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GIBRALTAR New changes to Crimes Bill

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WHAT’S ON Festive festivities for March and beyond

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MONEY MATTERS Bailed-out British Bank Lloyds post surging profits

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HEALTH & BEAUTY Love at First Sight - Kylie Minogue launches debut glasses collection

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FOOD & FINE DINING March is a month of transition

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PUZZLES & TEASERS

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SPORTS Everton open to Rooney return

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Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

FRANCO’S MOVE REJECTED

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ranco, whose Nationalist forces defeated the Republicans in the 1936-9 civil war, is entombed in a basilica in a giant hillside monument along with tens of thousands of people who died during the conflict and were transferred from other graves around the country.

Families of those killed in the civil war complain that the man who ruled as a fascist dictator for close to four decades should not lie in a monument to victims of the conflict that brought him to power.

SENSITIVE Baltasar Garzon, a high-profile former judge turned lawyer and two colleagues made a formal request to the conservative government in 2015 to transfer his remains in an attempt to address a dark, recent past that still remains sensitive.

Receiving no reply, they took the matter to the Supreme Court.

The government did eventually respond last year, saying they should ask the Church to authorise an exhumation as Franco’s remains are in a basilica.

This week, the court said it had “rejected the plea” as the government had already given its response.

Built by Franco’s regime between 1940 and

Spain’s Supreme Court has rejected a request to exhume the remains of late dictator Francisco Franco from a mausoleum near Madrid and rebury them elsewhere.

1958 in the granite mountains of the Sierra de Guadarrama, the monument holds the remains of over 30,000 dead from both sides in the civil war.

Franco lies buried behind the high altar of a vast basilica hewn into the rock, which is capped by a huge cross that can be seen for miles around.

The dictator dedicated the site to “all the fallen” of the civil war in an attempt at reconciliation, but the monument was previously built in part by the forced labour of political prisoners, many of whom died during the works.

A giant cross towers over the Valley of the Fallen, north of Madrid

The Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, a group seeking justice for people tortured, killed and disappeared in the civil war and the ensuing dictatorship, slammed the court decision.

“The remains of the dictator Francisco Franco will stay in the Valley of the Fallen, financed by public funds, in part by taxes paid by his victims,” it said in a statement.

Meanwhile Garzon, his colleagues Manuel Olle and Eduardo Ranz said they may take the case to Spain’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

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Simply Media Group is one of the largest English media advertising and publication groups here is Spain. We aim to always give you original editorials and news from not just here in Spain but from around the world. As members of the British Press Association and EFE we aim to ensure that all our news is current, factual and more importantly interesting to you the reader.

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How storytelling explains world politics, from Spain to the US

By Orlando D’Adamo

How is Donald Trump like the leader of Spain’s Podemos movement, a long-haired, left-wing university professor named Pablo Iglesias?

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NEWS

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t’s tempting to say he’s not. It’s quite another thing to compare Trump and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Aside from language and birthplace, Trump is basically the American Berlusconi, both political outsiders and businessmen who rose to the heights of power.

The paradox is that although Trump and Iglesias are ideological opposites – and, of course, Trump says and does things that Iglesias would never even think – both leaders have employed the same narrative tactic to get where they are: political storytelling.

Narrative as a political tool The key lies in their communication strategy and the intended recipients of their messages: the despairing masses on both sides of the Atlantic, from the “workingclass whites” in the US to Spain’s “indignados” (the indignant).

Here’s how it works: the more desperate and fed-up people are with hearing the same unfulfilled promises, and the more they think about how their kids will probably end up worse off than they are now, the more predisposed they are to listen, believe and vote for candidates who propose doing something different within the confines of the political system.

They feel moved. Something – a story, a tale – with more

emotion than reason makes their hearts beat faster. Because, whether we like it or not, emotions lie in the same area of our brain where we process political information.

That’s what political storytelling is all about.

Both the progressive Spaniard and the atypical Republican have used the tactic to great effect, each in his own way. So have Latin American presidents of the past decade, many of them masters of narrative.

Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez is a powerful case, taking his narrative – based on Simon Bolivar’s Latin American liberation movement – to the extreme of renaming his country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The Kirchners in Argentina and Evo Morales in Bolivia also mastered the art. They have all shown the power of narratives in seducing disillusioned voters.

The end of the story Beyond demonstrating an ignorance of world history, underestimating the power of a candidate who mobilises the base using this kind of emotional messaging can be electoral suicide.

In many countries, traditional political parties have already learned this lesson, entering into serious democratic crises that are undermining the foundations of their political system. Venezuela is a critical case.

Still, in the political narrative script, Trump and Podemos

are the heroes: finally, someone has arrived who “truly” represents those who’ve been excluded and abandoned by politics as usual. Both leaders would say that these marginalised folks – the protagonists of their tale – are the best society has to offer.

Such narratives are nothing new. They can be traced back to the Greeks, with their mythology, and the Romans, with their commemorative constructions, like the emperors columns in every Roman Forum.

Political tales don’t last forever; like empires, they go through phases of development, consolidation and decline. Unless they can reinvent themselves, counter-narratives will appear and the story starts over again.

The French, American, Soviet, Cuban, Chinese, Chavista Bolivarion revolutions – these are all stories laden with epic characteristics and heroic symbolism, without which it’s possible that their historic value would have expired long ago.

Instead, they are still leveraged to overcome political and social crises.

One final curiousity: many of these stories involve building walls, from Troy to the Berlin wall to, yes, the Beautiful Mexican Wall. In the end they all failed, of course, some more ignominiously than others. History can be merciless to leaders who offer desperate people simple solutions to complex matters.

Here are the nine key features of a powerful narrative 1 They are tales of power, wherein the “good guys” are victims of the “bad guys”.

Trump’s recent inauguration speech showed numerous antagonistic relationships, pitting “Washington” against the people; evil politicians, who did nothing while “the jobs left and the factories closed”, versus poor citizens.

2 They blame inept or unscrupulous politicians for letting insidious interests win – for example, Iglesias has railed against the monsters of “financial totalitarianism” that have humiliated Spaniards – and position themselves as the heroes who will recapture past righteousness (with an epic battle of good and evil).

3 They use a direct, simple and emotionally charged messages: “I will build a wall and Mexico will pay for it!”

4 They offer solutions, which must seem feasible, even if they aren’t. They have to show that another future is possible. Former Brazilian president Lula’s “zero hunger” campaign is a good example.

5 They seek to recover a mystical past, connecting people to their roots and lost values.

Where and when? That doesn’t matter, as long as the narrative revives people’s

dreams: “Make America Great Again” 6 They construct, or reconstruct, an identity whose sole reference point is often a leader who defines themselves as something different and new. Adding an “ism” to the end of a name supports this idea: “El Chavismo”, “Kirchnerism”, “Maoism”.

The narrators of the greatest political stories are charismatic leaders who can easily devolve into authoritarianism. This isn’t always the case, and South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and Spain’s Felipe González are notable exceptions.

7 They revive founding myths by citing, for example, America’s Founding Fathers (or in Trump’s case Abraham Lincoln) or their society’s revolutionary origins (as in Cuba and China).

8 They impose an us-versus-them dialectic. The “enemies” may be Muslims or immigrants (for Trump)), or the insatiable European Union (for Iglesias).

9 They use simple analogies and linear explanations. Pablo Iglesias often says “blessed people, damned caste” to differentiate the citizenry from the political elites who’ve clung to power in Spain for the past 40 years.

This article was original published on theconversation.com

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NEWS

EU Parliament backs landmark Canada trade deal

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EPs hailed the deal as a rare victory for an imperilled global trade system that is under threat from US President Trump who opposes farreaching trade deals.

The accord, known as CETA, is tipped as Europe’s most modern ever and a possible model for relations with Britain after its leaves the EU. MEPs meeting in Strasbourg, France, solidly approved the pact with 408 votes in favour, 254 against and 33 abstentions.

“This is a watershed moment - EU trade policy will never be the same again,” said senior Scottish MEP David Martin, whose Socialists and Democrats group split on the issue.

Approval by the parliament allows the provisional implementation of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement as early as next month.

Protesters attempted to disrupt the vote, with about 700 people marching outside parliament to voice their opposition to the deal.

Anti-globalisation activists dressed in surgical masks dramatically blocked the entrance to the parliament building, before being dragged off by riot police.

The European Parliament backed a contested EU-Canada free trade deal, facing down protests by activists and Donald Trump-inspired calls for protectionism.

“Saying yes to CETA is a trampling of the people,” said a banner.

Following the approval by parliament, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will address MEPs in person on Thursday.

EU states and Canada formally signed the deal in October after seven years of tough talks, overcoming last-minute resistance from a small Belgian region that blocked its national government from approving the accord.

“By adopting CETA, we chose openness and growth and high standards over protectionism and stagnation,” said Latvian MEP Artis Pabriks, a conservative from the EPP group who sponsored the law.

Blow to EU Opponents to CETA slam the deal as a “trojan horse” to big business and a danger to health, democracy and the rule of law.

“The disconnect between MEPs and public concerns over living standards, public health and the environment is another blow to the EU,” said Greenpeace’s EU trade policy adviser Shira Stanton.

Some of the more controversial aspects, including a much-derided investor court system, still require ratification by EU member states, which could take years.

CETA will remove 99 percent of non-farm customs duties between the two sides, a big win for exporters on both sides of the Atlantic.

And unlike classic trade deals, CETA harmonises regulations on matters such as health and the environment, a major concern for activists.

Some industries are left untouched. The CETA deal will not remove tariff barriers for public services, audiovisual and transport services and a few agricultural products,

Barack & Michelle sign bumper book deal Barack and Michelle Obama have signed a deal to publish their memoirs with New York-based Penguin Random House, in a coveted contract reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars.

America’s first African American president is already the author of two memoirs and a children’s book.

He has frequently declared himself to have a “writer’s sensibility” and has said he does not want to write a conventional blowby-blow account of his time in the White House.

Michelle Obama’s memoir is likely to be just as eagerly anticipated.

A descendant of slaves, she became the first African American first lady and garnered high approval ratings -- to the point where she was arguably one of the country’s most respected and popular women.

Penguin Random House said in a statement it has “acquired world publication rights for two books, to be written by president and Mrs Obama respectively.”

Record sum The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but bidding for the high-profile double book deal topped $60 million, a record sum for US presidential memoirs, according to the Financial Times.

Until now, the record for a US presidential memoir was $15 million paid for Bill Clinton’s “My Life,” released in 2004. George W. Bush received $10 million for “Decision Points” in 2010.

Hillary Clinton reportedly received a $14 million advance for “Hard Choices,” her account of her time as secretary of state under Obama.

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such as dairy, which is heavily subsidised in Canada.

A major flashpoint for opponents is the proposal to set up special courts to settle disputes between investors and national authorities that is central to the deal.

Opponents believe this provision hands too much power to multinationals that will use powerful lawyers to undermine national regulation.

“Multinationals will be able to attack governments in a privatised court system,” said France’s far-right presidential candidate and MEP Marine Le Pen, who voted against CETA. But the deal’s EU negotiator, Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem, told MEPs that “nothing in this agreement undermines a government’s right to regulate in the public interest”.

The vote comes at a particularly sensitive time for global trade matters, with Britain poised to leave the European Union and new US president Trump rejecting an Asia-Pacific trade deal.

Trump is also widely expected to drop a similar proposed deal with the EU known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership or TTIP. Trump had vowed to put “America first” and rip up the North America Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, but significantly toned down that rhetoric after meeting Trudeau.

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Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

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Recent scandals in European politics Romania: battle with corruption

The government of Romanian Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu was forced earlier this month to withdraw a decree that would have watered down anti-graft legislation, after the biggest demonstrations since the fall of communism in 1989.

The justice minister resigned on February 9 following the protests and lawmakers on Monday passed a proposal to hold a referendum on corruption.

The government is accused of trying to protect Liviu Dragnea , the powerful head of the ruling Social Democrat party (PSD). He has been barred from running for office because of a voter fraud conviction and is on trial for alleged abuse of power, a charge he denies.

Earlier, after a deadly nightclub blaze drew tens of thousands into the streets in Bucharest in October 2015, former Social Democrat prime minister Victor Ponta resigned, after going down in history as the first sitting Romanian prime minister to stand trial on charges of fraud, tax evasion and money laundering.

French presidential hopeful Francois Fillon is facing fresh pressure over an expenses scandal, with prosecutors saying they will not drop their investigation into claims his wife had a fake parliamentary job. But the centreright candidate is far from being the only European politician to be dogged by allegations of wrongdoing in recent years. Here are some of the other scandals to hit politics in the EU over the past decade:

Germany: a 700-euro question Since former chancellor Helmut Kohl was fined and forced to resign his post as the honorary chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), after he admitted to managing secret funds for the party in the 1990s, Germany’s leaders have come under close scrutiny.

Christian Wulff resigned as German president in February 2012 following an accusation of influence peddling. He was later cleared of accepting payments that amounted to little more than 700 euros ($744) when he was state premier of Lower Saxony.

Romania: Liviu Dragnea

Germany: Christian Wulff

Britain: expenses scandal From 2004 to 2009 more than half of British MPs misused their expenses, according to an official audit in February 2010 that ordered them to repay 1.1 million pounds (1.17 million euros, $1.25 million).

The probe, which followed revelations by the Daily Telegraph, said that lawmakers filed

Italy: Silvio Berlusconi

Slovania: Janez Jansa

claims for loans on second homes, gardening and cleaning expenses and in one notorious case, a duck house in a garden pond.

crime the judges ever nailed Berlusconi for in August 2013. He was given a community service order and kicked out of parliament.

Italy: Berlusconi saga

Spain: bribery scandal

Three-time prime minister between 1994 and 2011 Silvio Berlusconi faced a string of legal cases.

Corporate tax fraud was, however, the only

Since October 2016 former lawmakers of Spain’s ruling Popular Party have been in the dock over a vast corruption network that allegedly saw companies shower politicians and civil servants with bribes in exchange for public contracts.

Elsewhere the sister of King Felipe, Cristina, is awaiting a verdict after a trial on tax evasion charges, as her husband grapples with a corruption scandal.

Indian politician nabbed over illegal adoption ring Indian police have arrested a senior regional official from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party over alleged links to a trafficking scandal that saw children sold to foreign couples.

Investigators said children aged between six months and 14 years were sold in illegal adoptions to couples from Europe, America and Asia for between $12,000 and $23,000 and taken out of the country.

Police confirm they have arrested Juhi Choudhury, a general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the eastern state of West Bengal, and charged her in connection with the case.

Police arrested Chakraborty, a retired school principal, and her deputy Sonali Mondal last month after a tip-off from the federal adoption agency.

Czech Republic: Petr Necas

The pair who ran the Bimala Sishu Griha centre sold at least 17 children, with the children reportedly sent to France, the United States, Spain and Singapore.

India has an estimated 30 million orphans, but the rules governing international adoptions are strict and domestic adoptions remain relatively rare.

Experts say desperate couples wanting to adopt in India are often frustrated by lengthy bureaucratic delays and complex rules, pushing them towards the thriving illegal adoption market.

The latest scandal comes roughly four months after police arrested 18 people over a racket that saw gangs steal newborn babies from nursing homes with the intention of selling them.

Slovenia: arms deal The centre-right administration of premier Janez Jansa, accused of irregularities in his tax declarations, lost a vote of confidence in February 2013 after only a year in office.

Later that year a court found Jansa guilty of bribery in a massive arms deal signed while his government was in power. He was sentenced to two years in jail.

Czech Republic: mistress implicated The then centre-right prime minister Petr Necas was forced to resign in June 2013 after being implicated in a corruption and abuse of power scandal, involving his top aide and mistress. Prosecutors have said they will not file charges.

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

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Shetlanders flirt with independence after Brexit vote

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UT the prospect of a new bid for Scottish independence as Britain leaves the EU is making some residents of these rugged islands think again about whether they would be better off alone.

“It would be wonderful,” Andrea Manson, a Shetland councillor and a key figure in the Wir Shetland movement for greater autonomy, told AFP at the guesthouse she runs, the Mid Brae Inn. The movement›s name means “Our Shetland” in the local Scots dialect, a derivation of Middle English which has replaced the islands› original Germanic language, Norn.

The remote archipelago, already fiercely independent in spirit, is geographically and culturally closer to Scandinavia than to Edinburgh, and politically more aligned with London and Brussels.

In the past 1,300 years, Shetland has been overrun by Scandinavian vikings, pawned to Scotland as a wedding dowry by Denmark, subsumed into the United Kingdom in 1707, and dragged into the European Economic Community against its will in 1973.

Control of the seabed The Shetlands were the only part of Britain, along with the Western Isles of Scotland, that voted against EEC membership in a 1975 referendum.

Many Shetlanders are sceptical of Scottish

Of all the ramifications of the Brexit vote, the fate of the Shetland Islands in the North Atlantic and their oil fields and fisheries may not top the list for negotiators in London and Brussels.

Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland and inset local MP Alistair Carmichael

separatism.

In the final tense days of the 2014 independence referendum, the local MP Alistair Carmichael, who was minister for Scotland at the time, said the islands could try to remain part of Britain if the rest of Scotland left.

In the end, 55 percent of Scots voted to stay in Britain. The unionist vote in the Shetlands was 63.7 percent -- one of the highest levels in Scotland.

Now Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned that a second independence

May vows strong postBrexit ties with France British Prime Minister Theresa May promised a close post-Brexit relationship with France on security and defence when she met with Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve in London last week.

Both stressed the need for “an early agreement on the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU” as Britain prepares to plot its course out of the union, according to a statement released by May’s Downing Street office.

“The Prime Minister was clear that while the UK is leaving the EU, we are not leaving Europe,” said the statement.

“They agreed on the need to maintain our close cooperation on security and defence, including through NATO.” The pair also discussed unrest in Syria and Ukraine, migration and terrorism.

May was hosting Cazeneuve ahead of negotiations to set the terms of Brexit, which will begin when the British leader triggers Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, expected before the end of March.

May said she was “delighted” to meet with Cazeneuve, adding that they “worked so well together” when she was home secretary and he was France’s interior minister.

“There are many issues on which the UK and France have been working very well and our bilateral relationship is very strong and I look forward to being able to develop that across a number of areas,” she said.

referendum is “highly likely” following the Brexit vote -- and Shetland is once again considering its position.

“We would like control of the seabed around us, the fishing ground around us, and the freedom to get rid of some of the bureaucracy that comes down from the EU, Westminster and the Scottish parliament,” Manson said.

“Our seas are being plundered by foreign boats. We also contribute an enormous amount of money to the national economy through taxes, through the oil revenues, and yet we don’t get back our fair share.”

Scotland has around 60 percent of the EU’s oil reserves and the second-largest volume of proven natural gas reserves, most of it located around Shetland.

The islands also land more fish than ports in England, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

“I don’t suppose we would ever be allowed full independence,” Manson said, adding: “In an ideal world we would be a British overseas territory. We would be to Britain what Faroe is to Denmark.”

The Faroe Islands lie about 200 miles (320 kilometres) northwest of Shetland and have autonomous status within the Kingdom of Denmark.

They have an almost identical landmass to Shetland but twice the population, and many Shetlanders envy the archipelago’s independent parliament and vast sovereign waters.

The Faroe Island will hold a referendum in April 2018 on a new constitution that would give the territory the right to self-determination.

Power to the people Tavish Scott of Scotland’s Liberal Democrat party, who represents Shetland in the Scottish Parliament, said he understood the desire for autonomy.

“Shetland certainly explored -- and I think again will explore -- what kind of constitutional future it wants,” he told AFP. But Scotland’s nationalist government is keen to retain Shetland as a jewel in the economic crown of an independent Scotland.

Maree Todd, a Scottish National Party lawmaker, told AFP that the party could discuss Shetland’s sovereignty, but that she believed it would be better off as part of an independent Scotland.

“Of course I think it is worth discussing,” she said, adding that islanders are not “entirely sceptical” about the prospect of Scottish independence.

“We want power to come back to Scotland, not just to Edinburgh but to the people of Scotland,” she said.

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Brexit bill faces delay in House of Lords EU AGAINST ‘HARD BORDER’ BETWEEN UK AND N. IRELAND THE EU does not want Brexit to result in the return of fixed border controls between Ireland and British-controlled Northern Ireland, European Commission head JeanClaude Juncker announced.

“During the Brexit negotiations, the EU and Ireland must work together to minimise the impact,” Juncker said after talks with Irish Premier Enda Kenny in Brussels.

“We don’t want hard borders between Northern Ireland and the Republic” of Ireland, he said.

Ireland is set to be the only EU country to share a land border with Britain after Brexit, fuelling concerns in Dublin about the implications for trade and security.

During the troubles in Northern Ireland, the border was festooned with military outposts and controls which were later removed as part of the 1998 Good Friday peace accords.

Kenny said Dublin was very concerned by the implications of Brexit and wanted “the closest possible relationship between the UK and the EU.” «There should not be a return to a hard border and there won›t be,» he said.

Kenny also said Ireland wanted the language of the Good Friday Agreement, which has international status since it is lodged at the United Nations, to be included in a Brexit settlement.

«We do not want to see the Good Friday Agreement damaged in any way,» he said, citing provisions on Northern Ireland›s right to decide its own future, including reunification.

For his part, Juncker said the peace deal was «an important agreement ... the Irish and British have worked hard to have it and in no way should it become under risk.»

Northern Ireland voted to remain in the European Union in the June Brexit referendum but it has no separate say in its future with Brussels.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to trigger Article 50 negotiations by the end of next month, triggering two years of what promise to be difficult and complex negotiations.

Kenny and May have said previously they, too, do not want a return to the fixed border between the two major trading partners.

Britain’s Lords were on a potential Brexit collision course with Prime Minister Theresa May’s government as they weighed changes that could delay a landmark bill to trigger the EU exit.

Government supporters have warned Britain’s upper house of parliament against any hold-ups, warning that the unelected chamber itself could be abolished if it defied the result of the Brexit referendum.

But a source from the opposition Labour Party in the Lords, where the Conservative government does not have a majority, said amendments “would be likely to win handsomely” in defiance of the government.

And Michael Heseltine, a top Conservative, has also said he plans to rebel against the government by pushing for an amendment to ensure a parliamentary vote on any final Brexit deal.

Members of the House of Lords, known as peers, will begin proposing amendments to the bill on triggering Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty -- a formal notification of Britain’s intention to leave the bloc.

The government has said it plans to do so by

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Amazon says to create 5,000 jobs in UK

US tech and retail giant Amazon has announced it would create 5,000 British jobs this year, in a show of confidence in the UK economy ahead of Brexit.

