Saudi King's Back Operation In US Successful - WSJ.com

2nd UPDATE: Saudi King's Back Operation In US Successful - WSJ.com: "Saudi Arabia's elderly monarch, who traveled to the U.S. earlier this week to seek medical care after being hospitalized late last week, successfully underwent back surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital, the royal court said Wednesday.
'A blood accumulation was removed, a slipped disk was adjusted, and an affected vertebral body was stabilized,' the royal court said in a statement.
King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz al-Saud, believed to be 86 years old, left for New York Monday to treat a slipped spinal disc, which caused a blood accumulation that put pressure on some nerves. He had earlier handed over power temporarily to Crown Prince Sultan, the king's brother, who also serves as defense minister, until his return to the top oil exporter.
The 85-year-old Sultan, who has suffered his own serious health problems, arrived in the kingdom the same day after a long break in Morocco."

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Euro Zone Is Short of Survival Options - WSJ.com

HEARD ON THE STREET: Euro Zone Is Short of Survival Options - WSJ.com: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel has acknowledged this is no longer an academic question, describing the current situation as 'extraordinarily worrying.' While markets steadied Wednesday, there still were signs of stress: Senior bank debt spreads in Portugal and Spain continued widening, and the cost of insuring Belgian government bonds against default reached a record.
European leaders are responding to each crisis country by country, providing individual bailout packages designed to prevent contagion. But the Irish bailout has failed to settle market nerves, with Portugal now under pressure and Spain also in the market's sights. If putting together an Irish bailout is proving hard, given rows over the conditions to any aid plus a domestic political crisis, Portugal will present an even greater challenge, given Lisbon's lack of progress in tackling its deficit and its chronic lack of competitiveness. Meanwhile, Spain's economy may be too big to save.
But even if the strategy does halt contagion, it most likely only buys time. The euro zone's bailout arrangements are due to expire in 2013"

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How Massive Rescue Fund Could Fall Short - WSJ.com

How Massive Rescue Fund Could Fall Short - WSJ.com: "€750 billion (about $1 trillion) European emergency fund, promoted as having the firepower to douse a financial crisis in the euro zone, may not even have enough to cover a bailout of Spain, according to the International Monetary Fund and outside economists.
The reasons are two-fold: There is a lot less money than the headline number suggests—and there are restrictions on the use of a lot of it.
The European Union, for instance, can provide just €310 billion for rescue loans, not the €500 billion the EU advertises.
Here is how the math works: About one-third of the €750 billion is supposed to come from the IMF. But the IMF can't commit anything in advance. Its members must approve each loan country-by-country. While it is unlikely, IMF members could balk at bailing out Europe. Their support isn't guaranteed.
The remaining €500 billion includes €440 billion committed by EU members under the European Financial Stability Facility—the fund that will be used for an Irish bailout.
That fund provides loans—not cash—and those bailout bonds are required to have triple-A ratings. To get such a rating lending countries have to hold onto about 40% of their loans as cash collateral. That reduces the actual amount available to lend to just €250 billion.
Another €60 billion comes from yet another pool—the amount already budgeted by the EU for such contingencies.
So, bottom line, only about €310 billion is actually accessible to countries in need, a figure confirmed by an IMF economist."

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Morocco’s Saham Group Expands Into African Insurance Market - BusinessWeek

Morocco’s Saham Group Expands Into African Insurance Market - BusinessWeek: "Morocco’s Saham Group has bought a 92-percent controlling stake in the insurance company Colina, the private holding group said in a press release.
Casablanca-based Saham, founded in 1995, engages in the franchising of children’s clothing stores. Colina has 15 affiliates in 11 African countries including Senegal, Mali and Cameroun, Saham said in the press release. The deal will be finalized in the coming weeks, it said."

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Banque Centrale Populaire Maroc joins the Mediterranean Bank Network

Banque Centrale Populaire Maroc joins the Mediterranean Bank Network

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Moroccan nationalists 'hack Algerian embassy website'

AFP: Moroccan nationalists 'hack Algerian embassy website': "website of Algeria's embassy in Washington has been targeted by Moroccan nationalist hackers, the mission said Wednesday.
Two other Algerian websites also appeared to be affected, according to statements on the websites, in attacks apparently motivated by Algiers' support for the Polisario Front.
The Front wants a referendum on self-determination for the Western Sahara region, with independence from Morocco as one of the options.
'The hackers left no doubt whatsoever as to their identities or those of their sponsors, now obviously resorting to desperate means and tactics,' the embassy said.
A website giving information on Algeria, TSA, stated on Wednesday that it would be closed for several days following the hacking.
Another site with links to Algerian media websites was also affected.
Western Sahara was annexed by Morocco after Spanish settlers withdrew in 1975, but the Polisario Front fought the Moroccan presence until the United Nations brokered a ceasefire in 1991."

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We see no sufficient and sustainable growth and expansion perspective for the specific concept of our self-service wholesale business in Morocco

"German retailer Metro has agreed to sell its stores in Morocco in a deal that marks its first retreat from a country and could presage similar decisions to cut exposure to underperforming markets.
Metro’s eight cash-and-carry stores are being sold to Label Vie, a Moroccan company that holds a Carrefour franchise, for €120m ($163m), Metro said on Monday. The deal will add a one-off €50m boost to earnings for the German retailer, one of Europe’s three largest by global sales along with Carrefour and Tesco.
Metro boosted by recovery in eastern Europe - Nov-02Metro in talks to sell French electronics chain - Oct-29Metro studies Indonesia as expansion base - Sep-13Upbeat Metro hails end to period of caution - Aug-02Metro hopes for Kaufhof sale in 2010 - Mar-30Metro eyes east Europe for growth - Mar-18The stores, which Metro bought in 1998, had sales of €208m in 2009 – a small share of the retailer’s overall cash-and-carry sales of more than €30bn. The group has more than 540 wholesale stores in 30 countries, mainly in Europe.
Joël Saveuse, a management board member of Metro, said: “We see no sufficient and sustainable growth and expansion perspective for the specific concept of our self-service wholesale business in Morocco.”"

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Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank to finance electricity projects in Morocco | Energy

Global Arab Network | Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank to finance electricity projects in Morocco | Energy: "Morocco and the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) have inked several agreements worth 51.7 million dollars (around 410 million dirhams) to finance the last phase of the rural electrification program.

The deals were concluded by Economy Minister Salaheddine Mezouar and IDB's Chairman Ahmed Mohamed Ali. The signing ceremony was attended mainly by Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra and head of Morocco's electricity facility (ONE) Ali Fassi Fihri.

On this occasion, Mezouar lauded the outstanding role played by the IDB in promoting Morocco's socio-economic development and spurring its economic growth.

He also stressed that the Bank is a key-partner of Morocco, mainly in terms of carrying out social development programs, including the rural electrification program."

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Joseph Garcia has accused the Gibraltar Government of having 'completely mishandled' the Mid Town project

Gibraltar Chronicle - The Independent Daily First Published 1801: "GSLP/Lib spokesman Joseph Garcia has accused the Gibraltar Government of having 'completely mishandled' the Mid Town project from when it was directly allocated, 'without going out to tender, in 2004,' up to the plans to take a majority share in the development for its 1st phase in 2010. Dr Garcia said the move is 'a serious error of judgement' that they oppose.
Dr Garcia said lack of finance has been given by Government as the reason for their decision but had not explained why it was chosen ahead of all the others for support.

'Lack of bank finance is a problem facing all developers in Gibraltar and not just one group. It is up to the developer to find private finance for the project to go ahead.'"

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Government should support the Mid Town project to the exclusion of all others.

"Opposition considers that it would be manifestly unfair to developers of commercial office space in Gibraltar that the Government should support the Mid Town project to the exclusion of all others.

There are obviously a number of other developers of office space in Gibraltar who would not be so lucky as to benefit from Government patronage in the way that is planned for Mid Town.

The Government have given the lack of bank finance as the reason behind their decision to support the Mid Town project. They have not explained why this particular project was chosen ahead of all the others for Government support. It is logical to assume that a lack of bank finance is a problem which faces all developers in Gibraltar and not just one group. In such cases it is up to the developer to find alternative sources of private finance which will allow the project to go ahead. This could take the form of entering into a joint venture with another investor or selling part of the project to a private entity with the necessary liquidity to be able to proceed, says an Opposition statement."

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“serious and persistent breaches” of the territory’s financial services legislation finance companies get £800,000 bill for Marrache administration

International Adviser :: Gib finance companies get £800,000 bill for Marrache administration: "The Marrache saga began in February when the FSC cancelled nine licences of Marrache & Co, saying that an investigation had revealed “serious and persistent breaches” of the territory’s financial services legislation. At the time, Marrache was well known in financial legal circles, where it identified itself as the only Gibraltarian law firm with offices in London, Spain, Lisbon, Prague and Luxembourg.
Three brothers who were principals of the business were subsequently arrested. The case is continuing."

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Gib finance companies get £800,000 bill for Marrache administration

International Adviser :: Gib finance companies get £800,000 bill for Marrache administration: "Around 100 financial services companies in Gibraltar will be expected to pay as much as £36,281 each to cover the government’s costs of handling the administration of Marrache & Co, the Gib law firm which collapsed earlier this year amid fraud allegations."

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British toilets 'not clean enough'

The Press Association: British toilets 'not clean enough': "Most Britons do not clean their toilets anywhere near enough, a survey to mark World Toilet Day has revealed.
The poll of 16 to 64-year-olds showed that 78% of the nation do not clean their loos every day - and 6% only bother to wipe round the bowl when it is visibly dirty.
The survey was commissioned by the charity Toilet Twinning which works to improve sanitation and prevent disease in some of the world's poorest communities.
The poll found that only one in five Britons cleaned their toilet every day.
Kim Woodburn, presenter of Channel 4's House Clean Is Your House?, said: 'In the average household of two adults, two children, with one bathroom, the toilet should be cleaned once per day.
'It takes two minutes. Little and often will keep it spotless and there will be no build up of odours or bacteria.'
Scottish toilets topped the cleanliness table with 27% carrying out a daily scrub, while London's loos fared the worst (19% cleaning daily). The Welsh appeared to be the dirtiest - with one in 10 cleaning their loo just once a month.
The smallest room in the house is a hive of activity. Scots preferred to get in and out fast while Londoners were most likely to look for a distraction."

