Snoop Dogg launched an foul-mouthed attack on Kim Kardashian in a new web video. The 40-year-old rapper, who uses his Nemo pseudonym in the clip, calls the 31-year-old 'cold blooded' and uses a series of misogynist terms to describe her. In the video, which is running on the Hollywood Reporter, he claims to be giving 'advice' to her ex husband Kris Humphries, telling him he’s just one of many men who have be burnt by the reality TV star.
The "X Factor" news came fast and furious on Monday night -- first, that host Steve Jones would not be returning, then that judge Nicole Scherzinger was exiting and finally that Paula Abdul also would be shown the door. Now The Hollywood Reporter has learned that all of these major show decisions are coming from one key confab being held in the U.K. According to a show source, a series of X" Factor" season 2 offsite meetings are currently taking place wherein show creator Simon Cowell has assembled his team and creative brain-trust for a postmortem. The purpose: detailing what went wrong and what was done right on season 1 of the Fox singing competition. Among the brash verdicts, says the source: that Abdul's role was seen as "irrelevant to the mix," in part through no fault of her own (as mentor to the groups, her contestants were picked off early in the competition). Still, Abdul was not without her controversies on the show. Many blamed her for the dismissal of show favorite Rachel Crow, precipitated by advice Abdul gave to Scherzinger to let the decision be made by the public vote. America then sent the 13-year-old packing. As for Jones and Scherzinger, another show insider says the "X Factor" host was notified by a show producer around 7:30pm on Monday evening that his option was not being picked up. (Cowell did not call Jones personally to deliver the news.) Soon after, Scherzinger was informed that her contract also would not be renewed. The host and judge did not receive an explanation for the decision, but a source close to the show says Cowell has decided that the show needs a bigger celebrity on the panel next season. A source says LA Reid, the fourth judge on the "X Factor" panel, has not been informed of any change to his status as judge. Representatives for Fox, Abdul and Fremantle have not responded to THR's request for confirmation of the shake-up on the show.
Disgraced former RBS boss Fred Goodwin was told this afternoon that his knighthood is being removed by order of the Queen. The unprecedented step was taken on the recommendation of a secretive Whitehall body which is responsible for ensuring the honours system does not fall into disrepute. The forfeiture committee, made up of senior civil servants and Government lawyers, met to consider the case after the Daily Mail highlighted growing cross-party pressure for Mr Goodwin’s knighthood to be rescinded. Mr Goodwin was telephoned by Sir Bob Kerslake, head of the home civil service, at 3pm to be given the shattering news. There is no right to appeal. It is a humiliation for the former head of the Royal Bank of Scotland, who has never spoken publicly about his role in the biggest corporate disaster in British history which cost the taxpayer £45bn, and whose lawyers succeeded in getting some direct criticism of him removed from an official report into the collapse of RBS. Honours are very rarely revoked, and it took years of campaigning for hated Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe to lose his knighthood. The most recent high profile case was that of Jean Else, a Manchester superhead who was made a Dame on the recommendation of Labour but was later accused of mismanagement and nepotism at her school. She was stripped of her damehood after a ruling by the forfeiture committee.
He may have already popped the question twice to girlfriend Hayley Roberts, but her snubs didn't put David Hasselhoff off asking the pretty blonde again - this time on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. And it seems the Baywatch actor's toygirl may have said yes, judging by the picture the Baywatch actor posted on his Twitter page. Hasselhoff was seen on bended knee as he asked Hayley, 32, to marry him, before kissing the Welsh beauty in a passionate embrace.
Screen nudity and explicit love scenes have never been a problem for Keira Knightley. She filmed her first nude scene when she was only 15 in The Hole and since then has appeared topless, naked and in various stages of undress in Silk, Atonement, Domino and The Edge of Love. Yet the 26-year-old actress balked at what director David Cronenberg wanted her to do for her latest film, A Dangerous Method, because she thought the scenes were too outrageously explicit. But then, she says, after talking at length with Cronenberg and her co-star Michael Fassbender, she changed her mind and went through with them, helped by inhibition-easing shots of vodka. In the fact-based film she portrays a hysterical, tic-ravaged mental patient with masochistic tendencies who becomes sexually involved with her psychoanalyst, Dr Carl Jung, played by Fassbender. As well as some explicit sex scenes, the script also called for her to enjoy being tied to a bed and spanked with her breasts exposed. “When I first read it I loved the script and really wanted to play the character, but I didn’t want to do those scenes, and I phoned David Cronenberg and said I was going to have to turn the role down,” she recalls. “He said he really wanted me to play the part so he would take the scenes out but I said, 'Whoa!’ because I knew they were incredibly important to the story. “He said he didn’t want the scenes to be sexy or voyeuristic; he wanted them to be clinical and a complete exploration of what she was feeling. So we kind of came to an agreement with Michael as well because he had questions about the scenes, too. I wanted it to be as shocking as possible without going over the top.