“Amazon UK today announced plans to create more than 5,000 full-time jobs this year, taking the company’s total UK workforce to over 24,000,” a statement said.

“These new job opportunities are for people with all types of experience, education and skill levels, from software developers, engineers and technicians, to those seeking entry-level positions and on-the-job training,” it added.

Amazon separately said it was creating 1,500 positions in France under plans to have 15,000 new posts across Europe in 2017.

The company is meanwhile in the process of providing 100,000 new positions in the United States by the middle of next year.

the end of March, firing the starting gun on a maximum two years of negotiations to work out a divorce and the terms of future postBrexit relations.

The proposed changes are expected to be on defining the parameters of a parliamentary vote on the final Brexit deal as well as measures to guarantee the rights of three million EU migrants living in Britain with ministers considering plans to limit benefits for new immigrants and grant five-year visas to migrant workers in key sectors, such as software engineering, health and social welfare, farming and hospitality.

Another key concern for ministers is the issue of what will happen to semi-autonomous Scotland.

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NE of the world’s leading institutions for the study of ancient Iraq, the London museum has been training Iraqi experts for the past year in high-tech methods to preserve and document their history.

“Once the city is liberated, there will be an enormous plan of reconstruction of the Museum of Mosul,” Sebastien Rey from the Iraq Emergency Heritage Management Training Scheme.

“One of the participants of our scheme will be the first archaeologist to enter the museum and do an assessment of the destruction inside,” said Rey, a lead archaeologist.

British Museum training Iraqi experts to save Mosul heritage As Iraqi forces fight to take back Mosul from the Islamic State group, archaeologists trained by the British Museum are preparing for another battle -trying to save what they can of the city’s heritage.

The scheme is designed to “get people ready for the day” archaeological sites are taken back from IS control, said its director, Jonathan Tubb.

“We felt that we wanted to do something positive and constructive in the face of the most appalling destruction that had been

going on,” he said.

Islamist militants in Iraq, Syria and Mali have targeted priceless cultural heritage sites after denouncing them as un-Islamic.

The Mosul area, home to several archaeological sites including the ancient cities of Nineveh and Nimrud, is of particular impor-

BRITAIN WILL NOT BRIBE ITS WAY TO BREXIT Britain’s “Brexit” minister responsible for managing its departure from the European Union has denied reports his government was planning to pay eastern EU states to support it during negotiations with Brussels.

David Davis described as “implausible” recent British media reports that money would be diverted from development projects in Africa and Asia to the Baltic states and other eastern EU countries.

“I didn’t recognise the story I saw in the papers the other day. It seemed to me to be wholly implausible. We have not started the negotiation yet but that is not the way I think it’s going to go,” Davis told reporters after talks with Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics in Riga.

“It’s not a divorce, it’s a new relationship... it’s very modern in that respect,” Davis added.

Davis also assured Rinkevics that Britain wanted to preserve equal rights for EU citizens living there following Brexit.

“We want to see Latvian citizens in the UK have all the rights they have now continuing into the future.

RIGHTS “That’s not just resident rights, that’s public services, healthcare, all the normal right we would give our own citizens,” Davis said.

Hundreds of thousands of EU citizens living and working in Britain, a majority from eastern EU states like Poland, are demanding that their rights be protected despite Brexit.

It is estimated that at least 1.2 million British citizens currently live and work in the 27 other EU member states. They, too, are lobbying to preserve their rights post-Brexit.

Rinkevics made light of the idea Britain would bribe its way to a favourable outcome in departure talks, saying: “Today you will probably ask how much money Mr. Davis has brought in bribes –- I have to say right away we have never had these discussions and no money has been brought to us.”

He also insisted the EU member states would not be divided when it comes to Brexit talks between Brussels and London.

“We will negotiate according to the solidarity of the 27 EU member states which means there will be a common position,” Rinkevics said.

tance.

In April 2015, the IS group released a video of its fighters destroying monuments in Nimrud before planting explosives around a site and blowing it up.

They also attacked Hatra, a Roman-era site, in the northern Nineveh province.

The Iraqi army launched a massive operation in October to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second city and the IS group’s last major stronghold in the country.

TRAINING SCHEME After retaking the city’s eastern flank, Iraqi special forces are now fighting their way through the west in an offensive that began on Sunday.

Launched in January 2016, the six-month training scheme sees Iraqi archaeologists spend three months in London and three months in Iraq.

It includes training in the use of satellite imagery and digital mapping, as well as tools for recording buildings and monuments.

They then get to practise their new skills in secure sites across their home country.

A graduate of the scheme, which aims to train 50 archaeologists over a five-year period, is now leading the assessment in Nimrud.

“They went in a couple of weeks after the city was liberated,” Rey said.

Halkawt Qadir Omer, a current trainee from Arbil told AFP: “The training is very useful and beneficial for us and we can use the tools that we get here.”

Known as the cradle of civilisation, Iraq is still full of undiscovered treasures.

So for Omer, the scheme offers much more than simple tools: “Now, we have contact with the British Museum to complete our projects, to discover and to change the direction of history and archaeology.”

Britain’s Brexit bill to be ‘very hefty’, EU’s Juncker Britain will have to pay a “very hefty” bill to leave the European Union and negotiating a new relationship with the bloc will take years, European Commission chief JeanClaude Juncker warned.

Prime Minister Theresa May who has hopes to trigger the Brexit negotiations by the end of March following the shock referendum in June last year.

“It will be a difficult negotiation that will take years for us to agree on the exit terms and on the future architecture

of relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union,” Juncker told the Belgian parliament.

“The British must know -- and they know it already -- that it will not be at a discount or zero cost,” the former Luxembourg premier said in his hour-long speech.

“The British are expected to respect the commitments they made. And so the bill, to say it a bit coarsely, will be very hefty,” added Juncker.

European sources said Brussels could hand Britain an exit

bill of up to 60 billion euros to cover commitments already made by London toward the EU budget.

The European Commission, the executive that Juncker heads, has declined to provide any figure until now.

“We must settle this matter, not with a heart filled with hostility but with the knowledge that the continent owes much to Britain,” Juncker said, referring to Churchill’s role in defeating fascism.

“But we must not be naive either,” he added.

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SPANISH COURT REJECTS NEYMAR, BARCA APPEAL A Spanish court has dismissed appeals from Neymar and Barcelona over alleged fraud and corruption in the Brazilian star’s transfer from Santos in 2013.

The decision brings the possibility of the player and club facing trial a step closer.

Neymar’s arrival from Brazil’s Santos has been a huge success for the Spanish champions on the pitch but a judicial nightmare off it.

The 25-year-old Brazilian striker is being investigated in Brazil and Spain over his headline move to La Liga.

Barcelona originally published the transfer figure as 57.1 million euros ($60.6 million), with 40 million euros of that given to the player›s family.

But Spanish authorities believe the true transfer figure was at least 83 million euros.

In November, prosecutors recommended that the striker be handed a two-year jail sentence and a fine of 10 million euros for alleged corrupt practices.

Sentences of two years or less are habitually suspended for first time offenders in Spain.

The case initiated with a complaint from Brazilian investment company DIS, which owned 40 percent of Neymar’s sporting rights at the time of his transfer.

DIS received just 6.8 million euros, 40 percent of the fee paid to Santos, with the company claiming it was cheated out of its real share because part of the transfer fee was concealed by Barcelona, Santos and the Neymar family.

Taiwan protests over Spain deportations to China Taiwan has protested a decision

by Spain to deport more than 200 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China, the latest such deportation amid frosty cross-strait ties.

The 269 Chinese and Taiwanese telecom scam suspects were caught in Spain in December, according to Taiwan’s foreign affairs ministry.

More than 200 in the group are from the island.

The ministry said Spanish authorities decided Friday to send the group to the mainland at China’s request, against the suspects’ will.

“This decision has infringed upon

our people’s rights and interests, as well as ignoring the EU’s tradition of placing high value on human rights,” according to a statement from the ministry.

DEPORTED Taiwan had demanded the suspects be deported back to the island, but Spain had not responded, it said.

Relations have worsened with China after Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen came to power last May because she has refused to recognise the island is part of “one China.”

The deportation cases are seen as a

bid to pile pressure on Tsai by Beijing, which sees Taiwan as a breakaway province to be brought back within its fold.

Since then, China has insisted that Taiwanese scammers caught abroad are deported to the mainland to face trial, including from countries including Armenia, Cambodia and Kenya.

Taiwan last November passed a bill to crack down on swindlers committing crimes overseas.

Since 2011, nearly 2,000 Taiwanese fraud suspects have been arrested abroad, according to Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau.

Spain to bring doping laws in line with WADA Spain’s government gave the green light to draft legislation that will bring the country’s anti-doping controls back in line with World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) standards.

WADA declared Spain’s anti-doping agency AEPSAD as non-compliant in March 2016.

A delay in updating Spain’s anti-doping laws in line with WADA’s stricter code introduced in 2015 had been blamed on a 10-month political deadlock that left the country without a ruling government from December 2015 to October last year.

“With the passing of this law, Spain is in the position to reverse the non-compliant status with the WADA code,” AEPSAD said in a statement.

The bill still needs to be passed by parliament to become law.

The most significant reforms will see doping bans doubled from two to four years.

ALARM Suspensions can also be levied on anyone complicit in aiding in the doping of an athlete, including doctors, coaches and team directors.

Furthermore, the statute of limitations for bans due to doping offences will increase from eight to 10 years.

Last week WADA expressed its ‘alarm’ that no binding drug testing has taken place in Spanish football for nearly a year.

Unlike in other sports where international federations had taken over responsibility to carry out drug testing whilst AEPSAD’s Madrid laboratory is declared non-compliant, football governing bodies FIFA and UEFA had refused to do so.

WADA was also part of a series of bodies who won an appeal in June against the destruction of 211 blood bags seized in an anti-doping raid on disgraced Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.

The case was a major contributory factor in Madrid’s unsuccessful bid to host the 2020 Olympics.

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LOCAL AND REST OF SPAIN NEWS A former doctor is set to stand trial in Madrid for allegedly stealing a newborn from her mother and giving her to another woman, a practice thought to have affected thousands of families during Spain’s dictatorship.

In a court document obtained, a judge gave the green light for the trial of Eduardo Vela (pictured right) to go ahead -- the first in the dock over the “stolen babies” scandal that shook Spain when it eventually came to light in 2010.

Spain’s first ‘stolen babies’ case to come to trial

WEDLOCK The practice is thought to have begun after Francisco Franco came to power in 1939 following Spain’s civil war pitting Republicans against Nationalists loyal to the general.

Doctors and nurses would reportedly steal babies from parents deemed politically dangerous to the dictator or born out of wedlock, and give them to families in favour of the regime.

The practice was gradually extended to include the theft of new-borns from poor families for adoptive parents in Spain and abroad.

Vela is suspected of having taken part in the 1969 theft of Ines Madrigal, now in her late forties, who accuses him of hav-

ing forged her birth certificate so that her adoptive mother appeared as her biological parent.

Her adoptive mother, who has since passed away, had allegedly later confessed to Madrigal that she worked as a volunteer in a con-

vent and a priest had put her in contact with Vela who gave her the baby.

A date has yet to be set for the trial of the former gynaecologist, who is now elderly and faces charges of child abduction and falsifying official documents.

Angel Casero of the “Onwards Stolen Babies” association that campaigns on the issue welcomed news of the trial.

“It’s really important as this paves the way for more cases and for people to realise that what we’re telling them is the truth,” he told AFP. Estimates of the number of children who were allegedly taken from their parents vary from thousands to several hundreds of thousands.

New mothers were often told their babies had died within hours of birth and the hospital had taken care of their burials.

Victims have filed official complaints, but the judicial process has been slow in a country that has yet to fully come to terms with its civil war and Franco›s subsequent dictatorship.

Spain king’s brother-in-law stays free while considering appeal

T

HE court in Palma on the island of Majorca has announced that Inaki Urdangarin, a former Olympic handball player married to Spain’s Princess Cristina, could stay in Switzerland where he currently lives with his wife and their four children until all possible appeals are exhausted.

The decision sparked outrage in Spain where people often perceive the elite as being above the law, particularly after a series of corruption scandals emerged at the height of the country’s crippling financial crisis.

But a judges’ association said remaining free was common while defendants in Spain appeal sentences, and not exceptional for Urdangarin.

The brother-in-law of Spain’s king, recently handed a six years and three months jail sentence for syphoning off millions, will remain free and not be required to post bail as he prepares to appeal.

Monthly checks When the 49-year-old left the court on Thursday, angry protesters shouted “chorizo” at him, a word that literally refers to a spicy Spanish sausage but also means “thief”.

Cristina had also been accused of involvement in the scandal over her husband’s business dealings while he was head of the Noos Institute, a not-for-profit sports foundation, on suspicion of helping him evade taxes.

However, following a long-running and high-profile trial, she was acquitted.

Her husband though was sentenced for using his royal connections to win inflated public contracts to stage sporting and other events, and then syphoning off the proceeds to fund a lavish lifestyle. He has until February 28 to appeal.

The fact that both stood trial was seen as unprecedented in a country that had long protected its elites.

When Urdangarin was handed the sentence, newspapers started speculating as to what prison conditions could be like for the former Duke of Palma.

The court said that while Urdangarin would remain free during the appeal process, he would have to check in with Swiss authorities every month.

He will also have to report any trips out of the European Union as well as any change of residency.

‘Injustice’ common practice Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Spain’s far-left Podemos party, reacted angrily to the news, saying “Injustice is different for everyone”.

“Songs will be written about his sentence and their authors will be condemned,” he tweeted.

He was referring to this week’s much-talked-about sentencing of Spanish rapper Valtonyc, handed three-and-a-half years in prison for songs deemed to insult the crown -- he criticised the former king Juan Carlos in one -- and praise terrorism via references to Basque separatist group ETA. Iglesias was not the only critic to draw parallels between Valtonyc’s sentence, seen by some as a breach of freedom of expression, and Urdangarin’s at least temporary reprieve.

“A rapper in jail for singing a song about the king whose sonin-law won’t go to prison for stealing,” tweeted journalist Hibai Arbide Aza. But Ignacio Gonzalez Vega, spokesman for the “Judges for Democracy” professional association, said temporary prison was usually only imposed if there was a risk the defendant could escape or destroy evidence, and if there had been victims in the case.

He acknowledged, however, that this process should be better explained to the public to avoid an outcry.

“It gives the impression that a person is not going to go to jail, but that’s not the case, it’s just that while appeals are in the works, they remain free.”

The scandal soured the end of the reign of king Juan Carlos, who gave up the throne in June 2014 after 39 years, hoping his son Felipe VI who replaced him could freshen up the image of the monarchy.

Since it erupted in 2010, Urdangarin and Cristina have been excluded from all of the family’s official public appearances.

King Felipe VI also stripped his sister and Urdangarin of their titles of duchess and duke of Palma.

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SPAIN COAST GUARD RESCUES 257 MIGRANTS AT SEA The Spanish coast guard rescued 257 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe from Morocco in inflatable dinghies in an “intense end of month weekend,”.

Sunday evening was particularly difficult with five boats carrying 210 people from sub-Saharan Africa rescued, while the remaining 47 were recovered from their dinghies on Saturday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the coast guard said They were all taken to various ports in southern Spain such as Almeria and Motril, where they were attended to by the Red Cross.

Some were suffering from hypothermia but none were in any serious condition, the spokeswoman said.

The coast guard also said they had pulled a body from the sea not far from the small stretch of water between Gibraltar and Morocco, but they were not able to say whether it was that of a migrant.

According to the International Organization for Migration, around 1,000 migrants arrived in Spain by sea between January 1 and February 22, and 38 did not make it, dying on the way.

Another 13,000 crossed the Mediterranean

to Italy and Greece.

The Spanish territory of Ceuta in northern Morocco, which with the enclave of Melilla further east forms the only land frontier between Africa and the European Union, has also been the scene of unrest recently as hundreds of migrants have stormed the border fence.

On February 17, nearly 500 migrants managed to get through the double wire, sixmetre (20-foot) high fence in one of the biggest breaches since the border barrier was reinforced in 2005.

A few days later, more than 350 people forced their way through again after breaking access gates with shears and hammers.

Spanish Royals to visit Japan in April Spain’s King Felipe VI and his wife Letizia will visit Japan in April, his first state visit in Asia since his accession to the Spanish throne in 2014, the government has announced.

The royal couple will meet Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during their April 4-7 visit, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“This will be King Felipe and Queen Letizia’s first state visit in Asia, which represents a special opportunity to strengthen the ties of friendship between Japan and Spain,” it said.

Felipe had originally been set to visit Japan and several other nations last year but he was forced to put off the trips because of the failure of Spain to form a government following two inconclusive elections.

The king has resumed his international agenda since Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was sworn in to a second term in October. In January he went ahead with a visit to Saudi Arabia that had also been delayed.

Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis will accompany the royals on their visit to Japan.

Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito staged visited Spain for a week in 2013.

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Former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato was handed a jail sentence of four years and six months for misusing funds when he was the boss of two Spanish banks.

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Spain’s Rajoy takes EU defence as far-right threatens P

rime Minister Mariano Rajoy leapt to the defence of Europe in an interview, describing it as the “best region in the world” but warning it could implode if populists win elections this year.

“There are many populists, extremists and radicals that blame Europe for all their problems, real and imaginary,” Rajoy said this week at the prime minister’s official Moncloa residence.

“We have to fight them by firstly telling the truth: Europe is the best region in the world in terms of democracy, freedom and economic and social progress,” he said.

“We have in Europe a model welfare state, pensions, public healthcare and education that exists nowhere else in the world,” said the premier of one of the most Europhile countries in the European Union.

The 61-year-old, who was re-elected this month as leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP), took the helm of government in late 2011 when the country faced dire recession, but has brought it back from the brink.

And as anti-EU parties across Europe and US President Donald Trump welcome Brexit, the Spanish leader has dropped his usual reserve to speak out against populism and for Europe.

End of Europe “A victory of the populists would be the end of Europe and it’s the worst news we could have,” he said.

Without naming names, he criticised “those who talk about organising referendums to pull their countries

out of the EU”.

Both Marine Le Pen in France and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, who are riding high in the polls, have promised votes on EU membership should they be elected.

Rajoy said however that Britain’s shock decision to leave the EU might provide the opportunity for the bloc to close ranks and tighten its integration. He said he for one supported “fiscal union” as well as a single energy market and a single digital market.

“It would be totally absurd for Brexit to create divisions between member states,” as feared by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, who recently said he feared Britain could divide EU states during Brexit negotiations.

“Honestly, I don’t believe that,” he said.

Rajoy said he hoped to see ties between Washington and Europe ease after a phone call he had last week with the US president in which both sides expressed “the will to have good relations”.

“Let’s have constructive international relations, trying to destroy one another does not seem the right way to me”.

But he appeared to be in no hurry to heed US Defence Secretary James Mattis’ warning to NATO allies to increase military spending or risk seeing Washington “moderate its commitment” to the alliance.

Spain spends less than one percent of its GDP on defence, far below NATO members’ pledge to reach two percent by 2024.

“We will gradually increase our military spending, but

when circumstances are right,” Rajoy said, pointing out that his government was working to reduce the public deficit to the EU’s 3 percent ceiling after a damaging economic crisis.

“It’s hard to do everything at once.”

Deficit pledge held?

Spain is only just emerging from a crisis sparked in 2008 when a property bubble burst.

Under Rajoy’s watch, unemployment has gradually come down from a high of nearly 27 percent in 2013 to 18.6 percent, still well above the eurozone average and the second worst rate in the EU after Greece.

Critics also say that many jobs are temporary and precarious and that drastic spending cuts by Rajoy’s government to ease the crisis have raised poverty and inequalities in the country.

Rajoy pointed out that his government had managed to bring down the public deficit to 4.6 percent of GDP last year from a high of 11 percent, and was aiming for 3.1 percent in 2017.

But the European Commission warned this week that Spain would be unlikely to reach that target, tabling more on 3.5 percent.

“Spain intends to keep its promises,” Rajoy said.

“But it is growing at 3.2 percent, double the growth of the EU. More than 500,000 jobs were created last year.

“We want to keep our promise on the deficit. So if we exceed it by one or two tenths of a percentage point....

But I will try and avoid that.”

SPAIN WILL SEEK DEAL FOR EXPATS AFTER BREXIT Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says he thinks a deal can quickly be worked out with Britain to defend the rights of British expats in Spain after Brexit.

“I am absolutely convinced that we will reach an agreement so that these people will not be affected by political decisions,” Rajoy said in an interview.

Up to one million Britons are estimated to be living in Spain, many of them pensioners enjoying sunnier climes.

They currently receive healthcare coverage under EU mechanisms that give them

the same treatment as locals, but this access could become prohibitively expensive once Britain leaves the EU. “I hope that we will soon be able to tell them: Don’t worry, nothing is going to change for the Spaniards in the United Kingdom, nor for the Britons in Spain,” he said.

He said the negotiations would start after an EU summit that will convene once Britain formally begins its EU divorce proceedings, expected for the end of March.

He also noted the importance of Brit-

ish tourism to his country, which attracts more visitors from Britain than any other country.

renegotiate “Last year 17 million Britons came to Spain, and we want that to continue,” he said.

“They like it, and so do we.”

Rajoy also reiterated that he would use Brexit to renegotiate with London the status of Gibraltar, the tiny territory on Spain’s southern tip that was ceded to Britain in 1713.

“We are going to ask that all decisions affecting Gibraltar be made bilaterally between the United Kingdom and Spain,” he said.

Madrid has recently offered dual citizenship to Gibraltarians in exchange for joint sovereignty of the territory, which offers strategic control of access to the Mediterranean.

“I think that our proposal of shared sovereignty is quite reasonable,” Rajoy said -- although both London and the government of Gibraltar have rejected the idea.

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LOCAL AND REST OF SPAIN NEWS

Man killed in ‘horrific dog attack’ A Spanish man has been mauled to death in what police believe was a vicious attack by his neighbour’s five dogs.

The 66-year-old was discovered by his son lying on the ground covered in wounds “caused by animal bites” which police suspect were the work of the dogs, all crosses between pit bulls -- considered dangerous -- and bull terriers.

The victim left his home in Beniarbeig, southeaster Spain, to tend to his vegetables nearby, the Guardia Civil police force said in a statement.

When his son realised he had been gone a long time, he went to look for him and found him lying on the ground in a “horrific scene”, they added.

Police said the state of his arms and legs suggested the man fought hard before he died.