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Migrant work visas may go up for sale - Telegraph

Migrant work visas may go up for sale - Telegraph: "Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), the body asked by the Government to recommend an immigration cap, yesterday said selling a number of visas to employers desperate to recruit overseas staff should be considered.
The proposal, which the committee's report said had 'appeal', has the potential to start bidding wars among rival companies willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of pounds to bring specialist workers into the UK.
It was suggested alongside a 20pc reduction in the number of work-related visas issued by the Government during the lifetime of this Parliament, which could see up to 12,600 fewer work-related visas issued in 2011-12. Professor David Metcalf, of the MAC, said family and student migration should bear the brunt of the cap, which was broadly welcomed by business groups."

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Doctors warned to expect unrest over NHS reforms | Society | The Guardian

Doctors warned to expect unrest over NHS reforms | Society | The Guardian: "Doctors face demonstrations outside their surgeries and questions about their high salaries by angry patients because of the government's radical NHS shakeup, the new leader of Britain's GPs warns.
Desperate patients denied life-extending drugs or surgery for their ailments may also vent their frustrations on GPs, because they are due to assume control of deciding how £80bn-a-year of health funding is spent, said Dr Clare Gerada, who takes over tomorrow as chair of the Royal College of GPs.
In an outspoken attack on health secretary Andrew Lansley's NHS reform plans, she also hit out at his decision to transfer responsibility for rationing access to treatment from the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) and primary care trusts to GPs in England from 2013.
'At worst, the negative impact for GPs could be patients lobbying outside their front door, saying, 'You've got a nice BMW car but you will not allow me to have this cytotoxic drug that will give me three more months of life,'' Gerada told the Guardian in an interview."

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Royal wedding: Prince William and Kate Middleton want 'people's ceremony' - Telegraph

Royal wedding: Prince William and Kate Middleton want 'people's ceremony' - Telegraph: "The couple have told royal aides that they do not want the congregation to be made up entirely of “the great and the good” and will send invitations to people from all walks of life.
The Prince and Miss Middleton, both 28, have now agreed on a venue, understood to be Westminster Abbey, and settled on a preferred date.
However, it will not been confirmed until it has been cleared with the Queen, the Church of England, the Metropolitan Police and key guests, such as the heads of Commonwealth countries. The couple were understood to have agreed to reconsider their original choice of a March wedding because of concerns about the weather."

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AIB loses €13bn in deposits due to Irish debt fears - The Irish Times - Sat, Nov 20, 2010

AIB loses €13bn in deposits due to Irish debt fears - The Irish Times - Sat, Nov 20, 2010: "ALLIED IRISH Banks has lost about €13 billion in deposits since the start of the year due to concerns about the financial difficulties of the Government and the banking system, the bank said in a trading statement yesterday.
Some €12 billion of the lost deposits were withdrawn, mostly by institutional and corporate depositors, since the end of June.
The bank admitted tapping “a range of liquidity facilities from central banks, including certain additional marketwide schemes during the period of dislocation within the funding markets”.
An AIB spokesman declined to say how much it had drawn from the Central Bank in exceptional liquidity – where it can borrow using collateral that is not accepted by the European Central Bank.
The bank later said its reliance on monetary authority funding had risen to €27 billion from less than €10 billion at the end of June, while the level of collateral it use to borrow from these sources had fallen to about €11 billion from about €24 billion.
Meanwhile, financier Dermot Desmond said in a speech yesterday that AIB and Bank of Ireland should be sold to overseas buyers as the State struggles to cope with a “financial emergency”."

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ECB's Gonzalez-Paramo says Spain could communicate better | Reuters

ECB's Gonzalez-Paramo says Spain could communicate better | Reuters: "Spain's government could communicate better to markets its plans for reforms, European Central Bank Executive Board Member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo said on Friday in an interview with Intereconomia television channel.
Spain's borrowing prices have risen on contagion from the debt crisis in Ireland, on fears its high deficit could drive it into its own financial difficulties.
The government has pledged austerity as well as pension reform to cut its deficit. But Gonzalez-Paramo said there have been mixed messages about some reforms."

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Spain to honor DC's celebrity chef Jose Andres

The Associated Press: Spain to honor DC's celebrity chef Jose Andres: "Spain is awarding one of its highest culture honors to a Spanish chef who made his name with restaurants in the United States.
Spain's Embassy in Washington says the Spanish cabinet agreed Friday to award U.S. restaurateur Jose Andres the Order of Arts and Letters medallion. The prize honors those who share Spain's culture with the world.
Andres grew up near Barcelona and has built a small food empire in Washington that is extending to Los Angeles and Las Vegas. His eatery Jaleo is credited with popularizing the small dishes known as tapas in the United States.
Andres also hosts the PBS series 'Made in Spain.'
Spain also will honor New York City psychiatrist Luis R. Marcos and journalist and writer Barbara Probst Solomon at a ceremony Nov. 30."

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The painstaking search for Spain's Franco-era missing

AFP: The painstaking search for Spain's Franco-era missing: "With painstaking care and armed with brushes and chisels, volunteers at a site in central Spain are unearthing bones buried for more than 70 years in the hope of identifying some of the victims from the Civil War.
But it is agonisingly slow work -- and hopelessly underfunded according to the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, which helps Spaniards locate the graves of loved ones who went missing during the 1936-39 war and subsequent dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
Among them was the father of Paula Gonzalez Polo, who is now 78 and was just four when her father was shot with six neighbors.
'I am pleased, although I hardly remember him,' she said as she approached the grave where his remains were found at Calzada de Oropesa, dressed in black and aided by her two granddaughters.
'Finally we can bury them.'
Over the past 10 years, the association has opened some 150 mass graves and exhumed around 1,500 corpses in its quest for truth, which is emerging just as slowly, 35 years after the death of Franco on November 20, 1975.
But that is out of 105,000 to 130,000 people the association estimates were killed and buried in mass graves during the war, which pitted Franco's right-wing forces against an elected left-wing government.
While Franco's regime honoured its own dead, it left its opponents buried in hundreds of unmarked graves across the country."

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Gaming fun, creative but is it economic development? | DeBono | Blogs | London Free Press

Gaming fun, creative but is it economic development? | DeBono | Blogs | London Free Press: "If there is anything to be learned from attending the Digital Interactive Gaming conference in London this week, it is that gaming is a fun, creative, exciting sector in which London is fortunate to have a presence.
But at the same time, one has to question whether it is one on which we can build a city economy, and I have to question whether in this era of restraint if we should pledge $5 million of city tax money to establish a gaming centre here.
Now, don’t get me wrong, before all you tech heads wanna go Halo on me, it is a terrific conference, and does much to raise the city’s profile in this sector, and that can only help the few game businesses we have here.
It is also an area with a lot of potential, and the Ontario government sees that, offering rich tax incentives to grow the industry here.
But it is also a sector that has as much stability as call centres — and about as much economic spinoff.
Consider we have one of the leading gaming businesses in Canada, Digital Extremes, here for nearly 20 years and widely respected. It’s total employment, about 100 people."

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Bereaved family thanks people of Monmouth | 2010

MONMOUTH TODAY | NEWS | Bereaved family thanks people of Monmouth | 2010: "The family of tragic Anni Dewani, the wife of Gibraltar Care Village co-owner Shrien Dewani, has spoken to the Monmouthshire Beacon.
Anni was murdered last weekend while on honeymoon in South Africa.
The Dewani family, and staff at Gibraltar Care Village, wanted to express their sincere gratitude to the people of Monmouth, who have provided immense support during this tragic ordeal.
Prakash Dewani, chairman of PSP Healthcare, said: “We are a close family and our business is about ‘people supporting people’.
“While Gibraltar Care Village cares for others 24/7, it is immensely comforting to see the local people of Monmouth caring for us in our time of need.
“We have set up a collection fund in memory of Anni which has already raised nearly £5,000.
“Anyone wishing to contribute may do so at justgiving.com/annidewani.”
PSP Healthcare chairman Prakash Dewani is pictured with staff from Gibraltar Care Village donating £10,000 to the Care Professionals Benevolent Fund."

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Gibraltar tobacco contraband on the rise | Costa del Sol | News | The Largest English Language Newspapers in Spain

Euro Weekly News | Gibraltar tobacco contraband on the rise | Costa del Sol | News | The Largest English Language Newspapers in Spain: "TOBACCO smuggling between Gibraltar and Spain has risen by 15 per cent during 2010, official sources say. This has led Guardia Civil and Spanish Customs to launch a campaign during which they seized more than 8,600 packets of cigarettes smuggled from Gibraltar to Spain in just three days.
The Government wants to put a stop to this activity because the Spanish public finance gain loses from €2,000 million each year due to contraband.
So far this year, more than 1.5 million packets of cigarettes have been seized by customs officers, 40,000 in La Linea alone."

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32-year old Italian who works in online gambling in Gibraltar has been arrested by Spanish police

"32-year old Italian who works in online gambling in Gibraltar has been arrested by Spanish police in La Linea for alleged fraud using credit cards on the internet.

A person alerted the police that two of his credit cards were being used by other persons.

The cards were issued by Barclays Bank and Deutsche Bank. It was claimed that 2,519 euros had been fraudulently used.

Spanish police said that it transpired that the arrested person worked in an online business in Gibraltar and was conversant with the use of credit cards."

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Berenfeld settles Rothstein suits for $10M | South Florida Business Journal

Berenfeld settles Rothstein suits for $10M | South Florida Business Journal: "accounting firm that worked for Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein has agreed to settle two malpractice lawsuits connected to the scandal for $10 million.
Coral Gables-based Berenfeld Spritzer Shechter & Sheer provided tax accounting for Rothstein, his defunct law firm, and for the top feeder in Rothstein’s $1.2 billion fraud, one of the funds led by George Levin.
The settlement amount marks the limits of Berenfeld’s malpractice insurance policies.
The agreement was filed Wednesday in the bankruptcy case of the defunct Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm."

