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Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

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Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

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SUPPLEMENTS

BRITISH MPs FALL IN LINE

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GIBRALTAR Gibraltar accuses ‘predator’ spain of Brexit ploy

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WHAT’S ON Festive festivities for February and beyond

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MONEY MATTERS Deutsche Bank fined nearly $630m over Russia money laundering

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PUZZLES & TEASERS

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SPORTS Premier League clubs make first transfer profit

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ORE than two-thirds of the members of the House of Commons opposed Brexit, and in the weeks after June’s shock referendum vote, many people outside parliament hoped that MPs could stop it from happening.

But pro-Europeans in Prime Minister Theresa May’s own Conservative party and among the Labour opposition were gradually forced to accept defeat, and said they would vote against deeply held beliefs.

Their dilemma was laid bare in two days of debate this week on a bill empowering May to start the process, as MPs stood up one after another to explain why they would back her despite their fears for the future.

“I lost the case. I made it with passion, I sacrificed my position in government for it,” said former Conservative finance minister George Osborne, one of the strongest campaigners against Brexit.

Voicing anguish over a painful choice, many of the British MPs voting to start the Brexit process said they were bowing to popular will, but feared history would judge them harshly.

“In the end we have to now accept that in a democracy the majority has spoken.”

POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn ordered his MPs to support the bill in a preliminary vote, to reflect the fact that two-thirds of them represent constituencies that voted to leave the EU. Former minister Margaret Beckett said she too would fall into line, but said “I fear that its consequences, both for our economy and our society, are potentially catastrophic”.

The bill was approved on Wednesday 1st February by a vote of 498 to 114, and will

receive its final vote in the Commons within seven days, before heading to the upper House of Lords.

Sarah Olney, of the pro-European Liberal Democrats, told parliament: “We are effectively being asked to jump out of an aeroplane, without knowing whether or not we are securely attached to a parachute”.

And Angus Brendan MacNeil of the Scottish National Party (SNP), which opposes Brexit, warned: “People assume the House of Commons knows what it’s doing. It doesn’t.

“It’s crossing its fingers and hoping for the best.”

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Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

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NEWS

‘Tooth fairy’ or ‘disaster’. Is the UK gambling on Trump?

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RUMP’S rejection of the European Union and his enthusiasm for a swift post-Brexit trade deal with Britain appeared to boost May, demonstrating that she had other options if EU leaders offered an unattractive deal.

“Trump has come along like the tooth fairy, this is one massive, magnificent gift,” one Brexit-supporting MP told the Spectator magazine last week.

The bond between the two leaders was reinforced on Friday when Trump hosted May in the White House, and pictures of them holding hands were splashed over the front pages of Britain’s newspapers.

But instead of arriving home to plaudits, she flew into a firestorm as Trump announced a temporary measure preventing refugees and travellers from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the country, sparking global protests.

May initially refused to condemn the move, but then issued a statement saying she did “not agree”, highlighting the peril of pinning her fortunes on the US president in the eyes of some commentators.

“The election of Mr Trump has transformed Brexit from a risky decision into a straightforward disaster,” wrote Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman.

“The emperor Nero has now taken power in Washington -and the British are having to smile and clap as he sets fire and reaches for his fiddle.”

Hailed last week as an ace up the sleeve for Britain in the upcoming Brexit negotiations, relations with US President Donald Trump are turning into a diplomatic headache for Prime Minister Theresa May.

QUEEN DRAGGED INTO ROW The diplomatic tangle is further complicated by May inviting Trump for a state visit later in the year, when he will be hosted by Queen Elizabeth II. More than 1.7 million people have signed a parliamentary petition demanding that the trip be downgraded over concerns that he will damage the reputation of the highly popular queen.

The petition is to be debated in parliament on February 20.

“Anything that embarrasses the queen plays badly in British politics,” said London School of Economics (LSE) professor Iain Begg.

Scaling down the visit would also likely go down badly with the US leader, who has spoken of his admiration for the British monarch.

May “doesn’t want to upset Trump... and he will be watching how she behaves very carefully,” LSE fellow Brian Klaas told AFP. “She will have to be very careful.”

Teaming up with Trump was therefore a “political risk,” said Begg, drawing a comparison with former prime minister Tony Blair, who was branded George W. Bush’s “poodle” during the 2003 Iraq invasion.

“She’s not tied to him yet but she has started tying the knot,” Klaas said. “She can untie it, but right now, the picture of them

There are concerns that Trump’s visit will damage the reputation of the highly popular queen.

holding hands is one that’s not easy to distance yourself from.”

ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT RAGE There is also no guarantee that any eventual trade deal with the United States will boost Britain’s economy, particularly given Trump’s “America First” policy against free trade agreements.

“May is caught in a dilemma: she wants something quickly because it will look impressive to those worried about her negotiation strategy but she needs to get something good so she doesn’t get criticised for being soft,” said Begg.

May will ultimately be judged by the British people, and has plenty of breathing space with the next general election not due until 2020.

Ties with Trump may also play well with many voters in a

country where immigration and anti-establishment anger were key issues in the decision to leave the EU. A YouGov poll published Wednesday found 49 percent of Britons thought the state visit should go ahead, compared to 36 percent who wanted it cancelled.

Meanwhile 50 percent thought Trump’s refugee ban was a bad idea, but 29 percent approved.

Trump has credited Brexit with paving the way for a popular revolt against the establishment, which could also give May leeway in their relationship, Klaas added.

“He wants to repay Britain... as a way to say ‘well done, good job’,” he said.

The relationship will therefore boil down to one calculation: “The question that Brits have to ask themselves is values versus their wallets.”

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NEWS

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RIME Minister Theresa May has said Britain will leave the EU’s single market and seek a new customs deal with the bloc.

But the precise timings and terms of departure are uncertain as negotiations have yet to begin.

Here is an outline of what we know so far

REFERENDUM

On June 23, 2016, Britons voted to leave the EU by 52 percent in favour to 48 percent against, although most voters in Scotland, Northern Ireland and London backed remaining part of the bloc.

Britain has had a love-hate relationship with Brussels since joining what was then the European Economic Community in 1973.

Former prime minister David Cameron, who took office in 2010, called the referendum in a bid to end long-standing divisions in his Conservative party but his campaign to stay in the EU failed.

BREXIT: What we know so far The British parliament is set about debating the government’s bill to trigger the country’s departure from the European Union, following a referendum last year in which a majority voted for Brexit. making it difficult to amend either to delay the government’s plans or to tie its hands in the talks.The bill will then move to the Lords for debate from February 20, with the government hoping for their approval by March 7.

TIMING Cameron’s successor May has said she wants to

trigger Article 50 -- the formal procedure for leaving the EU under the Lisbon Treaty -- by the end of March.

Finance minister Philip Hammond has said he expects negotiations to begin before the summer.

Article 50 foresees a maximum two-year time period for the negotiations. If no deal is in place by then, Britain would have to leave without any agreement on future ties with the EU, unless the timeframe for talks is extended by unanimous agreement of all member states.

The EU’s top Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said there should be an agreement in place ahead of the 2019 European Parliament elections.

PARLIAMENT British MPs have approved the first stage of a bill empowering Prime Minister Theresa May to

start pulling Britain out of the European Union. MPs approved the bill, which would allow the government to trigger Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty and formally begin two years of exit negotiations, by a margin of 498 to 114. It was the first Brexit-related vote in the House of Commons, coming after more than 17 hours of debate, with a second and final vote in the lower house set for next week. The opposition Labour party ordered MPs not block the bill, but 47 rebelled against leader Jeremy Corbyn.. The 143 words, the “European Union Notification of Withdrawal Bill” has been tightly drafted,

EU nurses registering in UK falls by 90% post-Brexit THE number of European nurses registering to work in Britain has fallen by more than 90 percent since last June’s Brexit vote, according to the British Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

A total of 101 nurses and midwives from EU nations registered in December, compared with 1,304 in July, the month after the referendum, according to the NMC. The country’s National Health Service (NHS) is currently in the spotlight over an apparent “winter crisis” and already has a staff shortage with 24,000 nursing vacancies across Britain.

Official figures comparing the monthly averages for previous years show 204 nurses registering in 2016, down from 820 in 2015 and 707 in 2014.

“This is the first sign of a change following the EU referendum and it is our responsibility as the regulator to share these figures with the public,” said Janet Davies, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

However, she stressed that it was not possible to link the fall in registrations with Brexit “definitively”.

There are almost 700,000 nurses currently registered in the UK, of which 84.8 percent are British, 5.6 percent from the EU and 9.6 percent from the rest of the world.

Other reasons that could explain the decline include the toughening of the English language test in 2016, or the sharp decline of the pound, which has cut wages in euro terms.

Davies warned that the NHS could suffer a further crisis if the trend continued.

“With 24,000 nursing vacancies across the UK, the NHS simply could not cope without the contribution from EU nurses,” she told AFP in a statement.

“We need a guarantee that EU nationals working in the NHS can remain. Without that, it will be much harder to retain and recruit staff from the EU, and patient care will suffer as a result.”

TRANSITION DEAL In a major speech on January 17, May said she wanted a “phased approach” to ensure stability for businesses between the moment Britain leaves the EU and the implementation of its new relationship with the bloc.

“We will seek to avoid a disruptive cliff edge,” she said.

May added that all existing EU laws that apply in Britain will be turned into British laws under a “Great Repeal Bill” and parliament will then be able to choose which ones to keep, reject or amend.

IMMIGRATION May has said she will make cutting immigration a priority in negotiations, after the issue dominated the referendum campaign.

Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly from eastern and southern Europe, move to Britain each year.

In her Brexit speech, she gave no detail of what the new entry criteria will be for Europeans, but acknowledged that this demand would mean Britain leaving the EU’s single market.

May has refused to confirm that EU citizens already in Britain will be able to stay after Brexit until similar guarantees are offered to Britons living elsewhere in the bloc.

TRADE May said she wants “maximum possible access” for British companies to the single market even though Britain will no longer be a member, and also called for a new customs arrangement with the EU. She said full customs union membership would prevent Britain from striking its own trade deals with other countries but said the country could remain a signatory to some parts of the customs union.

May also warned EU member states against pushing for harsh exit terms for Britain, saying it would be “an act of calamitous self-harm” for the European Union.

She warned that she could “change the basis of Britain’s economic model” -- for example by slashing business taxes -- if British companies are excluded from accessing the single market.

EU to ensure ‘no discrimination’ against nationals from Trump ban THE EU will ensure its citizens are not affected by any “discrimination” caused by US President Donald Trump’s ban on travellers from seven Muslim countries, a European Commission spokesman said.

“Our lawyers are in contact with our EU partners and others, and of course we will make sure that no discrimination is inflict-

ed on our nationals,” Margaritis Schinas, the spokesman for Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, told reporters.

“This is the European Union, and in the European Union we do not discriminate on the basis of nationality, race or religion, not only when it comes to asylum but in any of our policies.”

Trump’s measures, introduced by execu-

tive order just one week after he took office, have been criticised by allies.

Barring Syrian refugees indefinitely and citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, the measures also affect those with dual nationality.

Schinas said that the Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, was tak-

ing “measured time” to find out what the effect on European citizens would be.

“At this stage the situation is not clear, and we are in the process of establishing if the executive order has consequences for EU citizens having dual nationality with one of the seven countries which this travel ban is now targeting,” he said.

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UK NEWS

WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION CONTINUES

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IGH heels, blonde hair and make-up are among dress codes for women in the British workplace, despite gender discrimination being illegal, a parliamentary report released has found.

The inquiry into women’s experience at work was sparked after a receptionist was sent home without pay last year by accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Nicola Thorp (right) refused to wear two-to-four-inch (five-to-10-centimetre) heels, arguing men were not required to abide by the same rule.

The incident in London prompted a pe-

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tition which gained more than 150,000 signatures, leading to the report from the Petitions Committee and Women and Equalities Committee.

DAMAGE “We heard from hundreds of women who told us about the pain and long-term damage caused by wearing high heels for long periods in the workplace, as well as from women who had been required to dye their hair blonde, to wear revealing outfits and to constantly reapply make-up,” the report said.

British law allows firms to set dress codes, but says companies must not discriminate

against women in doing so.

The committee argued the current legal framework is not fully effective and called on the government to review the law and, if necessary, change it.

Thorp said the current system is “failing employees” and needs to be amended.

“This may have started over a pair of high heels but what it has revealed about discrimination in the UK workplace is vital, as demonstrated by the hundreds of women who came forward,” she said.

The Fawcett Society, a women’s rights group, told the committee of women being criticised for wearing loose clothing on a hot day, or being asked to look “sexy” in the

workplace.

Responding to the report, a government spokesman said the findings would be considered by the Equalities Office.

“Dress codes must be reasonable and include equivalent requirements for both men and women,” he said.

‘Clock is ticking’ on Scottish independence vote

COTTISH First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said another vote was “more likely” than ever after May outlined her plan to pull the country out of the EU’s single market despite Scotland’s objections.

“Time is fast running out for the UK government to convince us that they care one jot about Scotland’s interests,” Sturgeon told the Scottish parliament.

“If they don’t, Scotland does face a choice: do we go down the damaging path set out by Theresa May... or do we want to take control over the future of our country?”

Following a meeting with Brexit minister David Davis, Sturgeon’s representative Mike Russell said: “The clock is ticking”.

Scotland voted in 2014 by a margin of 55 to 45 percent to stay in the United Kingdom.

But Sturgeon argues that last year’s vote for Brexit has left Scotland in “uncharted waters” since a majority of Scots instead opted to stay in the EU. She has put forward proposals for Scotland to be allowed to remain in the single market even as the rest of Britain leaves and has drafted an independence referendum bill just in case.

Her independence ally Patrick Harvie, co-convener of the Scottish Greens whose votes she needs to get a second referendum through parliament, has predicted it will be held some time in 2018.

TENSION IN THE FAMILY The dilemma for Sturgeon is that many Scots say the EU referendum has not changed their minds on independence.

The latest poll of 1,002 respondents carried out by BMG Research for the Herald newspaper last month found 55 percent against and 45 percent in favour -- the same split as in the 2014 vote.

Mother and daughter Irene and Cara Henney, from Paisley on

The countdown to a second Scottish independence referendum appears to have begun after Prime Minister Theresa May laid out the course towards a “hard” Brexit - but Scots are as divided as ever. the edge of Glasgow, are typical of the generational divide seen in both the independence and EU referendums.

Irene, 55, who works in sales, said no to independence but yes to Brexit.

“Sturgeon has lost sight of what matters to the Scottish people, like health and education... By calling for a second referendum she’s probably alienating a lot of people,” she said.

Cara, 18, a student, voted yes to independence in her first ever national vote after the Scottish government lowered the voting age to 16.

Cara missed the EU referendum, which was reserved for over18s, but said she would have voted to stay.

“While I don’t agree with some of Sturgeon’s priorities, now that Scotland is being taken out of the EU against its will she is giving us an opportunity to fight back,” she said.

Asked about the differences with her mother, she said: “It

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does cause some tension in the family”.

Stuart Salter, 34, a town planner from Edinburgh, voted No to independence and wants to remain in the EU. He said: “The Brexit vote hasn’t changed my mind about independence.

“Driving Scotland towards another independence referendum will only add to the present uncertainty”.

Campbell Fraser, 50, a drama workshop director from Clarkston, south of Glasgow, said he wanted Scotland to be an independent EU member state.

“We have to make sure we win because I don’t think we’ll get another chance in my lifetime,” he said.

FORCED INDEPENDENCE BID? Political experts believe Sturgeon may be left with little choice but to call a referendum.

But Michael Keating, director of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Centre on Constitutional Change, told AFP: “There is no sign whatsoever that the UK government is going to take (Sturgeon’s) proposals seriously.

“They have to say they are, because if they reject it out of hand, they will be playing right into the Scottish government’s hands,” he said.

Nicola McEwen, professor of Territorial Politics at Edinburgh University, said Sturgeon had left no “compromise position” for Scotland.

“The worry for the Scottish government is if you hold a second referendum and lose it, you lose the leverage for Scotland within the United Kingdom.

“But if the situation is such that there doesn’t appear to be much leverage now anyway, the Scottish government may decide it has nothing to lose.”

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UK NEWS

Trump’s UK visit should be downgraded to spare Queen THE invitation to US President Donald Trump for a state visit to Britain has put Queen Elizabeth II in “a very difficult position”, says former top civil servant Peter Ricketts. Formerly the most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office, he said the invitation should be downgraded to an official visit to spare the queen further embarrassment.

More than 1.6 million people have signed a petition to cancel the state visit and thousands have taken to the streets in protest following Trump’s decision to ban refugees and citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries.

Ricketts, now a House of Lords member who also served as national security adviser to former prime-minister David Cameron and as ambassador to France, called the invitation “premature” in a open letter to The Times newspaper. “It would have been far wiser to wait to see what sort of president he would turn out to be before advising the queen to invite him. Now the queen is put in a very difficult position,” he said.

But former foreign minister William Hague,

writing in the Daily Telegraph, played down the concerns.

“A queen who has been asked over the decades to host tyrants such as Presidents Mobuto of Zaire and Ceausescu of Romania is going to take a brash billionaire from New York effortlessly in her stride,” he wrote.

British MPs will hold a debate on February 20 on US President Donald Trump’s state visit to Britain after 1.6 million people signed a petition calling for the trip to be downgraded.

Switzerland eyeing trade deal with UK SWITZERLAND’S economy minister has said in an interview that he wants to have “background” talks with Britain so that a trade deal can be in place as soon as the UK leaves the European Union.

“My objective is clear. Not one day should pass after Britain’s exit (from the EU) without new regulations in place,” Johann Schneider-Ammann (right) told Blick daily.

“It should be at least as good” as the present deal, he said.

The paper said Britain’s international trade minister, Liam Fox, showed strong interest in a deal with Switzerland at this month’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.

WARNING British Prime Minister Theresa May has promised to start the two-year process of leaving the EU by the end of March.

The European Commmision has warned London against negotiating any new thirdparty trade deals as long as it remains an EU member.

But Schneider-Ammann suggested negotiations with Britain could take place “in the background and in parallel with the exit discussions” with the EU. “I would be personally very happy if we were one of the first countries to conclude a free-

trade deal with Britain post-Brexit”, he said.

Switzerland is a founder member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), created in 1960 as a counterpart to the European Economic Community, as the precursor of the European Union was known.

Britain too was a founding EFTA member but left the group when it joined the EEC in 1973.

The three EFTA members -- Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein -- are also members of the European Economic Area (EEA) which gives them access to the EU’s single market, but Switzerland is not an EEA member.

Asked about relations with the new US administration of President Donald Trump, the minister was cautious.

“We are waiting to see what happens” regarding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, negotiations for which have been ongoing since 2013.

He said if a TTIP deal is concluded then Switzerland could join.

However, Trump is widely expected to drop any attempt to seal the accord.

WILLIAM AND HARRY COMMISSION LONDON STATUE OF PRINCESS DIANA BRITAIN’S Prince William and Prince Harry said they have commissioned a statue of their mother, Princess Diana, 20 years after she died in a Paris car crash.

The sculpture will stand in the public grounds of her former residence, Kensington Palace, where William, 34, now lives with wife Kate, son George and daughter Charlotte.

“It has been 20 years since our mother’s death and the time is right to recognise her positive impact in the UK and around the world with a permanent statue,” the princes said in a statement issued late Saturday.

“Our mother touched so many lives. We hope the statue will help all those who visit Kensington Palace to reflect on her life and her legacy,” it added.

Queen Elizabeth has said she “supports” the idea, according to reports.

It will be the fourth London-based monument dedicated to the late princess, close to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain

in Hyde Park and a memorial garden.

Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed were killed in a car crash in a Paris underpass in the early hours of August 31, 1997, along with their French driver Henri Paul as they sought to outrun chasing photographers.

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UK NEWS

Brexit tourists’ take advantage of weak pound

SPENDING by tourists visiting the UK, especially from Hong Kong, China and the Middle East, surged in December with the pound slumping after the Brexit vote, a report from card payments processor Worldpay revealed “Foreign visitors spent over £725 million ($884 million, 830 million euros)... in December, as the weakened pound prompted an influx of bargain hunting ‘Brexit tourists’ to the UK over the Christmas period,” said a report.

SPENDING It said spending on foreign cards surged 22 percent year-on-year, handing an extra £130 million to UK retailers compared with the same month in 2015.

Worldpay said visitors from Hong Kong spent an extra 69 percent in UK stores last month. Spending on Chinese cards was up by 24 percent, while traditionally big-spending visitors from the UAE spent almost a third more.

US and Russian outlay grew also by around a quarter. And the amount spent

by French and German tourists over the festive period was up by 14 percent.

“UK retail centres, including London’s West End, are a magnet for visitors from all over the world, made all the more attractive by the bargains on offer as a result of the weakened pound,” said James Frost, chief UK marketing officer at Worldpay.

