Costa del Gangster

José Manuel Hidalgo refused to be taken to hospital until he started to turn yellow A 45 year old man from Fuentes de León in Badajoz

2012-05-27T06:47:00.001+01:00

José Manuel Hidalgo, ate some mushrooms to show they were not poisonous, and ended up in intensive care. It happened last Sunday during an open day being held in the village, which had been proceeded by a day of mushroom collecting and display. The victim got into an argument with other locals as to how lethal wild mushrooms could be, with a poster warning that as little as 20 grams could be fatal. José Manuel did not believe it, and suddenly to prove his point, started to eat the ‘amanita phalloides’ mushroom. On the second bite he showed symptoms of being drunk, and continued to claim the mushroom was not fatal. An ambulance was called but it took considerable argument before the patient finally agreed to be taken to hospital in Zafra, Badajoz. By this time he had turned yellow and started to vomit. He spent two days in the intensive care unit, and finally was allowed out onto the ward on Tuesday afternoon amid concerns that his liver may have suffered permanent damage.

British woman who fell six floors at a Magaluf Hotel progressing well in hospitall

2012-05-27T06:45:00.001+01:00

The condition of a 25 year old British woman who fell from the sixth floor of a hotel in Magaluf, Calvìa on Friday afternoon is said to progressing favourably in the Intensive Care Unit in the Son Espases Hospital. It happened at 18.15 on Friday in the Hotel Barracuda, in Avenida Notari Alemany, when the women fell to the ground from the sixth floor. She was taken by intensive care ambulance and was admitted in a serious condition, with head injuries and other injuries, but her progress is good and she is now breathing without assistance. The reason for the fall remains unclear but it happened in the interior zone of the hotel, in the area of the swimming pool.

Chairman of the Supreme Court, Carlos Dívar, survives vote in the CGPJ

2012-05-25T01:15:00.001+01:00

The member of the CGPJ who brought the vote, Gómez Benítez, was then asked to resign by seven others in the committee. The Chairman of the Supreme Court, and the head of General Council for Judicial Power, the body which oversees the judiciary in Spain, Carlos Dívar, will remain in those poses are only a minority of other members of the General Council called on him to resign in an extraordinary meeting on Thursday afternoon. He had been denounced by one of the members of the General Council, Gómez Benítez, who said Dívar had been misusing public funds for long weekend trips to Marbella with his seven bodyguards. It was established that some 20 such trips were carried out by Dívar, all at public expense. Carlos Dívar claimed that the costs were ‘perfectly documented and justified’ and indeed went as to far as to describe the reports of 36,000 € spent. The Prosecutors Office decided to archive the case, saying that no crime had been carried out regarding the misuse of public funds, noting Dívar paid for some items on some of his trips, indicating that he had no intention to ‘feather his nest’. In the vote in the General Council on Thursday calling for the resignation of Díver there were only five votes in favour, out of a total 21. What’s more seven of the others even then called for the resignation of Gómez Benítez, accusing him of a lack of loyalty. However one result from the case is that a commission will study new controls on travel expenses.

Al Qaeda group wants to recover Al-Andalus

2012-05-25T01:13:00.001+01:00

The group, Ansar Al Din, talks about its plans in an internal document intercepted by the Spanish State Security Forces. Granada, Valencia, Sevilla and Córdoba, are named as terrorist objectives for Al Qaeda. The Jihadist group, Ansar Al Din, has released an internal document which said the cities ‘which were governed by the Muslims’ must be liberated and Al-Andalus must be restored. Spanish State Security Forces are giving credence to the threat after they intercepted the internal communication. After study they concluded that Spain remains one of the main targets of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Cadena Ser reports that after the fall of Gadaffi, the Ansar Al Din terrorist group made off which a large quantity of Libyan weapons and had become stronger in Mali and Timbuktu. Many witnesses claim the group has been responsible for the assassination of hundreds of people. According to the security services in Algeria, the group is getting funds from France and Canada in particular.

The Gibraltar Police and the Guardia Civil have had more clashes in the waters of Gibraltar.

2012-05-25T01:11:00.001+01:00

El Mundo reports that Gibraltar patrols went to stop three fishing boats from working on Wednesday night at 9pm, and that a Royal Navy boat was close at hand. The Navy vessel sent radio messages to the Guardia Civil saying that they should leave the area. Fishermen’s sources say when they turned on the lights to throw out the nets ‘several Royal Gibraltar Police patrols passed close by at great speed several times’ and that this had provoked ‘moments of great tension and even danger’. There was a slight collision between two patrol boats, one from Gibraltar and the other from the Guardia Civil. The Guardia Civil then sent several ships and a helicopter to the scene to protect the fishermen, as the Spanish Government had instructed. Gibraltar considers that there was an incursion by the Spanish fishermen and the Guardia Civil into waters they say are their own.

