Spain’s property bust is only getting worse.

AFPCranes erecting the Pelly tower under construction in Seville.Spain’s property bust is only getting worse. The wonder is that the country’s economy and banks are still this resilient.The Spanish government said Tuesday that housing prices remained in free-fall in the third quarter, dropping 5.5% from a year earlier, the biggest decline since 2009.This makes Spain, in many...

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Celebrities and millionaires living on one of Britain’s most exclusive estates have become the targets of a crime wave.

Celebrities and millionaires living on one of Britain’s most exclusive estates have become the targets of a crime wave.A diplomat’s wife and son became the latest victims after they were tied up and held at gunpoint during a £100,000 robbery.St George’s Hill in Surrey has been dubbed the British ‘Beverly Hills’ and is home to Russian oil tycoons, hedge fund managers and City...

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RBS staff told to pay for their own Christmas party

 Another day, another downgrade. Reduced to surviving on two pints of lager and pack of crisps at recent Christmas parties, misery was heaped on Royal Bank of Scotland's highly-paid investment bankers on Friday as they were told that they would have to fund this year's bash entirely out of their own pock...

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HMRC clamps down on Swiss account holders

 6,000 Britons who hold money in the Swiss arm of HSBC will soon receive a letter telling them that they need to own up to unpaid tax. The bank is acting on information received last year under a tax treaty. This revealed that more than 6,000 individuals, companies, trusts and other bodies held accounts and investments with HSBC Geneva. HMRC has already begun criminal and serious fraud investigations into more than 500 individuals and organisations...

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FORMER policeman lived the high life in Marbella by running a £300million VAT fraud

  – the biggest ever uncovered in the UK. Nigel Cranswick, 47, tried to cheat the taxman by claiming back tax on £2billion worth of bogus sales made by his mobile phone firm I2G. The “phenomenal” turnover was generated in eight months, HMRC said. Advertisement >> Meanwhile Cranswick lived it up in his rented villa in Marbella. “Despite this phenomenal turnover... I2G operated from a small office in Sheffield,” HMRC said. The...

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BRITS ABROAD

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Rich Brits plot escape to France

  wealthy Britons are planning to flee what they believe to be an over-taxed and crime-ridden UK, with France the most favoured destination, according to a survey published by British bank Lloyds TSB. The survey, published on Monday, found that 17 percent of those with more than £250,000 ($391,025) in savings and investments wanted to move abroad in the next two years, up from 14 percent six months earlier. The most popular destination...

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A poorly designed, over-extended and ill-disciplined monetary union is in danger of falling apart

Illustration by Matt KenyonWhat if it falls apart? For all my adult life, I have been what in England is called a pro-European or Europhile. For most of that time, European history has been going our way. Now it may be on the turn. Soon, it could be heading the Eurosceptics' way. What then?Over the last half-century, the institutional organisation of Europe has progressed...

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More German travelers have been using foreign airports since a flight tax was imposed early this year.

  Consider two small airports in the middle or Europe. At Maastricht Aachen Airport, business is booming thanks to an influx of German passengers who are fleeing a national aviation tax introduced on January 1, 2011. Meanwhile, just 80 kilometers across the border, Germany's Weeze Airport has been steadily losing customers.A few years ago, things were exactly the...

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You're not in Newscastle anymore: The master bedroom inside the $5.5 (£3.4million) mansion in Beverly Hills Cheryl viewed last night

She already has a plush Beverly Hills apartment, but as Cheryl Cole makes a serious commitment to breaking America, she looks to be upgrading.The singer was spotted viewing a $5.5million (£3.4million) Los Angeles mansion 'in the dark of the night' with her assistant and a real estate agent.The 6,000 sq ft luxury home overlooks the city and boasts six bedrooms and four bathrooms. It...

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KATIE Price is angry. In fact, she’s furious and has something she is desperate to get off that famously pneumatic chest of hers...

