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EU Must Investigate CIA European Prisons Case

2014-07-30T09:03:00.001+01:00

EU member states should carry out a thorough investigation into CIA-run prisons in Europe, where the inmates were subjected to torture, Russian diplomat Konstantin Dolgov said Monday. "Human rights activists are reasonably demanding the government of Poland to finally conduct an effective investigation into secret CIA prisons on its territory. Similar steps should be taken by other EU member states on which territories CIA torture camps operated," the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Special Representative for Human Rights wrote on his Twitter page. Last week, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Poland violated an international treaty to protect human rights by hosting secret CIA prisons on its territory. The case was filed by two men who charge they were taken to a secret CIA black site in a Polish forest and subjected to torture before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay. An investigation into the detainees' treatment was opened in Poland in 2008 but is still not concluded – a situation that has been condemned by the UN's anti-torture body. Poland is one of a number of European countries accused of hosting secret CIA prisons. Meanwhile, Romania, Bulgaria, and Lithuania also have had allegations made against them for being part of the CIA black site network.

Suspicion of attempting to smuggle drugs arrests in Morocco

2014-07-30T08:55:00.001+01:00

The Cyprus Foreign Ministry has confirmed that five Cypriots have been arrested in Morocco on suspicion of attempting to smuggle drugs out of the North African country. The Cypriots – whose ages are still unknown but are said to be over “18 years of age” – were arrested last week as they attempted to leave the country and are said to be looking at criminal charges relating to drug trafficking. Although the exact amount was unconfirmed, sources yesterday suggested that the group attempted to smuggle 15 kilos of hashish out of one of the country’s airports. “We can confirm that five Cypriots have been detained in Morocco and we are liaising with our Embassy in Paris, which is also responsible for Morocco, in an attempt to stay in contact with the individuals,” Ministry official Petros Kestoras told The Cyprus Daily on Tuesday. “We are as yet still unaware as to the exact amount of illegal substances they are said to have reportedly attempted to smuggle. We are also unaware of the exact substances. We do know that criminal procedures are ongoing and that the five individuals are obviously in police custody.” Morocco is one of 32 countries that impose capital punishment for offences involving the illegal importing, exporting, sale, or possession of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. But there has only been only one execution since 1983, and it happened in 1993. A total of 198 people were sentenced to death between 1956 and 1993, although there was an 11 year lull in executions between January 1982 and August 1993. The issue over capital punishment is a hot topic in Morocco. Officially, the stance of the current government is for "de facto" abolition but the Ministry of Justice has declared that terrorism is still an obstacle to "de jure" abolition. Figures from the US State Department claim that – until 2010 - a total of 104 inmates were on death row. According to a United Nations report, Morocco is a major source for cannabis, of which several hundreds tons reach mainly European markets every year.

Cannabis cultivation is concentrated in the underdeveloped region of the Rif in the North, for which the Government has adopted a national five-year development programme. In addition to the significant illicit trafficking of cannabis resin, the country is affected by growing international trafficking of heroin and cocaine and by related organised crime, including money laundering. As the main supplier country, “Morocco has long been a popular route by which drugs enter Europe”. It is a transit point for the ‘hashish’ consumed in Europe, but also of other illegal drugs principally coming from Latin America and East Asia.

The coast of Spain is the most common landing point of the drug, and to a less extent France, United Kingdom and other European countries Back in December 2012, Spanish police seized eleven metric tons of hashish smuggled from Morocco on trucks with tanks rigged to hide the drugs. Thirty five people were arrested in what was described as the breakup of a major smuggling ring that fed the European market.

Lionel Messi to be prosecuted for alleged tax evasion

2014-07-29T05:33:00.001+01:00

A Spanish court will push ahead with prosecuting the Barcelona forward Lionel Messi for alleged tax evasion despite a recommendation from the public prosecutor the charges be dismissed. The prosecutor argued in June that Messi’s father Jorge was responsible for the family’s finances and not the four-times World Player of the Year. However, the court in Barcelona has decided that Lionel Messi could have known about and approved the creation of a web of shell companies that were allegedly used to evade taxes due on income from image rights. The judge in the case ruled that the case against both Messis should continue. Argentina’s Messi and his father were accused last year of defrauding the Spanish state of more than €4m (£3.1m) by filing false returns for the years 2006 to 2009. They have denied wrongdoing. One of the world’s highest-paid athletes, Messi earns just over $40m (£23.5m) a season in salary and bonuses, according to Forbes magazine, as well as about $23m from sponsors. The magazine has him as the fourth top-earning athlete behind the boxer Floyd Mayweather, Real Madrid footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and basketball player LeBron James.

Third of holidaymakers fall victim to crime in Spain

2014-07-29T05:10:00.001+01:00

A new study shows that one in every three Irish people robbed while on a foreign getaway believe they, or a travelling companion, "looked like a tourist" when targeted by thieves. Men are more likely to be robbed with a map in hand or camera around their neck with 33pc of those targeted admitting they were an obvious target for opportunistic thieves, compared to 25pc of women. Overall more than one in every 10 Irish people (12pc) admitted to being robbed while on their holidays in the study by AA Ireland. Men are more commonly targeted than their female counterparts while abroad.