There are no dangerous wild animals in the area, and suspicion soon fell on a neighbour whose dogs have caused problems in the past.

“The dogs didn’t have any trace of blood on them, but police realised that one of them was soaking wet, as if it had just been washed,” the Guardia Civil said.

“The owner alleged he had fallen in the pool.”

Police took DNA from the dogs to confirm whether they killed the man. If they did, the owner could face charges of involuntary manslaughter.

The dogs, meanwhile, were taken to a shelter where they bit a worker and destroyed the cage they were kept in, police said.

Spain, like many other countries, strictly regulates the ownership of potentially dangerous dogs. Potential owners have to undergo physical and psychological tests to make sure they are fit to own them.

The dogs have to be muzzled in public places and must be kept on short leashes.

Probe into antitransgender bus campaign Prosecutors in Madrid have launched an “urgent” investigation into a conservative association that chartered a bus displaying a large, antitransgender message to tour Spain, drawing widespread condemnation.

“B

oys have penises, girls have vaginas. Don’t let them fool you. If you’re born a man, you’re a man, if you’re a woman, you will continue to be so,” read the slogan on the side of the big, orange bus, which started circulating in Madrid on Monday.

Chartered by the HazteOir (“Make yourself heard”) association, the bus was part of the group’s latest campaign against the promotion of gender identity, or the right for a person to feel like and be a man or a woman regardless of their birth sex.

It was bound for other Spanish cities but Madrid authorities made an official complaint over possible “LGBT-phobia,” seizing the vehicle.

“HATE CRIME” Prosecutors in Madrid then launched a probe into the organisation to determine whether the campaign could constitute a “hate crime”, asking a judge to have the vehicle immobilised.

In a statement, they said failing to do so could risk “disturbing the peace and creating a feeling of insecurity or fear among

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people due to their identity or sexual orientation, and specifically among minors who could be affected by the message.”

The bus campaign drew widespread criticism.

“Those from HazteOir may have penises and vaginas, but they clearly don’t have a brain, nor do they have a heart,” Pablo Iglesias, leader of the far-left Podemos party, said in a television interview.

Javier Maroto, a gay lawmaker for the ruling conservative Popular Party, also slammed a project he labelled a “disgraceful campaign of hate” against people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).

Some 10 semi-autonomous regions in Spain have adopted laws against discrimination of transsexuals.

But activists are calling for a state-level law banning discrimination of people for their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Mane Fernandez Noriega of the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals, said in a statement that such a law would “protect us from these types of demonstrations regardless of where we are.”

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Le Pen’s anti-euro plan ‘to cost France 30€ bn a year’ MARINE Le Pen’s pledge to ditch the euro if elected French president would cost the country over 30 billion euros a year in increased borrowing costs, the country’s central bank governor has warned.

With less than three months to go before the first round of the election Le Pen is polling strongly on a nationalist platform of heavily curtailing migration, relinquishing the euro and organising a referendum on France’s EU membership.

Banque de France governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said that pulling out of the single currency would drive up the cost of France’s borrowing.

“If we were alone, we would be helpless faced with financial market speculation... and helpless faced with US pressure on

the dollar,” he told France Inter radio.

“Financing France’s public debt would cost over 30 billion euros ($31 billion) a year: that’s the equivalent of France’s annual defence budget,” he said.

CALCULATION Villeroy de Galhau did not give a breakdown of the calculation but said the interest on France’s debt had fallen by 1.5 percent since it adopted the single currency.

“That is very significant for those with home loans, for business investments and all taxpayers,” he said.

He also credited the euro with keeping inflation down, causing it to fall from nearly five percent annually before the 1992 Maastricht Treaty that ushered

in the euro to under two percent currently.

Le Pen has argued that France needs to take back control over its monetary policy to boost growth -- forecast to come in at 1.3 percent in 2017, below a eurozone average of 1.7 percent -- and rein in unemployment.

Villeroy de Galhau acknowledged that the French economy needed to be “repaired and refurbished” but rejected the notion that the euro was the cause of its malaise.

“Many countries that share the euro with us are doing well on the economic front,” he said, warning against “tearing down the foundations, our currency the euro, which forms a very strong basis in uncertain times.”

Lost Dutch WWII warships off Java were stolen by divers The wrecks of three Dutch warships which sank off Java during World War II and whose mysterious disappearance was noticed last year were stolen by divers, an initial inquiry has revealed.

Indonesian and Dutch experts have “examined all the available data” and concluded the wrecks must have been taken from the bottom of the Java Sea, the Dutch foreign ministry said.

The disappearance of the wrecks was first noticed in 2016 when an international expedition was sent to the spot to prepare for commemorations to mark the 75th anniversary of the sea battle in which they foundered.

It is believed they were illegally salvaged by people seeking to remove valuable metal.

HERITAGE Experts have recommended that a full inquiry now be opened “to gather extra information” including about those responsible.

The ministry stressed that an accord has been reached with Jakarta to share information and knowledge “to protect cultural maritime heritage.”

There are about a dozen Dutch wrecks in the region some of which date back to the 17th century, ministry spokesman Paul Middelberg said.

The warships De Ruyter, Java and Kortenaer (pictured)

sank during a major World War II battle on February 27, 1942, leading to the deaths of some 915 troops.

Two British warships, which also sank in the same firefight, have also disappeared, according to British daily The Guardian.

Dozens of wrecks are still believed to languish at the bottom of the Java Sea, between the islands of Java and Borneo. It was the scene of one of the most decisive battles of the Pacific Campaign during World War II when the invading Japanese navy defeated the Allied forces.

‘Spiderman’ thief gets eight years for $100m Paris art heist A THIEF nicknamed “Spiderman”, who stole five masterpieces from a top Paris museum, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for one of the most daring art heists in recent years.

Vjeran Tomic (below) and two accomplices were also fined a whopping 104 million euros ($110 million) over the theft of five paintings by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Ferdinand Leger and Amedeo Modigliani from the Musee d’Art Moderne in 2010.

The artworks, which were estimated by the City of Paris to be worth 109 million euros, are still missing.

Tomic, 49, was arrested in May 2011 and admitted carrying out the heist.

Two accomplices -- a 61-year-old antique dealer accused of ordering the heist and a 40-year-old watchmaker who hid the paintings for a while -- were given sentences of seven and six years respectively.

Tomic was accused of cutting through a padlocked gate and breaking a window to get into the gallery, one of the most-visited museums in the French capital.

Three guards were on duty that night, but the paintings were only found to be missing from their frames the next day.

The museum’s alarms had been awaiting repair for several weeks.

Tomic told police he had come for Leger’s “Still Life with Candlestick” from 1922, not thinking he would also be able to steal another four.

The other works stolen were Picasso’s cubist “Dove with Green Peas” from 1912 -- alone worth an estimated 25 million euros -- Matisse’s “Pastoral” from 1905, Braque’s “Olive 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, which is home to more than 8,000 works of 20th-century art.

- ‘Liked’ the paintings - Tomic, a master burglar, said he took all five paintings because he “liked” them.

Athletically built and 1.90 metres (six foot 2 inches) tall, he had gained his nickname by 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.

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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INTERNATIONAL NEWS INTERNATIONALNEWS

Russia orders hunger-strike prisoner to pay medical bills

INDIA PUTS RECORD 104 SATELLITES INTO ORBIT

C

Russia has ordered a prisoner to pay his medical costs after he went on hunger strike over jail conditions, his lawyer has announced, a move that could curb protests against poor treatment of convicts.

The prison service is forcing Andrei Krekov, 36, a lawyer from the northwestern Arkhangelsk region, to cover costs of some 50,000 rubles ($870) resulting from a 27day hunger strike last year.

Prisoners in Russia have little recourse to draw attention to abuses and often resort to hunger strikes as a way of highlighting their plight.

High-profile detainees in Russian jails who have held hunger strikes include the Pussy Riot punks, former oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko.

DOUBTS “We have huge doubts about the legality of this lawsuit,” said Alexei Fedyarov, a lawyer from Sitting Rus, an organisation that campaigns for prisoners’ rights, who has taken up Krekov’s case.

“The lawsuit and the decision on it will set a precedent,” he said, warning that hunger strikes “could simply die out.”

Krekov is serving a sentence of 2 years and 8 months in a penal colony after being jailed in 2015 for allegedly biting a policeman on the leg, a charge he says was fabricated after he reported a police beating.

Krekov’s partner Viktoria, who asked not to give her full name for fear of repercussions, claims to have launched a hunger strike after being placed in an isolation cell as punishment for allegedly making an unsanctioned phone call.

At the end of his hunger strike his health deteriorated and he was hospitalised for nine days.

While Krekov is entitled to free state hospital treatment, he was given private treatment for reasons that are unclear, and the prison service is suing him over the medical costs of 28,917 rubles, arguing he deliberately damaged his health.

In addition he is being ordered to pay 21,616 rubles for costs including convoy guards and even petrol.

A magistrates’ court has upheld the payment demand and Krekov has taken the case through numerous appeals, running up legal bills of 500,000 rubles, his partner said.

elebrations erupted among scientists at the southern spaceport of Sriharikota as the head of India’s Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced all the satellites had been ejected as planned.

“My hearty congratulations to the ISRO team for this success,” the agency’s director Kiran Kumar told those gathered in an observatory to track the progress of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the scientists for achieving the feat which smashes a record previously held by Russia.

“They have hit a century in space technology,” Modi said at an election rally in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

The rocket took off at 9:28am (0358 GMT) and cruised at a speed of 27,000 kilometres (16,777 miles) per hour, ejecting all the 104 satellites into orbit in around 30 minutes, according to ISRO. The rocket’s main cargo was a 714 kilogram (1,574 pounds) satellite for Earth observation but it was also loaded with 103 smaller “nano satellites”, weighing a combined 664 kilograms. The smallest weighed only 1.1 kilogram.

Nearly all of the nano satellites are from other countries, including Israel, Kazakhstan, Switzerland and 96 from the United States.

Eighty-eight of them are from Planet Inc - a San Franciscobased Earth imagery company - and weigh 4.5 kilogram each. Only three satellites belonged to India.

Scientists sat transfixed as they watched the progress of the rocket on monitors until the last payload was ejected, and then began punching the air in triumph and hugging each other.

This was PSLV’s 39th successful mission, known as India’s space workhorse.

India has successfully put a record 104 satellites from a single rocket into orbit in the latest triumph for its famously frugal space programme.

World record The launch means India now holds the record for launching the most satellites in one go, surpassing Russia which launched 39 satellites in a single mission in June 2014.

And it is another feather in the cap for ISRO which sent an unmanned rocket to orbit Mars in 2013 at a cost of just $73 million, compared with NASA’s Maven Mars mission which had a $671 million price tag.

ISRO is also mulling the idea of missions to Jupiter and Venus.

The business of putting commercial satellites into space for a fee is growing as phone, Internet and other companies, as well as countries, seek greater and more high-tech communications.

India has carved out a reputation as a reliable low-cost option, relying in part on its famed skill of “jugaad” -- creating a cheap alternative solution.

Experts say much of its credibility stems from India’s successful launch of the Mars orbiter, which gave it an edge over its rivals in the space race.

“India is proving to be a very viable option because of the cost and the reliability factor,” said Ajay Lele, a senior fellow at the Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

“India has been doing these launches successfully and has established itself as a very reliable player.”

Mathieu J Weiss, a liaison officer for France’s CNES national space agency who is currently in India, said ISRO had pulled off a major feat.

“It’s a great technical challenge to launch so many satellites at once into orbit on the right trajectory so that they don’t make contact with each other,” he told AFP. Weiss said India had become a major player in the space race by making itself so competitive with its low costs and by working with private companies which are space specialists.

“India has become a space power in its own right in recent years,” he added.

Last June, India set a national record after it successfully launched a rocket carrying 20 satellites, including 13 from the US. The 50-year-old space agency plans to send four more rockets into space later this year ahead of its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 slated for 2018.

Modi has often hailed India’s budget space technology, quipping in 2014 that a rocket that launched four foreign satellites into orbit had cost less to make than Hollywood film “Gravity”.

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WEEKEND WORLD - 23

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

WHAT’S YOUR POISON? A history of killing with chemistry T

HE killing of Kim Jong-Nam (pictured above), the half-brother of the North Korean leader, at a Malaysian airport has revived fascination in the poisoner’s methods.

In a story that could be cribbed straight from a spy novel, intelligence chiefs in South Korea say female agents dispatched by their secretive northern neighbour administered the lethal dose, with reports suggesting a toxin was sprayed in his face.

A would-be poisoner can choose from a cat-

From the courtiers of Ancient Greece to Soviet spies and maybe now North Korean agents, poison has a long history as a weapon of murder, favoured by assassins for its stealthy delivery of the fatal blow. alogue of deadly chemicals, some of which are relatively easy to obtain.

Ricin -- naturally occurring in castor oil plant seeds -- and thallium (rat poison) are notorious for their murderous properties.

Arsenic delivers a slow and miserable death, while strychnine induces extreme body

spasms as the victim’s respiratory system collapses.

But “cyanide is the fastest killer and the easiest to detect, its pathology appears all over the body,” said Porntip Rojanasunan a forensic expert and adviser to Thailand’s Justice Ministry.

Ivory Coast arrests six journalists over mutiny ‘false information’ Six journalists, including three media owners, have been arrested in the Ivory Coast for “spreading false information” about a mutiny by security forces, their newspapers and the public prosecutor said.

The move came after elite forces became the latest troops to protest over pay in recent weeks in the West African nation, firing into the air in the army barracks town of Adiake.

“Regarding recent action taken by the military... we have come to believe that certain media organisations are spreading false information in a bid to encourage soldiers to revolt,” said a statement from the public prosecutor broadcast on national television on Sunday.

QUESTIONED The editor and owner of the independent dailies L’Inter and SoirInfo were arrested and held in a police camp in the capital Abidjan, along with the editors and owners of the opposition newspapers Le Temps and Notre Voie.

The journalists will be questioned to “find out where responsibility lies” for the alleged false information, the prosecutor said.

They were arrested on suspicion of breaking the law which forbids inciting rebellion among the military, attacking state authority and publishing false information relating to defense and state security, the statement added.

The elite forces mutinied in Adiake, some 90 kilometres (55 miles) from Abidjan, between Tuesday and Thursday, but later “apologised to the authorities” according to a high-level military source.

Troops first launched a mutiny over pay on January 5.

Those protests subsided when the government reached a deal with 8,500 mutineers, agreeing to give them 12 million CFA francs (18,000 euros, $19,000) each.

However more soldiers have since taken to the streets demanding similar bonuses.

Last year Ivory Coast approved an ambitious military budget to modernise the army and buy new equipment.

But the 1.2-billion-euro pot would be insufficient to offer similar payments to all of the country’s 23,000-strong security forces.

She said the victim’s “bright red blood” in post-mortem is the telltale sign of a potential cyanide poisoning.

Other chemicals such as potassium can cause “an extreme heart arrhythmia.. and can lead to a heart attack very quickly.”

Slow-acting poisons may allow assailants to slink away from the crime scene undetected.

But chemical compounds are not easy to store or handle and many carry a giveaway residue, smell or colour that makes them hard to conceal, Porntip added.

Apples, umbrellas and wine Tales of poisonings -- real or imagined -- have formed their own mythology.

Poisoning has become a byword for backroom scheming by treacherous political rivals, revenge and cold-blooded murder.

Shakespeare took to the theme, with a penchant for poison-tipped endings for his characters, while Snow White’s demise after eating the poison apple became a cautionary tale on jealousy.

In real-life, academics still debate whether it is was arsenic or the asp that did for the Cleopatra, toxic wine that killed Alexander the Great or poisonous secretions in his wallpaper that accounted for Napoleon.

Anguished housewives of Victorian Britain earned notoriety for dosing the food or drink of brutish husbands with arsenic.

More recently poison featured prominently in Soviet-era tradecraft.

In 1978 Bulgarian dissident Georgy Markov died after receiving a fatal dose of ricin delivered through the tip of an umbrella on a London street.

His killer has never been caught.

Moscow was accused of carrying out an assassination on British soil in 2006 when tea laced with highly-radioactive Polonium-210 was served to ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, condemning him to a slow death.

In Asia, members of a shadowy Japanese cult dropped plastic bags of liquid sarin, a nerve agent, on packed Tokyo subway trains in 1995, killing more than a dozen people.

Nine years later Indonesian rights campaigner Munir Said Thalib was killed after being poisoned on a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam.

If Seoul’s spy chief is right, North Korea now appears to have added a new chapter to the chilling history of poison.

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 25

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Austria is suing European aerospace giant Airbus over a 2003 Eurofighter deal that was long alleged to have been highly shady, seeking up to 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in damages.

A

ustria’s defence ministry said that the lawsuit, filed last week, accused Airbus and the Eurofighter consortium of deliberately hoodwinking Vienna over the two-billion-euro order.

“Austria would have never decided to buy the Eurofighter jets in 2003 without the fraudulent deception by Airbus and Eurofighter,” Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil said.

A spokesman for a “surprised” Airbus said that Vienna has yet to provide it with any information about its move, saying that it had only learned about the lawsuit from media reports.

“The reported allegations, in particular those of fraud and deception, are incomprehensible to us. They appear contrived and we explicitly reject them,” the spokesman said.

“We see today’s action as a political manoeuvre,” he said.

The firm would however fully cooperate with the Austrian authorities, he added.

Prestige project The Eurofighter Typhoon is a major prestige product for the European defence industry, with 475 aircraft delivered so far to Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain, as well as to Austria and Saudi Arabia.

The four founding nations in the consortium -- Germany, Spain, Britain and Italy -– all use the planes in their own

Austria sues over ‘fraudulent’ Eurofighter deal Austrian Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil

Taxpayers pay bribes

air forces. Other contracts have been signed with Oman and Kuwait.

As well as Airbus Defence and Space, representing Germany and Spain, the consortium includes British group BAE Systems and Italian firm Leonardo. The total supply chain employs some 100,000 people.

Austria was the first country outside the consortium to sign up, ordering in 2003 18 of the aircraft, which then dropped to 15 because of budgetary constraints.

Negotiations had begun in 2000, stirring unease in the neutral Alpine country -- it is not in NATO -- and allegations started to swirl about kickbacks to politicians and others.

Polish govt wants to limit access to morning after pill Poland’s conservative government has announced it wants to restrict access to the morning-after pill in the devoutly Catholic country, which already has one of the EU’s most restrictive abortion laws.

“Birth control pills are all prescription only and we thought there shouldn’t be an exception,” said government spokesman Rafal Bochenek.

The morning-after pill has been available over the counter in Poland since 2015 in accordance with European law.

“This bill limits women’s reproductive rights,” said Katarzyna Labedz from the pro-choice Federation for Women and Family Planning.

She said there is the risk that it will defeat the purpose of the pill, which needs to be taken without delay to be effective.

“We fear that this is yet another restrictive measure and that there will be more to come,” Labedz said.

The conservatives, who have been in power since November 2015, have already cut state funding for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), which involves fertilising an egg outside a woman’s body to produce an embryo that can then be implanted into her womb.

Last year, the PiS also tried to tighten the al-

A graft probe was set up in 2007 and led to the suspension of the then air force chief following revelations that his wife’s company had been paid 87,600 euros by a lobbyist.

In 2012 Austrian and German authorities launched a probe into Airbus, previously called EADS, to investigate whether officials had been paid millions of euros through advisory firms to secure the contract.

Prosecutors in Munich are set to publish their preliminary findings later this year.

In late January, Airbus had already agreed to pay tens of millions of euros in additional taxes over an allegedly shady 90-million-euro payment linked to the Austrian Eurofighter contract.

The new “Task Force” report presented on Thursday, five years in the making, alleges that Airbus knowingly misled Austria about the purchase price, delivery times and the jets’ technical equipment.

Currencies Direct also has a or make a payment to another be over £150), they’ll set up beneficiary. Many customers unique agreement with Caixa Direct Debit for you. It can In particular Austria wants to claw back 183.4 million use online transfer systems like aBank in Spain, soeuros they’re able be weekly, monthly, quarterthis for smaller transactions to open a free CaixaBank acly or yearly. Leaving you free butand prefer also to speakcriminal” directly to count exclusively for all their in additional in “legal... commissions to sit costs back and enjoy the view a person when making larger customers, which allows them transfers.others With Currencies to have immediate transfers allegedly paid to lobbyists and thatDi-Vienna says was rect it’s up to you. from Spain to UK with no transfer fees. This can save you Today’s rates deal. look good, Repatriating funds not specified in the thousands! but you don’t need to transfer Let’s face it. We know Spain your money for – that say – three of mind “It is not acceptable taxpayers thePeace tab for bribes,” is fantastic -pick there’s up a reason months? No problem. A Forwhy you invested and moved When looking for an exward Contract is the currency Doskozil said. there in the first place all those change provider, you want to world’s version of “buy now, 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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Every time you transfer money overseas with your bank you’ll lose money in hidden fees and a poor exchange rate. ready restrictive abortion law but buckled under pressure from tens of thousands of blackclad women who protested nationwide.

The parliament wound up rejecting the controversial bill that would have allowed abortions only if the woman’s life was at risk and increased the maximum jail term for practitioners from two years to five.

Passed in 1993, the current legislation bans all abortions unless there was rape or incest, the pregnancy poses a health risk to the mother or the foetus is severely deformed.

Home to 38 million people, Poland sees fewer than 2,000 legal abortions a year, but women’s groups estimate that another 100,000 to 150,000 procedures are performed illegally or abroad.

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26 - WEEKEND WORLD

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 27

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

BORN KILLERS

French army grooms eagles to down drones

A

T Mont-de-Marsan in southwestern France a quartet of fearsome golden eagles is being trained to take out unmanned aircraft in mid-flight.

The roar of a departing Rafale fighter jet gives way to the buzz of a drone lifting into the air on a runway at the air base, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of Bordeaux.

Suddenly, a loud squawk fills the air as a beady-eyed eagle bears down at breakneck speed from a control tower 200 metres away.

In about 20 seconds the raptor has the drone between its talons, then pins it to the ground and covers it with its broad brown wings.

The drone has been destroyed: Mission accomplished for D’Artagnan.

The valiant bird is one of four feathered fighters -- along with Athos, Porthos and Aramis, all characters in French novelist Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers” -- being put through their paces since mid-2016.

Mont-de-Marsan is one of five air bases in France to boast a falconry.

Usually, the birds of prey -- generally falcons or northern goshawks -- are kept to scare birds away from the runway to reduce the risk of accidents during takeoff or landing.

But with France on high alert after a string of jihadist assaults since January 2015, they are now sinking their beaks into national security.

