Baggage handlers to strike at Easter

 Baggage handlers at Stansted Airport are to strike over Easter in a row over pay, the GMB union announced today. The move follows an overwhelming vote in favour of industrial action by 150 GMB members employed by Swissport after the union claimed that shift changes would lead to wage cuts of up to £1,000. The GMB said strikes will be held on Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday, threatening disruption to passengers flying on holiday for the holiday break. GMB official Gary Pearce said: "GMB members have voted overwhelmingly for strike action and for action short of a strike. "Up to now the company has been intent on imposing these changes without agreement and this is completely unacceptable, as this vote shows. "GMB has offered several alternative shift patterns and working...

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Iberia Express takes off on Sunday

 The new low-cost airline, Iberia Express, takes off on Sunday with launch prices from 25 €. The airline, which has been the focus of protests, twelve so far, from SEPLA pilots in the main airline, will start with four routes from Madrid – to Palma de Mallorca, Alicante, Málaga and Sevilla. The inaugural flight will be between Madrid and Alicante. There will also be 45 € flights to the Canary Islands which start in June and 59 € flights to European destinations which will start between June and September. The there will be 17 routes. Iberia Express will operate four Airbus A320, a number which will progressively increase to reach 13 craft by the end of the year. The CEO, Luis Gallego, has promised the same quality of service as Iberia. Tickets go on sale next week on www.iberiae...

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Woman who is promoting a cannabis plantation in Catalan village is arrested

 The woman who recently put forward the idea of the creation of a cannabis plant in the village of Rasquera in Tarragona, has been arrested for alleged drug trafficking in Barcelona. The regional police, Los Mossos d’Esquadra, recovered 1.3 kilos of marihuana worth 5,700 €. The arrested woman is a manager on the Barcelona Self-Use Cannabis Association and four workers in the group have also been indicted. Meanwhile back in the village a referendum is to be held on April 10 to decide on the plantation. The Mayor, Bernat Pellisa, said political pressures will not influence the final decision of the Town Hall, and noted the coverage of the story was as if they had spent 2.4 million € on advertisi...

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General Strike minimum services agreed for transport

 After ten hours of talks, the Ministry for Development has reached agreement with the unions on minimum transport services during the General Strike on March 29. They are almost identical to the minimum services during the last General Strike in 2010. Trains – Cercanias – Local lines 25% off peak, and 30% in peak times between 6and 9am Long Distance train services over 500 kms – 20% of normal levels. AVE and long distance trains will see 20% service. Airports – 1,240 flights would take place on a normal day, but the 29th will see 10% of national flights, 50% of flights to the Canaries and Baleares from the mainland, and 20% of flights with destinations in the E.U. International flights outside Europe will see 40% services. It is hoped that more detailed will be available for each...

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Sex is a multibillion-dollar industry in Spain, with colorfully lit brothels staffed mainly by poor immigrant women from Latin America, Africa and eastern Europe lining highways throughout the country

Pimps Arrested in Spain for 'Barcoding' WomenPolice in Spain arrested 22 alleged pimps who purportedly tattooed women with bar codes as a sign of ownership and used violence to force them into prostitution.  Police are calling the gang the "bar code pimps." Officers freed one 19-year-old woman who had been beaten, held against her will and tattooed with a bar code and an amount of money — €2,000 ($2,650) — which investigators believe was the debt the gang wished to extort before releasing her. The woman had also been whipped, chained to a radiator and had her hair and eyebrows shaved off, according to an Interior Ministry statement.All those arrested were of Romanian nationality and had forced the women to hand over part of their earnings, the statement said. The women were tattooed...

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Painkiller warning as pack contains higher dose than label says

39,000 packs of co-codamol, which contains both paracetamol and codeine, contain higher dose tablets than is stated on the label, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said. Some of the 8mg/500mg packs actually contain 30mg/500mg tablets in the blister strips inside. The two can be told apart by markings on the side of the tablets. The 8mg/500mg tablet has the markingon one side only. The 30mg/500mg tablet has CCD30 on one side and CP on the other. An overdose of co-codamol is serious and patients should not take more than one or two tablets every four to six hours and no more than four doses in 24-hou...

