Guardia Civil officer was left with arm injuries after two boats collided as the Gibraltar forces tried to snatch Moroccan suspects from his ship.

Guardia Civil officer was left with arm injuries after two boats collided as the Gibraltar forces tried to snatch Moroccan suspects from his ship.
The incident, which saw the Spanish customs boat surrounded by seven Royal Navy and police vessels, stoked existing tensions between the two countries.
Reports in the Spanish media said the situation was “five minutes away from a clash of incalculable consequences”.
The Unified Association of the Guardia Civil issued a statement yesterday alleging that its members had been subjected to “serious insults, harassment and threats” and claiming the Royal Navy and Gibraltar police had acted like “pirates, as in other times in the past”.
The fracas marked a new low in diplomatic relations between Gibraltar and Spain, who have clashed repeatedly because of demands that Britain hands over sovereignty of the Rock.
The fracas marked a new low in diplomatic relations between Gibraltar and Spain
It follows a string of incidents where Spanish police have crossed into Gibraltar’s waters.
Last September, a suspected drug smuggler was removed from British waters by the Guardia Civil after scuffles and a tense stand-off with the Gibraltar police.
At the time, Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Peter Caruana warned that the incident could undermine efforts between the two countries to co-operate on law enforcement.
Earlier this month the heir to the Spanish throne, Prince Felipe, caused outrage at a dinner for Prince Charles and Camilla when he called for Britain to give in to Spain’s claim on Gibraltar.
The latest spat happened on Sunday afternoon after a Spanish customs boat spotted and chased two Moroccan drug traffickers into Gibraltar’s territorial waters.



Two men were arrested by the Guardia Civil and the boat, containing around 100kg of hashish, was seized and tethered to the Spanish vessel.
Seven boats from the Gibraltar customs, Royal Navy and Gibraltar police surrounded the Spaniards, who eventually took the suspects to the nearby port of Algeciras.
According to the Guardia Civil, the Gibraltar forces shouted abuse and accused them of being “pirates” and “thieves” then tried to board the boat to take the suspects and their ship away.
The Gibraltar police said they would make a full statement on the incident today.

DJ Maurice Boland: 'If people want to take a pot shot at me, I've an open line -- they can ask whatever they want...'

Irish celebrity DJ Maurice Boland is returning to the airwaves for the first time following his inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old teenager in Marbella.

Known as 'Mr Marbella', the former Irish nightclub boss, who has been married for 40 years, has been absent from public life for the past nine months since his close relationship with the teenager came to light.

But speaking this weekend, Mr Boland said he is looking forward to re-launching himself on the airwaves and will not shy away from his outspoken views on "issues that need to be addressed".

"Somebody asked me the other day, will I be more humble after everything that's happened, quieter, less controversial. And my answer was 'absolutely not'.

"I'll be as outspoken as ever about serious issues that need to be addressed. And if people want me to answer their questions, or take a pot shot at me, then they can ring my chat show. I've an open line with no delay so they can ask whatever they want."

He added: "If people want to address the issue, then we'll address it."

The flamboyant presenter will return to Radio Leinster for a two-part special documentary entitled My Story, which will cover his colourful life to date -- from his time in Dublin right up to the aftermath of the scandal surrounding his relationship with a teenage girl.

However, he will not be returning to his long-standing show with Talk Radio Europe on the Costa del Sol, which suddenly terminated his contract when his relationship with the teenager came to light.

"I will be starting a chat show on a different radio station, details of which will be announced in the coming weeks," explained Mr Boland.

Speaking of his dismay at the way in which his former employers handled the controversy, he drew comparisons with the way in which shamed DJ Neil Prendeville was given a second chance by his bosses at Cork 96FM.

"I have to say that the way in which they handled the Neil Prendeville situation was very good," he said. "I know the two situations are very different, but they never commented on the matter and they re-instated him to his old job. I certainly didn't get the same from my side. I'm disappointed with the way it was handled."

Mr Boland was helping the young entertainer prepare to sing in his Marbella talent competition, The Wow Factor, which he set up in aid of a cancer charity, when the inappropriate relationship took place.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Independent at the time the scandal broke, Mr Boland admitted he had made a "terrible" mistake.

"I made an error of judgment," he said. "I got involved with someone. I have been married for 40 years next year. I have been in the media and nightclub business for many, many years and I've never had an affair.

"This is the first time it's happened. I made a very bad misjudgment, which is terrible and hurt a lot of people, including my own wife and her family and my children. And all I can say to those people who are hurt -- I am sincerely sorry."

After spending the past nine months rebuilding his relationship with his wife Wendy, Maurice has described this weekend how the controversy had affected his wife of 40 years.

"She's put up with me. It's been very difficult but we've gotten through it because we love each other very much."

He went on: "It's different now. Things happened that shouldn't have happened and just because I'm back on radio soon, I'm not saying that I'm walking around with a smile on my face, thinking 'ha, ha, ha'. Things have been very difficult."

