Spain isn’t just dominating world soccer, it is starting to change the way the game is played.

19:23 El NACHO 0 Comments

Spain isn’t just dominating world soccer, it is starting to change the way the game is played.

The intricacies of the 4-2-3-1 system used by Spain’s national team are deep and varied. Simply put, by having two holding midfielders (normally Xabi Alonso and Sergio Busquets) in front of the backline, it allows a marauding force of offensive midfielders (including the sensational Xavi and Iniesta) to control possession and break down the opposition by stealth and craft.

The system is not to everyone’s liking but when deployed expertly, there is little that can be done to negate it. The primary reason why Spain was the lowest-scoring World Cup champion in history was because opponents refused to engage them head-on for fear of being surgically picked apart.

“Because football has become a bit more tactical and organized, it is about becoming harder to beat ,and teams want two holding midfielders,” England and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard told the Guardian. “I don’t like the system too much.”

A more measured approach doesn’t sit too well with the English mentality, but elsewhere it has been adopted – and adapted – to good effect. World Cup finalists the Netherlands used Mark Van Bommel and Nigel De Jong as a holding midfield duo, albeit one with a definition of defense that often bordered on brutality.

Champions League winners Inter were headlined by the goal-scoring brilliance of Diego Milito and the creativity of Wesley Sneijder, yet Mourinho was even more grateful to his holding partnership of Javier Zanetti and the evergreen brilliance of Esteban Cambiasso.

More and more club teams are using the system and fans have warmed up to it as well. Spain’s other great achievement of the summer, apart from winning it all, was to make technique and precision fashionable at the expense of blind aggression.

“It was beautiful football,” said Spain captain Iker Casillas, weeks after the tournament. “Maybe it was not exactly the same kind of beautiful football people have seen before, but everything I have heard from the people is that they found it beautiful. Not just the victory, but the football.”

Whether that will be rewarded in individual accolades remains to be seen. I wrote during the World Cup that Xavi is now the best player in the world and I’ve seen nothing since to alter my opinion. However, little men who set up goals rather than score them and whose passes are designed for effectiveness, not the highlight reel, don’t always get the recognition they deserve.

No Spanish player has won the Ballon d’Or, which this year merges with the FIFA world player of the year award for the first time, since Luis Suarez won it in 1960.

The smart money this time around is on Sneijder, who steered Inter to European glory and the Netherlands to second place in the World Cup.

Spain’s stars may be hindered by a splitting of opinion on who really makes the team tick. Some say Xavi is the engine, others back Iniesta, Villa or Alonso as the main driving force.

But there is no doubt about which nation makes soccer move to a beat that finds beauty in efficiency, simplicity and teamwork, and has the rest of the world playing catch-up.

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Antonio Banderas’ villa can remain on the shore.

16:08 El NACHO 0 Comments

MARBELLA Town Hall is to modify the local General Plan for Urban Development (PGOU) so that Antonio Banderas’ villa can remain on the shore. The PGOU came into effect five months ago and Banderas will still lose 1,243 square metres of the garden at La Gaviota villa in Los Monteros, which will be turned into a green area.

However, he will be allowed to keep land to the western side of the villa so that it maintains its sea views.


This has been possible thanks to changes made to the boundary lines which mark the land he must hand over to the town hall in order to make the property legal. According to the council, this has been done to make the coastline live and regain terrain which runs parallel to the Arroyo Alicate, in order to improve connections between the two.

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companies that were defrauding timeshare owners and the general public at large

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Between 2007 and 2010 the Spanish police and other enforcement agencies such as Trading Standards in the UK stepped up their efforts to tackle companies that were defrauding timeshare owners and the general public at large. This has resulted in the closure of over 70 companies, some of which were wound up by the authorities and others ceased trading of their own accord, frequently due to pressure as a result of investigations that were being carried out.

The majority of the companies were based in Spain and the Canary Islands although a small number operated in the UK, where an increasing number of sales offices are opening.

