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Marbella to establish new land inspection registry: "Marbella Town Hall has taken another step to control building as the PP administration led by Ángeles Muñoz, has established a register of all inspections which will record any possible infringements found.

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29 Jul 2011

McArdle extradited to Spain over wife's death

Co Louth man found guilty of the manslaughter of his wife in Marbella 11 years ago has been extradited to Spain.
Michael Dermot McArdle from Brookfield, Heynestown, Dundalk, was found guilty in a Spanish court in October 2008 of gross negligent homicide.
His wife, Kelly Ann Corcoran, died after she fell from a hotel balcony where the couple had been arguing. Mr McArdle faces a two-year prison sentence in Spain.
He consented to his extradition, which is due to take place straight away.

 

23 Jul 2011

Eva Longoria is said to be considering buying a home in Marbella, Spain.

The actress is currently dating Eduardo Cruz, the brother of Hollywood star Penélope Cruz. The pair have been an item for several months, with Eva recently travelling to Spain to meet her beau’s family.
She apparently fell in love with the sunny country, and is now considering buying a permanent base there. She particularly loves Marbella and has already started scouting for a suitable property.
“Eva loves the idea of sometimes running away from her fishbowl existence,” a source told National Enquirer.
Eva and Eduardo were in Spain earlier this month. He took the opportunity to introduce his new partner to his family, who were all said to be enamoured with the 36-year-old.
“His parents Encarna and Eduardo Sr. had been hearing about Eva for a while now and were very eager to meet her,” a source said recently. “Eduardo couldn’t wait to introduce Eva to his family.”

 

EARTH WIND & FIRE LIVE IN CONCERT IN MARBELLA

Experience 70´s and 80´s Legends. Five time Grammy Award winner & founding member of Earth Wind & Fire, Al McKay brings his Spectacular Earth Wind and Fire to Marbella on August 13th, 2011 in a fantastic concert, at the Tennis Club, Hotel Puente Romano in Marbella.
Earth Wind & Fire has touched the hearts of two generations with its incredible melodies and energy.  Between 1973 & 1981 Al McKay was an instrumental force behind the music of Earth Wind & Fire.  He worked together with Maurice White in establishing the sound that would catapult the group to stardom.
Al McKay was not only musical director of the band but he was also the co-composer of many of the band’s hits including ‘September’ & ‘Sing a Song’.
With his Earth Wind & Fire band, Al McKay continues the musical legacy of Earth Wind & Fire like no other act in the world!
Venue: Hotel Puente Romano Club de Tennis, Marbella
Date: 13 August, 2011
Doors: 20:00
Support – Santana Project: 21:00
The Santana Project is an exciting and vibrant celebration of the music and talent of guitar legend, Carlos Santana.
Earth Wind and Fire experience ft. Al McKay: 22:00

 

18 Jul 2011

THE Municipal Museum in Malaga will hold five valuable works seized from the Malaya Marbella corruption case.


The four paintings and sculpture were seized in November 2008 from a warehouse in Cordoba belonging to councillor Rafael Gomez Sandokan, charged for his alleged collaboration with the man believed to be the mastermind of the case, Juan Antonio Roca. They will be kept at the Municipal Heritage Museum until the trial is finished and the courts decide whether they can be used to pay back part of the funds allegedly taken from Marbella town hall.

They include the ‘Portrait of William Cavendish’ by Flemish painter Antonious Van Dyck which is valued at more than €1.5m; ‘Antes de la Corrida’ believed to be by Joaquin Sorolla with an estimated value of €1.3m; ‘Fusilamiento del Alcalde’ by Ismael de la Serna; ‘Figura con Mariposa’ by Dali, and ‘Library’ a sculpture by Manolo Valdes.

Together the works have a value of almost €4m which will be held by the court until the responsibility in the case of the owner, promoter Carlos Sanchez, is determined. When they were discovered with another 290 pieces of art at the warehouse it was believed that Sanchez and his associate Andres Lietor had hidden them to prevent them from being embargoed.

The rest have all been returned to Sanchez as a depositary, but he will have to pay for the transport of those which have been ordered to be held at the Malaga museum.

Almost 1,000 works of art have been seized in the case, most of which have not yet been valued and remain where they were found.

17 Jul 2011

Self-catering villa or hotel?