“The results are encouraging. The eagles are making good progress,” said Commander Christophe, who heads the air safety squadron that is training the plumed predators.

Like all French military personnel, he offers

Faced with the risk of drones being used to snoop or carry out attacks on French soil, the air force is showing its claws.

only his first name and rank to journalists.

He says the birds are performing three to four months ahead of projections.

Hunting instincts Police in The Netherlands were the first to come up with the idea of using raptors to intercept drones, inducting bald eagles into the service in late 2015.

The French army followed suit last year, but

FRANCE ARRESTS THREE SUSPECTED OF PLANNING TERROR ATTACK French police have arrested three men suspected of planning a terror attack in raids in the Paris area, Marseille and the central city of Clermont-Ferrand, legal sources confirm.

In Clermont-Ferrand, a bomb-disposal operation was called in to sweep the home of a 37-year-old suspect for explosives, a source said.

“The suspects had a plot that was sufficiently advanced for the police to decide to arrest them,” another source said.

The raids were ordered by anti-terrorism prosecutors in Paris, according to a judicial source.

France, which has been rocked by a wave of deadly jihadist attacks from January 2015, remains on high alert.

On February 3, a 29-year-old Egyptian armed with machetes lunged at four soldiers on patrol outside the Louvre museum, crying “Allahu Akbar” (God Is Greatest).

He was shot and seriously injured by one of the soldiers.

A week later, police arrested four people in southern France, including a 16-yearold girl near Montpellier, on suspicion they were planning an “imminent” attack.

During the raid, the officers found ingredients used to make TATP, a highly unstable homemade explosive used in the November 2015 attacks in Paris.

The teenage girl, her partner and an older man described as their mentor were charged with terrorist offences.

it opted for the golden eagle -- a naturalborn killer with a hooked beak, amber eyes and a wingspan of up to 2.2 metres (seven feet).

Like all birds of prey, the golden eagle has excellent eyesight, capable of spotting its target from two kilometres away.

At between three and five kilograms (11 pounds) it also happens to weigh about the same as most of the drones that could be used for nefarious purposes -- or that simply go astray.

And an eagle is devastatingly fast, clocking 80 kilometres an hour as it swoops in for the kill.

Hatched in captivity, the four “musketeers” had their food served atop wrecked drones from the age of three weeks.

Thanks to this technique, the birds very quickly began to seize remotely piloted aircraft for food.

So when drones buzz above, their hunting instinct kicks in, with falconer Gerald Machoukow rewarding every successful interception with a hunk of meat.

Protective mittens The birds begin with flights in a straight line, graduating to diving from a height. Soon they will be casting off from peaks in the nearby Pyrenees Mountains.

The buzz around the project is palpable.

A first progress report is due in June, halfway through the 24-month test programme, but the initial feedback is positive.

“The cost is very low considering the job at hand,” said Commander Laurent, listing strategic sites such as airports, or events such as summits and football tournaments, among those where the eagles could be deployed.

To prevent the birds from harming themselves on the job, the military is designing mittens of leather and Kevlar, an anti-blast material, to protect their talons.

“I love these birds,” Machoukow said. “I don’t want to send them to their death.”

He cautions against setting “impossible” tasks for his charges, like launching them against larger drones with potentially deadly propellers.

Commander Laurent agrees that the birds are part of a palette of weapons available to the army in countering the threat from drones -- not a fix-all solution.

But the air force is already smitten enough to have ordered a second brood of eaglets.

Mont-de-Marsan expects to welcome four more future aviator eagles by the summer.

British expats join forces to tackle Brexit A coalition of groups representing Britons living in EU nations have joined forces y to defend their rights as Britain readies to pull out of the bloc and thousands of expats worry about their future.

In an “Alternative White Paper” timed to coincide with the British government’s launch of its blueprint for Brexit, organisations representing British citizens living in Germany, France, Belgium, Italy and Spain called for their rights as EU citizens to be preserved after the pull-out.

“The (Brexit) referendum gave no mandate to alter the rights of these people,” read the document drafted

by Jane Golding and Jeremy Morgan, two British lawyers living in Germany and Italy respectively, and endorsed by 10 groups.

“It was no part of the (pro-Brexit) Leave campaign that their rights should be torn up, quite the contrary.

“It is therefore essential that whatever steps are necessary to protect these rights are taken, and taken as a matter of urgency to bring an end to the anxiety that they are feeling about their personal futures and those of their families.”

The document called for expats’ preBrexit rights to be included in EU withdrawal negotiations and explicitly guaranteed in a final agreement “so as to give it the force of international law.”

ESTIMATED It is estimated at least 1.2 million British citizens live in the 27 other EU member states, though that number could be far higher.

Chief on their minds are healthcare, pensions, the right to work, to study, and to generally remain in their country of residence -- all of which are addressed in the “alternative white paper.”

In Spain, for instance, which counts a huge British community, many of them pensioners who have moved to better climes, healthcare is a huge concern, particularly with the fall in the pound following June’s referendum.

For now, it is covered by Spain’s social security system under EU mechanisms that allow Britons to receive the same treatment as locals, and many would not be able to pay if that right were taken away.

The “alternative white paper” also highlighted the case of professionals such as nurses or architects whose qualifications are recognised EU-wide, and would have to re-qualify in their country of residence.

“It’s very important to speak with one voice,” Golding, a member of Germany’s “Brits in Europe” association, told AFP. “These are real people, real lives, real problems we’re facing.

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

28 - WEEKEND WORLD

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

T

HE Troisgros restaurant, a veritable shrine to France’s haute cuisine, is pulling out of the town it put on the map thanks to the three Michelin stars it has boasted since 1968.

The move out of the central town of Roanne to a rural village just eight kilometres (five miles) away may seem modest, but to the Troisgros dynasty it is a sea change.

“It’s not an uprooting,” said Michel Troisgros, 58, who took over the reins in 1996. “On the contrary, we are putting down new roots.”

For Michel’s 30-year-old son Cesar, the great-grandson of the restaurant’s founder who is being groomed to head the new kitchen, Saturday’s move is nothing short of a rite of passage.

“He will be another man in another place,” said Michel, whose father Pierre and uncle Jean helped start the nouvelle cuisine craze in the 1960s.

But Cesar “is not an heir like I was,” Michel said, praising his son’s “effervescent creative powers”.

“He’ll run a kitchen operation of his own conception.”

Cesar, the second of Michel’s three children, admitted: “I feel more at ease than I did in Roanne in a kitchen with more than 80 years of history.”

The bespectacled young man with a short-cropped beard like his father’s began his training at the Paul Bocuse Institute along with his younger brother Leo. After stints with top chefs Michel Rostang in Paris, the Roca brothers in Spain and Thomas Keller in California, Cesar started work at the family restaurant six years ago.

Inspired by the countryside “I’m really proud of what my parents achieved and... what my grandparents did,” he said. “It’s not easy for me, because I tell myself that if I can’t do things just as well I shouldn’t do them at all.”

Cesar’s great-grandparents Jean-Baptiste and Marie started the restaurant in 1930 at a prime location across from the rail station in Roanne, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) from France’s gastronomic capital, Lyon.

Cesar’s mother Marie-Pierre said his approach to cuisine is “obviously more modern than Michel’s. He’s more inspired by the countryside and very involved with our suppliers.”

Great-grandson to reinvent iconic three-star French restaurant

estate sitting on 17 hectares (42 acres) of land opens Saturday in the sleepy village of Ouches, home to fewer than 1,500 people.

Michel, Marie-Pierre and Cesar served their last meals at the Roanne restaurant -- where one could enjoy the likes of rabbit, crab and mint bisque or white asparagus with chives, walnut and saffron with lemon zest -- on January 1.

The family invested eight million euros ($8.5 million) in the new establishment, which includes a hotel with 15 rooms.

Floor-to-ceiling windows give guests the impression of eating al fresco amid sculptured steel pillars evoking trees. The restauMichel Troisgros and his sons, Léo and César, in the kitchen of their new restaurant in Ouches (AFP) rant’s two wings flank a towering old oak tree.

Michel said the Maison Troisgros decided to move out of the While the lunch menu will dip in price to 140 euros from the town because it wanted more space, land to grow its own old restaurant’s 205 euros, dinners will be as high as 410 euros. ingredients and better light.

The family also runs restaurants in nearby Iguerande and in The new, ultra-modern restaurant in a 19th-century manor Paris, as well as in Tokyo and Moscow.

DUBAI AIMS TO LAUNCH Swedish town councillor HOVER-TAXI BY JULY proposes sex Dubai has tested a Chinese prototype of a self-driving hover-taxi, its transport authority has announced, with the aim of introducing the aerial vehicle in the emirate by July.

The test of the one-man electric vehicle comes as the city state in the United Arab Emirates seeks to ensure a quarter of its means of transport are self-driving by 2030.

The EHang 184 can travel on a programmed course at 100 kilometres an hour (60 mph) at an altitude of 300 metres (1,000 feet), the authority said in a statement.

breaks

TOUCH DOWN A passenger simply needs to select a destination for the autonomous taxi to take off, fly the route and touch down in the chosen spot monitored by a ground control centre, it said.

The vehicle, made by Chinese drone manufacturer EHang, can recharge in two hours and make trips of up to 30 minutes.

“The autonomous aerial vehicle exhibited at the World Government Summit is not just a model,” authority head Mattar al-Tayer said on Monday.

“We have already experimented (with) the vehicle in a flight in (the) Dubai sky,” he said in English.

The authority was “making every effort to start the operation of the autonomous aerial vehicle in July 2017” to help reduce traffic congestion, Tayer said.

The quadcopter is powered by eight propellers, the authority said.

It has highly accurate sensors and can resist extreme temperatures, it said. The emirate is known for its scorching summers.

In November, Dubai agreed a deal with US startup Hyperloop One to study the construction of a near-supersonic transport link to the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi.

Home to Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, Dubai is a leading tourist destination in the Gulf, attracting a record 14.9 million visitors in 2016.

Swedes should take a one-hour paid break from work to go home and have sex with their partners, a local councillor has suggested in a proposal aimed at improving people’s personal relationships.

“There are studies that show sex is healthy,” Per-Erik Muskos, a 42-year-old city councillor for the northern town of Overtornea, said after presenting the motion.

He said couples were not spending enough time with each other in today’s society.

“It’s about having better relationships,” he said.

He noted there was no way to verify that employees do not use their hour for other purposes than spending time with their partners or spouses.

“You can’t guarantee that a worker doesn’t go out for a walk instead,” Muskos said, adding that employers needed to trust their employees.

Muskos said he “saw no reason” why the motion wouldn’t pass.

After the Finns and the French, Swedish full-time employees worked the least in Europe with only 1,685 hours on average in 2015, according to a study by economic research institute Coe-Rexecode.

Brits worked an average of 1,900 hours and Germans 1,847 hours in 2015.

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 29

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

B

ANNED chemicals are tainting tiny crustaceans that inhabit the deepest ocean, a recent study shows -the first evidence that humans are polluting even the farthest reaches of our planet.

Even at depths of nearly 11 kilometres (seven miles) these scavengers could not escape “extraordinary” levels of contamination with chemicals used in coolants and insulating fluids, researchers said.

The pollutants likely came from plastic waste and dead animals sinking to the ocean floor, they wrote in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Pollution even in earth’s farthest reaches Amphipods in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana and Kermadec trenches

PRISTINE “We still think of the deep ocean as being this remote and pristine realm, safe from human impact, but our research shows that, sadly, this could not be further from the truth,” said study co-author Alan Jamieson of Newcastle University.

Jamieson and a team used specially-built underwater craft to collect bottom-dwellers called amphipods from the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana and Kermadec trenches.

These are some of the deepest, darkest places on Earth, less well-known to mankind than the surface of the Moon.

Amphipods are among the few creatures that can survive in this inhospitable zone of extreme pressure.

The researchers used mackerel-baited traps to catch the shrimp-like carrion-feeders, then analysed them for traces of chemicals.

The tests revealed high levels of pollutants,

including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) banned almost 40 years ago for causing cancer and wreaking havoc with hormones.

“The fact that we found such extraordinary levels of these pollutants in one of the most remote and inaccessible habitats on Earth really brings home the long-term, devastating impact that mankind is having on the planet,” said Jamieson.

Last frontier

The research was carried out in the ocean’s hadal zone, between six and 11 km deep, and comprised of deep trenches in the sea floor caused by tectonic plate activity.

It is the least-explored ecosystem on Earth, “and the last major marine ecological frontier,” the team wrote.

The Mariana trench is deeper than Mount

Everest is high.

It is believed that some 1.3 million tonnes of PCBs -- which can persist in the environment for decades -- were produced from the 1930s to 1970s.

About 65 percent of the total is thought to be in landfills or still in electrical equipment today, and the other 35 percent in coastal sediment and the open ocean.

The scientists also found traces in the amphipods of another long-lived pollutant -- polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) used in flame retardants.

“PCBs and PBDEs were present in all samples across all species at all depths in both trenches,” the researchers wrote.

In the Mariana trench, the world’s deepest, the highest PCB levels in samples were 50 times higher than in crabs from paddy fields fed by the Liaohe River, one of China’s most polluted.

The team inferred that pollutants must be pervasive “across the world’s oceans and to full ocean depth.”

“What we don’t yet know is what this means for the wider ecosystem”, the animals that feed on amphipods and the food chain higher up, Jamieson said in a statement.

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

30 - WEEKEND WORLD

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Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

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WEEKEND WORLD - 31

EEKEND focuses on SOTOGRANDE & GIBRALTAR WORLD

T

HE Bill also includes amendments to the offence of “grooming” in Gibraltar to bring this offence in line with the equivalent offence in the United Kingdom.

“Grooming” currently applies to an adult who communicates with a child on at least two occasions, and who subsequently meets or arranges to meet that child in order to commit a sexual offence.The new proposed amendment will reduce to one the number of occasions on which the defendant must initially meet or communicate with the child with the intention of committing a sexual offence.

Thus, a single such meeting or communication will qualify as “grooming”.

TARGET Following the publication of the Bill, Minister Costa was approached by the Gibraltar Women’s Association who welcomed it and offered their support. The GWA suggested that the Bill could go further and that a new offence was needed to target paedophiles who communicate sexually with a child. In the UK, such an offence was introduced by the Serious Crime Act 2015.

Minister Costa has considered the GWA’s proposal and is pleased to announce that he has given notice to the Speaker of Parliament that he will be moving amendments to the Bill at Committee stage to include sexual communication with a child as an offence in Gibraltar’s Crimes Act. This will make it a criminal offence for a person aged 18 years or over to communicate with a child under 16 years old if the communication is sexual or if it is intended to

New Changes to Crimes Bill At the end of last month, the Minister for Justice, the Hon Neil Costa, published a Bill for a new Crimes (Amendment) Act 2017. This introduces a new offence of “Revenge Porn.” elicit from the child a communication which is sexual. The offence applies only where the defendant can be shown to have acted for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification; ordinary social or educational interactions between children and adults, or communications between young people themselves, will not be caught by the offence. The offence is subject to a two year maximum prison sentence and will lead to notification requirements.

The Minister for Justice, the Hon Neil F. Costa MP, said: “I would like to thank the Gibraltar Women’s Association for their support in this area and for proactively coming forward with proposals.

We are all agreed that sexual offences against children are terrible crimes and that it is vital to protect children from falling vic-

tim to such abhorrent behaviour. There is already legislation in place in Gibraltar which enables the prosecution of individuals for a range of existing offences, depending on the circumstances. It is important, however, that we continue to adapt our laws, particularly to reflect changes in technology and communications which have given potential offenders new ways of contacting children to encourage or prepare acts of abuse.

I am certain that the creation of this new offence will provide a further tool for our law enforcement authorities to ensure that children and young people are fully protected

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GOVERNMENT SADDENED

BY DEATH OF SIR GERALD KAUFMAN MP HER Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar is saddened by the death of Sir Gerald Kaufman MP. Mr Kaufman was a well-respected Labour politician, father of the House of Commons and long-time friend of Gibraltar.

In 2002 Mr Kaufman chaired a cross-Party team of UK MPs who travelled to Gibraltar to observe the sovereignty referendum. Mr Kaufman has always been a firm defender of Gibraltar’s right to self-determination and in 2013 called for strong reprisals against Spanish incursions into BGTW and the lengthy border queues imposed on the Rock by our neighbours. Mr Kaufman sponsored the Gibraltar (Maritime Protection) Bill in the House of Commons.

The Government of Gibraltar expresses its deepest condolences to Mr Kaufman’s family, friends and colleagues from all sides of the political spectrum at this sad time.

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Drug Arrest at Airport A Spanish national has been arrested by HM Customs at the Gibraltar International Airport as a result of a detection by Borders & Coastguard officers conducting routine security checks on outbound passengers at the Central Search Facilities.

The individual was found to have what was suspected to be drugs pellets strapped around his body with elastic bandages. Customs officers were subsequently alerted and a full body search was conducted revealing approximately 3kg of cannabis resin.

The individual, a Spanish National from Seville was arrested and remanded in custody overnight and has been charged with possession, importation and exportation with intent to supply. He has appeared at the Magistrates Court today.

This detection highlights the effectiveness of the aviation security measures in place and the close cooperation between all agencies at the airport and HM Customs.

by the law. It will also allow the authorities to intervene earlier to prevent more serious offending. This, together with the changes to the grooming offence already in the Bill and the recent restructuring of the Child Protection Committee, shows that this Government is serious in doing all it can to safeguard and protect Gibraltar’s children.”

Gibraltar

Rachelle, Lynette, Michelle & Lorrain

200 44628

weekendworld@ibexinsure.com 68 Irish Town, Gibraltar

Ibex Insurance Services Ltd 2015. Ibex Insurance Services Ltd, 68 Irish Town, Gibraltar. Registered no. 77247.

Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Commission FSC 006 43B

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Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 33

World’s largest sailing yacht is freed following ‘ship arrest’ in Gibraltar Sailing Yacht A the world’s largest sailing yacht has been released by the Gibraltese authorities following a three-day seizure of the 142.81 metre vessel. Travelling to be delivered to its billionaire Russian owner industrialist Andrey Melnichenko in Monaco the vessel was seized by the Gibraltar port following a dispute over €15.3m (£13.3m) owed to the shipbuilder.

Designed by the legendary Philippe Stark, Sailing Yacht A is, as one would expect from a Stark creation an iconic futuristic looking vessel. Taller than Big Ben and longer than 13 London buses, the eight deck sail-assisted motor yacht features three towering masts, each measuring more than 90 metres tall, and features a helipad, on-board swimming pool, and underwater observation pod.

Court papers show that the shipbuilder Nobiskrung demanded the ship be impounded following late payment of €9.8m which was due on 27th January plus €5.5m for subcontractors and interest charges. Following the seizure the Supreme Court in Gibraltar heard that Valla Yachts Limited (the vessel’s Bermuda-registered owner) had paid €9.8m on 5th February into an Escrow account in London under the terms of the shipbuilding contract

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SAIL but that there were a number of “disputes” that need to be resolved which would fall under arbitration in the UK courts.

A spokesperson for Sailing Yacht A later confirmed that the vessel had been released by authorities after the two parties reportedly reached a resolution about the claim.

This incident is not the first time the Russian industrialist has made headlines for his exuberant sea vessels — last year his 390-foot Motor Yacht A was moored alongside the HMS Belfast on the river Thames.

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HM Customs Seizes 1,800 Cartons Whilst conducting an operation on the Eastern side to curtail illicit tobacco activity, Customs Officers intercepted a local vehicle loaded with 300 cartons. A search of a garage in the vicinity was also conducted and a further 1500 cartons were seized. Two Spanish nationals have been arrested as a result of this operation. The value of the cigarettes is estimated to be in excess of £33,000. Investigations continue into this matter.

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Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

34 - WEEKEND WORLD

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n International Women’s Day Conference Friday 10 March at Andalucia Lab in Marbella.

We are super excited to share our 5th annual International Women’s Day Conference. The theme again will be “Make It Happen”. This is a collaborative event between Costa Women and 1230 The Women’s Company who are joining again from the UK. We want you to come away with something that you’ve learnt and can put to good use in your business so you can “make it happen” at work and in your daily lives.

Confirmed speakers so far are:Jenny Garrett – Award Winning Coach, TEDx Speaker, Author and Leadership Trainer Sarah Arrow – One of the UK’s leading business bloggers, Forbes listed 3 times Georgina Shaw – champion for Small Business Marketing Jackie Groundselll – Networking Queen and Founder of 1230 The Women’s Company Tina Sibley – Webinar Diva – teaches public speaking to help build your credibility Sonia Ingrisellii – making SEO fun!

Danielle Gardner – helps women package their gifts, knowledge & personality to meet a need in the marketplace.

This International Women’s Day come and join us to celebrate Women in Business and discover how to make It happen for YOU and #BeBoldForChange!

Learn, network, enjoy and celebrate! Be inspired by the amazing speakers’ stories, attend essential workshops designed for your business growth, meet and network with like-minded business women. You will rock!

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n Russian Art New Temporary Exhibition by Kandinsky. 2/22/2017 - 7/17/2017. Coleccion Museo Ruso, Avenida Sor Teresa Prat, Málaga The exhibition “Kandinsky and Russia” investigates, through 78 pieces, in the Russian years of the pioneering artist and creator of abstraction as we know it today, with work by Kandinsky from the Russian Museum of St. Petersburg and other collections Public and private institutions in Russia.

This exhibition will be accompanied by authors who shared the same spirit and the same desire for innovation starting from the Russian cultural substratum, which show pieces of popular art from the 19th century and icons from the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries showing how Kandinsky and

Their circle was inspired by the old Russian traditions to assume and then surpass them.

From the interest in the atavistic traditions of the primitive inhabitants of Russia, we will move on to the expressionist formulas

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

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 35

A Night of Shenanigans with the Goldies

SPONSORED BY CITY FM MALAGA Broadcasting from Nerja to beyond Calahonda on 106.2FM and from Elviria to Gibraltar via 106.8FM to finish developing an abstraction that will have as original inspiration just those forms and colours of eternal Russia.

For more information visit: www.coleccionmuseoruso.es n The Illusion of the Wild West Exhibition Until 19 March, Museo Carmen Thyssen Over the course of the nineteenth century, the conquest of the Wild West became more than a historical event in the founding of the United States of America, developing into a universal myth in which legend progressively replaced history.