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wanted for questioning by the Criminal Assets Bureau for the last seven years, had been living in Gibraltar

The Press Association: Businessman arrested over fraud: "businessman at the centre of alleged planning corruption has been arrested outside Dublin's Four Courts.
Fraud detectives detained James Kennedy on Arran Quay after he walked out of a High Court hearing on the 53 million euro (£46 million) hike in land prices at Carrickmines in south Dublin.
The 63-year-old, who has been wanted for questioning by the Criminal Assets Bureau for the last seven years, had been living in Gibraltar"

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The price of being single

BBC News - The price of being single: "Living alone costs singletons an extra £250,000 over a lifetime compared to couples, it is claimed. So what is the 'singles tax', asks Tom de Castella.
The illusion of single life being one long party has been shattered, was the bold claim.
Carrying the full burden of a mortgage, holidays and bills all adds up and single people spend more than £250,000 over the course of their life because they are not part of a couple, a new study suggests.
Researchers compared the spending of people living alone with couples, says price comparison website uSwitch, who commissioned the study. According to the findings single people are paying a hefty penalty for going it alone - hence the non-stop party illusion being shattered. But is it really true?"

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BBC News - Organ transplants hit record high in UK

BBC News - Organ transplants hit record high in UK: "record 3,706 organ transplants took place in the UK last year, an increase of 5% on the previous 12 months.
But NHS Blood and Transplant said there was still a long waiting list, with three people a day dying because of a lack of a suitable organ.
The refusal of relatives to allow donation often remains a key obstacle.
The doctors' union, the BMA, renewed its call for presumed consent, where all people are assumed to be willing to donate unless they choose to opt out.
There has been a steady increase in the number of organ donations in the past decade, and in 2008 a concerted effort began to boost the UK's rate, which lags behind those in most other European countries.
Many hospitals now have specialist nurses and transplant co-ordinators, and new systems which help identify potential donors and allow for an approach to families when death becomes likely.
The number of deceased donors reached 959 last year - some donating several organs - and there were 1,061 living donations."

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Ink jet bomb fanatics in UK and still plotting | Mail Online

Theresa May: Ink jet bomb fanatics in UK and still plotting | Mail Online: "terror group behind the ink jet bomb plot is operating on the ground in Britain planning new atrocities, the Home Secretary warned yesterday.Theresa May said the police and security services were engaged in an ongoing struggle against the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is now working in the UK.And she spoke too of a second new threat to the country from young radicalised Britons being trained in Somalia to carry out atrocities when they return to Britain."

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Qantas grounds A380 fleet after mid-air emergency - Telegraph

Qantas grounds A380 fleet after mid-air emergency - Telegraph: "Qantas grounds A380 fleet after mid-air emergency
Qantas has grounded its entire fleet of A380 Airbuses after an aircraft carrying more than 400 people was forced to make an emergency landing when part of one of its engines disintegrated over Indonesia."

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Is the Spanish economy doomed to collapse? | SpanishNews.es

Is the Spanish economy doomed to collapse? | SpanishNews.es: "Spain once enjoyed a booming and flourishing economy with foreigners flocking in from around the globe to get a piece of the action, buying up property like there was no tomorrow. But with the global economic crisis taking its toll on nations around the world, the real estate boom in Spain has come to a grinding halt. Over 1 million homes unsold and sellers desperate to sell dropping prices, with some luxury villa owners even knocking off a million euros from their asking price. Reuters reports: “Spain house prices unlikely to find floor before 2011“, claiming that prices will drop by up to 50 per cent."

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Case of 9 trillion diverted to Spain: the respondents fled to Morocco

Ennahar Online - Case of 9 trillion diverted to Spain: the respondents fled to Morocco: "According to well-informed sources about the case of illegal transfer of more than 9 trillion centimes to Spain in suitcases through the ports of Algiers and Oran, in which an investigation was ongoing at the court of Sidi M 'hamed in the capital, some state managers involved in this business would have left the national territory for Morocco."

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Morocco alarmed over rise in cocaine smuggling

AFP: Morocco alarmed over rise in cocaine smuggling: "Morocco is alarmed by the rise in the amount of cocaine being smuggled from South America to Europe though its territory, Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri said Wednesday in Spain.
'Today it is not soft drugs that are being trafficked between Africa and Europe. Today we are extremely worried by this flow of hard drugs like cocaine which come essentially from South America,' he told a news conference.
International drug trafficking gangs ship the cocaine from South America by air or sea first to West Africa from where it is then transported to Morocco, the minister said. It is then flown from Morocco to Spain.
'There are planes which regularly come to take cocaine from Morocco and take it to southern Europe, especially Spain,' Fihri told a joint news conference in Madrid with his Spanish counterpart Trinidad Jimenez."

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Morocco ups pressure on Spain over disputed enclave | News by Country | Reuters

FEATURE-Morocco ups pressure on Spain over disputed enclave | News by Country | Reuters: "When Spanish police with snarling dogs raided the market where she sells aluminium pots and pans, Najia Berbish, a Moroccan mother of five, hurriedly packed up her wares.
'Piety has deserted the hearts of these Christians,' she spat while gesticulating towards the police officers who were shouting out orders in Spanish at traders rushing to get away.
About an hour later, the police are gone and business is resuming at the illegal flea market in Melilla, a tiny Spanish enclave on the North African coast that adjoins Moroccan territory."

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Morocco rejects referendum on Sahara independence - Monsters and Critics

Morocco rejects referendum on Sahara independence - Monsters and Critics: "Morocco on Wednesday again rejected a referendum on the independence of Western Sahara, shortly before its negotiations with the region's separatist movement Polisario were due to restart in New York.
The concept of Western Saharan self-determination did not imply such a referendum, but could be exercised in other ways, Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi-Fihri said after meeting his Spanish counterpart Trinidad Jimenez in Madrid."

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Moroccan FM deplores Spanish media's biased treatment of issues on Morocco, its Sahara

Home: Moroccan FM deplores Spanish media's biased treatment of issues on Morocco, its Sahara: "Morocco's Foreign Minister Taib Fassi Fihri deplored, Wednesday in Madrid , the way some Spanish media deal with issues on Morocco and its Sahara, preferring to 'distort' reality and 'poison' bilateral relations.
Instead of echoing the Moroccan-Spanish good relations and help reduce tension that may arise from time to time between the two neighbouring countries, some Spanish press only 'distort the reality of Morocco as well as the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara,' Fassi Fihri said at a joint press conference with the new Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez.
'Morocco evolves, changes, progresses and adopts modern values. But it is a Morocco that some Spanish media refuse to see,' underlined the Minister who questioned some Spanish media's deliberate intention to mislead public opinion.
Unfortunately, the Spanish media see 'only negative and distorted things about Morocco, without appreciating the changes under way in the Kingdom,' he further deplored."

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Peter Caruana in Madrid for coastal talks around Gibraltar

Peter Caruana in Madrid for coastal talks around Gibraltar: "Representatives of the Governments of Spain and the UK will meet this Wednesday in Madrid with the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Peter Caruana, to discuss possible arrangements for police cooperation in the coastline around the Rock, without discussing the sovereignty of those waters .
The political meeting, held in the framework of the Tripartite Dialogue Forum, but independent of the technical meetings held last week to address other areas of cooperation such as education, safety, maritime disasters, visas and taxation.
Executives of Spain, the UK and Gibraltar decided last October 21 to resume the meetings of the Forum of Dialogue after Caruana complained about the Spanish claim over the sovereignty of Gibraltar waters after recent incidents involving patrol boats of the Civil Guard and the Royal Navy."

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Glasgow airport evacuated after suspicious package found by staff | UK news | The Guardian

Glasgow airport evacuated after suspicious package found by staff | UK news | The Guardian: "Parts of Glasgow airport have been evacuated and the army bomb disposal squad called in after security staff found a suspicious package in the departures area, police have confirmed."

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storm has been brewing about the fibre land cable that makes its way to the international connection point in Estepona

"storm has been brewing about the fibre land cable that makes its way to the international connection point in Estepona - but this time it is not against Gibraltar, instead it has been reported that when the cable was laid the fishing vessels in La Atunara were promised 6,000 euros each for certain limitations that had arisen in their fishing habits because of the cable. But apparently they have not receiced what was promised.

The cabling was laid in November 2006 when three of the eight fibre optics submarine cable were found damaged. The Spanish telephone company Telefonica claimed at the time that the damage had been caused by some of the fishing fleet at La Atunara.

The cable did not become operational as planned, until the problem was resolved.
The cable follows a path on the La Atunara beach vicinity, thus vessels going about their business nearby, which includes fishing on the seabed, are said to have caused the damage, according to Telefonica."

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Morocco counter-terror law under fire from HRW (Magharebia.com)

Morocco counter-terror law under fire from HRW (Magharebia.com): "Morocco exercises secret detention and ill-treatment of detainees under counter-terrorism laws, Human Rights Watch (HRW) alleged in a provocative new report titled 'Stop looking for your son: Illegal detentions under the counterterrorism law in Morocco'.
'While Morocco has demonstrated the political will to adopt enlightened human rights legislation, it lacks the political will to enforce it when it comes to terrorism suspects,' said Leah Whitson, head of HRW's Middle East and North Africa division.
To reach this conclusion, the organisation gathered eyewitness accounts from detainees, their lawyers and families over the period 2007-2010. The 56-page report issued on Monday (October 25th) strongly condemned arrests of suspects by plain-clothes officers, who show no ID, fail to explain the basis for the arrest and take the detainees blindfolded to a secret place."

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Global Arab Network | Axa France creates 1,500 jobs in Morocco by 2012 | Finance

Global Arab Network | Axa France creates 1,500 jobs in Morocco by 2012 | Finance: "French insurance group Axa France, which just established a road map on resurgence of competitiveness and productivity efforts, will create 1,500 jobs in Morocco by 2012, stated, on Tuesday, French daily economic news paper 'Les Echoes'.

The new Director-General of Axa France, Nicolas Moreau, confirmed that the 'aim is to create 1,500 job in Morocco by 2012. Five hundred people already work in Morocco, in claim settlement and back office in life and health insurance,' the newspaper stated, underlining that the group has not changed its mind with regard to delocalization.

According to the newspaper, the road map of the new official focuses on 'technical recovery', 'resurgence of competitiveness' and 'productivity efforts'."

