MALAGA GAZETTE

Friday, July 29, 2011

MƔlaga man holds up bank to pay off bar bill in his local

Posted On Friday, July 29, 2011 0 comments

bank robber who held up a branch of Unicaja in Málaga City’s El Palo district on Wednesday morning was arrested just minutes later after telling the cashier to inform police when they arrived that he would be waiting for them in a nearby bar.

He was found sitting waiting for them in his local when officers arrived and put up no resistance to arrest. The gun he had used for the hold-up, which some reports indicate may have been fake, was confiscated by the police.

La Opinión de Málaga reports that the robber admitted that he had carried out the robbery so he could pay off the debt he had run up in the bar. He owed 120 €, which was the exact amount he had demanded from the bank cashier.

 


French farmers have started attacking fruit shipments from Spain

Posted On Friday, July 29, 2011 0 comments

French farmers have started attacking fruit shipments from Spain in the latest sign that a crisis in Europe's agricultural sector is far from over, farming groups said Thursday.

On Tuesday, a truck carrying peaches and nectarines from Spain was attacked by farmers as it tried to cross the border into France. European Union farming lobby Copa-Cogeca said dozens of trucks carrying fruit in recent weeks have been intercepted at a crossing in Boulou en Roussillon, causing problems for companies trying to ship goods into France.

"Copa-Cogeca deplores and condemns the violent actions committed in France," the group's secretary-general, Pekka Pesonen, said in a letter to the EU's executive arm, the European Commission.

Plummeting fruit and vegetable prices have hit Europe's farmers hard this year after an outbreak of virulent E. coli in Germany left at least 26 people dead and thousands more ill. Spain has suffered particularly badly after Germany initially blamed it for causing the outbreak, leading farmers to destroy thousands of tons of produce that later proved to be uncontaminated.

The European Commission has proposed compensation of €226 million ($323 million) to help farmers through the crisis, including €71 million for Spain, but farmers said it isn't enough. Spain's fruit and vegetables exporters association, Fepex, Monday estimated losses at €225 million a week since the crisis began.

A commission spokesman said that there have been no extra checks implemented at borders to screen for E. coli and that the goods are being checked in accordance with a 2010 French law. "We are aware there have been farmers protesting at the borders but not of any new laws impeding the free circulation of goods," he said.

Angelique Delahaye, president of Vegetables of France, a union of vegetable producers, said Spanish peach producers are selling below cost in France, undercutting local prices by as much as 40 cents a kilo. She said Spanish farmers don't adhere to the same strict labor-cost and pesticide rules as the French, which is why their fruit is cheaper.

"There is social and environmental dumping," she said. "We don't oppose the free market so long as rules are the same for everybody, but we oppose unfair competition."

But Juan Corbalan, head of the Brussels office of Spanish agri-food cooperative AgriFruit, said the problems have been caused by early harvests in France and Italy due to serious drought earlier this spring.

"All European farmers are very worried about this problem as prices are more than 50% lower than other years," he said. "We need a European solution to recover the confidence of the consumers."


Thursday, July 28, 2011

Buyers of Spanish property 'need to be aware of exchange rates

Posted On Thursday, July 28, 2011 0 comments

Investors who are purchasing a property in Spain - or elsewhere in Europe - could stand to save a substantial amount of money by doing some research into exchange rates.

This is the opinion of Tom Highham, director of currencies.co.uk, who told the Telegraph that many people are losing out by failing to look for the best deals.

"Despite the huge savings that can be made on large currency transactions by using a company such as ours, we're astonished that so many people don't shop around and just use their bank," he stated.

According to the newspaper, just ten per cent of foreign currency sales occur via a specialist provider, even though they usually offer more competitive rates than high street banks.

Finding a favourable exchange rate could make a big difference to investors looking for Spanish real estate.

Research published by the Overseas Guide Company in A Place in the Sun earlier this month indicated that more Brits are turning their attention to the country's property market, with the firm seeing requests for its Spain mini guide rise by 24 per cent between January and May, compared to the same period in 2010.

 


Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Forest fire destroys 150 hectares in CĆ³rdoba

Posted On Wednesday, July 27, 2011 0 comments

forest fire which broke out between Córdoba and Villaviciosa de Córdoba on Wednesday morning destroyed 150 hectares of land before it was brought under control on Thursday morning, after three properties and the local golf club were evacuated as a precaution.

The blaze was stabilised late on Wednesday afternoon and, on Thursday, after the air support was withdrawn, some 20 or so fire fighters remained at the scene to control the perimeter.

Europa Press reports that one team of fire fighters suffered minor injuries while tackling the flames.

There has been no confirmation as yet of the cause of the fire.

 


Monday, July 25, 2011

Spanish film rights society SGAE to perform major overhaul following scandal

Posted On Monday, July 25, 2011 0 comments

Major film and music rights society SGAE will face investigations and a complete overhaul of its structure and policies following allegations of the embezzlement of around €400m in funds intended for film-makers and musicians.

At the start of this month, the Madrid-based office of SGAE, a powerful society of authors and editors, was raided by police and the president of the society Teddy Bautista was arrested, along with eight members of the board of directors, relating to charges of the misappropriation of funds.

The allegations related predominantly to the Spanish Digital Society Of Authors (SDAE), a subsidiary of SGAE that deals with digital rights, and more specifically its head Jose Luis Neri, who is accused of diverting society funds to a consultancy company called Microgenesis, which was previously headed by Neri’s wife Maria Antonia Garcia Pombo.

The raid and arrests came just hours after a new SGAE board of directors had been appointed. The society said at the time that it was collaborating with authorities and fully trusted the innocence of its executives.

Teddy Bautista has since resigned, but in an effort to improve the reputation of the organization, a new governing committee set up at the SGAE, including film-maker Imanol Uribe, has drawn up a list of major changes to be implemented that it will present to the society’s board of directors on July 28.

First and foremost they have called for new and more open general elections to elect a new board of directors, possibly to take place in September. They have also asked for an investigation committee to be set up led by Ramon Lopez Vilas (ex-magistrate of the supreme tribunal) to get to the bottom of the charges and report his findings to the society’s members. 

Furthermore, a new CFO should be appointed to review all budgetary control procedures and to perform an audit of none essential people and processes at the SGAE.

Finally, they have called on the society’s members to participate in transforming the shattered image of the society.
There are concerns in the industry that these latest developments will hamper Spanish government attempts to tackle internet piracy, especially the implementation of the Sustainable Economy bill, which was approved by parliament earlier this year and will allow the courts to close down sites offering illegal downloads.

SGAE is Spain’s leading collection society with over 100,000 members from the film, music and theatre industries to whom the society distributed some €365 million last year.

 


Sunday, July 24, 2011

Jose Tomas makes triumphant comeback to bullring in Spain

Posted On Sunday, July 24, 2011 0 comments

Spanish bullfighter Jose Tomas made a triumphant comeback to the bullring Saturday, receiving a standing ovation more than a year after a bloody goring in Mexico that almost killed him.
The 35-year-old, wearing a purple and gold outfit, offered his first bull of the night, a 502-kilogramme beast, to the doctors who had helped him recover.
He was less successful with his second bull, a 556-kilo four-and-a-half-year-old, but delighted the sell-out crowd of 11,000, many of whom had traveled from overseas to see the spectacle in the eastern city of Valencia.
Tomas was seriously gored and almost died in a bullfight April 24 last year in Aguasclientes, Mexico.
A 470-kilo (1,000-pound) bull named Navegante, his second bull of the evening, thrust its horn into the muscle of Tomas's left thigh, puncturing the artery and causing the bullfighter to lose about half of his blood.
In September he will be able to fight at Barcelona's Monumental ring in what may be the last La Merced festival before a bullfighting ban in the Catalonia region comes into force next year.

 


Friday, July 22, 2011

Marbella and Estepona mayors demand free toll road use

Posted On Friday, July 22, 2011 0 comments

THE mayors of Marbella and Estepona have joined forces to demand that the Ministry of Public Works do away will the toll on the AP-7 while work is being carried out on the A-7.

Angeles Muñoz and Jose Maria Garcia Urbano reiterated their complaints regarding the unannounced change to the speed limit on 41 kilometres of the A-7 (old N-340) between Mijas and Estepona from 100kph to 80kph.

The Ministry of Public Works has said that this is to prevent accidents on the road which has numerous slip roads from urbanizations. The Partido Popular mayors have responded that if this is the case, improvements should be made, and in the meantime, the AP-7 toll road should be free.