Katie Price stands outside the Oxford Union debating chamber (Pic: PA)KATIE Price is angry. In fact, she’s furious and has something she is desperate to get off that famously pneumatic chest of hers...Off the back of a Government-ordered review into the over-sexualisation of children, the Tango-tanned, collagen-lipped mum-of-three is on an unlikely moral crusade.Katie, 33,...

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Sir Paul McCartney and his new wife Nancy are pictured after their wedding in a kooky official portrait taken by Sir Paul's daughter Mary.

Sir Paul and the new Lady McCartney had emerged beaming after the ceremony at Marylebone Register Office. The newlyweds were greeted on the steps of the building by friends and family who covered them in rose petals. 'I do': The newlyweds pose in this official but quirky wedding photograph taken by Sir Paul's photographer daughter Mary McCartneyMan and wife:...

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Mobile phone users suffering from 'text neck'

 The affliction, caused by flexing the neck for extended periods of time, can be a forerunner of permanent arthritic damage if it goes without treatment. Cases of the repetitive strain injury are on the rise as smart phones and tablet computers such as the iPad become increasingly popular, experts said. In severe cases the muscles can eventually adapt to fit the flexed position, making it painful to straighten the neck out properly. One chiropractor...

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Why only you can choose the perfect perfume

 Scientists have discovered why we all have so much trouble buying the ideal fragrance for a love-one. According to new research, we are all drawn to perfumes that complement our own natural smells, making it near impossible to second-guess the right scent for a partner. Findings to be presented at a conference in London next week show that when people chose their own fragrance they become much more attractive to the opposite sex. Dr Jan...

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Tanning beds may be even riskier than thought

 New research published online Oct. 6 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology suggests that the main type of ultraviolet rays used in tanning beds -- UVA1 -- may penetrate to a deep layer of skin that is most vulnerable to the cancer-causing changes caused by UV rays. The new study comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers banning the use of tanning beds among children under 18. The American Academy of Pediatrics is on record...

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Imogen Thomas brands Katie Price a "transvestite" as Danny-Gate continues

And in the latest salvo of what I’m ­calling ­Dannygate after the ex-model’s dalliance with rugby player Danny Cipriani, 23, furious Imogen has told pals: “Out of every woman in the world, her?! She’s such a slag.” Imogen, 28, has been with Danny since July. She thought they had a future.But now all Imogen’s plans are off after pictures showed him ­leaving his home barefoot...

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Spanish banks in €6bn merger talks

 Banco Popular, Spain’s fifth-biggest listed bank by assets, has offered to buy its smaller listed rival Banco Pastor in a merger that marks a new stage in the restructuring of the country’s financial sector. In filings published on Friday by the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), the market regulator, the banks said they were proposing a friendly all-share deal in which Popular would offer to buy 100 per cent of Pastor. More ON...

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Critic Review for The Way

 The title of "The Way" refers to the Camino de Santiago de Campostela, the 1,000-year old route from France to northern Spain that thousands of peregrinos, or pilgrims, walk each year, ending at the site where the remains of Saint James are reportedly buried. But if you think watching "The Way" will be akin to eating your theological spinach - Sunday School on the silver screen - think again. Writer-director Emilio Estevez instead treats viewers...

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Self-styled ‘Lord’ Davenport - known as 'Fast Eddie' - masterminded an ‘advanced fee fraud’ scheme that ripped off scores of businesses.

 Davenport set up Gresham Ltd in 2005 and pretended it was a respectable business with 50 years of sourcing huge commercial loans. He charged companies advance fees for loans of up to £157million but the money never materialised.The scam conned at least 51 victims and from 2007 to 2009 Gresham Ltd received more than £4.5million from unsuspecting clients, the court heard.‘To...

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The Duchess of Alba with her new husband Alfonso Díez outside Dueñas Palace in Seville.

 Photograph: Javier Diaz/ReutersShe is a frizzy-haired 85-year-old eccentric and hugely wealthy aristocrat with a squeaky voice and an impossibly long name. He is a lowly civil servant 25 years her junior. Today the two were married, prompting a frenzy of excitement in this southern Spanish city.Crowds formed outside Seville's Dueñas Palace – just one of several regal...

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