Spain is the holiday destination where most Irish people are robbed with a third of those surveyed revealing they had been robbed there, followed by France and Italy – three of the most popular places for Irish people to holiday. Of the 3,000 holidaymakers surveyed, more than one in every 10 (12pc) said they had been pick pocketed while only slightly less (10pc) said they had items stolen from their accommodation. Another one in 10 had their bank card stolen while the same number revealed they were targeted on public transport. Only 3pc said they were mugged or had their passport or bags stolen. Nearly three out of four (72pc) reported they have never been targeted by thieves while on holidays.

AA Ireland spokesperson Miriam O'Neill said it was important to "blend in" with the locals as much as possible to avoid being targeted. "It's a question of being conscious of your surroundings and making you and your belongings as inaccessible as possible. I'd always advise travellers to know what's covered in their travel insurance too," she said. The majority of robberies are opportunistic, the survey reveals. However, one couple were raided after culprits punctured their tyre then posed as good Samaritans before robbing them. Another person said they were almost robbed by a woman with a baby strapped to a fake arm, leaving her actual hand free to pick pocket.

There is no night life in Spain. They stay up late but they get up late. That is not night life. That is delaying the day…

2014-07-28T08:05:00.001+01:00

“There is no night life in Spain. They stay up late but they get up late. That is not night life. That is delaying the day…” Ernest Hemingway Of course Papa Hemingway burned his candle at both ends, but in Spain, anyone would. It is spectacular, and the food was a revelation: the sheer quality of ingredients, the vibrant colours and freshness, the simplicity of the cooking — I’m not talking molecular gastronomy here. I had gone not expecting much, just paella and tapas. Pardon my provincial ignorance. Just tapas?

Rushkinoff cough vodka gives British holidaymakers inexplicable cough

2014-07-28T07:47:00.001+01:00

THOUSANDS of British tourists have voiced their concern about developing an inexplicable cough after drinking a cheap brand of vodka in Mallorca. Its low price has turned Rushkinoff into the preferred vodka brand served in bars and restaurants on the island. It is also the vodka of choice for most holidaymakers enjoying a night out on the town since a one-litre bottle can be bought for as little as €3. The strange cough – nicknamed ‘the Rushkinoff cough’ – has people talking on social media. In fact, a Facebook page called ‘I got the Rushkinoff cough’ has already received as many as 12,000 likes.

Tourists affected by the cough have taken to travel websites, including Trip Advisor, to both warn other holidaymakers and complain about the cheap vodka brand. “Avoid it if at all possible! By the end of the holiday I had stopped buying vodka drinks when out because my throat could not take it. I lost my voice… I spent a week at home with a wicked cough and I could hardly speak.” said Rebecca M on Trip Advisor.

An English Literature student at Glasgow University said: “It was about €3 or €4 for a bottle and we presumed it was ok because it is served in all the bars. On the day we left, my throat started feeling scratchy and it got progressively worse. During the next week, I had a really sore throat and a hacking, rasping cough. It sounded like a smoker’s cough but I do not smoke.”

two sisters running a bakery in a desert

2014-07-28T07:14:00.001+01:00

The land in Los Monegros in Aragon in northeastern Spain, is almost as arid as a desert. In the 1960s, it was one of the backdrops chosen for spaghetti western films.

Yet for two twenty-something Spanish sisters, it has become the perfect place for their farming and bread-baking business.

Ana Marcen, the elder of the two, says she had no previous experience in agriculture.

"I studied Greek and Latin and used to work in an orchestra as a singer."

Her younger sister Laura used to work as a waitress and studied engineering.

Their business idea grew out of something their uncle told them - that in times gone by, the bread in this part of Spain tasted different.

It was a flavour he missed.

From seed to loaf

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'For the seed we grow, the climate is perfect', two sisters explain why they started a bakery and are growing wheat in a Spanish desert.

The sisters say their uncle was "a very curious person, he used to ask himself why bread didn´t taste any longer as it used to."

They discovered that a type of wheat seed, known as Aragon 03, had been the secret behind the region's distinctly-flavoured bread.

They found an elderly couple who still had a small quantity of the Aragon 03 seed. The Marcens bought two bags of the seeds - and from that their business has grown.

The concept of their business is to control the entire bread-making process.

They grow the wheat, mill the flour and bake the bread, muffins and other bakery snacks.

"Unlike other traditional bakeries that just sell organic products, we control the whole process", says Laura.

Los Monegros may be very dry - but the Marcen sisters' wheat is well-suited to these conditions

'You must be mad'

They set up their business in 2007, just before Spain's economic and financial crisis hit.

They were able to get a bank loan of €250,000, ($335,000; £200,000) which they think would be harder to come by in today's post-recession climate.

In the first year, their business lost lots of money, but by the third year they broke even.