Muñoz suggested that the real motivation behind dropping the speed limit was to divert more traffic to the toll road, which costs almost €11 between Mijas and Estepona during the summer. Meanwhile, Garcia Urbano said that the ministry’s decision would damage the interests of the Costa del Sol.

The Vice-President of the Partido Andalucista in the Costa del Sol region has also joined the complaints saying that if the Ministry is so worried about safety on the A-7, “why don’t they improve drainage and surfacing so that it does not become a ‘death trap’ every year after rains?”

 


Spain Restricts Romanians Job-Market Access to Ease Pressure

Posted On Friday, July 22, 2011 0 comments

The job market has completely changed since 2008, so the government decided to adopt a mechanism that enables it to require that Romanians coming to Spain to work apply for authorization,” Development Minister Jose Blanco told journalists in Madrid today. Approval will only be given to those who have a contract, he said.
Spain’s Socialist minority government is battling with a 21 percent unemployment rate that threatens the country’s fragile recovery and its ability to rein in the euro area’s third- largest deficit. Exports drove growth in the first half as the most drastic austerity measures in the last three decades weighed on demand.
“The measure is a negative sign for the free-labor movement in Europe,” said Raffaella Tenconi, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research in London. “It will reduce competition in a country where the rigidity of the job market is already a structural weakness.”
About 800,000 Romanians work in Spain, representing 14 percent of the country’s foreign workforce, Tenconi said.
Adjustment
The right to restrict immigration from the most recent European Union members was designed to enable other EU countries to adjust during a transition period, not to change the rules depending on internal growth while targeting a specific country, according to Tenconi.
The restriction is temporary and may be suspended, depending on how employment evolves in Spain, Blanco said.
Spain can enforce the rule until 2014, after which Romanians will be able to move as freely as other EU citizens.
Blanco said the new rules won’t affect Romanians who are already working in Spain but didn’t specify what would happen to those whose contracts had ended.

 


Spanish piracy law draws U.S. investments: minister

Posted On Friday, July 22, 2011 0 comments

Major U.S. and Spanish companies are preparing to invest in online music and movie services in Spain once a controversial new law to fight piracy takes effect next month, the country's culture minister said.

Intellectual property watchdogs have targeted Spain as one of the world's largest copyright violators with a piracy rate of nearly 80 percent, and are closely watching the implementation of the new law.

"There are Spanish companies developing large websites and U.S. companies that are seriously studying how to enter the European market," Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde told Reuters in an interview.

"Until now U.S. companies were considering abandoning our country, closing their headquarters and even their delegations because it wasn't worth it," she said.

The 46 year-old Sinde -- who was a screenwriter, director and president of Spain's film academy before taking on the role of culture minister two years ago -- is behind the new anti-piracy law that bears her name.

The "Sinde Law" aims to shut down file-sharing web sites providing copyrighted material. The United States, home to companies that produce vast amounts of music and films, has welcomed it as a step to fight illegal downloads.

DVD sales in Spain dropped 60 percent between 2006 and 2010, while sales of recorded music fell 21 percent in 2010 from the year before, according to trade association data.

U.S. digital entertainment providers Netflix and UltraViolet, French retailer Carrefour and electronic goods chain Media Markt -- a unit of German retailer Metro AG -- want to offer sites for music, books, films and videogames in Spain once the law is enforced.

"All of these stores are getting ready to launch a very potent, quality catalog of offerings," said Jose Manuel Tourne, manager of a Spanish anti-piracy federation that is a member of the U.S. Motion Picture Association.

But first he said they want to be sure the law is effective.

Meanwhile, Sinde tipped unlisted Spanish retailers Corte Ingles and FNAC as future players in the streaming video and music market, and said the new law would enable some widely visited illicit sites to go legal.

This will help create jobs in a country that suffers the highest unemployment in the European Union, she said.

Intellectual property-related businesses and services account for about 4 percent of Spain's gross domestic product, which is facing fragile growth as the country stutters out of a long recession.

CONTROVERSIAL LAW

However, the Sinde Law has been widely criticized by people on both sides of the piracy debate.

Copyright owners, including some of Sinde's own film colleagues, say the law is too weak and does not provide ways of reaping the potential of the Internet, while internet companies claim it is too strict.

Sinde's successor as head of Spain's film academy, director Alex de la Iglesia, resigned this year to protest against the law, saying the Internet is the film industry's "salvation."

Spanish cinemas sell some 100 million movie tickets every year, while some 400 million films are downloaded illegally, according to data by copyright association EGEDA.

The law won the backing of opposition parties after the government introduced safeguards to stem concerns that it would suppress freedom of expression. Two judges will rule on the recommendations by a government committee on intellectual property that a suspicious web site be closed.

Sinde has also pledged to introduce stricter controls and oversight of copyright administrators after a corruption scandal at the copyrights agency made headlines this month.

Police raided the country's main administrator of royalties on copyright material Socieda

 


Spanish Banks’ Capital Quest Snares Customers

Posted On Friday, July 22, 2011 0 comments

Maria Pilar Izquierdo put 5,000 euros ($7,186) into bonds that will convert into shares of Banco Santander SA (SAN) next year, leaving her facing potential losses on an investment that helped Spain’s biggest bank bolster its capital.
“Let’s just say that relations with my bank branch have become very strained,” said Izquierdo, 38, a local government worker from Zaragoza province who invested money she’d set aside for her son’s First Communion ceremony in bonds that Santander sold to 129,000 retail clients in 2007. The 7 billion euros of bonds are set to convert into shares in October 2012 at 14.13 euros a share, above the current price of 7.94 euros.
Santander and CaixaBank SA were among Spanish banks that used funds raised with sales of such bonds through their branch networks to boost their capital. Bankia SA and Banca Civica SA, lenders formed from groups of Spanish savings banks, raised a combined 2.1 billion euros by selling shares in their initial public offerings to consumer-banking clients this week.
“Over-reliance on its own depositors to sell loss absorbing products brings a conflict of interest for the lender because it has the obligation of providing fair advice to its clients and a big interest in placing the securities,” said Juan Fernandez-Armesto, a former chairman of Spain’s financial markets regulator, known as CNMV. “If those securities produce losses for its clients after a period of time, the lender faces rupturing its commercial relations with the clients and a considerable legal risk because of the conflict of interest,” he said, without referring to any particular deal.
Bank of Spain
The results of stress tests published on July 15 showed that Spanish banks, including Santander and Madrid-based Banco Popular Espanol SA (POP), had a combined 12 billion euros of mandatory convertible bonds outstanding.
The Bank of Spain considers the reserves generated through the sales as equivalent to the highest quality capital, and cited them as a reason why Spanish lenders wouldn’t need to raise more funds, even after five of the country’s banks failed the stress tests with a capital shortfall of 1.56 billion euros. The failures were Banco Pastor SA, Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo, Banco Grupo Caja3, CatalunyaCaixa and Unnim.
The Santander securities paid annual interest of 7.3 percent until October 2008, before switching to a rate of 2.75 percentage points above Euribor, a yield that’s currently about 4.3 percent. The bank set out the risks for investors in the bonds’ prospectus, including the final conversion date and the possibility of share price declines.
‘Paper Losses’
At the conversion price, 5,000 euros would buy about 354 shares, which are worth about 2,808 euros at the current market price.
A spokesman for Santander, who asked not to be identified in line with company policy, declined to comment, as did spokesmen for CaixaBank and Popular.
“There are thousands of Santander branch customers that were sold these investments that probably don’t know yet that they’re sitting on huge paper losses,” said Fernando Zunzunegui, a Madrid-based lawyer who is helping set up a group to press Santander to compensate clients for potential losses. “These are very dangerous products to sell through your retail network.”
Not all convertible bonds sold by Spanish banks have been aimed at retail customers. Bankinter SA sold 405 million euros of convertible bonds in April to existing shareholders or holders of preference shares.
Bankia, Civica
CaixaBank sold 1.5 billion euros of mandatory convertible bonds through its branch network in June to help boost its core capital ratio to more than 8 percent under Basel III rules by the end of 2012. The conversion price for the bonds, which have 18-month and 30-month maturities, will be 5.253 euros, compared with CaixaBank’s current share price of 4.217 euros.
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA), Spain’s second-biggest bank, raised 2 billion euros from the sale of mandatory convertible bonds with a five-year maturity marketed to branch customers in 2009. Bilbao-based BBVA, which had the right to convert the bonds into shares on quarterly coupon dates after the first year, announced on June 22 that it would do so. A spokeswoman for BBVA declined to comment.
Banks seeking to raise funds from share sales to meet capital requirements set by the government are also relying on their consumer-banking clients.
Madrid-based Bankia, led by former International Monetary Fund Director Rodrigo Rato, raised 3 billion euros with an initial share sale this week. It sold half of the stock to its own customers and through branches of other banks after cutting the price by as much as 26 percent. Banca Civica, also based in Madrid, raised about 600 million euros in its IPO, allocating 58 percent of the shares to individual investors.
Investor Appetite
A spokeswoman for Bankia declined to comment in a phone interview. The fact that 60,000 retail investors bought shares was a sign of their confidence in the bank, Enrique Goni, Civica’s co-chairman, said at a Madrid news conference.
Bankia declined 3 cents, or 0.8 percent, to 3.72 euros since it began trading in Madrid on July 20. Civica was unchanged at 2.70 euros in its trading debut yesterday.
Banks may be straining the willingness of their customers to sign up for the largest deals after an index of Spanish financial shares declined 16 percent in the past year and unemployment rose above 21 percent. CaixaBank received orders worth 1.74 billion euros for its 1.5 billion euros of convertible bonds and Bankia said demand for the retail investors’ portion of the IPO was 1.04 times the amount offered.
‘Disgruntled Clients’
Banks such as Santander sell bonds convertible into stock to “dodge the bullet” of immediately diluting existing investors, said Simon Maughan, head of sales and distribution at MF Global Ltd. in London. Asking clients to buy stock-linked investments risks alienating them if they’re burdened with losses, he said.
“The last thing you want is 130,000 disgruntled clients,” Maughan said, referring to the mandatory convertible bonds sold by Santander. “If worse comes to worst they may have to compensate the customers and obviously that’s going to be unpleasant.”
One of those customers is Izquierdo, who bought the bonds after paying a visit to a Santander branch in Carineno, a town of about 3,500 in Zaragoza’s wine-making country. “It has become difficult for me to remain a Santander client,” she said.