Spanair ceased operations late Friday after a regional government in Spain announced it could no longer fund the airline, officials said. Spanair’s financial woes were exacerbated by a 2008 crash that killed 154 people. Eighteen people survived what was Spain’s worst aviation disaster in 25 years. In a statement, the airline said its “last commercial flight will land at” 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Jan. 27. 0 Comments Weigh InCorrections? inShare ( Manu Fernandez / Associated Press ) - Passengers wait at a Spanair check-in desk of El Prat airport in Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. The Spanish air carrier Spanair announced on January 27, 2012 the cessation of the company and the suspension of flights. The regional government of northeastern Catalonia, which had been investing in the country’s No. 4 airline since its 2008 purchase from SAS Scandinavian Airlines System International, said in a statement that it could no longer bankroll Spanair. The Catalan government said the “current economic climate” and “European legislation concerning competition” made it impossible for it to continue financing the small carrier, whose hub was Barcelona airport. Spain’s Development Ministry also published a statement requiring Spanair to “fulfill its obligations with passengers.” The airline advised passengers who had booked flights with it to consult its website where it said “full information” would be displayed. However, from just before 9 p.m. (2000 GMT) the website read only “Website access not available.” Spanair said it had communicated its decision to Spain’s air authorities and had been coordinating its demise with AENA, the country’s airport authority, and with the Development Ministry, which is responsible for civil aviation. Spanair has a fleet of 36 mainly aging aircraft and flew to 19 domestic and 24 international destinations, which included Algeria and Poland. The airline, which also ran a commuter service between Madrid and Barcelona, was in trouble financially before Spanair Flight JK5022 — an MD-82 jet — crashed on takeoff on Aug. 20, 2008 as it tried to leave Madrid bound for the Canary Islands. In December 2008, SAS sold the airline to tourism group Consorci de Turisme de Barcelona and Catalana d’Iniciatives, a private equity group.
Spanish airline Spanair ceases operations after running out of funds - The Washington Post
Spanair ceased operations late Friday after a regional government in Spain announced it could no longer fund the airline, officials said. Spanair’s financial woes were exacerbated by a 2008 crash that killed 154 people. Eighteen people survived what was Spain’s worst aviation disaster in 25 years. In a statement, the airline said its “last commercial flight will land at” 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Jan. 27. 0 Comments Weigh InCorrections? inShare ( Manu Fernandez / Associated Press ) - Passengers wait at a Spanair check-in desk of El Prat airport in Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. The Spanish air carrier Spanair announced on January 27, 2012 the cessation of the company and the suspension of flights. The regional government of northeastern Catalonia, which had been investing in the country’s No. 4 airline since its 2008 purchase from SAS Scandinavian Airlines System International, said in a statement that it could no longer bankroll Spanair. The Catalan government said the “current economic climate” and “European legislation concerning competition” made it impossible for it to continue financing the small carrier, whose hub was Barcelona airport. Spain’s Development Ministry also published a statement requiring Spanair to “fulfill its obligations with passengers.” The airline advised passengers who had booked flights with it to consult its website where it said “full information” would be displayed. However, from just before 9 p.m. (2000 GMT) the website read only “Website access not available.” Spanair said it had communicated its decision to Spain’s air authorities and had been coordinating its demise with AENA, the country’s airport authority, and with the Development Ministry, which is responsible for civil aviation. Spanair has a fleet of 36 mainly aging aircraft and flew to 19 domestic and 24 international destinations, which included Algeria and Poland. The airline, which also ran a commuter service between Madrid and Barcelona, was in trouble financially before Spanair Flight JK5022 — an MD-82 jet — crashed on takeoff on Aug. 20, 2008 as it tried to leave Madrid bound for the Canary Islands. In December 2008, SAS sold the airline to tourism group Consorci de Turisme de Barcelona and Catalana d’Iniciatives, a private equity group.
