Throat cut outside Barraca disco in Sueca, Valencia.

24 year old woman has died after having her throat cut in a fight with another woman in her 30’s outside a discotheque in Sueca, Valencia.The owners of the Barraca disco where it happened have given their condolences to the family of the victim, and issued a statement expressing their ‘tremendous consternation’ at what had happened, and underlining that the disco staff are collaborating fully with the police to try and establish exactly what took place.It happened around 7am on Sunday morning and reports say both women were local residents in the La Ribera area. The SAMU health team called to the scene could do no more than confirm the death.

Official limousine stolen in Spain

Ulla Schmidt flew to Alicante at her own expense, but her driver drove the nearly 2410km journey in her $196,000 limousine to Spain from Berlin to ferry her to and from official meetings with German retirees in southeastern Spain.

"Her chauffeur's accommodation was broken into and the car keys were stolen," said a Health Ministry spokesman.

Germany's Social Democrat (SPD) health minister came under pressure to explain why she took her official limousine, complete with chauffeur, to Spain where the vehicle was stolen.Opposition politicians demanded Ulla Schmidt provide more details about the affair.The incident could damage the SPD who trail Merkel's conservatives by more than 10 points in opinion polls in the run-up to a September 27 federal election.

Increased usage of antidepressants and tranquillizers

In Spain, 24 percent of women use antidepressants and 31 percent use tranquillizers -- sometimes used to help people sleep, researchers said. Lead author Sonsoles Perez of the Las Aguilas Health Centre in Madrid and colleagues studied 121 women in Madrid ages 25-65 using family dysfunction surveys and the additive scale used to evaluate social readjustment. The psychopharmaceuticals analyzed were antidepressants and benzodiazepines -- sedatives, anxiety reducing, anti-convulsant or muscle relaxants. Although one might think that family conflicts lead to greater consumption of psychopharmaceuticals among women, we did not find any such relationship Perez said in a statement. Some people with family, work-related or financial problems do not feel able to tackle their problems and fall back on the use of drugs.The study, published in the journal Atencion Primaria, also found in 78.6 percent of cases, these drugs are prescribed in primary health centers. The diagnosis is recorded in the patient's medical records in 64.5 percent of cases, with the primary causes being depression at 11.6 percent, anxiety at 9.9 percent and 3.3 percent of insomnia. The researchers found benzodiazepine use increases with age, but there was no similar finding with antidepressant use.

Diamond robbery was masterminded by a trio of British youths

Diamond robbery was masterminded by a trio of British youths, it can be revealed.The gang – who have been charged with more than 30 robberies – regularly took ‘a civilised’ full English breakfast at 4pm each afternoon, near their Coin home.The dangerous gang – who had weapons in the garage of their rented Sierra Gorda property – were however, always impeccably polite at their regular meeting spot Leslie’s Bar.“They were always very well-mannered,” a waitress told the Olive Press. “I liked them, so I was surprised when they were arrested for these crimes.”
The group – which includes one woman – have been arrested over an incredible 30 or more robberies and burglaries, amassing a booty of luxury items over the last few years.The group – who kept a series of dangerous Staffordshire bull terrier dogs at their home – came from England, Wales and Ireland.According to sources they had lived in the area for up to two years, renting luxury detached villas in the Coin and Alhaurin el Grande area.They lived a ‘low key’ lifestyle, but wore designer clothes, expensive watches and other top accessories. mijas diamond robbery but police became suspicious of their extravagant way of life following a 30,000 euro robbery at the Mijas Diamond and Jewellery Centre.They had previously visited the jewellers and carefully sketched plans of the layout of the shop, before raiding a few weeks later.After police obtained a search warrant for their rented home they found designer furniture and other items, including a 9,000 euro Bang & Olufsen TV, and a stolen Volvo in the garage. They also recovered a selection of weapons.
According to a police spokesman the robberies and burglaries were well planned and executed.He said: “In the Mijas robbery the gang posed as tourists on an excursion. The day of the robbery they dressed up as building workers and erected barriers in the street, before smashing the shop window.”They are also alleged to have raided private homes in the area, while the Volvo was stolen from a Chinese resident in Coin at gunpoint.The downfall of the gang was keeping the best of what they stole and only selling on the rest.Police believe the gang may have had three more accomplices.

