Eideard

Some folks are prepared for carjackers

A Belgian couple on holiday in Spain spotted the armed criminals who had carjacked them at gunpoint a month previously in Liege, 1,200 miles away.

The unnamed pair saw Luc Jadoul, 47, and his girlfriend Gaëlle Deloge, 20, on a beach in Alicante.

Mr Jadoul and Miss Deloge had threatened the couple with a gun and hijacked their Nissan SUV while making a dramatic escape from a Belgian courthouse just four weeks before…

…The crime victims were amazed to see Jadoul and Deloge sunning themselves on the Torrevieja beach last weekend.

Incredibly, the stolen car was also parked nearby, just yards from where the carjackers were sunbathing.

Keeping their heads and showing a “sangfroid” praised by the police, the holidaymakers let down the tyres on the car and called the authorities, who made an “easy” arrest.

A firearm was recovered from the stolen vehicle…

Both are being held in Madrid before their extradition back to Belgium.

Jadoul was the subject of an international arrest warrant. Before becoming a fugitive, he was in prison and has multiple convictions for prostitution of a minor aged 13, violence and pimping…

“No one – certainly not the criminals – could have expected an ending like this,” said a police source. “There must be more chance of winning the lottery.”

If this occurred in the UK, the coppers probably would have arrested the Belgian couple along with the carjackers. They’d leave them in custody in the same jail while they spent a week sorting out legal opinions over them being mean to the crooks.

Unless they were Black or Mexican, of course.

Hundreds of thousands of young people descending on Madrid this week for the Catholic church’s World Youth Day – which features processions, group prayers and a mass with Pope Benedict XVI – are to get a “special” concession.

Church leaders have ordered that anyone confessing, during this event, to having had an abortion – a sin punishable by excommunication – will be welcomed back into the church.

“Normally, only certain priests have the power to lift such an excommunication, but the local diocese has decided to give all the priests taking confession at the event this power,” said the pope’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi.

Two hundred white wooden confession booths have been set up in Madrid’s Buen Retiro park for the event, which started on Tuesday and runs until Sunday…

The driving force behind the deal is the archbishop of Madrid, Antonio María Rouco Varela, who persuaded the Vatican to offer women who had had abortions access to “the fruits of divine grace that will open the doors to a new life”…

Young Catholics making the trip to the Spanish capital will also gain a plenary indulgence – effectively a reduction in the time believers spend in purgatory after confessing and being absolved of their sins. These concessions were once sold by priests, but now the indulgences are granted on special occasions.

And for only an additional $99 anyone who admits to voting for a candidate who called for the church to pay taxes – and begs forgiveness – will be guaranteed passage through the eye of a needle.

As seen on TV. All credit cards accepted.

An African man who claimed he could double your money simply by applying a magic potion to currency notes has been arrested at a Madrid bar where the Ecuadorean owner nearly fell victim to the ploy, said Spanish national police.

Police arrived in time to catch the suspected thief, from Cameroon, with 1,120 euros that had been handed over by the bar owner. The suspect, 28, alleged he had run out of magic potion and would need to go home to get some more, a police statement and spokesman said…

He told police the suspect had come to the bar a week earlier claiming he could double currency notes by applying a magic potion, the police statement said.

Taking a chance, the owner provided a 20 euro note, and the suspect mixed it with various white papers, applied a brown liquid and white power, and mixed it up with cotton. Presto, and there were soon three 20 euro notes visible, the owner told police.

“He returned my 20,” said Tepan, who’s lived 16 years in Spain and has owned the bar in central Madrid for 11 years. When the suspect came back last Saturday, the owner provided 1,120 euros in various currency notes, after the owner and the suspect agreed on how to split up the proceeds from the doubled money, the police said.

The suspect put the bills in an envelope and sealed it with tape. Then he applied the alleged magic potion, repeating this various times, but finally told the bar owner he had run out of the magic potion and would need to go home and get more. But he promised to leave the sealed envelope at the bar…

“I realized he was trying to take the money,” Tepan told CNN. A neighbor called the police and Tepan’s adult son arrived and locked the door to the street, with the suspect inside the bar.

The police arrived and opened the sealed envelope but found only white papers inside. Then they searched the suspect, and found the 1,120 euros hidden in his clothing, the police statement said.

This is one of the oldest cons in the world. Usually the bait is a bit more rational sounding – like found money. Falling for a magic potion is more than gullible.

The Spanish pilots’ union sent a series of letters and emails to Spanair’s senior management warning of safety worries more than a year before Wednesday’s crash at Madrid airport claimed 153 lives.

In one letter the union, Sepla, wrote to Lars Nygaard, then Spanair director, and Marcus Hedblom, present managing director, warning: “The operative chaos is putting passengers at risk.”

The letter, dated April 2007, said: “It’s our obligation to inform you of the elevated unease which exists between ourselves for the daily running [of the company] for the past month.” It alluded to a lack of resources, a scarcity of ground crew and a number of planes which had been declared unfit to fly.

In another letter, pilots complained “unfortunately all this indicates this will end in chaos”, and in a further letter the union warned: “The norms about operating punctuality, desired by all, stop in many cases the realisation of norms of airline security.”

Spanair did not respond to attempts by the Guardian to verify the claims.

Corporate boneheads who ignore warnings like this from employees deserve to pay the damages from their own pockets.

We all know what happens to whistleblowers who dare to go outside the corporate chain-mail communications system. Telling the truth can be an occupational hazard.