 Do your own cooking, cleaning and washing-up, or sit back in comfort and let someone else take charge?The decision isn't as straightforward as it seems. There are also questions of cost and quality to consider.


Peak perfection: The Costa Del Sol has some splendid sections. But where to stay?

Most people have a sneaking feeling that good-quality holiday villa rentals can work out much more expensive than equivalent-standard hotels. But there's also the matter of convenience. If you opt for self-catering, you are freed from the arbitrary times selected by hotels for breakfast, lunch and dinner – and the often eye-watering prices they charge for meals and drinks.

The self-catering option is particularly attractive if you have young children who are liable to misbehave in public and cause embarrassment. In a villa, you can always keep them entertained with a favourite DVD or read them a story.

 

To test the competing attractions of villas and hotels, I paid £344 for return air fares for two people to Malaga in Spain and put the Costa del Sol to the test.

Marbella is currently enjoying a new lease of life, boosted by the cast of the ITV series The Only Way Is Essex, for whom 'Marbs' is their natural European outpost.

You don't have to be an Essex girl to appreciate the charms of this part of the Costa del Sol, which offers a level of holiday quality and sophistication that other parts of the Med can only dream of matching.


All villa, no filler: Frank found a type of holiday heaven at the Oasis Club complex...

The Villa

The stretch of the Marbella coast that lies to the west towards Puerto Banus is known as the Golden Mile for the plushness of its villas and hotels, including the famously glitzy Marbella Club, rather than any similarity to the Blackpool promenade.

For my villa search, I looked on the HomeAway Holiday-Rentals website (www.holiday-rentals.co.uk), which claims to be the UK leader, with more than 210,000 properties around the world.

Immediately, three beachside villas looked attractive. All were handily next to the beach and all well-placed for the El Corte Ingles supermarket and other amenities.

When you are looking for a self-catering place on the internet, you need to choose carefully – you need to know where you want to be based beforehand and what you can expect for your money.

You can find reasonable places from under £1,000 a week but if you want somewhere more comfortable and stylish, expect to pay more than £2,000 per week. This may seem expensive but, as we will see, the price compares favourably with high-standard hotels.

We opted for a three-bedroom villa (all bedrooms were en suite) within the Oasis Club complex. The property not only had a private plunge pool but also shared a large community pool, and was just yards from the Mediterranean. From the upstairs sundeck on a clear day, we could see all the way to Gibraltar and the North African coast.

The complex used to be well-known locally as the former site of the Toni Dalli restaurant. The villa has just been completely refurbished and boasts a wi-fi connection and flat-screen TV with all UK terrestrial channels. This is my idea of holiday heaven: a read, a dip in the pool, catch up with the TV news, a glass of Cava, a read, a dip in the pool – repeat ad nauseam.

What I liked most was independence: we were not obliged to eat out the whole time, though I accept this suited me a lot better than Mrs Barrett, who does the cooking.

For further information on this villa, visit www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p424627. Prices range from £2,593 a week to £3,450 depending on season.


...but found that the luxury Kempinski Hotel Bahia in Estepona offered surprising value

The Hotel

If you didn't know better, the views from the Kempinski Hotel Bahia in Estepona could easily be of the Caribbean or somewhere in the Indian Ocean. This is a super-stylish property offering the sort of facilities and service you would normally associate with a flash long-haul resort.

From the ultra-grand lobby with its colourful artworks, including ceramics and paintings, to the plush bedrooms (which all have a sea view, though in some it is more of a glimpse than a view), you know you are in a top-grade hotel.

It comes with all the comforts you would expect: three separate pools plus one indoor pool; a gym; a health spa; one of the finest buffet breakfasts anywhere; and, of course, extremely comfortable rooms.

There were also lots of affordable eating places nearby in Estepona and at the nearby Laguna Village mall. This was sheer relaxation: no cooking, cleaning, bed-making or washing-up – you are simply waited on hand and foot.

Prestige Holidays (01425 480400 www.prestigeholidays.co.uk) offers seven nights at the Kempinski Hotel Bahia from £1,165pp in October, including accommodation on a bed-and-breakfast basis, return flights from Gatwick to Malaga with British Airways and private taxi transfers. This price includes an early-booking offer, saving £164 per couple.


Michael Smurfit's opulent Marbella retreat is up for sale


La Casa Loriana has been languishing on the market for several years but a wealthy buyer -- either Arab or Russian -- might snap it up soon, a local agent suggests.

