Spain Revives Rape Case Against Saudi Prince

A Spanish judge has reopened an abandoned sexual assault case against a Saudi prince who is one of the world’s richest men, reviving accusations that he raped a 20-year-old model on a luxury yacht in the Spanish Mediterranean in August 2008.Fahad Shadeed/ReutersPrince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud in Riyadh.The prince, Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud,...

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Cheryl Cole | Cheryl Cole Flies To Afghanistan To Boost Troops' Morale

 British singer Cheryl Cole has flown to Afghanistan to visit U.K. troops serving in the war-torn country. The Girls Aloud star made her way to the country's Helmand Province on Tuesday night (13Sep11) to surprise servicemen and women. Cole underwent special training to prepare for the hostile environment she will tour during her visit, which marks 10 years of British operations in the country. Her morale-boosting trip is being filmed as part...

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Swingeing London by Richard Hamilton, showing Rolling Stone Mick Jagger in the back of a police car: a great modern history painting.

Swingeing London by Richard Hamilton, showing Rolling Stone Mick Jagger in the back of a police car: a great modern history painting. Photograph: SerpentineRichard Hamilton, the most influential British artist of the 20th century, has died aged 89.In his long, productive life he created the most important and enduring works of any British modern painter.This may sound a surprising...

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Chris Stewart has been voted the most influential expat of the past 200 years in Andalucia

Chris Stewart has been voted the most influential expat of the past 200 years in Andalucia Photo: Andrew Crowley Individuals included on The Olive Press's “Expat 100” list ranged from little-known historical figures such as Amelia Loring, the grandaughter of a former British consul who founded Málaga's botanic gardens in the 1850s, to modern-day...

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Europe's biggest shopping centre opens in London

 Europe's biggest urban shopping centre opened on Tuesday in a deprived area of east London where it will act as the gateway to the 2012 Olympics. Westfield Stratford City, which has risen from derelict wasteland in one of the poorest areas in Britain, houses more than 300 shops, 70 restaurants, a 14-screen cinema, three hotels and Britain's largest casino. Hundreds of people queued outside the £1.45 billion mall before the doors even opened...

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Investigation launched as forest fire destroys four homes on Costa del Sol

investigation is under way into a forest fire which destroyed four homes and 400 hectares of land on the Costa del Sol. The blaze – which affected parts of Mijas, Marbella and Ojen – saw more than 300 people evacuated from their homes after starting at around 8.30pm on Sunday evening in the Entrerrios area of Mijas. Andalucia’s Councillor for the Environment Jose Juan Diaz...

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Eclipse, a 557-footer reported to have cost a staggering £300million

It is the biggest private yacht in existence and comes with a missile-detection system, two helipads, a luxury spa, swimming pool and a miniature submarine. But when you're Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, only the most ostentatious displays of wealth will do.His latest baby is the Eclipse, a 557-footer reported to have cost a staggering £300million. Eclipsing the opposition:...

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Spain to bring back Patrimonial Tax

 The Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, will bring back Patrimonial Tax at next Friday’s cabinet meeting, following a request to do so from the Socialist candidate for the November General Election, Alfredo Pérez-Rubalcaba. A Royal Decree will be used, and no new law will be needed to reactivate the tax, although the new tax will be modified so as not to affect the middle classes. However press reports indicate that Rubalcaba...

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Tamara Ecclestone lifts the lid on her extravagant lifestyle

 For a woman who has just spent £1 million on a bath tub, Tamara Ecclestone is remarkably likeable. The daughter of Britain’s fourth richest person, billionaire Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, slinks across the lobby of Beverly Hills’ grandest hotel, the Peninsula. But she is seemingly oblivious to the open-mouthed stares that follow her perfectly tanned-and-toned body clad in a tiny black romper suit. As she curls up on a luxury sofa in...

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brand new car from the world’s latest car manufacturer.

Image Credit: Supplied pictureLook familiar? Yes, it’s just like any other pumped-up Cayenne on the streets of the UAE.Don’t adjust your screens, that unmistakeable Porsche Cayenne silhouette is in fact what London’s Eterniti Motors calls a brand new car from the world’s latest car manufacturer.The joke, of course, is that underneath the make up the “world’s first super-SUV,”...