One dead and two missing after explosion in Cáceres factory

2012-05-25T01:10:00.001+01:00

One person has died and two more people are missing after an explosion in Moraleja, Cáceres, in an oil press in the locality. The Red Cross reports there are two injured of ‘diverse consideration’. The cause of the blast at Industrias Oléicolas Sierra de Gata on Thursday morning remains a mystery. Firemen were working at the scene in the afternoon trying control the fire, but they had been unable to reach the zone of the explosion, where the three workers are to have been. Security cordons were established at the entrance to the company and also at a petrol station just 100m a way. Esteban Habala from the Provincial Fire Service said that the fire was under ‘a certain control’ and is not expected to get worse. He said it was necessary to try and bring down the temperature in the zone of the explosion, and said there was a lot inflammable liquid burning, and as there were oil deposits underground, he could not rule out new explosions. He said that more than 20,000 litres of oil had burned, and his men were working with prudence. The President of the Junta de Extremadura, José Antonio Monago, has travelled to the scene to see what is happening for himself.

THE word corralito does not need translating to Spaniards. They know it means the partial freezing of bank accounts

2012-05-25T01:08:00.001+01:00

THE word corralito does not need translating to Spaniards. They know it means the partial freezing of bank accounts that afflicted Argentina as money fled the country a decade ago. That is what makes it so frightening. It should not happen in a solvent country like Spain. But as the spectre of a Greek euro exit is haunting Europe, Spanish banks have become a big concern. Ministers have had to deny the corralito risk. Nerves are fraying. Shares in Bankia, a part-nationalised bank, yo-yoed wildly after reports, later denied, that clients were taking their money out of Spain’s fourth-largest lender. “I’ve been working since I was 13, and if they take it away I’ll kill someone,” said a Bankia client who collared Cristóbal Montoro, the budget minister, on the street. In this section Tremors and rumbles »The corralito risk The gravedigger’s victory The sound of music The feeling’s mutual Reprints Soraya Sáenz de Santamaria, the deputy prime minister, appealed for “responsibility”. Many cursed Paul Krugman, a Nobel-prize-winning economist—though all he did was point out that a euro-zone meltdown might involve Spain imposing corralito-style controls. In spite of all the anxiety, deposits across the banking system grew in March. It is Bankia’s shareholders, rather than its account-holders, who should be upset. Those who believed the 2010 merger of seven savings banks, or cajas, laden with toxic property would transmute into a solid new bank were wrong. It was an unhappy marriage: on May 23rd Luis de Guindos, Spain’s finance minister, told parliament that the government would inject at least €9 billion ($11 billion) into the ailing lender. The worries about banks go deeper. They have played for time by refinancing loans to struggling property developers ever since the 2008 housing bust. Two rounds of provisioning ordered this year, totalling €82 billion, may not be enough, though the government is expected to provide €15 billion of the necessary funds. On May 21st the government appointed two external valuers to scrutinise the banks’ assets. Despite 24% unemployment, Spanish households have an excellent record of not defaulting on residential mortgages. Even so, they may conclude that still more capital is needed. Bad loans rose to an 18-year high of 8.4% in March. And with Spain’s economy expected to contract this year and next (see chart), pressure will increase. The Institute of International Finance estimates Spanish banks might need €50 billion to €60 billion of fresh capital, equivalent to around 5% of GDP. Higher estimates go above €100 billion. Spain’s sovereign debt is already under fierce pressure. Worries about the banking system, unemployment and growth have pushed ten-year bond yields above 6%. This in turn makes it prohibitively expensive to recapitalise the banks. Spain’s credibility has been dented by an upward revision of last year’s budget deficit, from 8.5% of GDP to 8.9%. Big-spending regional governments were to blame. They must now find huge savings. Mariano Rajoy, the prime minister, is committed to a fiscal adjustment worth 5.9% of GDP in just two years. If carried out, this will deepen the recession. Is there no end to Spain’s p