"It's being quietly marketed at a certain price and it will move in six to eight months," said Michael Corry-Reid, of Aylesford, a seller of luxury homes on this Golden Mile stretch of the Costa del Sol.

"With the Middle East being so unstable, Arab property hunters are back in the Mediterranean," says Corry-Reid. "King Fahd [the Saudi Arabian monarch] still has his palace here, and there was a huge Middle Eastern wedding here this week. It wouldn't surprise me if it sold to a Middle Eastern buyer. But there are a lot of Russians down here too."

The house was reportedly rented by a Saudi princess for €20,000 a day a few years back. The massive Fahd royal compound is nearby.

"Things are moving in the €10m-€15m bracket but the Casa de Loriana is another level however -- a unique and fantastic property."

The current asking price is circa €30m, some way south of the reputed €50m boomtime price tag. For that you get the works.

Situated on an elevated position above the beach, the property consists of four houses sprawling over 3,900 square metres, with a total of 10 double suites plus accommodation for several personal staff.

The ultra-private estate boasts a private cinema, medical room, formal and informal dining rooms, sitting room, vast lounge area and a lagoon- style heated swimming pool with a cascade waterfall overlooking the Mediterranean.

The main house hosts five double suites and has a private lift. Take it to the top floor (dedicated to the master of the house) and you have a library, office and a sauna for two. There are 'his' and 'her' bathrooms, dressing rooms and huge terracing providing stunning views, of both the coast and the mountain.

There's also a private beach with a handy mooring dock for your yacht at the bottom of the garden.

14 Jul 2011

Businessman Dr Michael Smurfit is still looking for a buyer for his 3,716sq m (40,000sq ft) villa in Marbella in Spain about seven years after it was first offered for sale.


UK estate agents Fine Country are quoting “well in excess of €30 million” for Casa de Loriana which was built in 2002 along The Golden Mile, where it has its own elevated beachfront. It is within easy walking distance of Marbella town centre.

The villa, originally priced at up to €50 million, is one of the largest and most exclusive private residences in the popular resort with facilities to entertain up to 300 guests.

It is accessed by a private road and a large security gate. The stylish grounds have a large fountain, terraced gardens and lawns along with a lagoon and a heated swimming-pool with a Jacuzzi and waterfall. Facilities at Casa de Loriana include a private cinema, medical room and formal and informal diningrooms and sittingrooms.

The main house has five double suites and is served by a lift. The main suite on the ground floor includes a sauna for two and a library. All residents have the use of their own bathrooms and dressingrooms. The villa has sleeping accommodation for 20 people in all.

A tax resident in Monaco, Dr Smurfit has a substantial home at the K Club in Co Kildare, which he jointly owns with the property developer Gerry Gannon. Mr Gannon is currently looking for a buyer for his 49 per cent stake in the club.

13 Jul 2011

Marbella's traffic fines case is ready for sentencing

The prosecutor has maintained the charges against ex Mayor Marisol Yagüe and has upped the sentences requested for the ex police chief and an inspector


The Marbella traffic fines case is now ready for sentencing, where the ex Mayor, Marisol Yagüe she faces a possible nine month ban from office and a local police inspector faces four years in prison.

Also charged is a local policeman and the ex police chief, Rafael del Pozo, who is implicated in the Malaya corruption case. The prosecutor has now upped the sentence requested for del Pozo from three years up to four.

The prosecutor decided to drop the charges against a fourth officer on Wednesday, but kept the charges in place against the ex Mayor.

The case relates to traffic tickets which were not processed between February 2004 and August 2005. El País reports that one was issued to a nephew of the sports journalist, José María García for a drink driving offence, which the prosecutor claims was ‘hidden’ by order of Marbella’s then-Mayor.

Yagüe’s lawyer told the court on Wednesday that her client did not give any orders to release the journalist’s nephew from custody, while José María García, when he was called to give evidence, denied contacting the Mayor asking her to intervene.

 

Paintings embargoed in Marbella's Malaya corruption case to be exhibited in Málaga

 

Five paintings embargoed from the businessman Carlos Sánchez in the Marbella’s Malaya corruption case are to form part of the collection of the Málaga Municipal Museum.

They are amongst the most valuable of the paintings which were seized during the Malaya investigation, and include a Van Dyck and a Sorolla - ‘Portrait of William Cavendish’ and Sorolla’s ‘Antes de la corrida’ – ‘Before the bullfight’.