 


Thursday, July 21, 2011

Taxi drivers smoking dope outside MƔlaga train station

Posted On Thursday, July 21, 2011 0 comments

Diario Sur reports that local police in Málaga came across three taxi drivers found smoking hashish at the doors of the city’s train station.

It happened during the day, at 6,30pm last Monday, and came after the police mounted a discreet watch having received reports that taxi drivers were smoking ‘maria’.

Plain clothed agents from the GEMAC unit took place round the station taxi rank and saw how two drivers got into one vehicle which had its ‘for hire’ light switched on, and prepared the porro. Then they got out and started to smoke it.

A search of the two revealed a lump of the drug and a small dose of cocaine in the pockets of one of them. A third taxi driver also smoking hashish then arrived at the scene.

The local police are drawing up a report which will be sent to the Municipal Taxi Institute, to see whether their action results in disciplinary action.

 


Tuesday, July 19, 2011

acquitted of the jet ski death of a Benalmadena waitress in the Costa del Sol

Posted On Tuesday, July 19, 2011 0 comments

A man, 32, has been acquitted of the jet ski death of a Benalmadena waitress in the Costa del Sol. Noelia Perez, 24, was travelling on a jet ski with the man, whose first name is Francisco, when they fell in the sea off the coast of Benalmadena in July 2009.

Her family – from the Basque Country - had brought proceedings against him for reckless use of a jet ski.

Noelia was at the beach with work colleague Monica and some regular customers of the bar at which she worked who had invited them to go out on a trip. The group hired a sail boat and four jet-skis.

Noelia and Francisco separated from the rest of the group a few kilometres from the coast. Both fell in the water in the same spot and were unable to get back on the jet ski. Neither of them was wearing life jackets and the other people on the ship went back to shore not noticing they were gone.

The group became concerned when it got dark and there was still no sign of them, and alerted the port authorities. Francisco claimed that when it got dark, Noelia decided to try to swim to the shore as they could see the lights in the distance.

At around 2am a Malaga-Ceuta ferry alerted the coast guards that they had spotted a man in the sea around seven kilometres from the coast.

The victim was not found until two days later off the coast of Motril, 45 miles from where the accident occurred.

Tests showed that Francisco had not been drinking and an autopsy revealed that Noelia died from hypothermia.


go-ahead to drill off the Costa del Sol

Posted On Tuesday, July 19, 2011 0 comments

REPSOL has overcome the main hurdle it faced to get the go-ahead to drill off the Costa del Sol since the Environmental Ministry has approved the environmental impact report.

Despite the opposition of local businesses, town halls, politicians, fishermen and environmentalists, the company is a step closer to going ahead with the ‘Siroco’ project to drill for gas off Mijas and Fuengirola.

The report, which has taken more than a year, concludes that the drilling will not affect local flora or fauna, nor the fishing and tourism sectors. The Environmental Ministry has specified that drilling will have to take place between February and April to avoid the months with most tourists, fishing season and migratory and reproductive periods of cetaceans and birds.

However, despite the green light from the Environmental Ministry, the Ministry of Industry now has to give the final authorization and decide on the third time extension which Repsol intends to request, as the research permits granted to Repsol will expire in August.

In any case, the authorization would only allow Repsol to search for gas, but not extract it. If this exploratory phase gave positive results which showed that the quality and quantity of the gas would make it worth the while investing in developing the site, then another administrative process which could take at least two years would begin.

For the time being, Repsol is going to study the resolution from the Ministry as there are many conditions to take into account. The company would also have to provide the central government, Junta de Andalucia and Provincial government with a contingency plan including a protocol in case of leakage, as well as an report to the Environmental Ministry regarding how debris and mud would be dealt with, and how to reduce acoustic contamination.


Friday, July 15, 2011

Montpellier snake shock

Posted On Friday, July 15, 2011 0 comments

Malaga police captured two large venomous Montpellier Snakes in Puerto de la Torre and Cerrado de Calderon. Both will be returned to their natural habitat.

 


MALAGA doctor has warned of a growing number of sexual assault cases in Puerto Marina (Benalmadena) involving date rape drugs

Posted On Friday, July 15, 2011 0 comments

MALAGA doctor has warned of a growing number of sexual assault cases in Puerto Marina (Benalmadena) involving date rape drugs. Police recommend that people keep watch of their glasses when at bars and discos, and not accept anything from strangers.

At a conference at the headquarters of the Andalucia International University, drug addiction specialist Jose Manuel Burgos Moreno warned the drug Scopolamine, which causes submission and amnesia, is being used more and more at bars and clubs in the popular marina. Although traditionally the drug is administered via drinks, it can also be used in cigarettes, sweets, tissues, perfume and even bank notes.

When the effects wear off, the victim can’t remember anything and if she suspects foul play, after 12 to 24 hours it is


EVERY week, Malaga courts evict around 30 families from their homes in the province

Posted On Friday, July 15, 2011 0 comments

EVERY week, Malaga courts evict around 30 families from their homes in the province, most due to unpaid rent, but an increasing number due to unpaid mortgage payments


Five Spanish banks fail EU stress test

Posted On Friday, July 15, 2011 0 comments

Eight out of 90 banks across Europe have failed stress tests, the European Banking Authority said today, a slight increase on seven last year.

The tests act as a financial healthcheck to ensure banks have sufficient capital to deal with difficult economic developments.


All five UK banks covered by the tests passed, the EBA said, with five Spanish, two Greek and one Austrian failing.

The stress tests are designed to publicly identify weak banks so national regulators can push them to strengthen their finances.

Regulators also hope the tests will persuade investors that the EU is coming clean about the extent of its banks' problems.

The EBA analysed some 3,000 pieces of information - as opposed to 149 in 2010 - including how many bonds each bank holds from the financially troubled governments of Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

The eight banks which failed held a level of core tier one capital - a measure of a bank's financial strength - below the 5% required to pass the test. The combined shortfall was 2.5 billion euros (£2.2 billion).

The EBA has also issued its first formal recommendation that individual authorities should require banks whose tier one capital fell below the 5% threshold to promptly fix this shortfall.

Barclays held 7.3% tier one capital, HSBC held 8.5%, Lloyds Banking Group held 7.7% and Royal Bank of Scotland held 6.3%. A figure for Standard Chartered was not available.

A spokesman for the British Bankers' Association said: "The UK's banks took early action to rebuild their capital base following the global financial crisis, and are recognised by international authorities for their work to strengthen their capital positions.

"Today's report from the European Banking Authority provides further information on strengths and weaknesses in the European banking system. This is a significant piece of work, which should now be subjected to careful and considered analysis."

The tests conducted last year by the EBA's predecessor, the Committee of European Banking Supervisers, were criticised for not being strict enough.