The pound has struck 31-year lows against the dollar and eight-year troughs versus the euro since Britain voted in June to exit the European Union, making the UK an attractive place for foreign visitors holding stronger currencies.

Irish spend was up more than 46 percent, although this likely included a number of people holding euros from southern Ireland simply crossing the border into Northern Ireland where the currency is sterling.

Swiss-held cards meanwhile showed a drop in spending of 1.8 percent in December, according to Worldpay data.

FUGITIVE SENTENCED OPERATION Captura fugitive sentenced after pleading guilty to possessing indecent photographs of children.

Matthew Sammon, one of the British fugitives from the Operations Captura campaign arrested in Spain, received a jail sentence on Wednesday 25 January after being extradited to the UK. Sammon was located in Fuengirola, Costa del Sol, Spain, the same day his details were released to the public as part of the Operation Captura campaign run by the UK’s National Crime Agency and Crimestoppers in October 2016. He was arrested by the Spanish National Police after a tip off from a member of the public.

He received a sentence of 2 years and 6 months at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday 25 January, after pleading guilty to making indecent photographs of children and possessing indecent photographs of children.

At the time of arrest, Sammon was the 77th fugitive to be arrested out of 96 publicised through Operation Captura.

British Ambassador to Spain, Simon Manley commented “The arrest, extradition and sentencing of Matthew Sammon, would not have been possible without the valuable tip off from a member of the public in Costa del Sol, and without the excellent cooperation between the Spanish and British

law enforcement authorities. The sentence this week shows the value of the Operation Captura campaign, and Spanish and British authorities will continue working closely together to tackle crime.”

PAPERS CAST NEW LIGHT ON BRITAIN’S ‘MAD’ GEORGE III Thousands of papers from the reign of Britain’s king George III went online last weekend including an essay by the monarch on losing America and details of his spy network.

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OME 33,000 pages were published by the Royal Archives, detailing the life and times of Britain’s longest-reigning king, who was on the throne from 1760 to 1820.

“George III is often labelled as ‘mad’, or the king who lost America,” said the Georgian Papers Programme.

The papers bring new insights into a “complex, engaged polymath and highly informed monarch”, it said.

Oliver Urquhart Irvine, the Royal Archives librarian, said the new database, which has the support of Queen Elizabeth II, would open up the historic papers to a global audience.

PASSION “Seeing original documents is utterly compelling,” he said. “You can feel the passion, personality, worries and triumphs of individuals who have shaped major events. It can change your perspective of history.”

It was during king George’s reign that Britain lost the Thirteen Colonies, which declared independence as the United States in 1776 -- a moment lamented by the sovereign in an essay which is part of the digitised collection.

“America is lost!” the king writes, in a text which archivists have said is a near verbatim extract from a longer essay published by a different author.

A turning point in the US independence campaign -- the 1781 Battle of the Chesapeake -- is captured in a paper written by naval officer Samuel Hood.

“The king takes his job very seriously. He is processing knowledge on a proto-industrial scale as a part of his role,” said Andrew Lambert,

professor of naval history at King’s College London. “He’s the best-informed chief executive this country has ever had.”

The papers are accompanied by a BBC documentary, “George III -- The Genius of the Mad King”.

The newly published archive includes instructions to the 18th-century explorer James Cook and details of king George’s spy network.

In one document, a spy with the code name Aristarchus asks for payment for warning of a French assassination plot against the king.

Personal correspondence is also in the archive, such as a letter sent by queen Charlotte after the death of her young son prince Alfred, which included a lock of the toddler’s hair.

Although king George was on the throne until 1820, his eldest son reigned as regent from 1811 because of recurrent, and eventually permanent, mental illness.

An insight into the formal handover of power is given with two pages detailing the banquet for king George IV’s coronation, in 1821.

The menu fit for the king includes “La Blanquette de Poulardes aux truffes de France” (chicken in white sauce with French truffles), served in Westminster Hall.

Publication of the royal papers is set to continue, with more than 350,000 pages set to be added to the Georgian Papers Programme database by 2020.

They cover the reigns of Britain’s first four kings called George, from 1714 to 1837.

For more than a century the papers have been stored in the Round Tower of Windsor Castle, a royal residence west of London.

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UK NEWS

Veteran British actor John Hurt dies O

SCAR-nominated British actor John Hurt, known for his roles in “Elephant Man” and “Harry Potter”, has died aged 77 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

The versatile actor, who played Mr Ollivander in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” and in two other films in the series, passed away in Norfolk last week, according to wife Anwen Rees Meyers.

He starred in the movie adaptation of George Orwell’s novel “1984” and played the role of Kane in “Alien”, who dies when the creature dramatically bursts from his chest in one of the most memorable death scenes in movie history.

NOMINATIONS He was twice nominated for an Oscar, in the best supporting actor category for his performance in the 1978 film “Midnight Express” as Max, a British man imprisoned in Turkey, and for his starring role two years later in “Elephant Man” about a severely deformed man in 19th century London (pictured below).

He received a BAFTA award for “Midnight Express” as well as a Golden Globe in the best actor in a supporting role category.

“It is with deep sadness that I have to confirm that my husband, John Vincent Hurt, died on Wednesday 25th January 2017 at home in Norfolk,” she said in a statement released by publicist Charles McDonald.

“John was the most sublime of actors and the most gentlemanly of gentlemen with the greatest of hearts and the most generosity of spirit. He touched all our lives with joy and magic and it will be a strange world without him.”

“Lord of the Rings” star Elijah Wood paid tribute to the actor, writing on Twitter:

“Very sad to hear of John Hurt’s passing.

It was such an honor to have watched you work, sir.”

Among many other tributes to flood in, American actor Chris Evans described Hurt as “remarkable”.

“John Hurt was one of the most powerful, giving, and effortlessly real actors I’ve ever worked with Remarkable human being. U will be missed,” he wrote on Twitter.

Born on January 22, 1940 in Chesterfield, central England, Hurt first began his career as a teacher of drawing.

But he quickly moved to a life on camera and, after entering the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, he began his career in British film in the 1960s.

But it was at the end of the 1970s when his career definitively took off following back-to-back roles in “Midnight Express” and “Alien”.

Hurt, who appeared in some 140 films, often playing supporting roles, also maintained a strong television presence, making appearances in cult British series “Doctor Who” among others.

He also showed a lighter side, playing a parody of his Kane character in spoof scifi comedy “Spaceballs”, directed by Mel Brooks.

The veteran US comic posted on Twitter that he was “terribly sad today to learn of John Hurt’s passing.

“No one could have played The Elephant Man more memorably,” he added. “He carried that film into cinematic immortality. He will be sorely missed.”

The actor, who received a total of four BAFTAs, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2014.

His cancer was diagnosed the following year but he did not give up his profession.

For his final role, he played Father Richard McSorley in the biopic “Jackie”, the story of the former American First Lady, which was released in December in the US. He was however forced to pull out of a play last July on the advice of his doctors.

“It is therefore with great sadness and disappointment that I must withdraw,” he said at the time.

Aside from his wife, he is survived by two sons, Alexander and Nicholas.

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UK NEWS

Simultaneous Brexit and trade talks possible T HE European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator believes that simultaneous talks on the divorce terms and a potential trade deal for Britain after it leaves the EU were possible.

“In the treaty,Article 50, we are saying a withdrawal can be agreed taking into consideration the future relationship,” Guy Verhofstadt (pictured right) said during an event at London’s Chatham House think tank.

Britain has promised to trigger Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty by the end of March, after which negotiators will have two years to thrash out a deal.

“It is a fantastic political text and it says it all -- a withdrawal agreement in the light of the future relationship,” added Verhofstadt.

“That is literally in the treaty and that is what we need to apply.”

Verhofstadt said he “deplored” the Brexit decision but that he was looking “for fair negotiations, not punishment or revenge”.

He set a 14- to 15-month timetable in which to conclude negotiations.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is keen to conduct talks over the terms of the break-up and Britain’s future relationship with the European Union at the same time.

However, EU Commission chief negotiator Michel

Barnier has warned he will “take everything step by step, in the right order,” suggesting he favoured striking the divorce deal before discussing a potential future trade deal.

Former Belgian PM Verhofstadt warned that the EU was under “serious threat” from three sides; radical political Islam, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, who recently suggested that more countries could leave the bloc.

The parliament chief negotiator said it would be “completely ridiculous to ignore” that the EU faces a “polycrisis”.

He called for deeper federalisation of the remaining EU members, arguing that the European Union “doesn’t exist” at the moment, and was really just a “loose confederation of 28 member states”.

Verhofstadt compared the swift and sweeping response of the United States to the 2008 financial crisis with the EU’s reaction.

“We had a discussion, when you have two opinions in EU nothing is happening at all,” he said. “We have not adequate political institutions in the EU to react.”

Brexit is a “golden opportunity” to bring about deep reform, he added, drawing the countries into tighter unions on the economy and security.

BRITAIN WINS DUAL-NATIONAL EXEMPTION FROM TRUMP VISA BAN BRITAIN has won an exemption for its citizens and dual nationals to US President Donald Trump’s visa ban on seven mostly Muslim countries.

Foreign Minister Boris Johnson secured the deal after it emerged high-profile British citizens, such as Olympic Champion Mo Farah, were affected by the executive order imposed by Trump last week.

It barred visa holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, affecting dual nationals from Britain and elsewhere.

But following Johnson’s intervention the foreign ministry said the order would only apply to individuals travelling directly to the US from one of the seven countries.

“If you are travelling to the US from anywhere other than one of those countries (for instance, the UK) the executive order

does not apply to you and you will experience no extra checks regardless of your nationality or your place of birth,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“If you are a UK national who happens to be travelling from one of those countries to the US, then the order does not apply to you -- even if you were born in one of those countries.”

Earlier on Sunday Farah, who represents Britain but was born in Somalia, slammed a policy based on “ignorance and prejudice” that could keep him apart from his family, based in the US state of Oregon.

He urged voters to reject the nationalist politics currently sweeping western democracies, adding that polls showed most Europeans believe the EU should take more action on key issues such as external border controls, terrorism and the economy.

“I am astounded to see a lot of people supporting nationalism as a solution to the common problems,” he said, adding it was the “most stupid thing you can do, it is playing with fire”.

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Gloomy times in Spain’s Podemos as divisions rage S

PAIN’S Podemos was born in 2014 out of rage over austerity politics and buoyed by its promises of change, but the mood has darkened as infighting ravages the far-left party.

As it prepares to celebrate its third birthday and inches closer to a crux congress in February, supporters are watching in dismay -- and opponents with glee -- as Podemos chief Pablo Iglesias spars with his deputy Inigo Errejon over what strategy to take.

The dispute between the once-inseparable pair has forced party members into one faction or another, played out on social media and in the press, gaining such traction that an apologetic Iglesias warned it could “destroy” Podemos.

“It’s one thing to have differences, another thing is this hugely exaggerated internal

battle,” says Gabriel Colome, politics professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

“They are reproducing age-old behaviour patterns typical of other parties.” He warned “they do this right, or this project is going to explode.”

AIRING ‘DIRTY LAUNDRY After its emergence in January 2014, Podemos rose at meteoric speed to score big in elections just under two years later.

In those December 2015 polls, it became Spain’s third political force, putting an end to the two-party system but also leaving no grouping with any absolute majority.

As coalition negotiations dragged on, rumours of a rift between the charismatic, pony-tailed Iglesias and his baby-faced num-

ber two started to emerge.

But it was only after repeat June elections saw a Podemos-led coalition lose votes that the rift between the combative Iglesias and more moderate Errejon leapt to the fore.

While the aim had always been to overtake the Socialists and become Spain’s main leftwing force, exactly how to achieve this was a subject of much debate.

Should the party continue its struggle for change -- but from within institutions it now occupied such as parliament, and in a moderate way that would attract Socialist voters too, as Errejon advocated?

Or should it also go back to the streets, keep resisting and shaking things up as a protest party, as Iglesias wanted?

These divergences broke out into the open in September in a war of tweets.

SPANISH PM WARNS LE PEN VICTORY WOULD BE ‘A DISASTER’ S PAIN’S conservative prime minister warned that an election win by French far-right presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen or Germany’s anti-immigration party AfD would be “a disaster” that would “destroy Europe”.

“I don’t even want to think about it, that would be a disaster, it would simply mean the destruction of Europe,” Mariano Rajoy said during an interview with radio Onda Cero when asked about the possibility of Le Pen or the AfD winning power.

“Mrs Le Pen has announced plans for a referendum. She wants (France) to leave Europe, as if Europe were the source of all misfortunes. I would like it if she visited the rest of the world,” he added.

The National Front presidential candidate has promised if elected in May to dump the euro and organise a Brexit-style referendum on France’s membership in the European Union.

“This is not going to happen. I am convinced that things will turn out alright in Germany and I am absolutely convinced there won’t be a problem in France,” said Rajoy, before

adding he hopes conservative nominee Francois Fillon will win the French election.

“It is essential for the future of Europe that the elections in Germany and France go well,” he said.

France’s presidential election will be held on April 23 and May 7. While most opinion polls predict Le Pen will make it to the election’s second round in May, they see her losing

that run-off.

In Germany the AfD’s anti-immigrant, eurosceptic rhetoric has won support among voters worried about the influx of more than a million migrants in the past two years.

With polls putting it on 12-15 percent, the party is tipped to win seats in the federal parliament for the first time in September’s national election.

“We are already scaring the powerful, that’s not the challenge. The challenge is to attract those people who suffer but still don’t trust us,” Errejon wrote.

“Yes comrade @ierrejon but we stopped attracting one million people in June. We seduce more by speaking clearly and being different,” Iglesias retorted.

From then on, divisions played out publicly, continuing even as the Socialists (PSOE) imploded and the conservative Popular Party came back to power at the head of a minority government with little support -- all of which could have profited Podemos.

The situation left supporters in a state of distress.

Once an enthusiastic Podemos militant, Tristan Duanel has now stopped all activities for the party, as have others he knows.

“We have ended up really bitter,” he says.

Such has been the dismay that Iglesias felt compelled to apologise last month.

“If the press and social media continue to be a stage for us to try and air our dirty laundry, we will destroy Podemos,” he recognised.

TWO STRATEGIES The issue will likely be set to rest at the party congress in February, when Podemos members will vote for a new leadership council, a process that may or may not unseat Iglesias, and for what direction to take.

With this in sight, Errejon’s clan published a policy document on Friday acknowledging there were “two strategies” vying for power.

On the same day, Iglesias and his team published their own document, in which they warned that “only a united and strong Podemos will be able to rule.”

To further complicate matters, a third movement which is neither behind Iglesias or Errejon has emerged as kingmaker.

The more radical anti-capitalists, as they call themselves, want to take to the streets again like Iglesias.

But they also feel that the party’s power is currently in the hands of too few people, calling for decentralisation... like Errejon.

“They will be pivotal,” says political analyst Pablo Simon.

He also struck a positive note, saying all was not lost for Podemos and now was the time to resolve their differences.

“The PSOE hasn’t recovered and cannot challenge them much, and we’re far from new elections,” he said.

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Spain jobless rate lowest in seven years

T

HE jobless rate fell to 18.6 percent in the final quarter of 2016, its lowest level since the last three months of 2009, according to figures released by national statistics institute INE. While Spain’s jobless rate remains the second highest in the 28-nation European Union behind Greece, the figures are further evidence that the Spanish economy is enjoying a steady recovery.

Tourism has played a big part in the improving unemployment figures. Spain hosted a record 75.3 million foreign visitors last year with the rise attributed to holidaymakers

Spain’s unemployment rate hit its lowest level in seven years at the end of 2016, official data shows, as a booming tourism sector fuelled job creation. shying away from resorts in north Africa and Turkey over terrorism fears.

Spain was the third most visited country in the world last year and tourism represents some 11 percent of its economic output.

The country emerged from five years of onand-off recession at the end of 2013, which was caused by the burst of a decade-long

property bubble in 2008.

During those years, millions of Spaniards lost their jobs, with unemployment peaking at close to 27 percent in 2013.

“There is still much to do,” Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said during an interview with radio Onda Cero.

“But I insist we had five years of negative

Portugal protests against Spain nuclear waste near border

P

ORTUGAL has accused Spain of stockpiling nuclear waste close to its border without evaluating the environmental impact, in a complaint filed with Brussels shows.

The dispute stems from the Spanish government’s decision in late December to authorise the building of a nuclear waste depot at the Almaraz plant in central-west Spain, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Portuguese border.

Lisbon contends that Madrid violated a 2014 European directive requiring states to “initiate consultations” on “potential transborder repercussions” to the environment in their public projects.

Referring the matter to the European Commission is “normal when there are different interpretations of community legislation,” the foreign ministry said, adding it did not threaten the good relations between the two countries.

Spain has seven nuclear reactors generating around a fifth of the country’s electricity, whereas Portugal does not have any operating nuclear power plants, according to the world nuclear association.

The subject of the nuclear waste was raised at a meeting in Madrid Thursday by Portugal’s environment minister Joao Maros Fernandes.

“We respect Portugal’s decision and we await the decision from

Brussels,” a spokesman for Thebit Spanish energy ministry said at the time about the complaint.

On the same day, around 200 people joined a protest in front of the Spanish consulate in Lisbon which was called by the antinuclear Iberian movement.

economic growth, which destroyed 10 percent of Spain’s gross domestic product. You can’t fix that in 15 minutes,” he added.

FIGURES ARE BAD Rajoy’s conservative government credits a 2012 labour law reform that reduced severance pay, made it easier to hire and fire workers and introduced a new permanent contract with a one-year trial period for the drop in joblessness.

Economists say external factors such as the drop in oil prices, low interest rates and the weakness of the euro which helps boost exports have contributed to the shrinking of the dole queue.

The number of unemployed fell by nearly 542,000 to 4.24 million in the fourth quarter from the final quarter of 2015.

But the drop was smaller than the one recorded in the final quarter of 2015 when the number of jobless fell by over 687,000 people from the same period a year earlier, a sign that the pace of job creation is starting to slow.

“We believe the figures are bad because you can see a deceleration in the creation of employment,” Ramon Gorriz of Spain’s largest union, Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), told a news conference.

Unions also complain that the quality of the jobs being created is poor. Just over one in four jobs, 26.5 percent, which were created in the fourth quarter were short term.

Spain is the country within the European Union with the highest proportion of shortterm contracts, according to Eurostat, the bloc’s statistical office.

Rajoy, in power since 2011, has pledged to create 500,000 jobs a year, and forecasts the jobless rate will drop steadily to 13 percent in 2019.

He is banking on continued economic growth. The International Monetary Fund estimated last month that Spain’s economy expanded by 3.2 percent last year and will continue to grow in 2017, albeit at the more moderate rate of 2.3 percent

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Spain ruling party’s extreasurer admits slush fund existence

THE most high-profile suspect in a major Spanish corruption scandal admited for the first time in public that the ruling conservative Popular Party (PP) once had a slush fund.

Luis Barcenas, who was party manager from 1990 to 2008 and then treasurer for a year, is on trial with 36 other defendants in the so-called Gurtel affair.

The trial centres on a vast corruption network that allegedly saw companies shower PP lawmakers and civil servants with bribes in exchange for public contracts.

Companies would give Francisco Correa, a businessman also on trial, a commission of two to three percent on the value of contracts, according to a confession published by Correa in online daily eldiario.es.

He would then allegedly give this to Barcenas after taking his share.

Some of the money also went into a party slush fund, according to the report. The fund is an ingredient of the current trial but not the focus, as a separate trial on it is pending.

SECRET Barcenas was nevertheless questioned on the subject and acknowledged there existed secret accounts in the PP, pointing to “financial resources that did not appear in official bookkeeping.”

The former treasurer had already said there existed such secret accounting in 2013 when questioned by a judge behind closed doors, but this is the first time he has said this in public.

But he said that rather than bribes, businessmen gave donations “generously” without expecting anything in return.

“I never received anything from Correa, not for me nor for the PP,” he added, blasting the businessman’s allegations as “nonsense.”

When questioned by the judge in 2013, Barcenas had also claimed he had given Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy envelopes of cash.

He later defended Rajoy, saying he had given orders not to use Correa’s companies anymore in 2003, “because he was told that Correa was engaged in illegal activities.”

Barcenas, who is also accused of stashing up to 48 million euros ($51 million) away in Swiss bank accounts, faces 42 years in prison for corruption and tax fraud.

Travel sector zooms in on lucrative gay market The travel sector is jazzing up its offer for gay tourists, who tend to spend more than most when away from home, taking it beyond parties in sunny hubs like Ibiza.

T

HE trend was underscored at the Fitur tourism fair in Madrid, one of the world’s largest, where tourism boards plugged cultural attractions and nature activities to this market.