The remainder of the 400 works of art which were seized from a warehouse in Córdoba in November 2008 are to be returned to Carlos Sánchez. EFE indicates that the court has named him as the designated depositary for the entire collection, including the five paintings which will be in the custody of the Málaga museum.

It’s understood that he must pay for their transport to Málaga and for their insurance.

 

The Road to Mecca’ - Travelogue of a nomad in search of Islam

Traveling to the desert makes one closer to god,” said Leopold Weiss, who was born on July 2, 1900, in lvov, modern day Ukraine.

Having descended from a line of rabbis in family tradition, Weiss was educated profusely in the study of Talmud, Hebrew and Jewish theology.

The rich academia however left him with no serious religious inclinations. Weiss then embarked on an Arabian nights inspired sojourn that paved the way for his rise as a modern Islamist, commentator, diplomat and author.

Last week, Bridges, a book/culture café, held a documentary screening by director George Misch. Considering no biography has yet been written on the spectacular life journey of Weiss, the documentary borrows the title of his magnum opus, “The Road to Mecca” and is a humble attempt at retracing the steps of his travel expeditions in the search for an ideal Islamic society.

In 1920, against his father’s wishes, Weiss entered the world of journalism, a brief yet significant period in his life that led him to the threshold of Islam. An invitation to Jerusalem from his maternal uncle Dorian Feigenbaum exposed him to the immoral suffering endured by the rightful occupants of Palestine and the great injustices caused to them at the hands of the Zionist regime. The apathy of the Jews toward their victims propelled Weiss into the exploration of the Islamic religion.

In September 1926 came his prompt conversion to Islam after a short period of self-study in Berlin. He then took the appellation Mohammad Asad. A greater reason for his conversion was to provide an escape from the European culture of materialism.

Later on, marriage to a woman previously widowed with a son and 15 years his senior brought them on a first pilgrimage to Makkah, with the uneventful death of his wife a week later.

Having established contacts with Arab reformists and heads of state, he then traveled to explore other Muslim communities of Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Iran and parts of Central Asia.

He left Saudi Arabia in 1932, traveling to India, Turkistan, Indonesia and China, all in search of the impeccably perfectionist community of the Islamic order.

In pre-independence India, his incarceration at camps as a potential foreign national enemy of British India helped him foresee a grand opportunity and potential to build a society on the framework of pure Islamic polity with the birth of a new Muslim-majority nation-Pakistan.

He later became a plenipotentiary of Pakistan to the United Nations and returned to New York in 1952, having failed in having his Islamically inclined political ideas enshrined in the operation of the Islamic government.

Years later, he fell from Pakistan’s political block and upon persuasion from an American friend, began work on his autobiography, “A Road To Mecca.” It was a memoir that received wide recognition, crisscrossing both Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

His attempts to bridge the gaps between Islam and the western world as journalist, author, commentator, activist, diplomat and translator of the Holy Qur'an earned him considerable global acclaim.

His immigration to Spain in the later years of his life occurred due to mental exhaustion. Immersed in Andalusia’s rich Islamic heritage, he resumed work on the sequel of The Road to Mecca titled “Homecoming of the Heart.”

He turned down invitations both from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to return and died in 1990, where he was buried in a small Muslim cemetery in Spain.

Much of his travels were attributed to the fact that he expounded the experience of foreignness, a necessity to discover one’s own reality.

“Islam is not a religion that is self-aggrandizing, close-minded and narcissistic. It’s a religion that is cosmopolitan. That was what I was hoping the message from the documentary could disseminate subtly or directly and through a post-screening discussion like we just had,” said Salem Bajnaid, who was instrumental in having the documentary screened at Bridges.

“He was an Austrian who played a fundamental role in the establishment of the Pakistani state and the development of Muslim thought, trespassing the racial boundaries and languages. He was everybody’s man. A man of the people,” added Bajnaid.

The post-screening discussion revolved much around the constructive criticism of Asad’s commentaries of the Holy Qur'an, leaving a huge dialogue trail necessitating further study and discourse of religious thought.

Just like Mohammad Asad once said, “Disagreement deepens our understanding of the Qur'an”.

 

12 Jul 2011

Tom Jones, 71, will be heating up the summer with an exclusive show on August 18 at Hotel Puente Romano, Marbella.