Ex Mayor of Casares leaves prison after finding bail

2012-05-21T17:36:00.001+01:00

ex Mayor of Casares in Málaga, Juan Sánchez from IU, left prison at Alhaurín de la Torre at 7,20pm on Friday night. He had entered prison last Tuesday on the orders of the Instruction Judge in the Majestic Case being heard in the First Instance and Instruction Court Two in Estepona, Oscar López Bermejo. He faces charges of money laundering through real estate deals. The ex Mayor left the jail without making any statement, and it is unknown whether he will remain in his current position of Councillor for Housing in the Casares Town Hall. He left the prison after his family and friends amassed bail of 200,000 €. The Majestic Operation, which is being carried out jointly between the National Police money laundering squad and the Guardia Civil has led to eleven arrests so far. The latest arrests are of a German woman who was arrested in La Línea after arriving at Gibraltar Airport, accused of money laundering and belonging to a criminal organisation. She was sent to jail with bail set at 70,000 €. Secondly a South African was arrested on Thursday when he arrived at Málaga airport, when returning from Switzerland. He was sent to jail with 50,000 € bail and has until May 22 to deposit the money. Their passports have been taken and they are not allowed to leave Spain.

Man killed and woman seriously injured in Torremolinos

2012-05-21T17:34:00.001+01:00

A 71 year man has died and a 73 year old woman was seriously injured when part of the load of lorry carrying construction materials along the N-340 in Torremolinos fell upon them. The couple were walking near Aquapark. It’s not known how the lorry lost part of its load at 10,40am on Monday morning, but it is clear that the load slipped and some of it fell from the lorry and fell to the pavement hitting the couple. The Local Police and health crews certified the man’s death when they arrived at the scene and the woman was taken urgently to the Clinico Universitario in Málaga where she has been admitted in a serious condition with diverse trauma, head injuries and a broken tibia. She is expected to undergo surgery later today.

Beating the credit squeeze a Bank worker walks out with a million Euros

2012-05-21T17:32:00.001+01:00

Take the money and run. A worker at a branch of the La Caixa bank in Vilagarcía de Arousa, Pontevedra, has fled from the bank after taking a million €. The man, Santiago Pelayo Sanmartín, worked in the debt collecting department, chasing clients who were late paying. He escaped in a company car from an estate agent where he also worked last Tuesday. A search is underway. The bank has opened what it is calling ‘an internal audit’ to see the circumstance and details of the robbery which they says is about a million €, although an exact calculation is still to be carried out. The man’s wife and daughters say they have no idea where he is. A statement from La Caixa has said that client should not be alarmed by the robbery, because of the money has come from just two accounts.

ISTAN body, thought to be male, was in an advanced state of decomposition

2012-05-21T17:30:00.001+01:00

A body in an advanced state of decomposition has been found among shrubs close to the Istán reservoir. Two foreigners found the body on Sunday afternoon and sources close to the case think the body is male. Several Police units and the Guardia Civil went to scene on the Carril Zahara de Istán. The cause and time of death remains unknown, as the identity of man. An autopsy will be carried out at the Legal Medicine Institute, and forensic scientists have been inspecting the scene.

Scottish man stabbed to death in street fight

2012-05-21T17:28:00.001+01:00

26 year old Scottish man, Craig Mallon, has been found dead at 7,30 am this morning, Saturday, in the street in Lloret de Mar. According to sources close to the investigation is seems that he was stabbed in a fight in the early hours of the morning between tourists visiting Lloret. No firearms have been found and Catalunya Informació says the Scot died from a heart attack after being stabbed. He was in the town to celebrate his brother’s stag party. It’s believed that alcohol was drunk by those implicated in the fight, but as yet there are no official details. The same sources told the EFE news agency that as yet there have been no arrests, although the regional Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, will only confirm the death of a person.

Case archived against the President of the Supreme Court

2012-05-21T17:27:00.003+01:00

The Prosecutors’ Office has archived the denucia placed by Manuel Gómez Benítez against the head of the General Council for Judicial Power and President of the Supreme Court, Carlos Dívar, regarding the costs of his weekend trips to Marbella. Gómez Benítez is also a member of the General Council for Judicial Power. The case was archived when the prosecutors considered that although Díver is alleged to have taken his weekend breaks at public expense that ‘did not constitute any crime’. The prosecutor studied the documentation of all the journeys made by the Supreme Court President and concluded that there was no evidence of the mis-use of public finds.