e-mail on the Costa del Sol,can seriously damage your wealth

If you can’t wait to surf the Web or check your e-mail on the Costa del Sol, a few words of advice: Think twice about it. Or maybe three or four times.Roaming with your BlackBerry or iPhone abroad to simply make voice calls will cost you an arm and a leg. Using it to surf the Web or send e-mail could cost you your whole body, with bills running into the hundreds of dollars. Early iPhone users learned this the hard way; AT&T forgave some of the most outrageous bills and cautioned users to turn off the automatic e-mail checking that was eating up data usage.But even if you use your smartphone to check e-mail and send photos manually, you could be headed for trouble. And the problem is made worse by the skimpy information provided on the Web sites of the two main GSM wireless providers in the United States: AT&T and T-Mobile. (GSM is the predominant system used in Europe. Sprint and Verizon use CDMA, and most of their phones will not work in Europe.)Both companies’ Web sites state the cost to use data when roaming. But it’s priced in megabytes, a measurement that means nothing to most people. (Can you imagine if your wireless plan told you how many MB of data you could use, rather than how many minutes you had?)How much data you use to send a text or visit a Web site depends on whom you’re asking. T-Mobile’s site says that a text message uses about 3KB, and visiting a Web site will eat up between 250 to 500 KB a page, depending on how many images are on the site.AT&T’s site does not state an equivalency between Web-page access and the amount of data used, although a spokesman said that the company would add that information soon. According to AT&T, visiting a Web site could use 50 to 75 KB a page and checking three e-mail messages could eat up 60 KB

Marbella constructor José Ávila Rojas, arrived at the prison in Albolote

Marbella constructor José Ávila Rojas, arrived at the prison in Albolote on Wednesday morning to complete an eight year sentence for four counts of tax fraud. His appeal against last year’s sentence from the Granada provincial court was turned down by the Supreme Court last month, and it left no other means open to try and avoid entering prison.The fraud relates to the purchase and sale of two properties in Marbella, Málaga province, at the beginning of this decade, calculated as amounting to 3.5 million € in unpaid IVA and income tax. The sentence from the Granada court last summer also ordered the businessman to pay a fine of 10 million €.
EFE reports he was due to spend Wednesday in the prison’s admissions department before being assigned to a cell at some stage on Thursday.

Beach sewers and pumping stations that are still in use on the Western Costa del Sol.

Old concrete structures covered in graffiti they have to take a detour around while strolling along the shore are sewers and pumping stations that are still in use. And they may never learn, unless perhaps just after a spell of rough weather, that beneath their feet is a fragile network of pipes. Some of these structures have been there for 40 years, but it is only now that serious plans have been made to remove them. After all the authorities are not short of reasons. The sewers and pumping stations are not only an inconvenience to bathers but they are also in a kind of legal limbo as they occupy the strip known as the public maritime domain protected by the Coasts Law. They also complicate beach regeneration work and are in places so fragile that breakages and sewage leaks onto the beaches are not uncommon.
The plans for the first phase of the 60 million euro scheme have already been drawn up by Acosol, the water company that belongs to the Mancomunidad de Municipios on the Western Costa del Sol.

No official figures for the number of Britons going home, because nobody is counting.

The change from the peseta to the euro caused inflation that ended the "cheap living" forever.

No official figures for the number of Britons going home, because nobody is counting. But Spain is certainly counting its unemployed, up to 17% with more than four million out of work. And that has a painful effect for the Britons who prospered during Spain's boom times. Jim and Caireen Candlin met in Spain, married in Gibraltar and decided to raise their young children on the Costa Brava.Estate agent Marion Atkins is quitting Spain to run a pub in Britain Aberdeen-born Caireen says: "I think Spain is ideal for bringing up children. That's why I'm staying here while he goes back to the UK." Jim is heading home to retrain as an electrician after building work dried up. He says: "We've both worked for firms that have gone bust in the past year. "When we couldn't pay the rent one month and had to phone our parents for help, we realised economically it wasn't working here. We couldn't carry on like that." So now the couple have decided to leave the area, and possibly the country.Like Jim and Caireen, Barnaby Griffin and his wife Rebecca have been forced to live apart by a search for work. Rebecca returned after two years in Orihuela Costa to do temping in London, while Barnaby stays on as a performer in the local bars. "All my friends our age are struggling," he says. "People talk about living the dream but all it seems to be is sunshine, cheap cigs and wine. This area had low wages anyway and we're fed up living hand to mouth."