As part of its own enforcement programme, RDO appointed an ex-police inspector from Spain and he has worked closely with the authorities over the past 3 years, providing them with crucial information to help their investigations, with the ultimate aim of having fraudulent companies closed down.

Members of the public who believe they may have been defrauded should contact RDO on info@rdo.org.

The list below details companies that have closed since 2007.




Company LOCATION DATE
Alabama Development LTD UK 20/08/2008
Alma Financial Investment SL Spain 20/08/2008
Alvita Holidays / Alvita Vacation Canary Islands 03/05/2009
Alvita Travel SA / Alvita Holidays SL Canary Islands 22/12/2008
APD Marketing & Leisure UK 23/11/2009
Avantgarde Management Costa del Sol 05/02/2009
Benedetti y Asociados Costa del Sol 07/07/2010
Buena Viva UK 08/01/2009
Buy Owner Resort Marketing Inc USA 14/07/2010
Cabinet D'Avocats Costa del Sol 14/11/2009
Carpe Diem Canary Islands 01/02/2007
Class Properties de Luxe Costa del Sol 27/01/2009
Club Class Concierge Costa del Sol 08/01/2009
Consultancy Group Europe SL, Spain 20/08/2008
Destinations AG Canary Islands 01/03/2009
DGS Brokers Costa del Sol 11/09/2008
DGS Universal Sales SL Costa del Sol 11/09/2008
Discovery Planet SL Spain 20/08/2008
Dunstar El Rosario SL Costa del Sol 11/09/2008
Dunstar Global Services SL Costa del Sol 11/09/2008
European Legal Consultants SL Canary Islands 08/12/2007
FC Management Ltd UK 04/09/2008
FH Publishing Gibraltar 13/11/2008
First Legal Services Costa del Sol 15/10/2009 *
Fleet Holiday Properties Costa del Sol 13/11/2008
Freedom Vacation Network Canary Islands 29/11/2007
Freedom Vacation Network Portugal 05/11/2007
Freedom Vacation Network Canary Islands 29/07/2006
Full Circle Management Ltd / Full Circle Holidays UK 04/09/2008
GB Marketing / Great Britain Marketing Canary Islands 25/07/2009
Global Vacations Ltd / Vacation Solutions Spain SL Costa del Sol 07/01/2009
Golden Sands Marketing UK 16/09/2010
Greystone Leisure & Travel Costa del Sol 11/09/2008 *
Harlequin Solutions Ltd UK 01/09/2008
HBF Trading / Holiday Trading Costa del Sol 30/06/2008
Holiday Maker Travel Canary Islands 01/11/2005
Holiday Network Solutions Costa del Sol 03/09/2008
Iberia Market & Trade SL Costa del Sol 15/10/2009
Identity Inversiones Inmobiliarias Cataluña 19/02/2009
ILG / DWVC UK 01/06/2009
ILG UK Ltd UK 02/10/2009
Independent Travel Club SL Canary Islands 08/12/2007
Inmobiliaria El Solucion Costa del Sol 22/07/2010
International Holiday Veneus SC Costa del Sol 30/06/2008
Inter-Travel Connections, S.L. Canary Islands 19/05/2009
Isla Linda Canarias SL Canary Islands 20/08/2008
Justice Reveals International Consultants Canary Islands 08/12/2007
Kingswood Property Management Services UK 16/12/2007
Kristal Kross Canary Islands 01/01/2008
Larimar LTD UK 20/08/2008
Libertad Consult Gestion Company SL Canary Islands 08/12/2007
Masol Comunicaciones SL Spain 20/08/2008
Multisur Costa del Sol 22/10/2009
NV Mijas Costa del Sol 15/12/2008
Parker and Co Management Gibraltar 13/11/2008
Pasaporte Ltd Costa del Sol 15/10/2009
Rainbow Solutions Marketing Costa del Sol 05/02/2009
Real Escape Costa del Sol 03/09/2008
RSSL Costa del Sol 06/12/2008
Sol Bookers Costa del Sol 14/12/2008 *
St Frances Marketing Ltd UK 21/10/2009
Starting Point Marketing Costa del Sol 25/02/2009
T&MS Ltd UK 25/10/2007
TAG World Services UK 13/08/2008
Terranova Holiday Promotions Canary Islands 09/10/2008
Thompson Investment Branco UK 20/08/2008
T-One (UK) Limited Spain / UK 16/12/2007
Travel Star Europe UK 04/09/2008
Vicmar Cabopino Costa del Sol 15/10/2009
Worldwide Connections SL Canary Islands 05/06/2010
Worldwide International UK Ltd UK 17/02/2010
Yacht Trading UK Ltd. UK 07/02/2008
Your Dreams Holidays Canary Islands 13/07/2009 *