Nicanor Rodriquez is one of the characters that created many of the exciting bandit stories that dot the West and filtered into the Pioche area. Nicanor, generally referred as Nicanora, was the son of a high government official in Spain who came to the United States and settled in Missouri. At the young age of 16, Nicanora left home and headed West for California, more than likely looking to get rich in the gold fi elds, but where he ended up joining a band of stage robbers. He was in the process of robbing a stagecoach when he was captured and sentenced to 10 years in prison. After serving a few months, he was released because of his tender young age but he continued his life of crime. For the next few years he wandered around California and, for a time, it is believed he rode with the famous outlaw Joaquin Murietta. Located off state Route 322, this canyon is about two miles northeast of Eagle Valley Resort near the entrance to Spring Valley State Park. As a now wealthy man he made his way into the Nevada gold fields settling in the Virginia City area. He lived a double life, robbing stages and also passing as an affluent mining man. He was handsome and attractive and would entertain important people with his charm and wit at lavish dinners. He came to be known as the Spanish King. With his fertile brain, he would set up daring robberies and he would rifle the quartz mines. One robbery placed him in the presence of the infamous Baldy Green as he was loading three large gold bricks onto a stage. Nicanora joined the driver up top as a passenger. When Baldy stopped to water the horses, Nicanora threw off the gold bricks. Remembering the spot, he later returned for the gold. He took it to an assay office to be melted down but never returned for the gold, probably fearing an arrest. This led Nicanora to flee to the Ely area in Eastern Nevada and eventually to Pioche where he resumed his smaller robberies of stage coaches and payroll coins. Pioche was booming and Mexicans had been imported to work in the mines. Feeding the growing town became a problem and the price of beef soared. This need led to the rustling of cattle ranches in the Spring Valley area and also from across the Utah border. Nicanora formed his first gang of Mexican bandits. He also ran with a gang of robbers, Al Wing, Nate Hanson and Idaho Bill, who terrorized the Stateline and Desert Springs, Utah area. However, his luck ran out when he robbed a stage of $2,000 worth of payroll and passenger jewelry. He was arrested but acquitted with the alibi his gang was able to provide for him. At this point Nicanora fled to the mountains, possibly living in a cave along with his group of bandits. History tells us that he negotiated a deal with the Wells Fargo Co. to pay him $2,000 a month and he wouldn’t bother them again. As new owners took over, the money ceased and holdups resumed. Nicanora was again arrested. His name appears on the jailer’s record of the Million Dollar Courthouse in June of 1874. Somehow with the help of two other prisoners he struck a guard as he made his rounds, fled the jail and vanished on a stolen horse, supposedly heading for Utah. The history books tell us that Nicanora did venture into Utah robbing one more stagecoach, killing the driver and stealing some horses. He then headed for Mexico to spend the remainder of his life on a sprawling ranch and lived out his life in elaborate luxury. I’ll bet you thought that was the end of the story. Well, not so, at least for those of us who know and believe the local legend that continues to exist about this notorious character. Into this saga enters an early pioneer of Spring Valley by the name of Althie Meeks. He homesteaded a 200-acre ranch in the Spring Valley area and raised cattle and milk cows and he also freighted. He would sell his cattle in California and Utah. He became a prime target for Nicanora and his gang of outlaws. As Meeks and his daughter made their way through the Spring Valley Canyon by buckboard, Nicanora and his pal Al Wing had hidden in a canyon behind some brush waiting for a potential holdup. When Meeks reached that spot, action started and shooting began. Meeks was wounded but played possum and when Nicanora and Wing approached the wagon, Meeks opened fire, killing Nicanora and wounding Wing, who was able to escape. Meeks’ daughter remained in the wagon and was unhurt. Thus ended the life of Nicanora Rodriquez. Of him they always said no jail could hold him, no wealth could satisfy him, and no life had value. Many Nevadans say that every mill in Nevada was looted at one time or another by Rodriquez. For a while he was the most famous bandit in the Silver State. As for Meeks, he feared retaliation from the remaining members of Nicanora’s gang of bandits and made up his mind he did not want anymore shooting scrapes. He sold his ranch and moved back to Utah where he hoped things would be more peaceful. According to history, the cattle rustling and bandit activity continued to plague the area for many more years. Horsethief Gulch is the main campground at Spring Valley State Park and got its name because it was a favorite corridor for the rustlers to drive their stolen cattle through. Nicanora Canyon is not marked on any map nor is there a sign pointing to its entrance. It lies midway between Ursine and Eagle Valley Reservoir and it has become a campground and picnic area maintained by the BLM. Many of us are aware of the tragedy that happened in that tiny little canyon but are glad that the days of cattle rustlers and bushwhackers are gone. The legend and name of the canyon lives only within the minds and hearts of those of us who are aware of the history. We can now enjoy the sweet and beautiful spot with peace and contentment knowing we live in a safer time and place.