In the arts, fascination for those majestic unexplored landscapes (in the work of artists such as George Catlin and Albert Bierstadt), curiosity about the ways of life and customs of the Indian tribes (as expressed in Karl Bodmer’s engravings) and the glorification of trappers and cowboys (as in Frederick Remington’s sculptures)

were conveyed in a broad range of works in several genres. These artists’ romantic view of the lands and inhabitants of the western Mississippi helped create the “illusion” of a wild, idyllic and dangerous place, which found its way into popular culture through the myths of cowboys and Indians that sprang up in the nineteenth century and were consolidated in the twentieth century by motion pictures.

The Spanish equivalent to this fabulous frontier territory of the American West was a haunt of bandits: thieves and highwaymen who operated from the Andalusian highlands of Ronda and the Sierra Morena.

Romanticism steeped these characters and their lawless way of life and natural surroundings in legend, and their fame was spread across Europe by nineteenthcentury artists, making banditry a cliché of Spain’s past that is also world-famous today.

For more information visit: carmenthyssenmalaga.org

at the Millenium

Charity Through Music in its Third Year Saturday 18th March

Do ors ope n at 6.30 p.m . Sh o w s t arts at 7p.m .

Limi te d numbe r of t icke ts t his ye ar !

Acts appearing on the night; Sam Oliver, Deborah Dee, Reality International Duo, Jochen Janz, Tina Hall, Marinella Graitsis, Carl Coulton, Susan Mohr and One Wish Steve

Tickets only

10 €

Next to Miel y Nata Restaurant, Calahonda

Tel: 952 934 793 organizado por / organised by

patrocinado por / sponsored by

en beneficio de / in aid of

D-Wine’s Ecological Wine festival will offer visitors 12 Spanish Ecological Wines and Tapas made of organic ingredients, new products from traditional Spanish wine regions will be introduced during the event. The programme also includes a special guest presentation of an organic winery popularising the organic lifestyle, as well as live music , all in a relax environment.

The event also aims at drawing attention to healthy eating and wine drinking which greatly contributes to the healing of your body and soul, which is easier to achieve with the help of meals and wines resulting from ecological practices . All the wines presented at the event will be available to buy including a 10 % discount for all participants.

“Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages.”

Louis Pasteur

C a l l e A n a d e A u s t r í a, M a r b e l l a, S p a i n w w w . d -w i n e c o l l e c t i o n . c o m 9 52 81 4 4 46

36 - WEEKEND WORLD

W

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

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EEKEND

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MONEY MATTERS

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Endesa’s Profit Soar

United Kingdom - Financial Markets

WEEKEND WORLD - 37

Spain’s Repsol back in the black on higher oil

Endesa has posted a net profit of € 1,41 billion last year an increase of 30% compared to that of in 2015.

Gross operating profit grew 13% to 3,432 million, while revenues fell 7% to 18,979 million.

According to the company, these results exceed the commitments set out in the 2016-2019 strategic plan.

Endesa’s CEO, José Bogas said via a company statement that this positive development was due to the good management of the liberalized business, the stability of the regulated market and the plans for cost efficiency.

Energy giant Repsol swung back to profit last year as oil prices recovered at the end of 2016.

The group have announced it made a net profit of 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in 2016, above the expectations of analysts surveyed by Factset who were banking on 1.56 billion euros.

The results are in marked contrast from 2015, when it registered a loss of 1.2 billion euros due to a plunge in crude prices.

Most Active Stocks “The company reported its highest net income in four years Name Last Prev.

High Low Chg. % Vol. in 2016, reflecting the strength and flexibility of its business s Lloyds Banking 68.77 68.67 69.41 68.42 +0.15% 121.95M units and the success of the action plan put in place in res Glencore 334.65 322.05 335.20 325.30 +3.91% 27.99M sponse to falling crude oil and gas prices,” it said in a statement. t Vodafone Group PLC 201.89 201.90 202.45 200.20 -0.03% 27.50M s BP 466.60 453.55 467.90 455.55 +2.88% 27.09M The result also benefitted in terms of provisions from the comparison with 2015, when it was forced to set aside large s Barclays 230.15 226.50 230.50 225.95 +1.61% 26.03M funds to ward off the impact of dwindling energy prices. s ITV 213.00 202.50 214.00 201.00 +5.14% 16.32M Repsol in October 2015 unveiled an ambitious cost-cutting s HSBC Holdings 662.000 646.500 662.900 654.200 +2.40% 16.16M programme which involves slashing billions from capis Taylor Wimpey 185.00 180.00 185.80 180.50 +2.78% 12.59M tal spending by 2020 and cutting 1,500 jobs out of 25,000 s Tesco 188.75 188.40 189.00 187.50 +0.19% 11.10M worldwide by 2018. t Centrica 224.95 226.90 227.00 224.30 -0.88% 10.75M The group said it had managed to save “more than 900 million euros” in 2016.

Its upstream unit, which includes exploration and producTop Gainers Top Losers tion, made a net profit of 52 million euros in 2016 when it had run at a loss the previous year.

Name Last Chg. Chg. % Name Last Chg. Chg. % This improvement was due to better crude and gas prices in s CRH 2,884.00 +164.00 +6.03% t Fresnillo 1,451.00 -35.00 -2.35% the fourth quarter, it said. s ITV 212.54 +10.10 +4.99% t Randgold Resources 7,400.00 -110.00 -1.47% And it also increased its oil and gas production by 23 percent s Ashtead Group 1,731.00 +75.00 +4.53% t Royal Mail 409.60 -5.00 -1.21% thanks to good output in Peru, Venezuela and Brazil.

But its downstream unit -- which includes refining -- suffered s Next 3,994.31 +168.00 +4.39% t Babcock International 938.00 -10.50 -1.11% a 12 percent drop in profits to 1.88 billion euros, due to a drop s Glencore 334.75 +12.70 +3.94% t United Utilities 969.25 -9.00 -0.92% in margins.

World oil prices have risen by over 70 percent over the last 12 months to around $55 per barrel.

Spain - Financial Markets

Endesa’s Profit Soar

Most Active Stocks

Figures correct at 01.03.2017

Name s Banco Popular s Santander s B. Sabadell s Bankia s BBVA s Telefonica s Caixabank s Iberdrola s IAG s ArcelorMittal

Endesa has posted a net profit of € 1,41 billion last year an increase of 30% compared to that of in 2015.

Gross operating profit grew 13% to 3,432 million, while revenues fell 7% to 18,979 million.

According to the company, these results exceed the commitments set out in the 2016-2019 strategic plan.

Endesa’s CEO, José Bogas said via a company statement that this positive development was due to the good management of the liberalized business, the stability of the regulated market and the plans for cost efficiency.

Last Prev.

High Low Chg. % Vol. 0.862 0.837 0.864 0.840 +2.99% 33.74M 5.280 5.154 5.298 5.184 +2.44% 29.81M 1.456 1.388 1.468 1.433 +4.90% 27.92M 0.959 0.933 0.964 0.940 +2.79% 22.33M 6.348 6.178 6.357 6.221 +2.75% 12.67M 9.860 9.649 9.864 9.720 +2.19% 9.32M 3.385 3.298 3.405 3.316 +2.64% 9.30M 6.299 6.274 6.323 6.282 +0.40% 7.58M Heavily indebted telecoms giant Telefonica has announced 6.444 6.282 6.495 6.309 +2.58% 3.60M its net profit fell close to 14 percent last year to 2.36 billion euros, hit by restructuring costs linked to a voluntary redun8.651 8.313 8.678 8.385 +4.07% 3.30M dancy scheme in Spain.

The results come just days after the group -- on the hunt for Top Gainers Top Losers cash to reduce its debt pile -- agreed to sell up to 40 percent Name Last Chg. Chg. % Name Last Chg. Chg. % of its infrastructure unit Telxius to US investment fund KKR s B. Sabadell 1.454 +0.066 +4.76% t Viscofan 48.390 -1.035 -2.09% for 1.27 billion euros ($1.3 billion).

The group is also considering a possible listing of its British s ArcelorMittal 8.654 +0.341 +4.10% t Melia Hotels 12.280 -0.040 -0.33% unit O2. s Acerinox 13.860 +0.445 +3.32% t Endesa 20.093 -0.002 -0.01% Without the impact of restructuring costs, Telefonica said it s Banco Popular 0.863 +0.026 +3.11% s Cellnex Telecom 14.23 +0.02 +0.14% would have made a net profit of 4 billion euros in 2016. s ACS Const.

30.545 +0.920 +3.10% s Enagas 23.255 +0.060 +0.26% It also managed to slightly reduce its debt to just under 48.6 billion euros, from more than 49 billion euros at the end of 2015.

Euro exchange rates Analysts at the Madrid-based Bankinter said the results were mixed, with good performances in Spain and Brazil, but 8.87 Norwegian Krone 7.43 Danish Krone 1.37 Australian Dollars weaker results in Germany and Britain.

9.53 Swedish Krona 8.17 Hong Kong Dollar 0.86 British Pounds Shares in the company were up 2.19 percent at 9.56 euros 3.86 UAE Dirham 119.90 Japanese Yen 1.40 Canadian Dollars mid-morning, as analysts welcomed the debt reduction.

1.05 US Dollars 1.48 New Zealand Dollar 7.24 Chinese Yuan

Debt-laden Telefonica reports profit drop

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FOCUS ON MONEY MATTERS

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

Bailed-out British bank Lloyds posts surging profits

L

BG pointed to an “uncertain” economic outlook as Britain prepares to exit the European Union but said the UK economy was in good shape having performed better than expected following last June’s referendum in favour of Brexit.

The bank said its net profit surged more than four times to £2.0 billion ($2.5 billion, 2.4 billion euros) in 2016 compared with net profit of £466 million a year earlier.

“We have delivered strong financial performance in 2016 as we continue to make good progress against our strategic

Lloyds Banking Group announced soaring annual profits Wednesday on lower charges linked to an insurance scandal, as it awaits a full return to the private sector following a state bailout. priorities,” group chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said in the earnings statement.

Lloyds is cutting 3,000 jobs this year, bringing to 12,000 the number of positions it has decided to axe since 2014,

GERMAN ENERGY GIANT RWE POSTS 5.7€ BILLION LOSS IN 2016

while -- in a sign of its turnaround -- the bank bought Bank of America’s UK credit card division MBNA for £1.9 billion in December.

LBG on Wednesday said it took another £1.0-billion hit last year to compensate customers who were mis-sold insurance, although this was much reduced compared with a bill of £4.0 billion in 2015 regarding the same issue.

- Costly insurance scandal Lloyds’ compensation for mis-sold payment protection insurance now totals more than £17 billion -- far in excess of other British banks caught up in the long-running scandal.

“Looking forward to 2017, Lloyds will be hoping it has drawn a line under the whole PPI affair, and profits will thus be unshackled from a millstone that has cost the bank dearly in recent years,” said Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown.

In 2011, British banks lost a high court appeal against tighter regulation of PPI, which provides insurance for consumers should they fail to meet repayments on a credit product such as consumer loans, mortgages or payment cards.

PPI became controversial after it was revealed that many customers had been sold it without understanding that the cost was being added to their loan repayments.

British authorities subsequently banned simultaneous sales of PPI and credit products, while UK banks have since faced a total compensation bill of about £30 billion.

Lloyd’s latest update meanwhile comes with it close to a full return to the private sector.

REDUCED STAKE

German energy provider RWE has announced a surprise loss of 5.7 billion euros ($6 billion) for 2016, hit by write-downs on its plants and one-off costs related to the country’s exit from nuclear power.

“The difficult market environment made impairments necessary. In addition, the nuclear energy fund imposed a substantial one-off burden on us,” chief executive Rolf Martin Schmitz said in a statement.

RWE said it was forced to recognise impairments of 4.3 billion euros last year, mainly on its unprofitable German power plants although the company also wrote down the value of assets in Britain, the Netherlands and Turkey.

Like most big European energy companies, RWE is battling low wholesale electricity prices and competition from heavily-subsidised renewable energy rivals.

The group’s performance was also dented by what it described as an “additional extraordinary burden” in the shape of new German legislation that forces energy firms to

help pay for the country’s nuclear phase-out.

The German government decided to move away from nuclear power in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Under a draft law approved in October, the firms Vattenfall, EON, RWE and EnBW would have to contribute 23.5 billion euros to a state fund for the storage of nuclear waste by 2022.

RWE said it will have to contribute about 6.8 billion euros to the fund.

Of that amount, 1.8 billion euros was set aside as nuclear provisions in its 2016 results.

The group said it would not be paying any dividends for 2016.

“The new regulations governing nuclear waste disposal are sensible, but require a great financial effort from RWE,” chief financial officer Markus Krebber said in a statement.

“We do not see any room for paying a dividend on common shares for fiscal 2016,” he added.

The group will present its full-year results on March 14.

The British government is no longer the biggest shareholder in LBG after recently reducing its stake to below five percent.

The government rescued Lloyds with £20 billion of taxpayers’ money at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008, since when the state has sold down its original stake of 43 percent.

“The combination of the progress we have made towards our strategic priorities and our strong financial performance has enabled the UK government to further reduce its stake in the group to less than five percent... returning over £18.5 billion to the UK taxpayer since 2009,” LBG said Wednesday.

It means that US fund manager BlackRock is now the bank’s single biggest stakeholder.

- ‘Resilient UK economy’ In morning deals, LBG shares jumped 3.5 percent to 69 pence to top London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was 0.2-percent higher overall.

“The Lloyds share price has jumped on the back of these latest results, which bodes well for the remaining shares that the government is yet to sell,” said Khalaf.

On Brexit, LBG said the “UK’s decision to leave the European Union means the exact nature of our relationship with Europe going forward remains unclear and the economic outlook is uncertain”.

It added: “Given our UK focus, our performance is inextricably linked to the health of the UK economy which has been more resilient than the market expected post referendum

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 39

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40 - WEEKEND WORLD

Eurozone households borrow more

FOCUS ON MONEY MATTERS

EU says Germany should do more to help economy

T Growth in borrowing by households picked up in the eurozone in January, recently released data by the European Central Bank showed, while growth in businesses’ appetite for credit remained steady.

The rate of loan growth to firms and consumers is a closelywatched indicator for the economic outlook.

Overall, lending to the private sector grew by 2.2 percent year-on-year in the 19-nation single currency area, after already growing by the same rate in December.

Correcting for some purely financial transactions, January’s figure stood at 2.4 percent -- an increase of 0.1 percentage points over the previous month.

Still, in adjusted terms, household borrowing grew 2.2 percent in January -- 0.2 points faster than in December -- while growth in credit to businesses held steady at 2.3 percent.

Loan growth to businesses remained at a seven-year high in January, while growth in credit to households hit its highest level since May 2011, he noted.

The ECB has set interest rates at historic lows, offered cheap loans to banks who lend to businesses and households, and buys tens of billions in corporate and government bonds each month.

Such moves are aimed at stimulating economic growth in the euro area, pushing inflation towards the central bank’s target of just below 2.0 percent.

Inflation in the single currency zone leapt to 1.8 percent in January, its second jump in as many months after a rise of 0.5 percentage points to 1.1 percent in December.

But ECB policymakers argue that the sudden spike is largely down to changing energy prices, and that price growth will likely fall back in the coming months -- meaning their monetary stimulus is still needed.

Strong consumer confidence and business confidence readings for January despite uncertainty over elections in Europe and United States trade and economic policy under President Donald Trump suggest that demand will continue to grow, he noted

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

HE Commission said second-ranked France, which has long struggled with deficits, had made progress but more needed to be done to remedy “excessive imbalances” in its much weaker public finances.

Germany has racked up enormous trade surpluses over many years, with its EU peers pressing Berlin repeatedly to help their weaker economies by investing more at home to boost consumption and therefore imports.

Unveiling a regular review of member state public finances, EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici (pictured right) said this situation was not good for anyone.

“In Germany’s case, we see once again that a very large current account surplus is not healthy for the economy and additionally, creates very significant economic and political distortions for the entire eurozone,” Moscovici said.

“We will follow developments closely in this situation which is absolutely crucial for the eurozone,” he told reporters.

“We will make the necessary recommendations this spring and later, on the basis of what the next government does,” he added, referring to September polls in Germany.

US President Donald Trump warned just before his inauguration Berlin was taking everyone for a ride, including the European Union, by using a weak euro to boost exports.

“You’ve been very unfair with the USA ... it’s a one-way street,” Trump told German tabloid Bild, promising tough action to restore the balance.

France ‘more to do Compared with the strength of Germany, France has struggled with persistent low growth, high budget deficits and debt.

Moscovici, a former French finance minister, said the latest report showed more “good news” as Paris stabilised the economy.

“There has been progress but there certainly is much more to do. That will be for the next government to decide and so we will look very carefully at what they put forward,” he said, referring to upcoming French presidential elections.

Among other countries running “excessive imbalances,” the Commission noted that Italy continued to have very high debt levels -- currently around 130 percent of GDP -- while the economy struggled for growth.

Recent political upheaval had also stalled needed reforms since mid-2016, it noted.

Europe’s top economy Germany should help its EU partners out, the European Commission said, after the Trump administration attacked Berlin for using the bloc to boost exports unfairly.

Spain meanwhile, categorised as “experiencing imbalances,” was in the midst of a strong recovery which supported rebalancing of the economy.

European Union member states are supposed to keep budget deficits -- the shortfall between government revenue and spending -- at not more than three percent of Gross Domestic Product.

Accumulated public debt has a ceiling of 60 percent of GDP. The Commission polices member states to see they meet these rules but has stopped short of imposing punishments on member states who have mostly breached the limits for years.

Debt levels especially remain high after the eurozone crisis required massive publicly-funded bailouts, but on budget deficits there has been a significant improvement led by Germany, which has balanced its books.

Eurozone growth at highest pace in six years The eurozone economy grew at its fastest pace in six years in February, as all signs pointed to the recovery maintaining “strong momentum,” a closely watched surved showed Tuesday.

Data monitoring company IHS Markit also said job creation in the 19-country eurozone recorded its best level for nearly a decade.

It said its February Composite Purchasing Managers Index came in at 56.0 points, up from 54.4 points in January, with growth accelerating in both manufacturing and services.

“The latest reading was the highest since April 2011,” the survey said. “February saw the largest monthly rise in employment since August 2007.”

The PMI measures companies’ willingness to spend on their business and so gives a good idea of how well the underlying

economy is performing.

Any reading above the boom-bust 50 points line indicates the economy is expanding.

It said the rise in job creation, order book growth and business optimism all boded “well for the recovery to maintain strong momentum in coming months.”

Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said eurozone growth could amount to 0.6 percent in the first quarter if the trend continues.

Both France and Germany experienced robust growth where composite PMIs of 56.2 and 56.1 were recorded respectively.

The service sector saw the faster growth in France, while manufacturing led the surge in Germany.

“The big surprise was France, where the PMI inched above that of Germany for the first time since August 2012,”

Williamson said.

“France’s revival represents a much-needed broadening out of the region’s recovery and bodes well for the eurozone’s upturn to become more self sustaining,” he said in a statement.

He said the European Central Bank would be encouraged by both signs of stronger growth and inflationary pressure. But it would be wary of how elections in France and Germany as well as the fallout from Brexit could disrupt business activity.

The ECB was unlikely to alter its current ultra-loose monetary at least until after German elections in September, Williamson added.

The Eurostat statistics agency said at the end of January the eurozone jobless rate fell to a lower than expected 9.6 percent in the last month of 2016.

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

“W

e again posted a record operating performance -– and are making good progress with the agreed acquisition of Monsanto as well,” chief executive Werner Baumann said in a statement.

The Aspirin-maker said net profit grew by 10.2 percent to 4.5 billion euros ($4.7 billion) last year.

Group sales increased by 1.5 percent to 46.8 billion euros, while underlying or operating profit was up 10.2 percent at 11.3 billion euros.

Growth was mainly powered by Bayer’s prescription medicine division, led by a 30-percent jump in sales for its blockbuster drug Xarelto, an anti-coagulant.

The over-the-counter medicines unit, which includes household brands such as AlkaSeltzer and Rennie antacids, saw earnings fall.

The firm’s closely watched agrochemicals division disappointed in 2016, with sales down more than two percent to 9.9 billion euros.

Bayer blamed the setback on a “difficult market environment”, particularly in Latin America, and falling demand for insecticides globally.

Bayer’s agriculture activities are in the spotlight as it seeks a $66-billion takeover of US seed and pesticide supplier Monsanto, in what would be the largest ever acquisition by a German firm.

The deal still requires regulatory approval

WEEKEND WORLD - 41

FOCUS ON MONEY MATTERS

Bayer says Monsanto deal on track, eyes record 2017 German pharmaceuticals and chemicals giant Bayer has announced it expects further growth this year after a record performance in 2016, as its mammoth takeover of US seedmaker Monsanto remains on track. from the European Union and the United States.

But Bayer said it was “confident” that the transaction would be completed this year.

The proposed tie-up has been slammed by environmentalists as a “marriage made in hell” over fears it would hold excessive power over farmers and the food chain.

- ‘Not a sprint, but a marathon’ -

CONFIDENT CEO Baumann said he was confident the deal would get the regulatory green light, underlining the complementary geographical fit of the two businesses.

The two firms were working to assuage regulatory concerns over overlapping areas in their seeds and herbicides units, he added, without going into detail.

They planned to seek EU approval for the deal in the second quarter, he said, slightly later than planned after the European Commission asked for more details.

“A takeover of this size is not a sprint but a marathon,” Baumann noted.

Asked about a meeting last month with US President Donald Trump, Baumann said they

Cash handler held over toy notes in India ATM Indian police have arrested a cash handler after notes in a state bank ATM were replaced with children’s toy bills.

Mohammad Isha is accused of stealing the real cash and substituting it with fake bills earlier this month when he was refilling the State Bank of India machine in New Delhi.

“After entering the ATM with the cash bag, Isha removed the notes from the ATM tray and replaced them with the dummy cash,” the officer confirmed on condition of anonymity.

“We interrogated him at length and he has confessed to the crime.”

The dummy 2,000-rupee ($30) bills were marked ‘Children Bank of India’ -- and carried the misspelt pledge “I promise to pay the barer two thousand coupens”.

Isha will face trial for cheating and theft.

The 2,000-rupee bill was introduced last year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi pulled all existing high-value notes from circulation in a bid to tackle large-scale tax evasion and counterfeiting.

The decision removed around 86 percent of available cash at one stroke, triggering huge queues outside banks and ATMs.

had a “very good and constructive discussion”.

Bayer and Monsanto announced after the meeting that they would jointly invest $8 billion in agriculture research in the US, creating thousands of jobs.

If the tie-up goes ahead, the new firm would have some 140,000 employees around the world with combined annual revenues from agriculture alone of some 23 billion euros.