Both Irish banks tested in 2010, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank (AIB), passed but just months later, AIB needed a government bail-out.

Oesterreichische Volksbanken, in Austria, failed, while EFG Eurobank and ATE bank in Greece did not pass.

In Spain, Catalunya Caixa, Pastor, Unnim, Caja3 and CAM all failed.

The EBA added that another 16 banks only just passed the tests.

Jason Karaian, economist with The Economist Intelligence Unit, said: "The stress tests' headline result was underwhelming, but the pressure brought to bear by the markets next week should sharpen the minds of policymakers. Harsh medicine is needed.

"The sooner that officials swallow hard and take decisive, painful measures to draw a line under the crisis, the quicker that Europe's sickly financial system can begin to nurse itself back to health."

A spokeswoman for Lloyds said the announcement reaffirmed the "robust capital position" of the taxpayer-backed lender.

 


Spain launches airport sell-off

Posted On Friday, July 15, 2011 0 comments

The Spanish government Friday took the first step in the partial privatisation of the airport operating authority AENA as well as of the Madrid and Barcelona airports.
The government hopes the sale of the airports in Spain's two largest cities will bring in around 5.3 billion euros ($7.5 billion) for the public coffers to help rein in a massive public deficit.
"The government approved (the launching) of bids for (Madrid's) Barajas and El Prat (in Barcelona) and the partial privatisation of AENA," government spokesman Jose Blanco told a news conference after a cabinet meeting.
The call for bids involves more than 90 percent of the management contracts for the two airports - 3.7 billion euros for Barajas and 1.6 billion euros for El Prat -- for 20 years, extendable by a further five years.
The process will be launched on July 30 and completed at the end of November, the transport ministry said in a statement.
The winning group will have three months before taking over the airports, which would likely take place in early 2012.
The government also launched the sale of 49 percent of AENA but Blanco said "the completion of the sale as well as the final percentage will depend on market conditions in order to find the maximum value for the company."
Madrid announced the partial sale of AENA in December, along with the privatization of up to 30 percent of the state lottery, in a bid to calm markets nervous over the country's large deficit.
Madrid has promised to cut the public deficit from 9.24 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 to the eurozone limit of 3.0 percent in 2013.

 


Spain is EU country with 2nd-highest number of immigrants

Posted On Friday, July 15, 2011 0 comments

5.6 million foreign nationals, Spain is second only to Germany among European Union nations in numbers of immigrants, according to figures compiled by the European Union's statistics office, Eurostat.

The data, from 2010, reveal that there were 5.66 million foreigners, or 12.3 percent of the total population, living in Spain, while Germany's 7.1 million foreign nationals made up 8.7 percent of that country's population.

Following Spain was the United Kingdom, with 4.4 million immigrants, or 7 percent of the population; Italy with 4.2 million, also 7 percent of the population; and France with 3.8 million, representing 6 percent of the total residents.

Of the 5.6 million foreigners in Spain in 2010, 2.3 million came from other EU countries and 3.3 million were from outside the 27-member bloc, according to Eurostat.

In percentage terms, Luxembourg is the EU country with the greatest presence of foreigners, 43 percent, followed by Latvia, with 17 percent, and Estonia and Cyprus, both with 16 percent.

 


Thursday, July 14, 2011

British couple rescued by Red Cross in Torrevieja

Posted On Thursday, July 14, 2011 0 comments

Members of the Alicante Red Cross were called to help a British couple, both in their 70’s, whose private recreational boat had collided with rocks of the breakwater on the Paseo Juan Aparicio in Torrevieja.

After the accident which happened on Wednesday at 5pm, two lifesavers from the Red Cross aboard jet skis went to help the couple.

They were suffering a nervous crisis but showed no serious injuries.

Local reports indicate the boat is still to be removed.

 


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

17 youths face charges for the death of a British man, 49 year old Stephen Alexander Mallon, after a street fight in CĆ³mpeta in June 2009.

Posted On Tuesday, July 12, 2011 0 comments


First instance and instruction court number 1 in Torrox has opened the process against the 17 youths who are all aged between 18 and 25. They come from Cómpeta and other local villages such as Canillas de Albaida and Árchez.

Judge Silvia Coll Carreño, is processing five of the accused on the charge of homicide as in article 138 in the Penal Code, and the others will face charges of causing injury and causing a brawl.
Bail has been set at 100,000 € for those facing the homicide charge, and at 10,000 € for the rest.

The victim and his family were on holiday in the village, and had gone out for a drink. Unwittingly they got involved in the brawl in the La Estrella pub in the early hours of June 5 2009. The case documents say that the first conflict happened between the British group and the ex boyfriend of one of the local girls they were talking to inside the pub, and the conflicts extended to the local man’s friends outside the pub after the owner kicked everyone out. It notes that the pub owner did suggest that the British group stay inside, fearing a fight could occur, but the British declined his offer and a massive fight broke out outside with bottles and belts being used.

Stephen Alexander Mallon was hit, it’s thought by a bottle, on his head by the ex boyfriend of the girl and then pushed by another off the terrace of a pizzeria, falling over four metres when pushed over the veranda. He was admitted to the Carlos Haya Hospital in Málaga in a coma, but he lost his battle for life 12 days later.

The victims two children were also injured in the fight, with a broken nose and hand, and their other friends were also hurt, but less seriously.

The case will be heard in the Provincial Court in Málaga, although no date has been fixed as yet.


Sunday, July 10, 2011

The German star Boris Becker is challenging a recent court decision to uphold £246,000 of debts the 43 year old is alleged to owe to the gardener at his luxury Majorcan villa.

Posted On Sunday, July 10, 2011 0 comments

 The German star Boris Becker is challenging a recent court decision to uphold £246,000 of debts the 43 year old is alleged to owe to the gardener at his luxury Majorcan villa.

Becker is being advised by Spanish Property lawyers to fight the court ruling on a property that has plagued the tennis champion with problems since he bought it back in 1997.

Overseas property lawyer defending Becker over cost claims

The villa in Arta has been on the market since 2007 and is worth around £15 million.  Becker's Spanish Property lawyer told the court in Palma, Majorca that his estate agent had agreed to take on the cost of maintaining the 65–acre grounds until he had sold the property.

Becker’s lawyers maintain that under an agreement reached with estate agent Matthias Kühn, the outstanding gardening bill can be paid only when the property is sold. However, the agent denied this and said he had no responsibility for the German's debts. 

The Daily Telegraph reported that Becker confirmed there was an ongoing dispute but said he would appeal against the court's ruling.

He said:  "There is a lawsuit and we are fighting it.  They wanted more money than they were supposed to get. It is my house and hasn't been taken."

Latest in a series of legal problems affecting the villa

The latest court battle is the latest in a series of problems that Becker has encountered with the property.  In 2001, he was ordered to demolish half of the luxury property after losing a battle with planning officials and two years later was fined for failing to comply with the ruling.

In October 2010, Becker agreed to pay around £36,000 to an architect in an out of court settlement while according to reports from newspaper Mallorca Zeitung, a building firm employed to carry out repairs to the property is also claiming more than £430,000 in unpaid bills.


Charging bulls injure 10 in Spanish fiesta

Posted On Sunday, July 10, 2011 0 comments

Half-tonne fighting bulls trampled, dragged, and knocked over runners on a breakneck bull-run in Spain's San Fermin festival Sunday, injuring at least 10 people, officials said.

Thousands of thrill-seekers packed around six bulls and six steers racing and often skidding through the winding, cobbled streets of the northern Spanish city Pamplona.

Revellers packed overhanging balconies as the beasts bolted 846.6 metres from a holding pen to the city's bull-fighting ring in a very quick two minutes 29 seconds.

One runner wearing traditional white, with red handkerchief, sprinted ahead of a pack of three bulls but could not outrun them.

Knocked over, trapped between two of the beasts, and then kicked by other passing bulls, he was dragged about the length of four bulls and left sprawling in the street.

Another bull skidded on the cobbles and was hit by another beast tearing around the corner.

A middle-aged man could be seen cowering on the pavement and squeezed against a wall to avoid the tips of a passing bull's horns. Another fell before the pack and curled up to shield himself from the hooves.

In all, the Red Cross reported at least 10 injuries including bruises, dislocated joints and head injuries but no gorings in the fourth of eight bull runs that mark this alcohol-fuelled festival that runs to July 14.

The Sunday bull run at the San Fermin festival draws the largest crowds and organisers blamed the high number of participants, estimated by some media at more than 3,000, for the slips and falls.

In the most serious injury so far, a 25-year-old Australian man was gored in his right thigh during Friday's bull run after he taunted one of the bulls. The Red Cross said Sunday he was improving.

