of us will get sent straight to the Other Place.If Mr Camping were speaking...

accident during work to build the Málaga metro system

Two men remained in hospital on Wednesday after an accident during work to build the Málaga metro system on Tuesday night. A third man was less seriously hurt and was discharged on Wednesday. The most seriously injured, a 42 year old man who is understood to be the crew’s foreman, is in Intensive Care in Carlos Haya after being transferred to the hospital’s plastic surgery unit with injuries to his face. The accident was in a tunnel which is under...

Royal couple's visit to the estate, near Granada, has been met with anger by villagers who claim that the Duke's estate has encroached on their land.

Royal couple's visit to the estate, near Granada, has been met with anger by villagers who claim that the Duke's estate has encroached on their land. The Prince and his wife begin their visit in Portugal on Tuesday before moving on to Spain on Wednesday and finally arriving in Morocco...

municipal law came into effect in Malaga banning sexual activities in public less than 200 metres from homes or businesses, Local Police have handled 200 complaints.

SINCE the municipal law came into effect in Malaga banning sexual activities in public less than 200 metres from homes or businesses, Local Police have handled 200 complaints. Most of the complaints registered since January, are against prostitutes although others are against their clients, and there have been a further 100 cautions issued.The local Councillor for Citizen Participation, Immigration and Development Cooperation, Julio Andrade,...

DGT Central Traffic Authority has fined more than one thousand drivers since the new ‘radar de tramo’ speed trap came into operation in the A-7 motorway tunnel at Torrox

DGT Central Traffic Authority has fined more than one thousand drivers since the new ‘radar de tramo’ speed trap came into operation in the A-7 motorway tunnel at Torrox on March 1.The equipment calculates a driver’s average speed over a distance of one kilometre and is one of only two such systems which are currently in place on roads in Spain. The other is in Guadarrama, Madrid, where close to 600 vehicles have been caught speeding in its first...

Spain's third-largest savings bank, Banco Base, has become the first of the country's struggling financial institutions to seek government cash to bolster its ailing finances under new funding rules.

Spain's third-largest savings bank, Banco Base, has become the first of the country's struggling financial institutions to seek government cash to bolster its ailing finances under new funding rules.The bank, formed out of four struggling local cajas, said it would need €2.8bn (£2.5bn) from the restructuring fund set up by the Bank of Spain.The amount is nearly twice the capital shortfall the Bank of Spain had estimated for Banco Base, adding to...

Dean Rice sits between two armed and masked Spanish police officers, his hands tied behind his back. He has just been arrested in the small Andalusian town of Alhaurin and is about to return to Britain to start a life sentence

Dean Rice sits between two armed and masked Spanish police officers, his hands tied behind his back. He has just been arrested in the small Andalusian town of Alhaurin and is about to return to Britain to start a life sentence for a grim kidnapping that occurred in Kent in 2006 and of which he was convicted in his absence. He must have thought that, using various aliases, he had managed to hide himself amongst the many expats in the area but he was...

Nueva Andalucía has become the preserve of Britons with criminal connections.

Nueva Andalucía has become the preserve of Britons with criminal connections. There have been a number of shootings, some deadly, in what the National Police call the “settling of accounts” largely amongst drug traffickers. The latest of these cases was the Thursday of last week...

52 year old Spanish woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Thailand for smuggling drugs into the country.

52 year old Spanish woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Thailand for smuggling drugs into the country.María Nieves García Alcaraz, from Torraba, Albacete, was arrested at Bangkok Airport last August after 3.1 kilos of crystal methamphetamine were found in her hand luggage. She’d arrived there on a flight from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and claimed at the time to have no idea that was carrying drugs.EFE reports that she told...

14th Malaga Spanish Film Festival kicks off Saturday it signals the beginning of a new film season for Spain -- as the festival packs a powerful punch of premieres from edgy first-time directors and seasoned veterans in its lineup.

When the 14th Malaga Spanish Film Festival kicks off Saturday it signals the beginning of a new film season for Spain -- as the festival packs a powerful punch of premieres from edgy first-time directors and seasoned veterans in its lineup.Spain’s main showcase for homegrown talent, Malaga has firmly established itself as the debut of most of the local industry’s solid product.A parade of Spanish industry faces accompanies such a lineup every year...