Now, seven years after they first started farming and baking, they own two bakeries and sell their products in eight others.

Whatever profit they make, they reinvest in their business as they want to expand and sell online.

"Many people told us we were crazy for trying to run a business like ours in a (dry) place like this. But we found out that the seed we grow is perfect for this climate", says Laura.

"People think that there is no life in Los Monegros, but in reality the region is rich in plants and wildlife.

"As my uncle used to say, you have to bend your knees and look closely. For example, I see opportunities where others don't."

The niche product has a loyal clientele which has been the key to the business turning a profit

Family idea, family business

From the very start, this was a family-run business.

Their father Daniel harvests the crop, their mother Mercedes, works in one of their shops, and their younger brother, Jesus, mills the flour and bakes the bread.

Spain: Royals' plane food budget to double

2014-07-27T08:46:00.001+01:00

The Spanish Ministry of Defence has doubled its catering budget for a fleet of seven planes carrying Spanish royals, ministers and other senior officials, it seems. The government's congressional record has said the annual budget is going up to 133,000 euros (£105,000) from 65,000 euros the year before, news website 20minutos reports, adding that it's not unusual for officials to end up exceeding the budget. The website suggests the final bill for 2014 could come in at around 414,000 euros. Trays of peeled seasonal fruit, sirloin steak, Segovia suckling pig and Bilbao sea bass are among the 29 dishes on the menu - although it's reported that alcohol hasn't been served on board since 2012. Prices will be capped for some individual items - for example, the government won't pay more than 35 euros for a kilo of pecorino cheese - and some of the most expensive items have been taken off the menu altogether. The new budget comes amid a defence department review of the fleet's maintenance procedures following two recent breakdowns, and may consider renewing some of the aircraft in the fleet.

TOWIE hunk took to Instagram with a series of snaps from his latest holiday in Ibiza.

2014-07-23T18:12:00.001+01:00

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Tom Pearce is seriously enjoying the windswept look [Instagram]

Earlier today the TOWIE hunk took to Instagram with a series of snaps from his latest holiday in Ibiza.

As if Marbella wasn't enough, James Argent's pal made sure he had extra time out from filming to enjoy a lads holiday.

And judging by these photos the Essex boy had a whale of a time – soaking up the sun on a yacht.

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The TOWIE star's boys holiday turned out slightly different... [Instagram]

Tom also jumped at the chance to show off his tanned and toned six pack whilst making the most of his drama-free getaway compared to Marbella.

But what first looked like a lads holiday then seemed to involve a lot more bikinis than Grace Andrews might have hoped.

"Team Photo @ Blue Marlin Ibiza," the cheeky chap added.

Just adding to the TOWIE drama, eh Tom.

James Argent's pal seemed to be having a lonesome party on the yacht [Instagram]

Six Russian oligarchs – possibly including Putin himself – are building a €19 million mansion inside the walls of one of the world’s most exclusive residential estate – Marbella’s own Zagaleta.

2014-07-23T17:53:00.001+01:00

Six Russian oligarchs – possibly including Putin himself – are building a €19 million mansion inside the walls of one of the world’s most exclusive residential estate – Marbella’s own Zagaleta. Putin is rumoured to have visited the area a number of times over the last few years. Marbella town hall statistics revealed that there has been a significant increase in Russian expats and holidaymakers over the last year. In that time, two Russian magazines and a radio station have opened, as well as various businesses entirely geared towards the Russian enclave.

Spanish economic recovery in danger as Europe considers Russia action

2014-07-23T17:27:00.001+01:00

Spain’s already fragile economy could be teetering on the brink as the EU decides whether to impose sanctions against Russia. A crackdown on Russian investment and assets in Europe would badly hit Spain, which has seen a large influx of Russian capital over the last few years. It comes after the UK government openly accused Russia of arming and supporting the Ukrainian rebels who shot down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet last week, killing 295 people. Britain is now pushing for EU sanctions to freeze the assets of Putin’s wealthy group of ‘cronies’ – many of whom have financial connections with the Costa del Sol – unless Putin cooperates with a Flight MH17 probe. But Spain is joined by Italy, Finland and France in its reluctance to impose strong sanctions – in part because of strong economic ties with the country.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich says reading an interview in which Noel talked about quitting drugs is what made him give up taking cocaine.

2014-07-23T16:09:00.001+01:00

Ulrich says in the interview with the mrror that he was using cocaine up to around ten years ago but, when reading about Gallagher's own experiences with the drug, decided he wanted to stop."I loved the social elements of cocaine. I loved the danger of it," he said. "Then, about 10 years ago, I read an interview with Noel Gallagher, in which he said, 'I just stopped doing cocaine'. I thought that was really cool. It felt so fresh, so honest, so pure - I love that side of him. I've never had an addictive personality, so I woke up one day and said, 'Enough'."In fact, Ulrich says he only began taking cocaine in order to be able to drink more with his bandmates. "In the early days, I'd always get drunk way faster than the other guys," said Ulrich. "I realised that if there was a little bit of cocaine involved I could stay up longer, instead of ending up face down in the corner, passed out three hours before the party ended."