At the time, the news sent shockwaves around those who knew Maurice Boland from his days as a high-profile nightclub owner when he launched the late-night club culture on Dublin's Leeson Street. Later he joined forces with La Stampa owner Louis Murray to launch Barbarella's nightclub.

He later went on to manage Mandy Smith, the 13-year-old 'Lolita' girlfriend of Rolling Stone Bill Wyman. The convent-school girl met Wyman in 1984 and when the romance cooled two years later, she hooked up with Boland, who got her modelling jobs and a record deal for a song titled I Can't Wait. She later dropped Boland and ended up marrying Bill Wyman in 1986.

Mr Boland and his wife Wendy were a glamour couple of Dublin's social set and moved to Marbella, Spain, in the Eighties, where they became part of the ex-pat Irish social scene. Wendy is very well-known among the ladies who lunch and has her own business as a party organiser, mainly for Irish people.

Mr Boland himself is well-connected with the ex-pat Irish community and frequently has guests over from Ireland as well as interviewing a string of famous people, including British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Speaking about the liaison with the young girl, he explained at the time the scandal broke how he had set out to help her build on her musical talents, but their relationship eventually turned into something more.

He said their relationship started off as a working relationship while he helped her with her music career, saying, "It was a very short involvement and it was never planned. Some of these things just happen.

"It came about through circumstance. The wrong time at the wrong place. There's nothing planned about it."

Asked how his working relationship crossed the line, he replied: "I can't answer it. I can't answer because there was no plan. How do these things happen? I don't know.

"It came to light, people found out and that was it," he said.

"There is no rape involved, no illegality involved, so there's nowhere else to go with that."

Drawing on the young girl's age, he said, "The reason that anyone is showing any interest is because of the girl's age, but I've done nothing illegal. She is of legal age. I have done nothing illegal."

"She's 100 per cent over 16. Not that I feel any better. I'm feeling awful about everything. I didn't set out to have a relationship with anyone, or to have it with someone so young. It was just a misjudgment on my behalf."

Spanish Civil Guard discovered explosives, detonators and private communiqués from ETA

Spanish Guard found explosives in the Guipúzcoa town of Legorreta where brothers Aitor and Igor Esnaola Dorronsoro were arrested on 

On Tuesday morning, the Spanish Civil Guard discovered explosives, detonators and private communiqués from ETA in searches carried out during an investigation following the arrests of two suspected members of the armed Basque group in the Guipuzcoan town of Legorreta.
According to sources within the antiterrorist division, police uncovered a quantity of unidentified explosives, detonators and documentation in which the name "Zutabes" is cited.
During the searches carried out on the suspects homes on Tuesday, the Civil Guard impounded a white van and a family car which were parked in a subterranean garage at the home of Igor Esnaola.
A second premises located on the national highway that runs through the centre of Legorreta, which was also searched, is believed to be accessible from the detainee's residence. There the Civil Guard seized a number of boxes containing documentation, as well as a hunting rifle used to hunt pigeons.
Supporters of the arrested suspect gathered outside his home and shouted cries of support such as "gudari" (warrior) "irabazi arte" (until victory).
Searches were also carried out on a family farmhouse located on the outskirts of the town, in the district of Berostegi.
Erreka Comando
The two ETA suspects were allegedly members of an as yet "unregistered commando" known as Erreka, apparently active during a number of years given that it features in documentation seized in France in 2002 during the arrest of the former ETA chief Ibon Fernández Iradi, known as Susper.
Also among the papers seized in France was a coded note which identifies the two suspects arrested on Tuesday.
Arrests
On Tuesday morning, Spanish police arrested two alleged members of the armed group ETA in the Basque town of Legorreta (Gipuzkoa), suspected of forming part of the armed group's logistics network, antiterrorist sources revealed.
The suspects, two brothers in their forties identified as Aitor and Igor Esnaola Dorronsoro, are thought to be 'legal members' of ETA, (without police records). They were presumably in charge of distributing explosives to other cells of the armed group.
The police operation comes two days after French police arrested two suspected members of the group, identified as Oier Gomez and Itziar Moreno, after a checkpoint shootout and overnight sweep by hundreds of police and helicopters in the Creuse region of central France.
The suspects, a couple in a car, broke through a checkpoint and opened fire before abandoning their car and vanishing late on Saturday. Hundreds of police backed up by helicopters were deployed to track the couple down and captured them on Sunday morning after another shootout, the statement said.
So far, 35 presumed members of ETA have been arrested this year since the armed group called a ceasefire January 10th.

protest against Basque separatists.