Welsh singing legend and 60s sex symbol

Jones will perform classics such as ‘It’s Not Unusual’, ‘Kiss’, ‘Delilah’ and ‘Sex Bomb’ as well as tracks from his critically acclaimed album ‘Praise & Blame’.

11 Jul 2011

The lavender Alexander McQueen gown that the Duchess of Cambridge wore to a glittering red carpet event in Los Angeles has been the pinnacle of all the outfits worn during her first royal tour

The lavender Alexander McQueen gown that the Duchess of Cambridge wore to a glittering red carpet event in Los Angeles has been the pinnacle of all the outfits worn during her first royal tour, according to fashion followers.

The glamorous Grecian-style scoop neck dress Kate wore at the Bafta dinner in aid of British creative talent made her stand out among Hollywood's elite.

Tom Hanks, Barbara Streisand, Jack Black and James Gandolfini were among the others drawn to the dinner — and such was |the sense of excitement among |them that Duncan Kenworthy of Bafta felt compelled to urge the guests to “be cool” and not all rush at once to meet William and Kate.

Now a global fashion icon, Kate’s floor-length pleated dress with a floating skirt, nipped in at the waist with a shimmering belt, was hailed as the “best outfit” worn on the trip by Alex Butt, royal wedding blogger for Grazia's website graziadaily.co.uk.

“I loved it, it is a mix of Hollywood and royalty,” said Mr Butt.

“She looked amazing. I really like seeing her in something with a softer shape.

He added: “She usually wears really structured clothes so it is nice to see something a bit more floaty.”

The Duchess complemented her ensemble with a silver clutch bag, a silver bangle and earrings loaned to her by the Queen especially for the occasion.

People magazine said she brought “glamour, grace and star power” to the event.

Jenny Packham's designs are also staking a permanent position in the Duchess' wardrobe.

On Saturday she sported a pretty silver and marble grey hand-painted silk dress by the designer while watching the Duke of Cambridge play in a charity polo match in Santa Barbara.

The Duchess had a fine line to tread on her first royal tour, with Kate expected to showcase both British and Canadian labels; to look the part while avoiding appearing too flash.

The verdict from style critics was broadly positive, yet in some corners it was whispered there was room for improvement.

The Duchess boarded the plane at Heathrow wearing a navy blazer by Toronto-based Smythe les Vestes, a gracious nod to her host country.

After a mid-air wardrobe change, she landed on Canadian soil wearing a dress by Erdem Moralioglu, a Montreal-born designer.

Canadian fashion experts |applauded this diplomatic overture.

But some had hoped she would step out in a few more Canadian labels during her stay.

Mosha Lundstrom Halbert, associate fashion news editor at Canadian fashion magazine Flare, said: “I thought she would wear other Canadian designers. I think there was this appetite for her to wear more Canadian stuff than she has.”

But the Duchess could not be accused of ignoring local sentiment.

On Canada Day she dressed in the country's national colours of white and red.

Her red Sylvia Fletcher hat was even decorated with the national emblem of maple leaves.

Her decision to pair this with the draped Nanette Reiss dress she wore for her engagement |photos last year raised eyebrows in some quarters, however.

Ms Lundstrom Halbert said: “I get that she recycled, but you don't re-wear a dress like that.”

Dressing down when she visited more remote parts of the country, venturing into the wilderness around Yellowknife, hit the right note too, she said.

“She still looked very chic,” she added. “Perhaps more so on those occasions when she wasn't trying to look like a duchess.”

8 Jul 2011

An Australian man was gored in the leg and six other people were injured Friday as daredevils ran with fighting bulls at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona.



The second of eight mad dashes at Spain's most famous summer festival featured bulls known for being fast and prone to poking people with their horns.
The Navarra regional government said on its website that besides the 25-year-old gored man, six other people were treated at hospitals, most of them foreigners. None of their names or hometowns were given.
Two Americans aged 22 and 21 — the first with an injured right leg, the second with a hurt lip — were treated and released.
The other four were a Briton from Birmingham, an Italian from Rome, another Australian and a Spaniard, all with minor injuries from falls or being trampled.
Taunted bull
The Australian who was gored had taunted a brown bull from close up in the bullring that marks the end of the sprint.
He suffered an injury to an artery and vein in his right leg that was described as serious, although the San Fermin press office said his life was not in danger.