A 23-year-old French man was also gored, less seriously, on Saturday.

Every year between 200 and 300 participants in the run are injured. Most are hurt after falling but some are trampled or gored by the bulls despite increased safety measures.

The most recent death occurred two years ago when a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard to death, piercing his neck, heart and lungs with its horns in front of hordes of tourists.

The city of some 200,000 residents expects the festival, which runs until Thursday, will lure at least as many tourists as last year when 1.5 million people turned out and hotels reported a 95-percent occupancy rate.

The action is also followed by millions more on television.

 


Spanish Mortgage Defaulters Face Debt Nightmare

Posted On Sunday, July 10, 2011 0 comments

Inma Rodriguez lost her job, and now that she's defaulted on her mortgage, she's about to lose her home. But the nightmare doesn't end there: Once creditors kick her out, she'll still need to pay back the money she borrowed to buy her house.

It's a mortgage anomaly seen in much of Europe, but especially acute these days in Spain, a nation grappling with an economic crisis triggered by the collapse of a real estate bubble. Since the 2008 property crash, more than 300,000 have been hit by the potential double-whammy of eviction and mounds of mortgage debt.

"It hurts so, so much," says Rodriguez, choking up as she looks up at the ceiling of the home where she's lived for 30 years and raised two children.

Under the terms of her contract, Rodriguez will probably have to pay almost half of her euro200,000-plus ($290,000) bank debt, plus court costs and penalties after she leaves — in stark contrast to the U.S., where defaulters can return the keys to the bank and walk away from their debt.

Defaulters are a small minority in Spain — nearly 98 percent of mortgage holders are up to date on payments. But their plight is generating a wave of solidarity as unemployment soars to record highs: When an eviction appears imminent, demonstrators often gather by the hundreds outside the property to try to block it.

In the rallies, protesters form a human cushion and physically prevent court clerks and bank officials with a locksmith in tow from ejecting residents. The association behind the demonstrations has succeeded about 50 times since 2009, although ultimately it just delays the inevitable.

Last week, the government passed a decree that seeks to address the plight of evicted debtors. It protects more of their wages from being claimed by banks, and changes the way such people's post-foreclosure debt is calculated, to try to trim it.

If the bank manages to sell a foreclosed home, that amount is struck off the remaining debt. But the norm these days is that the property is put up for auction and nobody bids. That has meant the bank then takes over the house for just half its originally assessed value, and wipes the amount off the remaining debt — leaving the borrower still owing a bundle. The legislation passed last week raises the proportion the bank has to effectively pay in the event of non-sale to 60 percent.

The Platform for Mortgage Victims — the association staging the doorstep rallies — wants Spain to usher in U.S.-style mortgage legislation. But the Spanish Banking Association says that would wreck Spain's low interest rate mortgage system: Even now, as loan-shy banks raise rates, they can be below 3 percent, with repayment periods of as much as 40 years and no mandatory mortgage default insurance.

The result, it says, would be banks granting fewer, smaller and more costly loans that are repayable in a shorter time, meaning the nearly 98 percent of mortgage-holders who do make their payments on time would suffer.

"The good payers would be the ones to be hurt," it said.

But Rodriguez, a 56-year-old unemployed cleaning lady, said she fell victim to a rapacious system eager to lend money. She says she can barely read or write and gets confused in the thick gumbo of her financial woes, shared with her estranged husband.

Rodriguez and her husband Manuel, who worked as a painter and carpenter, took out a big second mortgage in 2006 to pay off debts, remodel their 3-bedroom apartment in this town outside Madrid and buy furniture and a new car.

"I did not even know what I was signing," Rodriguez says in a living room with empty shelves and a broken cuckoo clock, as three small Yorkshire terrier yapped at her heels.

Six months after taking out the mortgage, Rodriguez and her husband separated. Since then, she complains, he hasn't chipped in a dime toward the euro1,000-plus a month mortgage payment. She hasn't worked in nearly two-and-a-half years, and even when she did she earned just euro500 a month.

"They made it so easy. So easy," Rodriguez said of the credit. "If we had not bought anything or done all this, we would not owe anything now."

 


1 man gored in leg in Spain's running of the bulls

Posted On Sunday, July 10, 2011 0 comments

Thrill-seekers high on adrenaline and low on sleep ran alongside huge bulls on the third day at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona on Saturday. Three people were hurt, including a 23-year-old French man who was gored in the leg.
The first weekend run is traditionally one of the most crowded of the eight that take place annually in this northern city to honor its patron saint. It featured the massive fighting bulls of the Dolores Aguirre breeding estate.
Navarra Hospital said the Frenchman from southwestern Mont-de-Marsan was not seriously injured. The statement also said a 30-year-old Spaniard had an ankle injury and a 26-year-old Spaniard had a slight face injury as runners jostled, tripped and fell alongside the bulls on their way to the bullring.
The run which takes place at 8 a.m. sharp was very fast, taking just 2 minutes, 56 seconds to cover the distance from an enclosure on the edge of town where the bulls are stabled overnight, through 928 yards (850 meters) of narrow, cobblestone-covered streets to the downtown bullring.
Dedicated runners and bullfight aficionados have to wake up very early and make their way through festival participants and tourists, many of whom have partied all night, to secure a place in the run.
Two bulls became disoriented once inside the crowded ring at the end of the run and caused a scare as they raced around, scattering runners before arriving at the final corral.
The muscular bulls, weighing some 1,200 pounds (550 kilograms) each, will face almost certain death in the afternoon when they come before matadors in one of Spain's most ancient taurine festivals.
A 25-year-old Australian man who was gored in the right thigh on Friday has undergone surgery to repair damage to the surface of his left femoral artery and vein, and is recovering in hospital, the regional government of the province of Navarre said in a statement.

 


Friday, July 08, 2011

HALF-TONNE fighting bull skewered a "reckless" Australian thrill-seeker in the leg inflicting a grave injury in Spain's San Fermin fiesta,

Posted On Friday, July 08, 2011 0 comments

HALF-TONNE fighting bull skewered a "reckless" Australian thrill-seeker in the leg inflicting a grave injury in Spain's San Fermin fiesta, organisers said.

The bull turned on the tourist after he taunted the beast, goring his right thigh and tossing him across the sand of the bull ring in the final stage of a daily bull-run in Pamplona, northern Spain, yesterday.

The horn pierced the victim's right femoral artery. Surgeons operated on him at the bull ring's surgery and he was transfered to hospital, the Navarre regional government said in a statement.

His condition was "serious", it said.

Six other runners - they said.

The pack of six massive bulls and six steers thundered 846.6 metres through the winding streets of Pamplona from a holding pen to a bull-fighting ring in three minutes and 10 seconds, organisers said.


Thousands of runners, most dressed in white with red handkerchiefs, surrounded the charging bulls, some a few paces in front of the beasts' horns and others slapping them from the side or behind.

But once the herd entered the ring, the Australian tourist, dressed in a T-shirt and short jeans with a red bandana around his waist, started waving his arms in the air, running and jumping behind a bull.

When the powerful beast turned towards him, the man tried to switch direction but slipped and tumbled in the sand.

The bull lowered its head and drilled a sharp left horn into the man's right thigh, tossing him across the ground and then pushing its head into the man's back.

Other runners scrambled to distract the bull from its attack: one waved a matador's cape at the bull's head and another pulled its tail until the beast moved away.

The Australian, whose name was not given, stood up after his mauling, shown to millions on live television.

"He was reckless, that was really bad, you should not do that," said the festival spokeswoman.

Four runners were also injured in the inaugural bull run on Thursday, a centrepiece of the alcohol-charged festivities popularised worldwide by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises.

The city of about 200,000 residents expects the festival, which runs to July 14, will lure at least as many tourists as last year when 1.5 million people turned out and hotels reported a 95 per cent occupancy rate.

Every year between 200 and 300 participants in the run are injured. Most are hurt after falling but some are trampled or gored by the bulls despite increased safety measures.

The most recent death occurred two years ago when a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard to death, piercing his neck, heart and lungs with its horns in front of hordes of tourists.

This year organisers have launched a free iPhone app in English to help revellers to assess their chances of emerging from the bull runs intact.

It asks users about their behaviour at the festival, including how much they have had to drink and how many hours of sleep they have had.

In the evenings after the daily chase, the beasts are killed in the bull ring and their meat is served up in city restaurants.