Russian crime gangs on the Costa del Sol are injecting kidnap victims with what they claim is an experimental KGB virus

Russian crime gangs on the Costa del Sol are injecting kidnap victims with what they claim is an experimental KGB virus to terrify them into paying ransoms. In the latest case, four Russians told their victim that he would die within 24 hours if he did not pay them €12,000 (£10,000). But the businessman called their bluff and alerted the police, who arrested the gang. The kidnappers had seized the Russian businessman in the middle of a street last week in Estepona, a Spanish resort popular with British tourists and expatriates. They put a hood over his head and bundled him into a waiting car. After being held for two days, during which he was subjected to threats, beatings and electric shocks, he was injected with a substance which the gang claimed was an experimental virus developed by the KGB, the former Russian security service. The man was told that he would develop a fever, start sweating profusely, feel sick, then begin vomiting. Soon afterwards, they said, he would die. The businessman did start sweating and feeling sick, and the gang tried to convice him that the only way they could save him was by injecting an antidote which they possessed. When they took him to get the cash from a bank they let him slip away, believing that he would return with the money. Instead, heavily armed police surrounded them. The Spanish Organised Crime Unit arrested three men and a woman. All were Russian nationals aged between 24 and 57 and they have been charged with kidnapping, torture and possession of illegal fire arms. Police seized a mobile phone from one kidnapper, in which he had photographed the way the gang tortured the victim. Officers said that there had been a spate of kidnappings in this part of the Costa del Sol. In March, the wife and daughter of a Russian businessman were kidnapped in Estepona. The gang threatened to kill them unless the husband paid a €2 million (£1.7 million) ransom, but they were rescued within 24 hours. The Russian mafia has been gaining ground in Spain since the decade-long property boom allowed many gangs an easy outlet to launder money. But police operations have detained two leading members of Russian crime cartels in the past 12 months. Last year, Gennadios Petrov, the head of the Tambovskaya-Malyshevkaya gang, was arrested at his neo-classical mansion in Calvi, one of the most exclusive villages in Majorca. In a major operation, codenamed Troika, 20 alleged members of the organised crime organisation said to have been led by Petrov were arrested in Majorca, Málaga, Alicante, Valencia and Madrid. Police seized 23 luxury cars including Bentleys and Ferraris and €200,000 (£170,000) in cash. Last weekend, Tariel Oniani, a Georgian considered to be the No2 in the Russian criminal empire in Spain, was arrested in Moscow. In 2005, Oniani fled his mansion near Barcelona after a tip-off from a corrupt Spanish official on the eve of a major police operation against Russian crime gangs. He is expected to face charges of laundering illicit cash obtained from criminal activities in Russia into property, restaurants and car sales in Spain.

Stephen Mallon surrounded by a gang of 30 men and hurled off a 25ft balcony.

Stephen Mallon, 49, was pelted with bottles, glasses and other missiles after going to the aid of his two teenage sons outside a village bar.He was then surrounded by the mob and hurled off a 25ft balcony.Mr Mallon, from Bournemouth, was yesterday in a coma at a hospital in Malaga, with his distraught wife Teresa at his bedside.
The attack happened in Competa, an hour from the Costa del Sol, where the family has had a holiday home for six years.One of the sons had his nose broken in the violence, while the other suffered a broken arm.A family member said: "They were set upon by a gang of 30 men because they were English."

1,400 luxury homes in El Paraíso

An agreement was due to be signed in Estepona this Monday which will allow the Saudi royal family to go ahead with a project to build 1,400 luxury properties in the area of El Paraíso.La Opinión de Málaga reports it as a project previously approved by the Town Hall, but which was put on hold last June with the arrests in the Astapa corruption case. Some amendments have been made since then, including, at the request of the Partido Popular, a new road to connect the new urbanisation with other areas nearby. The Saudi royal family have also accepted to cede 30,000 square metres of land for public facilities.The paper said work could start at the beginning of next year, bringing much-needed employment in the local construction sector.