Thousands of people, including mourners of victims of terrorism, marched with Spanish flags in a rally in Madrid called by the AVT (Victims of Terrorism Association) on Saturday to protest against Basque separatists. Last Saturday, tens of thousands on the other side demonstrated in Spain’s troubled Basque region, calling for the government to legalize a new pro-independence party, Sortu, that says it rejects violence by armed separatist group ETA. The Supreme Court denied Sortu legal status and barred it from running in local elections in May, finding that the party is a repackaged version of ETA’s outlawed political wing Batasuna. Sortu can appeal to the Constitutional Court, but that ruling will likely come after the May 22 elections. The new party, which was unveiled Feb. 7, is the culmination of intense internal debates within ETA-linked pro-independence groups, which concluded that bombs and bullets were no longer an effective way to seek a Basque state independent of Spain and France. ETA declared a cease-fire in September and went further in January by calling it permanent, although it has called 11 truces throughout its 40-year history of violent separatism. The group has killed more than 825 people since the late 1960s and is considered a terrorist organization by Spain, the European Union and the U.S.

David and Samantha Cameron have used the budget airline easyJet to return from their mini-break to Spain.

The Prime Minister and his wife arrived back in the UK at Luton Airport at lunchtime on Saturday 9 April 2011.  They had been pictured in the national press two days earlier waiting at Stansted for their outward Ryanair flight to Malaga, where they celebrated Samantha's 40th birthday.

Their three children had stayed at home. Nancy, 7, Ewen, 5, were still at school while 7-month old baby Florence was being cared for by a nanny.

To board the flight quickly the couple paid £6 for a speedy boarding pass at Malaga. They sat at the front of the 'plane for the three hour journey.

When they touched down at Luton they did not make their way through arrivals with the other passengers on the full flight. Instead they were whisked away in a car through a side exit.

The Prime Minister was said to be talkative with the crew and other passengers on the flight.  The first thing he did was order a cup of tea for £2.30.

A woman from Barnet, who did not want to be named, said: "We fly on easyJet all the time and you don't expect to see the Prime Minister.

"He was very chatty with the other passengers and also got on with some work.  I think they seemed to have had a good holiday."

Cineworld, which operates 78 sites in the UK, said it is buying the fifth biggest cinema group in Spain.

Britain's only listed cinema group is making its first foray overseas 16 years after it was founded.

Cineworld, which operates 78 sites in the UK, said it is buying the fifth biggest cinema group in Spain.

Cinesur, which is the largest operator in the Andalucia region of Spain, runs 11 multiplexes and has a total of 136 screens.

World number 14 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia continued to impress tennis fans by winning her second round clash against the unseeded Agnes Szavay of Hungary at the Andalucia Tennis Experience at Marbella

World number 14 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia continued to impress tennis fans by winning her second round clash against the unseeded Agnes Szavay of Hungary at the Andalucia Tennis Experience at Marbella, Spain on Wednesday noon. The second seeded Russian booked a berth in the quarter-finals of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament by winning the three-set matchup 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-2, in two hours and twenty one minutes.

25-year-old Kuznetsova kept her 100 per cent winning record against the Hungarian, extending her impressive head-to-head lead to 5-0 at Marbella. It was the 14th victory for the Russian in the current WTA season, showing the vintage class of the former world number two. Kuznetsova was just two games away to suffer a defeat at the hands of Mona Barthel in the first round on Tuesday, but displayed great determination this time round to recover from a one set early deficit.

“The difference between today and yesterday is like day and night," said Kuznetsova in her post match reviews, “Today was much better. I was starting to feel the clay court better, sliding, playing with lots of spin. It was hard to adjust yesterday, but today I am closer to where I feel I should be.”

The two contestants had an aggressive start to the contest and exchanged assertive winners to keep the score board ticking on equal terms. They both broke twice to take the score to 6-6, imposing a tie breaker to decide. Szavay took command of the tie breaker by some quality down the line winners and raced past the Russian to seal the opener at 7-6(2).

The second seeded Russian made a terrific comeback in the next set and took down her opponent with her attacking tennis. She collected 17 out of 23 serve points in the second set and pinched two break points to rocket away to 5-1. Kuznetsova closed out the second set at 6-1 and levelled the contest 1-1.

Once getting her momentum front the second set, Kuznetsova never turned back and keep on pressing her opponent to submit the contest. She served brilliantly with 7 per cent accuracy and bagged 12 of 17 first serve points in the third set. Apart from a serve break from the Hungarian in the fourth game, Kuznetsova rarely faced a serious challenge from her opponent.

Dinara Safina continued her resurgent form with an impressive 6-3 6-4 victory over fifth seed Tsvetana Pironkova at the WTA Marbella event.

The former world number one was as low as 117th in the rankings last February but she has been showing signs of life in recent weeks.
The Russian, now ranked 81, qualified for her first quarter-final since Seoul last September and she admitted that she is slowly starting to find her feet again.
"I am very happy. I think it's the first time in a while that I have won two matches in successive days," Safina told the WTA website.
"However, I could have won both sets a little easier than I did and made it a little tougher on myself by making some stupid mistakes."
In first round action, top seed Victoria Azarenka beat Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-2 6-3, and she will meet Safina next if she can dispose of Laura Pous-Tio in the second round.
Second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova has already booked her place in the last eight thanks to a 6-7(2) 6-1 6-2 win over Hungary's Agnes Szavay.