Spain’s western region of Extremadura for example featured posters promoting annual gay pride festivities in the city of Badajoz which began in response to homophobic comments made by a local politician.

But it also promoted bird watching trips, local architecture and rural tourism to gay and lesbian travellers at a special section of the fair dedicated to the market segment.

The goal is to appeal to the growing number of gay and lesbian couples who are having children, said Hugo Alonso of the Extremadura’s tourism promotion agency at the fair.

“We are interested in volume,” he said. Gay and lesbians make up around 10 percent of all tourists, he said.

But for most destinations this segment is attractive because gays travel all year round since they are rarely tied down by school holidays, and spend more on trips.

“The have more disposable income” since there are fewer couples with children, said Juan Pedro Tudeal, the director of Diversity Consulting International, a Spanish firm which advises firms targeting the gay and lesbian market.

Thomas Bomkes of Diversity Tourism, a German consultancy, said gay tourists spend “even more when they know they’re accepted”.

DYNAMIC SEGMENT While it is difficult to estimate how much gay travellers spend, the United Nations World Tourism Organization said in a recent report that “there is no denying” that they “are a dynamic and influential segment within the tourism sector”.

The Spanish capital generated about 150 million euros from its annual gay-pride festivities last summer which feature one of the world’s biggest pride marches.

The windfall is expected to be even higher this year as Madrid will host World Pride in late June and early July.

Some three million people are expected to take part in the event. Spanish airline Iberia as well as several hotels have launched special offers for this time of the year to appeal to gay travellers.

Pride festivities are used by many Spanish coastal destinations to attract gay travellers outside of their high season.

The beach resort of Maspalomas on Spain’s Canary Islands stages three pride events each year, which generate up to 20 million euros each, said the organiser of the event, Fernando Ilarduya.

There has also been a boom in the number of cruises, vacation clubs and bungalows geared specifically at the gay market.

“Certain details make the trip more enjoyable, like for example a hotel that does not provide separate beds to two women who book a room together,” said Marion Couturier of event management agency Hansen&Partner.

DIFFICULT TO TARGET While destinations like Spain - which was one of the first nations to legalise gay marriage- , Thailand and Bali are already well established as “gay friendly”, others are seeking to follow their example.

At Fitur, Argentina’s tourism board highlighted in its brochures that it was the first nation in Latin America to approve gay marriage while Colombia promoted several destinations specifically for gays.

But Bomkes warned that some gay people may actually be turned off by special offers and package tours that openly target the gay community.

“It can be difficult to reach the target group: some people don’t want these special offers,” he said.

“Most of them are very educated. They know how to book everything by themselves.”

The “gay friendly” reputation of a hotel trails location and the price-quality relationship as the most important factor when a gay tourists books accommodation, according to Community Marketing, a US gay marketing firm.

Some firms have begun to focus exclusively on the lesbian segment, which is now “booming” after initially lagging behind the gay male segment, according to Couturier.

“Men prefer urban tourism, while women are looking for outdoor activities, culture, gastronomy,” added Sylvia Lacosta who runs a travel agency in Tenerife that focuses on the lesbian market.

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SPANISH PM WARNS BREXIT A ‘SERIOUS THREAT’ TO ECONOMY SPAIN’S Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has warned that Britain’s exit from the EU posed a severe threat to the country’s recovering economy, and made a plea for cohesion in Europe.

His comments came as the British government presented its draft legislation to begin the process of withdrawing from the EU, seven months after Britons voted for exiting the bloc in a referendum.

“Brexit is a serious threat,” Rajoy told a Madrid gathering organised by conservative daily ABC. “Without wanting to go into other considerations, I will only tell you that one in five tourists who come to Spain are British, and close to 17 million Britons visited Spain last year.”

The Brexit-related fall of the value of the pound in recent months has caused concern that fewer Britons may travel, and has British retirees in Spain worried about their declining purchasing power.

Officially, over 300,000 Britons reside in Spain, but many do

not bother to register, with estimates suggesting between 800,000 to a million live in the country.

“I will also tell you that the United Kingdom is the first destination for Spanish companies’ investment and our third commercial partner,” Rajoy said.

He added that post-Brexit, serious thought needed to be given to improving the EU so that it was “more cohesive, more effective in its decision-making and with better political ambition.”

As such, he said the results of elections in France and Germany later this year -- where far-right, eurosceptic parties are on the rise -- would be “decisive”.

“Spain... hopes that its two biggest partners will maintain their pro-EU vocation and their determination to push forward a project which despite all its imperfections is the best political initiative the world has seen in centuries -- the EU project.”

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S

PAIN’S central government has angrily protested against Catalan President Carles Puigdemont’s planned vote in September, claiming it would be illegal.

But nonetheless, the battle is on for minds rather than hearts, with the region’s main independence association, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), going after those hardest to convince.

Separatists in Catalonia have for years tried -- in vain -- to win approval from Spain’s central government for an independence vote like Scotland’s 2014 referendum.

Regional elections in September 2015 saw separatists in Catalonia earn 48 percent of the vote, but in the former industrial heartland of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, a Barcelona suburb, that figure was only 32 percent.

And that’s where separatists have started their campaign.

“We’re convinced that we’ll get this majority thanks to information and reflection, not through feelings,” ANC president Jordi Sanchez said.

The aim is to convince people that Catalans will become richer, have better social services, improved infrastructure and less corruption if they split from Spain.

But 77-year-old pensioner Josep Antoni Ruiz is not convinced.

“No-one is guaranteeing us that things will improve,” he said.

Spain looking Catalan into claim of Catalonia tax separatists data piracy launch new independence campaign Eight months before a controversial -- and still theoretical -- planned independence referendum, Catalan separatists have launched a new seduction campaign to woo voters.

REALITY

SEPARATIST POLL BOOM Separatist sentiment boomed in Catalonia following the global financial crisis of 2008 and conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s election victory in 2011.

According to polls, both separatists and unionists count between 40 and 45 percent of support in Catalonia, with the remaining 1015 percent undecided.

Central government in Madrid insists, as does Spain’s constitutional court, that any referendum would have to be Spain-wide rather than confined to Catalonia.

Even so, Rajoy’s party is also working to seduce the Catalan electorate.

“We want to sit down and discuss to reach agreements that can resolve this situation,” the government’s Catalan prefect Enric Millo said.

“Independence won’t solve unemployment, no more than it will guarantee public services or pensions. Many people believe in this (separatist) discourse but it’s not coherent.”

Spain’s state prosecutor’s office has confirmed it was looking into claims that the separatist government in Catalonia had illegally obtained Catalonians’ tax records.

The announcement came in response to a series of conferences held since November

by Santiago Vidal, an outspoken Catalan senator and staunch proponent of independence for the region.

Vidal had claimed that Catalan officials wanted to use the fiscal data to create a regional treasury, separate from the national treasury in Madrid.

“The Catalan government has, right now, all your tax data,” Vidal said at one event.

“Is this legal? No, because this data is protected” by a federal data protection law.

Spain’s state prosecutor, Jose Manuel Maza, has ordered Catalonia’s chief prosecutor to look into the claim, which would be a “serious violation” of individual rights, his office said.

The solution lies perhaps somewhere in the middle, according to Joan Botella, political science dean at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Botella believes many separatists don’t really want independence.

“In this group there are two parties: in one, the traditional and convinced supporters, and in the other, tactical supporters, recently converted, who hope and demand by calling for independence that they will achieve more modest objectives.

“This second group will be more susceptible to propositions coming from Madrid if they represent genuine change.”

According to a November poll conducted by

the university, 45 percent of Catalans simply want greater autonomy.

Only 37 percent said they wanted independence with 12 percent calling for an end to such a movement.

The latest Catalan separatist push comes amid continuing jitters across Europe fueled

by Britain’s shock vote last June to leave the 28-member European Union.

Pro-independence campaigners in Scotland, having failed to convince voters in 2014, are pushing for another referendum on the issue, after 62 percent of Scots favoured remaining part of the EU last June -- compared to 52 percent of Britons overall who backed splitting from the bloc.

But Vidal appeared to disown his claims later announcing that he would give up his seat in the national parliament in Madrid, saying that his statements should have been taken “figuratively” because they “did not have any basis in reality”.

Among his other claims was that the Catalan government had a secret 400 million euro ($430 million) fund to carry out an independence referendum, which Catalonia’s president has pledged for September 2017.

Vidal also said the regional government had a tentative agreement with NATO to grant an independent Catalonia membership in the alliance in exchange for building a helicopter factory.

The senator admitted that he should have “better checked” the tax piracy claims, which the Catalan government “categorically denied”.

“We have no illegal data whatsoever on any citizen,” a spokeswoman for the Catalan government, Neus Munte, said.

SPAIN HOLDS BOXING COACH SUSPECTED OF RECRUITING JIHADISTS SPANISH police have confirmed the arrest a Moroccan boxing coach suspected of recruiting for the Islamic State group, the interior ministry said.

The arrested man specialised in “sending foreign fighters to Turkey where they received instructions from Daesh to commit attacks in Europe”, the ministry said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for IS. He was detained in San Sebastian in Spain’s northern Basque Country, the statement added, without giving the suspect’s name or age.

According to the ministry, the suspect had had links with a

man previously detained in Morocco and another arrested in France in November, both of whom followed “concrete and precise instructions from Daesh.”

ATTACK French police detained four men in Strasbourg, on November 20, suspected of plotting to attack the French capital, having allegedly researched sites including a Christmas market and Disneyland Paris as potential targets.

A Spanish police spokesman confirmed that the arrested boxing coach had contacts with a suspect who was part of

that cell.

According to Spanish authorities, 181 alleged jihadists have been detained since 2015, when Spain increased its terror alert to category four on a five-point scale.

The country has been mentioned on extremist websites as a possible attack target for historical reasons, given Muslims ruled in Spain for close to eight centuries until 1492.

But it has been spared any incident since March 2004, when bombs exploded on commuter trains in Madrid, leaving 191 dead in attacks claimed by Al-Qaeda inspired militants.

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SPANISH CLIMBER EVACUATED FROM EVEREST A SPANISH climber who was part of a team attempting to summit Mount Everest in winter has been evacuated from the mountain, expedition organisers confirm.

Carlos Rubio, 28, and compatriot Alex Txikon, 35, have been on Everest since early January attempting the first winter summit of the world’s highest peak without supplemental oxygen in nearly three decades.

The pair were at camp two -- 6,400 metres (20,997 feet) above sea level -- when Rubio was crippled by altitude sickness and evacuated by helicopter from the mountain last week.

He was flown to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and is now recovering in hospital, Tashi Sherpa of Seven Summits Trek, the agency managing the expedition said. “He was evacuated from camp two because of effects of altitude sickness,” Sherpa said.

Txikon remains on Everest and has now reached camp three (7,200 metres). He said in a Facebook post that he would ascend to camp four -- the last one before the summit --.

“We were 10 minutes out of camp two when it hit me,” Rubio said

Suspected Russian hacker wanted

by US jailed in Spain

Spain frees two men wrongly framed as jihadists by informant

S AN alleged Russian hacker wanted for fraud has been detained in Spain and jailed pending extradition to the United States, police and a court spokesman confirm.

Stanislav Lisov, a computer programmer, was wanted by US authorities, a spokesman for the Guardia Civil police force said.

“He is accused of conspiracy to commit fraud via electronic media and conspiracy to commit fraud and abuse with computers,” a spokesman for Spain’s top-level National Court added.

Lisov was detained last week in Barcelona’s El Prat airport when he was about to board a flight, police said.

He was jailed on January 13 after being questioned via videoconference by a judge in Madrid’s National Court, which investigates suspected crimes that have an international remit.

The judge decided to put him in prison as he does not live in Spain and could escape, and due to the “gravity of the offences.”

“Now begins the process of extradition to the United States,” the National Court spokesman said, without giving further details.

from a hospital bed in Kathmandu.

“It was very bad luck. It was my first time on a mountain that’s over 8,000 metres. It was an ambitious project.”

The last successful winter summit of Everest was in 1993 by a Japanese team. But no one has reached the peak without using supplemental oxygen since a Nepali mountaineer in December 1987.

Mountaineering experts say climbing in winter is more dangerous than spring, when most people tackle the 8,848 metre peak, owing to high winds and extreme cold.

The team -- which includes four Nepali guides -- had experienced winds of over 100 kilometres (62 miles) per hour and windchill temperatures of minus 40 C (minus 40 F), Rubio said.

Txikon is expected to try and reach the summit -- where temperatures average minus 36 C in winter and can drop as low as minus 60 C -- in the first week of February.

Rubio said he planned tofly home to Spain in the next few days.

Mountaineering is a major revenue earner for impoverished Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 metres.

PANISH judge Santiago Pedraz has freed two men arrested before New Year’s Eve on suspicion of contemplating an attack, who authorities later discovered had actually been framed by a police informant.

“There is no longer any evidence suggesting that the accused were jihadists,” Judge Santiago Pedraz wrote in a ruling.

Police regularly announce the detention of suspected jihadists accused of propaganda or glorifying extremism, but this particular arrest late December caused alarm as information emerged suggesting that both men were actively considering an attack.

Police said they had found videos showing a man in front of the Islamic State flag shouting “Allah is great” and other men holding an AK-47.

In one video, a man is seen in front of an image of the Puerta del Sol, a central Madrid square where thousands celebrate New Year’s Eve every year.

JITTERS Authorities were quick to allay fears, saying there was no indication an attack was actually being organised before the arrest, but the discovery still sparked jitters in the capital.

Then Spanish media reported that the suspects were the victims of a scheme initiated by a police informant dubbed “Lolo.”

The El Mundo daily reported that “Lolo”,

Puerta del Sol, the central Madrid square where thousands celebrate New Year’s Eve every year

who was paid monthly by the police and would get a bonus for “extraordinary” information, put the video together.

“Lolo” had tried to peddle his video to Spain’s intelligence services, which ignored him, the newspaper said.

Madrid’s police, though, took him at his word and launched the probe that led to the arrests, it added.

In his ruling, the judge confirmed that “Lolo”

was an informant.

He added that nothing, not even phone taps, pointed to “the possible existence of a terrorism offence.”

The AK-47 seen in the videos was never found, and it is not even certain that it was real, the judge said.

But he only let the two men out on conditional release pending the analysis of all items seized during the probe.

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T

HE Spanish government has approved a decree that gives banks three months to reach a settlement with clients who were sold mortgages with abusive interest rate floors.

The goal is to prevent courts from being flooded with lawsuits after the European Court of Justice last month ruled lenders must reimburse mortgage customers with so-called “floor clauses”, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said.

About 1.5 million people were sold those mortgages, which impose a limit on how far interest rates can fall in line with a benchmark rate, he added after a weekly cabinet meeting.

SETTLEMENT The Bank of Spain has estimated that the European court ruling could cost Spanish lenders over four billion euros ($4.2 billion).

Under the measure approved Friday banks must contact customers to inform them that they are affected and offer them a settlement within three months of the decree coming into force.

If no agreement has been reached after

Spain passes law to settle abusive mortgage claims three months, customers would then still be able to file a lawsuit to seek compensation.

Banks will have to “create specific departments” to handle the reimbursement claims, De Guindos said.

The image of Spain’s banking sector suffered a huge blow during the country’s economic downturn due to several cases of poor management and corruption.

Spanish banks lent heavily during a decadelong property boom which went bust in 2008, sparking a sharp economic downturn

SPANISH BANKERS LAND IN JAIL A SPANISH court has jailed five former executives who got millions in severance pay from a struggling bank that later had to be nationalised, a first in a country still reeling from banking bailouts.

“These are people who managed a savings bank that had to be rescued by the state,” Spain’s toplevel National Court said in a ruling, adding it had taken the decision to avoid allowing former bankers to enjoying “impunity”.

The ruling could act as a precedent for the other, more high-profile trial of former economy minister and ex-IMF chief Rodrigo Rato over alleged embezzlement when he was president of Bankia, another bank that was rescued during the financial crisis.

In 2010, as the crisis raged in Spain, the five then managers and executives at Novacaixagalicia (NCG) left their posts, but not before obtaining compensation of nearly 19 million euros ($20.3 million) although they knew the bank was in dire straits.

CASH-STRAPPED The following year, NCG was nationalised to avoid bankruptcy as were other banks -- and cashstrapped Spain eventually asked the European Union for a 41.3-billion-euro bailout of the banking sector in 2012.

NCG received a total of nine billion euros in aid, and in 2013, Spain sold it to Venezuelan bank Banesco for one billion euros.

The five men, currently aged 59 to 85, had already been found guilty of embezzlement in 2015 and were then given a two-year jail sentence, which their defence asked to be suspended.

In Spain, it is usual for first offences for non-violent crimes carrying a sentence of two years or less to be suspended.

But the National Court said that in this case, “the gravity of the offence given its macroeconomic impact means it is necessary that the five go to prison, in the interest of avoiding impunity.”

They added that the former executives had not paid a fine owed, and ruled against suspending the sentence.

that caused the unemployment rate to soar to a record high of 27 percent in 2013.

Thousands of families who were not able to keep up with their mortgage payments were evicted from their homes and Spanish banks in 2012 received 41.4-billion-euros in European Union bailout funds.

Most of Spain’s home loans are pegged to the 12 month-euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor.

The benchmark has fallen, but clients with mortgage floors did not benefit.

THREE DIE AFTER MOUNTAIN OF CLOTHES FALLS ON THEM A SPANISH couple and their 12-year-old daughter died after hundreds of kilos (pounds) of clothes they were stocking in boxes fell on them while they slept.

The couple, who lived in the southeastern city of Alicante, were keeping the clothes in boxes stacked in their bedroom to sell them off again, according to the Diario Informacion.

Their eldest, 18-year-old daughter made the grim discovery when she woke up, found that the flat was quiet, went into her parents’ room and found all the boxes collapsed on the bed, it said.

She couldn’t see her parents or her sister under what was estimated to be one to two tonnes of clothes, and called the police, it added.

Officers managed to locate and pull out the younger daughter, but were unable to revive her.

Firefighters were later called in for help to extract the parents from under the mountain of clothes, the daily said, adding it was unclear why the stack of boxes collapsed.

Police and firefighters were not immediately available for comment.

Body of small migrant boy found on Spanish beach THE lifeless body of a six- to seven-year-old boy believed to be a migrant trying to get to Europe has washed up on a southern Spanish beach, authorities said.

In a grim reminder of the discovery of Aylan Kurdi, the threeyear-old Syrian boy found drowned on a Turkish beach in 2015, the body was found last week in the municipality of Barbate on Spain’s southern tip.

A spokesman for the Madrid government based in Cadiz province, where Barbate is located, said the boy was believed to be six to seven years old.

“The hypothesis is that he was a migrant,” he said, adding that the bodies of other people believed to be migrants travelling from north Africa had washed up on the coast further east more than two weeks ago.

Authorities are investigating “to see if there is any kind of link,” he said.

The September 15 picture of Aylan’s tiny lifeless body sent shockwaves around the world, becoming one of the most searing images of the migrant crisis.

While the focus has often been on the migrants and refugees heading to Europe via Turkey, Greece and Italy, a smaller number also head for Spain.

The country has two enclaves in north Africa -- Ceuta and Melilla -- surrounded by high barriers that are regularly

stormed by migrants.

Others, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa, take to rickety boats to try to cross the narrow stretch of sea between Spain’s southern tip and Morocco.

According to the International Organization for Migration, 13,246 migrants arrived in Spain last year, more than 8,100 of whom came by sea.

This compares to the more than 181,000 and close to 177,000 who arrived in Italy and Greece respectively.

Barbate beach in Cadiz province

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F

RENCH presidential hopeful Francois Fillon faced fresh allegations of misusing public funds following claims that his wife had been paid for a fake parliamentary job.

French investigative website Mediapart has reported that Fillon pocketed money personally while a member of the French senate, which he left in 2007.

The website estimated he had “siphoned off” around 25,000 euros ($27,000) from funds earmarked for assistants in the French upper house.

The Journal de Dimanche newspaper said he had written seven cheques to himself between 2005 and 2007 for “a total of around 21,000 euros.”

The claims add to mounting worries for the right-wing Republicans party candidate who had been considered the frontrunner for next April and May’s election.

“How can we not consider that there are forces at work to silence me and to weaken my candidacy, or even try to prevent me from appearing?” the former prime minister said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

“It is a terrible plot, but I am sure that the justice system will not allow itself to be exploited by these defamatory allegations,” added Fillon.

Recent polls have indicated support falling slightly for Fillon, whose nearest rivals are shown as far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron.

The ruling Socialist party is choosing its candidate on Sunday, with ex-PM Manuel Valls competing with leftwinger Benoit Hamon.

FAKE JOB CLAIMS French authorities have opened a preliminary inquiry into the allegations that Fillon’s wife benefited from fake jobs, first published by Le Canard Enchaine weekly.