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Illegal homes - Faced with the Junta's failure, British residents propose solutions

22:25 El NACHO 0 Comments

Illegal homes - Faced with the Junta's failure, British residents propose solutions: "Slow progress was seen in a meeting with the Junta on Monday and now the British residents are coming up with their own solutions

AUAN had a meeting on Monday in Macael with the Delegate for Public Works and Housing, the Director General for Urban Planning and the Director General of the Planning Inspectorate of the Junta de Andalucia.

After the meeting, the President of AUAN, Maura Hillen, said, “We are bitterly disappointed with outcome of the meeting. This was supposed to be a working party to discuss a road map; no work group was formed, neither were we given the supposed road map. We aren’t clear, in fact, what the purpose of the meeting was nor why we were invited.

The first legal proceedings were initiated seven years ago. Since then not one single house has been legalised. Seven years of opportunity have already been wasted."

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Morocco's militant hackers - Afrik-news.com : Africa news, Maghreb news - The african daily newspaper

19:50 El NACHO 0 Comments

Morocco's militant hackers - Afrik-news.com : Africa news, Maghreb news - The african daily newspaper: "militant hackers are busy doing what they do best. And their latest feats include a site belonging to a Spanish disco, Meca. Meca looks like a mosque and has a dome and a minaret. September 13, hackers replaced the homepage with a picture of the Haram al-Sharif (Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem), accompanied by a hacker’s signature: a male face adorned with a red cap bearing a star. The hacker also left a message: 'Do you want to discover one day that your church has become a place dedicated to livestock or garbage?'
Spain was not the only country to suffer that month. Egypt’s Ministry of Communications saw its site falling prey to Moroccan hackers after the broadcast of a TV movie, Dishonor. According to the group, the movie insults the integrity of Moroccan women.
This type of online activism emerged in 2006 with 'Team Evil'. The group hacked over 750 Israeli sites in response to an offensive by the Jewish state in the Gaza Strip. The affected sites had warning messages posted on their screens, some of which read: “Site hacked by Team Evil Arab Hackers. As long as you kill Palestinians, we will kill your servers”.
The Israeli response was quick. Some 250 Internet sites in the North African Kingdom were attacked. Contrary to Israel, the damage to Morocco was heavy. Attack from Israel’s “TEAM Good” on the Moroccan ISP Omihost hit some important servers containing back-ups. War on the Web was officially launched and hacktivism was born.
But despite its somewhat political agenda, hacktivism 'remains an illegal and destructive way to express one’s anger. The intention is commendable, but the act is not,' says Anas El Filali B., founder of the blog Big Brother."

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Spain's Banco Santander wins EU approval to buy RBS assets - People's Daily Online

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Spain's Banco Santander wins EU approval to buy RBS assets - People's Daily Online: "Banco Santander of Spain has won approval from the European Union (EU) to buy a number of retail and commercial banking assets of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) in Britain.

'The transaction would not significantly impede effective competition' in the European markets, said the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, in a statement on Friday.

