Rush for safe havens as euro fears rise

US benchmark borrowing costs plunged to levels last seen in 1946 and those for Germany and the UK hit all-time lows as investors took fright at what they see as a disjointed policy response to the debt crisis in Spain and Italy. In a striking sign of the flight to haven assets, German two-year bond yields fell to zero for the first time, below the equivalent rate for Japan, meaning investors are willing to lend to Berlin for no return. US 10-year yields fell as low as 1.62 per cent, a level last reached in March 1946, according to Global Financial Data. German benchmark yields reached 1.26 per cent while Denmark's came close to breaching the 1 per cent level, hitting 1.09 per cent. UK rates fell to 1.64 per cent, the lowest since records for benchmark borrowing costs began in 1703. "They are extreme levels because we are in an extremely perilous situation. People just want to put their money somewhere where they think they will get it back. People may soon be paying Germany or the US to look after their money," said Gary Jenkins, head of Swordfish Research, an independent credit analysis company. The flight to safety came as the situation in Italy and Spain, the eurozone's third- and fourth-largest economies, deteriorated further. Italy held a disappointing debt auction and saw its benchmark borrowing costs rise above 6 per cent for the first time since January. The euro fell 0.8 per cent against the dollar to under $1.24 for the first time in two years. Confusion over how the Spanish government's rescue of Bankia, the stricken lender, will be structured led the premium Madrid pays over Berlin to borrow to hit fresh highs for the euro era at 540 basis points. Analysts said the elevated level meant that clearing houses could soon raise the amount of margin, or collateral, that traders need to post against Spanish debt, a move that led to the escalation of crises in Portugal and Ireland. The European Central Bank has made clear to Spain that it cannot use the bank's liquidity operations as part of a recapitalision of Bankia. However, the central bank said on Wednesday it had not been officially consulted on the plans. Equity markets globally fell on the eurozone fears with bourses in Paris, Frankfurt and London all dropping 2 per cent. But Nick Gartside, international chief investment officer for JPMorgan Asset Management, noted that while US bond yields had halved since April last year the S&P 500 equity market was at the same level. "One of those two markets is mispriced. Core government bonds are an efficient market and they are ahead," he added. Investors said borrowing costs for the US, UK and Germany were likely to continue to fall amid a worsening economic backdrop and the threat of more central bank intervention. Wealth managers have been moving client assets into currency havens in recent weeks, with the Swiss franc and the US dollar among the biggest beneficiaries "Risk aversion, a rapidly slowing global economy and unusually low policy rates will pin these short and intermediate maturity bonds at unprecedented low levels for quite a while," said Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of Pimco, one of the world's largest bond investors. Mr Gartside said he could easily see German rates going below 1 per cent, following a path that only Japan and Switzerland have taken among major economies, while the US and UK could dip under 1.5 per cent. Markets are increasingly resigned to more turmoil until policy makers take more radical action. The two most popular plans of action for investors are for the ECB to buy Spanish and Italian bonds in unlimited size or for eurozone countries to agree on a fiscal union involving the pooling of debt. "You have to throw everything at it. Spain is just too big for half measures. The next intervention has to be not just massive in size but it has to show a total commitment," said Mr Jenkins. He recommends that the ECB set targets either for the premium Spain and Italy pay to borrow over Germany or for their yields.

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Euro break-up 'could wipe 50pc off London house prices'

Property prices in the capital’s most sought-after postcodes have been driven up by investors moving funds out of assets held in euros to buy into what is seen as a “safe haven” alternative. Foreign money seeking a refuge from the wider economic turmoil accounted for 60pc of acquisitions of prime central London property between 2007 and 2011, according to a report by Fathom Consulting for Development Securities. If the shared currency broke up completely, London property would initially be boosted by the continued flight towards a safe haven, the report predicts. But, once the break-up had taken place, demand for these assets as an insurance against this event would start to ebb. “Although fears about a messy end to the euro debt crisis may account for much of the gain in prime central London (PCL) prices that has taken place over the past two years, we find that a break-up of the single currency area is also the single greatest threat to PCL,” said researchers.

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Gibraltar Chief Minister challeges Spain to go to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

The Gibraltar Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, has challenged Spain to take it to the international courts. Appearing before a panel of questioners on Tele 5 TV, he described the argument over fishing as ‘blackmail’. Picardo said that the reality is that the waters close to the Rock belong to Gibraltar, and so what has to be done is to ‘search solutions’ as blackmail won’t work. ‘Does Spain want to complicate life for its own people?’, he said. He challenged Spain to take Gibraltar to go to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and make their arguments there. ‘But why doesn’t Spain do that?, asked Picardo, ‘Could it be that they are not that sure of their position?’. The Chief Minister noted that the Spanish fishermen used certain fishing techniques which were prohibited under a law in 1991. He said it was ‘a great pity’ that the Rajoy cabinet had abandoned the three way forum, and he repeated that Gibraltar still wanted dialogue in such a forum. Over the absence of Queen Sofia from the ceremonial lunch with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, he also criticised the Rajoy government for their prohibition. ‘This is thing a politician should not allow’. Picardo said that he wanted to get on well with Spain, and to work together.