The planned takeover is the latest in a wave of consolidation in the competitive agrochemicals sector.

China’s state-owned ChemChina is hoping to complete its $43-billion takeover of Switzerland’s Syngenta by the middle of the year, while US giants Dow Chemical and DuPont have proposed a $130-billion tie-up.

- Grounds for optimism Looking ahead, Bayer said it expects group sales to grow to more than 49 billion euros in 2017, and a “mid-to-single-digit percentage” increase in underlying profits.

“We have every reason to be optimistic about the future and started the new business year well,” said Baumann.”

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42 - WEEKEND WORLD

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BS, bailed-out by the British government following the 2008 financial crisis, posted its ninth consecutive annual losses last year.

Its net loss for 2016 came in at £6.95 billion ($8.7 billion, 8.2 billion euros), up from a loss after tax of £1.98 billion a year earlier, RBS said in a statement.

“There will be job losses that we will have to go through to get this business back into shape,” said chief executive Ross McEwan, who would not be drawn on an exact figure.

The Edinburgh-based lender said it had been hit by litigation and conduct costs of almost £5.9 billion, largely over its role in the 2008 US subprime housing crisis.

It suffered also restructuring charges totalling £2.1 billion during 2016.

“These costs are a stark reminder of what happens to a bank when things go wrong and you lose focus on the customer, as this bank did before the financial crisis,” added New Zealand national McEwan.

RBS is around 73-percent owned by the British government after the lender was saved with £45.5 billion of taxpayers’ cash in the world’s biggest banking bailout at the height of the global financial crisis.

It has meanwhile reported total losses of around £60 billion since the state rescue.

In recent years, McEwan has overseen a massive overhaul of operations, slashing the bank’s investment banking activities and axing tens of thousands of jobs.

On Friday, RBS said it would slash operating expenses by a further £2 billion over four years, with £750 million of savings being made in 2017.

Past not behind us RBS is setting aside £6.7 billion to cover potential US fines over the alleged mis-selling of mortgage securities that precipitated the 2008 global financial meltdown.

The system-wide failure in 2008 of complex securities derived from residential mortgages caused a cascading wave of bankruptcies and crises that sparked a global reces-

sion, leading to tens of millions of job losses around the world.

RBS joins several banks implicated in the global financial crisis, including Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse.

“The past is not completely behind us, with our dealings on residential mortgage backed securities and Williams & Glyn... two significant issues that we still need to resolve,” McEwan added on Friday.

RBS has made four of the five major divestments demanded by the European Commission in 2009 to address competition concerns following its bailout, but has struggled to offload its Williams & Glyn unit.

In a bid to address the problem, the British government last week proposed plans for RBS to fund initiatives worth £750 million to help small UK lenders win business.

In trading Friday, RBS shares slid 3.4 percent to 240.90 pence on London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was down 0.6 percent overall at 7,230.53 points nearing midday in the capital.

The situation at RBS is in sharp contrast to Lloyds Banking Group -- another UK lender rescued with taxpayers’ money following the financial crisis -- which is both profitable and close to a full return to the private sector.

Results from RBS cap the annual earnings season for Britain’s major banks, which are facing uncertain times also as the country prepares for Brexit.

Barclays on Thursday said it returned to profit after slashing provisions set aside for legal and compensation costs linked to foreign exchange and insurance scandals.

But profits at HSBC have plunged on huge writedowns and restructuring charges, while it warned this week of uncertainty over Brexit and Donald Trump’s economic policies.

EU agrees new rules to close tax loopholes for multinationals EU finance ministers have agreed to close loopholes that multinational firms exploit to pay low or no taxes by shopping for better deals outside the 28-nation bloc.

They said the new rules aim to prevent firms from «exploiting disparities» in tax rates, particularly those in countries outside the bloc given that the EU issued a tax-avoidance directive for its member states last year.

The agreement to tackle so-called “hybrid mismatches” aims to end the erosion of taxable bases of corporate taxpayers in the European Union.

“This decision is yet another success story in our campaign for fairer taxation” said Pierre Moscovici, the EU’s top economic affairs official.

“Step by step, we are eliminating the channels used by certain companies to escape taxation,” he added in a statement.

The new rules are due to take effect in 2020, once member states enact them into law. In rare cases, they will apply from 2022.

The latest of many initiative comes amid growing public outrage about tax avoidance by multinational corporations.

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Private Banking on your doorstep We are located in the Main Street in Gibraltar; but we want to bring our bank to you.

At Jyske Bank, you have a relationship manager, tailor-made solutions and an open andrelaxed atmosphere. Feel free to contact us. We’ll be happy to pay you a visit and tell you more.

JYSKE BANK (GIBRALTAR) LTD. • 76, Main Street • P.O. Box 143 • Gibraltar Tel. +350 606 33322 • Fax +350 200 76782 • info@jyskebank.gi • www.jyskebank.gi Jyske Bank (Gibraltar) Ltd. is licensed by the Financial Services Commission, Licence No. FSC 001 00B. Services and products are not available to everybody, for instance not to residents of the US.

Ann_250x330_doorstep_Gibraltar.indd 1

04-04-2016 15:47:25

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FOCUS ON HEALTH & BEAUTY

EEKEND focuses on HEALTH & BEAUTY WORLD

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT Kylie Minogue launches debut glasses collection POP ICON and style maven Kylie Minogue shows she has a real eye for fashion as she launches her first ever eyewear collection, exclusively at Specsavers.

A stunning combination of elegance and edginess, the collection reflects Kylie’s own personal sense of style. Launching in the 8 Specsavers Opticas stores in Spain this February, the range features 24 pairs of glasses and four prescription sunglasses and they are available as part of the two pairs with single vision lenses for 129€ offer.

Kylie herself describes the collection as modern classics and reinvented vintage, drawing inspiration from different eras in different shapes, textures and colours. Each frame features a striking angled temple and her iconic ‘K’ star tag for a chic but understated hint of Kylie glam.

Speaking about the collection, Kylie says: ‘Designing the glasses has been a fabulous experience. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from the idea of modern classics, popular

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shapes and styles that suit most people, but with my own personal twist on them.

‘Expressing yourself with your glasses is really important and I know that personally.

I love to continually change my look, so having a real mixture of styles is definitely something that works for me. Often you want to be able to combine that functional day-to-day look with a little more glamour for the evening. That’s definitely something we’ve incorporated, through what I like to call a hint of subtle bling!’

Reflecting her own famously petite frame, the new collection includes several styles in smaller sizes.

Kylie adds: ‘At my request, we made sure the collection includes some petite frames. I know what it’s like searching for glasses and not being able to any that fit. We’ve really made sure there’s something in there for everyone!’

While it’s hard to narrow down her favourite pair, Kylie’s top picks include: Kylie 5 - ‘I love these gorgeous cat’s eye frames. They’re a combination of tortoiseshell and chartreuse - it’s actually quite hard to pin down what colour they are as it changes depending on the light, but that’s what makes them so versatile. I’ve received many compliments on this pair!’

Kylie Sun RX 4 - ‘Whenever I wear these sunglasses, I picture myself driving around the south of France in a convertible car. I love the rose gold combined with the green leather and marbled effect along the sides. They’re also really comfortable and make you feel like you’re on holiday all the time.’

Kylie 15 - ‘These are a very classic shape and slightly more masculine and edgy - but definitely something I would wear every day.

There’s a much more sexy vibe here too with the little bit of sparkle on the side. These frames are great for taking you from during the day all the way through to evening.’

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Age Concern, Estepona and Manilva – The Shop to 13.30. Volunteers to run the shop are always needed and we have several vacancies at the moment.

Why not come and join us? To find out more call Marie-Andree (General Manager of the shop, and Vice President) on the shop phone – 608587538 - during opening hours, or pop into the shop and have a chat with the Duty Manager.

Age Concern, Estepona and Manilva, receives no financial support from the Council and relies solely on the generosity of people and organisations who donate items we can sell, or money, to enable us to give older people the help they need.

Our shop in Calle Zaragoza, Estepona acts as the focal point for the charity as well as raising much needed funds. In spite of the building works progressing along side us where an underground car park is being excavated (known by us as the swimming pool with mud slide) we are open for business five days a week from 10.00 a.m.

Age Concern, Estepona and Manilva, Lifeline For older people who require help or advice Age Concern operate a telephone service called Lifeline. This gives the individual a direct point of contact with the charity. The telephone number is 650163928. It should be noted that Age Concern is not an emergency service. There is also an email address you can use to contact Age Concern, Estepona and Manilva acesteponaymanilva@ ageconcern-espana.org To find out what we are up to why not give our web site a visit acespana.org – and follow the links.

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

Spain to cull 17,000 ducks as bird flu hits More than 17,000 ducks will be culled in Spain after a highly contagious bird flu strain that has affected poultry throughout Europe was detected at a farm, authorities have announced The virus found in Catalonia is H5N8, said Meritxell Serret, in charge of agriculture in the northeastern region -- the same one that has seen hundreds of thousands of ducks and geese slaughtered in France›s southwest.

Up until now, the virus had only been detected in Spain in three wild animals.

The H5N8 strain can spread quickly in affected farms, often leading to the culling of thousands of birds.

Joan Guix, in charge of public health in Catalonia, sought to ease fears, saying it was a virus «that does not spread to humans.»

Health authorities in Catalonia are now inspecting farms within a three-kilometre (1.9mile) radius of the affected location to see if the virus had spread.

According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, 24 countries in Europe have detected the H5N8 virus this year, as have China, Egypt, Cameroon and India.

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As David Cassidy announces that he is fighting the memory loss disease Dementia we ask…

By Richard Hoffman

A

lzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, is a growing problem worldwide and sadly there is no cure for the disease.

For most a feeling of apathy or being a little forgetful from time to time is nothing unusual. But for some, this could be an early sign of not getting enough thiamine (also known as vitamin B1).

Long term, this can have serious consequences, including an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

There is often a fatalistic attitude towards Alzheimer’s disease, with the belief that it’s a consequence of old age or it’s in our genes.

But most old people don’t get Alzheimer’s disease, and it’s now clear that decisions made about lifestyle and diet play a huge role in singling out those who will – and those who won’t – develop the disease.

Ensuring your diet contains enough B vitamins is one of those crucial dietary decisions.

And the central role of thiamine is now becoming apparent.

The brain needs thiamine to use glucose for energy, and without adequate thiamine, brain cells die. The brain also needs thiamine to make acetylcholine, the main neurotransmitter that is deficient in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Thiamine levels are frequently low in patients with Alzheimer’s

ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH VITAMIN B1 TO HELP FEND OFF ALZHEIMER’S?

disease and the early stages of cognitive decline, and there are trials underway to see if taking thiamine derivatives can reduce the

symptoms of this disease. The evidence is now pretty clear: a healthy brain needs an adequate supply of thiamine.

Getting enough thiamine So how can you be sure you are getting enough of this essential brain vitamin? In the UK, thiamine is added to fortified cereals and bread, and other good sources include whole grain cereals, pork, trout, peas and beans.

Government surveys in the UK present a generally reassuring picture, suggesting that for most people their thiamine intake is sufficient. But these surveys only report average intakes, and do not take into account groups who, for one reason or another, may be vulnerable to thiamine deficiencies.

One of the groups vulnerable to thiamine deficiencies is the elderly. And there are other groups, too, such as the steadily increasing numbers of people who avoid most cereal products (such as bread and pasta) because of gluten intolerance.

These food products are the main source of thiamine in the average UK diet, so it’s not surprising that many gluten-intolerant people are thiamine deficient. Fortifying glutenfree alternatives with thiamine and other vitamins would be an obvious solution, but, unfortunately, this is not usually done. Followers of the Paleo diet also avoid cereal products, leaving this group vulnerable to thiamine deficiencies as well.

Pork is an especially good dietary source of thiamine, but many people do not eat pork.

Also, if you prefer your pork as sausages rather than fresh meat, then you are waving goodbye to most of the thiamine, since, in the UK, pork sausages are preserved with sulphites that destroy the thiamine.

Some countries, such as the US, take a more

sensible approach and have banned the use of sulphites in sausages for this very reason.

Sausages are also very popular as part of ready meals. Ready meals are a rapidly increasing sector of the food market, but there is no requirement to label their vitamin content. This is especially concerning for the many, such as many older people, who rely on ready meals for a large part of their daily vitamin intake.

And it’s not only sausages that are of concern. Thiamine is heat sensitive, and being water soluble as well, it leaches out of vegetables and beans during cooking, and so could easily be lost during the manufacture of ready meals.

Without adequate labelling, we simply don’t know the extent to which this may be occurring. As I have argued, the rapid growth of the ready meals market means there is a strong case for demanding greater information on the vitamin content of these meals.

The whole diet matters Taking a vitamin supplement may seem an obvious way to boost thiamine intake to help maintain a healthy brain. This may be a good idea for some people, but thiamine – unlike most other vitamins – is poorly absorbed when taken as a supplement.

There is a consensus among nutritionists that a better approach is a healthy diet, not least because multivitamin pills are linked to an increased risk of cancer in some people.

Also, it is only with a healthy diet that we can be sure of obtaining the myriad of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients needed for a healthy brain.

It is probably the wide range of brain-friendly nutrients – including thiamine – in the Mediterranean diet that makes it so effective at reducing the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. In a way, it’s a shame that the Mediterranean diet wasn’t “invented” by a drug company as a means to help prevent or delay Alzheimer’s.

If it was, it would probably be one of the most widely marketed and prescribed drugs in the world.

It is not known to what extent thiamine deficiencies are contributing to the rise in Alzheimer’s disease.

But despite the gloomy news about the rising tide of Alzheimer’s disease, there is certainly no need to feel powerless, as current research suggests that a healthy Mediterranean-style diet containing adequate thiamine can go a long way to help you fend off this disease.

Extracts taken from an article originally published on The Conversation.com

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EEKEND focuses on FOOD & FINE DINING WORLD

SEASONAL FOODS:

Winter, Spring, Summer or Autumn - within each issue we will look at what fruits and vegetables are in season Roasted Oyster Mushroom and Watercress Salad Watercress is peppery, plump, and loaded with character. Here, we turn it into a full meal by pairing it with pan-roasted oyster mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, and a flavorful tarragon vinaigrette INGREDIENTS 1 small shallot, minced (about 2 tablespoons) 1 small clove garlic, minced (about 1/2 teaspoon) 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar 1 tablespoon water 1 packed tablespoon roughly chopped fresh tarragon leaves 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper Vegetable or canola oil, for searing mushrooms 1 pound oyster mushrooms, firm central stems removed, mushroom caps separated, large caps torn by hand vertically into smaller pieces 4 ounces fresh watercress, cut or torn into smaller pieces if stalks are large 3 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler DIRECTIONS Combine shallot, garlic, mustard, vinegar, water, and tarragon in a tall, narrow container. Using an immersion blender, blend until tarragon is finely chopped and incorporated into dressing base.

Alternatively, mince tarragon finely by hand and add to the base. Transfer to a large bowl. Whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a large cast iron skillet, heat 3 tablespoons vegetable oil over high heat until lightly smoking. Add just enough mushrooms to barely fill skillet without crowding. Season with salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are tender and browned, about 5 minutes.

MARCH IS A MONTH OF TRANSITIONS Spring hovers on the horizon and most of us after months of hearty heavy foods are looking forward to lighter dishes with spring onions, watercress, mussels and Oysters all coming into season. Here are a few recipes to tantalise your taste-buds!

Grilled Mussels Vietnamese Style A classic taste of Saigon street food

Transfer cooked mushrooms to a baking sheet in an even layer and allow them to cool to room temperature. Repeat with remaining mushrooms in as many batches as needed, adding more oil to the pan before each batch.

In a large bowl, combine watercress with cooled mushrooms and cheese. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Dress and toss with just enough vinaigrette to lightly coat salad ingredients, adding more vinaigrette as needed. Serve right away. Extra vinaigrette can be kept refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. www.seriouseats.com

INGREDIENTS 10 mussels 2 spring onions 4 tbsp unsalted butter a handful salted peanuts 6 sprigs fresh coriander fish sauce pepper DIRECTIONS Rinse the mussels under cold running tap water. Clean them using a sharp knife.

Remove any hairy strings protruding from the inside or anything barnacle like. Then rinse the cleaned mussels again and let them drain on a clean kitchen towel.

Place them on a baking tray and grill the mussels under a hot grill for 5 minutes until they are open With a sharp knife remove one shell and cut the mussel loose from the remaining shell.

Chop up the salted peanuts finely. Slice the

spring onions finely. Drizzle the mussels with the melted butter and a drop of fish sauce. Sprinkle with the spring onion and season with a tiny pinch of pepper.

Grill the mussels again for another 2 minutes. Then place them on a plate, sprinkle with the chopped salted peanuts and serve hot. www.junedarville.com

Oyster Mushroom and Mussel Chowder Ingredients 2 chopped leeks 2 clove(s) crushed garlic 40g unsalted butter 100g smoked streaky bacon, chopped 250g oyster mushrooms, large ones torn into pieces 2tsp chopped fresh thyme 150ml dry white wine 250g mussels, cleaned and debearded 750ml fish stock 2tsp medium curry paste 100ml crème fraiche 30g chopped parsley

Directions Before cooking, discard mussels with cracked or broken shells, as well as those with open shells that do not close when you tap them.

After cooking, discard any mussels that haven’t opened fully during the cooking process. It’s very important to follow these guidelines to avoid eating mussels that are not safe to consume.

Fry the white bits of the leeks and garlic in half the butter until softened. Drain with a slotted spoon and set aside. Fry the bacon until pale golden, drain and set aside. Add the remaining butter, the mushrooms and thyme. Fry until wilted, drain and set aside.

Pour the wine into the pan and bring to the boil. Tip in the mussels, cover with a lid and cook for 4-5 minutes. Discard any mussels that haven’t opened fully during the cooking process. Remove the edible mussels with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add the stock and curry paste to the pan.

Bring to the boil, stir in the green bits of the leeks and cook gently for 5 minutes.

Remove the mussels from their shells, reserving 12 for garnish. Chop the mussels and add to the pan with the mushrooms and crème fraîche. Heat through and garnish with the shell-on mussels and herbs. www.realfood.tesco.com

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FOCUS ON FOOD & FINE DINING

Watercress and Spring Onion Risotto

World’s best Olive Oil producer goes one better!

INGREDIENTS 1 tbsp olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped 1 clove garlic 75g Watercress 400g risotto rice 150ml vegetarian dry white wine 750ml hot vegetable stock 150g frozen peas 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (or fresh nutmeg, grated) 100g watercress, roughly chopped 25g vegetarian Parmesan-style cheese, grated (optional) DIRECTIONS Put the stock in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer on the hob. Turn the heat down as low as possible so it keeps warm without bubbling.

Melt 2 knobs of butter in a med pan and add the spring onions, garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook over a gentle heat, stirring often, for 4-5 mins, until the onions have softened.

Add the rice, turn up the heat a little and stir for a couple of mins until the grains are hot and coated with butter. Pour in the wine and let it bubble away for a min until the liquid has mostly evaporated.

Now add a couple ladles of stock and simmer until completely absorbed, stirring almost constantly - this breaks up the starch on the outside of the rice and helps the sauce become creamy. Add another ladelful and repeat.

Carry on adding stock, stirring and simmering until the liquid has thickened and the rice is just al dente. It should be slightly resistant in the middle, but without any hard chalkiness. Don’t let it turn into pudding,the consistency should be loose and flowing like slow moving lava.

Depending on th erice, the heat of the hob and the size of the pan, this should take 17-18 mins.

Chop most of the watercress, keeping back a handful of the leaves. Vigorously stir the chopped watercress into the cooked risotto, along with the frozen peas, grated parmesan and the remaining butter. Season, remove from the heat, cover and let stand for 3 minutes.

Dress the remaining watercress leaves with a splash of oil and lemon, the season.

Divide the risotto between two wide pasta bowls, add a tuft of watercress to the top of each one and scatter with a few flakes of parmesan before serving

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‘One Organic’ is a premium extra virgin olive oil created by award winning Finca La Torre. The Malaga based producers who are synonymous for producing oils that 100% organic have produced just 2,000 litres of this limited edition ‘liquid gold’ born exclusively from the first harvest of the Hojiblanca variety olives.

The flavour is uniquely fresh and fruity with slight bitter and spicy notes making it an ideal accompaniment for bread dipping, or drizzling over garden salads, soups and grilled or raw vegetables.

The packaging the bottle is innovative and modern resembling a modern chic perfume then that of a bottle of olive oil Priced at €35.00 for 500ml, bottles can be found in El Corte Ingles and speciality stores. www.aceitefincalatorre.com

Chef Heston Blumenthal receives lifetime achievement award Heston Blumenthal, known for his kitchen chemistry and envelope-pushing gastronomy at his flagship restaurant The Fat Duck, has been named the recipient of the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award by the group that helms The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards.

Known the world over among TV audiences and globetrotting gourmets, Blumenthal joins a long list of honorees that includes Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Alain Passard and Joel Robuchon, as well as Alice Waters, Daniel Boulud and Thomas Keller.

“A pioneer, an entrepreneur and a creative force, throughout his distinguished career Heston Blumenthal has challenged the way we eat and inspired a generation of chefs,” said group editor William Drew in a statement.

“His passion, energy, imagination and thirst for change have enriched global gastronomy and make him a worthy winner of the prestigious Diners Club® Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Blumenthal, 50, is largely self-taught, and rose through the ranks of high gastronomy with his fastidiously scientific approach, technical wizardry, imagination and sense of humor.

Among his famous dishes are snail porridge and egg and bacon ice cream.

Along with The Fat Duck, which he relocated to a pop-up venture in Australia for six months in 2015, Blumenthal also heads Dinner by Heston at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, and in Melbourne, Australia.

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BY ANNABEL MILNES-SMITH

‘I

ndian Flavour’ is centrally located in the heart of San Pedro, just a stone’s throw from the BP Petrol Station, near the San Pedro roundabout and perfect if you wish to have a bite to eat having visited the San Pedro market.

On arrival, we (my flat mate Alex and I) were warmly greeted by the ebullient co-owner fondly known by his nickname Rasal - his full name being Salman Chowdhury. On having spent only a few minutes in his company, I came to the conclusion he makes it his life’s mission to instill happiness in his customers.

This is abundantly clear from the moment you set foot in his restaurant to the moment they depart.