The assets to be sold consist of RBS's branch-related retail and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) business in England and Wales, the NatWest branch-related retail and SME business in Scotland along with certain mid-corporate customer accounts in Britain. There are in total approximately 300 branches and around 40 SME and business banking centers.

The divestment is part of the conditions set by the European Commission when it approved the British government's plan to bail out RBS in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis."

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52,000 homes were embargoed in Spain in the first quarter of this year"Landmark court ruling against abusive clause in Spanish mortgages

19:18 El NACHO 0 Comments

Landmark court ruling against abusive clause in Spanish mortgages: "52,000 homes were embargoed in Spain in the first quarter of this year"

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Malaya case underway again in Málaga after a week break

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Malaya case underway again in Málaga after a week break: "Today saw the turn of the lawyer representing the ex Mayor of Marbella, Marisol Yagüe

The Malaya case investigating the corruption in Marbella Town Hall resumed in Málaga on Monday after a week’s break, and saw the defence lawyer from Granada, Pablo Luna, who is acting for the ex Marbella Mayor, Marisol Yagüe.

He demanded that the phone taps carried out by the Police on the orders of the Instruction Judge, Miguel Ángel Torres, in November 2005, be declared null and void. The lawyer’s argument was that the phone taps were ‘not sufficiently motivated or based’."

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Barry Mitchell, who has known Boland for 20 years, says he was not surprised that the DJ had taken up with a 16-year-old.

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Maurice Boland's rise and fall... Mr Marbella | Olive Press Newspaper: "Olive Press reported exclusively in our last issue, he had been forced to leave the studio and face the music – excuse the pun – and explain how his apparently ‘professional’ relationship with the young singer, had turned romantic.
While it is still unclear if the police were in some way involved, there was certainly a heated exchange, which led the normally calm station boss Martin Nathan to insist that Boland had to go.
Effectively spelling the end of his radio career, the station,and the Olive Press’s own website, was inundated with a deluge of angry comments from his loyal listeners.
In particular, they picked out the hypocricy of his actions, publicly criticising Catholic priests on the radio, while at the same time having an af-fair with a teenager.
Meanwhile there were a string of further unsubstantiated rumours flying around about the businessman, who had set up on the coast as a nightclub empresario in the 1980s.
The local Jewish community was particularly shocked by the actions of its community Vice President, who has now been deprived of his ‘guidance’ role.
One former TRE colleague, television producer Barry Mitchell, who has known Boland for 20 years, says he was not surprised that the DJ had taken up with a 16-year-old.
Mitchell said Boland loved it when, on occasion, young choirs would come to the radio studios and often made inappropriate comments about the girls.
‘Two or three of us would look at each other and raise our eyebrows, knowing full well that he was serious,’ Mitchell said, ‘And hindsight has proven that to be true.’"

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Maurice Boland's rise and fall... Mr Marbella | Olive Press Newspaper

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Maurice Boland's rise and fall... Mr Marbella | Olive Press Newspaper: "IT certainly has a most poetic ring to it; she being 16, he 61.
But the liaisons with a teenager that he had taken under his wing to compete in the so-called WOW Factor talent show, has caused more of a slasher movie to the career of one of the coast’s most famous celebrities.
Whether you loved him or hated him, few lacked opinions about DJ Maurice Boland – aka ‘Mr Marbella’ – who over a two decade career has interviewed some of the world’s biggest celebrities through his radio talk show.
He so impressed his subjects that novelist Jeffrey Archer described Maurice as, “the professional’s professional”.
He added: “He is very hard working, very demanding in his research and above all – which is not the case with all journalists -he is very fair. He sees both sides.”…
But, while he long asked a series of tricky questions of the likes of David Cameron, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jay Leno, he was last week being asked a series of tough questions himself.
It came after the parents of the teenage girl – who we are not naming out of respect for her family – turned up to confront him as he was mid-way through his radio chat show at Talk Radio Europe (TRE) a fortnight ago."