The man had waved his arms at the 1,200-pound bull, then slipped and fell and was attacked.
Friday's run was fast for the most part because the six fighting bulls and six steers meant to keep them more or less in a pack did in fact stay together for much of the 928-yard course.
But the brown bull that attacked at the end had separated from the pack about halfway through the run — among the most dangerous things that can happen at San Fermin.
A bull that is isolated can get disoriented and nervous and even start running the wrong way.
Faux pas
When bulls finish the run by trotting into the ring, runners are supposed to keep clear and let handlers with capes or long, thin sticks guide animals into stalls, as crowds in the stands cheer.
But the Australian man committed the San Fermin faux pas of getting up close to the bull and teasing it in a flashy way by waving his arms.
Another of the injured was a man who fell to the ground early in the run and saw virtually the entire pack of bulls and steers run over him.
The festival has six more runs to go.
The Saturday and Sunday ones are usually the most dangerous because the crowd of runners that come from around the world swells with thrill-seekers who come into town just for the weekend.

5 Jul 2011

Globe-trotting expedition hopes to prove the value of old-fashioned scientific seafaring.

In the age of networked buoys and remote-sensing satellites, a global oceanographic cruise might sound like a relic from the golden era of exploration.

But the seven-month trek of Spain's BIO Hespérides, which concludes next week when it docks in Cartagena, aims to deliver a global, comprehensive portrait of the ocean and how it is changing that the project's backers say could not be assembled in any other way.

The Malaspina expedition, organized by Spain's National Research Council (CSIC), set out on 15 December last year. Named after Alessandro Malaspina — who led a five-year survey of the Spanish empire's natural history, economy and geography in the late eighteenth century — the €17-million (US$25-million) effort unites contributions from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Spanish Navy and the BBVA Foundation, the charitable arm of the BBVA banking consortium.

Most oceanographic voyages are shorter than the Malaspina expedition  By pouring resources into a single voyage, Malaspina's planners hoped to gather global data sets in a wide variety of research areas, from the distribution of persistent organic pollutants to the discovery and genetic characterization of deep-sea life. They also wanted to follow the progress of carbon from the atmosphere as it sinks through the sea, gets captured in the planktonic food chain and eventually comes to rest on the ocean floor. And the scale of the effort has helped to attract international collaborators. Carlos Duarte, a marine biologist at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies in Esporles who led the mission, says that the approach was economical because loading instruments for one project costs less than changing instrumentation every month, as the research vessel would normally do.

"There are several other ocean exploration cruises going on, but Malaspina is a much more substantial scientific effort," says marine biologist Larry Madin, director of research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, who is not involved in the expedition. For instance, the Atlantic Meridional Transect is a 16-year-old British project that is making comparable multidisciplinary observations, but is restricted to the Atlantic. The few cruises with a global reach are mainly sailing boats, such as Craig Venter's Sorcerer II Expedition or the French Tara Oceans expedition, which carry fewer sampling instruments and limited on-board research facilities.

By contrast, the 82.5-metre-long Hespérides lumbered across the sea bearing laboratories staffed around the clock by two dozen graduate students and veteran researchers from many disciplines. Investigators analysed each day's instrument data and plankton catch on-board, allowing them to devise new observations on the fly. After Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident in March, for example, the team began tracking radiation levels in its seawater samples. The researchers also tracked temperature, salinity and levels of dimethyl sulphide, a plankton waste product that may influence cloud formation above the ocean. And they froze viral and bacterial samples taken from a depth of 4 kilometres, planning to sequence the microbes' genomes.

Duarte says that the modern-day Malaspina expedition achieved a major objective before it even left port: it persuaded hundreds of oceanographers to agree on common research objectives and methods. This approach should allow scientists to compare cruise data wherever they were gathered, says marine biogeochemist Eric Achterberg of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK, who is not part of the expedition. He and other researchers say that conflicting observational protocols often prevent researchers from comparing data sets taken by different teams in different oceans. Future expeditions could use the Malaspina protocols as a model. "We're making the same observations around the world," says María de Oca Echarte, a researcher at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies who took part in Malaspina.

The expedition should also fill gaps in global oceanographic data. Some regions visited by the Hespérides, such as the southern Indian Ocean and parts of the southern Pacific, see fewer oceanographic expeditions than do waters closer to the powerhouse nations of oceanographic research such as Germany, Japan, the United States and Britain. Madin says that the cruise's data could keep researchers busy for many years, noting that results from HMS Challenger, a pioneering research cruise in the late nineteenth century, are still used by scientists today.