In an interview with Antenna 3 this week Garcia-Margallo said that “now that I am Foreign Minister I have not forgotten the claim over Gibraltar. We are going to change the policy towards Gibraltar.” The remarks are likely to be discussed by Chief Minister Fabian Picardo when he meets in London for the first time since the General election with Europe Minister David Lidington. “Up to 2002 there was the tripartite forum where UK, Spain and Gibraltar sat. And Gibraltar tried to talk about sovereignty, about jurisdiction, about things that are the preserve of the main countries. I told the minister (Hague) that on sovereignty and jurisdiction the interlocutors are UK and Spain” Garcia-Margallo said in the interview. The Spanish minister said that he had added that if they were going to talk about co-operation “which seems good to me as it favours both sides of the fence (reja) then Spain, UK, the Junta de Andalucía and Gibraltar will be present. That should be the symmetry.” But he added that “we will progress on that as we progress on sovereignty matters. We are not going to be talking permanently of co-operation if we do not advance on the fundamental issue of sovereignty”.
Liam Neeson is considering converting to Islam, according to newspaper reports. The desire to convert has sprung from spending time filming in Turkey, according to The Sun. The Northern Ireland actor, who comes from a Catholic background, told the newspaper that the call to prayer in Istanbul drove him to distraction for the first week of filming but he then began to find it "the most beautiful, beautiful thing". Neeson, a former altar boy in Ballymena, said: "There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim." The actor has been nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and three Golden Globe Awards during his career. He has starred in a number of notable roles including Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List and Michael Collins. Neeson was married to actress Natasha Richardson for 15 years before her death on 2009, when she suffered a severe head injury in a skiing accident at the Mont Tremblant Resort, in Quebec. It’s not the first time Neeson has spoken about religion. The 59-year-old faced criticism in 2010 after refuting claims by author C.S. Lewis that Narnia lion Aslan is based on Christ. Neeson – who voiced the character in the film adaptation – instead claimed Aslan was based on other spiritual leaders including Mohammed and Buddha. “Aslan symbolises a Christ-like figure but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries,” he said at the time. “That’s who Aslan stands for as well as a mentor figure for kids – that’s what he means for me.”
Europe's second largest low-cost carrier said on Thursday revenue jumped 16.7 percent to 763 million pounds ($1.2 billion) in the three months to December, as passenger numbers rose 8.1 percent to 12.9 million in its first quarter. Analysts at UBS had expected sales of 730 million pounds. The Luton, southern England-based company said costs per seat, excluding fuel, fell 1.6 percent during the quarter, and it expected its seasonal first-half loss to be roughly the same as in 2010/11. "Assuming no significant disruption in the second quarter, easyJet expects to recover most of the 100 million pounds increase in its first-half fuel bill and contain first-half losses to between 140 million pounds and 160 million pounds compared to the 153 million pounds loss reported in the first half of last year," chief executive Carolyn McCall said. Shares in easyJet, which have risen 12 percent in the past three months, were up 7 percent at 432.2 pence by 3:45 a.m. ET, valuing the company at around 1.7 billion pounds. "Carolyn McCall's second full year in charge is off to a good start, helped by the mild winter weather. Both pricing and cost control have been strong," said Charles Stanley analyst Douglas McNeill, who retains a "hold" rating on the stock. EasyJet's European peers have struggled to overcome high oil prices and sluggish demand in recent months, with low-cost airlines expected to pick up more business as struggling European consumers trade down. German group Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) and Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) have cut profit forecasts after being battered by fuel costs and slashed plans to expand in 2012. Industry body IATA recently said it expected airlines to suffer this year due to waning consumer confidence, sluggish international trade and high fuel prices. McCall said she was "cautiously confident" in the outlook for the business, despite the tough economic environment and the negative impact of a weak euro. Last year, easyJet agreed a string of deals aimed at giving it a larger share of the business travel market. The airline said some 200,000 more business passengers flew with the carrier in the quarter year-on-year, despite a general decline in business travel. EasyJet, the largest airline at London's Gatwick airport, expected to grow seats flown by around 3 percent for its first half and by around 5 percent for the full year. It said around 70 percent of available seats for the first half were already booked.
It also alleges that Juan Carlos is a ‘professional seducer’ who has had numerous affairs and has not shared a bed with his wife for the past 35 years.
And it reveals that age has not stopped the 74-year-old, with the monarch regularly receiving vitamin injections and anti-ageing treatments.
Tactile: Princess Diana being kissed in 1987 by the King of Spain, who according to a new book, is a serial womaniser
Together: Diana, Prince Charles and their boys with King Carlos, Queen Sofia and members of the Greek royal family on board a yacht in August 1990
The Solitude of the Queen by Pilar Eyre, which is likely to prove controversial in the Catholic country, claims the king made a ‘tactile’ advance to Diana while she and Charles were on holiday in Majorca in the 1980s.