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Costa Blanca Hoteliers continue to fight Thomas Cook

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Costa Blanca Hoteliers continue to fight Thomas Cook: "Hoteliers on the Costa Blanca are to call on the Regional Government to remove the help currently given to the British tour operator, Thomas Cook.

The call from the HOSBEC Benidorm and Costa Blanca Hoteliers Association is the response from them to an enforced 5% cut in the value of all the current and pending contracts signed by the hoteliers with the travel firm.
HOSBEC says that it will call on the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations, CEHAT, to join them in legal action ‘to defend their legitimate interests’ in the national and European courts.

Thomas Cook has justified the measure saying it is needed to guarantee their economic viability after losses suffered as a consequence of the Icelandic volcanic eruption."

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There are not enough pigs in Andalucía for all the legs of ham

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There are not enough pigs in Andalucía for all the legs of ham: "Wide scale fraud in the labelling of pig products appears to have been taking place

The Junta de Andalucía has said that large scale fraud has been taking place because twice as much ‘Jamón Ibérico’ is being sold as exists. Products equivalent to a million animals have been sold, when there are only 500,000 pigs in the region.

The fraud came to light when 17,000 kilos of ‘false Ibérico’ was found in a Sevilla company a few days ago labelled as coming from the Cerdo Ibérico in Andalucía.

The regional councillor for Agriculture and Fisheries, Clara Aguilera, said ‘this means that there could have been some fraud’, and she said her department would be very demanding in an investigation, declaring that we have to prove that these products ‘really come from the pastures of Andalucía’. She said that consumers needed protection, as do the farmers who are correctly meeting the requirements."

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420,000 Euro was defrauded by holidaymakers who paid deposits on apartments which did not in fact exist

19:36 El NACHO 0 Comments

Costa Blanca 2009 holiday accommodation scam still under investigation in the U.K.: "420,000 Euro was defrauded by holidaymakers who paid deposits on apartments which did not in fact exist

Investigations are reported to remain open in the U.K. into dozens of cases of alleged real estate frauds involving rental accommodation on the Costa Blanca. Reports indicate the total amount defrauded, obtained in advance payments for deposits on holiday apartments in the summer of 2009 was 420,000 €.

When the tourists arrived at their destination, they found just empty plots of land, even though they had seen photographs and other details on the web pages where they had booked and paid a deposit.

It’s understood some 140 complaints have been placed in the U.K., along with some 60 complaints from other countries such as Saudi Arabia, with each one claiming that they had paid deposits ranging in size from 1,800 to 7,000 € to spend their holidays in Dénia, Jávea and Teulada-Moraira.

At the time in 2009 the Spanish Guardia Civil did arrest two individuals, a man and a woman, but newspaper Las Provincias reports that there has been little progress since then. The man is still being held in prison on remand, while the woman was released with charges outstanding after declaring to the duty judge in Dénia.

It is established that all the agencies involved had the same postal address which was a post box, but there is no sign as to where the money may have gone."

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X Factor losers Princes and Rogues have vowed to carry on as a band despite being ejected from the ITV show.

09:06 El NACHO 0 Comments

X Factor losers Princes and Rogues have vowed to carry on as a band despite being ejected from the ITV show.

The boy group, which includes Ashley Emerson from Burbage, made it through to the final 32 to spend four days in judge Simon Cowell's rented mansion in Marbella, Spain.

Despite the pop mogul's encouragement earlier in the series, on Saturday he decided not to choose the five 20-somethings to go on to compete in the live shows.

Ashley, 24, said: "It was quite difficult for us not making it through because we were so well liked by the producers

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Bank of Spain is urging the government to develop a backup plan in case the economy fails to grow enough to meet deficit-reduction goals

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Bank of Spain is urging the government to develop a backup plan in case the economy fails to grow enough to meet deficit-reduction goals.

