Major crime gang link as Matthew Macklin’s coach survives assassination attempt

Former European boxing champion Jamie Moore is under armed police guard in a Spanish hospital after he was shot in the legs in Marbella at the weekend. 

Moore is currently based in Spain with his wife and two children where he is training Irish boxer Matthew Macklin at the MGM gym in Puerto Banus ahead of his upcoming fight in the National Stadium on August 30. Moore was shot in both legs and the foot when the gunman targeted him after he left a party on Saturday night but his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. “Just to let everyone know Jamie Moore is still in hospital but he should be ok,” Macklin tweeted last night. “He was shot in his legs but the doctors have said there shouldn’t be any serious or permanent damage done.”

The coach and well-respected Sky Sports pundit who has no involvement in crime agreed to become Macklin’s coach last year, but gardai sources have indicated that “special surveillance plans” are in place for the upcoming fight. The villa where Moore was shot is owned by boxing manager Daniel Kinahan, a key member of the Christy Kinahan crime syndicate which operates a sizeable crime operation on Spain’s infamous Costa del Crime. Nicknamed the ‘Tipperary Tornado’, Birmingham-born Macklin has no involvement in crime but has been photographed in the company of major gangsters Gary Hutch and Daniekl Kinahan at major events.

Former British and European champion boxer Jamie Moore has been shot in Marbella

Former British and European champion boxer Jamie Moore has been shot in Marbella - apparently in both legs.

Moore, the former European light-middleweight champion, was in Spain working at a gym owned by boxer, Matthew Macklin, who he is training.

It is understood the 35-year-old Moore, from Walkden, Greater Manchester, has now left hospital after treatment.

Moore, highly regarded in the sport, was on the verge of a WBC title shot, in 2009, but decided to quit the sport in 2010 on medical grounds.

Moore is a former two-time British light-middleweight champion and Commonwealth champion.

A source told the Manchester Evening News: "It would appear he was out and about, not at the gym, when he was shot."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed that a British national had been shot over the weekend.

Moore was helping prepare Mackin for a fight in Dublin later this month against Argentinian, Jorge Sebastian-Heiland for the WBC international midldeweight title.

As well as a working as a trainer Moore has worked as a TV commentator.

He is a friend of former boxer, Ricky 'The Hitman' Hatton, who told the Manchester Evening News 'battler' Moore would bounce back from the attack.

He said: "I'm devastated by this news. Jamie is a great pal of mine and my thoughts are, of course, today with him and his family.

"He's a great battler and if anyone's going to pull through in hospital it'll be him."

Moore has spoken at several charity events and fundraising dinners for boxers' whose carrers have been cut short by injury.

Moore won a legendary fight with Macklin in 2006 at the George Carnell Leisure Centre in Davyhulme in what was dubbed the 'fight of the year'.

He won 32 of 37 bouts with 23 being knockouts.

Moore boxed an an amateur before turning professional in 1999.

One of Moore's most memorable moments came last year in a three-round knockout victory over Michele Piccirillo for the European belt.

He will also be remembered for his domestic fights with Matthew Macklin, Michael Jones and Ryan Rhodes.

Local Spanish police are investigating the shooting and are likely to alert Britain's National Crime Agency.

So far there have been no arrests.

High Alert in Casablanca Airport After Death of Woman Returning from Mecca

Morocco’s Mohammed V international airport is under high medical alert since a 76-year old woman died immediately upon her return from Mecca. Within the first hours after her death, Moroccan authorities feared the death was caused by the Ebola virus. But a statement from the Ministry of Health said the woman suffered from an acute “pulmonary edema.” It is unclear, however, whether this statement will dispel people’s fears regarding the safety of the 30,000 Moroccans who will go to perform pilgrimage next September. Last June, following the emergence of Ebola or Mers (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) virus in Saudi Arabia, Morocco recommended its pilgrims to cancel their planned trips to Mecca this year. The Moroccan Ministry of health advised Moroccans who decide to go ahead with their pilgrimage to put on masks, which are offered for free by Moroccan authorities.