It follows much-derided allegations made in 2004 by Lady Colin Campbell that the princess had a fling with Juan Carlos while on a cruise in August 1986 and then again the following April.
Controversial: The Solitude of the Queen by Pilar Eyre claims the king made a 'tactile' advance to Diana while she and Charles were on holiday in Majorca in the 1980s
During a 1987 visit, in which Charles and Diana went to Madrid, the king was pictured smiling as he kissed the princess on the hand – a gesture which left Diana looking embarrassed.
Miss Eyre’s book also alleges that Queen Sofia has not slept in the marital bed since 1976 and only remains in the marriage out of ‘a sense of duty’.
She even claims the queen stumbled upon her husband with one of his alleged lovers, the Spanish film star Sara Montiel, at a friend’s country house in Toledo in 1976.
Sofia, now 73, was forced to attend a football match the day afterwards ‘as protocol demanded’, before storming out of the Zarzuela Palace, their official residence, with her children.
Advised to stay with her husband, she was told a break-up would mean she would ‘end up being paid to liven up the parties of the newly rich’.
Miss Eyre adds: ‘The role of the queen is sad, she is the loneliest woman in Spain.’
Distant: Carlos and Queen Sofia have allegedly not slept in the marital bed together since 1976
She also told Spanish gossip magazine Vanitatis: ‘Queen Sofia is a woman betrayed and hurt with a married life that has been a real tragedy. The king’s closest friends I have spoken to say they don’t like her.’
And she alleges that, as recently as last year, when the monarch was recovering from the removal of a benign lung tumour, he was seeing a 25-year-old German translator.
After writing the book, Miss Eyre was informed she would no longer appear on Spanish TV channel Telecinco.
She said she was told: ‘The station has banned talk about your book and does not allow you to continue working. You are banned, Pilar, we are sorry.’
The National Court will not be investigating the mortgage fraud which was reported last year by twenty foreign residents of the Costa del Sol and which affected victims all along the Spanish coastline. Most of the banks and foreign financial advisors involved were from Denmark who informed their clients that, if they died without a mortgage on their Spanish property, their heirs would be subject to hefty inheritance taxes which they would never be able to pay. They were then offered a mortgage on their property, with the money invested outside Spain, mainly in Luxembourg. El Mundo reports that the investments did not however go well, and the victims are now in danger of losing their homes. The Málaga victims are represented by the Marbella law firm Lawbird, who told El Mundo, ‘This is complete judicial apathy from this court, which considers the complaint as lacking in relevance.’ ‘It contrasts,’ they said, ‘with the rapid response from the Danish government which has announced that it will investigate the manoeuvres which invested the funds from the loans in fiscal paradises.’
Mr Msungubana was swimming with a group of friends in shallow water off Second Beach in Port St Johns, a town on the country’s southeastern coast, when the attack took place. John Costello, local station commander for the National Sea Rescue Institute, said he sustained “multiple traumatic lacerations to his torso, arms and legs” where the shark bit him repeatedly. His death marks the sixth in just over five years at the beach, making it the most dangerous in the world for fatal shark attacks. In South Africa, one in five attacks by the ocean predators ends in the death but every single attack at Second Beach has proved fatal. Zambezi or bull sharks, known as the “pitbulls of the ocean” for their ferocity, have been blamed for most of the incidents. Experts from the nearby Natal Sharks Board have been brought in to investigate the phenomenon and the town authorities have closed the beach to swimmers. Pictures taken on Sunday show lifeguards wading nervously into the sea to pull the badly-injured Mr Msungubana to safety. They placed him on a surfboard to bring him to shore where, Mr Costello said, he was treated by a doctor who had been on the beach before paramedics arrived.