Spain Hires Oliver Wyman, Roland Berger to Stress Test Banks

2012-05-21T17:27:00.001+01:00

Spain hired Oliver Wyman Ltd. and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants to carry out a stress test on the nation’s lenders and plans to contract three auditing companies to do an additional analysis of banks’ loans. The stress-test results will be published in the second half of June, the Madrid-based Economy Ministry said in an e- mailed statement today. By the end of May, three auditing firms will be hired to assess how each bank is accounting for asset deterioration, with results due in the coming months. The exercise is part of Spain’s fourth attempt in three years to clean up its lenders, which have about 184 billion euros ($235 billion) of what the Bank of Spain calls “problematic” real estate-linked assets. Concerns about banks’ losses infecting public finances helped push the country’s 10- year bond yield to as high as 6.5 percent last week. “These firms are more independent and have less conflicts in Spain,” said Inigo Lecubarri, who helps manage about $300 million at Abaco Financials Fund in London. “They are competent people to do this job.”

Spain's big gamble: could the king of Vegas casinos Sheldon Adelson help fight a jobs crisis?

2012-05-21T17:26:00.001+01:00

It sounds almost too good to be true: at a time when one in four Spaniards are out of work, for the last few months US casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson has been weighing up whether to build a $21bn (£13.3bn) tourist-cum-gambling resort, which is being dubbed "EuroVegas", outside Madrid or Barcelona. And the city that is chosen for what it is claimed will be Europe's biggest-ever such resort may feel it has hit employment's jackpot: EuroVegas, it is claimed, will create up to 250,000 new jobs. Madrid appears to be well ahead. Earlier this month Mr Adelson made an unannounced visit to a possible site outside the capital. Flying in by private jet from Israel, he and his wife Miriam Ochshorn made an hour-long on-site inspection of the possible site near the capital's dormitory town of Alcorcón. By the time the Madrid government had officially confirmed the visit, Mr Adelson, having spent no more than four hours in Spain, was en route to his Las Vegas home. A definitive decision is expected before the end of May. But as a group of some 150 protesters against the project gathered outside Alcorcón town hall the week before Mr Adelson's visit would suggest, not everyone is convinced of the benefits. In an echo of Goya's famous 3 May 1808 painting of a French firing squad killing Spanish partisans in the Napoleonic wars, the high point of the demonstration in Alcorcón (also held on 3 May) was a mock "execution" of a figure representing the local environment – one of their key fears being that pressure on politicians to cut Spain's jobless totalis so high that potentially negative ecological consequences of projects like EuroVegas will be ignored. "A project on this scale" – ranging from 12 hotel complexes, each with 3,000 rooms, to six casinos with 18,000 slot machines – "will have a huge ecological impact, and Madrid's environment is already in very poor shape," says Rodrigo Fernández of the Plataforma-EuroVegas-No (PEVN) movement. "The only justification for this project is employment. People are desperate for work, and this project exploits their dramatic personal plight." Mr Adelson says Spain's jobless total which "assures us the support of the government" is one reason for his company, Las Vegas Sands (LVS), opting for Spain.The other is the good weather. "What is really disturbing is the lack of information. We only have leaks to the media on the negotiations between EuroVegas and the local government." says Mr. Fernández. "All we know for sure is that there would be a huge increase in infrastructure: more roads, more underground and overland railways, maybe a bigger airport, and the environmental damage that inevitably would occur when you are building hotels with 36,000 rooms." Environmental studies show the slot machines would have as much electrical consumption as Majadahonda, a medium- sized Madrid dormitory town with a population of 65,000, he claims. In Mallorca last month, some 7,000 demonstrators protested against the proposed building of a hotel resort by the beach of Es Trenc, one of the few stretches of coast unspoiled by urban development. The construction would, according to Spanish newspaper El País, be the biggest hotel constructed in the Balearics since Franco's death in 1975. "It's going to be horrible," says teacher Beatriz Mohedaño Lemauft, who regularly uses the beaches on Mallorca's south side and who joined the protest, "ecologically, a real disaster for the area. Okay, so the hotel is not going to be on the beach itself, but it's right next to it and is going to have a huge impact." The hotel's backers say their €120m (£97m) investment could create 300 jobs. But Natalia Martín, an activist with the Ecologistas en Accion movement who specialises in coastal laws, says quick-fix employment must not be the only consideration for such projects. "Whenever there is an environmental law which clashes with economic development, we believe the government wants to weaken that law," Ms Martín argues. "Spain's current legislation on coastland has been in existence since 1988 and it allows companies to develop franchises on some stretches for 30-year maximums. But in the case of an oil refinery in the Basque Country they've just given them another 30-year-extension on what is actually public property." As for EuroVegas, the environment is just one area where questions are being asked – and no answers given: all that is known is that Las Vegas Sands has "development needs", which it refuses to make public. An emailed list of questions to the company from The Independent about the "development needs" brought no response. Spain's heavyweight press have reported alleged requests by LVS for an easing of Spanish labour laws, lifting of visa restrictions on foreign employees, two-year tax breaks and permission to loophole health laws on smoking in public places. Ultimately, whatever Las Vegas Sands asks for, the lure of wiping out half of Madrid's unemployment total at a stroke when Spain is in its worst recession for decades may prove too hard to resist. "Rejecting a project out of hand, when we know nothing of its details but which could contain the possibility of creating employment and reactivating the economy, seems a little rash," Paz Gonzalez, head of Madrid's housing department, told El Páis. If Spanish politicians need to be reminded of the difficulty of reversing a controversial building decision after the bulldozers move in, they might recall the Hotel El Algarrobico in Almería, 500km further south. A 21-storey, 411-room never-used hotel in the middle of Cabo de Gata Natural Park and 14 metres away from previously virgin coastline, the hotel has been pending demolition for over six years. But the builder, Azata Sol, said in 2009 the hotel's 65,000 cubic metres of cement "are encrusted in the earth" which makes demolition impossible. Something on the scale of EuroVegas or Es Trenc in Mallorca, one imagines, would be even harder to backtrack on. But the pressure for such allegedly employment-rich projects is steadily mounting in today's jobless-hit Spain.