British man accused by the business owner of stealing a barrel of beer worth 600 €.

British man named by Ideal newspaper as Leslie James B. has been arrested by the Almería Civil Guard for a spate of thefts from a business in Turre and selling the stolen items on to beach restaurants in Mojácar. He’s accused, according to Europa Press, of passing off cakes he allegedly stole from the shop as ones he had made himself.He was caught red-handed gaining access to the premises via a terrace and leaving with his haul. The suspect is reported to have a previous record for theft, and is also accused by the business owner of stealing a barrel of beer worth 600 €.

Body found in the Alicante mountains where Michael Egglestone disappeared

Body found in the Alicante mountains where a British holidaymaker disappeared at the end of May is not believed to be that of the missing man, the UK Northern Echo reports this Thursday. The newspaper spoke to residents of Benichembla, where Michael Egglestone was staying when he disappeared, who said they had been told by the Guardia Civil that the body found on the mountains had not yet been identified. The newspaper said it’s believed to be a local man, and was being transferred for autopsy in Dénia on Wednesday night.52 year old ex soldier, Michael Leslie Eggleston, was last seen on 31st May when he set off on a hiking trip from Benichembla, a village where almost half the 750 or so inhabitants are foreign residents. He’s reported to be an experienced walker and set off well-prepared for the trip. A Civil Guard search has so far failed to find any trace of him and his wife, Janice, returned home to Nettlesworth, in the North East, this Wednesday night. She’s believed to have helped in the search for her missing husband, the paper said.The couple have two children and are reported to have been married for around 10 years.

Top-level prostitution in Elche

Residents of a building in Elche, only constructed 18 months ago, say they have been fighting top-level prostitution in the block for the past five months.It’s because one of the flats on the fifth floor has become a luxury prostitution venue, and sees a never ending parade of prostitutes and their clients. The residents say they often have to put up with ‘unpleasant comments’ and so now they have started to protest by putting banners over their balconies saying ‘whores out’ and even hanging up some blow-up dolls. They have spent 19,000 € on a new video camera security system and a private guard, in an effort to intimidate possible clients heading for the 5th floor. One of the people thought to have rented the premises concerned told Público newspaper that they are doing no damage and bother nobody. 'When a client comes they ring the bell and the door opens, no more', and that they only operate from 11am to 11pm.

George Lavery, aged 42, was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay £5,500 in compensation. John Hamilton,was sentenced to 2 and a half

George Lavery, aged 42, from Clapham Common in London was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay £5,500 in compensation. John Hamilton, aged 51, from St Leonards in Sussex was sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison and ordered to pay £4,500 in compensation. Neither of them were present at the sentencing so warrants have been issued to trace them.Lavery, formerly of High Street in Berkhamsted at the time of the offence, works as a psychic medium and had been contacted by the victim, who wanted to contact a girlfriend after their relationship had broken down. Lavery, also known as Simon Lavery, told the victim that he could help him rebuild
the relationship.Lavery and Hamilton then contacted the victim pretending to be the ex girlfriend via a mobile phone the victim had bought for them. They persuaded him to part with thousands of pounds of money under the pretext of a wedding between the man and his ex girlfriend. This included an engagement ring.The victim, a man from Watford, eventually realised that he had been defrauded when he saw the mobile phone he had bought at Lavery's house. He then contacted the ex girlfriend on her usual mobile number, but she knew nothing of the wedding. The offence took place between October 1 2007 and 2 June 2008.Lavery and Hamilton were found guilty in their absence today after originally pleading not guilty in September 2008 to fraud by false representation.Detective Constable Phil Freebrey, the officer in the case, said: "These are robust and positive sentences for a cruel and callous crime against a man who was at a vulnerable time in his life."It is unusual for offenders to be sentenced in their absence. We would strongly urge anyone who has seen either of these men to get in touch so they can now serve their sentences and pay the compensation."It is possible they could be in the London or Sussex areas where they come from, Gibraltar where Lavery was due to hold an event on June 9, the Costa del Sol where there was an event on June 11."I am also keen to hear from anyone else who thinks they may have been defrauded by these two individuals. We would ask them to get in touch so we can investigate."