Bank governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez says many economists think the government's forecast of economic growth of 1.3 percent in 2011 is too optimistic and predict growth will in fact be 0.6 percent.

He told a parliamentary panel Tuesday the government should have alternative measures ready, such as cutting spending by regional and local governments.

Finance Minister Elena Salgado presented a draft 2011 budget to Parliament last week and said the government is confident in its forecasts and has no Plan B.

The budget foresees cutting the deficit from an expected 9.3 percent of GDP this year to 6.0 percent in 2011.

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Fugitive killer caught in Spain following attempted bank robbery - Manchester Evening News

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Fugitive killer caught in Spain following attempted bank robbery - Manchester Evening News: "convicted killer who went on the run after being sprung from court has been arrested in Spain's Costa Blanca following an attempted bank robbery.
Richard Smith, 29, had been missing since May after a security van bringing him to Salford magistrates court was attacked.
Smith, of Pegwell Drive, Lower Broughton, was being taken to court on May 13 after being charged with conspiracy to commit arson.
But Spanish police finally arrested Smith on Wednesday on suspicion of attempted robbery in the Spanish town of Benissa, near Alicante.
If he is charged and convicted Smith may have to serve a sentence in Spain before being extradited to the UK.
A European arrest warrant had already been issued for Smith before he was arrested in connection with the failed bank raid.
It is understood he was allegedly seen at the bank, but fled and was arrested later at gunpoint."

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'could mean death of euro' | Mail Online

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Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz: Economic crisis 'could mean death of euro' | Mail Online: "economic woes of Greece and Spain could trigger a break-up of the euro and plunge Europe's weakest countries back into recession, one of the world's leading economists has warned. Spain's unemployment has soared to 20 per cent and Brussels policymakers fear that it could go the way of Mediterranean counterpart Greece, whose economy teetered on the edge of meltdown earlier this year.
Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz said the stress placed on the single European currency by its failing economies meant 'the future prospects of the euro are bleak'.
He argued that the only longterm solution to the crisis might be for Germany, Europe's strongest economy, to ditch the currency altogether.
He said Germany's exit would allow the euro to fall in value, boosting exports from Europe's stragglers, whose goods would become cheaper for the rest of the world to buy."

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The grieving family of an English professor who was brutally killed and dismembered in Spain last month are in shock that her accused killer could be back on the streets in less than a decade - NYPOST.com

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The grieving family of an English professor who was brutally killed and dismembered in Spain last month are in shock that her accused killer could be back on the streets in less than a decade - NYPOST.com: "Grieving loved ones of an English teacher from Westchester who was murdered and dismembered in Spain are in shock that her accused killer could be back on the streets in a decade.
'We don't want vengeance. We want justice,' Laura Cerna's brother, Thomas, 50, told The Post after returning to the United States with his parents. He spoke on Wednesday following his sister's funeral in Seville.
'Justice is, this man should rot in jail. But that's not the case in Spain.'
Antonio Gordillo, 30, is facing as little as 10 years behind bars for the rape, stabbing and dismemberment of Laura Cerna, 49, who had moved abroad six years ago from Larchmont.

At his arraignment last Friday, prosecutors charged Gordillo with homicide. A lawyer hired by the family will argue that prosecutors should add Spain's most serious charge of aggravated homicide -- but even that offers a penalty of only up to 25 years in prison."

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Guardia Civil agents based in San Roque have arrested a British man for stealing a lorry

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Guardia Civil agents based in San Roque have arrested a British man for stealing a lorry. The arrest came thanks to a routine control of a local parking area in the search for stolen vehicles.

On September 15th they saw the engine section of an articulated lorry with no plates, and discovered that the lorry had been stolen in Belgium, and the engine section had been stolen in the U.K.

Then the use of the surveillance tapes on local closed circuit TV led to the arrest of the Briton N.F.M. He will appear in court shortly

Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_27365.shtml#ixzz117AU1EGq

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