Gibraltar police boarded Spanish fishing boats in the early hours of yesterday, carried out a check and requested documentation

2012-05-16T05:12:00.001+01:00

Gibraltar police boarded Spanish fishing boats in the early hours of yesterday, carried out a check and requested documentation, said a boat owner. The boats were in waters near Gibraltar where fishing is not allowed. The incident happens on the eve of today's meeting of fishermen at No.6 Convent Place. The boat owner was said to have been told by police that it was the third occasion that they had been sighted in the area, and that they would be arrested if seen again in waters off Gibraltar. The head of the La Atunara fishing federation, Leoncio Fernandez, has confirmed the incident to Spanish media sources. He said three fishing boats had been fishing in waters near Gibraltar, as they had been doing in recent days. On this last occasion, two patrol vessels and three Ribs of the RGP met he fishing boats, to inform them that it was prohibited to fish there. It is claimed that another vessel from the Royal Navy was also seen in the area. It is claimed that after a vessel from the 'Guardia Civil' arrived in the area, tension receded, with the ishing boats returning to La Atunara. The Gibraltar government has drafted a document to enable fishing to take place, but it would appear that the representatives of the fishermen will also produce another document at the meeting. The fishermen are insisting that Spanish and European law must be taken into account. Behind it all is the question of sovereignty, as the Spanish government insists that Gibraltar does not have territorial waters and that the waters that surround the Rock are Spanish. The PP mayor of Algeciras, Jose Ignacio Landaluce, has also taken this line since the last meeting.

FOOTBALL boss Darragh MacAnthony faced a court grilling over claims his company swindled holiday home owners out of hundreds of thousands of euros.

2012-05-16T05:08:00.001+01:00

The Dublin-born entrepreneur was quizzed for nearly two hours by a Spanish judge about his property empire and a furniture sales sideline. Mr MacAnthony, once estimated to be worth €180m, was chaffeur-driven to the court in upmarket Marbella to answer allegations of "misappropriation of funds and theft by swindle." Dozens of ex-customers sparked the probe after complaining nearly €500,000 worth of furniture, ordered more than five years ago from his company for apartments in Morocco, Bulgaria and Cape Verde, was never delivered. The Peterborough United chairman declined to comment as he left after the hearing behind closed doors and was driven away to the luxury hotel where he is staying in a €2,650-a-night private villa. Four other business associates linked to his property firm MacAnthony Realty International were also questioned. Investigating judge Beatriz Gomez-Escolar is probing allegations MacAnthony and his business associates misappropriated around €550,000 from 56 customers and stripped MRI of its assets before a de facto closing as part of an elaborate fraud involving the use of an OAP frontman. The investigation into MRI's business practices launched in January after a group of 51 buyers ratified an earlier claim that €492,000 of furniture they ordered for holiday homes was never delivered. Five more people have since come forward to claim they were victims as well. MRI has consistently denied any allegations of wrongdoing. Mr MacAnthony, who has not been charged with any crime, has said in the past: "There are no foundations behind these allegations. I certainly didn't do anything wrong and neither did anyone with MRI when I was there."