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Mafia Bosses 'Turn Cannibal': Serbian Gangsters 'Ate Milan Jurisic In A Flat In Madrid' Say Police

A mafia traitor was beaten to death and then eaten by Serbian gangsters, police believe. Milan Jurisic, 37, was killed with a hammer by a gang of criminals from the Zemun Clan, a mafia group from Belgrade, in Madrid. His remains were then ground up with a meat grinder, cooked, and eaten, according to a confession by another Zemun Clan member, Sretko Kalinic, nicknamed "The Butcher". Later the gang reportedly threw the bones into the River Manzanares in the Spanish capital. This week, police found bones in the river and the apartment where the killing apparently took place in 2009. Jurisic is thought to have betrayed his fellow gang members by stealing money from them. He was on the run after being convicted in his absence of assassinating Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003. Kalinic...

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Brookside's Brian Regan jailed for Bahman Faraji murder lies

Ex-Brookside actor Brian Regan has been jailed for lying about his part in a gangland killing. Regan's sentence can be revealed following the conviction of Jason Gabbana, 29, for ordering the murder of a nightclub doorman in Liverpool. Bahman Faraji, 44, was shot dead at close range outside the Belgrave public house in Aigburth in February 2011. Regan, 54, who played Terry Sullivan in the soap, was jailed on 25 January for four years and 10 months. Gabbana, of Score Lane in Childwall, was found guilty of murder at Liverpool Crown Court. Mr Faraji was accused by Gabbana's defence of drug dealing and running an illegal protection racket. Snorting cocaine Regan, St Marys Road, Garston, Liverpool, was cleared of murder but convicted of perverting the course of justice after it emerged he...

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TWO men who have been arrested by detectives investigating the murder of crime boss Eamon 'The Don' Dunne are senior lieutenants of crime lord Christy Kinahan.

 The mobsters were picked up by armed gardai during a dawn raid at a property in the north inner city and are currently in custody at Store Street Garda Station. Sources do not believe that either is the gunman who actually killed Dunne in the gangland murder in a Cabra pub in April 2010 but they believe that the pair played a key role in organising the hit. The Herald can today reveal that gardai also planned to arrest the young criminal who they believe shot Dunne but he "has gone to ground." The north inner city gunman is a close associate of the two related men who are in garda custody today. Selling One of those arrested -- aged in his late 20s -- was mentioned by Spanish authorities in the four-page European Arrest Warrant they used to extradite 'Fat' Freddie Thompson to Spain...

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A GANG of “guns for hire” who spread lawless violence in a spate of gun and grenade attacks across Merseyside were today starting life behind bars.

 The five were the “go to” men for gangsters across the area as they carried out attacks on underworld rivals.But their spree saw innocent people caught in the middle as indiscriminate shootings and grenade attacks escalated.At the top of the tree sat Tony Downes and Kirk Bradley, a “thick as thieves” pair of career criminals from Huyton, and Gary Wilson, who used his ill-gotten gains to buy himself a plush seafront Southport home.Bradley and Downes, both 26, never got their hands dirty – Downes was directing operations from his cell in HMP Liverpool and was said to be the group’s “chief executive” by a judge yesterday.Instead their...

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At least four people, including three children, were killed, when a man on a scooter opened fire outside a Jewish school in Toulouse in southwestern France

At least four people, including three children, were killed, when a man on a scooter opened fire outside a Jewish school in Toulouse in southwestern France on Monday, officials said. The attack also left several injured, two of them seriously, and followed the killing of three soldiers in two separate shootings in the same region last week by a man who escaped on a scooter. BFM TV news channel said that the gun used in the attack at the Ozar Hatorah school was of the same calibre as that used in the soldiers’ shootings, but a spokesman for the interior ministry could not immediately confirm this. President Nicolas Sarkozy cancelled other appointments and was on his way to Toulouse on Monday morning, accompanied by Education Minister Luc Chatel and the president of the CRIF French Jewish...

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Spain's Unicaja, Caja Espana savings banks merge

Spanish regional savings banks Unicaja and Caja Espana have merged following the government's recent requirement that banks raise substantially their provisions set aside to cover toxic real estate exposure. The merger, in which Banco Caja Espana-Duero (Banco Ceiss) is effectively absorbed into Unicaja Banco, creates a group with approximately (EURO)80 billion ($104.9 billion) in total assets and a turnover of (EURO)120 billion ($157.4 billion), according to a joint statement released late Friday. The deal must first receive Finance Ministry and central bank approval and would require (EURO)850 million ($1114.86 million) of state aid, which is added to (EURO)525 million ($688.59 million) already injected into Caja Espana in 2010 by the Bank of Spain's restructuring fund (FRO...