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Morocco launches tender to build wind farm | Reuters

Morocco launches tender to build wind farm | Reuters: "Moroccan state power company ONE launched a tender on Wednesday for a contract to build and operate a 150 megawatt wind farm, the first stage in a $3.5 billion wind energy strategy.The Office National d'Electricite (ONE) set December 10 as the closing date for expressions of interest from firms and consortia, it said on Wednesday in a statement, with formal bids to be submitted in the first quarter of next year.
The successful bidder will be awarded a 20-year contract. The wind farm will be located in Taza, some 300 km (190 miles) north east of Rabat and is due to go on stream in 2014.
Morocco's government this year outlined plans to spend $3.5 billion on wind energy which -- combined with solar energy projects -- is aimed at increasing Morocco's share of renewable energy to 42 percent by 2020."

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Moroccan and Western Sahara rebel representatives are to meet near New York this month in a new UN-brokered bid to end unrest in North Africa

.:Middle East Online ميدل ايست أونلاين:.: "Moroccan and Western Sahara rebel representatives are to meet near New York this month in a new UN-brokered bid to end unrest in the North African territory, a UN spokesman said Tuesday.
The two sides along with officials from Algeria and Mauritania will meet in Greentree in the New York suburbs on November 8-9, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.
The UN hopes the talks 'will be productive and will allow the parties to move beyond the impasse' on the future of Western Sahara, he said reaffirming that the peace process was a UN 'priority.'
The talks follow a visit to the region by UN envoy Christopher Ross who has been trying to revive the deadlocked negotiations between the Moroccan government and separatist Polisario Front rebels."

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William Hill hits out at ‘bookmaker’ Betfair | Business

William Hill hits out at ‘bookmaker’ Betfair | Business: "William Hill today launched an attack on Betfair, saying it has an “identity crisis”.
In an interview, Betfair chief executive David Yu described the firm as a bookmaker.
But William Hill responded: “Up to now that is an assertion his company refuted, claiming to be just a technology platform. On that basis it has paid around three times less in tax than traditional UK bookmakers — like William Hill.”"

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Stan James Continues Expansion With US Acquisition | Freebets.com

Stan James Continues Expansion With US Acquisition | Freebets.com: "UK based bookmaker Stan James has entered the regulated US betting market by acquiring a majority stake in Racing2Day LLC for an undisclosed sum .

Stan James operate around 60 betting shops in the UK having acquired 27 shops from Pagebet in May of this year and operate an online betting and gaming business from Gibraltar .

Racing2Day was incorporated in 2007 and has been looking to raise finance for over 18 months .

Racing2Day.com provides online betting on horseracing from over 350 racecourses worldwide including the US, UK, Australia, Argentina and Dubai. The site operates under a multi-jurisdictional licence granted by the Oregon Racing Commission .

European betting operators are particuarly interested in acquiring existing US based and licensed betting business's in readiness for any future relaxation of US gaming laws .

Dennis Kelly CEO of Stan James said 'StanJames.com invests significantly into UK horse racing, and we are committed to continue our global investment in this exciting sport. We aim to boost the size of the pools by ultimately driving our European customers to the US Tote.'

Stan James is a privately held company owned by founder Steve Fisher and has consistently been one of the most innovative UK based bookmakers in recent years ."

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Gibraltar Minister of Justice stabbed in the street

Gibraltar Minister of Justice stabbed in the street: "Gibraltar's Minister of Justice, Daniel Feetham, was stabbed on Tuesday whilst out walking on the rock with his two young children.
Peter Caruana, Gibraltar's First Minister, said that Feetham was in Library Street after lunch on Tuesday when a man approached without saying a word and stabbed him in the back, shocking passers by in the street.
Police arrested the aggressor just minutes later and the Minister was rushed to St. Bernard's hospital, where he has undergone emergency surgery.
Despite the serious nature of the unprovoked attack and the size of the knife used by the aggressor, the 43-year-old Minister is said to be steady and out of danger.
Police are now investigating the motive for The attack and checking to see if the aggressor, who has still not been named, has any previous record."

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Regulation fears cause PartyGaming to drop - Sharewatch, Business - The Independent

Market Report: Regulation fears cause PartyGaming to drop - Sharewatch, Business - The Independent: "Fears of Europe being hit by strict regulations on internet gambling caused one of the sector's biggest names, PartyGaming, to take a tumble last night.
The Gibraltar-based firm is set to merge with the Austrian company bwin in the first quarter of 2011 to create what would be the world's largest online-gambling company, but Davy has revealed that it is worried about the fact that key markets are expected to introduce regulations which could result in uncertainty around the stock."

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Market Report: Regulation fears cause PartyGaming to drop - Sharewatch, Business - The Independent

Market Report: Regulation fears cause PartyGaming to drop - Sharewatch, Business - The Independent: "Fears of Europe being hit by strict regulations on internet gambling caused one of the sector's biggest names, PartyGaming, to take a tumble last night.
The Gibraltar-based firm is set to merge with the Austrian company bwin in the first quarter of 2011 to create what would be the world's largest online-gambling company, but Davy has revealed that it is worried about the fact that key markets are expected to introduce regulations which could result in uncertainty around the stock.
'We have become increasingly concerned about the impact regulation of European markets will have on bwin-PartyGaming as they make the transition from unregulated to regulated markets,' said the broker, which downgraded both companies to 'underperform'. 'In theory, the regulation of European markets should be a good thing for online operators.... The problem arises when one or more products are prohibited under new regulation or when tax rates are prohibitively high.'
Following the research, PartyGaming ended the session on 239p, a drop of 13.5p. It has endured a rough run recently, with the US midterm elections preying on the minds of investors. Democrat Harry Reid, a supporter of the gambling industry, has found himself in a battle to retain his US Senate seat for Nevada."

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La Línea owes banks €100 million and fell behind in salary payments to municipality employees over the summer.

La Línea owes banks €100 million and fell behind in salary payments to municipality employees over the summer. About 10,000 of its 65,000 inhabitants are unemployed, compared with 4,000 jobless five years ago.

“The boom years created jobs, but when the building craze suddenly ended, there was no obvious way to channel all these people into other activities,” Mr. Sánchez said. “We’re now told by Madrid that we cannot take on more debt, but that puts a city like ours in an impossible situation.”

In Jerez de la Frontera, a municipality known for its wine and flamenco, the debt pile has reached €670 million, or about $883 million. The economic slowdown has also cut Jerez’s tax revenue to €11 million last year from €41 million in 2008. “I’m running a war economy,” said Jerez’s mayor, Pilar Sánchez.

The dire financial prospects for such mayors are increasingly at odds with the view from Madrid, where the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has managed to improve investor confidence by reducing the central government’s deficit — down 42 percent in the first eight months of this year.

In contrast, some analysts and politicians warn that deficit levels in regions like Andalusia could worsen in coming months ahead of pivotal regional elections as local politicians display more generosity to sway voters. The electoral battle is expected to be intense in Andalusia, where the center-right Popular Party is aiming for a historic victory next May on the back of voters’ resentment over the downturn. Andalusia has been under Socialist control since Spain returned to democracy in the 1970s.

“Any mayor who cannot present some exciting new projects to the voters next May will face a very ugly situation,” said José Blas Fernández, a senior council member in the city hall of Cádiz, another Andalusian city that swung to a deficit last year. “The debt consequences of this political game will naturally only appear later.”

Meanwhile, Alejandro Sánchez, the mayor of La Línea, who represents the Popular Party, is also fighting to restore confidence in city hall politics after taking office last October, when his predecessor was ousted following a financial scandal involving a supplier of medical equipment to the city. He said the toll charge, expected to be €5 per vehicle crossing, was not an attempt to discriminate against Gibraltar but a savvy way of offsetting the pollution and traffic congestion caused by six million vehicles driving through La Línea every year.

“I don’t care whether drivers go to Gibraltar or not,” Mr. Sánchez said, “but I do care about making life better in La Línea.”

But José Blanco, transport and development minister, has vowed to take legal action against any such toll, arguing that it was beyond a mayor’s powers to charge for usage of a national road.

“For the first time in the dispute over Gibraltar,” Mr. Sánchez said, “the Spanish government is on the side of the British, which is even more paradoxical since this is exactly the kind of issue that should be left to local authorities if devolution is to mean anything in this country.”

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Gibraltar cited for weak anti-money laundering compliance

Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust – the same institution were Ponzi scheme architect Scott Rothstein did millions of dollars in banking – was criticized by federal regulators for weak anti-money laundering compliance.
Regulators told the $1.6 billion-asset bank to stop the “unsafe and unsound” practices of operating with “ineffective Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering compliance programs, having an excessive level of problem assets, not addressing its liquidity risk management and not following regulatory guidelines on real estate lending.
The Coral Gables-based bank on Friday released the order to cease and desist to the Business Journal shortly before the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) was expected to make it public.
The OTS listed six laws or regulations that it said the bank violated based on its confidential report of examination issued in May.
The enforcement action does not address the bank’s capital levels, which were strong as of June 30. Yet, it was given a restriction on its asset growth.
Gibraltar Chairman and CEO Steven Hayworth said the bank has been working with regulators on these issues for many months and it has already addressed many of their concerns.
“I feel like we’ve made great progress in raising our game in BSA compliance,” Hayworth said.
Miami-based banking analyst and economist Kenneth H. Thomas said he’s very surprised that a bank like Gibraltar, which caters to wealthy professionals and manages large sums of investment money, was criticized so harshly by regulators.
“These things don’t happen to private banks,” Thomas said. “They deal with a small number of wealthy clients and are usually very careful with clients.”
Several victims of Rothstein’s massive Ponzi scheme are suing Gibraltar, along with TD Bank, in Broward County Circuit Court. The complaint alleges that the bank reaped $200,000 in overdraft fees by approving and helping to cover sizable overdrafts totaling in excess of $64 million. The plaintiffs produced e-mails from Rothstein to Gibraltar officials threatening to make large clients leave the bank if they questioned his sloppy banking habits.
The investors’ lawsuit claimed that Gibraltar’s BSA compliance officer wanted more information in 2009 about certain transactions in Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler’s account, but Hayworth scuttled the inquiry.
Gibraltar said the information in the complaint is inaccurate and it is contesting the lawsuit.
Rothstein had a 5 percent ownership stake in Gibraltar, but those shares were turned over to the government.
Hayworth declined to comment on whether the Rothstein’s accounts had anything to do with the OTS’ enforcement action.
“Like so many other companies and individuals who were touched by that firm, we were a victim,” Hayworth said.
The OTS gave Gibraltar 60 days to review its BSA and anti-money laundering compliance and make corrections. That includes hiring a full-time person with daily responsibility in that area and annual training for all relevant bank personnel and the board.
Hayworth said the bank hired Danny Rodriguez as senior VP and BSA officer and Lee Duff as general counsel, with a specialization in BSA compliance. It already started the staff training in that area.
Regulators also told Gibraltar to implement a system for the proper filing of currency transaction reports and for adequately identifying customers, especially non-U.S. residents, commercial and business accounts and customers that use a lot of wire transfers. It must set up a system to monitor high-risk customers.
Gibraltar must make sure that it reports suspicious transactions to the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
Gibraltar is required to hire a third-party consultant to review all customer relationships established after Jan. 1, 2009 and identify the ones that were not in compliance with BSA and anti-money laundering regulations. The bank will have 30 days to correct those problems.
In other areas of concern, the OTS told Gibraltar to reduce its level of problem assets and develop a workout strategy for troubled loans in excess of $1 million.
The bank reported 6.26 percent of its loans as noncurrent as of June 30. Hayworth said that ratio would be below 5 percent in its third quarter report.
“The good news is in the third quarter our nonperforming loans dropped 28 percent from the second quarter,” Hayworth said. “That’s a result of working hard on some of these relationships. … I feel very bullish that the bank’s core earnings will continue to grow.”
The bank may not be able to grow its assets as much as it has in the past. That’s because regulators restricted its quarterly asset growth to no more than the net interest credited on its deposits. Hayworth said that’s about $3 million a quarter, but regulators can grant the bank permission to exceed that level.
In the first six months of this year, Gibraltar’s assets increased by $108 million.
Other provisions of the enforcement action require the bank to reduce its levels of deposits from brokers, not pay dividends without regulatory approval and not change executive compensation levels without regulators signing off


Read more: Gibraltar cited for weak anti-money laundering compliance | South Florida Business Journal

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Amnesty International is calling on the Moroccan authorities to immediately investigate the fatal checkpoint shooting of a 14-year old boy

Amnesty International is calling on the Moroccan authorities to immediately investigate the fatal checkpoint shooting of a 14-year old boy outside a camp set up by Sahrawi protestors.

According to his relatives, Al-Nagem Al-Qarhi was shot dead on 24 October by Moroccan military officers, while in a car bringing supplies to a camp set up by Sahrawi protesters demanding an end to their economic marginalization by the Moroccan government.

“The disturbing details of this killing that must be investigated immediately and transparently”, said Amnesty International. “Morocco needs to show that it has not violated UN standards on the use of firearms, or used excessive force as it chokes off access, supplies and communications to the Sahrawi protest camp.”

Al-Nagem died almost immediately after being shot in the kidney at close range by Moroccan military forces as he sat in a car with six others at a checkpoint, the victim’s sister Sayida has told Amnesty International.

The Moroccan Ministry of Interior has claimed that the car “attacked a checkpoint”, and that the checkpoint was fired on, but from another vehicle. Family members say the passengers were seated when they were shot, and that they were bringing supplies to relatives living in the protest camp.

The other passengers in the car with Al-Nagem were also injured in the shooting, and then beaten by Moroccan police, according to Sayida’s testimony. The surviving victims were transferred to a military hospital in the nearby city of Laayoune, where they were found handcuffed to their beds when family members visited them the next day. One has since been detained, and two taken in for questioning.

According to his family, Al-Nagem was buried the next evening by the Moroccan authorities, who have refused to allow his mother and siblings to see the body or tell them the location of the burial site.

The Moroccan military has kept a heavy presence around the camp, established on 10 October by Sahrawis who left the city of Laayoune and other Western Sahara cities en masse to demand improved job opportunities and housing.

Today a group of about ten Spanish journalists were prevented from entering the camp by the police. Last week, Moroccan officials are reported to have used batons and teargas to prevent over a hundred people travelling in cars from reaching the camp with supplies.

Amnesty International has called for the respect of Sahrawi protesters’ right to freedom of assembly and warned that no excessive force should be used to disperse protestors, in a letter addressed last week to the Moroccan Minister of Interior.

Since 10 October 2010, thousands of Sahrawis have collectively left Laayoune to set up a camp in the desert about 10-13 kilometres east of the city. Some Sahrawi human rights defenders say that the camp population has reached the tens of thousands; official sources reported that there were 5,000 people last week in the camp.

Western Sahara is a territory contested between Morocco, which annexed it 1975, and the Polisario Front, which calls for its independence and runs a self-declared government in exile in the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria.

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Moroccan police have instituted a pattern of abuse under the country's anti-terrorism law, notably by way of detentions

Human Rights Watch charged Monday that Moroccan police have instituted a pattern of abuse under the country's anti-terrorism law, notably by way of detentions carried out by the intelligence service.
In a report called "Stop Looking for Your Son: Illegal Detentions Under the Counterterrorism law in Morocco," the New-York based rights organisation said that the abuses "violate the progressive legislation Morocco adopted to safeguard against torture and illegal detention."
HRW staff told a press conference in Rabat that agents wearing plain clothes have in recent years turned up at homes and arrested people without any identification or explanation, then transported them blindfolded to a secret place of detention.
This practice has taken place under a law that was passed just after the Casablanca terrorist bombings of May 16, 2003, in which 45 people were killed, including 13 suicide bombers, and many were injured.
The HRW report was partly based on interviews conducted with people who had been detained between 2007 and 2010, and with their relatives. It includes a response from the Moroccan government, which Human Rights Watch welcomed.
Suspects are often held longer than the 12-day legal maximum in custody and "many of those held under those conditions say that they were tortured or ill-treated in detention," the report said.
"The authorities eventually transfer them to a police station, where officers present them with a statement for signature. Only after they have signed do most of them first see a lawyer and are their families initially notified of their whereabouts -- sometimes four or five weeks after their arrest.
"The failure of arresting agents to prove their identity as police is significant because the suspects and their families uniformly contend that those who carried out the arrests are agents of the domestic intelligence agency" -- the General Direction of the Surveillance of the Territory (DGST).
The report contains allegations that the DGST has a secret detention centre in or near Tamara, outside Rabat, and carries out arrests that are legally the responsibility of the police.
Moroccan authorities deny that such a detention facility exists and Rabat's embassy in Washington on September 25 wrote to HRW to say: "Agents of the DGST are not officers of the criminal investigation police and do not act as such.
"The king's prosecutor at the appeal court in Rabat visited the headquarters of the DGST, searched its premises and established a report indicating that there is no secret detention centre," the government said.
The government also responded to individual cases of detention cited in the HRW report and said the suspects were arrested by regular police, presented to the investigation judge within the legal timeframe and held in legal places of detention.
It said that families were notified and "the fact that some terrorism suspects refused to sign statements prepared for them by the police shows there is no coercion."

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Sperm whales, pilot whales, orcas and dolphins are all at risk of being killed in collisions with freighters using the proposed route between Tarifa,

Sperm whales, pilot whales, orcas and dolphins are all at risk of being killed in collisions with freighters using the proposed route between Tarifa, on the southwestern tip of Spain and a new port in Tangier on Morocco's northern coast.
Greenpeace has called on the Spanish government to rethink the creation of the new route.

"There is an exclusion zone that is ignored already and now they are going to create a new route that slices it in two," Pilar Marcos, head of Greenpeace Spain's coastal campaign, told Spanish newspaper El Pais.
The Merchant Marine department of Spain's Public Works ministry has admitted that it "does not consider the said route to be necessary" but cannot prohibit its use.
Instead it will urge freighters to reduce their speed during the crossing to 13 knots and post lookouts on deck to "avoid collisions with cetaceans".
Spain's Center for Conservation, Information & Research on Cetaceans (CIRCE) has said there have already been four documented collisions in the waters at the mouth of the Mediterranean.
"In 2002 we saw one close up. A freighter passed by our side and ran into a sperm whale, which was left expelling jets of blood," said Renaud de Stephanis, president of CIRCE.
"The new route could cause a significant increase in the number of collisions between fast ferries and these species," he said.

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Morocco has blocked the entry of seven Spanish journalists into Western Sahara following the killing of a young demonstrator there by Moroccan police

Morocco has blocked the entry of seven Spanish journalists into Western Sahara following the killing of a young demonstrator there by Moroccan police, Spanish media reported Tuesday.
Moroccan government sources accused the Western Sahara independence movement Polisario and its backer Algeria of using journalists to politicise social demands by protestors who have set up a tent camp near the Saharan capital Laayoune.
The Moroccan airline Royal Air Maroc cancelled the tickets of the Spanish journalists as they were preparing to fly from the Moroccan city of Casablanca to Laayoune, the daily El Mundo said.
The journalists were given no clear explanation for the cancellation.
Morocco perceives Spanish media as often siding with Polisario, government sources told the German Press Agency dpa. They accused Algeria of using Spanish journalists in a 'media war' against Morocco.
Morocco annexed Western Sahara after the colonial power Spain withdrew from there in 1975.
The Spanish journalists were prevented from flying into Laayoune following the killing of 14-year-old Najem el-Guareh near the protest camp on Sunday.
The incident occurred when two cars tried to force their way through a police checkpoint, the Moroccan Interior Ministry said Tuesday.
The people travelling in the cars included Ahmed Daoudi, a known criminal who was transporting weapons, according to the communique. Daoudi was planning to take vengeance of the protestors, who had expelled him from their camp, the ministry said.
The occupants of one of the cars opened fire, forcing police to respond, according to the communique.
However, camp residents quoted by the Spanish daily El Pais denied that the car occupants had opened fire.
El-Guareh was shot. Several others, including Daoudi, were reportedly injured. At least one of the victims was reported in a serious condition.
The demonstrators are demanding social improvements such as better housing. Morocco has cut down on the construction of social housing because of the economic crisis. Low-level or overcrowded housing is a problem all over the country, according to analysts in Rabat.
The Western Saharan demonstrators, however, are also accusing Morocco of using the desert region's natural resources such as fisheries to its own benefit.
The protest was taking separatist undertones, though it was not initially associated with Polisario, El Pais said.
The incidents in Laayoun coincided with the visit to Morocco of United Nations Western Sahara envoy Christopher Ross, who stressed the need to lower tension when meeting King Mohammed VI on Monday.
Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez also asked the Moroccan authorities to maintain contacts with the camp leaders in order to prevent violent incidents.
Morocco says there are about 1,000 demonstrators at the camp, which began to be set up on October 9. Spanish reports, however, put their number at more than 10,000.
More than 100 people protested against the UN Western Sahara force Minurso in Tifariti in a buffer zone between Morocco and Algeria on Monday, accusing it of not protecting human rights, El Pais reported.
The UN-sponsored talks between Morocco and Polisario are due to be relaunched in early November.
Polisario's 16-year war against Morocco ended in a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991. However, the planned referendum on independence was never put into practice by Morocco.
Rabat is now proposing to grant Western Sahara an autonomy status. Polisario rejects that option and continues insisting on the referendum on independence.