Police in Spain find body of Welshman floating near yacht

2012-05-11T12:09:00.001+01:00

Newport businessman has been found dead, floating in the sea near his yacht near the Costa del Sol. Denis Manley, 72, from Newport, Monmouth, was spotted on Wednesday afternoon in the marina at Estepona, at the western end of the southern Spanish holiday coast near Gibraltar, where his yacht was moored. He had been living on the boat. Spanish police are investigating the death. Mr Manley, believed to have been a director of several companies, had suffered a head injury and police said that it appeared he had probably slipped on board the vessel, hitting his head, and then fallen into the water.

CRACKDOWN on dodgy gas inspectors who target expats has led to 14 arrests in Marbella.

2012-05-06T11:53:00.001+01:00

The gasmen – who work for six different companies – often charged up to three times the going rate to carry out unnecessary maintenance work. They are accused of failing to have the right qualifications and of not being registered with the Junta. It follows the recent arrest of four people in Malaga for similar offences. The popular ruse – reported on regularly by the Olive Press in recent years – has led to expats being wrongly charged hundreds of euros for replacement parts or a new certificate. Homeowners are often pressured into having work carried out on the premise that there is a risk of an accident, or are threatened with having their gas cut off. According to regulator Cogasa, gas inspections should only ever be carried out by prior appointment.

Michael Brown, the fraudster who donated millions to the Liberal Democrats, is to return to Britain from Spain this week to begin a seven-year prison sentence.

2012-04-28T23:27:00.001+01:00

Brown agreed not to block the extradition process at a hearing at the National Court in Madrid.

He went on the run in 2008 after stealing £36 million by posing as a bond trader.

Extradition: Convicted fraudster Michael Brown and his wife Sharon pictured in Mallorca in 2008

His victims included former Manchester United chairman, Martin Edwards, who was defrauded of £8 million.

Brown fled to the Dominican Republic and was convicted in his absence of fraud by Southwark Crown Court, South London.

In 2005, he gave the Lib Dems the party’s biggest-ever donation of £2.4 million.

British police will fly to Spain this week to collect Brown, who is being held at the Soto del Real prison outside Madrid.

Glasgow-born Brown, 46, was arrested in the Dominican Republic in January where he was living under the name of Darren Nally. He was flown to Madrid last week.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: ‘I’m pleased he’s coming back to serve his sentence. This is a convicted fraudster.’

Speaking of the donation, he said: ‘It happened before I was an MP.

'The Electoral Commission found it was received in good faith.

'All checks that should be made were made.’

The Deputy Prime Minister has insisted his party will not repay £2.4million of ill-gotten gains Brown gave his party in 2005.

He added: ‘If we’d been shown wanting on those accounts, then of course we should pay the money back.’

And mystery continues to surround a missing £18million which police are still trying to trace.

That decision has sparked fury amid claims that even Brown thinks the Lib Dems failed to scrutinise his firm properly before accepting the cash.

Brown will face an extradition hearing this week that should lead to him being put on a plane to the UK to serve a seven-year prison sentence.

An international manhunt was launched when he went on the run after stealing up to £60million.

He was arrested in the Dominican Republic in January in the town of Punta Cana over an unrelated fraud charge.

Prosecutors in the Dominican Republic said Brown was deported to Spain at the request of British police.

The UK does not have a formal extradition agreement with the Dominican Republic, so in an elaborate deal it was agreed that he would be sent first to Spain.

If Brown does not appeal against extradition to Britain, it will have to take place within ten days.

Lavish: Brown's private gated hideaway in the Dominican Republic. Up until recently he was renting a property within the exclusive Arrecife estate, a resort community with its own golf courses and private beaches

A spokesman for the City of London Police said: ‘We will be taking the appropriate steps to bring him back via a European Arrest Warrant.’

Det Supt Bob Wishart added: ‘Mr Brown is a step closer to returning to the UK to start his prison sentence.

‘We hope that him facing justice will bring some closure to the victims who suffered as a result of his frauds.’

But his victims got cold comfort from the Liberal Democrats, who have repeatedly refused to hand over money to those defrauded by Brown.

An Electoral Commission inquiry in 2009 found the Lib Dems accepted the fraudster’s donation in good faith and cleared them of wrongdoing.

Mr Clegg denied the party had a moral responsibility to hand over the money.

Labour deputy chairman Tom Watson has published details of a draft letter written by Mr Brown, which he says is with the police, and in which the fraudster alleges the Lib Dems carried out only rudimentary checks on whether his was a legitimate company.

It says: ‘In the case of the donation made by my company, very little due diligence was undertaken.

Michael Brown made a record donation to the Liberal Democrat party which is now run by Nick Clegg

‘A check was made in Companies House that the company was duly incorporated but little or no due diligence was undertaken on whether the company was trading.’