Guadalhorce valley The beautifully scenic Guadalhorce valley in Spain is an area full of stunning natural views.

2014-07-23T15:04:00.001+01:00

Guadalhorce valley The beautifully scenic Guadalhorce valley in Spain is an area full of stunning natural views. Lying within easy reach of key Spanish cities such as Malaga, and easily accessible from the nearby Costa del Sol airport, Guadalhorce is enjoying a renaissance in popularity, as investors purchase second homes in the area. Guadalhorce valley is also located ideally closely to market towns including Coin and Alhaurin el Grande, making it an ideal option for visitors and residents who enjoy the quiet and picturesque valley life, but who sometimes like to sample the more vibrant side of Spain’s culture. Increasing interest In recent years, Marbella has become Spain’s go-to place for property investment, with the Costa del Sol resort enjoying an unprecedented rise in popularity amongst the rich and famous. Whilst considerably helping an ailing global property market, this proved to be a difficult period for the more sedate and understated side of the Spanish economy, with Guadalhorce valley amongst the areas suffering. But now, Guadalhorce is enjoying its own rise and recovery, with investors from the UK, Belgium and Holland taking interest in properties that are reasonably priced between £150,000 and £200,000. Providing a much more authentic taste of Spanish lifestyle than the more party-orientated resorts such as Marbella, Guadalhorce is becoming ever more popular.

Mayor and politician Arenas at La Sala Banus

2014-07-23T14:52:00.001+01:00

Marbella’s illustrious Mayor, Maria Angeles Muñoz graced La Sala Banús with her presence on Saturday 19th July when the resort’s first lady enjoyed lunch on the terrace with Javier Arenas, the well-known Spanish politician, currently National Vice Secretary for territorial affairs for the Partido Popular, and formerly President of the party in Andalucía from 2004-2012. In the middle of a promotional campaign to create awareness among the population of residential tourists in Marbella about the advantages of registering at the Town Hall, the Mayor was campaigning from a large mobile office stationed opposite La Sala Banús at the entrance to the bustling Saturday market. The Town Hall are aiming to increase the number of people officially registered as resident in Marbella from 145,000 to 150,000 over the summer months and are outlining the benefits in terms of increased funding for Marbella from central government which translates to better services for the resort. At La Sala Banús, the Mayor, Mr. Arenas and a group of friends sampled an appetising array of La Sala signature dishes including Calamari, Mini Hamburgers, Duck Spring Rolls, Butterfly Shrimps and Pasta Vongole. The Mayor’s party enjoyed lunch on the terrace, one of eight available areas for dining at La Sala Banús.

Desperate Housewives star, Eva Longoria, was in Marbella, holidaying with family.

2014-07-23T14:47:00.001+01:00

Desperate Housewives star, Eva Longoria, was in Marbella, holidaying with family. To celebrate her mother’s 70th birthday, Eva took her, Ella Eva Mireles, to a local spa. However, there was a lot more than rest and relaxation on the agenda for driven Longoria.

She organised and attended two events in the area in aid of a variety of charities. The first was on Saturday, a golf tournament benefiting Global Gift, an organisation that brings different influential people and organisations together for charitable causes. The event was held at the glamorous La Quinta club.

Then on Sunday night, Longoria attended the Global Gift gala in aid of Global Gift, the Eva Longoria Foundation and the Bertin Osborne Foundation. The event attracted many wealthy guests who paid €500 each for a seat.

The star’s foundation, helps deprived women and children in the US-Latino community by giving education and opportunities, whereas, the Bertin Osborne Foundation aids children who suffer from cerebral palsy.

Global Gift is now planning on distributing the money raised to five different organisations in Marbella, according toFox News Latino.

The sponsors took care of all the event’s expenses, so the money raised went in total to good causes.

“In other galas, in the end, you have to pay all the organisational costs and the money raised ends up going for the party,” explained Global Gift founder Maria Bravo.

Luckily, this wasn’t the case because Iberia Airlines covered the celebrities’ journeys, the chef, Martin Berasategui, took care of the dinner and the Don Pepe Hotel supplied accommodation.

2014-07-19T11:42:00.001+01:00

Barcelona To Tackle Dog Walkers: Get a License Or Receive a Fine

2014-07-19T11:21:00.001+01:00

The Catalan capital is set to unleash a new law that will force dog owners to get a license or face fines up to €600. From October, dog owners will be required to obtain a “civic license” before letting their pets walk around without a leash within one of Barcelona’s 103 designated dog parks. An “animal abuse” register will also come into effect with a prohibition of leaving animals tied up for more than two hours or leaving animals locked in a car for more than 20 minutes.