The newspaper said that his Welsh-born spouse Penelope had earned half a million euros from 1998-2012 working as his parliamentary assistant.

It said its reporters had been unable to find anyone who

FRANCE’S FILLON HIT BY FRESH EXPENSES SCANDAL could testify to the work of the mother-of-five, who has always had a low-key role in her husband’s career.

Fillon says his wife has always worked for him during his four-decade political career, carrying out tasks including speech editing and representing him at events.

He told the Journal du Dimanche that he would “not submit to a trial by media”, adding that he had already handed over wage slips to investigators.

PROBE SINCE 2013 The new allegations published by Mediapart and the Journal du Dimanche last weekend relate to funds made available for senators that have allegedly been widely misused by others.

Since November 2013, two French judges have been investigating illicit payments made by senators to themselves from funds meant for hiring assistants.

Mediapart said the lawmakers usually made out cheques to themselves of around 4,000 euros every quarter -- relatively small sums that, over more than a decade, totalled millions.

Six people have been charged, including Fillon’s party colleagues Jean-Claude Carle and Henri de Raincourt.

The investigation covers the period after 2009. Fillon left the senate in 2007.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS INTERNATIONALNEWS

T

HE trial of a burglar dubbed “Spiderman”, notorious for daring acrobatic heists, for a $100-million art heist in 2010 that saw works by Picasso and Matisse stolen from a Paris gallery has began Vjeran Tomic, a balding 49-year-old who is a skilled rock climber, arrived in a blue overcoat and sweatshirt for his trial in Paris where he faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted of the robbery.

He admitted to carrying out the heist after being arrested in May 2011 and compared himself to a famed thief from French literature as he spoke to reporters on Monday.

“What role did I have? Arsene Lupin,” he told reporters with a smile, referring to the sly but charming character who ransacked rich Parisians’ homes in stories first published at the start of the 20th century.

Tomic and two alleged accomplices have been charged over the May 2010 robbery at the Modern Art Museum of five paintings by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Ferdinand Leger and Amedeo Modigliani. All the artworks are still missing.

Tomic is suspected of cutting through a padlocked gate and breaking a window to get into the gallery, one of the mostvisited museums in Paris on the banks of the Seine.

The museum’s alarms had been awaiting repair for several weeks and Tomic is alleged to have somehow knocked out a security camera.

Three guards were on duty that night, but the paintings were only found to be missing from their frames just as the museum prepared to open to the public the next day.

When police arrested the Serb in May 2011, Tomic told them he had initially broken into the museum for Leger’s “Still Life with Candlestick” from 1922, not thinking he would also be able to steal another four.

Besides the Leger canvas, the other works stolen were Picasso’s cubist “Dove with Green Peas” from 1912 -- alone worth an estimated 25 million euros ($26.8 million) -- French contemporary Matisse’s “Pastoral” from 1905, Braque’s “Olive

‘SPIDERMAN’ BURGLAR ON TRIAL OVER $100m PARIS ART HAUL Tree near Estaque” from 1906, and Modigliani’s “Woman with a Fan” from 1919.

All but the Modigliani were hung in the same room in the museum, located in the well-heeled 16th district of Paris, which is run by the city and is home to more than 8,000 works of 20th-century art.

‘LIKED’ PAINTINGS Tomic, who has a long criminal record of 14 previous offences, said he took them all because he “liked” the paintings.

Authorities put the total value of the haul at 100 million euros ($107 million), but some experts said they were worth twice that, while admitting it would be impossible to sell such artworks on the open market.

The presiding judge at the trial on Monday, Peimane GhalehMarzban, said the value of the masterworks was “far higher than their market value.”

They have still not been recovered.

Ghaleh-Marzban also criticised the security “failures” which enabled the heist to be carried out with “disconcerting ease.”

The defendants face a 10-year jail term if convicted for the theft or re-sale of the artworks, but Tomic’s sentence could

“Information is not knowledge.The only source of knowledge is experience”

be double that given his criminal record.

Athletically built and 1.90 metres (6 foot 2 inches) tall, he earned his nickname for clambering into posh Parisian apartments and museums to steal valuable gems and works of art.

Prosecutors claim he was spotted by a homeless man as he roamed around the museum in the days leading to the theft.

Police arrested him after receiving an anonymous tip and tracking his mobile phone. Surveillance cameras from the night of the heist recorded only one person entering through a window who could not be identified.

An art dealer who admitted to having the paintings for a short time said he dumped them in a garbage can, which authorities do not believe.

International police body Interpol put out an alert to its 188 member countries in the hope of recovering the five paintings, but so far they all remain missing.

There has been a spate of art thefts in Europe in recent years.

The most recent, in 2015, involved the theft of five paintings worth 25 million euros by renowned British artist Francis Bacon in Madrid.

Spanish police arrested seven people last year suspected of being involved in that theft.

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Avda del Sol, (Waterfront Hotel Sunset Beach, Benalmádena) C / de la Cruz 75 (Torremolinos) Avda de las Palmeras, 61 (Estepona) C / Josefina Samper, 2 (Estepona) Shopping Center Pier 1 (Málaga) TM Burger King Corporation. © 2015 Burger King Europe GmbH. All rights reserved.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Symbolic ‘Doomsday Clock’ moves closer to midnight T

HE clock -- which serves as a metaphor for how close humanity is to destroying the planet -- was last changed in 2015, from five to three minutes before midnight.

It is now set at two and a half minutes to midnight, amid concerns about “a rise in strident nationalism worldwide, President Donald Trump’s comments on nuclear arms and climate issues, a darkening global security landscape that is coloured by increasingly sophisticated technology, and a growing disregard for scientific expertise,” said a statement by the group of scientists and intellectuals, including 15 Nobel laureates.

Trump has made contradictory statements about climate change, at times calling it a hoax and other times saying he would keep an open mind about it.

On the nuclear issue, Trump said in December that the US must build up its nuclear arsenal.

Responding to a statement by Russian President Vladimir Pu-

Comments by US President Donald Trump on nuclear weapons and climate change have helped make the world less safe, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warned last week, moving its symbolic “Doomsday Clock” 30 seconds closer to midnight. tin that Moscow needs to strengthen its own nuclear force, Trump responded with a tweet: “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”

“The Doomsday Clock is closer to midnight than it has ever been in the lifetime of almost everyone in this room,” Lawrence Krauss, chair of the Bulletin’s board of sponsors, told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington.

“The last time it was closer was 63 years ago in 1953 after the then Soviet Union exploded its first hydrogen bomb, creat-

ANCIENT TREASURES RECOVERED IN EUROPOL CRACKDOWN POLICE from 18 countries recovered over 3,500 stolen works of art and ancient artefacts of “great cultural importance” in a joint operation last year, the European police agency announced.

The haul included a marble Ottoman tombstone, a postByzantine icon depicting Saint George and hundreds of coins, Europol said.

Dubbed Operation Pandora, the crackdown took place last October and November, leading to the recovery of 3,561 pieces and 75 arrests.

Officials announced that it was hard to put a total value on the haul, as experts had yet to appraise it.

CULTURAL IMPORTANCE “Several of the retrieved artefacts are of great cultural importance in the archaeological world,” the agency, based in The Hague, said in a statement.

Around 500 objects were uncovered in Murcia, southeastern Spain, including 19 coins which had been stolen from the city’s Archaeological Museum in 2014.

The operation was led by Spanish and Cypriot police who carried out checks on more than 48,500 people, some 50 ships and over 29,000 vehicles.

Police carried out inspections of Internet sites and art galleries and at checkpoints in their hunt for illicit artefacts, and even searched scuba-diving schools for

items plundered from underwater sites.

In Cyprus, 40 ancient objects were found at the post office in Larnaca, close to where the Mediterranean island’s main airport is based, Cypriot police said in a statement.

“All airports, post offices and checkpoints to and from” northern Turkish-held areas were monitored and there were also “intensified police patrols at sensitive archaeological sites,” the Cypriot police added.

“From a total of 44 searches conducted in homes and premises throughout Cyprus, 1,383 artefacts and 13 metal detectors were found and seized,” they added.

ing the modern arms race,” he added.

“More than that, this is the first time that the words and stated policies of one or two people placed in high positions have so impacted on our perception of the existential threats we believe the world faces,” he said, alluding to Trump and Putin.

IMPERILING DEMOCRACY Krauss cited intelligence reports that accuse Russia of interfering with the US presidential campaign to favor Trump’s victory as symbolic of the “deeper global threat” posed by cybertechnology.

“The question of whether the fabric of democracy may be imperiled by reducing faith in both the integrity of election and the very information on which an informed public can base their voting becomes suspect,” said Krauss, a theoretical physicist at Arizona State University.

He also said the bulletin “is extremely concerned about the willingness of governments -- including the current US administration -- to ignore or discount some science or evidence during their decision-making process.”

Last year, the warmest year in modern times due to humandriven climate change, world leaders “actually increased the threat of nuclear war and unchecked climate change through a variety of provocative statements and actions including careless rhetoric about the use of nuclear weapons,” said Krauss.

An amid escalating rhetoric on the nuclear front, he called on Russia and the United States, which possess the large majority of the world’s nuclear weapons, to focus in the coming year on reducing their arsenals.

“President Trump and President Putin, who claim great respect for each other, can choose to act together as statesmen or act as petulant children risking our future,” he said.

“Regardless, these issues are too important to be left in the hands of a few men. We therefore call upon all people to speak out and send a loud message to your leaders that you will not allow them to needlessly threaten your future and the future of your children.”

In an opinion piece published in the New York Times, Krauss and another bulletin scientist, David Titley, wrote that Trump was a key factor in their decision.

“Never before has the Bulletin decided to advance the clock largely because of the statements of a single person,” they wrote.

“But when that person is the new president of the United States, his words matter.”

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947. It has changed 19 times since then, ranging from two minutes to midnight in 1953 to 17 minutes before midnight in 1991.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

KEEP OUT!

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 there were 16 major walls protecting borders around the world. In 2016 that number had grown to 66, according to researcher Elisabeth Vallet of the University of Quebec.

Ten of world’s top walls

A

S US President Donald Trump took the first step Wednesday towards fulfilling his pledge to build a wall along the Mexican border, here are some of most recent and significant frontier barriers from around the globe. n HUNGARY: Facing Europe’s worst migrant crisis since World War II, Hungary’s right-wing government built a 110-mile (177-kilometre) fence along its border with Serbia last September, followed by one along its border with Croatia. Other countries in the region including Slovenia, Austria, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece took similar steps, albeit mostly on a smaller scale. n MOROCCAN-OCCUPIED WESTERN SAHARA: The oldest functioning security barrier in the world, this 1,700-mile sand wall (or “berm”) separates the Moroccan territory from land controlled by Polisario rebels, who have been fighting and negotiating for control of the Western Sahara since the 1970s. n SAUDI ARABIA-IRAQ: Responding

to the rise of the Islamic State group, the Saudis added to an existing seven-metrehigh (23 feet) sand berm on the Iraqi border with a 560-mile fence, 78 watchtowers, eight command centres, 10 mobile surveillance vehicles, 32 rapid-response centres, and three rapid intervention squads. n ISRAEL-WEST BANK: Israel began building its security barrier in 2002, saying

it would stop attacks by Palestinian insurgents, though critics say it has been used to seize land and establish a de facto border in breach of international law. n US-MEXICO: Then US president Bill Clinton launched concerted efforts to tighten the border in the 1990s. Fears that the porous border could be exploited by Al-Qaeda led to more and tougher barriers. After pass-

MEXICO FOREIGN MINISTER: PAYING FOR BORDER WALL ‘NOT NEGOTIABLE’ MEXICO is willing to talk with the United States in order to maintain good relations, but paying for President Donald Trump’s border wall “is not negotiable,” said Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray.

“There are things that are not negotiable, things that cannot and will not be negotiated. The fact that it is being said that Mexico should pay for the wall is something that is simply not negotiable,” Videgaray said during a press conference at the Mexican embassy in Washington.

PROMISE Holding true to his campaign promise, Trump has ordered US officials to begin to design and construct a wall along the 2,000mile (3,200-kilometer) US-Mexico border.

The White House has since then floated the idea of a 20 percent tax on Mexican imports to cover the cost of the wall, but later backtracked and called it just one idea among many.

Such a tax, Videgaray said, would only harm Americans.

“Here in the United States avocados, washing machines, televisions, many things that North American families like to buy and that are expensive, would cost more,” he said.

“It would be the American consumer who would be paying,” Videgaray added.

The top diplomat was at the White House to help pave the way for a visit by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto when his team received word of a Trump tweet suggesting that if Mexico were not willing to build the wall it should cancel the trip.

Pena Nieto tweeted later that he had informed the White House that he would “not attend the working meeting” next week.

“We recognize that it is the beginning of a new relationship with President Trump and his government. We recognize that, as President Pena Nieto has said, we are ready to negotiate. We have clear priorities and objectives,” Videgaray said.

ing the Secure Fence Act in 2006, the United States over the next few years built a more than 1,000 km long barrier along the Mexico border to prevent illegal immigrants and drug trafficking, equipped with floodlights and surveillance cameras. n GREECE-TURKEY: A side-effect of improving relations with Turkey and the removal of landmines along their border was that Greece became the leading entry point for migrants into Europe at just the moment when its economy was collapsing. So in 2012 it built the seven-mile Evros wall along the boundary. n NORTHERN IRELAND: Belfast has 99 “peace lines” designed to separate working class Protestant and Catholic communities, the earliest dating back to 1969. They are focused on the north of the city, known as “murder mile” during the period of The Troubles, which lasted until the 1998’s Good Friday Agreement. Despite the ceasefire, the walls have only increased in size and number since. n SPAIN-MOROCCO: The Spanishowned enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the North African coast are protected by hightech border fences. Many have died trying to storm the fences, some shot by Moroccan forces. n INDIA-BANGLADESH: Since 1993, India has been gradually surrounding Bangladesh with a barbed-wire fence aimed at restricting immigration, leading to drawnout arguments over the precise line of the frontier and leaving up to 100,000 people abandoned in a no-man’s land with no public services. n CYPRUS: A wall continues to split the island and its capital Nicosia between its Turkish and Greek Cypriot halves, dating back to Turkey’s invasion in 1974.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

TOP COURT STRIKES DOWN FRANCE’S ANTI-SMACKING LAW

A FRENCH law condemning the smacking of children has been struck down by the Constitutional Council, dismaying opponents of a practice for which France has often been rapped by the UN. The Constitutional Council, which vets legislation, has rejected on technical grounds a law that asked parents to swear off hitting their children.

Ruling on a challenge brought by a group of conservative senators, the court said the article, which was inserted into a law on equality and citizenship adopted by parliament in December, had “no connection” to the original bill and therefore violated parliamentary rules.

PUNISHMENT The article had not constituted an actual ban on smacking and did not provide for any punishment of “la fessée” -- a practice that still has widespread support in France, to the dismay of many of its European neighbours.

The article only expanded the definition of parental authority in the Civil Code to include rejecting “all cruel, degrading and hu-

miliating treatment, including all recourse to corporal violence”.

The rule, which was welcomed by children’s rights groups, was intended to be read out to couples when taking their wedding vows.

Reacting to the Constitutional Council’s decision, Laurence Rossignol, minister for families, children and women’s rights in President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government, expressed “great disappointment”.

Rossignol said Friday she was particularly “shocked” that senators from the main rightwing opposition party, the Republicans, had gone to the Constitutional Council to have it overturned.

“In a way they are insisting on the right to smack children,” she said. “They have nothing to be proud of.”

In March 2015, the Council of Europe singled out France for failing to ban smacking, unlike most other European countries.

In February 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child called on France to “explicitly prohibit” all forms of corporal punishment for children.

Pope warns against populism and ‘saviours’ like Hitler POPE Francis has warned against populism, saying it could lead to the election of “saviours” like Hitler.

In an hour-long interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais conducted following Donald Trump becoming US president, the pontiff also condemned the idea of using walls and barbed wire to keep out foreigners.

“Of course crises provoke fears and worries,” he said but added that for him “the example of populism in the European sense of the word is Germany in 1933.

“Germany... was looking for a leader, someone who would give her back her identity and there was a little man named Adolf Hitler who said ‘I can do it’.”

“Hitler did not steal power,” the pope said. “He was elected by his people and then he destroyed his people.”

The Germans at that time also wanted to protect themselves with “walls and barbed wire so that others cannot take away their identity,” he said.

“The case of Germany is classic,” he said, adding that Hitler gave them a “deformed identity and we know what it produced.”

Pope Francis however underscored that it was too early to pass judgement on Trump.

“Let’s see. Let’s see what he does and then we will evaluate,” he said.

Poland will not host any new CIA secret jails POLAND has ruled out allowing the United States to base secret prisons on its soil if President Donald Trump reinstated the socalled CIA “black sites” overseas.

Asked whether Warsaw would consider hosting such facilities, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo (above) said there “was neither any such proposal, nor any room” to discuss the issue, adding: “Of course not”.

Kwasniewski publicly acknowledged in 2014 that his country hosted a secret CIA prison where a US Senate report said torture was used against Al-Qaeda suspects.

Trump announced during an interview that he thought waterboarding and other interrogation techniques widely seen as torture -- and prohibited by law -- “absolutely” work, but said he would defer to his CIA and Pentagon chiefs on whether to reinstate them.

TORTURE The comments from the new Republican president -- which echo statements he made Close US NATO allies Poland and neighbouron the campaign trail -- come as reports ing Lithuania have never officially admitted Currencies Direct also has a or make a payment to another be over £150), they’ll set up suggest thebeneficiary.

TrumpManyadministration maywithbeCaixcustomers unique agreement to hosting secret CIA rendition centres ala Direct Debit for you. It can use online transfer systems like aBank in Spain, so they’re able be weekly, monthly, quarterthis for reinstatement smaller transactions to open a free CaixaBank considering the of secret CIAacly or yearly.

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This canCIA save you Today’s rates look good, Repatriating funds thousands! but you don’t need to transfer prisonsLet’shad been located in Afface it.also We know Spain Despite a constitutional ban on torture your in moneysecret for – say – three is fantastic - there’s a reason Peace of mind months? No problem. A Forwhy you invested and moved When looking for an exghanistan, Poland, its former president Aleksander ward Contract is the currency Romania, and Thailand. there in the first place all those change provider, you want to be over £150), they’ll set up a Direct Debit for you. It can be weekly, monthly, quarter ly or yearly. Leaving you free to sit back and enjoy the view

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Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

32 - WEEKEND WORLD

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

EIGHT MEN OWN SAME AS POOREST HALF OF WORLD Eight men own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population, a level of inequality which “threatens to pull our societies apart”, Oxfam said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

T

HE wealth of the world’s poorest 3.6 billion people is the equivalent to the combined net worth of six American businessmen, one from Spain and another from Mexico.

Picked from Forbes’ billionaires list, they include Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg who co-founded Facebook, and Jeff Bezos (left), founder of Amazon.

Oxfam pointed to a link between the vast gap between rich and poor and growing discontent with mainstream politics around the world.

“From Brexit to the success of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, a worrying rise in racism and the widespread disillusionment with mainstream politics, there are in-

creasing signs that more and more people in rich countries are no longer willing to tolerate the status quo,” Oxfam said in its new report, “An economy for the 99 percent”.

The charity said new data on wealth distribution from countries such as India and China had prompted it to revise its own calculation, having said a year ago the wealth of half the world’s population was in the hands of 62 people.

In its report Oxfam called for an increase in tax rates targeting “rich individuals and cooperation’s”, as well as a global agreement to end competition between countries to lower corporate tax rates.

The charity also condemned lobbying by corporations and the closeness of business and politics, calling for mandatory public lobby registries and stronger rules on conflicts of interest.

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 33

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Amateurs can hunt relics with modern ‘Indiana Jones’

A

“CITIZEN science” platform that space archaeologist Sarah Parcak wished for a year ago as part of a coveted TED prize went live at GlobalXplorer.org.

“The world’s hidden heritage contains clues to humankind’s collective resilience and creativity,” Parcak said in a release.

“With GlobalXplorer we are empowering a 21st century army of global explorers to discover and protect our shared history.”

A video of Parcak unveiling the wish was posted online at www.ted.com.

GlobalXplorer blends satellite imagery with pattern-hunting of a sort to make a game of spotting clues to the whereabouts of antiquities or looting.

Visitors to the website are invited to sign in and take a quick tutorial before virtually hunting relics and thieves.

Spending time scrutinizing satellite imagery lets people “level up” as in video games and earn rewards such as a chance to virtually join archaeologists on actual digs.

“Parcak’s wish has put the tools in everyone’s hands to discover and protect humanity’s rich history, effectively opening up a traditionally closed discipline,” said TED prize director Anna Verghese.

“Now our stories are safeguarded by millions rather than just a handful.”