A few preliminary results emerged during the cruise. Investigators found that some plankton was sinking to the depths much faster than had been previously observed. If researchers confirm the measurements, and if such sinking is widespread, the discovery could affect estimates of how fast the ocean can sequester carbon.

But several scientists contacted by Nature say they are waiting to see more of Malaspina's data before they decide whether it has met its goals. The expedition won funding that could have gone to projects in other disciplines, and occupied all of the Hespérides ' research time this year, so Spanish researchers will scrutinize its results and debate whether to conduct future oceanographic research projects along the same lines.



Physical oceanographer Álvaro Viúdez of the CSIC's Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona says that the overarching goal of evaluating "global change" in the ocean is "an exaggerated objective, outside the capacity of an expedition of this type". He adds: "The most relevant data for evaluating global change in the ocean are those collected by the thousands of Argo buoys, which have been collecting data for years, together with satellites."

Viral molecular ecologist Matthew Sullivan, a collaborator on the Malaspina expedition at the University of Arizona in Tucson, says that time will prove the expedition's worth: "Buy-in will happen a year or so from now when papers start to come out. People will see the value."

 

Driver Fined In Spain For Going To0 Slowly

A driver in Valencia, Spain. thought he would beat the system. Suspecting the presence of speed cameras, he slowed way down. A few months later, he was shocked to get a ticket in the mail for driving too slowly.

 

Spanish Rapa Das Bestas festival to tame wild horses

Wild horses are rounded up, trimmed and groomed in different villages in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia for the Rapa Das Bestas event every year on the first weekend of July.

Rapa Das Bestas, which means taming the beast, is an ancient festival of the region during which people wrestle untamed horses to the ground without using any weapon and cut their manes and tails.

The horse hairs collected during the festival are used for making household items such as brushes and mattresses.

Rapa Das Bestas festival 2011 took place in the village of Sabucedo in Spain on July 2, as visitors and locals gathered to watch the event.



Horses fight during the "Rapa Das Bestas" traditional event in the Spanish northwestern village of Sabucedo July 3, 2011.



Horses fight during the "Rapa Das Bestas" traditional event in the Spanish northwestern village of Sabucedo July 3, 2011.



Wild horses are seen gathered during the "Rapa Das Bestas" event in the village of Sabucedo July 2, 2011. On the first weekend of the month of July, hundreds of wild horses are rounded up, trimmed and groomed in different villages in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia.

Two horses fight during the "Rapa Das Bestas" traditional event in the Spanish northwestern village of Sabucedo July 2, 2011. On the first weekend of the month of July, hundreds of wild horses are rounded up, trimmed and groomed in different villages in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia.



Revellers try to hold on to a wild horse during the "Rapa Das Bestas" event in the village of Sabucedo July 2, 2011. On the first weekend of the month of July, hundreds of wild horses are rounded up, trimmed and groomed in different villages in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia.


Revellers try to hold on to a wild horse during the "Rapa Das Bestas" event in the village of Sabucedo July 2, 2011. On the first weekend of the month of July, hundreds of wild horses are rounded up, trimmed and groomed in different villages in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia.


Wild horses are seen gathered during the "Rapa Das Bestas" event in the village of Sabucedo July 2, 2011. On the first weekend of the month of July, hundreds of wild horses are rounded up, trimmed and groomed in different villages in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia.


A reveller tries to hold on to a wild horse during the "Rapa Das Bestas" traditional event in the Spanish northwestern village of Sabucedo July 3, 2011. On the first weekend of the month of July, hundreds of wild horses are rounded up, trimmed and groomed in different villages in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia.

A reveller tries to hold on to a wild horse during the "Rapa Das Bestas" traditional event in the Spanish northwestern village of Sabucedo July 3, 2011. On the first weekend of the month of July, hundreds of wild horses are rounded up, trimmed and groomed in different villages in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia.

Revellers try to hold on to a wild horse during the "Rapa Das Bestas" traditional event in the Spanish northwestern village of Sabucedo July 3, 2011. On the first weekend of the month of July, hundreds of wild horses are rounded up, trimmed and groomed in different villages in Spain's northwestern region 

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