Thursday, July 07, 2011

Annual running of the bulls kicks off in Spain

Posted On Thursday, July 07, 2011 0 comments

The first day of the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona on Thursday was a swift race through old town for hundreds of runners trying to stay a step ahead of the raging bulls, but just four runners went to the hospital with injuries, officials said.
Commentators on Spanish state television TVE considered it a relatively safe start to the dangerous annual tradition in Pamplona, which has tallied thousands of injuries and 15 deaths since record-keeping began in 1924, including the fatal goring of a Spanish man in 2009.
The run in Pamplona started 400 years ago and became popular worldwide after author Ernest Hemingway wrote about it in the 1920s in his book "The Sun Also Rises," also published under the title "Fiesta."
It is now broadcast live across Spain by state television TVE, which pays Pamplona for exclusive rights, and positions some 20 cameras along the course.
A Red Cross official at the scene initially said just one runner went to the hospital, but the Navarra regional government issued a medical report later showing that four male runners were taken to hospitals.
The most seriously injured was a 40-year-old Spanish man who suffered broken ribs and a fractured shoulder blade and remained hospitalized later Thursday.
The other three were released from the hospital hours after arriving. They included two Spaniards, one with bruised ribs and the other with an eye injury, and a Panamanian man, 35, with a nose injury.
Television images showed numerous runners falling hard to the pavement and the bulls trying to step over them.
Most of the runners were men, mainly dressed in the traditional white outfits with red handkerchiefs, but there was also a small number of women.
The six bulls were from the Torrestrella breeding ranch and weigh between 470 kgs to 635 kgs (about 1,034 pounds to 1,397 pounds).
Accompanied by a pack of tame steers, they exited the corral just 10 seconds after the opening rocket was fired to signal the start of the run.
They moved quickly along the 825-meter (902 yard) course, and it took two minutes and 30 seconds until the bulls reached the corrals of the bull ring.
The bulls face certain death against matadors in a bullfight later in the day.
Pamplona's new mayor, Enrique Maya, told TVE just before the race that he had never run. He said he watched it from one of the numerous balconies along the course, which are filled with local residents or visitors, the latter typically paying top dollar for a safe vantage point.
The daily run continues for eight days, through July 14, at 8 a.m. (2 a.m. ET). It is the highlight of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona that attracts hundreds of thousands to the nonstop fiesta.

 


Spain sold 3 billion euros (2.68 billion pounds) of three- and five-year government bonds on Thursday,

Posted On Thursday, July 07, 2011 0 comments

Spain sold 3 billion euros (2.68 billion pounds) of three- and five-year government bonds on Thursday, in a sale which analysts said went well thanks to domestic support offsetting concerns about contagion from renewed pressure on lower-rated euro zone debt.

France also sold 8.4 billion euros of 2020, 2021 and 2029 bonds in a well bid auction.

Borrowing costs for the five-year Spanish bonds rose by 32 basis points from a previous auction on May 5 to 4.871 percent. The sale comes a day after Moody's cut Portugal's debt rating to junk, souring appetite for peripheral euro zone bond issues.

The yield on the 2014 bond was 4.291 percent. The shorter-dated paper was last auctioned as a five-year bond in January 2010.


A man alleged to have taken part in a terrorist plot to assassinate the King of Spain was arrested this morning in Cambridge.

Posted On Thursday, July 07, 2011 0 comments


Armed police detained Eneko Gogeaskoetxea Arronategui at 8.55am, on behalf of the Spanish authorities.

The arrest was made by officers from Scotland Yard's extradition unit and the Cambridgeshire force over alleged offences dating back to 1997.

Scotland Yard said its officers did not fire any shots, nor were any weapons recovered from the scene of the arrest.

Arronategui, 44, is wanted on a European arrest warrant for several offences, the most serious of which is the alleged attempt to kill King Juan Carlos of Spain in 1997.

Spanish media said Arronategui was allegedly linked to violence carried out by the Basque separatist group Eta and had been living in Britain with his family for several years.

The alleged attempt to kill the king involved an Eta plot to bomb the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao as Juan Carlos opened it, which was foiled by Spanish police.

A police statement said: "The European arrest warrant states Arronategui is wanted for participation in an armed gang; attempted assassination of the king; terrorism resulting in death; possession of weapons; theft and forgery."

Police were carrying out searches at one home and two business addresses in the university city. Arronategui is scheduled to appear before a judge, at City of Westminster magistrates court, on Thursday afternoon.

Police said the arrest followed a "a proactive, intelligence-led operation" and in a statement said: "Officers from the MPS extradition unit and armed officers from Cambridgeshire police carried out the arrest. Searches by detectives from the MPS counter-terrorism command supported by local officers are taking place at one residential address and two business addresses in Cambridge."


Wednesday, July 06, 2011

A tourist who fell down a hole while hiking in the mountains of southern Spain 18 days ago has been found alive.

Posted On Wednesday, July 06, 2011 0 comments


A group of mountaineers discovered Mary Anne Goossens, 48, caught among boulders close to the source of the Chillar River, near the resort town of Nerja.

Weak, but conscious and able to communicate with rescue services, she was airlifted to a nearby hospital for treatment.


Rescue: Mary Anne Goossens, 48, is given a piggy-back after getting trapped among boulders close to the source of the Chillar River, near the resort town of Nerja, in southern Spain

Ms Goossens miraculous rescue comes more than two weeks after her family arrived in Spain to launch a high-profile search.

The mother-of-two had vanished during a two-week break alone in area, close to the popular tourist town Malaga.

Last seen in the mountain village of Frigiliana, she is said to have become trapped after falling while trying to travel up the Chillar River.

Though she could not escape the hole, she was able to move and water from a nearby spring helped her survive.


Frail: Ms Goossens is helped out of a helicopter after being caught for 18 days in the barren mountains before she was discovered by walkers
The hikers who discovered Ms Goossens were unable to rescue her themselves, but they left her food and fresh clothing before getting in touch with emergency services.

Due to the difficult terrain, mountain rescue teams were forced to use a helicopter to free her.

She is described as weak and dehydrated but conscious and has already spoken to her children by phone, the Telegraaf reports.

Civil Guard spokesman Hector Ortega said Ms Goossens had some food with her when she set off walking.

Water from a nearby spring also helped her to survive the ordeal, he added.


Spanish Banks Tumble

Posted On Wednesday, July 06, 2011 0 comments

Shares in Portuguese and Spanish banks fell sharply a day after Moody's Investors Service downgraded Portugal's sovereign-debt rating to junk and warned that the country may need another round of aid from the European Union.

Shares in Banco Comercial Portugues SA fell more than 5% in Lisbon morning trading, while Banco Esprito Santo SA and Banco BPI SA both were down more than 4%.

For Portugal and its banks, the downgrade implied "the materialization of the worst-case scenario of a sharp increase in cost of risk and a lack of access to markets for a longer period," said one Madrid trader.

In Madrid, the picture was almost as bleak, with five banks down more than 2%.

Banco Santander SA, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA and Banco Popular Espanol SA all have Portuguese units and hold part of the country's sovereign debt.

According to the Bank for International Settlements, Spain's financial system is the most exposed to Portuguese risk, with €78.3 billion ($113 billion) in public and private debt, roughly a third of the country's total outstanding debt.

Spanish brokerage Ahorro Corp. said the exposure Spanish banks have to Portugal is "manageable" and that it already is discounted by markets.

Moody's cut Portugal's long-term government bond rating to Ba2, which is two levels into junk status, and assigned a negative outlook, meaning further downgrades are possible. Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's have each recently cut the country's ratings. They rate Portugal at BBB-, which is the lowest investment-grade level and the equivalent of two notches above Moody's new rating.

Portugal is in the market Wednesday trying to sell as much as €1 billion in treasury bills.

Bond spreads of all the peripheral economies in the bloc of euro-using nations moved sharply wider in the wake of the Moody's move.

The downgrade comes at a delicate time for Spain, which is in the final stages of restructuring the banking sector. In coming weeks two saving banks will try to push through initial public offerings, while the central bank's bailout fund is injecting capital into the country's weakest lenders.

A key component of Moody's decision on Portugal was the possibility that private investors will have to contribute to any new international bailout.

Current discussions about a Greek debt restructuring are revolving around bond holders accepting the rollover of debt. Moody's said if that happens, it could discourage investors from investing in Portugal's paper.

Portugal's €78 billion bailout money is scheduled to run out in 2013, and Portugal will have to tap the private sector for further financing.

Portuguese banks have been relying on European Central Bank funding for more than a year, with borrowings standing at €47.2 billion as of May.