Ebola terror at Gatwick as passenger collapses and dies getting off Sierra Leone flight

Airport staff tonight told of their fears of an Ebola outbreak after a passenger from Sierra Leone collapsed and died as she got off a plane at Gatwick. Workers said they were terrified the virus could spread globally through the busy international hub from the West African country which is in the grip of the deadly epidemic. The woman, said to be 72, became ill on the gangway after she left a Gambia Bird jet with 128 passengers on board. She died in hospital on Saturday. Ebola has killed 256 people in Sierra Leone. A total of 826 have died in West Africa since the outbreak began in February. Tests were carried out to see if the woman had the disease. The plane was quarantined as ­officials desperately tried to trace everyone who had been in contact with the woman. Airport workers faced an anxious wait to see if the woman had Ebola. One said: “Everyone’s just ­petrified. “We’ve all seen how many people have died from Ebola, especially in Sierra Leone, and it’s terrifying.”

Dead beggar ignored for hours at airport

Thousands of passengers departing from Majorca's busy Son Sant Joan airport failed to notice the dead body of a German beggar for at least six hours on Thursday morning. The body of 61-year-old René Becker lay unnoticed on a bench outside the departure lounge of the airport for several hours, local daily Diario de Mallorca reported on Friday. The man known locally as 'El Barbas' ('Mr Beard') had been living outside the airport for seven years, surrounded by his few possessions. Early on Thursday morning, however, airport staff noticed that he seemed to be sleeping more deeply than usual. When they approached, they found he didn't have a pulse and that his body was already cold. A coroner later determined he had been dead for at least six hours.  In that time, thousands of passengers bound for destinations as diverse as Italy's Palermo and the northern English city of Doncaster has traipsed past his body. Becker, a former engineer who left Germany after divorcing his wife, was a minor celebrity on Majorca. Described as "friendly" and "affable", he had even made several appearances in Germany's tabloid press, according to local German-language daily Mallorca Zeitung. One article shone the spotlight on his brief reunion with his daughter Patricia.

Spanish police crackdown on organised crime

The Guardia Civil and National Police dismantled 497 criminal organisations in 2013 and detained 6,292 people for drug and human trafficking, said Security Secretary Francisco Martinez last Thursday talking to the media. Police operations to crackdown on organised crime in Spain had a 97 per cent success rate, he added. As much as 83 per cent of all groups dismantled had been operating for less than three years, while seven out of every 10 criminal organisations were made up of nationals from more than two different countries. Most criminal organisations were based in Barcelona and Madrid, followed by Cadiz, Malaga, Alicante, Valencia, Sevilla and Murcia. The large majority of them traffic in cocaine (31 per cent) and 21 per cent traffics in hashish, said Martinez. Following the nationwide operations launched last year to crackdown on organised crime, Spanish police seized almost 20 tons of cocaine, 146,708 kilograms of hashish, 103 kilograms of heroin, more than 10,000 ecstasy pills, 2,102 cars, 119 boats, six aircraft, 558 guns, 630 knives, 909 computers, 4,498 mobile phones and €30 million. Data show arrests for human trafficking also increased last year, with as many as 753 people detained or 33 per cent more than in 2012, said Martinez. A total of 1,180 victims - most of them Romanian, Chinese and Spanish nationals - were freed from the clutches of these criminal organisations, he added.

Lionel Messi may have just been named the most valuable player at the World Cup in Brazil but that is unlikely to soften the blow of having to pay Spain's largest tax bill

Lionel Messi may have just been named the most valuable player at the World Cup in Brazil but that is unlikely to soften the blow of having to pay Spain's largest tax bill — a whopping €53 million ($71 million)On top of that €53 million, the FC Barcelona star could also have to pay an extra €3 million on undeclared advertising and sponsorship earnings for the years 2007 to 2009.

 The huge sum paid by Lionel Messi this year covers taxes on his salary, as well as on his assets and advertising deals. It also includes €22.4 million in outstanding tax for 2010, 2011 and 2012. 

 Over the past seven years, the Argentina captain has paid more than €100 million to Spain's tax office, Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia reported. 