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official complaint against the Rock’s reclamation projects.

SANCHEZ CALLS ON BRUSSELS TO INVESTIGATE GIB RECLAMATION PROJECTS
Mayor of La Linea Alejandro Sánchez yesterday presented a 100 page document to the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee in Brussels detailing an official complaint against the Rock’s reclamation projects. According to Sr Sánchez the paper “will show the damage to La Linea’s beaches given the proximity of these projects,” while noting the alleged absence or notification of any environmental impact assessment into the neighbouring coastline.
Additionally, Sr Sánchez also refers to other “hidden reclamation projects which will come to fruition soon,” that could have further effects “on the marine fauna, flora and environment.”

The complaint also calls for the setting up of a commission of investigation to establish whether there have been any breaches of EU laws by Gibraltar.

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HOTEL and real estate group, Jale have lost control of the famous Incosol hotel in Marbella

HOTEL and real estate group, Jale have lost control of the famous Incosol hotel in Marbella as well as three others in Cadiz and Cordoba. A judge in Cadiz has left the management of the hotel in the hands of the members of the insolvency administration and the owner of the hotels, Inmobiliaria Amuerga, will receive no money at all.

Incosol is run by Jale Medical Spa Corporate SL although there is no contract to prove this and the money taken, which amounted to €11.7m in 2008, is kept by this company. The judge reports that there was €7.5m worth of unjustified personnel and external services expenses. Amuerga, however, claimed that this situation was known by the insolvency administration.

Now, the creditor will be able to appoint someone to directly run each one of the hotels so that expenses can be properly controlled.

Staff at the hotels, and trade unions, are happy with the sentence, which may be appealed, because it means they will remain open and they will be paid the wages which they are owed.

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official complaint against the Rock’s reclamation projects.

SANCHEZ CALLS ON BRUSSELS TO INVESTIGATE GIB RECLAMATION PROJECTS
Mayor of La Linea Alejandro Sánchez yesterday presented a 100 page document to the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee in Brussels detailing an official complaint against the Rock’s reclamation projects. According to Sr Sánchez the paper “will show the damage to La Linea’s beaches given the proximity of these projects,” while noting the alleged absence or notification of any environmental impact assessment into the neighbouring coastline.
Additionally, Sr Sánchez also refers to other “hidden reclamation projects which will come to fruition soon,” that could have further effects “on the marine fauna, flora and environment.”

The complaint also calls for the setting up of a commission of investigation to establish whether there have been any breaches of EU laws by Gibraltar.

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Kuwaiti investments in Morocco reached about 8 billion dirhams ($1 billion)

Kuwaiti investments in Morocco reached about 8 billion dirhams ($1 billion) in various sectors, Morocco's Economy and Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar said on Thursday.

These investments significantly increased with a tendency for more sectoral diversification, Mezouar told the press following the signing ceremony of four agreements to reinforce the Moroccan-Kuwaiti cooperation, under the chairmanship of HM King Mohammed VI and HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

The Moroccan official added that Kuwait is one of the Kingdom's main partners in terms of funding development projects in Morocco (ports, highways, electricity, high speed rail, dams…).

The Moroccan-Kuwaiti agreements signed on Thursday reflect the deep and sound bilateral relations, he said, underlining that the two countries are willing to further boost trade exchanges which do not live up to their expectations.

The contribution of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to development projects in Morocco increased to 1.2 billion dollars, said on Thursday in Rabat the Fund's managing director, Abdelwahab Ahmed Al-Badr.

The Fund has signed 36 agreements as part of the Moroccan-Kuwaiti cooperation, he told the press after the signing ceremony of four agreements on bilateral cooperation under the chairmanship of HM King Mohammed VI and the Amir of Kuwait HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Abdelwahab Ahmed Al-Badr added that the Kuwait Fund will, under these agreements, finance a development project on the transmission of electricity worth 20 million Kuwaiti dinars, as well as a high-speed train project, with a contribution of 40 million Kuwaiti dinars.

Cooperation between the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development and Morocco's electricity utility, known by its French acronym ONE, stood at 1.011 billion dirhams ($125 mln) under the form of four loans.

These loans contributed, since 1975, to the funding and building of the central thermal of Kenitra, the Al Wahda central hydroelectric power plant, the hydraulic complex of Dchar El Oued-Aït Messaoud, and the implementation of the fourth phase of the comprehensive rural electrification programme, the ONE said in a statement.

The two parties signed another agreement worth 660 million dirhams, on Thursday in Rabat, during the official visit of HH the Amir of Kwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

The agreement aims to reinfoirce the network of electricity transmission in the southern provinces.

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jet owned by a senior executive in the US firm which has bought Liverpool Football Club was chartered by the CIA and used

jet owned by a senior executive in the US firm which has bought Liverpool Football Club was chartered by the CIA and used in flights allegedly linked to the rendition of terror suspects.
The plane is owned by Phillip Morse, 69, the vice-chairman of New England Sports Ventures, which bought the club on Friday for £300million.
An investigation has established that between 2002 and 2005 the CIA chartered the plane from Mr Morse for millions of pounds and made extensive use of it.Guantanamo Bay to Morocco on March 27 2004 and a journey from Guantanamo to Romania and Morocco on April 12 2004 to the abduction of al Qaeda operatives Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.

Abduction link: Mr Morse's jet with the Red Sox logo on its tail fin
All four men were reportedly transferred from Guantanamo to foreign prisons in March and April 2004. The CIA subsequently admitted that it has video footage of al-Shibh under interrogation in a Morocco black prison.
The plane’s flight records show it also made a series of visits to RAF Leuchars in Scotland and also landed at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Luton airports.
Located by The Mail on Sunday at his home in Florida on Friday night, Mr Morse confirmed the arrangement with the CIA. He said: ‘Yeah, that’s true.’
But he insisted he had stopped renting the plane to the agency after he became aware of the rendition of Mr Omar.
He said: ‘The plane is still chartered. It’s just not chartered to the CIA.’
He said he became aware of the investigation into Mr Omar’s abduction in early 2005 and at that point he stopped hiring the jet to the CIA.
He said: ‘I didn’t know anything at the time. I don’t know that it’s ever been verified.’
Mr Morse, a partner in NESV, made his fortune from a company he founded which makes tubes used in heart surgery.
In 2002 he bought a ten per cent stake in NESV, which experts believe was valued at £26million at the time.
Mr Morse bought the white Gulfstream IV in 1995.
Clara Gutteridge of Reprieve said: ‘Questions have now been raised about the involvement of Mr Morse’s plane N85VM in three illegal rendition operations, and Reprieve is actively investigating its involvement in a number of further “transfers to torture”.
‘In light of these revelations, I hope very much that Mr Morse’s moral fibre is of the same high calibre as his bank balance.
‘I therefore look forward to Mr Morse’s full co-operation with our investigations into the clandestine activities of this executive jet. If Mr Morse fails to assist in investigations, this would raise serious questions as to his fitness to own Liverpool Football Club.’
Overseas tycoons now own nine of the 20 Premier League clubs. A NESV UK spokesman said: ‘Phillip is a passive investor in NESV and is not involved in our work here in the UK. Phillip addressed these questions publicly back in 2005, and any further inquiries about the use of his private plane are really a matter for Phillip.’






Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1321244/CIA-paid-Liverpool-buyout-tycoons-millions--use-jet-torture-flights.html#ixzz12iAvW5fw

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Moroccan investigations have revealed that the terrorist network al-Qaeda is aiding international drug cartels

Moroccan investigations have revealed that the terrorist network al-Qaeda is aiding international drug cartels in securing logistics in the Northern African country to export drugs to Europe.

On Friday, Morocco’s Interior Minister, Taib Cherkaoui, revealed details of the relationship between al-Qaeda and drug cartels, which he described as “obvious”. The interior ministry’s recently cracked down on a group with 34 members involved in selling drugs.

“Through security investigation, it has been found that there are direct relations between international drug networks and al-Qaeda, and they use Moroccan’s desert and coast as a base for their operations,” Cherkaoui said.
He also added that the drug lords are mainly from Colombia, Venezuela and Spain and have a “good” relationship with al-Qaeda in the North African country.

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Morocco's government says police have dismantled an international drug trafficking ring

Morocco's government says police have dismantled an international drug trafficking ring bringing cocaine and marijuana from South America to Africa and on to Europe.
Taieb Cherqaoui says 34 people were arrested, including a Spaniard who led the group out of Morocco.
Cherqaoui told a news conference Friday that the ring had ties with al-Qaida's North African affiliate, known as AQIM, as well as Latin American drug cartels.
Cherqaoui said the group had smuggled 600 kilograms of cocaine into Morocco between March and August of this year.
He said the drugs were brought from Colombia and Venezuela to Africa, stored in northern Mali, then taken through the desert to markets in Morocco and Europe.

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12 people were killed when former Tuareg rebels backed by Malian government forces clashed with heavily armed drug smugglers

12 people were killed when former Tuareg rebels backed by Malian government forces clashed with heavily armed drug smugglers ferrying cocaine across the Sahara desert, Malian officials said on Sunday.

Several smugglers were captured in the clash, which took place on Thursday about 100 km (60 miles) from the town of Kidal in northern Mali, a local government official said.