 


Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Telefonica , Europe's largest telecoms firm by market value, continued to lose market share in its home country Spain

Posted On Tuesday, July 05, 2011 0 comments

Telefonica , Europe's largest telecoms firm by market value, continued to lose market share in its home country Spain in May as cash-strapped customers shopped around for cheaper telecoms.

Telefonica, which dominates the mobile market, saw its share in May slip to 41.23 percent from 41.34 percent, as did number 2 player Vodafone which fell to 28.36 percent from 28.6, the latest data from the Telecoms Market Commission showed on Tuesday.

Telefonica has been shedding clients in droves at home as unemployment of 21 percent makes customers particularly price sensitive and sends them to cheaper operators such as TeliaSonera's Yoigo, whose customers increased by 51,600 overall.

Telefonica is to cut more than 20 percent of its Spanish staff in an attempt to reduce its cost base and allow it to compete more fiercely.

Yoigo now has a market share of 4.64 percent, up from 4.56 percent.

Virtual operators, which offer customers mobile services using the networks of Spain's main mobile operators, also grew share to 5.62 percent in May from 5.26 a month earlier.

Telefonica also shed market share in the broadband internet market in May, dropping to 51.35 percent versus 51.70 percent in April


BlackRock has "strong dislike" for Spain's Bankia

Posted On Tuesday, July 05, 2011 0 comments

BlackRock, the world's largest investor, has given a negative "strong dislike" rating to Spain's Bankia in a blow to the Spanish savings bank and the other cajas planning to raise funds this summer, according to an internal document seen by Financial News. The failure to attract large institutional investors could lead to more bank nationalisations in Spain.

The internal document does not specify reasons for its negative view, but acknowledges that a successful floatation is vital for the country's restructuring of its banking system.

The BlackRock document said: "We believe the IPO of Bankia will be a key test for the Bank of Spain, which has been encouraging an overhaul of the country's savings banks with a view to restore investor confidence and make funding conditions easier for the sector.

"The price of failure of Bankia's IPO would be high for Spain, which so far has injected a relatively small sum into its banking sector, compared with other European governments."

Bankia, a group formed by the merger of CajaMadrid and six other, smaller cajas, is trying to raise between EUR3.8 billion and EUR4.5 billion, ahead of a stock market listing on July 20. The lender plans to sell 60% of the new shares to retail investors, with the rest being allocated to institutions.

Spain's large domestic banks are expected to support the deal, as a failure would damage the country's entire financial system. International investors have repeatedly expressed concerns over the cajas' loans to the now-collapsed domestic real estate market.

Bankia said in its prospectus that as much as 45% of its loan book is linked to domestic mortgages.

The cajas that fail to raise fresh funds to shore up their capital buffers will be nationalised, the Spanish government has ruled. Such a scenario would increase the country's deficit, at a time that Spain is fighting to avoid a Greek, Irish or Portugal-type bail-out.

The stability of the Spanish and Italian banking systems is seen as key to the soundness of the European Union, following the bail-outs of the three smaller countries, as any potential rescue would be more expensive. Spain is the eurozone's fourth largest economy.

Both Bankia and BlackRock declined to comment.

 


Running of the bulls: finishing dead last

Posted On Tuesday, July 05, 2011 0 comments

Every July, bored middle-class Americans, Canadians, Aussies and Europeans with time and money head to Pamplona, Spain, to amuse themselves by running with the bulls. But by the time these tourists go home with hangovers and anecdotes, the bulls who are victims of this exercise in machismo will be dead.

Even though this event is about as relevant today as an eight-track tape player, reporters still fill up column space by glamorizing the run. What's rarely mentioned is that the bulls are whipped and terrorized to force them to run down streets crowded with masses of inebriated people hitting them with sticks. Bulls slip and fall on the slick cobblestone streets, often breaking horns or sustaining other injuries. And few tourists know the ultimate fate of the animals: death, one by one, in the bullring.

It's hard to believe that bulls are still being stabbed to death for entertainment in 2011.

The running of the bulls is just a prelude to bulls being led into bullfighting arenas. The exhausted, confused bulls fight for their lives as men on horses run them in circles while repeatedly piercing them with knives called banderillas, until the animals are dizzy, weakened from blood loss and suffering agonizing pain. The horses, who are blindfolded, can also suffer serious injuries if they can't avoid a charging bull.

The matador (Spanish for "killer") comes in only when the exhausted bull is already near death. Bulls are often still conscious as their ears and tails are cut off as "trophies" and as they are dragged from the ring on chains.

Tourists are what keep the fights alive and the bulls dying. Money spent to run with the bulls contributes to the bullfights, as do tickets purchased by curious tourists or those who simply go along with what's included in their travel itinerary. By the time an appalled spectator rushes out of the arena in horror, the damage has been done and more bulls will endure a painful death.

But condemnation of this bloody pastime is growing worldwide, and those few still clinging to this barbaric tradition are finding themselves in nearly empty arenas. Spain's Catalan Parliament overwhelmingly voted to ban bullfighting after officials were presented with the signatures of 180,000 people demanding an end to the carnage. Catalonia's capital, Barcelona, is widely considered the birthplace of bullfighting.

Dozens of other Spanish cities and towns have also declared their opposition to bullfighting, and according to a 2009 Gallup survey, 76 percent of Spaniards have no interest in attending or supporting bullfights.

Portugal's municipality of Viana do Castelo purchased the city's only bullring and transformed it into a science and education center. A poll conducted by Mexico's Green Party found that 84 percent of respondents believe that the cruelty of bullfighting is unnecessary.

Even Alvaro Munera - a South American matador who was once known as "El Pilarico," or the star bullfighter - now works to ban bullfighting. Munera, who suffered severe injuries after being gored by a bull and is confined to a wheelchair, says that he is haunted by the animals he killed-in particular, one "practice" cow whom he watched die (only to learn that she was carrying a calf) and a bull who fought to live after a sword pierced his body and came out the other side.

Would those who participate in the running of the bulls still do so if they knew that the bulls are running toward their death? If there is any civility, decency and kindness left in a world that still kills animals for sport, let's hope not.

 


Monday, July 04, 2011

la casa encantada (the haunted house) as there have been numerous reports of mysterious voices and strange sounds at the mansion, which is among the best known ‘haunted’ buildings in Spain.

Posted On Monday, July 04, 2011 0 comments

THE Malaga Urban Planning Department has revoked planning permission for a hotel at the Cortijo Jurado, in Campanillas (Malaga). The property is commonly known in Malaga as

Work ceased at the site in 2007 when the promoter, Mirador de Campanillas, was embargoed. The planning permission had been extended in 2009, but the department is now going to withdraw it, meaning that the city hall could sell it at the end of this year to allow work to continue.

However, the promoter has 15 days to appeal, and three months to apply for a new license. It has been put up for auction twice, although both have been suspended due to errors in the organization.

The building is in a state of disrepair since the structure was exposed to air and damp after work begun. The shell of the hotel, which planned to open in 2006, is below the main building.

Cortijo Jurado is a massive 19th century mansion that lies in ruins just off the A-357. It was built by the influential Heredia family from Malaga.

Legend tells the story of how the Heredia family, together with members of other rich families, kidnapped young girls aged between 18 and 21, on whom they carried out sinister satanic rituals, involving rape and murder. Their bodies are said to be buried deep within the property.

Whilst it is true that many young girls did disappear during this period, nothing was ever proven to connect their disappearance to the Heredia family. Many say they used their money and influence to evade justice.


MALAGA is the province most at risk of having organized crime in the region,

Posted On Monday, July 04, 2011 0 comments

MALAGA is the province most at risk of having organized crime in the region, according to the Andalucian High Prosecutor. Malaga is described as the province with persistently high risk and criminal activity linked to extremely serious international activities such as hashish and cocaine smuggling and money laundering.

However, the prosecutor points out that the use of violence amongst these groups has dropped while their ‘capacity for corruption’ has increased.

Criminal groups are structured and have been operating in the province for years, having adapted perfectly to the socio-economic structure of the area.

Despite the action of the police, the amount seized in operations is just a tiny part of the money and drugs which are being moved in the Costa del Sol, he said.

In Sevilla, however, 35 properties and €750,000 were seized, proving that the police operations are not getting to the bottom of the crime, according to the High Prosecutor.

These networks are not only involved in drugs and money laundering but also in violent robbery, intellectual property crimes, fraud, illegal immigration, sexual exploitation and human traffic.