Banco Popular and Allianz Spain have created a fund management joint venture,

Banco Popular and Allianz Spain have created a fund management joint venture, the Spanish bank announced on Thursday.The joint venture will be called Allianz Popular and would integrate the life Insurance, non-life insurance, pension and mutual funds businesses of both companies.The new company will manage assets in excess of €11 billion. Allianz will own 60% of the new entity while Banco Popular will own 40%.Under the terms of...

Spain's struggling saving's banks, or cajas, have held talks with major hedge funds

Spain's struggling saving's banks, or cajas, have held talks with major hedge funds and private equity groups to try to raise 15 billion euros ($21 billion) in fresh capital to avoid a bail-out, the Financial Times said on Friday.U.S. hedge fund Paulson & Co and buy-out groups Cerberus CBS.UL and Apax Partners APAX.UL have held meetings with several cajas to discuss possible investments, the paper said.The talks by Bankia, Banca Civica and smaller...

Moody's has taken the hatchet to the Spanish banking sector this morning, cutting the ratings of 30 of the country's banks.

Moody's has taken the hatchet to the Spanish banking sector this morning, cutting the ratings of 30 of the country's banks.Note: This does not include Santander, BBVA, or La Caixa.Moody's made the move because they are losing faith in the Spanish sovereign's ability to stage a full scale bailout of the country's banking system.Earlier this month, Moody's downgraded the Spanish sovereign due to problems in its banking sector. Spain has claimed its...

Town Hall in Estepona now has some breathing space, after the regional government has authorised an advance payment of 740,000 € from the municipality’s share in regional taxes.

The Town Hall in Estepona now has some breathing space, after the regional government has authorised an advance payment of 740,000 € from the municipality’s share in regional taxes.It means the Town Hall will be able to pay the municipal staff’s wages for the month of March.It’s the third advance Estepona has received from the Junta de Andalucía in a little more than a year. Others have been authorised for Bailén, Jaén, and El Coronil, Sevilla.Estepona’s...

Two British men found guilty of murdering Colin Nobes, a convicted crook who escaped from the UK’s Winchester Prison in 1996 and fled to Spain, have had their appeals against their sentence turned down by the Supreme Court.

Two British men found guilty of murdering Colin Nobes, a convicted crook who escaped from the UK’s Winchester Prison in 1996 and fled to Spain, have had their appeals against their sentence turned down by the Supreme Court.The court has confirmed, in a decision made public this Wednesday, an earlier ruling by the Alicante provincial court which sentenced both Lindsay George Frampton-Slade and Adrian Marshall to 16 years in prison. It has also confirmed...

ROYAL Bank of Scotland is selling a €286 million (£247m) portfolio of Spanish commercial property loans and assets

ROYAL Bank of Scotland is selling a €286 million (£247m) portfolio of Spanish commercial property loans and assets as part of disposals and business run-downs totalling £120 billion so far.The buyer of the Spanish assets is Perella Weinberg Real Estate Fund, RBS said yesterday as the bank's chief executive Stephen Hester continues to dispose of non-core assets under a programme to strengthen the balance sheet and move out of part-taxpayer ownership.The...

Thousands of Spaniards gathered in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square to protest the recent reduction in highway speed limits in Spain.

Thousands of Spaniards gathered in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square to protest the recent reduction in highway speed limits in Spain.The reduction from 120 to 110 kilometers per hour (75 miles per hour to 69 mph) was put into force last week, but the group Movimiento 140 (88 mph) has been pushing to increase the speed limit to 140 kmh.Protesters Sunday carried speed-limit signs with the number 110 and a red stripe through it, while others carried similar...

two-week holiday to Costa Del Sol costs £447 per person in March but rockets to £991 per person in August.

two-week holiday to Costa Del Sol costs £447 per person in March but rockets to £991 per person in August.Education chiefs in Walsall say they are now adopting a zero-tolerance approach to term-time holidays in a bid to stop it affecting children’s progress.Last year, 209 fines were issued to parents for term-time holidays.Frank Barnes, assistant managing director of Serco, the private company in charge of education, said: “There is a strong relationship...