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Gibraltar's jubilee party sends signal to Madrid

In Gibraltar, said chief minister Fabian Picardo, children learn history fast. "They can say 'the treaty of Utrecht' when they are around a year old," laughed Picardo, an Oxford-educated socialist with a picture of the Queen in his office. "We start them young." It was that agreement, signed in 1713, that granted the 426m-high rock jutting out where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic to the British "in perpetuity". And as Gibraltar swathes itself in red, white and blue to celebrate the Queen's jubilee, it is revelling in its reputation for being "more British than the British". "It's about the symbolism, really," said taxi driver Eddie Castle. "We do like to irritate the Spanish when we can. But they get their own back: whenever there is a row, they get their own back by making things very difficult for people at the border." The queues of cars waiting to cross from the tiny 2.6 sq mile territory into Spain have lengthened dramatically in the last week, as Spanish border patrols have been ordered to make things more difficult for motorists and workers, increasing security checks in a move condemned by Picardo as "childish". The latest row in the centuries-old fractious relationship between Gibraltar, London and Madrid is, as many have been over the years, about royalty. On Friday, the Queen held a jubilee lunch for the world's monarchs at Windsor Castle – the largest gathering of crowned heads in over 50 years, with 24 kings and queens in attendance. The one notable absentee was Queen Sofía of Spain, distantly related to both the Queen and Prince Philip, who pulled out after her government said her attendance would be "inappropriate" in view of a forthcoming trip to Gibraltar by Prince Edward and his wife. The British ambassador was called into Spain's foreign ministry to hear of the ruling party's "disgust and upset" at the Count and Countess of Wessex's visit. So it must have been with a certain mischief that Picardo told the Observer it was a "great pity" that the Queen herself was not also coming to the island. "She would be very welcome here. I like to think she has not come because she has been so busy. In Gibraltar, people will celebrate the jubilee whether they are from republican families or monarchist families. It's not really about that here. The royal family transcends those arguments – the Queen is a figurehead of Britishness, an important symbol for us, and I say that as the grandson of a republican." It was the Queen's visit in 1954 that triggered General Franco's anger at the British retention of a symbol of Spanish nationalism. He called it a "dagger in the spine of Spain" and in 1969 launched the blockade of the Rock that lasted until 1985. The intention of Charles and Diana to begin their honeymoon there in 1981 resulted in the King of Spain boycotting their wedding. "We are not an island, but we consider ourselves one," said Picardo, who believes many of the rows have been diversionary tactics. "There are tensions: generally they arise when the Madrid government has trouble and strife it doesn't want people to concentrate on. I have great sympathy for them at the moment with the financial crisis. "When we say here 'the Spanish' in a derogatory fashion, we tend to mean your chap in Madrid, the institutions; we have no problems between ordinary people, at the human and personal level." But there is a problem at sea: a row over Spanish fishing boats in effect breaking Gibraltar's "no net" marine protection laws while fishing in waters that Spain claims for its own. The row has had politicians scurrying back through old treaties and legal entitlements and citing everything from Napoleonic "cannon shot" rules to UN conventions, but Picardo says he is now a "hair's breadth" from creating a mechanism to try to resolve the dispute with a cross-border working party. "We don't believe that we should just turn a blind eye to that. If we accommodate these fishermen, then we would have to change our law. Spain has 8,000km of coastline, we have three," he said. In the Gibraltar Bookshop – its windows a tribute to the Queen's 60-year reign and displaying a poster declaring "Keep Calm and Rule Britannia" – owner Jackie Scriven is looking forward to the jubilee street party and other celebrations planned. "We have to have the Spanish respect us, from our territorial waters to our Queen," she said. "When we remember what the Spanish did to us during the blockade, it was horrendous. They didn't let us have water, blood supplies, even the sacramental wine for the churches. We had to watch the ships sailing past us with food for Morocco, we couldn't get in or out except by boat. "We've been British for 300 years and we are really loyal subjects. Even the younger generation are enthralled: more and more they are speaking English on the streets." The economics of Gibraltar have little to do with patriotism. Its tax status means the island has more registered companies than inhabitants. Marriages can be arranged quickly for non-residents – John Lennon married Yoko Ono here and Sean Connery married here twice – and it is a hub of offshore banking and online gambling, but Gibraltar has the air less of a European Las Vegas and more of a Torquay-by-Andalucía. Its efforts to establish itself as a telecommunications base have been hampered by Spain's refusal to recognise its dialling code. Tentative efforts by British leaders from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair to broker a joint sovereignty deal have been foiled by two no votes in referendums, in 1967 and in 2002. It remains UK policy that Gibraltar's status will not change without its people's consent. Meanwhile the cold war with the mainland goes on. Ships that have visited Gibraltar are not allowed to go into Spanish ports. Spain does not recognise the Gibraltar government and refers to Gibraltarians as "transients", on the grounds that the legitimate population was expelled in the 18th century. Out on a main street bristling with bunting – where pubs sell British grub and M&S advertises "UK prices" next to little shops selling T-shirts saying "Proud to be British" – political views are generally relaxed. Schoolgirls in white and burgundy uniforms crowd into Top Shop chattering in a mix of Spanish and English. "I'm Gibraltarian, or maybe English, both," said Catherine, 14. "My dad would kill me if I didn't say British but I think, for me, Gibraltarian," said Rose, 14. "Are you kidding me?" said a 15-year-old boy in designer sunglasses with a Spanish surname, when asked if he feels linked to Spain. "Nobody hates them or anything, but it's a different world in Gib." And as far as the majority of the inhabitants are concerned, it's a case of bring on the jubilee.