EYE ON PERU Only tiny sections of imagery are shown, along with broad location data such as what

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones

A technology-wielding archaeologist billed as a real-world “Indiana Jones” has launched an online platform that lets anyone help discover archaeological wonders and fight looting. country is involved, to avoid being a resource for looters seeking tips of where to search.

DigitalGlobe, which specializes in capturing high-resolution pictures of the Earth from space, said that it provided more than 200,000 square kilometres of satellite imagery of Peru and a customized version of an online crowdsourcing tool.

National Geographic and Sustainable Preservation Initiative were listed among col-

Archaeologist Sarah Parcak

laborators on the project.

Archaeologists will follow up on sites pinpointed by the “crowd,” paving the way for protection from governments or law enforcement agencies “As soon as they see new or destroyed sites from space, we will be there on the ground to investigate and protect them,” said SPI founder and executive director Larry Coben.

Sarah Parcak envisions a 21st century army

ITALY DISMANTLES MAJOR MIGRANT SMUGGLER NETWORK ITALIAN police have dismantled a major people smuggling network responsible for trafficking hundreds of people across Europe.

“The criminal organisation comprised Egyptians, North Africans, Sudanese, Albanians, many of them with their papers in order, while a few were Romanian and Italian citizens,” a police statement said.

The migrants hailed from Syria, Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan. On making it to Italy they headed for Italy’s northern business hub of Milan where the network had its main base.

HIDDEN After reaching Milan, the migrants were transferred to Ventimiglia, near the French border. There, “they were regrouped and hidden pending transport” into France or

Austria, police said.

Up to 40 migrants who had paid 500 to 1,000 euros ($530 to $1,065) each were often packed “like meat” into trucks, Ilda Boccassini, a state prosecutor, told a press conference.

Describing the network as a “globalisation of evil”, Boccassini said it was just “a drop in the ocean” of human trafficking.

Police broke up the group after a two-year investigation which pieced together 62 clandestine voyages that allowed “hundreds of people” to enter various European countries.

The Italian authorities have issued 34 arrest warrants following their investigation -- 18 concerning people based in Italy.

Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti lauded an operation against traffickers whom he dubbed “unscrupulous criminals who

abuse people in great difficulty.”

Police added they had arrested two Italians in another anti-trafficking operation. They said the pair had been working at a clandestine unit churning out false EU identity documents, including driving licences.

Italy, along with neighbouring Greece, has been at the forefront of attempts to stem the flow of migrants fleeing war and poverty in recent years.

More than 180,000 migrants land in Italy last year, compared with a previous annual record of 170,100 in 2014, on a par with Greece.

More than a million people arrived in Europe via Mediterranean routes in 2015, prompting much political soul-searching across the European union amid strong opposition from some member states to a scheme to relocate them.

of citizen scientists discovering and defending relics.

Parcak condemned destruction of antiquities by the likes of violent extremists from the Islamic State group and saw looting done by the desperately poor as “heartbreaking.”

KICKSTART The TED Prize provides a million dollars to kickstart a big vision and opens a door to call on the nonprofit organization’s innovative, influential and ingenious community of “tedsters” for help.

The TED community includes scientists, celebrities, politicians, artists, and entrepreneurs.

Her work has caused some to refer to Parcak as a real-world version of the Indiana Jones character made famous in films starring Harrison Ford.

Parcak is a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she founded the Laboratory for Global Observation.

She has won attention for her work satellite mapping Egypt and uncovering hidden pyramids, tombs and settlements.

The annual TED Prize has grown from $100,000 to a million dollars since it was first awarded in the year 2005, to U2 band leader Bono and his vision of fighting poverty and disease.

Since its inception in 1984, TED has grown into a global forum for “ideas worth spreading” and has won a worldwide following for trademark “talks” during which accomplished speakers deliver thought-sparking presentations.

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

34 - WEEKEND WORLD

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Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

W

WEEKEND WORLD - 35

EEKEND focuses on SOTOGRANDE & GIBRALTAR WORLD

Gibraltar accuses ‘predator’ spain of Brexit ploy I

N a recent interview in London, Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo dismissed Spain’s offer of joint sovereignty as a way of keeping the pro-EU peninsula within the European Union.

But he did not rule out having an associate status with the EU once Britain leaves the bloc, in order to keep things moving at the border -- something critical for Gibraltar’s economy.

Though Spanish politicians described joint sovereignty as a generous offer, “this is the generosity of a predator that thinks that its prey is now ready to surrender”, Picardo said.

“It’s not generous to tell someone to surrender the thing that is most valuable to them at the time you think they may be in need of your assistance.”

Picardo was in London this week to face questions from the British parliamentary committee scrutinising the Brexit process.

The 44-year-old also attended the presentation of a report about the impact Brexit will have on the “Rock”, as the territory is nicknamed after its 426 metre (1,398-feet) high limestone ridge.

DAILY SPANISH INFLUX The seven square-kilometre peninsula on the tip of Spain’s south coast, home to 33,000 people, was ceded by Spain to Britain in 1713 in perpetuity.

Spain, which maintains its sovereignty claim, shut its border gates with Gibraltar in 1969.

It fully reopened them in 1985 ahead of Spain joining the European Economic Community, the EU’s predecessor, the following year.

The head of Gibraltar, which is hugely dependent on a free-flowing border with Spain, has accused Madrid of acting like a “predator” by trying to exploit Brexit.

Gibraltar’s thriving services-based economy, which hosts several big insurance and online betting firms, relies in large part on access to the EU’s single market.

It also depends heavily upon the 10,000-strong mostly Spanish workforce coming through the sole crossing on the 1.2-kilometre border.

Many come from the neighbouring Campo de Gibraltar area of Andalusia, where unemployment is high.

Gibraltar accounts for 25 percent of the Campo’s gross domestic product and is the “second biggest employer in Andalusia after the regional government”, Picardo said.

For this reason, he believes Spain would not want to see Gibraltar damaged by Brexit, and would also not want to re-close the border.

“I don’t think that there is anyone as stupid in Spain as to try that tactic again,” he said.

When the late dictator Francisco Franco shut the gates, “Gibraltar got stronger and more British in the process”.

Still, in the June referendum, 96 percent of voters in Gibraltar wanted Britain to remain in the EU.

single market, if Britain has it.

But British Prime Minister Theresa May says she wants to pull out of the single market and most of the customs union arrangements in order to control immigration, then negotiate a new free trade agreement with the EU. “One of the possibilities as we explore the future is that we might have an associatestyle status with the EU, simply because that is how the EU treats other microstates like the Vatican City, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Monaco,” said Picardo.

Those tiny nations have “different degrees of participation with the EU”, he explained.

He noted that they are not technically within the Schengen open borders area, but are treated as if they were. Some are also in the

customs union and others not.

In any case, despite the Brexit referendum outcome, staying British remains the red line for the fiercely loyal Gibraltarians.

“Exclusive British sovereignty over Gibraltar is a sine qua non,” Picardo said.

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MONACO-STYLE DEAL? From Gibraltar’s current relationship with the EU, Picardo now wants to retain access to the British market and UK services, freedom of movement across the EU, “frontier fluidity” with Spain, and access to the European

Closer to you

Government to Raise CEPSA Refinery Flaring Incident with EUCommission THE Government of Gibraltar is looking into the events surrounding the unprecedented level of flaring witnessed at the CEPSA refinery as a “matter of urgency”.

Scientists from the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Climate Change along with its expert air quality consultants are currently investigating the impacts of said flaring on Gibraltar. The Government is also in contact with its representatives in Brussels in order to raise the incident with the EU Commission. The Government is aware of the concerns in the community with regards to the potential health impacts of such practices and reassures the public that it is taking decisive action to follow this up at the highest levels. The Environmental Agency has checked Gibraltar’s monitoring station data and no abnormal peaks have been recorded. Following the incident many Gibraltarians took to social media to express their outrage highlighting the health risks the polluted black clouds that covered the bay posed The flaring incident was said to be caused by an “electrical fault” a CEPSA spokesperson

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36 - WEEKEND WORLD

LUXURY YACHT CHARTERS RYA TRAINING CENTRE YACHT MANAGEMENT

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Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

Britain and Gibraltar ‘one EU entity’ BRITAIN and Gibraltar count as one EU state in terms of a key aspect of the single market, a senior EU lawyer said in an opinion that could effect the territory’s life after Brexit.

The lawyer rebuffed a challenge by Gibraltar’s huge electronic gambling industry, the mainstay of its flourishing economy, against new taxes imposed by Britain in 2014.

The industry said Britain was trying to tax what should be part of the free movement of services, one of the so-called “four freedoms” of the EU market along with people, goods and capital.

But the advocate general to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Maciej Szpunar (pictured right), “takes the view that, for the purposes of the freedom to provide services, Gibraltar and the UK are to be treated as one entity,” the court said in a statement.

Therefore the UK has the right to impose the domestic tax, because it is not covered by EU

law which would bar London from introducing a tax impacting on another EU state.

The ECJ is not obliged to follow the advocate general’s rulings when it hands down its final decision but it frequently does.

The gambling case could have wider implications for the Mediterranean outcrop, which has been mulling ways of staying in the crucial single market even as Britain prepares to leave.

The government of Gibraltar said it “notes the opinion” of the advocate general but would not comment until the final judgement of the European Court of Justice.

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THE National Institute of Statistics (INE) has published the full years Hotel Occupancy Survey and it shows that the Province of Cadiz experienced a remarkable growth in tourist over the last twelve months.

The survey showed that hotel establishments within the province of Cadiz registered a record breaking total of 7,377,548 overnight stays an increase of 7.51% compared to that of 2015.

During its peak the province received over 1,266,184 overnight tourists which was during the month of August compared to 155,664 during the month of January.

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 37

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Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

38 - WEEKEND WORLD

VO Cinema Showings Please check with the cinema for any last minute time changes.

SPONSORED BY CITY FM MALAGA

Cines Teatro Goya Avenida Julio Inglesia, Puerto Banus Tel: +34 951 196 666

Cinesur Miramar Avenida De La Encarnacion, Fuengirola Tel: +34 952 198 600 Ballerina 16.30 Hidden Figures 16.25 La La Land 16.00, 18.30 Lion 16.10 Muliple 16.00 King’s Bastion Cinema Line Wall Road Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 72272 16.00 Sing 2D Denial 16.30, 21.30 Hacksaw Ridge 18.30 Split 19.00 Jackie 21.30

n FREETHINKERS MEETING - WORLDWIDE CHAOS & CONFUSION AHEAD? - IS THERE A SOLUTION? Cafe Manila, Paseo Marítimo Rey De España, 77, Los Boliches. 10 February from 18.30 to 20.010 February

They raise funds with a charity Raffle.

Tickets are sold at 1euro, usually in bundles of 5. Consumable prizes are donated by the dancers. Usually between 100 and 200 Euros are raised at each dance.

They have about 80 supporters, from GB, Germany, Austria, Belgium and Spain.

The discussion will be introduced by Alan Jones, who suggested the topic.

Recent events have made the world much more unstable with more potential for conflict.

Where is this leading to and what can we do to resolve possible problems?

Usually about 15-20 attend our meetings, mainly expats from the UK and other European countries, but Spaniards have sometimes attended, and at the last meeting two Iranians. At this meeting the language used will be English, but if anyone is interested in meetings in Spanish, either in Málaga or elsewhere, please let me know.

Dates for this Come Dancing 2017 are: February 11th – Valentine´s Dance March 11th April 8th October 14th – 10th Anniversary November 11th December 9th – Christmas Dance

n COME DANCING 2017 – 10th ANNIVERSARYFOR CUDECA HOSPICE, Restaurante El Trapiche near Vélez- Málaga Come dancing for Cudeca is a group of friends from la Axarquía that have been supporting Cudeca Hospice for 10 years and have raised around 15.000€ up until now, and they will be celebrating their 10th Anniversary.

Supper dances are held from 7 pm at Restaurant El Trapiche near VélezMálaga. Usually, on the first or second Saturday of the month except for the hot summer months and during May when the restaurant is busy with communion celebrations.

They have 50/50 dancing i.e. ballroom, latin, jive, modern sequence, old time, Scottish and party dances on special occasions.

Something for everyone!

For more details contact Joyce or Mike comedancing4cudeca@gmail.com or phone Joyce on 616046713 for reservations.

Cudeca Hospice cares for over 1,300 people each year suffering from cancer or other advanced non-curable illnesses. Cudeca offers their “Special Care” to the patient and support to the family thanks to their professional team of doctors, physicians, psychologists, nurses and qualified volunteers. Since 1992, Cudeca has cared for more than 12,000 patients, coordinating from the Hospice Centre the following care programmes: Home Care Visits, In-Patient Unit, Day Care Centre and many other multi-disciplinary activities. All the support provided is completely free of charge. n PABLO PICASSO. SUSANNA AND THE ELDERS, 1955 , Meseo Picasso, Malaga until 26 March Since the Museo Picasso Málaga first opened its doors, numerous successive loans from Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte have helped to publicize and provide insight into Picasso’s work, complementing the permanent collection as well as various temporary exhibitions.

This show features a selection of the works

by Pablo Picasso that have enriched the museum’s permanent collection over the last six years courtesy of FABA, now exhibited together and independently for the first time.

Created between 1903 and 1972, this group of works virtually spans his entire creative lifetime, once again offering spectators proof of the diversity of Picasso’s themes and his evolution over the course of a long and prolific career.

“Fundamentally, what is an artist?” Picasso asked Kahnweiler in February 1935, and went ahead and answered his own question. “He is a collector who wants to build up a body of work by creating for himself the works that he wants. This is how I always begin and then it turns into something else.” [...] Besides seeing himself as a collector, Picasso saw himself as an autobiographer and his work as his diary. Virtually everything he painted or drew turns out to refer in a greater or lesser degree to himself, his women, his children and his friends. In his early life he constantly portrayed his father and sister and his mostly male friends from Els Quatre Gats. After his marriage in 1918, Picasso would do countless portraits of his wife and son, which he kept back for himself. The same with his children by Marie-Thérèse and Françoise Gilot. These family portraits constitute a mayor part of these new loans.”

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Ballerina 17.45 Hidden Figures

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Broadcasting from Nerja to beyond Calahonda on 106.2FM and from Elviria to Gibraltar via 106.8FM

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

SPONSORED BY CITY FM MALAGA Broadcasting from Nerja to beyond Calahonda on 106.2FM and from Elviria to Gibraltar via 106.8FM

CELEBRATE YOUR LOVE AT THE KEMPINSKI HOTEL BAHÍA ESTEPONA The Kempinski Hotel Bahia in Estepona has lush tropical gardens, heated outdoor and indoor pools, great restaurants and a lovely spa. It is a great place to celebrate Valentine’s Day and spoil the one you love.

For the whole week of the 10th to the 19th of February guests can enjoy a romantic candlelit five-course dinner for two in the cosy Alminar Wine & Steak House, including a glass of champagne and a red rose on arrival. The delicious menu includes a chilled tomato soup, scallop salad, Red Mullet Millefeuille, a Galician beef tenderloin and a special Valentine’s desert of chocolate and passion fruit.

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WEEKEND WORLD - 39

40 - WEEKEND WORLD

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FOCUS ON HOMES

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

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Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

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United Kingdom - Financial Markets

WEEKEND WORLD - 41

Spain’s economy powers ahead again in 2016

Spain’s economy grew 3.2 percent last year, official figures released the end of January show, as the country continues to power ahead following a damaging crisis marked by sky-high unemployment and rising inequalities.

The GDP growth figure, the same as that of 2015, is one of the Most Active Stocks best among European countries.

According to the last available statistics on Eurostat, the eu Name Last Prev.

High Low Chg. % Vol. rozone average stood at 1.7 percent year-on-year in the third t Worldpay Group 274.300 287.700 280.500 272.500 53.86M 10:32:00 quarter. t Vodafone Group PLC 192.15 193.00 192.95 186.50 -0.41% 36.84M Spain’s growth was boosted by low petrol prices, high dot Lloyds Banking 64.89 65.42 65.53 64.55 -0.81% 36.60M mestic demand as unemployment drops, exports and a s Glencore 331.10 326.65 331.45 321.00 +1.36% 18.63M booming tourism sector that beat all records in 2016. t Barclays 221.30 222.10 224.70 220.20 -0.36% 8.27M The eurozone’s fourth largest economy posted 0.7 percent growth in the last quarter of 2016 compared to the previous t BT Group 304.140 305.600 305.550 302.650 -0.47% 7.07M quarter, Spain’s National Statistics Institute said. t Tesco 194.75 195.25 196.05 191.35 -0.23% 6.84M This represents its 13th consecutive quarter of growth since s BP 473.00 472.90 475.95 470.60 +0.02% 5.40M the end of 2013.

This seals the country’s return to form after a devastating crit HSBC Holdings 676.300 676.800 677.100 672.500 -0.07% 4.05M s Taylor Wimpey 170.00 169.70 170.40 168.90 +0.18% 3.69M sis sparked by the bursting of a property bubble in 2008.

But according to official estimates, Spain’s GDP growth is expected to slow in 2017 to around 2.5 percent.

Top Gainers Top Losers Spain also has to tackle its high deficit of 4.6 percent, which it has promised to reduce to 3.1 percent this year, in line with Name Last Chg. Chg. % Name Last Chg. Chg. % EU demands. s Randgold Resources 6,850.00 +235.00 +3.55% t Worldpay Group 274.085 -13.700 -4.76% And while unemployment continues to drop, it still stands s Reckitt Benckiser 7,038.88 +212.00 +3.10% t Capita 491.50 -7.50 -1.50% at 18.6 percent, well above the eurozone average and the s Compass Group t AstraZeneca 1,422.00 +25.00 +1.79% 4,196.00 -51.00 -1.20% second worst performer in the European Union after Greece. s Royal Dutch Shell B 2,261.50 +38.50 +1.73% t London Stock Ex. 3,164.00 -33.00 -1.03% s Anglo American 1,395.50 +24.00 +1.75% t RBS PLC 222.000 -2.200 -0.98%

Figures correct at 02.02.2017

Spain - Financial Markets

Spain’s Bankia profits plunge as low rates bite

Bankia, Spain’s fourth largest bank that was bailed out by the state in 2012, has reported a much steeper drop in net profit for last year than analysts had expected.

In a statement, the bank blamed the 22.7 percent net profit drop to 804 million euros partly on “the negative interest rate environment experienced throughout most of the year” and the sale of a subsidiary in Florida.

The bank said it was also forced to make exceptional proviMost Active Stocks sions of 114 million euros ($122 million) for planned settlements to clients who were sold mortgages deemed to have Name Last Prev.

High Low Chg. % Vol. abusive interest rate floors. t BBVA 6.107 6.188 6.162 6.066 -1.31% 11.45M Bankia is among several banks that sold mortgages which s Santander 5.253 5.206 5.265 5.184 +0.90% 9.55M imposed a limit on how far interest rates could fall, even if t Caixabank 3.399 3.400 3.426 3.345 -0.03% 6.14M real-time rates dropped below that limit.

The European Court of Justice ruled last month that lenders t Banco Popular 0.943 0.945 0.949 0.934 -0.21% 6.00M must reimburse customers who were sold these mortgages, s B. Sabadell 1.419 1.412 1.419 1.399 +0.50% 5.36M s Bankia 0.982 0.977 0.985 0.971 +0.51% 4.05M prompting the Spanish government to give banks three months to reach settlements. s Telefonica 8.911 8.893 8.916 8.824 +0.20% 2.03M Bankia, majority-owned by the state, has suffered all year s Iberdrola 5.821 5.788 5.846 5.764 +0.57% 1.85M from its sale of City National Bank of Florida (CNB) in October s Acerinox 13.310 12.820 13.440 12.805 +3.82% 1.32M 2015 at a loss of 72 million euros.

“The (profit) decline would have been 8.4%” if CNB had still s DIA 5.022 5.018 5.025 4.965 +0.08% 893.67K been contributing its profits to Bankia in 2016, it added.

The net profit result was well below the expectations of anaTop Gainers Top Losers lysts surveyed by Factset, who were banking on an average Name Last Chg. Chg. % Name Last Chg. Chg. % of 855 million euros. s Acerinox 13.340 +0.520 +4.06% t BBVA 6.108 -0.080 -1.29% But the bank still reduced its share of problem loans that are either in default or in arrears to 9.8 percent compared to 10.8 s ArcelorMittal 7.570 +0.235 +3.20% t Merlin Properties SA 10.20 -0.14 -1.35% percent at the end of 2015. s Repsol 13.848 +0.183 +1.34% t IAG 5.659 -0.065 -1.14% It also said its CET1 fully loaded capital ratio -- the benchmark s Gas Natural 17.795 +0.190 +1.08% t Grifols 19.773 -0.102 -0.51% followed by regulators for the amount of funds a bank has s Gamesa 20.172 +0.207 +1.04 t ACS Const.