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German taxpayer would be obliged to subsidise the wages of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

 When faced with the prospect of the Spanish government waiving the collective €752m debt the nation's football clubs owe to the country's tax authorities, the reaction in Europe last week was one of outrage. The German tabloid Bild even asked how long the German taxpayer would be obliged to subsidise the wages of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. What they meant was that while the European Union members bailed out the Spanish economy, successful Spanish clubs were failing to meet their own tax obligations. Strictly speaking, Real Madrid have no tax debt among the €170m debt that the club carry, but Barcelona owe €48m of their overall €364m debt to the Spanish taxman. Uli Hoeness, the outspoken president of Bayern Munich, got to the point rather more quickly when asked about the proposal...

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S SPAIN THE NEXT GREECE? NATION SINKS FURTHER INTO MIRE

Savage cuts to the Greek health service have seen the country's HIV and Tuberculosis rates soar - sparking fears it is becoming a third world nation.Aid agencies said the cutting of hospital budgets by an astonishing 40 per cent had also led to a sharp rise in the number of citizens being diagnosed with Malaria.In the south, they said, it is reaching near endemic levels not seen since 1970s.The scrapping of needle exchange services has seen the number of HIV and Aids sufferers in central Athens rise by 1,250 per cent in 2011 alone.There are more prostitutes on the streets selling their bodies to make ends meet, while heroin addicts are finding...

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Health board owed £130k for treatment of foreign nationals

FOREIGN nationals not entitled to free treatment are said to owe Swansea Bay's ABM University Health Board more than £130,000 — the second highest figure in Wales. According to figures obtained by the Welsh Conservatives, only Cardiff and Vale UHB is owed more, at just over £200,000. ​ Darren Millar AM The Welsh Government has now said it is looking at further measures to help health boards recoup their costs. Figures obtained by the Tories following a Freedom of Information request show the money owed to the NHS in Wales more than doubled between 2008 and 2011. Of the £380,000 that was unpaid, at least £199,311 is still outstanding to Wales's seven health boards, while a minimum of £185,700 was written off after bosses exhausted efforts to be reimbursed. Shadow Health Minister Darren...

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Spanish state will need outside help – or even go bankrupt.

 If the negative development in the Spanish housing market continues, it can – worst case – lead to renewed concern over that the Spanish state will need outside help – or even go bankrupt. Banks might face several hundred billion Euros in losses on the Spanish real estate market. This will mean a recapitalization of the Spanish banks – capital that can only come from the Spanish state. Now there is nothing new in that; but what is interesting is the free admission of a need to nationalize the Spanish banks. If you glace at the graph you will see the Danish housing market has dropped between 22% and 30% from the top – time and actual drop depending on market segment. As Danske Bank is roughly half the Danish finance sector it is hard to escape the conclusion that Danske Bank is in at...

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Spain has been surprised at the magnitude of this property down slide. thinking thought it would be around 10 percent.

Home-owners in Spain received yet another blow when figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) show that house prices fell even further in the last quarter of 2011.House prices in Spain have been in free-fall since the start of the economic crisis with the construction industry coming to a virtual standstill. The figures show that the price of new build properties dropped by 8.5 percent in the final quarter of 2011 compared to The equivalent period in 2010. Those trying to sell their used homes are suffering even further with a drop of 13.7 percent.Analysts are blaming the recession, unemployment and uncertainty about Spain's...

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Prosecutors charge Catholic nun in alleged stolen baby scheme at Madrid hospitals

A Catholic nun has been charged with being part of a child stealing operation that ran over four decades in Spain. Sister María Gómez Valbuena is the first person to be indicted in connection with the probe into more than 100 cases of babies snatched from hospitals between the 1950s and 1980s. She was subpoenaed to testify before investigators recently but refused to answer questions, according to sources at the Madrid prosecutor's office. Identity crisis: Randy Ryder as a baby being cradled in a Malaga hospital in 1971 by the woman who bought him Her name has surfaced in dozens of complaints filed by mothers who claim they were robbed of their babies after giving birth at San Ramón and Santa Cristina hospitals in Madrid. Sister María was the assistant to Dr Eduardo Vela Vela, whose...

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€500 REWARD is on offer to anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest of the people who broke into a Marbella clothing store.