Is it balls, vagina, or both? Airbnb logo sparks wave of internet parodies

2014-07-19T08:43:00.001+01:00

Is it balls, vagina, or both? Airbnb logo sparks wave of internet parodies The apartment-rental website launches its grown-up logo to a wave of ridicule – as well as claims of plagiarism

Sugar Daddy University: New course teaches 'sugar babies' how to land a wealthy man

2014-06-15T15:55:00.001+01:00

A new course is offering to teach women how to be the ideal ‘sugar baby’ in order to land a wealthy man. Professional sugar baby Carla Abonia, 37, has been flown across the world and had wildly lavish gifts bought for her by rich men who can't resist her company. But she admits the relationships aren't always straight forward, so has joined forces with her mentor, sugar daddy Alan Schneider, to form their Sugar Daddy University in New York. The pair teach five key elements of being a successful sugar daddy or sugar baby through the curriculum - Sexuality, Understanding, Generosity, Attraction and Reciprocity.

Dennis Hopper's Lost Album: life both sides of the lens

2014-06-15T15:49:00.001+01:00

As the Royal Academy's forthcoming exhibition Dennis Hopper: The Lost Album shows, the mercurial actor took to photography in his own instinctive and utterly obsessive way. Between 1961 and 1967, he shot around 10,000 images, using high-speed black-and-white film for immediacy, shooting only in natural light and never cropping his images. He made portraits of his fellow actors, including the young Paul Newman and Jane Fonda, and the artists he hung out with in Los Angeles, including Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg and Edward Kienholz.

He photographed Hells Angels, hippies and passersby as well as rioters in Sunset Strip in 1967 and protesters on the famous civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. He shot Andy Warhol and his retinue at the Factory in New York in 1963 and a portfolio of rock stars – Brian Jones, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds and James Brown – for Vogue magazine in 1965. That same year, he created the cover image for Ike and Tina Turner's River Deep – Mountain High album. He also photographed shop signs and storefronts for himself in a style reminiscent of the great Walker Evans and more abstract patterns in steel, wood and fabric that he spotted on his walks in Los Angeles and New York. "Through his eyes," says his longtime friend Ed Ruscha, "I can see a virtual dictionary of the City of Los Angeles." Andy Warhol (bottom left) and members of the Factory, 1963. Hopper was both of his time and ahead of it. "He was serious about photography and very ambitious," says Petra Giloy-Hirtz, curator of the new exhibition. "He was not an actor who dabbled in art and photography, but someone who expressed himself creatively through another related medium. The photographs offset the image of him as a mad, reckless, self-destructive hippy. That came later."

The exhibition comprises a cache of 400 original prints that Hopper made for his first photography show at the Fort Worth Art Centre Museum in Texas in 1970 and which have not been seen since. They were discovered after his death in 2010 in five dusty boxes among his belongings and extensive collection of art and antiques. "The Lost Album is the title I gave to what is a treasure trove of evidence about Dennis and how he made images," says Giloy-Hirtz, who also edited the book of the same name last year. "The prints are much smaller than the ones we are used to seeing, just 6½in by 9½in. Some are creased or showing some wear and tear, but they carry an extraordinary sense of historical authenticity. I have tried to replicate the original show by using documentary photographs of it from the time, so this is as close to what Dennis would have wanted as is possible." Roger Vadim and Jane Fonda at their wedding, Las Vegas, 1964. It was his friend James Dean who first interested Hopper in photography. They bonded on the set of Dean's defining film, Rebel Without a Cause, and, according to Hopper, it was Dean who first noticed his eye for composition, telling him: "I know you're going to direct some day so learn to take photographs and don't crop them, use the still full frame." That advice, given by someone Hopper considered a mentor and a kindred spirit, would later help define Hopper's naturalistic style. The disruptive behaviour that led to Hopper's banishment from Hollywood may have been precipitated in part by his grief at Dean's premature death in a car crash in 1955, just eight days after Hopper and he had finished working on Giant. Hopper got by for a time on small television roles and theatrical work but by 1960 he had also established himself as part of the fledgling contemporary art scene in Los Angeles, both as an artist and a collector.

That scene centred around the Ferus Gallery in La Cienega Boulevard, founded in 1957 by the curator Walter Hopps and Edward Kienholz. Ed Ruscha tells me: "The art world in Los Angeles in the early 60s was minuscule: two or three galleries, and not many artists spread far and wide around the city. Dennis himself began to collect art and could be counted as maybe one of the four people in the movie business that had any interest in the art of the day." "From the start, Dennis was very interested in what was happening in contemporary art," says the art dealer Irving Blum, who took over curating at Ferus in 1958. "When pop art broke in Los Angeles in 1961, he was one of the first people to pick up on it. I sold him one of the Campbell's soup cans for $100 in 1962. He bought some Lichtenstein landscapes before that when no one had even heard of pop. He saw the transparencies on my desk, and he just said, 'Yes! I want them.' You could tell he was someone with an understanding of the zeitgeist where art was concerned. He was utterly instinctive and absolutely on the money." Ruscha concurs: "My very first sale of art was to Dennis Hopper. It was a large painting of a Standard gas station. I remember his reaction upon seeing this picture. There was a long pause, then he came out with the words, 'Oh, man!' No other verbals necessary. This was the way we communicated." Untitled (Hippie Girl Dancing), 1967. Early on, Hopper also wrote poetry, painted abstract canvases and made sculptures. He gave up painting in 1961 after a fire destroyed his home and most of his possessions, including his own paintings and his contemporary art collection. At that time, he was preparing for his first photography exhibition at the Photo Lab/Gallery in Los Angeles and, from then on, photography became his obsession. Initially, he made abstract work, experimenting with multiple images and enlarging his prints, often exhibiting his assemblages alongside found objects. He won first prize in a worldwide open submission competition in Australia for an early series called Pieces and was written about glowingly in Artforum in 1963 in a feature headed "Welcome brave new images!" At Ferus, he became the in-house photographer, photographing the gallery's artists for catalogues, exhibition flyers and art magazines. "Dennis was shooting many portraits of his friends in those days, especially artists," says Ruscha. "I remember, with me, he picked the location, a storefront on Santa Monica Boulevard that sold saws and industrial tools.