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Gibraltar tensions nearing flashpoint

A DISAGREEMENT between Britain and Spain over fishing rights has escalated into a diplomatic row involving the two royal houses that could trigger a military clash in the waters off Gibraltar. Spain's government has asked its Civil Guard patrols to escort Spanish fishing vessels into the disputed waters off the Rock. Gibraltar refused to allow Spanish fishermen access to the waters after talks over fishing rights broke down last weekend.

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Spain’s banking crisis reached Britain’s high streets last night when the credit rating of Santander UK was cut.

In a sweeping reassessment, ratings agency Moody’s announced in Madrid that it is downgrading 16 Spanish banks because it could not be sure of the ability of the country’s government to provide the necessary support.

Santander UK was among the banks highlighted after the ratings agency took aim at its parent Banco Santander, based in Spain. 

The Spanish banking crisis has hit the British high street, with the news that Santander has had its credit rating cut

Santander is one of the biggest players in UK retail banking, having taken over the former Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester, Bradford & Bingley and most recently the English branches of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The new lower A2 credit rating is certain to be a cause of anxiety to Santander UK’s millions of British customers. 

Nevertheless, they can be confident that their deposits up to £85,000 are guaranteed by the British government should there be a loss of confidence.

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Gibraltar Seeks To Solidify US Gambling Contacts

 Gibraltar government, which already licenses a number of major UK gambling operators, is now seeking to solidify relationships with its US counterparts, ahead of changes in the US e-gambling market. A delegation, headed by the island's gambling overseer, Minister Gilbert Licudi, visited San Francisco last week to attend the GIGse Totally Gaming Conference. The delegation met a number of important players in the US gambling market, including the Governor of Nevada, Brian Sandoval and the Chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Mark Liparelli. Licudi commented on Gibraltar's objectives in developing relationships with US gambling bodies and Gibraltar seeking US gambling contacts. "The US market is slowly opening up to e-gaming," he said. "Nevada is the first US state to legislate to allow intrastate interstate poker." Gibraltar Operators Seek Nevada Licenses Don't miss... 32Red Casino  Gibraltar Regulatory Authority Microgaming Casinos Minister Licundi said that his government was aware that there are a number of Gibraltar operators interested in branching out by seeking a license in Nevada. "At the same time, various Nevada based operators are interested in being licensed in Gibraltar," he said. "It is therefore in Gibraltar's interest that we have contact with and build a solid relationship with Nevada at both a regulatory and political level." He said that Nevada is regarded as one of the gambling capitals of the world and, in that context, it was very gratifying to learn at the conference that Nevada had a lot to learn from Gibraltar. Gibraltar is Leading eGaming Licensor Since 1998, when Gibraltar issued its first egambling license, it has been considered a leader in gambling licensing. Over the years, the island has built up a reputation as a solid and reputable online gambling jurisdiction, with many of the top players in the market seeking licensing and regulation by the Gibraltar Government. Operators need to prove that they are worthy of a Gibraltar gambling license, including high standards of financial security, customer support and transparency. Extremely tough conditions are set by the Gibraltar Gaming Commission and gamblers who play at online casinos, bingo rooms, sportsbook sites or poker rooms which are licensed by this authority can rest assured that they are receiving the best in terms of service and security. Names of groups carrying Gibraltar licenses include the Microgaming-powered 32Red online casino, Party Casino and Bet365 Casino.

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Spanish fishermen have returned to fishing in Gibraltar waters

Spanish fishermen have returned to fishing in Gibraltar waters - despite the recent agreement that they would not fish pending the dialogue that has its next encounter next week. To begin with, four fishing boats from La Atunara decided to go out fishing, later reporting that there had been no people with the Royal Gibraltar Police. There were also reports from Algeciras that there had been no problem with Gibraltar's police. The return to fishing was being described as a 'spontaneous' move by some. However, there were conflicting reports later that more boats were poised to take the risk of going out fishing. As wwent to press it was not known if the RGP would be doing something about it, or if they would be applying their 'common sense policy', which means doing nothing about it. We contacted the RGP but there was a meeting in progress and telephones were switched off. Was something cooking?

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Digital broadcasting network in Gibraltar.