Mr Watson said: 'It’s hard not to conclude that the money should be repaid. Clearly, Mr Clegg’s party failed to conduct all proper checks.'

Labour MP Steve McCabe called for ‘proceeds of crime legislation to be used to recover money he gave Lib Dems’.

Mike Gapes, another MP, added the ‘Lib Dems surely have a moral responsibility to pay back to his victims’.

The usual route from the Dominican Republic to the UK is via Miami in Florida. But Britain wanted to avoid a stopover there to avoid any chance of Brown being held by the U.S. authorities, who are also probing reports of him money laundering.

He is also wanted in Mallorca on fraud charges, opening the prospect that he will be sent back to Spain after completing his sentence in the UK.

Darragh MacAnthony in court in Marbella today

2012-04-26T12:44:00.001+01:00

Forty clients of the real estate firm say they have been defrauded by MacAnthonyDarragh MacAnthony - Darragh MacAnthony, and other directors of the MacAnthony Realty International Company, have been called to declare today before the judge in Instruction Court Four in Marbella. They face charges of fraud and misappropriation of funds as investigations continue. They are accused of keeping some 600,000 € paid by some 40 British and Irish clients for their new homes to be furnished, but MacAnthony failed to do so. These 40 clients personally ratified their claims before the same Instruction Judge, Beatriz Fernández Gómez-Escolar, three months ago. It dates back to the period 2005 -2010 and each client had paid between 10,000 and 15,000 € for the furniture which MacAnthony said he would bring from Turkey, Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Italy, France and Morocco, where his company has branches. He obliged the clients to sign the furniture contract, but in many cases they have seen nothing. MacAnthony has since made a de facto closing of the real estate company, emptying its assets without seeking competition, and that could become a corporate crime.

British man arrested after supermarket break-in in Mijas

2012-04-26T12:41:00.001+01:00

A British resident of Marbella has been arrested by Mijas Local Police and handed to the National Police in connection with a robbery in the early hours of Wednesday from a branch of a supermarket chain in Las Lagunas. It happened at 4.30 am when a patrol car from the National Police observed how security guards were trying to enter the building, when the alarm went off. One of the railings had been broken to gain access, but neither the National Police nor the security guards found anyone inside. However a man was seen running off the in the direction of Avenida de Andalucía. A Local Police patrol, not involved up to now saw the man running suspiciously and so they stopped to question him. The Briton, who is 36 and has the initials C.E.P. was handed over to the National Police.

Reopen Madeleine case, police urge

2012-04-25T15:38:00.001+01:00

Scotland Yard has urged Portuguese authorities to reopen the search for Madeleine McCann as detectives said there are 195 potential leads to finding her alive. The detective leading the Metropolitan Police review said the case can still be solved before officers released a picture of what she might now look like as a nine-year-old. Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood said he believes her disappearance was a stranger abduction, as he said there are 195 "investigative opportunities". Police refused to say what evidence they had uncovered to suggest Madeleine is alive. Mr Redwood confirmed that his team of more than 30 officers involved in the case had been out to Portugal seven times, including a visit to the family's holiday flat in Praia da Luz. It will be five years ago next week since the three-year-old went missing as her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, dined with friends nearby. A spokesman for the McCanns said the family was pleased with the image. Mr Redwood said his 37 officers had dealt with 40,000 pieces of information but the "primacy still sits in Portugal" in the attempt to find her. Commander Simon Foy said: "Most significantly, the message we want to bring to you is that, on the evidence, there is a possibility that she is alive and we desperately need your help today to appeal directly to the public for information to support our investigation." Mr Redwood said "evidence that she is alive stems from the forensic view of the timeline" that there was the opportunity for her to be taken. Investigations show "there do appear to be gaps", he added. Detectives in Portugal are also understood to want the case reopened but must gain judicial approval via the courts.