There was not a lot of making ready or posing to my portrait. He used his trusty Nikon 35mm camera. In 10 to 15 minutes, he had just what he wanted." In 1965, London's hippest gallery owner, Robert Fraser, a friend of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, who would later be arrested with Mick Jagger in the infamous Redlands drug bust, visited Hopper's studio with Irving Blum. The two hit it off and Hopper took Fraser to Ed Ruscha's studio, where he bought some pieces that he later sold to John Lennon. In 1966, Fraser included Hopper's work – abstract photographs alongside giant foam boulders and cacti – in a group show, Los Angeles Now, at his Mayfair gallery alongside Ruscha and six other California artists. In Groovy Bob, Harriet Vyner's oral biography of Fraser, Pauline Fordham, a gallery assistant, recalls her first meeting with Hopper. "This strange paranoid guy arrived… covered in camera equipment in tan leather cases, straps, thongs etc – masses of it – which never left him. He slept, ate, went out with it – whether he went out to dinner or a nightclub. I'd say, 'I don't think you have to take all this rather wonderful camera equipment with you.' He'd reply, 'My wife, who I've just married, gave it to me, and if I lose anything, she'll kill me.' It was quite bizarre to see this smallish man covered in equipment." Hopper's then-wife was the actress Brooke Hayward, who was instrumental in his photographic career. Not long after they met in 1961 she bought him an expensive Nikon camera for his 25th birthday. "I spent my last $351 on a Nikon that was thereafter permanently slung around his neck," she recalled later. "He never left the house without it.

It turned out that he was as natural a photographer as he was an actor." Hayward's daughter with Hopper, Marin, recalls: "He always had a camera around his neck. This is how I remember him. His friends called him the Tourist. My brother once drew a family picture and gave my father a camera for a head." Hopper continued photographing the world around him and defining his distinctive observational style until 1967, when the idea for Easy Rider started gestating in his head. By the end of 1969, on the back of the film's surprise success, he was feted as the voice of the hippy generation, but he was too complex and unpredictable for that. As his spectacularly indulgent, intermittently brilliant, follow-up, The Last Movie, showed, Hopper made work purely for himself. The film, shot on location in Peru, ran way over budget and the task of editing Hopper's reams of footage took him more than a year. By then, divorced from Hayward, he had retreated to Taos, New Mexico, where his unruly, drink- and drug-fuelled life became the stuff of legend. "I stayed in touch with him over the years," says Ruscha, "and in 1972 stayed in his compound in Taos. He was in an edgy period of his life, having finished Easy Rider and The Last Movie, and was feeling alienated and detached from his friends in the movie industry… His character in the movie Apocalypse Now was true to his form as an actor and a person in real life. Together with his character in Blue Velvet, it forms a vital and powerful image of Dennis as an actor and a person." Hopper's film career since Blue Velvet never quite matched the intensity of that performance, though roles in Paris Trout (1991), True Romance (1993), Speed (1994) and a turn as the evil Victor Drazen, in the American TV series 24 kept him in the public eye. Back in the early 70s, however, as Hopper's reputation for self-destruction grew – he later claimed he was drinking half a gallon of rum and snorting three or four grams of coke a day – he often seemed, as Ruscha intimates, to be playing himself: a lost soul on an arc of epic self-destruction. In 1970, though, he was together enough to sort through his huge collection of negatives, select and produce the 429 small prints he took with him to Fort Worth for his first retrospective exhibition. What happened to them between then and their rediscovery in 2010 remains a mystery. By the mid-1970s, the negatives were almost certainly stashed in his house in Taos which, as Giloy-Hirtz puts it, had become "a biker gang, lesbian, drug and hippy nest". There, Hopper had also developed a fondness for guns. When Taschen published Dennis Hopper: Photographs, 1961-1967, edited by gallery owner Tony Shafrazi, who also put on shows by Hopper, it included an essay called The Taos Incident. It was written by Hopper's long-time friend, the late Walter Hopps, an influential photography curator. Hopps recounted how, following a series of night-time shootings at Hopper's house, he had put "nine guns, including the goddamn machine gun… under our mattresses", before gathering up all the negatives and contact sheets that were scattered about the house and fleeing back to Los Angeles. Those contact sheets and negatives have since provided the raw material for every exhibition and book of Hopper's photography until the discovery of the original prints for the Fort Worth show in 2010. They are, as Giloy-Hirtz attests, "a treasure trove" of information about how Hopper's creative mind worked back then, not least in the surprising scale of the prints and "how densely the photographs were mounted, often three rows high, organised in thematically arranged blocks as well as in unusual juxtapositions." They provide further evidence, if needed, of Hopper's instinctive talent for composition and his impatient, but remarkably focused, eye. "His relationship to photography was very natural. He had an eye," says his daughter Marin. "Photography didn't fit into his life, it was a part of his life." Ed Ruscha, who was one of the pallbearers at Hopper's funeral at the San Francisco de Asis church in Ranchos de Taos, says: "He approached his photographs as a sort of wandering of the soul, followed by the familiar ka-chunk of the Nikon." Dennis Hopper: The Lost Album by Petra Giloy-Hirtz (Prestel Hardback, £35)