As it was a beautiful sunny day, we were swiftly guided to our table outside and within a matter of minutes we were served with a bottle of the ‘superb fine house wine’– Montes Pina Verdejo 2014 Rueda. On queue a complimentary plate of poppadum’s served with chutney, lime sauce and an assortment of cucumber, onions and chilies arrived to whet our appetites. The authentic ambience, together with the smells emerging from the kitchen of traditional Indian spices, set the stage for a culinary experience.

Whilst bathing in the sunshine, having made our orders from the comprehensive menu, which boasts a staggering 111 menu choices with the prices of main courses ranging from €7.95 to €19.95, the latter being for two people to share, I had a chance to glean the background to opening his latest Indian establishment on the coast.

FOCUS ON FOOD & FINE DINING

Indian Flavour – Authentic Indian Bar & Restaurant

KNIGHTSBRIDGE QUALITY WITH MARBELLA PRICES On advice from dear friends of mine, John and Christine Lord, who highly recommended this restaurant to me following a dinner they had the night before. I thought why not, it has been far too long since I have had a sumptuous Indian feast and I have to say in advance, I was certainly not disappointed.

Seekh Kabab, and Chicken Pakora & Meat Samosa) for only €10.95. Customers can also have the choice of a Menu del Dia at €10.95.

Next we had the Chicken Jalfrezi cooked with sliced onions, green & red peppers tomatoes & spices with pilau rice. “This Chicken Jalfrezi was exceptionally succulent, the sauce, spicy and the ingredients complimenting each other perfectly.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL My first question was “When did you open and what is the concept of ‘Indian Flavour’ that sets you apart from the multitude of other Indian Restaurants here”? He replied, “We opened on the 1st February this year and we pay ultimate attention to detail serving the ultimate Indian feast for our clients with unbeatable service. As you will see we have a comprehensive menu, which caters to the many tastes of Indian cuisine from The Punjab, Rajasthan, Goa to Kerela, all different in their many flavours.

The interior reflects the culture of the Indian people, the religion and the history, with traditional Indian colour schemes, paintings and golden Buddha’s the theme is truly Indian in the midst of The Costa del Sol. “What is your background”? “I worked for five years in a restaurant in Madrid and then came to Marbella in 2013 where I opened the first ‘Indian Flavour’ Restaurant in Alhaurin El Grande. That was so successful that we decided to open another restaurant here.

With the long term forecast my business partner Raju Barua and myself want to franchise ‘Indian Flavour’ across Spain, opening up to 10 new res-

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

beautiful presentation taurants in the next five years. Everywhere you visit you will be able to enjoy ‘Indian Flavour’ with all different types of Indian food to suit the palates of the Spanish, English and all of the other nationalities that have settled or visit Spain. We are an Indian restaurant that caters for all Indian food lovers”.

“Our location is charming, at night the restaurant is candlelit with soothing Indian music setting a romantic mood for the clientele. It is important for us that our customers have a wonderful time, therefore our attention to detail, the quality of the food and promptness of service is all important.

We have a projector screen inside and a flat screen television outside for those who love sport and we do want to attract regular customers who will join

us on the weekends for the big matches. We televise everything from cricket (of course), premier and Spanish league football, horseracing etc. “The USP (Unique Selling Point) is that the Expats can feel at home here, have great Indian food, a few beers and watch their favourite sports”.

Now it was time for our feast to begin cooked by their chef Abu Daher. We started with the Prawn Puri (he imports his prawns from India!) which was pleasantly spicy on fried bread with melt-in-the-mouth garlic Nan bread. Other starters included meat and vegetable samosas, chicken chat, salads, assorted vegetables, onion bhaji, lentil soup and chicken pakora amongst many others.

The list is endless and all reasonably priced from €2.95 to an assorted non vegetable starter to share (Chicken Tikka & Tandoori,

This was followed by one of many Indian restaurants most popular dishes; their traditional chicken tandoori. Beautifully presented and sizzling hot with onions, tomatoes, chilies and green peppers with a lemon on top. “The tandoori chicken was succulent and for those who are not great lovers of spicy sauce – a perfect main course”. It was now time for our second bottle of wine. This time we chose a dry white wine which comes from Condado de Huelva and tasted like a white burgundy. It was very French in taste rather than Spanish and only 11% alcohol. I have obviously been living in Spain too long as I actually preferred the first one!” I have been to some of the best Indian restaurants in the world and I can certainly rate this as being on a par with most of them At ‘Indian Flavour’, Rasal undeniably gives personal service not only for his in-house diners, but as we were about to leave we suddenly saw him running out with a takeaway for a customer who was at the gym! The final words from Alexander Figg following our superb lunch. “Top class”. I could not have put it better myself!

Indian Flavour, Avenida Pablo Ruiz Picasso, 29670, San Pedro de Alcantara, Marbella, Málaga. Tel: 951 969 150 Opening 7 days a week for lunch and dinner. Lunch 12.30pm – 4pm & Dinner 6-12pm. There is plenty of parking.

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FOCUS ON FOOD & FINE DINING

Tel: 952 92 95 78 · Reservations@magnacafe.com · Calderón de la Barca s/n, Nueva Andalucía, Marbella · www.magnacafe.com

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Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

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 Got up 5 Commandment verb 10 Have nothing to do with 14 Hideous 15 Forbidden 16 Rescuer 17 Linden or larch 18 “Beaver State” residents 20 Rooster’s mate 21 Be impudent 22 Nervous 23 Ocean measurement 25 Pennsylvania or Fifth: abbr.

26 Singer Britney 28 Gave away a portion of 31 Linger 32 Thread holder 34 Wet dirt 36 __ a test; passes easily

Find and circle the Phonetic Alphabet words that are hidden in the grid.

The remaining letters spell an additional word from the Phonetic Alphabet

DOWN 37 Skirt fold 38 Freeway division 39 Affirmative 40 Jail, slangily 41 Explorer __ de León 42 TV’s “Sesame __” 44 Pelé’s game 45 __ flash; instantly 46 Cold rice with raw seafood 47 Uneasy feeling 50 Blaze 51 Small dog with a wrinkled face 54 Barnes & Noble, for one 57 Family member 58 Walking stick 59 Depart 60 Tiny particle 61 Get rid of 62 Walking around with a long face 63 Cravings

Solution to puzzle from issue 29

1 Biblical book

30 Kind of cap

2 Bad guy

32 Narrow cut

3 Thinnest

33 Pigsty

4 Cornea’s place

35 Stag or doe

5 Brown ermines

37 Urgent request

6 Severe

38 __ Ness; monster’s lake

7 Beame and Vigoda 8 abin wall piece 9 Also 10 Black eye 11 Warmth 12 Fancy vases 13 Too inquisitive 19 Part of USNA 21 Agile 24 All __; listening 25 “Cat on __ Tin Roof” 26 Remain 27 Walks the floor 28 __ up; absorb 29 Set free

40 Pennies 41 Sit for an artist 43 Took a chance with 44 Horse-drawn carriage 46 Strainer 47 Basics 48 Ark builder 49 No longer here 50 Part of a book jacket 52 Come __; find 53 Shapely legs 55 Lawn tree 56 Zodiac sign 57 Salary

Solution to puzzle from issue 29

The hidden movie title is: REVERSAL OF FORTUNE

ALPHA BRAVO CHARLIE DELTA ECHO FOXTROT GOLF

HOTEL INDIA JULIET KILO LIMA MIKE OSCAR

PAPA QUEBEC ROMEO SIERRA TANGO UNIFORM VICTOR

WHISKEY X-RAY YANKEE ZULU

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 53

W EIRD W ORLD

JAPAN

A businessman in Japan was so disheartened or stressed with his job that he stabbed himself just to get a day off.

54-year-old Masaru Miura told police that he was stabbed in the hip by an unknown assailant early Wednesday morning. As police

questioned him however, they found inconsistencies with his story, and Miura eventually confessed to stabbing himself with a knife he found near a subway ticket station at Nagoya Municipal. He was eventually arrested for interfering with police duties.

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.

UK

A cat that had its back feet severed by a combine harvester has been given two prosthetic limbs in a pioneering operation by a UK vet.

His work is explored in a BBC documentary called The Bionic Vet. The cat, named Oscar, was referred by his local vet in Jersey, following the accident last October. Oscar was struck by the combine harvester whilst dozing in the sun.

The prosthetic devices were an instant success with Oscar. www.goodnewsnetwork.org

4 22 11 3 5 6 7

3 6 1 12 20 10 6 5 26 6 20 26 24 13

UK

In a case of mistaken identity, Crystal Palace football hooligans have defaced their own team bus, believing it belonged to Premier League rivals Middlesbrough.

The black bus was parked at a hotel nearby Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park stadium.

It was spray-painted in the red and blue team colours with the words “Crystal Palace FC” across the sides and rear just hours before Palace beat Middlesbrough 1-0 in a result to slightly ease their relegation fears.

The Crystal Palace team had to use a replacement bus to take them to their own ground for the match. “£40,000 worth of damage on our coach thinking it was the Boro coach. Nice one! #cpfc,” Crystal Palace’s assistant head groundsman, Dean Waters tweeted, before removing it from the public domain.

Yinka Agunbiade/www.informationng.com

21 2 8 23 7 13 1

8 10 21 7 2 12 26 21

18 2 6 16 10 8

4 15 2 17 12 3

23 6 24 12 2 6 9 6

17 19 10 24 17 16

20 24 24 7 18

11 20 26 17 17 10 2

F

10 3 21 17 6 21 16

6 18 21 2 23

12 3 10 20 12 17

26 23 22 10 6 25 6 20

12 10 4 7 9 19

4 26 15 15 10 2

21 12 1 12 26 2 24 21

O

23 10 7 7 6 2 7

11 12 26 2 11 12 20 8

24

12

2

R

16

3 2 6 24 24 16 14

20 13

HOLLAND

A Dutch woman approaching her 100th birthday persuaded local police to “arrest” her to fulfill an item on her bucket list.

Nijmegen-Zuid police said the woman, Annie, told police she is nearly 100 years old and has never been arrested, but always wanted to know what it was like to “experience a police cell from within.”

Annie was handcuffed and placed in a cell, where police snapped photos of her delighted expression as she showed off the cuffs for the camera.

Police posted the photos of the “day to remember” on Facebook. www.upi.com

Solution to Wordblock puzzzle from issue 29 monomania - ammonia - amnion - amain amino - amnia - amnio - anima - anion mania - manna - onion - anna - anoa - anon main - mana - mina - moan - mono - moon naan - noma - noon Solution to CODEWORD from issue 29

5

17

17

21

17

4 15

O C C M C Z F

12 21 5 5 1 6 5 9 3 1 5 9 14 5

S M O O T H O R A T O R I O

13

13

3

13

25

5 1

N N A N V O T

4 14 13 23

12 1 3 22 3 23 21 14 1 16

Z I N G S T A L A G M I T E

25 9 21 9 22 16

V R M R L E

15 5 9 16 13 12 14 17

14 13 20 7 9 18

F O R E N S I C I N J U R Y

9 23 6 16 5

R G H E O

8 16 23 3 12 7 12

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R ST U V W X Y Z

1 9 14 7 21 8 6

P E G A S U S T R I U M P H

1 13 6 9 9

T N H R R

12 10 7 16 3 26 3 8 8 16 13 2 14 11

1 14

2

R

15

3 16

4 17

5 18

6 19

7 20

8 21

9 22

10 23

11

F

24

12

O

25

13

S Q U E A K A P P E N D I X

7 14 12 7 3 21

U I S U A M

17 5 19 8 7 13 17 6 16 9 22 16 16 26

C O W P U N C H E R L E E K

26

9 9 2 14 14 14 25

R R D I I I V

17 7 24 14 17 22 16 12

15 14 12 17 3 22

18

C U B I C L E S F I S C A L 21

21

18

6

21 22

M M Y H Y M L

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: 51 words

Solution to SUDOKU puzzles from issue 29

A

C

T

H

N

M

S

A

Y

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54 - WEEKEND WORLD

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 55

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With over 10 years’ experience on the coast we offer: 2 Landscaping and reforms 2 Tree works and palm cleaning 2 Fire path and plot clearance 2 Irrigation systems 2 Property maintenance and management 2 Full cleaning services 2 Full garden maintenance

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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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951 516 219 info@buddygrowshop.com

HEALTH & BEAUTY

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REMOVALS

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Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

56 - WEEKEND WORLD

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Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

d on y e m o b fro t rja and .8FM 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 - 57

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

58 - WEEKEND WORLD

Barclays Premier League Table

P Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Chelsea 26 20 3 3 55 19 36 63 2 Spurs 26 15 8 3 50 18 32 53 3 Man. City 25 16 4 5 51 29 22 52 4 Arsenal 25 15 5 5 54 28 26 50 5 Liverpool 26 14 7 5 55 33 22 49 6 Man United 25 13 9 3 38 21 17 48 7 Everton 26 12 8 6 42 27 15 44 8 West Brom 26 11 7 8 36 32 4 40 9 West Ham 26 9 6 11 35 44 -9 33 10 Stoke City 26 8 8 10 30 40 -10 32 11 Burnley 26 9 4 13 28 37 -9 31 12 Watford 26 8 7 11 30 43 -13 31 13 Southampton 25 8 6 11 28 31 -3 30 14 Bournemouth 26 7 5 14 36 51 -15 26 15 Leicester City 26 6 6 14 27 44 -17 24 16 Swansea City 26 7 3 16 32 57 -25 24 17 Middlesbr 26 4 10 12 19 28 -9 22 18 Crystal Palace 26 6 4 16 33 46 -13 22 19 Hull City 26 5 6 15 23 50 -27 21 0 Sunderland 26 5 4 17 24 48 -24 19

Sky Bet Championship Table P Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Newcastle Utd 34 23 4 7 66 28 38 73 2 Brighton 34 21 8 5 58 28 30 71 3 Huddersfield 33 20 5 8 44 36 8 65 4 Leeds United 34 19 4 11 46 34 12 61 5 Reading 34 18 6 10 47 45 2 60 6 Sheffield 34 17 7 10 42 33 9 58 7 Fulham 33 14 11 8 56 39 17 53 8 Norwich City 34 15 7 12 59 48 11 52 9 Preston 34 14 10 10 46 41 5 52 10 Barnsley 34 14 8 12 52 48 4 50 11 Derby County 33 13 9 11 36 30 6 48 12 Cardiff City 34 13 7 14 47 49 -2 46 13 Brentford 33 12 7 14 50 48 2 43 14 Birmingham 34 11 10 13 36 49 -13 43 15 Ipswich Town 34 10 12 12 35 42 -7 42 16 QPR 34 11 7 16 37 48 -11 40 17 Aston Villa 33 9 12 12 31 38 -7 39 18 Notts Forest 34 10 7 17 46 58 -12 37 19 Burton Albion 34 9 9 16 34 47 -13 36 20 Wolves 32 9 8 15 39 44 -5 35 21 Bristol City 33 9 6 18 44 50 -6 33 22 Wigan Athletic 34 7 10 17 30 40 -10 31 23 Blackburn 32 7 9 16 37 50 -13 30 24 Rotherham 34 4 5 25 32 77 -45 17

W

EEKEND focuses on SPORT WORLD

Mourinho demands trophy charge M ourinho lifted the first major trophy of his United reign on Sunday after Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s late header clinched a 3-2 victory at Wembley.

The 54-year-old is the first United manager to win a major competition in his maiden season at Old Trafford and the 19th trophy of his glittering career made him only the third boss, after Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough, to enjoy four League Cup triumphs.

Now Mourinho wants his players to learn from the winning feeling as they chase FA Cup and Europa League titles this term, and ideally Premier League and Champions League glory next season.

“The reality is that we want more: my contract is long, I have two more years with this one, so hopefully I can win more,” Mourinho said.

“This season I know it’s difficult, but the reality is we have to try to fight for more.”

Despite the landmark occasion Mourinho wore a stern expression during the trophy presentation.

But he insisted he was merely hiding his pride because he wanted his players to soak up the adulation.

“I am very happy. I always try to put myself in the secondary position -- it’s important for the fans, the club, the players -but it’s also important for me,” he said.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself, you (the media) put a lot of pressure on myself. I wanted very much to win a major trophy at every club. By doing that with Manchester United it’s quite the sense of relief because it was a big target for me.

“I feel very happy with the victory and the fact I did it four times, the same as the biggest one (Ferguson) and Mr Clough.”

Humble

After watching United blow a two-goal lead as Manolo Gabbiadini struck twice for the Saints before Ibrahimovic’s winner, Mourinho conceded his team had been fortunate.

“You could feel in the game the difference in freshness.

Southampton were in Spain, relaxing and preparing, and we were playing Europa League and FA Cup,” he said.

“We coped because we are humble, we stuck together and fought together, then we had a bit of luck because the 3-2 came at a moment when they couldn’t react.”

Although more silverware this year would be nice, Mourinho knows the main target is to guarantee Champions League acSpanish BBVA La Liga Table tion next season by securing a top-four Premier League finish.

P Team P W D L F A GD Pts The key to achieving that will be keeping Ibrahimovic fit and 1 Real Madrid 23 17 4 2 60 22 38 55 firing on all cylinders.

2 Barcelona 24 16 6 2 65 20 45 54 3 Sevilla 24 16 4 4 48 29 19 52 4 Atl Madrid 24 13 6 5 44 21 23 45 5 Real Sociedad 25 14 3 8 39 34 5 45 Chinese clubs have splashed a record 388 million euros 6 Villarreal 24 10 9 5 32 18 14 39 on footballers in the January-February transfer window 7 Eibar 25 11 6 8 41 33 8 39 despite an official crackdown on spending, with Oscar’s 8 Athletic Bilbao 24 11 5 8 31 29 2 38 heavyweight move to Shanghai SIPG leading the way.

9 Espanyol 24 9 8 7 33 31 2 35 In spite of moves to curb “irrational” expenditure, China’s 10 Celta Vigo 23 10 4 9 37 37 0 34 top tier beat last year’s record of 345 million euros and 11 Alavés 24 8 9 7 24 29 -5 33 outstripped the English Premier League’s winter spend12 Valencia 25 8 5 12 35 43 -8 29 ing of 259 million euros for the second year in a row, according to industry website transfermarkt.com.

13 Las Palmas 24 7 7 10 32 36 -4 28 Chelsea midfielder Oscar’s Asian-record, 60-million-euro 14 Malaga 24 6 8 10 31 40 -9 26 move to Shanghai SIPG reportedly made him the world’s 15 Real Betis 24 7 6 11 25 38 -13 27 second highest paid player -- behind Carlos Tevez, who 16 Leganés 25 5 6 14 20 40 -20 21 joined city rivals Shanghai Shenhua.

17 Dep Coruña 23 4 7 12 26 39 -13 19 Rumoured moves for Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Roon18 Sporting Gijón 24 4 5 15 26 48 -22 17 ey failed to materialise but Axel Witsel and Alexandre Pato 19 Granada 24 3 7 14 22 52 -30 16 were among other big names to join the Chinese Super League, while Zhang Chengdong became China’s most 20 Osasuna 24 1 7 16 24 55 -31 10

Jose Mourinho has challenged his Manchester United stars to use their dramatic League Cup final win against Southampton as a springboard to bigger prizes.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates with the trophy

The Swedish veteran, who also scored United’s opener with a fine free-kick, was written off by many when Mourinho signed him on a free transfer last year.

Yet he has defied the critics with 26 goals in all competitions, and Mourinho said he never doubted the forward.

“I was his manager, I know his potential,” said Mourinho of their previous spell together at Inter Milan.

“Only a silly player comes to England at 35 years old, and with the successful career that Zlatan has, if he doesn’t feel he can do it (he wouldn’t have come).

“Who better to know? Him. Not me, not you. Him.” Ibrahimovic›s future remains uncertain as his contract expires at the end of the season but, while Mourinho won›t plead with him, he expects the star to stay.

“I never beg for a player to sign a contract. I never beg for a player to play for me,” Mourinho said.

“But if needed, maybe United fans can go to the door of his house, and stay there all night if needed!

“We all want, and believe, that he is going to stay another season.”

All results as at 01.03.2017

China transfers hit new record

expensive player.

One of the biggest surprises was out-of-favour Watford striker Odion Ighalo’s 23.3m euro move to Changchun Yatai, which made him the sixth biggest transfer in Super League history.

The sums spent often seemed divorced from reality, with clubs’ big-business backers lavishing money seemingly in hopes of currying favour with President Xi Jinping, who has called for China to become one of the game’s superpowers.

China has rocketed up to become the fifth biggest global spenders in football last year, according to a report last month from FIFA, up from 20th the year before.

Though only spending a third of the English Premier League’s 1.3 billion euros in 2016, it is now comfortably outstripping footballing superpowers such as France and current European champions Portugal.

Issue 30 March 02 - 15, 2017

WEEKEND WORLD - 59

SPORT NEWS

Leicester’s owners condemned over sacking The sacking of Claudio Ranieri just nine months after guiding Leicester City to a sensational Premier League triumph brought a torrent of condemnation on the team’s Thai owners. said a Daily Mail tabloid commentary.

“Ranieri reign ends in cruel, brutal fashion,” said the Guardian.

The Sun tabloid said that Ranier’s relationship with key striker

EVERTON BOSS KOEMAN OPEN TO ROONEY RETURN Everton manager Ronald Koeman has paved the way for Wayne Rooney’s return to the club of his youth by saying he would make the side “stronger”.

Last week Rooney said he was staying with Manchester United following persistent speculation he could make a lucrative move to the Chinese Super League.

But doubts still surround the long-term club future of the 31-year-old Rooney, the England national side’s record goal-scorer, and Koeman appears ready to try to bring him back to Liverpool-based Everton.

“I believe that Wayne Rooney is still playing at a high level, “I think he made a good choice to stay at Manchester United and in the Premier League because he has still two or three years in front of him to play on a high level,” the former Dutch international added.

“What will happen at the end of the season? I don’t know but in my opinion he is one of the players who can make Everton stronger.

Class apart Steve Walsh, Everton’s director of football, endorsed Koeman’s comments, adding: “Wayne Rooney is one of the greatest players that has ever played the game in England and for us not to be interested would be wrong.

“He started his career here and if the opportunity arose that he could come back and it sat well with everyone it is something we would consider.

“He is a class apart, he sees things, and all the things that have been said about Wayne are true. He comes into that category of being one of England’s greatest

ever players, so why wouldn’t we be interested?

“But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Wayne is contracted to Manchester United and made a decision to continue to play for them.

“Let’s wait and see what happens in the future.”

Rooney, born in Liverpool, joined Everton as a nine-year-old and made his senior debut aged 16 on the opening day of the 2002/03 season against Tottenham Hotspur.