Although most are said to be Spanish, there are many from North Africa, Romania, Colombias, Britain and Nigeria


Spain’s alternative cannabis economy

Posted On Monday, July 04, 2011 0 comments

The room looks like the office of any small membership organisation: old worn furniture, jammed bookshelves, promotional posters, dented filing cabinets, random boxes of materials that have never been filed. What stands out, though, is the cloying smell of marijuana that permeates the room of the Pannagh Association in the city centre of Bilbao in northern Spain. Pannagh’s president, a young, energetic Martín Barriuso Alonso, brings out the source of the odour from the locked filing cabinets. Inside metal boxes are neatly labelled plastic bags: Critical Mass, White Widow, Medicine Man, New York Diesel, Aka 47, all ready for distribution.

It’s six o’clock on a Thursday, and soon Pannagh’s members start arriving to pick up their bags. The first is Miguel Angel, who has HIV and recently underwent a liver transplant. Then Javier, who just consumes because, hey, he enjoys it. Pannagh (which means cannabis in Sanskrit) has 300 members who each pay 40 euros a year membership and then four euros per gram, about half the rate on the black market. Some take a bag of five grams, others 10. The maximum allowed is 60 grams per month.

Legal grey area

The existence of Pannagh and up to 300 similar clubs throughout Spain is down to a quirky grey area in Spanish law. It is also the product of a determined group of activists who have pushed at the openings in the law to try to formalise their existence. In 1974 the Spanish supreme court judged that drug consumption and possession for personal use was not a crime, while still deeming drug trafficking an imprisonable offence. This created a jurisprudence in which providing drugs for compassionate reasons, and joint purchase by a group of addicts – as long as it did not involve profit-seeking – were not crimes either.

It was in 1993, however, that the law was really put to the test, when the Asociación Ramón Santos de Estudios Sobre el Cannabis (Ramon Santos Association for the Study of Cannabis, ARSEC) caught the media spotlight by publicly and openly growing cannabis for 100 of its members. The crop was confiscated, only for the provincial court to acquit those involved before the supreme court eventually ruled that although it was clear that ARSEC did not intend to traffic drugs, the cultivation of cannabis was dangerous per se and therefore should be punished.

This legal cat-and-mouse game continued as other marijuana associations forced a series of contradictory legal decisions, sometimes leading to arrests and at other times prompting no legal intervention. In the case of Pannagh, Martín Barriuso and two other members of the association were detained for three days in 2006 and had their crop confiscated.

A few months later, however, the courts ruled that there had been no crime as ‘it concerned consumption between addicts in which there was no transmission to other parties’ and ordered the police to return the confiscated plants. Seventeen kilograms of marijuana that had been rotting behind bars was returned. Although completely unusable, Barrioso still has it, a decomposing trophy of his minor victory against the system.

The legal uncertainty is far from over, as arrests of members of cannabis clubs continue to occur from time to time. However, decisions by the supreme court in October 2001 and July 2003 contradicted its initial ARSEC judgement and established that possession of cannabis, including large quantities, is not a crime if there is no clear intention of trafficking. This has made possible an explosion of cannabis user associations.

Clubbing together

Due to the lack of clear regulation, associations have had to improvise and invent solutions in order to standardise their activities. The main pioneering groups came together in 2003 as the Federation of Cannabis Clubs (FAC), which initially included 21 clubs. All are non-profit and member-run, and most have similar guidelines, keeping strict and thorough records of cultivation, distribution and costs in case there is any investigation.

As Barriuso recounts, fear of arrest is still there, but most cannabis user associations are now more afraid of thieves stealing their valuable stocks. Some even have their building alarms linked up to the local police station.

There are still many unresolved questions in terms of regulation. Nevertheless the gradual normalisation of these clubs has already marked out Spain as different to that other bastion of European drug liberalism, Holland. As Tom Blickman, a drugs policy researcher for the Transnational Institute explains: ‘The unique nature of cannabis social clubs is that they have legalised both production and consumption of cannabis within a closed club and non-profit system.

Dutch liberal cannabis policy may have minimised criminalisation of users, but it has not resolved the core contradiction known as the back door problem: coffee shops are allowed to sell up to five grams of cannabis to consumers (the front door) but have to buy their stock on the illegal market (the back door). To draw coffee shops out of the criminal sphere entirely, the cultivation of cannabis needs to be regulated.’

The grey area of the law in Spain has led to the development of an economic and social model for drug consumption that might offer a more economically and socially just alternative to market legalisation. ‘I used to think our clubs were just one step towards full legalisation, but now I am not so sure,’ says Martín Barriuso. ‘When the debate is polarised between total prohibition and almost total liberalisation, it seems people have not stopped to think that there are other ways of doing things.’

Legalisation debate

The legalisation of drugs has moved from a fringe demand to an increasingly mainstream concern over the past decade. Advocates of legalisation range from ex-Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth to the former president of Mexico to the Economist. A referendum to legalise cannabis in California in November 2010 was only narrowly defeated.

However the case for legalisation has often been pitched as bringing drugs into the capitalist open market – in the words of some advocates, to start selling heroin as if it was Coca-Cola. Yet that would turn drugs into commodities, subject to the same manipulations and abuses of the international market as other legalised drugs, such as alcohol. A legalised cannabis market, driven by profit, would soon lead to drugs supply controlled by a few, driven by profit, involving unethical promotional practices and with little concern for the health of its users – in many ways a mirror image of the illegal drugs market.

As Martín Barriuso argues, cannabis social clubs provide a viable alternative not just to the illegal but also a legalised ‘free market’ in drugs. ‘What we have found is that the limits imposed by the current legal framework, in particular the obligation to produce and distribute within a closed circle, the control of all production by members, and, above all, the absence of profit, has created a framework of relations that is different and, for us, fairer and more balanced.’

Alternative economy

Barriuso points to the way that direct contact between producers and consumers has made it easier to find a balance between dignified salaries and reasonable prices, replacing competition with a desire for mutual benefit. Direct control of production means that members have full control of the origin, quality and composition of what they are consuming, while generating legal economic activity and tax collection. Accountability within the group means that health concerns (and many of Pannagh’s members consume cannabis for health reasons) are primary.

Given those results, it is not surprising that Barriuso concludes, ‘Now that we have succeeded in obtaining our supply directly and under better conditions, why would we fight for a capitalist market for cannabis, where the power of decision is once again in the hands of a few people and where we no longer control how substances we consume are produced?’

While the future of the Spanish model of cannabis social clubs is by no means guaranteed, it is an idea that is spreading. The Dutch city of Utrecht announced in early 2011 that it plans to experiment with a closed club model for adult recreational cannabis users and other Dutch municipalities have expressed interest in doing the same.

The European Parliament recently heard proposals for an extension of cannabis social clubs across Europe. Pannagh presented evidence, based on its own financial records, that this could create 7,500 direct jobs and around 30,000 indirect jobs in Spain alone. At a European level, it could create 8.4 billion euros additional income for member governments, an attractive proposition at a time of austerity budgets.

‘It could hardly have been expected,’ says Martín Barriuso smiling, ‘but by some strange legal fate, the global prohibition of drugs applied by the Spanish courts has given place to a strange protectionist market for cannabis, where there is economic activity but no profit, entrepreneurs but no businessmen, consumers but no exploitation of producers, and the existence of a legal economy entirely separate from the major distribution outlets and the mainstream economy. In a society such as Spain, facing a deep economic and social crisis after years of speculation, extreme consumerism and easy money, this parallel economy seems now more of an advantage than a disadvantage.’

Martín Barriuso Alonso’s briefing, Cannabis Social Clubs in Spain: a normalising alternative under way, is available at www.tni.org

Fifty years of the ‘war on drugs’

2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the agreement that cemented global drug control into an international legal framework that has remained largely unchanged to this day. The subsequent ‘war on drugs’ has led to most countries worldwide using largely military and criminal-justice means in a completely unrealistic attempt to eradicate drugs use.

A coalition of international organisations, including Transform UK, the International Drug Policy Consortium and the Transnational Institute, have joined forces to launch a ‘Count the Costs’ campaign. They argue that while it was no doubt implemented with good intentions, it is now possible, reflecting on the experiences of the past half-century, to conclude that the policy has failed to achieve its goal of reducing or eliminating drug production, supply and use. In fact, drug supply and use has risen dramatically. It has also come at great social costs, fuelling conflict and insecurity in many countries, criminalising vulnerable groups of users and growers, diverting massive resources away from proven public health interventions, and rewarding violent criminal groups.

They campaign is calling on all UN member governments to make a proper assessment of the costs of the ‘war on drugs’ and to use the 50th anniversary to radically reform UN drugs conventions to focus on evidence-based drugs policies that minimise harm for drug users and do not infringe human rights.

 


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