The Gibraltar Regulatory Authority (GRA) has signed a one million pound contract with Arqiva in the United Kingdom, to provide a digital broadcasting network in Gibraltar. In lay person terms this means that a greater choice of programmes can be made available and additional broadcasters licenses could be obtained from Government.   In more technical terms, the network will comprise two digital television multiplexes and two digital radio multiplexes. On each television multiplex Gibraltar will be able to transmit up to 6 distinct programmes. Similarly with digital radio, each multiplex allows for 4 distinct programmes. In 2006, during a digital planning conference organised by the International Telecommunication Union, the GRA successfully co-ordinated with Spain, Morocco, Algeria and Portugal the use of channels 30 and 56 for digital television and channel blocks 12B and 12C for digital radio. This means that if the change-over to digital is not finalised by 31st December 2012, GBC will go off the air. In a statement from the Government has said, “Despite many public statements to the contrary, the previous administration had not made any investment for the changeover to digital and the new government is having to pull out all the stops to make digital transmission a reality by the cut-off date of 31st December 2012. The transmitters will be located at a single site on the Upper Rock, thus minimising the environmental impact of the antenna and support structures which will replace the two television broadcasting sites of Signal Hill and O’Hara’s Battery.” The statement also assures that, “The digital broadcasting network will be operational by 31st December 2012, allowing Gibraltar to meet its international obligation to close down its analogue television transmissions by that date.” Unlike the change-over to digital television, there are no plans to convert FM radio to digital. Paul Canessa from the GRA said, “The Majority of people will not have to do anything as most of the people receive GBC via cable TV. How many people who do not have cable TV is yet to be assessed, but we think it will be a limited number of people. The Government will support and provide some assistance to these people, in time for the changeover.” The contractor, Arqiva, is a communications infrastructure and media services company and provides much of the infrastructure behind television, radio, satellite and wireless communications in the UK and has a significant presence in Ireland, mainland Europe and the USA. The Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, who has ministerial responsibility for broadcasting said: “The quality of broadcasting in Gibraltar must improve and moving to a digital network is one of the many steps in the direction of the improvements necessary.”

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Casablanca’s colonial architecture is crumbling

When the French seized Casablanca in the early 1900s, they turned the historic Morrocan port into a classic of colonial architecture that would be immortalised in the 1942 namesake film. In the decades since the release of "Casablanca", real-estate development and property speculation have reshaped the city into one bearing little resemblance to its movie depiction and preservationists are increasingly fretting about what will become of the crumbling French colonial facades, neo-Moorish details and Art Deco hotels. "We've got to act fast," said Karim Rouissi, vice-president of Casamemoire, an association to protect the city's old buildings. "There are buildings that are in a state of advanced disrepair." The old Lincoln Hotel is a case in point. Created in 1916 by the French architect Hubert Bride a few metres from the central market, the Arabesque Art Deco building was used by American spies during World War II. The hotel closed in 1989 and today is in ruins, with only its facade surviving though this too is breaking apart. Rouissi says much of Casablanca was built as an experiment in early 20th century urban planning and today there are about 4,000 buildings in need of help. Real-estate developers often look to buy historic properties, tear them down and build more modern apartment buildings through which they can charge higher rents and recoup expenses. Part of the problem, Rouissi said, is that tenants in existing apartment buildings pay very low, fixed rents and landlords are only able to remove tenants if they pay a hefty relocation cost of about 50,000 euros ($66,000). Developers have been known to have a cosy relationship with local officials and building demolitions are sometimes rubber-stamped. "Rebuilding is done at the expense of the city and its heritage," said Rouissi, whose association is hoping Casablanca will be ranked as a UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site. Though local authorities have been slow to act in the past and there is no national strategy to preserve architectural heritage, they are becoming more responsive to preservationist pleas, Rouissi said. Some of the city's rapid redevelopment can be seen along the Boulevard Mohammed V, one of the city's oldest roads. Today, much of the street has become a construction site for a future tram line, though architecture buffs still flock to the area to look at old buildings. In the historic town centre, a short distance from the ancient medina, or old Arab quarter, the famous Excelsior Hotel has become one of the hippest cafes in Casablanca, a diverse city of about five million residents and the beating heart of Morocco's economy. The Excelsior is adorned with a whitewashed colonial facade, built by French architect Hippolyte-Joseph Delaporte in 1916 and decorated with Spanish tile. Across the road is the main entrance to the medina, the ancient city where Jews, Muslims and Christians co-existed for years, where an old Catholic church is today being converted into a cultural centre.

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Phoenicia Cruises into Gibraltar’s Ocean Village and Makes a Special Collection