A professional tax adviser from Bedfordshire has been convicted of trying to defraud honest taxpayers of £70 million, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said. David Perrin spent his cut of the stolen cash on expensive second homes, exotic holidays, works of art and luxury cars, a spokeswoman said. The 46-year-old, of Leagrave, Luton, Bedfordshire, was found guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court and will be sentenced next month, she added. Perrin, deputy managing director at Vantis Tax Ltd, devised and operated a tax avoidance scheme which he sold to wealthy taxpayers in order to exploit the law on giving shares to charity, she said. The scheme allowed him to pocket more than £2 million in fees from unsuspecting clients. He used a network of finance professionals to advise more than 600 wealthy clients to buy shares, worth a few pence each, in four new companies he had set up, the spokeswoman said. He then listed the companies on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange and paid people money from an offshore account to buy and sell the shares simply to inflate their price. The share owners then donated 329 million shares to various unsuspecting registered charities and tried to claim £70 million tax relief on a total of £213 million of income and company profits. This was based on the shares being worth up to £1 each, rather than the pennies they were originally bought for. Perrin also used the bogus scheme to claim money back, the spokeswoman said. The scheme proved so popular that Vantis employees performed a smug celebratory song at their annual conference, to the tune of I will Survive, she said. It included the verse: "They should have changed that stupid law, they should have buggered charity, but they have left that lovely tax relief, for folks to pay to me." Jim Graham, HMRC criminal investigator, said: "With his knowledge of the tax system, Perrin thought that he was one step ahead of both HMRC and the law. "This cynical fraud not only stole millions of pounds from taxpayers, but also conned innocent charities into accepting gifts of virtually worthless shares, just so Perrin could inflate his own criminal earnings." Perrin was charged with cheating the revenue by dishonestly submitting and dishonestly facilitating and inducing others to submit claims for tax relief which falsely stated values of shares which were gifted to charities. He will be sentenced on February 9 and confiscation proceedings are under way, the spokeswoman said.
One of Australia's former leading art dealers, Ronald Coles, faces up to 10 years in jail after being charged today with 87 offences relating to an alleged multimillion-dollar investment art fraud scheme. Mr Coles, 64, was ordered to appear at Gosford police station at 10am today. Fraud Squad detectives formally charged him following an "extremely protracted and legally intricate" two-year investigation into his business affairs. Under the Crimes Act, Mr Coles was charged with 77 counts of "larceny as a bailee" and a further 10 counts of "director/officer cheat or defraud". For more than 30 years, Mr Coles specialised in fine art by some of Australia's most celebrated artists, including Sir Arthur Streeton, Eugene von Guerard, Brett Whiteley and Norman Lyndsay. Advertising on national radio and television, he offered clients an opportunity to boost their life savings through the purchase of investment art, which he bought and sold on their behalf, using their superannuation funds. NSW Police launched Strike Force Glasson in January 2009 after a Fairfax investigation unearthed dozens of investors who were missing millions of dollars in lost art and money, all allegedly retained by Mr Coles. Today's police charges relate to more than $8 million in financial loss to a total of 43 clients nationwide. Mr Coles failed to make conditional bail of $50,000. It is understood he offered a car and paintings as surety but they were refused. He is due to appear at Gosford Local Court shortly.
They're often billed as the ultimate in worry-free vacations. But cruise critics say these floating hotels -- some as high as 12 storeys tall -- aren't nearly as safe as claimed.
Fire, power failures, crime and tragic overboard deaths are common on cruise vacations, said Ross Klein, a Memorial University sociologist and author of two books on the cruise industry.
The ships, which can carry more than 4,000 passengers, are as big as towns, Klein said, packed with strangers often bent on having a good time. Many passengers wrongly let their guard down.
"People should go on cruise ships with their eyes wide open, to be aware that there can be accidents." Klein told CTVNews.ca.
Last year, 22 people fell overboard on cruise ships, Klein said. Some were accidents. Others were suicides. The vast majority were fatal, said Klein, who compiles cruise accident data for his website www.cruisejunkie.com.
Fires and power failures are also common, though rarely reported in the mainstream media.
Incidents include:
According to data Klein collected, the risk of sexual assault is nearly 50 per cent greater on a cruise ship than on land in Canada. He used data collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and internal industry documents used in lawsuits between 2003 and 2005.
"I believe passengers should go on to a ship well informed," Klein said.
"The industry markets itself as . . . . one of the safest modes of commercial transport in the world. And they want passengers to believe that if they come on a cruise ship they are virtually safe."
An umbrella group for the cruise industry says it's monitoring the latest accident off the Italian coast, where three people have died and dozens are missing.
The website for the Cruise Lines International Association said the group "would like to reassure other cruise passengers that all CLIA member lines are subject to the highest safety standards around the world and according to international maritime requirements."
CTVNews.ca called the association on Saturday, but there was no answer at its Florida office.
U.S. maritime lawyer Jim Walker once represented the cruise industry but switched sides about 15 years ago. Since then, he's represented dozens of passengers and crew members in lawsuits against cruise lines.
Mr. Walker represented the family of George Smith, who vanished from a Royal Caribbean ship while on his honeymoon in 2005. His family suspected foul play and claimed the cruise ship failed to properly investigate the disappearance. His family won a US$1.3 million suit against the cruise line.
Walker also represented a 35-year-old woman who said she was sexually assaulted by a crew member on a Royal Caribbean vessel. Walker said the woman's case resulted in tough reporting rules aboard cruise ships.
