Category: News

North Korean Embassy
Spanish intelligence officials have suggested the CIA was involved in a break-in at the North Korean Embassy in Madrid last month where diplomatic staff members were bound and held hostage.
Spanish Press reports yesterday said investigators have identified two of the 10 assailants who broke into the embassy and said they have connections to the CIA – a claim the intelligence agency has denied.
The Interior Ministry said at the time that neither North Korean diplomats nor other government officials had filed a complaint.… Read all the news

Opinion Poll
Support for the PSOE Socialists was seen rising ahead of the April 28 election in a poll of polls published by El Pais late yesterday though the ruling party was expected to fall well short of a majority.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s party was seen winning 27.3 percent of the vote, up since he announced the snap election on Feb. 15, while the main conservative opposition, the PP saw support drop to 20.0 percent.
far-right party Vox rose sharply to 12.1 percent, while support for Ciudadanos fell to 16.3 percent and Podemos to 13.8.… Read all the news

Aircraft Ban
The European Union and India have banned the Boeing 737 Max from flying over their airspace to ensure passenger safety.
They join a long list of countries in suspending the plane, including the UK.
It comes after an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. It was the second fatal accident involving the 737 Max 8 model in less than five months.
US officials say the aircraft are still safe to fly.
However, the US Association of Flight Attendants is now calling for the Federal Aviation Administration “to temporarily ground the 737 Max fleet in the US out of an abundance of caution”.… Read all the news

Benidorm Death Arrest
A Scottish man has been arrested on suspicion of killing Scottish tourist Jim Clark who was on a stag holiday in Benidorm.
Police arrested a 33-year-old man at Alicante Airport as he tried to board a flight back to Scotland.
He was due to appear in court in the resort this morning.
Jim Clark , from Hawick, died after a fight broke out in a bar on Calle Gerona in the heart of Benidorm’s Little England area just after 3am on Friday night.… Read all the news

Migrant Activist
Spanish pro-migrant activist Helena Maleno said yesterday that a Moroccan court has dropped human trafficking charges against her
Maleno works for an NGO which alerts naval authorities on migrant boats in distress at sea as they attempt the crossing between Morocco and Spain.
She had been under investigation in Morocco since 2017 for alleged collusion in people traffickers offenses after a similar case in Spain was dismissed.
Her case had seen an outpouring of support from rights groups, politicians and celebrities.… Read all the news

Benidorm Murder
Police have identified the 33-year-old man from Scotland who died after an early morning confrontation in Benidorm on Friday
Jim Clark, from Hawick, was staying in a hotel in the resort.
Officers are attempting to trace two English men in connection with the death.
It is understood Mr Clark had traveled to Spain as part of a stag party.

Activist Charges
Spanish activist Helena Maleno says Moroccan authorities have dropped a case against her that sought human trafficking charges for her calls alerting maritime rescue services to the presence of migrants crossing the Mediterranean.… Read all the news

Benidorm Murder Hunt
Police are hunting two men believed to have been involved in a fight with the 33-year-old Scot tourist who died in Benidorm.
Well-placed sources said detectives are trying to identify the pair, believed to be Brits.
One has been described as wearing a white T-shirt and white trainers.
local reports said the dead man, who had checked into a four-star apart-hotel with friends just hours before he lost his life, had suffered a blow to his head.
The incident happened around 3.15am on Friday in Calle Gerona in the heart of Benidorm’s Little England.… Read all the news

Carers Arrested
A couple accused of drugging and locking up elderly foreigners in a ‘House of Horrors’ so they could steal their savings have been arrested in Spain.
The pair, said to be of German-Cuban origin, were caught after 101-year-old German woman died suddenly after being left in the couple’s care.
Police discovered that another four people had died while the couple had supposedly been looking after them.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Cadiz confirmed ‘Six people have been arrested and nine placed under investigation as the suspected authors of a series of crimes ranging from fraud to forgery, misappropriation and money laundering.… Read all the news

In Flight Death
The woman who died on an EasyJet flight from Gatwick to Malaga with a suspected chest infection picked up on a Caribbean cruise has been named as grandmother-of-two Ann Rudkin.
The airline was accused of negligence yesterday as it emerged the 63-year-old had been allowed to board a plane on Monday despite her deteriorating health.
Today she was identified as an expat English teacher from Weymouth.
English teacher Mrs Rudkin, who lived in Fuengirola, was pronounced dead after her packed Monday afternoon Easyjet plane from Gatwick landed at Malaga Airport on Monday evening.… Read all the news

Vox Embarrassed
Police have arrested a local leader of Spain’s emergent far-right party Vox party on suspicion he had committed sex crimes against a person with disabilities, prompting the populist movement yesterday to distance itself from the man and to retroactively delete social media posts involving him.
Local press named the suspect as José Antonio Ortiz Cambray, allegedly the local president of Vox in the city of Lleida in Catalonia.

Wild Fires
Spain continued to battle unseasonal wildfires in its northern regions of Asturias and Cantabria yesterday although authorities hope forecasts of easing winds and some rain will help put an end to days-long battle to rein in a spate of blazes that investigators believed many might have been started deliberately.… Read all the news