Last time 21 metre Phoenicia came to Ocean Village in Gibraltar she was in the final throes of an epic 20,000 mile circumnavigation of Africa. This month, almost two years later, the traditionally built 600BC Phoenician cargo ship replica stopped at the marina for some deserved R&R en-route from Sardinia to London and to collect “stranded” crew member – Len Helfrich. Len, a 73-year-old hailing from KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, flew into Gibraltar on Tuesday 17 April expecting to disembark the aircraft and immediately board Phoenicia to crew the last leg back to the UK. However, high winds and equally high waves hampered Phoenicia’s traverse across the Mediterranean and she only made the Rock on Thursday 3 May – some 16 days behind schedule. Confined to Gibraltar by virtue of visa regulations, Len made himself quite at home. “It wasn’t until I was in Gibraltar that I realised quite how delayed Phoenicia was going to be and I don’t know what I would have done without the help of Ocean Village marina,” says Len, “I literally had nowhere to stay and limited euros as you don’t need much cash at sea. The marina team pointed me in the direction of affordable accommodation and after endless days exploring I became quite the Gibraltar expert. I climbed the Rock a few times, acted as impromptu tour guide for disorientated visitors and took plenty of group photos using their own cameras. I’ve also been impressed with Ocean Village, a very hi-tech marina with fabulous facilities.” When Phoenicia finally sailed in, Len was happy to draw his off-the-cuff fortnight’s holiday in Gibraltar to a close. “I couldn’t decide what was worse, waiting or sailing,” says Len, who previously crewed Phoenicia during her African circumnavigation and knew that it was no pleasure cruise he was about to embark on, “but at least onboard Phoenicia I will be making headway and doing something constructive. Phoenicia may not be comfortable, if the ship gets wet your bunk gets wet, there are no winches so 30 metres of anchor chain can take up to an hour and a half to haul up and the toilet facilities are at best described as ‘rustic’ but she sort of grows on you and I found it difficult to resist a second stint onboard.” Len’s first Phoenicia experience was unintentional. He happened to be ear wigging Captain Philip Beale giving a talk to schoolchildren outside Zululand Yacht Club and offered his services when a mechanical problem was mentioned. A couple of days later, the problem was resolved and Philip asked him if he’d do the 100 mile run down to Durban. An occasional sailor, he and his wife had owned a steel hulled 43 foot yacht, Len agreed. Durban became East London then Port Elizabeth and around the ‘Cape of Storms’ before eventually disembarking in Cape Town – Len became hooked on Phoenicia and will now help steer her back to London. Speaking this week of Phoenicia’s return to the Rock, Captain Philip Beale commented, “Phoenicia is delighted to be back in Gibraltar and hosted once again by Ocean Village. We first visited Ocean Village towards the end of Phoenicia's historic circumnavigation of Africa in August 2010 and we received exemplary service and support from the team. They have also worked tirelessly for our current visit and offered vital assistance to crew member Len who has been a fortnight in Gibraltar in anticipation of our arrival. We are still urgently looking for one or two other crew members for our sail to London’s St Katharine Docks where she will be transformed into a floating museum for the summer. If you’re keen – get in touch.” Phoenicia will now retrace the ancient Phoenician-Cornish tin trade route and head towards Falmouth and finally London, arriving at St Katharine Docks on 2 June. “The Phoenicians: The Greatest Ancient Sailors” exhibition will run through to September and feature ancient artefacts from the Phoenician era. Visitors will be able to climb onboard Phoenicia for a tour of the vessel and learn more about Phoenician culture as well as the recent expedition that triumphed over Somali pirates, treacherous storms and mechanical problems to recreate one of mankind’s greatest journeys. Visit www.phoenicia.org.uk to purchase tickets or for more information. Phoenicia hopes to visit Gibraltar again later on in the year and offer tours to local schoolchildren. Meanwhile, Len’s grandchildren, all seven of them, are back in South Africa following the Ship’s Log and satellite tracker and keeping a scrapbook of their grandfather’s fantastic adventures.

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Spain has formally complained to Britain over Prince Edward’s forthcoming trip to Gibraltar.

British Ambassador Giles Paxman was told officials are ‘upset and unhappy’ about next month’s visit to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, has taken a tough stance over the peninsula but Andrew Rosindell, chairman of the Overseas Territories All-Party Parliamentary Group, said: ‘Gibraltar may be close to Spain, but it is not Spanish and its people do not want to be Spanish. 

Formal complaint: Spanish officials are unhappy about Prince Edward and wife Sophie's forthcoming visit to Gibraltar

 

No laughing matter: Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo has spearheaded his nation's tough stance over the island

‘Members of the Royal Family are perfectly entitled to go to any of Her Majesty’s territories in any part of the world whenever they want. I thought Spain had grown up.’

Edward is to start a three-day visit to the British colony on June 13.

A spokeswoman for Spain's Foreign Ministry denied local reports Mr Paxman, brother of Newsnight presenter Jeremy, had been summonsed to its Madrid HQ over the visit.

But she said the subject was raised during a scheduled meeting between the British diplomat and Santiago Cabanas Ansorena, Foreign Policy Director at Spain's Foreign Office.

An official statement released by Spain's Foreign Office said: 'In the course of their conversation and among other subjects, Mr Cabanas Ansorena took the opportunity to express his government's upset and unhappiness over the visit by the Earl and Countess of Wessex to Gibraltar between June 11 and 13.'

Prince Edward and his wife will take part in a series of events to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year.

 

 

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Brink's Mat the reason that Great Train Robber was shot dead in Marbella

The Brink’s-Mat curse even touched on the Great Train Robbery gang of 1963. One of them, Charlie Wilson, found himself in trouble when £3 million of Brink’s-Mat investors’ money went missing in a drug deal. In April 1990, he paid the price when a young British hood knocked on the front door of his hacienda north of Marbella and shot Wilson and his pet husky dog before coolly riding off down the hill on a yellow bicycle.

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British tourist falls to her death from hotel balcony in Magalluf

23 year old British tourist has fallen to her death from the third floor balcony of her hotel in Magalluf, Mallorca. Emergency sources said it happened at 4.25am Saturday morning at the Hotel Teix in Calle Pinada. Local police and emergency health services went to scene. After 20 minutes of an attempt to re-animate her heart, the woman was pronounced dead. Online descriptions for the Hotel say it is the best place to stay of you are looking for non-stop partying, adding it not suitable for families.