Six weeks later, Rooney became Everton’s youngest scorer with two goals against Wrexham in the League Cup. Rooney catapulted to national attention when he scored his first Premier League goal -- a last-minute winner against Arsenal -- five days before his 17th birthday.

The 18-year-old Rooney left Everton to join United in a £27 million ($34 million/32 million euros) move in 2004.

He has since won five Premier League titles and a Champions League trophy with United and become the club’s record goal-scorer.

Speculation about his Old Trafford future has intensified since Rooney ceased to be a first-team regular under manager Jose Mourinho. That was heightened when he was left on the bench for Sunday’s League Cup final win against Southampton at Wembley.

Jamie Vardy and goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel had broken down. But its commentary said the “flops” who cost Ranieri his job should lose their Premier League title medals.

The sacking stunned all of English football after Leicester’s extraordinary exploit in winning the Premier League title by 10 points last season.

“I shed a tear - I shed a tear for Claudio, I shed a tear for football and I shed a tear for my club,” former Leicester stalwart Lineker, now a television commentator, said on BBC radio.

“It is inexplicable to me, it’s inexplicable to a lot of football fans who love the game and I suppose you can explain it in terms of a panic decision and for me a wrong decision and it is very sad,” he added.

The 65-year-old Italian’s position has come under intense scrutiny this season during a slump that has left the Foxes just a point above the relegation zone.

“Claudio, appointed City manager in July 2015, led the Foxes to the greatest triumph in the club’s 133-year history last season, as we were crowned champions of England for the first time. His status as the most successful Leicester City manager of all time is without question,” said a club statement announcing the board’s decision.

UNDER THREAT “However, domestic results in the current campaign have placed the club’s Premier League status under threat and the board reluctantly feels that a change of leadership, while admittedly painful, is necessary in the club’s greatest interest,” the statement added.

Leicester vice-chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha said ditching Ranieri had been the hardest decision the owners had made but one they had to take when, with 13 games left to play, there was still a chance of Premier League survival.

Assistant manager Craig Shakespeare and Mike Stowell will take caretaker charge ahead of Monday’s match against Liverpool.

Another Italian Roberto Mancini is among names mentioned as a possible successor, along with Guus Hiddink, who helped arrest Chelsea’s decline last season, and Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill.

The Times said that some players want Nigel Pearson, who was sacked by Leicester’s owners in 2015 to make way for Ranieri, to return.

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“D

isgusting,” former England and Leicester player Gary Lineker said of the decision taken barely two weeks after the owners had given the Italian boss “unwavering support” despite the team’s troubles.

Amid reports of a breakdown in the relationship between Ranieri and senior Leicester players, the British press took a severe line against the owners who announced the bombshell sacking late last week.

“Leicester’s owners were snakes claiming to support Ranieri,”

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E

arvin “Magic” Johnson, who sparked the Los Angeles Lakers to five NBA titles in the 1980s, has been named president of basketball operations for the struggling NBA squad.

Lakers president and part-owner Jeanie Buss also announced the firing of general manager Mitch Kupchak and vice president of basketball operations Jim Buss, Jeanie’s brother and son of former owner Jerry Buss, who died in 2013.

“Today I took a series of actions I believe will return the Lakers to the heights Dr. Jerry Buss demanded and our fans rightly expect,” Jeanie Buss said. “Effective immediately, Earvin Johnson will be in charge of all basketball operations and will report directly to me.

“Our search for a new general manager to work with Earvin and coach Luke Walton is well underway and we hope to announce a new general manager in short order. Together, Earvin, Luke and our new general manager will establish the foundation for the next generation of Los Angeles Lakers greatness.”

Hall of Famer Johnson, 57, was part of the fabled “Showtime” lineup alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA all-time scoring leader. “Magic” was part of Lakers championship squads in 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988 before retiring in 1991 after being diagnosed with the HIV virus.

The Lakers returned to greatness behind superstar guard Kobe Bryant with five NBA crowns from 2000-2010 but have fallen on 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

CAN JOHNSON RECREATE THE MAGIC? Magic Johnson takes charge in major Lakers shakeup

hard times since.

“It’s a dream come true to return to the Lakers as president of basketball operations,” Johnson said. “Since 1979, I’ve been a part of the Laker Nation and I’m passionate about this organization.”

At 19-39 this season, the Lakers have the third-worst record in the NBA, ahead only of

conference doormats Brooklyn and Phoenix.

“I will do everything I can to build a winning culture on and off the court,” Johnson said.

“We have a great coach in Luke Walton and good young players. We will work tirelessly to return our Los Angeles Lakers to NBA champions.”

Jeanie Buss said she acted so the organiza-

tion would unite behind one vision and plan for improvement going forward.

“I took these actions today to achieve one goal. Everyone associated with the Lakers will now be pulling in the same direction, the direction established by Earvin and myself,” she said. “We are determined to get back to competing to win NBA championships again.”

Kupchak, 62, had been controling general manager of the Lakers since 2000. He won NBA crowns with the Lakers playing alongside Johnson in 1982 and 1985 as well as with Washington in 1978.

Jeanie Buss said that she and her brother shared the same desire in seeing the team prosper once more.

“Jim loves the Lakers. Although he will no longer be responsible for basketball personnel decisions, he is an owner of this team and we share the same goal: returning the Lakers to the level of greatness our father demanded,” she said.

UK Sport rejects funding appeals UK Sport chiefs have rejected funding application appeals by seven sports that hoped for a cash boost ahead of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Archery, badminton, fencing, table tennis and weightlifting, and Paralympic sports goalball and wheelchair rugby will now receive no financial aid from the lotterybacked funding agency.

Badminton is the biggest loser as it was given £5.7 million ($7.1 million) ahead of last year’s Rio Olympic.

The sizeable cut comes despite the sport hitting its medal target thanks to a bronze medal in the men’s doubles.

In a press release, Rod Carr, chairman of UK Sport, said: “I’d like to thank all the sports for their professionalism and openness throughout this process.

Our decision is in no way a reflection on them, their athletes or support personnel and everything that they have achieved to date.

“I appreciate that for the majority of national governing bodies that attended the representation meetings today’s outcome is extremely disappointing.

“We are operating in a tight financial

envelope, and have responsibilities to both develop the system underpinning our best athletes as well as the sports and athletes themselves, and sadly our investment won’t stretch to these sports for the Tokyo 2020 cycle.”

UK Sport has already handed out £345 million ($430 million) to 31 Olympic and Paralympic sports for their Tokyo preparations, although that total is £2 million ($2.4 million) less than the record amount invested for Rio. All seven sports have one more chance to take the decision to independent arbitration at Sport Resolutions.

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illiams and ex-Wallaby James O’Connor were arrested outside a Paris nightspot after allegedly being caught with 2.4 grams (0.08 ounces) of the drug.

Fairfax New Zealand sports columnist Kevin Norquay said such behaviour was unacceptable for a former All Black, let alone one who once led the team’s fabled haka war dance.

“Ali Williams has hauled the proud black name through the white powder dirt,” he wrote.

“He’s not just a silly boy with money having a bit of a lark outside a Paris nightclub.

“He’s Ali Williams, All Black lock, 77 Test caps, World Cup winner in 2011. Wearer of the Silver Fern, dispenser of the haka.”

New Zealand media has accused Ali Williams of tarnishing the image of the All Blacks after French police charged the World Cup-winning former international with buying cocaine.

Norquay said Williams’ status as an All Black was the reason he was in France playing for Racing 92, the defending Top 14 champions who have suspended the 35-year-old indefinitely over the incident.

“Williams’ allegedly illegal act did not hurt only himself, or those close to him -- such as his wife and small children. He harmed the

All Black legacy,” he added.

Williams is the second ex-All Black at Racing 92 to face trouble with the law after the legendary Dan Carter was caught drink-driving in Paris earlier this month.

Newstalk ZB’s France correspondent Catherine Field said Racing 92 promoted itself as a family club and would have expected better

“Substantial and compelling evidence” Continued from back cover The report, written in March 2016, also states that USADA found “substantial and compelling evidence” that Salazar (pictured right) and his team’s doctor, Jeffrey Brown, “conspired to collude together” to use prescription medications and medical procedures in risky and “sometimes potentially unlawful” ways in order to boost athletic performance.

That included persuading Farah to take potentially dangerous doses of permitted vitamin D prescription drugs. Farah has repeatedly defended himself against his links to drug-tainted figures in the athletics world.

In 2015, Salazar was the subject of a ProPublica and BBC report alleging he administered testosterone to American distance runner Galen Rupp in 2002 when Rupp -- a training partner of Farah -- was only 16, and encouraged misuse of prescription drugs.

from its high-profile recruits.

“It’s not just a glamour club, it’s a club that’s really based around family... it’s really something that goes against the ethics of this particular club,” she said.

“On top of that, there’s always a lot of interest in what the former All Blacks are doing here in France.”

SYMPATHY However, there was also some sympathy for Williams, with the New Zealand Herald’s Chris Rattue saying the lock was a “victim” in the war on drugs.

“I wish Williams and O’Connor well,” he wrote, arguing that prohibition of drugs had created a disaster.

“Theirs was a victim-less crime.”

He added the pair were “guilty of nothing, whatever the outcome”.

Williams made his All Blacks debut in 2002 and played 77 Tests over the next decade, including victory in the 2011 World Cup final against France.

He gained a reputation as a prankster during his playing days, once turning up to a Super Rugby press conference dressed as Spiderman.

There were also off-field issues and the Auckland Blues sent him home in disgrace ahead of a semi-final in South Africa in 2007 for repeated indiscretions

Royal St George’s to host 2020 British Open ROYAL St George’s will host the 149th British Open in 2020, the tournament’s organisers have announced.

The Kent venue, which voted to admit women members two years ago, will stage the Open for the 15th time and the first since Darren Clarke’s memorable victory in 2011.

Northern Ireland’s Clarke held off Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson to lift the famous Claret jug on the course in Sandwich, southeast England.

“It was an unbelievable feeling to lift the Claret Jug and know that my name was displayed on the trophy alongside so many of the greatest players ever to play the game,” Clarke said.

“The Open is what it is all about for me as a golfer and it is the championship I always dreamt of winning from when I first took up the game as a kid.

“I have so many wonderful memories from that week at Sandwich and I will be thrilled to go back there for The Open in three years’ time.”

The 2020 Open will be played from July 16-19, with players looking to follow in the footsteps of other Open winners at Royal St George’s including Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen, Henry Cotton, Bobby Locke, Sandy Lyle and Greg Norman.

Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A, said: “We are very much looking forward to the return of The Open to Royal St George’s in 2020. The Open is a true celebration of sport and the global spotlight will fall once again on Sandwich.

“Royal St George’s has produced a series of outstanding champion golfers over the last 120 years and it is a thrilling prospect for golf fans to see the greatest players competing on one of the world’s finest links courses.”

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Breaking Boundaries

Lizzie Kelly is set to become the first female jokey to race at the Cheltenham Gold Cup in over 33 years after it was confirmed that Tea For Two will compete.

Kelly became the first woman to ride a Grade 1 winner over obstacles when Tea For Two won

Gold Cup favourite Thistlecrack out for season Trainer Colin Tizzard’s stable star Thistlecrack’s hopes of landing the blue ribbon of jump racing the Cheltenham Gold Cup this year are over as an injury has ruled him out for the rest of the season.

The nine-year-old, who went down to his first defeat in five starts over fences last time out to Many Clouds who then collapsed and died, was found to have a slight tendon tear.

“The vet scanned him and it’s a slight tendon tear,” said Tizzard. “We’ve seen it at every yard and it happens every year.”

Tizzard, though, still has an imposing hand in the Gold Cup -- which takes place on March 17 bringing the racing festival to a climax -- with his impressive Welsh Grand National winner Native River the new favourite.

Tizzard also has the veteran Cue Card -- who was well beaten by his younger stablemate Thistlecrack in the prestigious King George VI Chase in late December -- on course for another tilt at a race which saw him come to grief three fences from home last year when in line for a million pound bonus had he won it Tizzard is still responsible for the favourite and second favourite for the race with Native River currently 3/1 market leader ahead of Cue Card at 4/1.

Djakadam is an 11/2 chance for Willie Mullins with fellow Irish raiders Outlander and Sizing John the only other horses at single figure prices, with both currently trading at 8/1 in a non-runner/no bet market.

the Feltham Novices’ Chase at Kempton in December 2015, before the pair broke new ground when finishing just three and a half lengths adrift of Thistlecrack in the King George 12 months later. Kelly’s mother Jane Williams is cotrainer of Tea For Two along with Nick Williams.

Pacquiao to fight Britain’s Khan in April

Philippine boxing hero Manny Pacquiao and British fighter Amir Khan have confirmed that they will face each other on April 23 after weeks of conflicting reports.

Pacquiao tweeted: “Negotiations between team Pacquiao and team Khan have come to terms for the April 23 bout as this is what the fans wanted.#PacquiaoKhan”.

AGREED TERMS Khan, 30, also posted on his official Twitter feed: “My team and I have agreed terms with Manny Pacquiao and his team for a super fight #pacquiaokhan #April23rd”.

Neither of them gave a venue for the match but a source in Pacquiao’s office said the bout would be in the United Arab Emirates. Pacquiao’s American promoter, Bob Arum, has previously been quoted as saying on the ESPN that “Manny is trying to get a fight done in the United Arab Emirates, and the people there favour him fighting Amir Khan”.

Spokesmen for the World Boxing Organization welterweight

champion Pacquiao could not immediately be contacted for comment.

Pacquiao, 38, previously confirmed on Twitter that he was “in negotiations” to face Khan despite Arum’s own efforts to arrange a fight with Australian Jeff Horn in April.

Pacquiao tweeted on February 11: “See you in UAE for my next fight. #TeamPacquiao”.

He also posted a poll on his official Twitter feed asking his 110,000-plus followers to choose either Horn, Khan, American Terence Crawford or Briton Kell Brook as his next opponent.

Khan had been leading the poll when it was taken down.

Pacquiao announced a brief retirement last year but made a successful comeback against Jessie Vargas in Las Vegas in November, saying he still felt like a youngster.

Pacquiao had said he was retiring to focus on his new role as Philippine senator, after winning elections last year on the back of his sporting fame.

MANCHESTER UNITED ‘MOST FOLLOWED CLUB IN CHINA’ Manchester United is the most popular club online in China but the Bundesliga’s web presence far outstrips the English Premier League, a new study has shown.

The survey by sports marketing company Mailman also found that Cristiano Ronaldo was the player with the biggest presence among Chinese fans with United’s Wayne Rooney, who has been linked with a move to the country, ranked fifth.

Manchester United has the most followers on China’s Twitter-

style Weibo, with 8.8 million, and a table-topping 700,000 monthly reads on the WeChat service, according to the report.

Germany’s Bayern Munich placed second for online presence with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City rounding out the top five, and Real Madrid sixth.

But the Premier League is far less visible than the German Bundesliga, Mailman said, crediting its “full digital presence”, including a Chinese-language website and live streaming, and the success of the German national team.

“The Bundesliga has been committed to digital innovation ever since we entered the market,” Bundesliga CEO Christian Seifert was quoted as saying.

“We are glad to see that our multi-channel digital strategy is reaping great results both in terms of reach and fan engagement.”

Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil, Gareth Bale of Real Madrid and United forward Anthony Martial completed the top five most visible players online.

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Renault confident of moving up a gear with new car

R

enault chiefs believe the new car they recently unveiled will see drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Jolyon Palmer propelled into the top five this forthcoming Formula One season.

Bob Bell, chief technical officer, didn’t go as far as Renault Sport boss Jerome Stoll in aiming for an improvement from ninth in the constructors championship last term to fifth.

MODERN ERA Nevertheless he dubbed the RS17 as the ‘first real Renault car of the modern era’ -- their first season back in the sport in 2016 after buying the ailing Lotus team was with an uncompetitive car.

However, after a major hiring exercise -- Lotus had reduced their workforce -- the team are aiming to be realistic constructors title contenders by 2020 as they bid to relive the glory days when they won successive drivers titles with Spaniard Fernando Alonso in 2005/06.

“What we know about this car so far gives me a lot of optimism,” said Bell.

Renault chiefs believe the new car they recently unveiled will see drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Jolyon Palmer propelled into the top five this forthcoming Formula One season.

Bell said that the car had been designed from zero.

“It’s a ground-up design as we had the time and the resources to do it, notwithstanding the fact that the change in the regulations demanded it,” he said.

“There is no carry-over of componentry from 2016 to 2017, so it really has been a clean-sheet-of-paper approach.

“Our performance metrics show that we’ve made gains in a strong and consistent manner throughout its development.

If you look at the car itself you will see tremendous attention to detail and sophistication.

“The aerodynamic concept has been the biggest change and the majority of our focus is on the bodywork.

“All teams will have added a decent amount of performance under the new 2017 rules, and it’s not till we get to testing

Ferrari unveils new F1 car to rival Mercedes Ferrari has unveiled a faster and visibly changed new single seater car in which Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will bid to rival Mercedes next season.

The Italian constructor struggled last season finishing behind Mercedes and Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.

Ferrari have not won a drivers’ championship in a decade with Finn Raikkonen the last driver to triumph for the Italian stable in 2007.

Named the “SF70” in reference to Ferrari’s 70 years in competition the car is as usual largely red with black trim with a sweep of new features following regulation changes aimed at speeding up Formula 1.

The SF70, the 63rd model of the Ferrari racing car, has more aerodynamic downforce and more mechanical grip on top of much wider Pirelli tyres, giving increased grip and faster cornering.

The lengthened nose and the arrow-shaped wing are also a consequence of the new regulations, as is the obvious white-coloured shark fin on the engine cover.

The hubs and wheel-caps have been altered to allow for faster wheel changes at pit stops and the enhanced braking and steering are more powerful.

The nose of the Ferrari is markedly wider than the rival Mercedes W08 unveiled at Silverstone by Lewis Hamilton on Thursday on the back of three consecutive world championship titles for the German team.

Germany’s Vettel and Raikkonen came fourth and sixth respectively in the 2016 world championships while Ferrari itself were third in the constructors standings.

The Italian outfit is challenging for a first world title since Raikkonen won in 2007, and a first constructors title since 2008.

Raikkonen is due to put the SF70 through its paces at Barcelona on Monday as the world championships series gets underway in Australia on March 26.

that we can see how good a job we’ve done in relative terms to our opposition.”

Hulkenberg, 29, joined the team from Force India and the German is yet to record a podium finish since making his debut in 2010 with a highest overall finish in the championship standings of ninth in both 2014 and 2016.

Palmer, 26 and son of former Formula One pilot Jonathan, raced for Renault last season in his maiden campaign and scored just one point.

Renault also announced they have hired France’s four-time world champion Alain Prost as a special adviser to the executive committee of Renault Sport F1.

The season commences with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 26.

Williams keep faith with Di Resta Williams have opted to keep Scotland’s Paul Di Resta as their reserve driver for the forthcoming Formula One campaign.

Di Resta will provide cover for Williams’ lead driver Felipe Massa and 18-yearold Canadian Lance Stroll.

Massa is back with Williams following his short-lived retirement after Valtteri Bottas’ move to Mercedes.

Di Resta, 30, was given his Grand Prix debut by Force India in 2011 and made 88 starts over three seasons before joining Williams last year.

“I am delighted to remain at Williams as reserve driver for the 2017 season,” Di Resta said on Monday.

NEW REGULATIONS “I’m looking forward to getting to grips with the controls and procedures of the FW40 and understanding the new regulations.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank (deputy team principal) Claire Williams and everyone at Williams for their continued support in being part of the team.”

Di Resta’s best race results in Formula One have been two fourth places in Singapore in 2012 and Bahrain in 2013.

Williams’ latest car will be unveiled on Friday before pre-season testing begins on February 27.

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RITAIN’S four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah insists he was “a clean athlete” after a leaked United States Anti-Doping Agency report suggested that his coach had “almost certainly” broken anti-doping rules.

“I am a clean athlete who has never broken the rules in regards to substances, methods or dosages and it is upsetting that some parts of the media, despite the clear facts, continue to try to associate me with allegations of drug misuse,” Farah said in a statement.

“As I’ve said many times before we all should do everything we can to have a clean sport and it is entirely right that anyone who breaks the rules should be punished.”

The USADA confirmed it had compiled a dossier on controversial coach Alberto Salazar following a report accusing the athletics guru of dangerously using drugs to boost the performance of his athletes.

The dossier -- obtained by the Fancy Bears hacking group -- had found Salazar abused prescription drugs and experimented with infusions of a research supplement based on the amino acid L-carnitine at his Oregon base.

L-carnitine is not a banned substance but infusions of more than 50ml in the space of six hours are prohibited.

The dossier alleges that Salazar gave intravenous drip infusions to Farah and to half a dozen top US runners and that USADA had concluded the treatments of the Americans “almost certainly” broke anti-doping rules.

Farah said “If USADA or any other Anti-Doping Body has evidence of wrongdoing they should publish it and take action rather than allow the media to be judge and jury,” added the athlete, who won both the 5,000m and 10,000m in the London and Rio games.

Armstrong boast USADA said in a statement that no conclusion had been reached.

“USADA can confirm that it has prepared a report in response to a subpoena from a state medical licensing body regarding care given by a physician to athletes associated with the Nike Oregon Project,” USADA said in a statement.

“As we continue to investigate whether anti-doping rules were broken, no further comment will be made at this time.”

L-carnitine is found naturally in the body and is also prescribed as a supplement for heart and muscle disorders.

Continued on page 61

Ryanair boss withdraws Grand National runners Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary has withdrawn several of his proposed runners in the world’s greatest steeplechase the Grand National over a disagreement of the weights they had been allocated.

The 55-year-old Irishman -- who won the race last year with the now retired Rule the World -- declared himself furious with some of the weights allocated to his runners including top weight to Outlander for the April 8th showpiece.

Outlander is one of the eight O’Leary-owned horses withdrawn -- along with other fancied contenders Empire of Dirt and last year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup third Don Poli.

O’Leary, whose horses run under his Gigginstown Stud banner, still has eight contenders among the 96 original entrants to stand their ground -- a maximum of 40 can go to post on the day.

O’Leary, who had a superb season last year also winning the blue riband race of the jumps season the Cheltenham

Gold Cup, keeps a firm hand on his racing operation and last September removed the 60 odd horses he had with champion Irish trainer Willie Mullins over a disagreement about training fees.

Handicapper Phil Smith -- who sets the weights -- has denied the suggestion there might be an anti-Irish bias.

He said British handicappers keeping their own performance figures for Irish races has “given our handicaps greater equality and fairness”.