"Drug traffickers transporting cocaine from Morocco towards Egypt clashed with (former Tuareg rebel leader Ibrahim Ag) Bahanga and his men, who were given material support by the army," said the official, asking not to be named.

"About a dozen" people died in the clash and a number of traffickers were arrested, the official said. Another official confirmed the incident but could give no further details.

Nomadic Tuareg rebels took up arms in northern Mali in 2007 to fight for a greater share of the country's resources. A peace deal ended that conflict, but drug smugglers and Islamists still operate in the desert, ignoring national borders.

Islamists have risen to prominence over the last year with a string of kidnappings and have received millions of dollars in ransom payments, security sources say.

The al Qaeda-linked Islamist group known as AQIM is currently holding seven foreigners, five of them French citizens, who it kidnapped from a uranium-mining town in neighbouring Niger.

Countries in the Sahel-Sahara region are finding it difficult to overcome their strained relations and unite in the fight against AQIM, and the former Tuareg rebels have said they are ready to take on the Islamists for the government.

No formal agreements have been reached since they made the offer but the latest clash shows that there is some cooperation with the Malian armed forces on the ground.

Under the peace deal that ended their conflict with the Malian army, some Tuareg rebels were due to be integrated into army units to provide security for the north.

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Probability has been awarded a remote gambling licence by the government of Gibraltar

Probability has been awarded a remote gambling licence by the government of Gibraltar, the first new licence since 2008.

Cohen called the Gibraltar licence “the icing on the cake” not just because it places the company among a “prestigious group of egaming businesses, but because it provides us with access to a skilled workforce and more efficient, competitive tax and cost regime”.

There are currently 19 other companies with a remote gambling licence in Gibraltar including Ladbrokes, 888.com, PartyGaming and William Hill. The company said the move would bring both commercial benefits and “significant on-going cost savings and improved operational margins” as the business expands.

Glenn Elliott, the company's chief operating officer has relocated to Gibraltar and taken up the role of managing director of Probability (Gibraltar) Limited. Elliott has resigned his position on the board of Probability with immediate effect in order to take up this appointment.

John Anderson has also been appointed as non-executive chairman of Probability (Gibraltar) Limited. Anderson has been non-executive director of 888 Holdings since January 2007and was its chief executive for seven years. He is also chairman of the Interactive Gaming Council and a board member of the international player protection and standards organisation eCOGRA and a director of online bookmaker 10Bet as well as being chairman of Burford holdings, a privately held property investment company.

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Gibraltar is now recognised globally as an online gambling centre and continues to highlight it's credibility.

Gibraltar is now recognised globally as an online gambling centre and continues to highlight it's credibility.
While not quite the glamorous destination of the Mediterranean gambling mecca Monaco Gibraltar has gained a reputation as the place where sophisticated online gambling companies have based their operations. Rising from reclaimed land on the Rock's west side, Europort has become home to some of the world's most trusted and reliable gaming firms.

Back as far as 1998 Victor Chandler from the U.K. moved a segment of it's operation to Gibraltar in order to give customers an advantage by not having to pay a gambling duty or VAT in the U.K. When Ladbrokes moved their online and telephone segments there the government in the U.K. removed the gambling tax in order to keep more companies from following suit.

Gibraltar can now boast as many as 20 online betting and gaming firms employing an estimated 2000 people. The gambling industry represents Europort's largest employer and tenants.

Former trade and industry minister, and now a partner at Hassans law firm, Peter Montegriffo, commented that regulation has come with careful and researched progress, He said, "There is a certain reputation risk that comes with gambling," Montegriffo continued, "The other consideration is that Gibraltar is a small place , we did not want one single activity to become too big," "Gibraltar never set out to become a centre of online gaming,” explained Montegriffo, " However, the industry has developed a momentum all of its own."

The fear of one industry being too big and an economy such as Gibraltar's have most of it's eggs in one basket is real and imposing. When America shredded the online gambling industry Gibraltar was one country that was severely affected by the prohibition. Fortunately online gambling companies have recovered somewhat from the USA melt down and the jurisdiction is still maintaining a strong hold on the industry. Various online gaming operators are still looking at Gibraltar as the best place to do their business from.

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Probability plc, a software producer that specializes in developing mobile casino games, has left Aldernary and is on its way to Gibraltar

Probability plc, a software producer that specializes in developing mobile casino games, has left Aldernary and is on its way to Gibraltar, becoming the first online gambling company to receive a new license from the jurisdiction since 2008.
Probability says the move will allow them to save costs and improve operational margins. The company is expanding thanks to a recent explosion of interest in mobile phone gambling. Recent revenue growth is also attributable to increased spending on marketing and customer retention.

Wagers on Probability’s mobile casino games were up 55 per cent in September over April, with total cash deposited by players up 27 per cent over the same period. The group’s sites also saw an 11 per cent rise in players.

The latest product update released by Probability was the addition of iPhone casino games. The product, called ‘Touch Casino’, was launched in July. The group says that 12 per cent of all cash deposits already come from iPhone users.

The new Gibraltar license means that mobile gambling sites powered by Probability software, like LadyLucks Mobile Casino, can now be included on the UK’s famous “white list” of trusted gambling sites.

Charles Cohen, CEO of Probability, explains that further growth can be expected. “There remains a huge amount of opportunity for us as consumers shift their behaviour towards mobile devices such as the iPhone, Android and tablets such as the iPad and Blackberry’s recently announced PlayBook. You are going to see Probability making a strong play into all of these devices and markets.”

Shares in Probability plc reached a 52 week high of 60.50 pence after the announcement was made.

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Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust Co. on Friday was served with a cease and desist order from regulators, citing unsound banking practices

Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust Co. on Friday was served with a cease and desist order from regulators, citing unsound banking practices related to its Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering policies and procedures, as well as problem loans.
The privately held Coral Gables-based bank, which caters to doctors, lawyers and other professionals and entrepreneurs, has had clients affected by the economic downturn, said Steve Hayworth, Gibraltar's founder, chairman and chief executive.
``Clearly over the last few years it's been a difficult environment for all Florida banks -- all banks really,'' Hayworth said.
Yet given its well-heeled niche, it's ``very surprising'' to be given a formal regulatory enforcement action, said Miami-based economist and independent banking consultant Ken Thomas.
``It shows how difficult this banking environment is, when private banks are being hit with enforcement actions,'' said Thomas, adding that Palm Beach-based Lydian Bank & Trust was also served this year. ``Usually they are conservative lenders and the most conservative bankers, and for them to run afoul of the regulators in any way is very unusual.''
Among Gibraltar's clients was the now defunct law firm of Scott Rothstein, who pleaded guilty in January to racketeering charges in masterminding a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
Rothstein also acquired a 5 percent stake in the bank in September 2009 when Hayworth led an investor group in buying Gibraltar back from Boston Private Financial Holdings. Those shares are now in the hands of the federal government.
Hayworth said Gibraltar is taking the enforcement action, its first ever, ``very seriously.'' The bank has already taken several steps to comply with the order, including beefing up its Bank Secrecy Act staff, both in the level of experience and number of personnel, Hayworth said.
Gibraltar has also ramped up the loan workout department that it created last year, adding more staff during the first half of this year.
And the bank has hired its first in-house general counsel, who has a strong Bank Secrecy Act and compliance background, Hayworth said. And it has enhanced its training program related to the Bank Secrecy Act.
Among other requirements of the 16-page order, Gibraltar is barred from granting any dividends without regulatory approval, and it shall not change any senior executive officer or director's compensation or benefits agreement without notifying regulators.
Founded in 1994, Gibraltar had $1.6 billion in assets on June 30, 2010, and $732 million in assets under management. The bank posted a net loss of $805,000 during the second quarter, primarily due to provisions for loan losses.
Though final results for the third quarter are not yet out, Hayworth said non-performing loans dropped during the period by 28 percent, from $95 million to $68 million, or to less than 5 percent of total assets.
``This is an environment where there are obviously some challenges, asset quality being one of them,'' Hayworth said. ``There is still a huge need for quality private banking and wealth management services.''


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/16/1876268/coral-gables-private-bank-gibraltar.html#ixzz12i7jn9Vh

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Spanish fisheries protection vessel entered our waters and inspected a vessel’s papers

May of last year we had the first incident of a different and more serious kind. That was when a Spanish fisheries protection vessel entered our waters and inspected a vessel’s papers. This was therefore not just a case of incursion, but also of exercising executive competence and policing powers in our territorial waters. During the last 18 months we have been making it clear to both London and Madrid that this new Spanish behaviour was not consistent with, and was bound to impact on, the viability of co-operation in matters relating to waters.

The incident of 28th September was the first of an even more serious kind, in which the Guardia Civil, by the threat and use of physical force against RGP officers, prevented them from exercising the RGP’s powers and jurisdiction in our own waters. In the process, they enabled, assisted and indeed secured the escape onto the Guardia Civil launch of a person who was already under the lawful arrest and physical custody of the RGP. This they achieved by the use of physical force against RGP Officers. They then took away to Spain, in the Guardia Civil launch, the person whose escape from arrest they had themselves achieved, ignoring RGP requests to return him to their custody.

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Gibraltar’s application to establish a World Trade Centre (WTC)

Gibraltar’s application to establish a World Trade Centre (WTC) has been approved by the WTC Association at the conclusion of its Annual General Assembly in China, making it the 335th licence to be awarded across the globe to develop international trade.

The unanimous vote by WTC members in favour came after close scrutiny of the credentials and development plans submitted by Greg Butcher, the entrepreneur behind the large-scale mixed use Ocean Village project.

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NO to the reclamation in Gibraltar.

mayor of La Linea Alejandro Sanchez and his PP council members have again been trying to stir anti-Gibraltar feelings in La Linea. On this occasion through a leaflet that was produced by the 'ayuntamiento' and distributed in the border town.

The leaflet carried a banner headline which said NO to the reclamation in Gibraltar.

It then asked: Till when? To where?

It is not right that Gibraltar should expand its territory at La Linea's expense - that was the message.

The line taken was that the reclamation projects were affecting La Linea's beaches, which they claimed were 'disappearing'.

It is amazing how excited they can get when they think they can knock the Rock.