Insecure websites to be named and shamed after checks

2012-04-25T15:27:00.001+01:00

Companies that do not do enough to keep their websites secure are to be named and shamed to help improve security. The list of good and bad sites will be published regularly by the non-profit Trustworthy Internet Movement (TIM). A survey carried out to launch the group found that more than 52% of sites tested were using versions of security protocols known to be compromised. The group will test websites to see how well they have implemented basic security software. Security fundamentals The group has been set up by security experts and entrepreneurs frustrated by the slow pace of improvements in online safety. "We want to stimulate some initiatives and get something done," said TIM's founder Philippe Courtot, serial entrepreneur and chief executive of security firm Qualys. He has bankrolled the group with his own money. TIM has initially focused on a widely used technology known as the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Experts recruited to help with the initiative include SSL's inventor Dr Taher Elgamal; "white hat" hacker Moxie Marlinspike who has written extensively about attacking the protocol; and Michael Barrett, chief security officer at Paypal. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote Everyone is now going to be able to see who has a good grade and who has a bad grade” Philippe Courtot Many websites use SSL to encrypt communications between them and their users. It is used to protect credit card numbers and other valuable data as it travels across the web. "SSL is one of the fundamental parts of the internet," said Mr Courtot. "It's what makes it trustworthy and right now it's not as secure as you think." Compromised certificates TIM plans a two-pronged attack on SSL. The first part would be to run automated tools against websites to test how well they had implemented SSL, said Mr Courtot. "We'll be making it public," he added. "Everyone is now going to be able to see who has a good grade and who has a bad grade." Early tests suggest that about 52% of sites checked ran a version of SSL known to be compromised. Companies who have done a bad job will be encouraged to improve and upgrade their implementations so it gets safer to use those sites. The second part of the initiative concerns the running of the bodies, known as certificate authorities, which guarantee that a website is what it claims to be. TIM said it would work with governments, industry bodies and companies to check that CAs are well run and had not been compromised. "It's a much more complex problem," said Mr Courtot. In 2011, two certificate authorities, DigiNotar and GlobalSign were found to have been compromised. In some cases this meant attackers eavesdropped on what should have been a secure communications channel. Steve Durbin, global vice president of the Information Security Forum which represents security specialists working in large corporations, said many of its members took responsibility for making sure sites were secure. "You cannot just say 'buyer beware'," he said. "That's not good enough anymore. They have a real a duty of care." He said corporations were also increasingly conscious of their reputation for providing safe and secure services to customers. Data breaches, hack attacks and poor security were all likely to hit share prices and could mean they lose customers, he noted.

Anti-depressants likely do more harm than good, study suggests

2012-04-25T13:44:00.001+01:00

Commonly prescribed anti-depressants appear to be doing patients more harm than good, say researchers who have published a paper examining the impact of the medications on the entire body. See Also: Health & Medicine Pharmacology Birth Defects Mental Health Research Mind & Brain Depression Disorders and Syndromes Psychiatry Reference COX-2 inhibitor Psychoactive drug Seasonal affective disorder Anti-obesity drug "We need to be much more cautious about the widespread use of these drugs," says Paul Andrews, an evolutionary biologist at McMaster University and lead author of the article, published recently in the online journal Frontiers in Psychology. "It's important because millions of people are prescribed anti-depressants each year, and the conventional wisdom about these drugs is that they're safe and effective." Andrews and his colleagues examined previous patient studies into the effects of anti-depressants and determined that the benefits of most anti-depressants, even taken at their best, compare poorly to the risks, which include premature death in elderly patients. Anti-depressants are designed to relieve the symptoms of depression by increasing the levels of serotonin in the brain, where it regulates mood. The vast majority of serotonin that the body produces, though, is used for other purposes, including digestion, forming blood clots at wound sites, reproduction and development. What the researchers found is that anti-depressants have negative health effects on all processes normally regulated by serotonin. The findings include these elevated risks: developmental problems in infants problems with sexual stimulation and function and sperm development in adults digestive problems such as diarrhea, constipation, indigestion and bloating abnormal bleeding and stroke in the elderly The authors reviewed three recent studies showing that elderly anti-depressant users are more likely to die than non-users, even after taking other important variables into account. The higher death rates indicate that the overall effect of these drugs on the body is more harmful than beneficial. "Serotonin is an ancient chemical. It's intimately regulating many different processes, and when you interfere with these things you can expect, from an evolutionary perspective, that it's going to cause some harm," Andrews says. Millions of people are prescribed anti-depressants every year, and while the conclusions may seem surprising, Andrews says much of the evidence has long been apparent and available. "The thing that's been missing in the debates about anti-depressants is an overall assessment of all these negative effects relative to their potential beneficial effects," he says. "Most of this evidence has been out there for years and nobody has been looking at this basic issue." In previous research, Andrews and his colleagues had questioned the effectiveness of anti-depressants even for their prescribed function, finding that patients were more likely to suffer relapse after going off their medications as their brains worked to re-establish equilibrium. With even the intended function of anti-depressants in question, Andrews says it is important to look critically at their continuing use. "It could change the way we think about such major pharmaceutical drugs," he says. "You've got a minimal benefit, a laundry list of negative effects -- some small, some rare and some not so rare. The issue is: does the list of negative effects outweigh the minimal benefit?"