 This amount has increased proportionally to the player’s income.  

 According to the business magazine Forbes, Lionel Messi earns more than €48 million a year from salary and sponsorship, making him the fourth highest-earning athlete in the world. 

 He’s also the highest-paid football player with a €20 million annual salary, ahead of Real Madrid’s player Cristiano Ronaldo.

 Last year, Lionel Messi and his father were accused of defrauding the Spanish tax office of over €5 million ($7 million) but cleared the tax debt before a court appearance.‏

LIVING IN A FASCIST STATE: Mentally ill people need to be helped, not hounded | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian ~ Marbs Post

LIVING IN A FASCIST STATE: Mentally ill people need to be helped, not hounded | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian ~ Marbs Post

Neglect of the mentally ill is bad enough, but now consider how the Department for Work and Pensions deliberately torments them. I just met a jobcentre manager. It had to be in secret, in a Midlands hotel, several train stops away from where she works. She told me how the sick are treated and what harsh targets she is under to push them off benefits. A high proportion on employment and support allowance have mental illnesses or learning difficulties. The department denies there are targets, but she showed me a printed sheet of what are called "spinning plates", red for missed, green for hit. They just missed their 50.5% target for "off flows", getting people off ESA. They have been told to "disrupt and upset" them – in other words, bullying. That's officially described, in Orwellian fashion, as "offering further support". As all ESA claimants approach the target deadline of 65 weeks on benefits – advisers are told to report them all to the fraud department for maximum pressure. In this manager's area 16% are "sanctioned" or cut off benefits. Of course it's not written down anywhere, but it's in the development plans of individual advisers or "work coaches". Managers repeatedly question them on why more people haven't been sanctioned. Letters are sent to the vulnerable who don't legally have to come in, but in such ambiguous wording that they look like an order to attend. Tricks are played: those ending their contributory entitlement to a year on ESA need to fill in a form for income-based ESA. But jobcentres are forbidden to stock those forms. These ill people's benefits are suddenly stopped without explanation: if they call, they're told to collect a form from the jobcentre, which doesn't stock them either. If someone calls to query an appointment they are told they will be sanctioned if they don't turn up, whatever. She said: "The DWP's hope is they won't pursue the claim." Good advisers genuinely try to help the mentally ill left marooned on sickness benefit for years. The manager spoke of a woman with acute agoraphobia who hadn't left home for 20 years: "With tiny steps, we were getting her out, helping her see how her life could be better – a long process." But here's another perversity: if someone passes the 65-week deadline, they are abandoned. All further help is a dead loss to "spinning plates" success rates. That woman was sent back to her life of isolation: she certainly wasn't referred for CBT. For all this bullying, the work programme finds few jobs for those on ESA. Failing to treat the mentally ill is bad enough, but this is maltreatment. There has been much outrage about lack of kindness and care in hospitals. Neglect of mental patients is every bit as bad, but deliberate cruelty by the DWP defies any concern for the wellbeing for the most vulnerable, let alone "parity of esteem".

LIVING IN A FASCIST STATE: Mentally ill people need to be helped, not hounded | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian ~ Marbs Post

LIVING IN A FASCIST STATE: Mentally ill people need to be helped, not hounded | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian ~ Marbs Post