Walker urged passengers to be vigilant about crime and safety.
Despite potential dangers, Klein said he loves ocean travel and has taken 30 cruises.
"I love being at sea," he said. "I like to look at the horizon." At sea, he said, "time stands still. It's a wonderful feeling."
Another of the large projects in the Valencia region is in trouble as the company which runs the Ciudad de la Luz film studios in Alicante, Agua Amarga de Gestión S.L., has applied for bankruptcy protection. It comes as the regional government has failed to pay four million € as the promoter of the project. Mercantile Court 2 in Alicante accepted the application on December 16 2011. The centre has amassed a total debt of more than 190 million €, and now the Valencia Government wants to privatise the operation despite spending 160 million € on it. The project was an idea of Eduardo Zaplana, an ex Partido Popular President of the Valencia Government who thought it would compensate the city for the Terra Mítica park in Benidorm. The studios cover a 320,000 square metre site. El País reports that a new agreement between the regional government and the company could be round the corner. The company says that would need the payment of the debt. They note that in 2005 when the first productions were carried out at the facility, there were in that year 59 productions in total which brought an income of 174 million €, saw jobs for 4,757 workers and more than 3,000 contracts with other companies. It also gave rise to some 150,000 overnight hotel stays in Alicante.
According to Tom Mueller, author of a new book on the subject, Extra Virginity: The Sublime And Scandalous World of Olive Oil, not all virgins are as pure as they might seem — and the world of olive oil is increasingly beset with fraud, smuggling and even poisoning.
The problem is that where there’s money, there’s crime, and olive oil is a very valuable commodity.
Olive oil is graded into several different types for sale, the most common of which is extra virgin
In July, Spanish police arrested the leader of a gang responsible for the theft of more than a million litres of the stuff, siphoned from storage tanks in Murcia, and shipped under false paperwork to Italy for sale.
Italian newspapers regularly report producers being robbed at gunpoint by drivers who arrive in the middle of the night with tankers.
A few years ago, Bertolli, the biggest olive oil brand in the world, suffered a multi-million euro theft at its plant near Milan — with sophisticated thieves using jammed security cameras, guns and lorries to secure their bounty.
Olive oil occupies a unique place in culinary history. Humans have been eating the fruits of these gnarled and tenacious trees for as long as the two of us have coexisted on this planet.
But since then, too, the olive oil industry has been dogged by fraud.
Clay tablets found at Ebla, in Syria, describe the activities of a 2,500 year-old anti-fraud squad who were responsible for ensuring the purity of oil, while the classical philosopher and doctor Galen complained of unscrupulous traders adulterating their olive oil with liquid lard to make it go further.
But ancient foodies were lucky — the Roman Empire had strict controls in place to minimise such double dealing.
Two thousand years later, olive oil regulation is back in the Dark Ages.
Olive oil doesn't come cheap - beware of anything under about £6 a litre
As Mueller’s book observes, when you buy wine, you can usually trust that the contents match the label: if it says Chateau Margaux 1949 on the bottle, you’re not going to find last year’s Chilean Malbec inside.
Olive oil labels, by contrast, give very little information to the consumer: an oil costing £20 a bottle will look, on the shelf, very similar to one retailing at a tenth of the price.
And with one former producer claiming 98 per cent of what is sold in Italy as extra-virgin olive oil is actually nothing of the sort, how on earth can shoppers tell what they’re getting?
In theory, it should be easy: olive oil is graded into several different types for sale, the most common of which is extra virgin.
Extra virgin olive oil is the highest quality, made from the very best olives.
Virgin oil, meanwhile, is made with slightly riper olives and so is deemed to have a less superior flavour.
European legislation dictates that any oil labelled virgin must have been extracted from the olive by physical means, such as pressing, rather than by chemical refinement. It also has to pass a taste test conducted by EU experts.
Rigorous enough, you might think — if only the law was properly enforced.
Olive oil doesn’t come cheap —beware of anything under about £6 a litre — and many have succumbed to the temptation to cut a few corners.
The most common fraud involves diluting extra virgin oil with a lesser grade — such as lampante, or lamp-oil, judged unfit for human consumption because of its high acid content.
Another option is to substitute a different type of oil entirely, often originating outside the EU where production is cheaper.
Last year, two Spanish businessmen were sent to prison for selling extra virgin olive oil that turned out to be 75 per cent sunflower oil, while Mueller recounts the story of a shipment of Turkish hazelnut oil which, after a voyage around Europe, arrived in southern Italy in September 1991 with papers declaring it was Greek olive oil.