 €500 REWARD is on offer to anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest of the people who broke into a Marbella clothing store. The incident took place at The Jeans Factory Outlet around 5.30am last Friday and around 600 pieces of clothing were stolen worth €45,000.“My alarm company called me straight away,” said Dutch owner Roy Samshuyzen. At first Roy thought it might be a false alarm as was the case a few months ago.“Looking at the camera system from home I could not see anything so I headed straight over, still in my pijamas.When I arrived five minutes later there were around seven police cars already there with the...

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The National Police recover three tons of stolen copper

 The National Police have recovered more than three tons of copper which was stolen from Escombreras Port in Cartagena. There are six arrests, two Spaniards and four Bolivians, and the 3,140 kilos of copper was found after it had been taken by lorry to a scrap yard in Barcelona. Before it was transported for scrap, the copper was taken to a finca in La Palma, Cartagena, where the plastic surrounding the cables was removed, allowing for a faster reception of the metal later on. One of the gang was chosen to drive the lorry which stopped in an industrial estate in Lorgroño, La Rioja, before taking it on to the scrap yard in Martorell, Barcelona. The owner of the scrap yard has also been arrested, and investigations cont...

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British youngster arrested in Mijas for attempting to rob a kiosk

 Two youngsters, a German, S.T. born in 1998 and a Briton, B.T.W. born in 1997, are before the prosecutor after trying to break the lock on a sweet kiosk in the Doña Ermita park in Mijas. Both the minors are residents of Mijas and were spotted at 9,30pm last Sunday when local police received the call saying that a group of five youngsters, some carrying skateboards, were trying to get into the kiosk. A police patrol went to the scene and found the group, but none of them was carrying identification. The police confirmed the padlock had been attacked, but it still remained intact. The police considered that the three Spaniards out of the five had nothing to do with the attempt to rob the kiosk. The German and Briton were taken to the police station and their parents contacted, and...

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Gangster's Paradise Rapper Coolio Arrested In Las Vegas, Nevada

Another rapper gets added to the long list of emcees being arrested in Las Vegas, as Coolio was arrested this past weekend in Sin City. The ‘Gangster’s Paradise‘ emcee was stopped on the Las Vegas strip by local police for a routine check, when officers discovered that Coolio had two bench warrants out for his arrest that were the results of multiple traffic violations. The 48 year old, real name Artis Leon Ivey Jr., was only a passenger in the vehicle offers pulled over just a few blocks east of the Las Vegas Strip at around 2:20 AM according to Officer Laura Meltzer. The two warrants out for Coolio were tied to failure to appear on an illegal stop and driving without a license summons issued back in June of 2010. Even more bizarre to the whole story was the fact that Coolio’s 22 year old...

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Girlfriend of notorious Boston gangster James (Whitey) Bulger agrees to plead guilty

Catherine Greig, the girlfriend of notorious Boston gangster James (Whitey) Bulger, has agreed to plead guilty to charges she helped him escape — but she won’t have to rat out her man. The feds nabbed Greig, 60, along with her mobster lover after they had evaded the law together for almost 17 years. A plea agreement filed Monday, first reported by the Boston Globe, stipulates that she won’t have to testify against him. “In early 1995, I agreed to join Bulger and travel with [him] during his flight from law enforcement,” she wrote in the agreement. She could face five years in federal prison on charges of harboring a fugitive, identity theft and conspiracy. Bulger, who went on the lam in 1995 after his FBI handler tipped him off to a pending racketeering indictment, accused of 19 counts...

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Naked cyclists in Spanish city protests

 Thousands of naked cyclists took to the streets of Madrid, A Coruña, Valladolid and other cities across Spain on Saturday to demand greater use of bicycles and more infrastructure for cyclists. The cyclists say they feel ‘naked’ in the heavy traffic of the cities and that they were showing their ‘fragile bodywork’ to demand greater respect from other road use...

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525 hectares affect by fire at Tossa de Mar

 Fire fighters brought a fire on the Costa Brava under control on Saturday after it had affected some 525 hectares. The famous local Tramutana northerly wind complicated matters, and dozens of residents had to be evacuated from their homes in Tossa de Mar and Llagostera. The fire started on Friday and was out by Saturday afternoon after firemen opened a firebreak by the road which goes between Sant Grau and Tossa de Mar so they had better access to the fire. Airborne resources, three helicopters and four planes, were key in the controlling of the fire on Saturday after land based equipment was using during Friday night. The cause of the Girona fire, and of the four fires in the Pyrenees which are now extinguished is being investigat...