Capital gains: Young British fashion designers are attracting international brands to London's menswear showcase

2014-06-15T15:43:00.001+01:00

Today is the start of London Collections: Men. It's the fifth time that London has presented a stand-alone fashion week for men, cramming almost 70 shows and presentations into three days. It isn't just about showing what British designers have to offer, though. This time around, Italian label Moschino (helmed by the American designer Jeremy Scott) has elected to show its menswear in London, and Scott joins fellow American Tom Ford and a welter of homegrown names including Burberry Prorsum and Alexander McQueen. The visibility of London's menswear showcase is fast rising. What is it that makes London menswear so appealing? Its comparative youth, for a start: Milan and Paris have been showing menswear separately from their women's collections for more than 15 years. The status as a fresh newcomer of London Collections: Men is mirrored in its designers, whose ages hover somewhere around 30. JW Anderson, newly appointed head of Loewe, reaches that milestone this year; new talent Craig Green, who shows his hotly anticipated show tomorrow, is 27; while the inaugural winner of the BFC/GQ Designer Fashion Fund, Christopher Shannon, is only 33.

2012-12-10T09:10:00.001+00:00

Emotional eating is when people use food as a way to deal with feelings instead of to satisfy hunger. We've all been there, finishing a whole bag of chips out of boredom or downing cookie after cookie while cramming for a big test. But when done a lot — especially without realizing it — emotional eating can affect weight, health, and overall well-being.

Not many of us make the connection between eating and our feelings. But understanding what drives emotional eating can help people take steps to change it.

One of the biggest myths about emotional eating is that it's prompted by negative feelings. Yes, people often turn to food when they're stressed out, lonely, sad, anxious, or bored. But emotional eating can be linked to positive feelings too, like the romance of sharing dessert on Valentine's Day or the celebration of a holiday feast.

Sometimes emotional eating is tied to major life events, like a death or a divorce. More often, though, it's the countless little daily stresses that cause someone to seek comfort or distraction in food.

Emotional eating patterns can be learned: A child who is given candy after a big achievement may grow up using candy as a reward for a job well done. A kid who is given cookies as a way to stop crying may learn to link cookies with comfort.

It's not easy to "unlearn" patterns of emotional eating. But it is possible. And it starts with an awareness of what's going on.

ARE YOU ADDICTED TO BUSYNESS ARE YOU A SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICT

2012-12-04T12:32:00.001+00:00

ARE YOU ADDICTED TO BUSYNESS ARE YOU A SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICT

You may be lost in the addiction to busyness if…

Your usual response to “how are you?” is “so busy”, “crazy busy” or “busy but good”
You spend time worrying about how busy you are going to be tomorrow
You get angry when your spouse or friends aren’t as busy as you
Your busy life keeps you up at night thinking about everything you didn’t get done
You make a point of letting people know that you stay at the office after hours
You check email several times a day
You zone out during conversations thinking about everything you have to do
You volunteer for things you don’t care about
You spend time complaining about how busy you are
You make list after list to make sure you don’t forget anything during your busy day
You allocate time each day to clean your desk or organize your stuff
You regularly eat in your car
You use a phone in the car because “it’s the only time you have to talk”

experts believe we can actually become "addicted" to stress.

2012-09-07T06:40:00.001+01:00

Stress can be physical,And then there’s the kind that’s in our heads — that OMG I’m so overwhelmed right now feeling. While psychological stress has some definite downsides (chronic freak-outs may increase our risk for cancer and other diseases), take a moment to exhale. In moderate amounts, stress can boost our focus, energy, and even our powers of intuition.

Still, in some cases, stress does more than light a productivity-boosting fire under our butts. Both emotional and physical stress activate our central nervous system, causing a “natural high,” says Concordia University neuroscientist and addiction specialist Jim Pfaus. “By activating our arousal and attention systems,” Pfaus says, “stressors can also wake up the neural circuitry underlying wanting and craving — just like drugs do.”