There it was mixed with the real thing, and sold to unsuspecting customers including Nestle, owners of Buitoni oil, and Bertolli for use in their products.
The substantial profits associated with such fraud, Mueller says, enable crooks to bribe low-paid customs officials and police to turn a blind eye to such arrivals. But this deception isn’t just confined to smugglers and gangsters.
In 2004, an olive oil producer called Andreas Marz, concerned about the declining quality of Italian olive oil, decided to conduct his own test.
He bought 31 different kinds of extra virgin olive oil from German supermarkets, and sent them to three expert tasting panels in Florence for analysis.
Only one was judged to meet extra virgin standards, nine were downgraded to virgin, and the rest, including offerings from several major Italian brands, were graded as lampante.
When Marz published the results, those involved in the revelations found themselves hit with lawsuits by Carapelli, makers of ‘Italy’s most beloved extra virgin olive oil’, who seemed to have friends in some very high places indeed.
In fact, ‘intimidation’ is the word used by one of the experts concerned.
No wonder, then, that Marz’s shocking findings changed absolutely nothing. Such adulteration is deceitful, certainly, but pales in comparison to the toxic oil scandal which killed more than 1,000 Spaniards, and seriously injured 24,000 others, in the Eighties.
They fell ill after consuming rapeseed oil intended for industrial use, which had been rendered inedible by the addition of a toxic compound called aniline, used in the production of plastics.
Only virgin oils can claim the full range of health benefits attributed to olive oil, because the refining process strips lesser oils of its vitamins
Unscrupulous traders had taken advantage of the low price-tag, repackaged it as olive oil, and sold it for culinary use.
Even companies which act within the law are happy to appropriate the premium image of Italian olive oil for lesser blends.
Don’t be fooled by Italian flags or Tuscan olive groves on a label. Italy is one of the world’s largest importers of olive oil, much of which is then blended, stuck into suitably Italian packaging and re-exported.
About 80 per cent of the oil produced in Jaen, southern Spain, for example, is shipped to Italy, where it can be packaged and sold by Italian brands as ‘packed’ or ‘bottled in Italy’, for a far higher price than poor old Spanish brands can get.
Indeed, Bertolli, for all its rustic Italian advertising, tells Mueller it actually imports about four-fifths of the oil it uses, mostly from Spain, North Africa and the Middle East.
While it doesn’t really matter, from a health point of view, whether our olive oil comes from Tuscany or Tunisia, the much vaunted advantages of this cornerstone of the Mediterranean diet — its apparent ability to help protect the body from some forms of cancer and cardiovascular disease — depend very much on the quality of the oil.
Only virgin oils can claim the full range of health benefits attributed to olive oil, because the refining process strips lesser oils of its vitamins.
But until the EU imposes tighter controls of the kind in place for wine, there seems little incentive for the olive oil industry to clean up its act.
In the meantime, there are a few things the consumer can do to help ensure that the oil they’re buying is of the quality that they’d expect it to be.
Go for virgin or extra virgin oil, where the golden rule is that sadly, if it seems too cheap to be true, it probably is.
Look for dark bottles, which will protect the contents from damaging UV rays that make it rancid, and search out the longest sell-by date you can.
Olive oil may be sacred to many British foodies, but it’s not immune to corruption.
It seems that, for the unwary consumer at least, healthy eating is a very slippery business.
At this time, 3 people are confirmed dead in an accident involving the cruising ship Costa Concordia. The ship left Civitavecchia for Savona yesterday at 7:30 PM and ran aground near the Isola del Giglio. According to Coast Guard sources, the situation is still confused. The ship has been boarded by Coast Guard rescue personnel, firefighters and a Costa officer and checked top to bottom to confirm that everybody has been evacuated. A portion of the passengers was taken on other vessels to Porto Santo Stefano while other went to Livorno by helicopter. The cause of the accident has not yet been ascertained. The grounded ship suffered a blackout just before running aground. . .
Holidaymakers from France, Italy, Germany and Britain were forced to flee the 1,500-cabin Costa Concordia in lifeboats when it hit a reef less than two hours after leaving port. Some leapt overboard and swam to shore as the ship started to sink into the waters near the island of Giglio, off the Tuscan coast. Francesco Paolillo, the coastguard spokesman, said that at least three bodies were retrieved from the sea and at least three more were feared dead. Pregnant women and young children were among the 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew on board. Passengers' dinner on Friday night was interrupted by a loud boom at around 8pm and a voice over the loud-speaker system initially claimed that the ship was suffering an electrical failure, before ordering everyone on-board to don life-jackets.
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