Yet, there have been huge reclamation projects over the Campamento and Algeciras areas, gaining land from the waters of the bay - and Sanchez & Co have remained dutifully silent.

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British and Spanish naval and police boats have been involved in a series of face-offs in the waters off Gibraltar, around which Britain claims

The government has declined to take further action on Saturday after a letter from Gibraltar called for the Royal Navy to deploy ships to confront Spanish "incursions" into the waters of the disputed territory.
Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana said on Thursday he had written to Foreign Secretary William Hague asking him "to take effective action to uphold Her Majesty?s Sovereignty of British Gibraltar Territorial Waters."
He wanted this to include "the systematic deployment and intervention of the Royal Navy in support and protection" of police.
But while acknowledging receipt of the letter, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "The Royal Navy is already present and their role is well-defined already."
Since last year, British and Spanish naval and police boats have been involved in a series of face-offs in the waters off Gibraltar, around which Britain claims a strip of water measuring three nautical miles (5.5 kilometres).
The most recent incident came last month when Gibraltar police said they were pursuing a suspect and Spanish officers used "physical aggression" to stop them.
Spain does not recognise any waters off Gibraltar as belonging to the territory, apart from its ports.
Gibraltar, which Spain ceded to Britain in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht, has long caused tensions between the two countries.
Madrid says it should be returned to Spanish sovereignty, but its residents overwhelmingly rejected an Anglo-Spanish proposal for co-sovereignty in a referendum in 2002.

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DutchNews.nl - Netherlands and Morocco sign treaty on criminal investigations

DutchNews.nl - Netherlands and Morocco sign treaty on criminal investigations: "Netherlands and Morocco will today sign a treaty designed at making it easier for the two countries to each other in criminal investigations.
For example, the agreement will make it possible for the Dutch and Moroccan police to ask for evidence or to question witnesses in each other's countries, Nos tv said.
Justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin has described the treaty as a 'breakthrough'.
Every year, the Netherlands asks Morocco to help it in hundreds of criminal investigations, usually to do with drugs smuggling, money laundering, violence or suspected terrorism."

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Euro Weekly News | Two held on drugs charges linked to Italian Mafia | Costa del Sol | News | The Largest English Language Newspapers in Spain

Euro Weekly News | Two held on drugs charges linked to Italian Mafia | Costa del Sol | News | The Largest English Language Newspapers in Spain: "POLICE have arrested seven people who were caught unloading 700 kilos of hashish from a recreational boat in Malaga. An eighth person was arrested in Barcelona. Two of the detainees are associated with the Neapolitan Camorra and were under investigation by the French and Italian police for smuggling drugs from Morocco while pretending to be fishing.
They had several boats which they kept in Montenegro, Serbia. One of the detainees owned a nautical company in Velez Malaga from where they would head to Morocco and return with the drugs hidden in special compartments.
When police were tipped off that they were on their way to pick up a large quantity of drugs, a trap was set up with Malaga Tax Agency to catch them as they unloaded the drugs intending to take them to a nearby warehouse.
The investigation, carried out by Italian, French, British and Spanish police, also resulted in a boat, four vehicles, a laptop computer, several mobile phones, documents and €7,000 in cash being confiscated"

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Investigations led to the arrest of seven members of this criminal network, including two Spaniards, who were in possession of large sums of money

Home: Morocco dismantles drug trafficking criminal network, Interior Ministry: "As part of efforts made by the Moroccan authorities to fight organized crime in all its forms, security services have managed to dismantle a dangerous criminal network operating in Morocco.
The network, which has branches in Latin America, Europe and Africa, is specialized in the trafficking of hard drugs (cocaine) and chira, transported to Europe by land, sea and air, a statement of the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.
Investigations led to the arrest of seven members of this criminal network, including two Spaniards, who were in possession of large sums of money in foreign and Moroccan currencies, vehicles used in the trafficking of hard drugs in Morocco, quantities of cocaine and chira, and tear gases.
The investigations also revealed that the members of this network, led by criminals of foreign nationalities, were able to transport large quantities of cocaine from Mali to Morocco, while the rest was transferred to European countries, the same source added.
The members were also able to smuggle large sums of money in foreign currency abroad.
The network made of Mali a platform for its criminal activities in collusion with terrorist elements belonging to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
The probe is still underway and the people involved in these criminal acts will be brought to justice, the statement said."

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French bank Credit Agricole exits Morrocan Attijariwafa Bank | TradingMarkets.com

French bank Credit Agricole exits Morrocan Attijariwafa Bank | TradingMarkets.com: "French bank Credit Agricole (EPA:ACA) has disposed of its 1.44% in Morrocan Attijariwafa Bank (CAS:ATW) to holding company SNI for an unrevealed price, French daily, Les Echos, wrote on Monday, citing press reports from Morroco. Credit Agricole still owns in Morocco the majority of local lender Credit du Maroc (CAS:CDM), the French daily said. Country: , Morocco Sector: Banking/Financial Services Target: Vendor: Credit Agricole SA Type: Divestment Status: Closed"

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Spain has made it clear she wants to return to sovereignty negotiations

"Spain has made it clear she wants to return to sovereignty negotiations - despite the tripartite talks!

At the UN last week, the message was clear: Spain wants dialogue, of the wrong kind.

Spain reiterated a firm desire to resume direct conversations with the UK.

Where does that leave the Gibraltar Government?

The Spanish attack followed the pattern of the past:

*The colonial situation in Gibraltar ran counter to the Charter of the United Nations

*The principle of self-determination was not applicable to the decolonisation of Gibraltar

The Gibraltar Government has been dismissing the Spanish stance, while Britain has been backing the Gibraltar line."

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Pure Power hires Gibraltar as AOR - PRWeek US

Pure Power hires Gibraltar as AOR - PRWeek US: "Pure Power, a Singapore-based clean technology and biofuels company, hired Gibraltar Associates as its AOR.
The firm, which began working on the account in June, is providing IR, media relations, shareholder communications, and social media counsel. The company is focusing on outreach to North America markets although it is planning for a global push, as well. It was not a competitive bid."

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Los Barrios vows to free Jorge Cano and Juan José Ramirez Ruíz | dscriber

Los Barrios vows to free Jorge Cano and Juan José Ramirez Ruíz | dscriber: "On Monday evening, the people of Los Barrios gathered at the town's cinema to form an action group to fight for the release of Jorge Cano and Juan José Ramirez Ruíz in the wake of an appeal court ruling last week in Tangier that confirmed their three-year jail sentence for drug trafficking as well as a fine of 170,000 euros. Andalucía's ombudsman, José Chamizo, called the court's decision an 'outrage,' claiming there was no strong evidence against the pair. Moreover, he said evidence also proves their innocence, suggesting the conviction of the pair was politically motivated.
The Plataforma Cívica de 'Libertad para Jorge y Juan José' was established by the residents of Los Barrios with the specific purpose of achieving their release and return home. The pair have been held since June 5. That's when their boat was rescued by a Moroccan patrol after they became lost whilst fishing in fog. The two drifted to the North African country's shoreline."

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Betfair May Be The Next Gambling Group To Leave The UK - Gamblingkingz.com

Betfair May Be The Next Gambling Group To Leave The UK - Gamblingkingz.com: "After confirming last week that it would be going ahead with planned flotation on the London Stock Exchange valued at £1.5 billion, Betfair has apparently drawn up a contingency plan that could see the group move its operations to Gibraltar.
Rumours are high that Betfair will follow in the footsteps of its rival William Hill in a bid to save millions of pounds in taxes.
By operating offshore, Betfair will also be free of the heavy 10% horseracing levy that all bookies in the United Kingdom are subject to.
Gross Profit Tax (GPT) in Gibraltar is only 3%, compared to the 15% demanded by the UK government.
Bookmakers have long complained over the government's inaction over offshore gambling sites, as well as ever-increasing taxes on local UK gambling operations."

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Question that investors might like to pose Betfair as its directors tour the City with the aim of securing their backing for its forthcoming float

Question that investors might like to pose Betfair as its directors tour the City with the aim of securing their backing for its forthcoming float: why are you still onshore?

Nearly all of the betting exchange's more traditional rivals have now upped sticks and left for sunnier offshore climes (principally Gibraltar). And it's not hard to see why: by doing this there's no more 20 per cent "gross profits tax" on betting over and above corporation tax and other levies. Nor is there any need to pony up 10 per cent of your profits on horseracing for the racing industry to spend more or less as it sees fit.

Of course, one of the reasons for Betfair remaining onshore is that it remains a controversial company, one that has many enemies. Staying onshore allows it to play the good guy, no bad thing for a business with ambitions to expand into overseas territories with nervous politicians and tightly regulated gambling markets.

But there must come a point where the benefits of being virtually the only onshore internet gambling company of note no longer add up. And you couldn't blame Betfair for departing when that time comes. Just as you can't blame Ladbrokes and William Hill for having made the move. They are, after all, commercial entities. The latter two had, in fact, planned to relocate their telephone and internet betting operations offshore several years ago, not least because they were losing out badly to the likes of Victor Chandler, whose relocation to Gibraltar meant that his punters could place bets over the phone (and the interent) free of the hated betting duty.

Gordon Brown persuaded them to stay put by replacing betting duty with the gross profits tax, stimulating a betting boom and a multimillion-pound tax windfall. A windfall which would be rather useful right now. Trouble is, plenty of bookies (including Victor) stayed put, giving them a huge financial advantage over their onshore rivals. Staying onshore became untenable.

It is not as if the Treasury wasn't warned about this. Unfortunately the last government chose not to listen. And the current government (which will have heard from the same lobbyists while in opposition) also chose not to listen.

As someone who enjoys the occasional flutter, the betting industry's move offshore is great news: I stand to benefit from better prices, and more promotions.

As a taxpayer I'm inclined to ask why successive governments have sat back and allowed millions of pounds in revenue to disappear,. particularly when the Government says it is so hard up that it has to axe child benefit for everyone earning over £45,000.

There are ways for the Government to get some of the lost money back. Gambling is a regulated industry: it would be possible, for example, to require those who offer, and crucially, advertise gambling services to operate and be taxed onshore. Cue howls of outrage from the gambling industry. But, George Osborne, who do you want to bear the pain of deficit reduction? Punters or parents?

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