28.440 -0.135 -0.47% available to absorb losses -- stood at 13.02 percent, better than the 12.26 percent posted at the end of 2015.

As such, despite the drop in net profit, Bankia said its “comEuro exchange rates fortable solvency position allows it to recommend a five percent increase in the dividend payment to shareholders, 8.86 Norwegian Krone 7.44 Danish Krone 1.41 Australian Dollars which will total 317 million euros.”

9.41 Swedish Krona 8.39 Hong Kong Dollar 0.85 British Pounds Reflecting this, shares were up 0.20 percent at midday at 0.99 3.97 UAE Dirham 121.50 Japanese Yen 1.40 Canadian Dollars euros.

1.08 US Dollars 1.48 New Zealand Dollar 7.44 Chinese Yuan

42 - WEEKEND WORLD

UniCredit expects 11.8 bn euro loss for 2016 ITALY’S biggest bank UniCredit has warned it expects to report a loss of 11.8 billion euros for 2016, as the troubled lender scrambles to launch a massive recapitalisation effort.

UniCredit saw its share price nearly halved last year, though it managed to claw back 25 percent of its value over the past three months, particularly after the unveiling of a new strategic plan in December.

The 11.8 billion euro ($12.6 billion) loss includes 12.2 billion euros’ worth of “negative non-recurring items” that were disclosed in December and a further 1.0 billion euros in additional one-off losses, the bank said in a statement.

Without these, the net result for 2016 would have been positive, the bank said. Preliminary results will be published on February 9.

Earlier this month shareholders approved a rights issue aimed at raising 13 billion euros.

New chairman Jean-Pierre Mustier has said it would take place before March 10, but press reports suggest it could be launched as early as next week, with a view to completing it by the end of February.

Mustier, who took over in July, has spearheaded a major strategic review that has so far involved selling off assets to strengthen the bank’s capital base.

UniCredit has said it will shed around 14,000 jobs by the end of 2019 as part of a costcutting drive, estimating this would save 1.1 billion euros.

Italy’s banking sector has suffered a nightmare year, notably for Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS), the world’s oldest bank, which is set to be nationalised after a failed recapitalisation bid in December.

Investor confidence in Italy was shaken by the collapse of Matteo Renzi’s government late last year, although the situation eased late last month after the government approved a 20-billion-euro bailout plan to rescue the country’s struggling banks.

FOCUS ON MONEY MATTERS

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

Deutsche Bank fined nearly $630m over Russia money laundering

T

HE scheme illegally moved $10 billion out of Russia, using so-called mirror trades among the bank’s Moscow, London and New York offices, authorities said. The US Justice Department also is investigating the matter.

The fines were the latest development in the string of legal woes for the German banking giant, coming less than two weeks after the bank finalized a $7.2 billion settlement with the US Justice Department over its role in the 2008 global financial crisis.

The New York authorities said in a statement they were joined by Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority in penalizing the bank after finding pervasive weaknesses in Deutsche Bank’s internal safeguards for money laundering and client risk.

DFS fined the bank $425 million, while FCA’s fine was 163 million pounds, or about $204 million.

New York and British authorities have slapped nearly $630 million in fines on German banking giant Deutsche Bank over alleged money laundering in Russia, New York State’s Department of Financial Services announced.

COMPLIANCE “This Russian mirror-trading scheme occurred while the bank was on clear notice of serious and widespread compliance issues dating back a decade,” DFS Superintendent Maria Vullo said in the statement.

Bank units tasked with legal compliance and preventing money laundering were understaffed and ineffective, the DFS said.

In “mirror” trades, clients would purchase stocks in rubles in Moscow while other clients who were related or even had the same owner would sell the same stock at the same price through the bank’s London branch.

“By converting rubles into dollars through security trades that had no discernible economic purpose, the scheme was a means for bad actors within a financial institution to achieve improper ends while evading compliance with applicable laws,” according to

the legal document detailing the settlement with DFS. In addition to paying the fines, Deutsche Bank also will be required to hire an outside monitor to review its internal compliance measures.

Eurozone growth and inflation surge, adding to pressure on ECB GROWTH in the eurozone accelerated, inflation rose towards the ECB’s key target and unemployment dipped to a seven-year low as the bloc’s economy shrugged off uncertainty over Brexit and US President Donald Trump.

The EU’s Eurostat statistics agency said growth in the eurozone sped up in the fourth quarter of 2016 to 0.5 percent, above the 0.4 percent forecast by analysts surveyed by Factset, a data company.

SOLID The EU’s Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici cautioned that the solid growth data still fell short of a full recovery.

“The recovery is solid for the fifth year running... but it is still too weak to create all the jobs we need,” Moscovici said.

Inflation in the eurozone meanwhile jumped to 1.8 percent in January, a big leap from 1.1 percent a month earlier.

That will put pressure on the European Central Bank to scale back its controversial stimulus measures as it nears

its stated target figure of below but close to 2.0 percent.

Eurostat also said that the eurozone jobless rate fell to its lowest level since May 2009 in December.

Unemployment in the 19-nation eurozone fell to a lowerthan-expected 9.6 percent in the last month of 2016, with big drops in Spain and Portugal.

Eurostat also revised the November rate down to 9.7 percent from the 9.8 percent first given last month.

During the worst of the debt crisis, unemployment in the single currency bloc peaked at 12.1 percent.

The fall in unemployment will also add to a growing list of arguments out of powerful Germany that the European Central Bank should put a stop to a massive stimulus programme as early as possible.

The ECB, led by its chief Mario Draghi (pictured right), is at pains to stress that despite the series of positive economic signals, it may be too soon to pull back on the programme.

Germany, the EU’s biggest economy, has long grumbled about Draghi’s policy, objecting that the stimulus, along with low interest rates, hurt savers.

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 43

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04-04-2016 15:47:25

44 - WEEKEND WORLD

FOCUS ON MONEY MATTERS

Brexit brakes Santander profit SPANISH banking giant Santander has announced its net profit rose 4.0 percent in 2016 to 6.2 billion euros ($6.7 billion), but Brexit had knocked earnings in Britain by nearly 15 percent.

The result exceeded the 6.0 billion euros expected by analysts surveyed by financial data provider Factset.

The bank attributed the gain to strong growth in fee income, which was “partially offset by the weakening of certain currencies against the euro”.

INCREASE IN TAXES Britain had been Santander’s top market for profits, but the 14.7-percent drop in profit to 1.7 billion euros knocked it into second place behind Brazil.

It blamed the drop on the “weakening of the pound against the euro following the outcome of the referendum on EU membership” as well as an increase in taxes.

That meant Britain accounted for 20 percent of the bank’s pre-tax profit, behind recession-wracked Brazil at 21 percent.

Santander’s shares jumped 4.4 percent in morning trading while Madrid’s main index was up 1.65 percent.

Santander is neck and neck with France’s BNP Paribas for the position as the eurozone’s biggest bank by capitalisation.

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

EUROZONE PLEADS URGENT SOLUTION TO GREECE DEBT IMPASSE Eurozone finance ministers have warned that a “window of opportunity” was closing on bridging a split over Greece’s bailout programme, even as they failed to heal a row with the IMF over debt relief.

T

HE International Monetary Fund and the 19-nation single currency area are battling over how much debt relief Greece needs, and over economic targets required of Athens that the IMF says are not realistic.

“The window of opportunity is still open, but will soon shut because there are elections coming,” said French Finance Minister Michel Sapin after unsuccessful talks on Greece with his eurozone counterparts.

In addition by the summer “Greece faces important debt repayments, so we have to find a solution before then,” Sapin said, with bailout cash blocked until a solution is found.

Months of bickering have delayed progress

of Greece’s 86-billion-euro ($92.4 billion) bailout programme agreed in 2015 and officials are increasingly worried that elections this year in the Netherlands, France and Germany could further poison any progress.

The IMF, headed by Christine Lagarde, refuses to lend further to Greece without significant changes to the austerity requirements demanded of the government or further guarantees from Athens.

NOT CORRECT Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem insisted that the IMF remained committed to the Greek bailout programme, but that its demands were indeed strict.

SPAIN ‘BROADLY’ PASSES BUDGET TEST EU Euro Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis

S

The European Commission has announced that Spain’s 2017 budget was “broadly” in line with EU deficit rules but the government should be ready to take more remedial action if needed.

PAIN has exceeded the EU budget deficit limit of 3.0 percent of gross domestic product since the 2008 financial crash and ensuing eurozone debt crisis brought the over-extended economy to its knees.

Since then, successive governments have had to introduce draconian austerity policies to try to stablise the public finances which continue to be under pressure, although the economy has recovered and is currently among the best performing in the European Union.

“Overall, the Commission considers Spain’s draft budgetary plan to be broadly compliant with the provisions of the Stability and Growth Pact,” a statement said.

“It invites the authorities to stand ready to take further measures should fiscal developments indicate a heightened risk of not fulfilling the ... requirements.”

For this year, the Commission initially set the deficit -- the shortfall between government income and spending -- at 3.1 percent of GDP but it said Spain would now miss this target, coming in instead at 3.3 percent.

Similarly for 2018, the deficit would be 2.8 percent of GDP, not 2.2 percent. The 2016 deficit is expected at 4.6 percent.

The Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said it still expected Spain to make the savings sought both this year and in cumulative terms, for 2016 and 2017.

The Commission said it also believed that Spain had made only “limited progress” on strengthening its fiscal and public procurement policy framework and it should do better.

EU Euro Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said Spain “has recorded good economic performance and we invite the Spanish authorities to continue to correct their excessive budget deficit and implement key structural reforms.”

After two indecisive elections, centre-right Premier Mariano Rajoy returned to power late last year and in December presented a budget based on the Commission’s 3.1 and 2.2 percent targets, aiming to bring Spain back into line with EU rules.

The Commission did not explain why Spain would now not be able to meet those targets.

“The IMF has been very clear and consistent on its position. They want the reform package to be credible, they want the fiscal trajectory to be feasible and economically viable and they want the debt to be sustainable,” said Dijsselbloem, who is also the Dutch finance minister.

Powerful Germany, Greece’s biggest creditor, says that Athens is up to the task of meeting the targets without further debt relief and has called on the Greek government to deliver on reforms.

“It’s up to the Greeks to solve the problem,” said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, the Eurogroup’s most influential member.

At heart of the problem is a demand by the eurozone that Greece deliver a primary balance, or surplus on public spending before debt repayments, of 3.5 percent of GDP. The target is very high -- and most countries do not even come close -- but Germany and other eurozone hardliners are insistent that Greece reach it for several years after its current programme concludes in 2018.

The IMF believes that hitting the long-term target will require debt relief and has also demanded extra commitments by Athens in case it falls short.

Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos (pictured above) slammed these new demands as undemocratic, and was backed in the criticism by France.

“It is not correct to ask a country in a programme to legislate, two or three years beforehand, what it will do in 2018,” Tsakalotos said.

Already huge, Greece’s debt hit 311 billion euros in 2016 or around 180 percent of output, according to the latest EU data.

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

T

HE purchase, worth $4.7 billion or 4.4 billion euros, sent Tesco shares soaring and was hailed by analysts as a “crucial” moment for the supermarket giant and the broader retail sector.

Tesco, which has been troubled in recent years by an accounting scandal and fierce domestic competition from German discounters Aldi and Lidl, said that it was seeking to “enhance” its growth prospects.

“Tesco has made significant progress in turning around our UK retail business,” said Chief Executive Dave Lewis.

“This merger with Booker will further enhance Tesco’s growth prospects by creating the UK’s leading food business with combined expertise in retail, wholesale, supply chain and digital.

“Wherever food is prepared and eaten -- in home or out of home -- we will meet this opportunity with the widest choice and best service available.”

Booker is the country’s biggest cash-andcarry operator and sells goods to more than 503,000 customers -- including grocers, pubs and restaurants. It also owns convenience store chains Budgens, Londis and Premier, as well as trade-facing Makro and Booker Wholesale.

Tesco expects annual pretax synergies of at least £200 million within three years of completion. It also aims to achieve £175 million of extra cost savings in areas like distribution and procurement.

The cash-and-shares transaction will hand Booker 16 percent of the new company.

Booker investors will receive 0.861 new Tesco share and 42.6 pence in cash for every share they own.

“Booker is committed to improving choice,

WEEKEND WORLD - 45

FOCUS ON MONEY MATTERS

Britain’s Tesco buys wholesaler Booker for £3.7bn Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco has agreed to buy wholesaler Booker for £3.7 billion in a surprise play to become the nation’s top food business, slash costs and take on German-owned discounters. prices and service for the independent retailers, caterers and small businesses that we are proud to serve,” added Booker Chief Executive Charles Wilson.

“We believe that joining forces with Tesco offers the potential to bring major benefits to end consumers, our customers, suppliers, colleagues and shareholders.”

The deal -- worth 205.3 pence per share -- represents a 12 percent premium on Booker’s closing share price on Thursday. It is expected to complete in late 2017 or early 2018, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

“What we are doing is bringing together two very complementary businesses which have a focus on food and a focus on customers,” Dave Lewis told BBC radio.

In late morning deals, Tesco shares rallied

10.05 percent to 208 pence on London’s flat stock market as investors applauded the move.

STRATEGIC PLAY “Tesco shares soared after it announced plans to merge with Booker Group, a major strategic play for the UK’s largest retailer at a crucial moment for the industry and in its turnaround process,” said ETX Capital analyst Neil Wilson.

“At first glance Tesco’s merger with Booker makes perfect sense. Tie up the end-to-end wholesale/retail business and make savings in the process.”

In recent years, meanwhile, Britain’s “Big Four” supermarkets -- comprising Tesco, WalMart division Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrison -- have lost market share to Aldi and Lidl.

German discount chains boomed as customers tightened their belts during the downturn, and remain popular despite the economy’s steady recovery.

“Tesco is also taking on the discounters like Aldi and Lidl,” added Wilson.

“Like the rest of the ‘Big Four’ supermarkets, Tesco has been squeezed by discounters and is fighting back.

“We have already seen discounter growth and market share flattening off and this could continue.”

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Lights out as electricity’s bills rise 26% this January ELECTRICITY bills will rise 26% or €14 euros during the month of January - compared to the same month last year for an average consumer receiving the regulated tariff or voluntary price for small consumers (pvpc).

According to the National Commission Markets and Competition (CNMC), the electric bill for a home “type” , with contracted power of 4.4 kilowatts (kW) and an annual consumption of 3,000 kilowatt hours (kWh), ie 250 kWh month- the monthly bill will rise to €65.69 compared to €51.97 euros in the same month last year, representing an increase of €13.7 or 26%.

The mammoth rise reflects an increase in the

wholesale cost of electricity triggered by the recent cold snap felt across Europe and has reopened the debate on Spain’s electricity sector and the operation of the wholesale market, where generators and marketers fix the price of energy that is going to be consumed the following day.

Energy Minister Alvaro Nadal has rejected the idea of further debate following the reform of the electricity sector carried out in the previous legislature and has urged users to take advantage of, despite what has happened this January, to continue to use the regulated electricity tariff because, “in the long term is always the cheapest.”

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05/06/2015 10:44

46 - WEEKEND WORLD

FOCUS ON MONEY

legal and accounting solutions

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

UK’s BAE Systems in deal with Turkey to develop new Turkish fighter jets BRITAIN’S BAE Systems has signed a deal with Turkey’s national aerospace firm to develop a new generation of Turkish fighter jets, the British government said in a statement.

Under the deal signed in Ankara during a visit by British Prime Minister Theresa May, BAE Systems and state-owned Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) will establish a partnership for the development of the TF-X fighter jet.

Commenting on the agreement, May said it indicated that “Britain is a great, global, trading nation and that we are open for business”, after the Brexit vote saw the country seeking new partners for trade.

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“It marks the start of a new and deeper trading relationship with Turkey and will potentially secure British and Turkish jobs and prosperity for decades to come,” May added.

The deal is a so-called Heads of Agreement which is non-binding and will only be obligatory once formal contracts are signed.

The initial phase is worth over 100 million pounds (117m euros), Downing Street said.

But the agreement can pave the way for further deals potentially worth billions of pounds over a 20-year lifespan, May’s spokeswoman told reporters.

Currently the Turkish air force flies F-16s, some of which were used to bomb parliament by rogue elements in the military during the attempted overthrow of Erdogan last year.

Ankara has long mooted the plan to build its own homegrown fighter jets.

After a controversial visit to the United States meeting President Donald Trump, the spokeswoman stressed that it was in the UK’s national interest to engage with Turkey on trade and defence despite criticism at home and abroad of May’s cosying up to Erdogan.

“Our defence and security cooperation is justified and important because Turkey is an important ally in NATO,” the spokeswoman added.

BAE Systems chief executive Ian King said the agreement confirmed the continued work on the aircraft’s design and development in an “exciting next step in relations between both Turkey and the UK with the cooperation between BAE Systems and TAI”.

The Turkish army is heavily involved in multiple military operations and frequently launches air strikes on Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey, and more recently the Islamic State extremist group in northern Syria.

Spanish bank BBVA says profits rise on cost-cutting

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SPAIN’S second-biggest bank BBVA has announced that solid revenues and a costcutting drive helped lift profits by more than 30 percent last year.

Hit by a severe crisis several years ago, Spain’s banking sectors has recovered but at a cost as thousands are laid off and it struggles to get rid of toxic assets.

BBVA said net profit jumped by 31.5 percent to 3.47 billion euros ($4.0 billion) last year, beating analysts’ expectations.

“Solid performance of recurring revenues, moderation in operating expenses, and a drop in impairment losses on financial assets are the key drivers of this growth,” the bank said in a statement.

BBVA said that the number of customers using its online banking services rose by 20 percent to 18.4 million.

At the same time, BBVA cut the number of high street branches by more than five percent with the number of employees falling by two percent.

In the fourth quarter alone, however, net profit shrank by nearly a third to 678 million euros, as the bank set aside 404 million euros in provisions to cover reimbursements in socalled mortgage “floor clauses.”

BBVA said it was also hit by exchange rate developments last year and that net interest income, which rose by 3.9 percent, would have expanded by as much as 14.9 percent without those effects.

Net interest income slightly beat expectations to come in at 17 billion euros.

Gross income grew by 4.1 percent to 24.6 billion euros.

BBVA said it had managed to reduce the ratio of non-performaing or risky loans to 4.9 percent from 5.4 percent.

Since the crisis, Spanish banks have sought to bolster their liquidity and capital to face any potential problems down the road.

As such, in the last resistance tests done by European authorities, Spain’s large banks fared well.

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 47

Selling buSineSSeS for MAXIMUM value Since 1987

If you are looking to sell your SME business please contact our Gibraltar office BCMS GIBRALTAR, Montarik House, Bedlam Court, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 61061 l +350 540 17096 l info@bcms.gi

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Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

48 - WEEKEND WORLD

W TEASERS...

SUDOKU Sudoku is one of the most popular puzzle games of all time. The goal of Sudoku is to fill a 9×9 grid with numbers so that each row, column and 3×3 section contain all of the digits between 1 and 9. As a logic puzzle, Sudoku is also an excellent brain game. If you play Sudoku regularly, you will soon start to see improvements in your concentration and overall brain power.

WORD SEARCH ACROSS 1 Go by 5 People who exploit others 10 Punch 14 Regulation 15 Dutch flower 16 __ off; left suddenly 17 Common metal 18 Navajo or Crow 19 Seaweed 20 Afternoon show 22 Chatterbox 24 “__ Father, Who art in...”

25 Ethical; honest 26 Contempt 29 Is able to 30 Goes first 34 Scottish caps 35 Barbarian 36 Try to relieve the doubts of another 37 Geisha sash 38 __ shorts; summer pants

40 TV’s Rather 41 Temperature, pulse, etc.

43 Conjunction 44 Swine 45 Follow as a result of 46 Altar vow 47 T he ones over there 48 Actor Willem 50 Tiny vegetable 51 _ _ one’s duty; was derelict 54 Defamation of character 58 Story 59 Leg bone 61 Albacore, e.g.

62 Friendly nation 63 Bumbling 64 Likelihood 65 Supervisor 66 Thickheaded 67 Net fabric

Solution to puzzle from issue 27

DOWN 1 Stiffly proper 2 Invisible emanation 3 Job opening 4 Over-65 crowd 5 Complete; total 6 Positive 7 Samuel’s teacher 8 Blue __; first prize 9 Lance 10 Horses’ homes 11 Lounge around 12 Egg on 13 Equipment 21 Convent lady 23 Wood for rafts 25 Not natural; manufactured 26 Range 27 Home of logs 28 Leaves out 29 Mongrel 31 Sound portion of a broadcast

Find and circle all of the words that are hidden in the grid.

The remaining 26 letters spell a secret message.