Neglect of the mentally ill is bad enough, but now consider how the Department for Work and Pensions deliberately torments them. I just met a jobcentre manager. It had to be in secret, in a Midlands hotel, several train stops away from where she works. She told me how the sick are treated and what harsh targets she is under to push them off benefits. A high proportion on employment and support allowance have mental illnesses or learning difficulties. The department denies there are targets, but she showed me a printed sheet of what are called "spinning plates", red for missed, green for hit. They just missed their 50.5% target for "off flows", getting people off ESA. They have been told to "disrupt and upset" them – in other words, bullying. That's officially described, in Orwellian fashion, as "offering further support". As all ESA claimants approach the target deadline of 65 weeks on benefits – advisers are told to report them all to the fraud department for maximum pressure. In this manager's area 16% are "sanctioned" or cut off benefits. Of course it's not written down anywhere, but it's in the development plans of individual advisers or "work coaches". Managers repeatedly question them on why more people haven't been sanctioned. Letters are sent to the vulnerable who don't legally have to come in, but in such ambiguous wording that they look like an order to attend. Tricks are played: those ending their contributory entitlement to a year on ESA need to fill in a form for income-based ESA. But jobcentres are forbidden to stock those forms. These ill people's benefits are suddenly stopped without explanation: if they call, they're told to collect a form from the jobcentre, which doesn't stock them either. If someone calls to query an appointment they are told they will be sanctioned if they don't turn up, whatever. She said: "The DWP's hope is they won't pursue the claim." Good advisers genuinely try to help the mentally ill left marooned on sickness benefit for years. The manager spoke of a woman with acute agoraphobia who hadn't left home for 20 years: "With tiny steps, we were getting her out, helping her see how her life could be better – a long process." But here's another perversity: if someone passes the 65-week deadline, they are abandoned. All further help is a dead loss to "spinning plates" success rates. That woman was sent back to her life of isolation: she certainly wasn't referred for CBT. For all this bullying, the work programme finds few jobs for those on ESA. Failing to treat the mentally ill is bad enough, but this is maltreatment. There has been much outrage about lack of kindness and care in hospitals. Neglect of mental patients is every bit as bad, but deliberate cruelty by the DWP defies any concern for the wellbeing for the most vulnerable, let alone "parity of esteem".

Russell Brand Calls On 50,000 Protesters To Stage 'Joyful Revolution'

Russell Brand has called on thousands of protesters to be part of a "peaceful, effortless, joyful revolution" that seizes power back from Westminster. The former Big Brother's Big Mouth presenter, who this year implored readers of the New Statesman magazine to abandon the current political system, told crowds gathered in London's Parliament Square that MPs no longer represented the people. Speaking in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament at the end of a march marking the one-year anniversary of the People's Assembly being formed, Brand stripped off his T-shirt and replaced it with one carrying the message "Firefighters rescue people not bankers".

UN warns Britain over child voodoo rituals pedophile sex tourists

Hundreds of children are being kidnapped in Africa and bought to the UK for voodoo rituals, a UN watchdog said, also voicing alarm about the number of British pedophiles who prey on children abroad. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) urged Britain to do more to stop this brutal form of people trafficking. “We’re concerned about reports that hundreds of children have been abducted from their families in Africa and trafficked to the UK, especially London, for religious rituals,” Kirsten Sandberg, head of the CRC and a former Norwegian Supreme Court judge, said Thursday. She said that trafficking for rituals was part of a wider problem where thousands of minors are brought to the UK, who end up being child prostitutes or being sexually exploited. The CRC advised that Britain should “strengthen the capacity of law-enforcement authorities and judiciary to detect and prosecute trafficking of children for labor, sexual and other forms of exploitation, including for religious rituals.” There have been numerous cases of children who have been brought to the UK from Africa and suffered torture and abuse, often as part of witchcraft rituals, AFP reports. Victoria Climbie from the Ivory Coast was killed by her own relatives in 2000, who thought she was a witch.

Plan to tackle mobile phone blackspots

 

Mobile phone operators could be made to share their networks in rural areas of the UK where signals are weak under plans being considered by ministers. Some parts of rural Britain have just one or two of the main mobile phone networks available, or none at all, leaving some people without any signal. It is hoped so-called national roaming could be used to plug blackspots. However, mobile phone companies say this would remove their incentive to build more masts to improve coverage. New Culture Secretary Sajid Javid wants mobile phone companies to introduce national roaming which would allow customers to switch to an alternative network if their own was not available, as happens when they are abroad.