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Four of the last reporters and photographers willing to cover crime stories have been slain in less than a week in violence-torn Veracruz state

Four of the last reporters and photographers willing to cover crime stories have been slain in less than a week in violence-torn Veracruz state, where two Mexican drug cartels are warring over control of smuggling routes and targeting sources of independent information. The brutal campaign is bleeding the media and threatening to turn Veracruz into the latest state in Mexico where fear snuffs out reporting on the drug war. Three photojournalists who worked the perilous crime beat in the port city of Veracruz were found dismembered and dumped in plastic bags in a canal Thursday, less than a week after a reporter for an investigative newsmagazine was beaten and strangled in her home in the state capital of Xalapa. Press freedom groups said all three photographers had temporarily fled the state after receiving threats last year. The organizations called for immediate government action to halt a wave of attacks that has killed at least seven current and former reporters and photographers in Veracruz over the last 18 months. Like most of those, the men found Thursday were among the few journalists left working on crime-related stories in the state. Threats and killings have spawned an atmosphere of terror and self-censorship, and most local media are too intimidated to report on drug-related violence. Social media and blogs are often the only outlets reporting on serious crime. Veracruz isn't the only battleground for Mexican media. In at least three northeastern states, journalists are under siege from assailants throwing grenades inside newsrooms and gunmen firing into newspaper and TV station buildings. In the state of Tamaulipas, on the border with Texas, local media stopped covering drug trafficking violence, mentioning drug cartels or reporting on organized crime shortly after two gangs began fighting for control of Nuevo Laredo in 2004. As part of that war, reporters were targeted to keep them silent or because they had links to gangs. Mexico has become one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists in recent years, amid a government offensive against drug cartels and fighting among gangs that have brought tens of thousands of deaths, kidnappings and extortion cases. Prosecutions in journalist killings are almost nonxistent, although that is widely true of all homicides and other serious crimes in Mexico. The latest killings came in Boca del Rio, a town near the port city of Veracruz where police found the bodies. The victims bore signs of torture and had been dismembered, the state prosecutors' office said. One victim was identified as Guillermo Luna Varela, a crime-news photographer for the website http://www.veracruznews.com.mx who was last seen by local reporters covering a car accident Wednesday afternoon. According to a fellow journalist, who insisted on speaking anonymously out of fear, Luna was in his 20s and had begun his career working for the local newspaper Notiver. The journalist said Luna was the nephew of another of the men found dead, Gabriel Huge. Huge was in his early 30s and worked as a photojournalist for Notiver until last summer, when he fled the state soon after two of the paper's reporters were slain in still-unsolved killings. He had returned to the state to work as a reporter, but it was not immediately clear what kind of stories he was covering recently. State officials said the third victim was Esteban Rodriguez, who was a photographer for the local newspaper AZ until last summer, when he too quit and fled the state. He later came back, but took up work as a welder. The London-based press freedom group Article 19 said he, like the other two, had been a crime photographer. The fourth victim was Luna's girlfriend, Irasema Becerra, state prosecutors said. Article 19 said in a report last year that Luna, Varela and Rodriguez were among 13 Veracruz journalists who had fled their homes because of crime-related threats and official unwillingness to protect them or investigate the danger. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in 2008 that Huge had been detained and beaten by federal police as he tried to cover a fatal auto accident involving officers. Last June, Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco, a columnist and editorial director for Notiver, was shot to death in Veracruz along with his wife and one of his children. Authorities that month also found the body of journalist Noel Lopez buried in a clandestine grave in the town of Chinameca. Lopez, who disappeared three months earlier, had worked for the weeklies Horizonte and Noticias de Acayucan and for the daily newspaper La Verdad. The following month, Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz, a police reporter for Notiver, was found with her throat cut in the state. Lopez was found after a suspect in another case confessed to killing him, but the other two murders have not been resolved. The cartel war in Veracruz reached a bloody peak in September when 35 bodies were dumped on a main highway in rush-hour traffic. Local law enforcement in the state was considered so corrupt and infiltrated by the Zetas and other gangs that Mexico's federal government fired 800 officers and 300 administrative personnel in the city of Veracruz-Boca del Rio in December and sent in about 800 marines to patrol. Mike O'Connor, the Committee to Protect Journalists' representative for Mexico, said journalists in Veracruz were exercising an unusual degree of self-censorship even before Ordaz and Lopez were killed. He said media avoided much coverage of crime and corruption. "Important news was not covered because it might upset the Zetas. Then these guys were killed and self-censorship cracked down even more," O'Connor said. "Almost all of the police beat reporters left town after those killings." Regina Martinez, a correspondent for the national magazine Proceso, continued to cover crime-related stories along with a handful of other journalists, however. On Saturday, authorities went to her home in Xalapa, the state capital, after a neighbor reported it to be suspiciously quiet. They found the reporter dead in her bathroom with signs she had been beaten and strangled. "Self-censorship was extraordinarily strong but whoever killed these journalists wanted more," O'Connor said. "It still wasn't enough to satisfy whoever killed these journalists." Mexico's human rights commission says 74 media workers were slain from 2000 to 2011. The Committee to Protect Journalists says 51 were killed in that time. It noted in a statement on the Mexico killings that Thursday was World Press Freedom Day.

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Greek far-right parties could end up with as much as 20 percent of the vote in Sunday's elections. The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party has intensified the xenophobic atmosphere in the country.