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44 year old British angler, named as Andrew Latham, has died while out fishing for carp at the Amadorio dam

44 year old British angler, named as Andrew Latham, has died while out fishing for carp at the Amadorio dam inland from Villajoyosa. He died instantly last Wednesday morning, at about 1130am, when his fishing line hit a power cable after he lifted his rod above his head after catching a fish. A fellow anger called the emergency services, when he saw the body floating in the reservoir, but they were unable to revive the Briton. Spanish police say they are treating it as an accident. It’s not yet clear whether Andrew Latham was a resident of Spain or on holid...

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Helicopter rescue for crew of ship aground

 Coast guards in Italy have used helicopters to rescue the crew of a cargo ship after it ran aground on a reef off Sicily in stormy seas. All 19 crew members were ferried to shore by helicopters after the captain of the Gelso M gave the order to abandon ship. Weather conditions are deteriorating in the area near the city of Syracuse on Sicily's south-east coast. There were no reports of any cargo aboard the Italian-flagged vessel. Coastguard spokesman Cosimo Nicastro said four helicopters had been used to airlift the crew to safety, and all of them were well. Helicopters were needed for the evacuation because the ship's position on the reefs had made it impossible for the crew to lower lifeboats or for rescue vessels to approach. The ship's double hull meant there was a low risk...

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Abusing your embutido is prejudicial for your health

 It has been revealed that those who eat more than 20 grams of chorizo or other embutidos a day could see symptoms and in severe cases suffer a chronic obstruction to the lungs, known as Epoc. It’s thought that the cause of the problem comes from the nitrates which are added as preservatives. The warning comes from CREAL, the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology, who have published their study in the European Respiratory Journal. They say that more than 18,000 people die from Epoc each ye...

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Top Italian mafia chief arrested in Jerez

 Guiseppe Polverino has been controlling his business interests in Italy from JerezThe Guardia Civil, in collaboration with the Italian Carabinieri, have arrested a Camorra mafia chief and his deputy in Jerez. Giuseppe Polverino is the boss of the Naples Camorra and was with his deputy, Raffaelle Vallefuoco, when they were found by the Guardia Civil who were carrying searches of several properties the Mafia chief was known to have in Jerez. Documents found indicate that the 56 year old Polverino controlled his ‘business interests’ in Italy from Jerez. Many fake documents were found along with dozens of mobile phones. Polverino has been on the run since 2006, and was on the list of the top 30 Italian most wanted. The Italian judiciary thinks he has been controlling an economic empire...

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Emergency op for Maurice Boland

RADIO DJ Maurice Boland has thanked his fans for support after he was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment. The DJ, who launched his own station iTalk last year, suffered an infection in the lower colon, but is now back home and on the road to recovery. “It was great to get such an extraordinary amount of messages of support,” he told the Olive Press. “It got me thinking about how many expats are in hospital without anyone to visit them. “I’ve set myself a mission to get volunteers to visit sick expats in hospita...

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German man arrested after Málaga lawyer's body found in the boot of his own car

 The lawyer, who has not yet been named, went missing last Friday.The lawyer's car where his body was found in the bootThe body of a lawyer, named as Salvador Andrés Reina, has been found in the boot of his car in Málaga. The lawyer had vanished in strange circumstances in Málaga last Friday and his body was found today, Thursday, in the boot of his own car, parked by the bus station in the city. Police say the man’s body shows evident signs of having suffered violence. A 50 year old German man, named with the initials P.R.B. has been arrested in connection with the case. He was arrested before the body was recovered on Thursday morning. It’s not been revealed if he was a client of the lawyer, or whether robbery was his motive. One theory the police are following was that there was...

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AN expat gangster has fled his £3million Spanish villa amid claims his life has been threatened by the Russian mafia.

  Pat McCadden hasn’t been seen at the Marbella mansion for weeks and his cleaner has told callers he has moved to South Africa. The convicted drug dealer – nicknamed Pat the Rat – is said to be living in fear after a bootleg tobacco deal turned sour. Underworld sources claim McCadden is wanted by a Russian gang who claim he ripped them off in a plan to smuggle cigarettes and tobacco to Ireland. One said: “McCadden is terrified. He has been missing for weeks and has only spoken to his cleaner. “He struck a deal with some Russians to smuggle tobacco into Ireland but they accused him of ripping them off. Now he’s been told there is a price on his head. “He has told her to tell anyone who calls that he has moved to South Africa.” No one answered the door when the Sunday Mail called...

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