Mind-control: ‘I drove a car with my thoughts’

 

The Brain Driver consists of a headset with 16 sensors  monitor electrical signals from the brain. Clinical devices usually use 32 sensors, but Llarena and his team are trying to build something that’s as small, cheap and unobtrusive as possible. “We think that 16 are probably too many,” he says. “We’re trying to figure out if we can take half of them out.” But there’s only so much streamlining they can do before the signals get too weak. They’re already working with tiny, microvolt signals from inside the brain and trying to read and interpret them. “It’s as if we were putting a small microphone on one side and trying to hear one of a million people shouting on the other side,” says Llarena. After reading these signals through the skull, the system has to turn them into instructions for the wheelchair or car. The idea is that the driver thinks one distinct thought to turn right, and another left, while the electrodes pick up the associated activity. But those thoughts won’t necessarily be as simple as the words “left”and “right”; it could be something more abstract, like a certain place or a shape. “It was a long process because I didn’t know what to do at all. I was thinking of everything, the beach, red cubes, red circles.” Eventually he figured out that if he pictured a red cube in his mind, and then imagined that cube moving forward in his skull he could make the machine move forward. If he thought about that cube moving left, he could go left. Later on, the team realised that what he was really doing was activating his motor cortex, a process that sent out a strong enough signal to detect.

Man jailed for illegally exporting electrical waste to Africa

Man jailed for illegally exporting electrical waste to Africa Waste dealer Joe Benson is first defendant to be sentenced to prison for illegally exporting waste

Heirforce One Queen Gets New Helicopter For William And Kate

 

Queen Gets New Helicopter For William And Kate Dubbed 'Heirforce One', the helicopter will whisk William and Kate between royal engagements and time with Prince George.

Brian Johnson says it's likely AC/DC will tour this year

AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson says it’s likely AC/DC will tour this year. In a message posted to his Brian Johnson Racing website, the singer says his "day job" with AC/DC will be distracting him from producing more episodes of his TV series Cars That Rock for the time being. Johnson writes: "We hope to bring you more shows in the near future but, of course, there is the slight distraction of my day job with AC/DC – and it looks very likely that we will be on the road again before the end of the year. So stand by for more music – and more Cars That Rock. thanks – Brian"

Islamist militant group Isis, taken off-line. and free speech

 

The father of a British man who has appeared in a video aimed at recruiting jihadists has said he is "heartbroken" his son left the UK to fight in Syria. In the film, would-be medical student Nasser Muthana, 20, from Cardiff, urges others to fight in Syria and Iraq. His father, Ahmed Muthana, told the BBC his other son had gone with Nasser, and that someone must be "driving" them. UK police are trying to get the film, posted by accounts linked to Islamist militant group Isis, taken off-line. The 13-minute video, entitled "There is No Life Without Jihad", emerged on Friday and appears to show six fighters - apparently including three Britons - urging Muslims to join the conflicts abroad.

English Heritage ruined Stonehenge?

Has English Heritage ruined Stonehenge? The summer solstice, King Arthur, the Holy Grail … Stonehenge is supposed to be a site of myths and mystery. But with timed tickets and a £27m visitor centre, does it herald a rampant commercialisation of our heritage?

The use of CCTV

CCTV spy cars can be seen lurking on every street raking in cash for greedy councils and breaking the rules that clearly state that fines should not be used to generate profit for town halls. "Over-zealous parking enforcement and unreasonable stealth fines by post undermine the high street, push up the cost of living and cost local authorities more in the long term. "Today the government is taking urgently needed action to ban this clear abuse of CCTV, which should be used to catch criminals, and not as a cash cow." The ban follows a three-month consultation. Other measures being introduced include trialling a 25% discount for motorists who lose an appeal against a parking ticket and no longer fining drivers parking near broken meters if there is no other way to pay. Residents and businesses will have the right to demand a review of parking in their area, including the use of yellow lines and charges, and parking guidance will be reformed so it is less "heavy-handed" with motorists to stop over-aggression from bailiffs. Councils will also be forced to publish how income from parking charges is used, and the cost of penalty notices will be frozen for the remainder of this parliament. Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: "These measures will deliver a fairer deal for motorists, ensuring that parking enforcement is proportionate, that schoolchildren are protected and buses can move freely, and that key routes are kept clear."

CCTV 'spy cars' to be banned in victory for drivers and shoppers

CCTV 'spy cars' to be banned in victory for drivers and shoppers Wardens will have to fix tickets onto windscreens instead of penalties being issued by post