This may be why, experts believe, some of us come to like stress a little too much.

Type A and Type D personalities — or people prone to competitiveness, anxiety, and depression — may be most likely to get a high from stressful situations, says stress management specialist Debbie Mandel. Stress “addicts,” Mandel says, “may also be using endless to-do lists to avoid less-easy-to-itemize problems — feelings of inadequacy, family conflicts, or other unresolved personal issues.”

Some stress junkies have difficulty listening to others, concentrating, and even sleeping because they can’t put tomorrow’s agenda out of their minds, explains Mandel. Others tend to use exaggerated vocabulary — craaazy busy right now, workload’s insane!! And some begin to feel anxious at the mere thought of slowing down their schedule.

But psychologist and addiction researcher Stanton Peele cautions against labeling anyone a stress addict. “Only when that pursuit of stress has a significant negative impact on your life could it qualify as addiction,” he said, adding that many people are able to effectively manage — and in fact thrive under — high stress conditions. (Think: Olympic athletes or President Obama.)

Study: Stress Shrinks the Brain and Lowers Our Ability to Cope with Adversity

For budding stress “addicts” or for those who just, well, feel overwhelmed, here are some tips to dial down that anxiety:

Seek professional help if you’re verging on burnout. (Not only can hashing it out with a therapist take a load off your mind. Some studies suggest it also boosts physical fitness.)
Do something creative. Mandel recommends carving out a once-weekly time not to think about tomorrow’s agenda by painting, cooking, writing, dancing, or anything else that’ll take you off the clock temporarily.
Take it outside. Numerous studies show spending time in nature improves general well-being, lowers anxiety, stress and depression, and even boosts self-confidence. Especially for women. (As it turns out, most addiction recovery centers offer outdoor-immersion programs.)
Calm down quickly. If you really don’t have time for any of the above, these 40 tricks to chill take five minutes or less.

Some of us may seek out stress a bit more excessively than others and struggle to just relax. It takes skill to handle hectic agendas and long lists of responsibilities — without losing sleep or feeling frazzled. So try these tips and try not to freak out.

Worried that you or someone you know seeks out stress a little too much? Think stress addiction is a myth? Tell us about it in the comments section below.

For those red wine drinkers who’ve been feeling morally superior about all the health benefits of the relaxing glass or two sipped during dinner, there’s some bad news on the horizon.

2012-09-07T06:30:00.001+01:00

Turns out, those glasses of wine would be a lot healthier if they were non-alcoholic, a new study shows. Spanish researchers led by Gemma Chiva-Blanch of the University of Barcelona found that non-alcoholic red wine reduced blood pressure in men at high risk for heart disease better than standard red wine or gin, according to the study published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation Research. Although the reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure was modest, decreases of just 4 and 2 mm Hg have been associated with a 14 to 20 percent reduction in heart disease and stroke, the researchers pointed out. “The daily consumption of dealcoholized red wine could be useful for the prevention of low to moderate hypertension,” they concluded. Although there have been many studies on the impact of moderate drinking on health, the findings have been mixed, with some studies showing a benefit and others suggesting none. The new study found that 3 ounces of gin a day had no impact on blood pressure, while consumption of regular red wine led to a small, but not statistically significant, improvement. The new study suggests that if you’re going to have a drink, red wine would be the healthiest choice, said Dr. Kelly Anne Spratt, a heart disease prevention specialist and a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Still, Spratt said, “while there are those of us in cardiology who believe in the benefits of red wine, we want to be wary. We’re not going like gangbusters recommending people go out and start drinking. There are a lot of problems associated with drinking, like weight gain, cardiomyopathy, alcoholism, an increased breast cancer risk in women who consume two or more drinks a day.” Chiva-Blanch and her colleagues suspect that blood pressure improvements were due to the impact of polyphenols, a red wine component, on nitric oxide. The theory is that nitric oxide molecules help blood vessels relax, which allows better flow and more blood to reach the heart and other organs. For the new study, Chiva-Blanch and her colleagues followed 67 men with diabetes or three or more cardiovascular risk factors. During the study, the men were all required to consume the same foods along with one of three drinks: 10 ounces of red wine, 10 ounces of non-alcoholic red wine or 3 ounces of gin. During the 12 week study, the men tried each diet/beverage combination for four weeks at a time. The researchers determined that the standard red wine and its nonalcoholic counterpart contained equal amounts of polyphenols, an antioxidant which has been shown to decrease blood pressure. Men who drank regular red wine saw minor reductions in blood pressure – too small, in fact, to be statistically significant. Those who drank gin with their meals saw no change in blood pressure. But men who drank non-alcoholic red wine saw a blood pressure decrease of about 6 mm Hg in systolic and 2 mm Hg in diastolic blood pressure. Chiva-Blanch and her colleagues concluded that their findings show that the alcohol in red wine actually weakens its ability to lower blood pressure.