At night, the streets leading to Omonoia Square are empty. That wasn't always the case. The area was the premier multicultural neighborhood of Athens and one of the first quarters to be gentrified. Jazz bars and Indian restaurants lined the streets, separated by the occasional rooms-by-the-hour hotel. It was a quarter full of immigrants, drug addicts and African prostitutes, but also of journalists, ambitious young artists and teenagers from private schools. Today, the immigrants stay home once night falls. They are afraid of groups belonging to the "angry citizens," a kind of militia that beats up foreigners and claims to help the elderly withdraw money from cash machines without being robbed. Such groups are the product of an initiative started by the neo-Nazi Chrysi Avgi -- Golden Dawn -- the party which has perpetrated pogroms in Agios Panteleimon, another Athens neighborhood with a large immigrant population. There are now three outwardly xenophobic parties in Greece. According to recent surveys, together they could garner up to 20 percent of the vote in elections on Sunday: the anti-Semitic party LAOS stands to win 4 percent; the nationalist party Independent Greeks -- a splinter group of the conservative Nea Dimokratia party -- is forecast to win 11 percent; and the right extremists of Golden Dawn could end up with between 5 and 7 percent. My name is Xenia, the hospitable. Greece itself should really be called Xenia: Tourism, emigration and immigration are important elements of our history. But hospitality is no longer a priority in our country, a fact which the ugly presence of Golden Dawn makes clear. A Personal Attack Shaved heads, military uniforms, Nazi chants, Hitler greetings: How should a Greek journalist deal with such people? Should one just ignore them and leave them unmentioned? Should one denounce them and demand that they be banned? One shouldn't forget that they are violent and have perpetrated several attacks against foreigners and leftists. I thought long and hard about how to write about Golden Dawn so that my article was in no way beneficial to the party. On April 12, the daily Kathimerini ran my story under the headline "Banality of Evil." In the piece, I carefully explained why it was impossible to carry on a dialogue with such people and why I thought the neo-Nazi party should disappear from media coverage and be banned. Five days later, an anonymous reply to my article appeared on the Golden Dawn website. It was a 2,500-word-long personal attack in which the fascists recounted my entire career, mocked my alleged foreign roots (I was born in Hamburg) and even, for no apparent reason, mentioned my 13-year-old daughter. The unnamed authors indirectly threatened me as well: "To put it in the mother tongue of foreign Xenia: 'Kommt Zeit, kommt Rat, kommt Attentat!'" In other words, watch your back. Most Greeks believe that Golden Dawn has connections to both the police and to the country's secret service. Nevertheless, I went to the authorities to ask what I should do. I was told that I should be careful. They told me that party thugs could harass me, beat me or terrorize me over the phone. It would be better, they said, if I stopped writing about them. If I wished to react to the threats, they suggested I file a complaint against Golden Dawn's service provider. That, however, would be difficult given that the domain is based somewhere in the United States. Like Weimar Germany A friend told me that I should avoid wearing headphones on the street so that I can hear what is going on around me. My daughter now has nightmares about being confronted by members of Golden Dawn. Three of her classmates belong to the party. The three boys have posted pictures of party events on their Facebook pages. For their profile image, they have chosen the ancient Greek Meandros symbol, which, in the red-on-black manifestation used by Golden Dawn, resembles a swastika. The group's slogans include "Foreigners Out!" and "The Garbage Should Leave the Country!" The fact that immigration has become such an issue in the worst year of the ongoing economic crisis in the country can be blamed on the two parties in government. The Socialist PASOK and the conservative Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy, or ND) are running xenophobic campaigns. ND has said it intends to repeal a law which grants Greek citizenship to children born in Greece to immigrant parents. And cabinet member Michalis Chrysochoidis, of PASOK, has announced "clean up operations" whereby illegal immigrants are to be rounded up in encampments and then deported. When he recently took a stroll through the center of Athens to collect accolades for his commitment to the cause, some called out to him: "Golden Dawn has cleaned up Athens!" Yet, Chrysochoidis is the best loved PASOK politician in his Athens district, in part because of his xenophobic sentiments. His party comrade, Health Minister Andreas Loverdos, is just as popular. Loverdos has warned Greek men not to sleep with foreign prostitutes for fear of contracting HIV and thus endangering the Greek family. High unemployment of roughly 22 percent, a lack of hope, a tendency toward violence and the search for scapegoats: Analyses in the Greek press compare today's Greece with Germany at the end of the Weimar Republic. "We didn't know," said many Germans when confronted with the truth of the Holocaust after Nazi rule came to an end. After elections on May 6, no Greeks should be able to make the same claim.

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Locked Up Abroad is different.

Reality TV is, at its core, about letting viewers revel in the bad decision-making of others: those who speak without thinking, who backstab, who have sex without condoms, who cheat. Frustratingly, though, reality shows—to which I am unapologetically addicted—tend to reward bad behavior, by giving its villains notoriety, spinoffs, opportunities to endorse weight-loss products, a nice sideline in paid interviews with supermarket tabloids, and other D-list rewards.

Locked Up Abroad is different. The National Geographic show, the sixth season of which premiered last week, gives its stars something they wouldn’t get on other reality shows: their comeuppance.

Having debuted in the U.K. (under the title Banged Up Abroad), Locked Up Abroad showcases one person (sometimes a couple) who ends up in prison overseas. Participants fit into one of two categories. The first group are the (largely) innocent: the married missionary couple who were kidnapped in the Philippines by the Islamist group Abu Sayyaf, for instance, or the seemingly goodhearted duo who wanted to help children in Chechnya, but ended up held hostage. These tales of the altruistic and naive can be difficult to watch.