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Apple to open a new store in Marbella

 Apple has chosen Marbella for a new store which Diario Sur reports will be the company’s largest in Spain. The paper says it will open in La Cañada in November and will cover an area of 1,700 square metres. It’s understood that work is already underway on preparing the premises. There has been no official confirmation from the company as yet, but Diario Sur notes that Apple includes the Marbella store on its web page under its job offers...

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Puerto Banús bar owner has set himself his biggest ever charity challenge – to climb La Concha 40 times in 40 days.

Russell Soden Russell Soden, a co-proprietor of Terra Blues in the port and Lick FM DJ, is taking on the mammoth trek to raise funds in memory of his daughter Coral, who he lost to cot death 14 years ago.The money raised will go to the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID), the UK's leading baby charity aiming to prevent unexpected deaths in infancy and promote...

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If Simon Cowell needed convincing that dropping Cheryl Cole from the U.S. version of The X Factor could have been a mistake, these pictures might do the trick.

If Simon Cowell needed convincing that dropping Cheryl Cole from the U.S. version of The X Factor could have been a mistake, these pictures might do the trick.The singer posed for the shots – some of her most provocative to date – in various locations in the South of France for her official 2012 calendar.In July’s photograph, a tousle-haired and pouting Mrs Cole poses on all...

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Music mogul Simon Cowell's fiancee moves into his ex's LA hideaway

 SIMON Cowell’s fiancee Mezhgan Hussainy has moved out of his Beverly Hills mansion amid rumours their relationship is cooling. The make-up artist is now living in Cowell’s hillside retreat – where his ex Terri Seymour stayed after splitting from the X Factor judge in 2008. Cowell’s pals jokily nicknamed the £3.5million house in the Hollywood Hills “the girlfriend graveyard”. A worker at the house said: “Yes, Mezhgan is living here. She is here...

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FLOTILLA of the world's most luxurious super-yachts converged on the Balearic Islands off Spain on Thursday for a very special celebration with a distinctly Australian flavour.

 The Packer family's luxury tinnie, the converted icebreaker the Arctic P, was joined by Rupert Murdoch's huge yacht Rosehearty, just off the picturesque island of Formentera for the combined birthday celebrations of scions Lachlan Murdoch and his old buddy, James Packer.A couple of Virgos, Murdoch turned 40, while Packer notched up 44 years.Sarah...

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Marbella Casino board face charges of document falsification

 TWELVE of the Marbella Casino’s 14-strong board face charges of document falsification. The Casino, one of the town’s oldest but with no links to the Casino de Marbella in Nueva Andalucia, has been at the centre of internal conflict for several years. Differences over renting out of part of its La Alameda installation to a restaurant business resulted in the sacking of the Casino’s former president Antonio Ric and ex-secretary Manuel...

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Spanish site crashes as lawmakers reveal worth

 In a country with 21 percent unemployment, learning the net worth of lawmakers plugging austerity right and left is turning out to be irresistible. Spanish parliament released such numbers for the first time and its website immediately crashed. Hours later access was still spotty. Highlights of Thursday's revelations: Mariano Rajoy, the conservative likely to be the next prime minister, reports having nearly euro600,000 ($843,000) in bank accounts...

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Rock and roll legend Slash set to jet into Epsom

 Rock and roll legend, Slash, of Guns and Roses fame will be jetting into the UK to be at the grand opening of GuitarGuitar in Epsom later this month. The guitar hero, famed for his aviator glasses, top hat and legendary licks, will be in store for a special autograph signing and to slash the sash to open the largest guitar emporium in the UK. A handful of lucky competition winners will be invited to meet the man himself at this exclusive...

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Jaguar C-X16 hybrid concept

Jaguar has released new details of a hybrid sports model it is working on as a potential successor to the legendary E-Type.The new C-X16 two-seater uses a new 3.0-liter V6 engine along with a 70kW hybrid motor and is described as an ‘exploration’ of future performance hybrid options.Using a combination of gasoline and batteries, the C-X16 offers a top speed...

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Harry Winston Diamond Corp. saw its luxury retail sales nearly double along with a modest increase in rough diamond sales

Harry Winston Diamond Corp. saw its luxury retail sales nearly double along with a modest increase in rough diamond sales, but it wasn’t enough to lift profits for the Toronto-based company.The company said Wednesday that second quarter consolidated sales increased 44.7 percent percent to 222.4 million year-over year, resulting in a 6 percent increase in gross margin to $72.2 million and an operating profit of $23.1 million, compared to an operating...

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