Nine people were arrested in Spain in an operation that led to the seizure of roughly 1,100 kilos (1.2 tons) of cocaine

Nine people were arrested in Spain in an operation that led to the seizure of roughly 1,100 kilos (1.2 tons) of cocaine hidden in two containers.The gang dismantled in the operation - mainly made up of Spaniards - had extensive infrastructure in South America, the National Police said Friday.A first container had been offloaded at the northeastern port of Tarragona, in the Catalonia autonomous region, and later taken to an industrial complex, where...

INCREDIBLE Holiday COMPLAINTS

You need a passport for Dubai? '...on reaching the checkout at Gatwick, we were told that we would need our passports to fly to Dubai. No one told us this would be the case and we assumed that we would be able to travel hassle-free. We had to re-arrange out flights and this was a horrid start to our holiday...'In hot sand'...Along with my husband and my two young children (aged seven and nine) I went to the beach on our first day of the holiday in...

MALAGA woman has been reunited with her son, stolen from her just after his birth

MALAGA woman has been reunited with her son, stolen from her just after his birth, who was adopted by a family in Benejuzar. Four years ago, they finally met in Murcia, but the case has come to light recently since investigations are being carried out into similar cases.The mother, now 65, lived in Marbella with her husband and three children.However, one son had been taken away from her 30 years ago as soon as he was born and she was threatened...

Michael Dermot McArdle (aged 41) of Brookfield, Heynestown, Dundalk, is wanted by Spanish authorities to serve a two year sentence for causing the death of Kelly Ann Corcoran over 10 years ago.

Michael Dermot McArdle (aged 41) of Brookfield, Heynestown, Dundalk, is wanted by Spanish authorities to serve a two year sentence for causing the death of Kelly Ann Corcoran over 10 years ago.The mother-of-two died from injuries sustained when she fell from a hotel balcony while on a family holiday in Marbella on the Costa del Sol on February 11, 2000.McArdle was convicted by a jury in Malaga in October 2008 but was allowed to return to Ireland...

banks in Spain are now the country's largest real estate owners, a situation they don't want to be in,

Visit a Spanish bank, or regional caja, to discuss your home loan prospects and they may well tempt you with a selection of properties. And if you opt to buy from them – rather than a private individual or builder – they'll be far more generous with the finance terms they offer you.Such is the situation across Spain following the meltdown of the country's construction industry in 2008. When the credit crunch really bit, scores of developers began...

Picasso: most expensive painting ever sold at auction to go on display at Tate Modern in London

Picasso: most expensive painting ever sold at auction to go on display at Tate Modern in London - Telegraph: "The 1932 painting, which sold at Christie's in New York last May for a world record price of $106.5 million (£65.5 million), will be displayed from Monday morning at the...

Spanish town reintroduces peseta -

Spanish town reintroduces peseta The townsfolk of Mugardos in northwestern Spain are being encouraged to search out forgotten stashes of the defunct currency and to spend it in local shops. More than 60 shops in the fishing village on the rugged Galician coast have agreed to accept pesetas alongside the euro in an attempt to encourage spending during a time of economic crisis. The initiative introduced on March 1, has seen people from across the...

Teams worked across the country to prepare for Monday's change - covering the old 120km/h (75mph) limit with stickers on 6,000 road signs.

Spanish commuters have had to ease off the accelerator this morning on their drive to work, confronted with a new speed limit of 110km/h (68mph) on main roads. Throughout Sunday and into the night, teams worked across the country to prepare for Monday's change - covering the old 120km/h (75mph) limit with stickers on 6,000 road signs. The slowdown is intended to save energy in response to the surge in oil prices sparked by the unrest in Libya and...

Spain is now being whacked again

:Spain is now being whacked again. One-year Euribor rates jumped 14 basis points to 1.92pc within hours after ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet uttered the code words “strong vigilance”. As the ECB knows, this is the rate used to price most Spanish mortgages. Homeowners due for rescheduling in March will take the hit immediately. Fresh waves will follow each month, with knock-on effects for banks and Cajas already grappling with record defaults. Fitch...

Researchers prove smartphone 'death grip' problem

Researchers prove smartphone 'death grip' problem: "Scientists have confirmed the 'death grip' issue that afflicts Apple's iPhone 4 and some other smartphones, but they have also pointed out that trying to solve the problem with plastic cases will not make much difference. According...