32 Hauls behind 33 Good judgment 35 “For __ a jolly good fellow...”

36 Tally up 38 Dreary; grim 39 __, dos, tres...

42 Hepburn and Meadows 44 Ghost 46 Medicine shelf classic 47 Earl Grey __ 49 Stinky 50 Piece of china 51 Puncture 52 Ring of light 53 Misfortunes 54 Drinks slowly 55 City fellow on a ranch 56 Concludes 57 Too hasty 60 Stein or Stiller

Solution to puzzle from issue 27

The Mystery Christmas Carol is: DECK THE HALLS

BARK BATH BONE BOWLS CANINE CHASE CHEW TOY COLLAR

COMPANION FAITHFUL FEED FETCH FOOD FRIEND GROOM GROWL

GUARD HAIR HARNESS HOUSE ID TAG JUMP KENNEL LEASH

LICK LOYAL OWNER PANT PAWS PLAY PUPPY ROLL OVER

SHAMPOO SLEEP TRAIN TREATS TRIM NAILS WAG TAIL WALK WATER

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 49

W EIRD W ORLD

USA

An elderly Texas woman and her son went for a once-in-a-lifetime ride when a tornado picked up the bathtub they were hiding in, spun it in the air, and put them back down in the woods without injury.

75-year-old Charlesetta Williams was watch-

ing television with her son on Saturday when the twister approached her home.

They raced to the bathroom and hid under a blanket in the tub for shelter, a choice that proved to be wise.

“The tornado continued in a northeast di-

CODEWORD Codewords are like crossword puzzles - but have no clues! Instead, every letter of the alphabet has been replaced by a number, the same number representing the same letter throughout the puzzle. All you have to do is decide which letter is represented by which number! To start you off, we reveal the codes for two or three letters.

10

18

8

16

26

11 16

17 15 5 10 7 15 4 20

18 9 9 11 18 7

12

6

15

11

16

M

17 7 25 10 2 1 13 20 12 3

13 12

rection, crossing CR 3300 at which point it removed the roof of a home,” wrote the National Weather Service. “A woman inside took shelter in a bathtub and the tornado lifted the tub out of the home and deposited it in the woods with the woman still in the tub but the woman was not injured.”

Williams says she feels blessed to be alive.

“I wasn’t looking. I was under that quilt,” Williams told KSLA. “I’m a tell you I don’t wanna ride through another one.”www.sunnyskyz. com

USA

A pair of fraternal twins are gaining attention around the globe for their unique distinction.

Kalani was born with light skin and blue eyes, while her sister Jarani, who’s five minutes younger, has brown skin and brown eyes.

20 5 18 16

25 2 9 18 23 23

20 9 10 11 7 17 1 18 7 3 19 2 15 14 6 11 15 25 9

4 20 2 25 12 7 20

19 21 7 11 1 1 20 23

16 18 13 12 18 21

18 6

7

25

15

O

10 25 17 1

18

16 15 9 18 23 12 2 25 19 1

1112 15 18 1 3 8 15

21 25 24 11 20 1

25 9 20 5 21 20 23 1

N

1 19 15 12 1 20 8

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1 14

2 15

O

3 16

M

4 17

5 18

6 19

WORD BLOCK From the 9-letter grid, find words of 4 letters or more.

Words must contain the middle letter, and there is at least one nine-letter word.

Target: 43 words

7 20

Solution to Wordblock puzzzle from issue 27

16 11 20 22 22 25 9

5 24 17 21 20

8 21

9

N

22

10 23

11 24

12

13

25

26

year.

The Games organising committee hopes to gather as much as eight tonnes of metal — 40 kg of gold, 2,920 kg of silver and 2,994 kg of bronze — from outdated mobile phones and small household appliances donated by people across Japan.

This effort, the first of its kind for the Olympics, will ultimately result in two tonnes of metal, which is enough to make all 5,000 Olympic and Paralympic medals.

“There’s quite a limit on the resources of our earth, and so recycling these things and giving them a new use will make us all think about the environment,” Tokyo 2020 Sports Director Koji Murofushi said.

“Having a project that allows all the people of Japan to take part in creating the medals that will be hung around athletes’ necks is really good.”

From April, collection boxes will be installed in local offices and the stores of telecoms firm NTT DoCoMo Inc., which will partner with environmental firm Japan Environmental Sanitation Centre for the project.

Organiser said the collection would end when the required eight tonnes were gathered, although further details still needed to be worked out. ww.abc.net.au

“They’re my miracle girls,” mom Whitney Meyer said. “It has nothing to do with their color. I lost a child and a year-and-a-half later, I gained twins. I just wanted to share it and it’s been crazy ever since.”

The girls’ parents are Whitney Meyer and Tomas Dean, from Quincy, Illinois. Meyer is white and Dean is black, which explains part of this phenomenon. www.sunnyskyz.com

JAPAN

varioloid - ovoidal - ravioli - aioli - aroid avoid - dolor - drool - ovoid - radio - valor viola - voila - volar - arvo - door - idol - lido load - lord - odor - olid - olio - oral - ordo oval - road - roil - rood - viol - void Solution to CODEWORD from issue 27

18 26 15 4 26 7 16 7

A O F Y V A A

25 7 17 4 4 6 16 20 5 16 7 25 16 1

T R U F F L E S V E R T E X

16 19 2 11 7 13 16

Organisers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics say the medals will be forged from recycled metal from old mobile phones and appliances donated by the general public to give them a sense of direct involvement in the Games.

The move is also part of an effort to promote sustainability and save costs, after the budget for the event ballooned to more than $35 billion at one point, although organisers reduced that sum to about $21 billion late last

E I B J R H E

7 16 24 19 1

26 22 26 7 25 13 16 19 10

R E M I X A P A R T H E I D

24 26 6 2 13

M A

L B H

26 2 15 20 24 26 6

R

I

F

T

T

O

P

0

20 19 7 12 9 9 12

A B Y S M A L S I R O C C O

7 2 19 12 6 5

R B I O L V

8 7 16 24 6 19 21

11 26 18 2 12 21 16

K R E M L I N J A W B O N E

8 17 17 18 7

K U U W R

24 12 5 16 24 16 21 25 20

22 26 21 23 20

M O V E M E N T S P A N G S

16 26 26 20 25 19 22

E A A S T I P

14 12 24 2 19 16

24 19 20 3 17 12 25 16

Z O M B I E M I S Q U O T E

14 22 10 4 17 5 21

Z P D F U V N

12 2 20 16 20 20

25 15 22 16 9 26 20 25

O B S E S S T Y P E C A S T

Solution to SUDOKU puzzles from issue 27

N

9 12 24 2 26 25

W A Y F A R E R C O M B A T

26 12 4 15 5 26 26

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50 - WEEKEND WORLD

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 51

W CLASSIFIEDS...

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Man & van removal services. Fast & reliable Call Rich: 639 229 604 / Joanne 649 9777 23

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HOUSE & HOME CARPET WORLD For all of your carpet, wood, laminate and vinyl flooring needs.

Stockists of Stainfree family friendly carpets, protection against all food and drink stains with a free lifetime guarantee. Call 952 789 277 www.estaponacarpetworld.com BANG & OLUFSEN MARBELLA Home automation and entertainment systems.

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REMOVALS

LARGE VAN 2 MEN 35€ PER HOUR LOCAL ALSO GIBRALTAR, UK, FRANCE, PORTUGAL. PLEASE CALL STEVE FOR INFORMATION ON 651 567 447

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

52 - WEEKEND WORLD

PLEASE MENTION THE WEEKEND WORLD WHEN CONTACTING BUSINESSES

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Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017 d n

o ey m b to fro M a j r and .8F e N M 06 1 F m ro 06.2 via f r g 1 tin on alta s ca nda ibr d oa aho to G r B al ia C vir El

WEEKEND WORLD - 53

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

54 - WEEKEND WORLD

Barclays Premier League Table

P Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Chelsea 22 18 1 3 47 15 32 55 2 Arsenal 22 14 5 3 50 23 27 47 3 Tottenham 22 13 7 2 45 16 29 46 4 Liverpool 22 13 6 3 51 27 24 45 5 Man City 22 13 4 5 43 28 15 6 Man United 22 11 8 3 33 21 12 41 7 Everton 22 10 6 6 33 23 10 36 8 West Brom 22 9 5 8 30 28 2 32 9 Stoke City 22 7 7 8 28 34 -6 28 10 West Ham 22 8 4 10 29 36 -7 28 11 Southampton 22 7 6 9 22 26 -4 27 12 Bournemouth 22 7 5 10 32 39 -7 26 13 Burnley 22 8 2 12 24 33 -9 26 14 Watford 22 6 6 10 25 38 -13 24 15 Leicester City 22 5 6 11 24 37 -13 21 16 Middlesbr. 22 4 8 10 18 25 -7 20 17 Swansea City 22 5 3 14 26 51 -25 18 18 Crystal Palace 22 4 4 14 30 41 -11 16 19 Hull City 22 4 4 14 20 47 -27 16 20 Sunderland 22 4 3 15 20 42 -22 15

Sky Bet Championship Table P Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Brighton 27 18 6 3 43 18 25 60 2 Newcastle 27 19 1 7 54 21 33 58 3 Reading 28 16 4 8 41 37 4 52 4 Leeds United 28 16 3 9 39 27 12 51 5 Huddersfield 27 15 4 8 32 30 2 49 6 Shef Wed 27 13 6 8 31 26 5 45 7 Barnsley 28 13 5 10 47 41 6 44 8 Norwich City 28 13 4 11 47 40 7 43 9 Derby County 27 12 7 8 27 21 6 43 10 Preston 28 11 8 9 38 35 3 41 11 Fulham 27 10 10 7 44 32 12 40 12 Birmingham 28 9 10 9 31 38 -7 37 13 Aston Villa 27 8 12 7 28 27 1 36 14 Ipswich Town 28 9 8 11 29 34 -5 35 15 Brentford 27 9 6 12 34 35 -1 33 16 Cardiff City 28 9 6 13 32 43 -11 33 17 QPR 28 9 6 13 27 39 -12 33 18 Wolves 27 8 8 11 34 37 -3 32 19 Notts Forest 28 8 6 14 38 47 -9 30 20 Burton Albion 28 7 7 14 28 38 -10 28 21 Bristol City 27 8 3 16 35 39 -4 27 22 Wigan Athletic 27 6 7 14 24 32 -8 25 23 Blackburn 27 6 7 14 32 44 -12 25 24 Rotherham 28 4 4 20 27 61 -34 16

All results as at 31.01.2017

Spanish BBVA La Liga Table P Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Real Madrid 19 14 4 1 51 17 34 46 2 Barcelona 20 12 6 2 52 18 34 42 3 Sevilla 20 13 3 4 43 28 15 42 4 Atl Madrid 20 10 6 4 34 16 18 36 5 Real Sociedad 20 11 2 7 31 28 3 35 6 Villarreal 20 9 7 4 28 14 14 34 7 Athletic Bilbao 20 9 5 6 26 22 4 32 8 Celta Vigo 20 9 3 8 31 33 -2 30 9 Espanyol 20 7 8 5 28 27 1 29 10 Eibar 20 8 5 7 28 29 -1 29 11 Las Palmas 20 7 7 6 31 31 0 28 12 Alavés 20 5 9 6 17 20 -3 24 13 Real Betis 20 6 5 9 21 31 -10 23 14 Malaga 20 5 7 8 28 34 -6 22 15 Valencia 19 5 4 10 29 36 -7 19 16 Dep Coruña 20 4 7 9 25 32 -7 19 17 Leganés 20 4 6 10 15 33 -18 18 18 Sporting Gijón 20 3 4 13 20 39 -19 13 19 Osasuna 20 1 7 12 21 43 -22 10 20 Granada 20 1 7 12 16 44 -28 10

W

EEKEND focuses on SPORT WORLD

Premier League clubs make first transfer profit T

HE 20 clubs spent £215 million ($270 million/250 million euros) on new players during the market from January 1 until January 31st, according to the estimate by the Deloitte consultancy. This is the second highest amount for this window since 2011.

It said total gross spending by Premier League clubs for the 2016/17 season is now almost at £1.4 billion, beating the previous record of £1 billion set last season.

Deloitte said however that this time, the Premier League clubs had recorded net transfer receipts of £40m ($50 million/46 million euros).

“The sales of Oscar, Dmitri Payet, Odion Ighalo and Memphis Depay, as well as around £20m worth of sales to Championship clubs, have helped Premier League clubs record net receipts for the first time in a transfer window,” said

English Premier League clubs made millions in profit from the January transfer window, the first time they have come out of the football horse-trading in the black, according to a study released.

Dan Jones from Deloitte’s sports business department.

“As was the case last year, it is clubs in the bottom half of the table who have driven expenditure this January, investing in their squads in an attempt to secure survival,” added Jones.

“This is no surprise given clubs’ reliance on the revenues generated from the Premier League’s broadcast deals.”

The clubs currently in the bottom six -- Hull City, Sunderland, Crystal Palace,

Swansea, reigning champions Leicester City and Middlesbrough -- together spent £110 million, 50 percent of total spending.

In the last transfer market in July and August 2016, the top six accounted for almost 60 percent of spending.

Jones said Premier League spending for the 2016/17 season of almost £1.4 billion was up 32 percent on 2015/16 and was “far in excess of any other league in world football.”

So who are the Premier League ins and outs: ARSENAL IN: Cohen Bramall OUT: Gedion Zelalem

Jon Toral

Dan Crowley

Kaylen Hinds

Stephy Mavididi

Krystian Bielik

Marc Bola

Matt Macey

Hednesford Town VVV Venlo Rangers Go Ahead Eagles Stevenage Charlton Birmingham Notts County Luton

(undisclosed) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan)

BOURNEMOUTH IN: Aaron Ramsdale OUT: Glenn Murray

Lewis Grabban

Marc Wilson

Harry Cornick

Emerson Hyndman

Jordan Lee

Brandon Goodship

Callum Buckley

Joe Quigley

Jordan Green

Sheffield United Brighton Reading West Brom Gillingham Rangers Torquay Yeovil Aldershot West Brom Leyton Orient

(undisclosed) (£3m) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (free) (loan) (loan) (loan)

BURNLEY IN: Joey Barton

Ashley Westwood

Robbie Brady OUT: Lukas Jutkiewicz

released Rangers Aston Villa Norwich Birmingham

(free) (£5m) (£13m) (£1m)

Danny Lafferty Chris Long Aiden O’Neill Michael Kightly

Sheffield Utd Bolton Oldham Burton

(undisclosed) (loan) (loan) (loan)

CHELSEA OUT: Fikayo Tomori

Jamal Blackman

Jay Dasilva

Jordan Houghton

Oscar

Marco van Ginkel

Izzy Brown

Jon Obi Mikel

Fankaty Dabo

Islam Feruz

Charlie Colkett

Patrick Bamford

Brighton Wycombe Charlton Doncaster Shanghai SIPG PSV Huddersfield Tianjin TEDA Swindon Town Swindon Town Swindon Town Middlesbrough

(loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (£52m) (loan) (loan) (undisclosed) (loan) (loan) (loan) (undisclosed)

CRYSTAL PALACE IN: Jeff Schlupp

Patrick van Aanholt

Luka Milivojevic

Mamadou Sakho OUT: Jordon Mutch

Hiram Boateng

Freddie Ladapo

Keshi Anderson

Leicester Sunderland Olympiakos Liverpool Reading Northampton Shrewsbury Northampton

(£12.5m) (£14m) (undisclosed) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan)

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 55

SPORT NEWS

(£24m) (£7.5m) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (undisclosed) (loan) (undisclosed) (undisclosed) (loan) (loan) (loan)

HULL IN: Markus Henriksen

Oumar Niasse

Evandro Goebel

Omar Elabdellaoui

Lazar Markovic

Andrea Ranocchia

Alfred N’Diaye

Kamil Grosicki OUT: Harvey Rogers

Jonathan Edwards

Allan McGregor

Jake Livermore

Robert Snodgrass

James Weir

Alex Bruce

AZ Alkmaar Everton Porto Olympiakos Liverpool Inter Milan Villarreal Rennes Accrington Accrington Cardiff City West Brom West Ham Wigan Wigan

(£4.5m) (loan) (undisclosed) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (£7m) (loan) (loan) (loan) (£10m) (£10.2m) (loan) (loan)

LEICESTER CITY IN: Wilfred Ndidi

Genk

OUT:

Molla Wague Jeff Schlupp Harvey Barnes Matty James Luis Hernandez Callum Elder

(£15m subject to completion) Udinese (loan) Crystal Palace (£12.5m) MK Dons (loan) Barnsley (loan) Malaga (£1.7m) Barnsley (loan)

LIVERPOOL OUT: Joe Maguire

Tiago Ilori

Lazar Markovic

Mamadou Sakho

Fleetwood Reading Hull City Liverpool

(undisclosed) (£3.75m) (loan) (loan)

MANCHESTER CITY OUT: Pablo Maffeo

Manu Garcia

George Glendon

Ian Lawlor

David Faupala

Jack Byrne

Angelino

Girona NAC Breda Fleetwood Doncaster Chesterfield Wigan Real Mallorca

(loan) (loan) (undisclosed) (undisclosed) (loan) (loan) (loan)

MANCHESTER UNITED OUT: Morgan SchneiderlinEverton

Memphis Depay Lyon

Sam Johnstone Aston Villa

Joe Riley Sheffield United

Sean Goss QPR

(£24m) (£21.7m) (loan) (loan) (£500k)

MIDDLESBROUGH IN: Rudy Gestede

Patrick Bamford

Adlene Guedioura OUT: Jordan Rhodes

Julien de Sart

Tomas Meijas

Emilio Nsue

Bryn Morris

Jonny Byrne

Carlos de Pena

Callum Cooke

Mark Kitching

Arnel Jakupovic

Aston Villa Chelsea Watford Sheffield Wednesday Derby Rayo Vallecano Birmingham Shrewsbury Bristol Rovers Real Oviedo Crewe Rochdale Empoli

(undisclosed) (£10m) (£4m) (£10m) (loan) (loan) (undisclosed) (loan) (undisclosed) (loan) (loan) (undisclosed) (loan)

SOUTHAMPTON IN: Manolo Gabbiadini

Mouez Hassen OUT: Jose Fonte

Jason McCarthy

Dominic Gape

Napoli Nice West Ham Walsall Wycombe

(£17.1m) (loan) (£8m) (loan) (free)

STOKE CITY IN: Saido Berahino

Lee Grant OUT: Jakob Haugaard

Ryan Sweeney Bojan

George Waring

West Brom Derby Wigan Bristol Rovers Mainz Carlisle

(£15m) (£1.3m) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan)

SUNDERLAND IN: Joleon Lescott

Darron Gibson

Bryan Oviedo OUT: Patrick van Aanholt

Tom Beadling

Andrew Nelson

free agent Everton Everton Crystal Palace Bury Hartlepool

(undisclosed) (undisclosed) (£14m) (loan) (loan)

SWANSEA CITY IN: Luciano Narsingh

Martin Olsson

Tom Carroll

Jordan Ayew OUT: Marvin Emnes

Mo Barrow

Tom Holland

Neil Taylor

Owain Jones

Ryan Hedges

PSV Eindhoven Norwich Tottenham Aston Villa Blackburn Leeds AFC Fylde Aston Villa Yeovil Barnsley

(£4m) (£4.5m) (£4.5m) (undisclosed) (loan) (loan) (loan) (undisclosed) (loan) (undisclosed)

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR Out: Ryan Loft Stevenage

Tom Carroll Shayon Harrison

Swansea Yeovil

WATFORD IN: Tom Cleverley Everton

M’Baye Niang AC Milan

Mauro Zarate Fiorentina OUT: Adalberto Penaranda Malaga

Juan Carlos Paredes Olympiakos

Jerome Sinclair Birmingham

Odion Ighalo Changchun Yatai

Adlene Guedioura Watford

Michael Folivi Coventry

(£4.5m) (loan) (loan) (loan) (£2.4m) (loan) (loan) (loan) (£20m) (£4m) (loan)

WEST BROMWICH ALBION IN: Jake Livermore Hull (£10m)

Marc Wilson Bournemouth (loan) OUT Saido Berahino Stoke (£15m)

Callum McManaman Sheffield Wednesday (loan)

Shaun Donnellan Dagenham & Redbridge (loan)

Craig Gardner Birmingham (loan)

Tyler Roberts Shrewsbury (loan)

Andre Wright Yeovil (loan)

Talvon Campbell Notts County (loan) WEST HAM UNITED IN: Robert Snodgrass

Jose Fonte

Nathan Holland OUT: Dimitri Payet

Reece Oxford

Martin Samuelsen

Jaanai Gordon

Josh Cullen

Lewis Page

Alex Pike

Marcus Browne

Hull City Southampton Everton Marseille Reading Peterborough Newport Bradford Charlton Cheltenham Wigan

(£10.2m) (£8m) (undisclosed) (£25m) (loan) (loan) (loan) (loan) (undisclosed) (loan) (loan)

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Gethin Jones Barnsley

Anthony Evans Morecambe

Nathan Holland West Ham

Gerard Deulofeu AC Milan

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Bryan Oviedo Sunderland

Conor McAleny Oxford

Steven Kinsella Dundalk

Calum Dyson Grimsby

Issue 28 February 02 - 15, 2017

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F1: Manor team goes out of business

A

DMINISTRATORS appointed this month announced they had failed to find any new investors and as a result had no option but to call time on the process.