But then there are those who rather deserve what happens to them. Typically these are drug smugglers, and their episodes follow a familiar arc. A young person—they’re almost always young—is bored or in need of cash (usually both). She is desperate or feels invincible (usually both). Someone approaches her and offers a seemingly great deal: an all-expenses-paid, luxurious overseas trip in exchange for a small favor. Sometimes the would-be employer is upfront and admits he needs a drug mule, but downplays the risk; other times, he hints at harmless-sounding illegalities, like bringing back legal goods to beat the export tax. In a few cases, the cover story is painfully thin: Come with me to check out this cool new nail polish technology only available in Thailand, for example. (That woman was in a vulnerable place: She had just been released on bail after killing her partner’s former husband—in self-defense, she claimed.)

The drug smugglers are caught, of course, usually at the airport, and brought to prison. And while a few episodes have taken place in developed countries—Spain, Japan, South Korea—the majority of our anti-heroes end up incarcerated in places with some of the dirtiest and most dangerous penitentiaries in the world.

Take last week’s episode, “From Hollywood to Hell.” (And pardon my spoilers, but this installment is too good not to describe in detail.) In 2001, actor Erik Aude was living the marginal Hollywood dream. An ür-bro, he had played bit parts in Dude, Where’s My Car?(credited as “Musclehead”) and 7^th Heaven (“Boyfriend”) when a gym buddy asked him to go to Turkey to bring back “leather goods.” Aude makes the trip, and though a drug-sniffing dog alerts authorities at the Turkish airport, they find nothing—so Aude feels sure the whole thing is legit. He even recommends that one of his brothers start couriering for his friend. Then, when his brother backs out of a planned trip to Pakistan in 2002, Aude steps in, and shit gets real.

It is difficult to feel sorry for Aude. After his escort dumps him in an Islamabad hotel and warns him not to leave because the area is unsafe for Americans, he doesn’t head to the embassy or the airport. Instead, he goes jogging—and even tries to flirt with girls in headscarves on the street (with disastrous results). And when he is taken to the airport with just one suitcase, he is (he claims) not the least bit suspicious that he might be a drug mule. When a customs official asks him whether his trip was for business or pleasure, he cheeses, “Pleasure is my business.”

Aude’s episode is mind-bogglingly watchable, not least because he—of course!—plays himself in the re-enactment. In his telling, he was a virtual action star: On at least three occasions, he single-handedly fights back dozens of Pakistanis. After he takes out a prison bully, he is hailed a hero. He rejects a reduced sentence because it would require him to plead guilty—and his pride is more valuable than his freedom, he says.

Aside from those truly in the wrong place at the wrong time, the most sympathetic characters of Locked Up Abroad may be the embassy employees called in to assist the suspected smugglers. Inevitably, Locked Up Abroad participants are horrified that the embassies of their homelands—usually English-speaking countries like the U.S., the U.K., or Australia—can’t do more for them. I can just imagine U.S. Embassy workers calling “not it” every time they get word from local authorities about some young American knucklehead who thought he could sneak past security with a bag full of cocaine.

Tonight’s episode is called “The Juggler Smuggler,” and its “hero” is Mark Greening, a “party-loving” drug-runner who knows his latest trip is “doomed” when he doesn’t get his fortune told by “his favorite Gypsy woman.” I can’t wait.

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Low fare airline bmibaby to close

Low fare carrier bmibaby is set to close later this year, threatening the loss of hundreds of jobs and the ending of its flights. The carrier transferred to International Airlines Group, the owners of British Airways, last month, but consultations have now started with unions about its closure in September. The GMB union said it was "devastating" news, especially for the East Midlands, where hundreds of jobs are now threatened with the axe. With bmi Regional, bmibaby transferred to International Airlines Group ownership on completion of the purchase from Lufthansa. IAG has consistently said that bmibaby and bmi Regional are not part of its long-term plans. A statement said: "Progress has been made with a potential buyer for bmi Regional, but so far this has not been possible for bmibaby, despite attempts over many months by both Lufthansa and IAG. Bmibaby has therefore started consultation to look at future options including, subject to that consultation, a proposal to close in September this year." Peter Simpson, bmi interim managing director, said: "We recognise that these are unsettling times for bmibaby employees, who have worked tirelessly during a long period of uncertainty. Bmibaby has delivered high levels of operational performance and customer service, but has continued to struggle financially, losing more than £100 million in the last four years. In the consultation process, we will need to be realistic about our options. "To help stem losses as quickly as possible and as a preliminary measure, we will be making reductions to bmibaby's flying programme from June. We sincerely apologise to all customers affected and will be providing full refunds and doing all we can with other airlines to mitigate the impact of these changes." Jim McAuslan, general secretary of the pilots' union Balpa, said: "This is bad news for jobs. Bmibaby pilots are disappointed and frustrated that, even though there appears to be potential buyers, we are prevented from speaking with them to explore how we can contribute to developing a successful business plan. "The frustration has now turned to anger following the news that Flybe (which is part owned by BA) has moved onto many of these bmibaby routes without any opportunity for staff to look at options and alternatives. Balpa's priority is to protect jobs; and we will use whatever means we can to do so." The changes mean that all bmibaby flights to and from Belfast will cease from June 11, although this will not affect bmi mainline's services to London Heathrow. Bmibaby services from East Midlands to Amsterdam, Paris, Geneva, Nice, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newquay, and from Birmingham to Knock and Amsterdam, will end on the same date.

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