The 212 strong workforce have all been made redundant. Manors departure leaves just 10 teams to line-up for the Australian Grand Prix -- the opening race of the season -- on March 26.

“Since their appointment earlier this month the joint administrators at FRP Advisory have continued to work, with the support of senior management, to try and secure new investment into the business resulting in negotiations with a number of interested parties.

The Manor Formula One team’s troubled history came to an end last week as its operating company Just Racing Services Limited (JRSL) ceased trading.

SALARIES During that period funding was secured to ensure payment of all staff salaries until 31 January 2017. Regrettably since the appointment of administrators no investment has been secured in the limited time available to continue the Group in its present form.

With no sustainable operational or financial d on ey m b o to fr rja nd 8FM Ne M a 06.

1 m F ro 6.2 ia g f 10 tar v n i n l t as a o ibra dc nd oa aho to G r B al ia C vir El

structure in place to maintain the Group as a going concern, the joint administrators have now ceased trading JRSL. Note that

Manor Grand Prix Racing Ltd, the sister company of JRSL, which has the rights for the team’s participation in F1, is not in administration.” Geoff Rowley, joint administrator.

“It is deeply regrettable that the team has had to cease trading and close its doors,” he said.

“Manor is a great name in British Motorsport and the team has achieved a great deal over the past two years, invigorated under new ownership.”

Manor finished 11th and last in last season’s constructors’ championship and had been in

talks with new investors.

Manor previously went into administration between the 2014 and 2015 seasons after collapsing with debts of £35 million ($43.3 million, 40.9 million euros).

Then known as Marussia, the team was bought by Stephen Fitzpatrick, owner of energy company Ovo, and rebranded as Manor just in time for the 2015 season.

REIGN The end of Bernie Ecclestone’s four-decade reign of Formula One when US-based Liberty Media completed on Monday its takeover of motorsport’s most prestigious brand in a deal valued at about $8 billion has raised hopes that fresh hands can revive the sport cut costs and encourage new investors to launch teams.

“You have to make sure it is a sustainable business because there is a team about to disappear and there are other teams close to disappearing,” Martin Whitmarsh, former Chief Executive of McLaren, said.

“That spooks the herd and doesn’t encourage investors to come in.”

SANTA CRUZ TURNS TABLES ON FRAMPTON TO CLAIM WBA BELT LEO Santa Cruz reclaimed the World Boxing Association featherweight world title, handing Carl Frampton the first defeat of his career and avenging his 2016 loss to the Northern Ireland star.

In an explosive rematch that lived up to their bruising encounter last July, it was Santa Cruz who this time emerged with a majority decision, with two judges scoring it 115-113 for the US-based Mexican while the third scored it a draw at 114-114.

“I wanted revenge,” said Santa Cruz, whose loss to Frampton last year was his first defeat. “I did what I had to do. I knew it was going to be another tough fight and like I said, let’s make it a third fight.”

Santa Cruz improved to 33-1 with one drawn while Frampton fell to 23-1.

Although Frampton landed plenty of telling blows in a fight filled with frenetic exchanges, he was repeatedly pushed out of position by Santa Cruz’s effective jab.

After a strong 11th round, Santa Cruz withstood a desperate attack from Frampton in the final round.

“He was very clever. He used his reach,” Frampton said. “I think he deserved it.

I’m being honest. I think he deserved it, but it was a very good fight. No excuses.”

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End of the Ecclestone era gives F1 hope of a turbo-charged future

BY DR PAOLO AVERSA

Bernie Ecclestone’s removal from the head of Formula 1 is almost hard to believe. Despite a rollercoaster life, a costly bribery trial, and a triple coronary bypass, the 86-year-old F1 supremo has never showed any sign of relinquishing his dominion over the sport.

I

T is, after all, an industry that he created and transformed from a grassroots racing hobby for a few adrenaline junky mechanics, into the most-watched sport series in the world.

So, as US giant Liberty Media takes over F1’s parent company Delta Topco, the decision not to keep Ecclestone as CEO marks a major change to F1’s business model.

FROM THE GROUND UP Ecclestone has often made the news for the wrong reasons (questionable commercial strategies) , allegations of bribery, a colourful array of politically incorrect statements which included praising Adolf Hitler for “getting things done”).

But loved or loathed, nobody denies his critical role in building Formula 1 over the last 40 years.

Having started his career as a secondhand car and motorcycle salesman, Ecclestone began racing as an amateur driver in 1949. After some stints managing drivers, he became the owner of a small Australian team, Brabham, in 1972.

This was instrumental in transforming his own fortunes and that of the sport.

Back in the 70s, the business of F1 was made up of an unstructured, unfair and inefficient system of one-to-one deals.

Each team would independently negotiate with the track owners a fee for their participation in races. This granted higher bargaining power (and richer deals) to prestigious teams, which were considered a “must-have” to attract spectators.

Smaller ones got next to nothing. At the same time, the track owners would sell broadcasting rights to TV and radio channels on a race-by-race basis.

Ecclestone was the first to realise this system was unsustainable and advanced a solution. In 1978 he become the president of the Formula One Constructors’ Association, the F1 teams body, and offered to represent all teams’ interests

in a centralized system of negotiation. This granted returns to all parties (including the smaller teams) and higher profits across the board from the direct negotiation with broadcasters.

This central arrangement transformed F1 into the extremely profitable industry it is today. Audiences – and sponsorship – skyrocketed around the globe.

Ecclestone’s ability to make money seems to be second to none. He brought races to locations such as Bahrain, Russia and Azerbaijan where national governments were willing to pay multi-million fees. At the same time all TV rights were progressively sold to pay-tv channels through costly multi-year contracts. Revenue for the ten teams competing in F1 in 2015 was US$1.5 billion.

HIT SOME ROAD BUMPS The sport has, in recent years, however, witnessed a dramatic plunge in its audience and overall traction. Excessive regulation has limited the development of car technology, prohibiting the appeal of races. A small number of teams dominate and the result of races is often predictable. Ticket prices are so high that only the very wealthy (or diehard fans) can afford to watch the sport live.

Ecclestone’s tight grip on the sport is a big reason it hasn’t evolved. Despite dwindling audiences, he preferred to perpetuate the idea of F1 as a glittering world of golden gates and VIP passes, where ordinary fans are kept at a distance from their heroes and the show is conceived to target older, deeppocketed, nostalgic motor-heads.

Necessary reinvestment was reduced to the very minimum. For example any sort of significant engagement with the internet and social media were dismissed and were instead promptly and successfully adopted by Formula E, F1’s sister series.

The complacence of teams in this was bought by establishing a governance system where top teams (namely Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull) have higher powers. They can basically veto any changes to the sport that

do not work in their interest. This includes proposals like a cost cap for technology, or a more fair redistribution of revenues to help minor teams “stay in the game” – and make the sport more competitive.

It did not take long for Liberty Media to realise that the way Ecclestone set the business up is not geared towards making any radical changes. The decision to appoint a new managing team and dismiss him with a pompous but token title of “chairman emeritus” shows a desire to take the sport in a new direction.

TURBO BOOST So those hopeful of a rejuvenation of the sport have welcomed the news. The sport’s new chairman, Chase Carey, a former 21st Century Fox executive, has said that Formula 1 will be run differently.

Top priorities will be expanding into the US (while maintaining its presence in Europe), and greater effort will be made to engage younger generations. Carey has talked of introducing “21 Super Bowls” to the F1 race calendar. Inspired by the American sport series format (familiar to American football and baseball fans), it will be a more engaging show for fans to follow. It’s a promising recipe.

Crucially, Carey will have a strong new team around him. The experienced Ross Brawn

returns to the sport as managing director, to lead the technical and sporting side of things. As former Mercedes team boss and technical director of Ferrari, overseeing Michael Schumacher’s seven world titles, he is one of the sport’s best. His task will be changing race regulations to bring back exciting races that can be enjoyed by even occasional viewers. To bring in the revenue, he is joined by ESPN veteran Sean Bratches as commercial managing director, focusing on sponsorship and broadcasting deals.

Having been in the hands of Ecclestone for so long, this new trio will have a tough job of implementing the revolution that fans have been longing for. Still, a study I recently conducted with colleagues Simone Santoni, Luiz Mesquita and Alessandro Marino shows that this change to F1’s management bodes well.

Our research found that when top management teams in F1 are made up of members with more diverse background and experiences, they will be more effective and efficient in embracing innovative solutions and making bolder decisions.

If this is the case, Liberty Media’s F1 takeover might not be the sport’s last lap, but perhaps just a useful turbo boost to revamp the industry.

This e article was originally published on The Conversation

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MELBOURNE MASTER FEDERER BACK IN TOP 10 ROGER Federer has climbed back into the ATP top 10 on the strength of his epic 18th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.

The 35-year-old Swiss great defied old rival Rafael Nadal on Sunday in a thrilling five-setter in Melbourne to move up seven spots to 10th in the latest rankings released on Monday.

Nadal, beaten 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, moved up three places to sixth in the list still dominated

Serena takes over as world number one AUSTRALIAN Open winner Serena Williams has replaced Angelique Kerber as world number one in the latest WTA rankings released.

The American moved up one place courtesy of her victory in Melbourne where she got the better of sister Venus 6-4, 6-4 in the final for a record 23rd Grand Slam title.

by early Australian Open victims Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic.

Stan Wawrinka, defeated in the semis last week by Federer, is up one in third.

Germany’s Mischa Zverev, who upset Murray in the fourth round in Melbourne, soared 15 places to 35th, his best ever ranking.

Zverev’s teenaged brother Alexander climbed two rungs to 22nd after making it to the third round where he lost to Nadal.

Mens top 10 ATP rankings as of end of January 2017

PTS 1. Andy Murray (GBR) 11.540 2. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 9.825 3. Stan Wawrinka (SUI) 5.695 (+1) 4. Milos Raonic (CAN) 4.930 (-1) 5. Kei Nishikori (JPN) 4.830 6. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 4.385 (+3) 7. Marin Cilic (CRO) 3.560 8. Dominic Thiem (AUT) 3.505 9. Gaël Monfils (FRA) 3.445 (-3) 10. Roger Federer (SUI) 3.260 (+7)

Women’s Top 10 WTA rankings as of end of January 2017

PTS 1. Serena Williams (USA) 7.780 (+1) 2. Angelique Kerber (GER) 7.115 (-1) 3. Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 5.270 (+2) 4. Simona Halep (ROM) 5.073 5. Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 4.985 (+1) 6. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 4.915 (-3) 7. Garbine Muguruza (ESP) 4.720 8. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) 3.915 (+2) 10. Johanna Konta (GBR) 3.705 (-1)

Team Sky deny secret motor claim T EAM SKY, which has produced four of the past five Tour de France champions, and doping-disgraced Lance Armstrong have denied using secret motors in bicycles, during a CBS television report.

A segment on the show “60 Minutes” examined the possibility of motorized cheating in pro cycling with three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, admitted dope cheat ex-rider Tyler Hamilton and Hungarian designer Istvan Varjas, who makes hidden motors for bikes, saying they believe such cheating exists.

Istvan Varjas, a scientist and former cyclist, outlined mechanical cheating methods in a sport already rocked by infamous doping scandals, notably by disgraced US rider Lance Armstrong.

Varjas designed a motor to fit inside a bike frame in 1998 and an anonymous buyer paid him $2 million for it and a deal not to work on such motors, speak of them or sell them for 10 years.

He said he thinks the motor was used to cheat in

cycling races, but Varjas claims it’s not his fault, saying even if he knew for certain it would be used for cheating, “If the money is big, why not?”

Three-time Tour de France winner LeMond wants greater testing for motors by cycling officials.

“This is curable. This is fixable,” LeMond said. “I don’t trust it until they figure out... how to take the motor out. I won’t trust any victories of the Tour de France.”

Varjas displayed his motorized bicycles in a Budapest bike shop, showing journalists how a secret switch can engage the motor or, in more sophisticated models, it engages as a rider’s heart rate peaks.

One rider was caught with a secret motor last year and Jean Pierre Verdy, former French Anti-Doping Agency testing director, is concerned.

“It has been the last three to four years when I was told about the use of the motors,” he said. “There’s a problem. By 2015, everyone was complaining and I said, ‘Something has got to be done.’”

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SPORT NEWS

‘BRAVE’ MANY CLOUDS DIES AFTER THISTLECRACK UPSET A FTER one of his career-best performances the 10-year-old faltered and fell to the ground, in front of the packed grandstand.

Screens were quickly put up around him but veterinary officers were unable to save trainer Oliver Sherwood’s stable star.

“What can I say, he gave his all and has left us doing what he loved doing,” am emotional Sherwood told the Racing Post.

“He jumped for fun and was so brave, as he has just proved, as he really fought like a lion but he has paid the penalty.”

“So sorry, we were beaten by a better horse on the day, poor old Many Clouds, this is as sad as it can be,” added Colin Tizzard, trainer of Thistlecrack.

Many Clouds, the 2015 Grand National winner, collapsed and died in the shadow of the winning post after upsetting odds-on favourite Thistlecrack in a Gold Cup warm-up at Cheltenham races.

SOMBRE REFLECTION The tragic outcome turned the mood at Cheltenham from one of surprise celebration at Many Cloud’s stirring victory over the ante-post Gold Cup favourite to one of sombre reflection at the loss of one of National Hunt racing’s most cherished equine sons.

Many Clouds, who ran in the colours of British tycoon Trevor Hemmings, owner of second tier English football league side Preston North End, perished after a typically footperfect and gutsy performance.

Sent off at 8-1 for the Cotswold Chase he led Thistlecrack over the last and got the better of his year younger rival, the 4-9 favourite, in a no-holds-barred battle up the famous Cheltenham hill.

Many Clouds’ finest hour came at Aintree on April 15, 2015, when he produced an exhilarating exhibition of jumping to land the world’s most famous steeplechase under

jockey Leighton Aspell, who was on board as usual for his ill-fated last ever outing.

He returned last year to try to defend his Liverpool crown but had to settle for 16th behind Rule The World.

He also won the 2014 Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury.

Michael Meagher, racing manager to Hemmings, said: “The horse has been such a super-

star down the seasons for Trevor and Oliver.

“It’s very sad the way this has happened after such a brave win but he has gone out in a blaze of glory doing what he loved.

“He was a very public horse and everyone is very emotional which is so understandable as it was not the way it should have happened. He has given everybody involved with him some wonderful days with the Grand National topping the lot.”

Nathan Horrocks, Many Clouds’ work rider at Sherwood’s stable on the gallops, told Racing UK: “It’s a shock, from shouting him home to 10 minutes later he’s not even with us.

“He’s a massive loss for everybody, he’s of huge importance to the yard but also to (jumps training centre) Lambourn and the sport.

“He captured the nation, but that is our sport - it makes us love it and hate it.”

He added: “What was great about him, and was also his downfall, was that he didn’t know when to quit.”

Athletic scandal Continued from back cover “Whatever excuse he gives, it is clear that Lord Coe decided not to share with the committee information that was relevant to our inquiry on doping in sport,” said House of Commons culture, media and sport committee chairman Damian Collins.

“The committee asked him about his knowledge of doping in Russian athletics and of corruption within the sport. In his answers, he gave the impression that he was unaware of specific allegations.

“Thanks to evidence that was presented by the BBC Panorama programme last year, and by David Bedford to the committee this January, we can see that he was aware, at least in general terms, of the allegations that had been brought forward by the Russian athlete Liliya Shobukhova.”

ALLEGATION Bedford, a former 10,000 metres world record holder, told the committee he had sent Coe -- when he was vice-president of the IAAF -- an email with an attachment in August 2014 which contained an explosive allegation.

Andrei Baranov, the agent of Russian marathon runner Shobukhova, claimed she had been blackmailed by Russian and IAAF officials including Papa Massata Diack, the then IAAF president Lamine Diack’s son, to the tune of 450,000 euros (£356,000, $505,000) over a failed dope test.

Coe said he never opened the attachment and sent it on instead to the IAAF ethics commission and that the first he knew of the allegations was in a German documentary in December 2014.

Russia remains suspended by the IAAF after it was kicked out in November 2015 over allegations of “state-sponsored doping” in a move that saw athletes banned from international competition and the track and field team barred from last year’s Rio Olympic Games.

Arrogate wins $12 mn Pegasus as Chrome flops ARROGATE romped to victory in the first running of the $12 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park, as California Chrome failed to shine in the world’s richest horse race.

Arrogate had triumphed over Chrome in a Breeders’ Cup Classic thriller at Santa Anita in November, but the rematch was all Arrogate.

Wide at the first turn, Chrome moved toward the middle and travelled alongside Arrogate just off the early pace.

Smith made a move as they passed the half-mile pole, but when Victor Espinoza asked California Chrome to step up he got no response and Arrogate powered alone through the stretch to win by 4 3/4 lengths ahead of Shaman Ghost with Neolithic third.

“I’m so relieved,” said Arrogate trainer Bob Baffert. “Down the backside he was trapped in there.

“When he started making that move I knew right there ... what a superior horse he is.

“I feel bad about California Chrome,” Baffert added. “He didn’t run a great race today so that matchup never came about.”

The 1 1/8-mile race is the brainchild of Frank Stronach,

whose company owns Gulfstream Park and several other tracks.

Contestants paid $1 million for the 12 available starting positions and a chance at the $7 million winner’s prize and a share of revenue generated by wagering and sponsorships.

The race was meant to send California Chrome into retirement on a high note, but instead it was a ninth-place farewell for the splashy chestnut horse trained by Art Sherman.

Chrome won hearts with Kentucky Derby and Preakness victories in 2014 but fell short of a Triple Crown with a fourth place finish in the Belmont Stakes.

He was resurgent in his five-year-old season, winning all six of his starts in 2016 prior to the Breeders Cup Classic.

Now he’s headed to Kentucky to begin his career at stud.

“He didn’t look real comfortable,” Sherman said. “He didn’t break as sharp as he usually does and then he got hung out so wide. But down the backside he had no excuse. ... He looked like he was listless. I don’t know why.

This is the first bad race he’s ever run for me.”

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W EEKEND

WORLD

ATHLETIC SCANDAL CONTINUES New email suggests Coe ‘aware’ of Russian doping

A

LLEGATIONS that world athletics chief Sebastian Coe misled British lawmakers have intensified this week after new emails appeared to show he was “made aware” of corruption claims concerning the Russian doping scandal four months before they became public.

Coe, the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, told a House of Commons committee in December 2015 he was “not aware” of specific allegations of corruption in Russian athletics until a German documentary in December 2014.

But an email published by the culture, media and sport committee from British athletics great Coe, a two-time Olympic champion, to the IAAF’s ethics commission in August 2014 stated: “I have now been made aware of the allegations.”

Coe, a member of Britain’s unelected House of Lords, told Parliament in 2015: “I was certainly not aware of the specific allegations that had been made around the corruption of anti-doping processes in Russia.”

MPs had wanted Coe to re-appear before the committee following evidence from former athlete David Bedford that appeared to contradict that of the IAAF president.

Coe, the Olympic 1500 metres champion at both the 1980 and 1984 Games in Moscow and Los Angeles respectively, has yet to return to the committee but has agreed to two requests to make public correspondence he had with Michael Beloff, the chairman of the IAAF ethics commission, and a leading English lawyer.

Continued on page 59

FORMER CHELSEA STAR LAMPARD RETIRES AT 38

FORMER England and Chelsea midfield star Frank Lampard has announced his retirement from the sport at the age of 38 after turning down “a number of exciting offers” to continue playing.

“After 21 incredible years I have decided that now is the right time to finish my career as a professional footballer,” he wrote in a lengthy post on Instagram.

“I’m immensely proud of the trophies I’ve won, of representing my country over 100

times and of scoring more than 300 career goals.

Lampard who joined Chelsea from West Ham in 2001 helped the Blues win the Champions League, three Premier Leagues, four FA Cups, two League Cups, the Europa League and a Community Shield.

The midfielder played a pivotal role in Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea side, and thanked the team for their support “The largest part of my heart belongs to Chel-

sea, a club which has given me so many great memories,” he added. “I will never forget the opportunity they gave me and the success that we managed to achieve together.

“It is impossible to give thanks individually to all the people that helped and supported me in my 13 years playing there.

“All I can say is from the day I signed until now and going forward, I’m eternally grateful for everything and to everyone.”