Written by Chris White

The Aventador AU79 is just that – a regular Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 wrapped in a chrome gold foil. It has a top speed of 217mph (700 horsepower). According to the manufacturers it takes 30 hours to wrap the entire coating in gold, but it takes 70 days to produce the gold foil which is used to make it gold at a price of US$50,000 / £30,000.

The car weighs in at 1,575 kilograms (3,472lb) and is powered by a 6.5 litre V-12 engine with an output of 700 horsepower and a torque of 690 Newton meters, this gives it a power-to-weight-ratio of 2.25kg/4.96lb per horsepower.

The Aventador AU79 has an acceleration rate of 0-100 Km/h in just 2.9 seconds. The top speed is 350 Km/h.

Speaking to reporters who interviewed the proprietor of the car show where the AU79 is sold, Brett David of Prestige Imports said: “When you combine the two you have a true piece of performing art which becomes a double whammy of the two highest valued commodities on the market today: gold and Lamborghinis.”

The first Aventador AU79 was completed by the Auto SuprerShield team in Boca Raton Florida on June 16^th last year at the Exotics & Espresso Exhibition.

The Exotic & Espresso Exhibition take place on every 3^rd Saturday of the month and the car is priced at just US$550,000 / £350,000.

Written by Maggie Winter

According to eyewitnesses who arrived at the bank the following morning, three machines appeared to be damaged and were quickly covered by black bags and tape by bank staff and Military police after thorough investigation by the forensic officers. Local sources confirm that it seemed a professional and organised attack though no members of the public were involved or injured.

The bank, closed for most of the morning, was open and operating as normal by lunchtime Tuesday. As yet bank staff have no idea how much money was stolen as the ATM counters were too badly damaged for actual figures to be recorded, so has left rather a mess. The Police, as you can see from the above photo, are investigating and according to our source, are hopeful that the perpetrators will indeed be caught.

In fairness this is an extremely rare event in this neck of the woods and will be a talking point for quite a while I suspect.

UPDATE

On further research it appears Saquarema already has a claim to fame for in 2005 notorious murderer, Jesse James Hollywood, was arrested by interpol in a shopping mall in Saquarema with his then pregnant girlfriend Marcia Reis. On the run for over five years he had managed to evade arrest for the murder of Nicholas Markowitz, for which Jesse was convicted and  is currently serving a life sentence in the USA. The saga was given the Hollywood treatment in 2006 and was sited as the inspiration for the ‘A’ list movie “Alpha Dog”, starring Bruce Willis and Justin Timberlake.

Written by Andrew Howe 

She kindly tolerated my presence in her kitchen while making queso fresco (fresh cheese) and yoghurt. Queso fresco, as the name implies, tastes fresh and is salty and slightly sour. It’s a bit like feta cheese I would say. The process is simple: milk is acidified and left to curdle, and then strained in cheesecloth and pressed. The cheese can be eaten immediately or aged for a few days. I love it served with broad beans and a squeeze of lemon juice. At the posada it’s served at breakfast alongside homemade croissants, fresh fruit salad, yogurt flavoured with coconut preserve and fried or scrambled eggs.

Margarita also uses queso fresco to make quite the best locro de papa (cheese and potato soup) I’ve ever had – served piping hot – a novelty in Ecuador where soups are frequently served luke warm. Her seco de borrego is magnificent too: lamb cooked slowly in naranjilla juice and flavoured with salt and pepper, panela (raw sugar), oregano and spices until meltingly tender and served with fragrant rice and vegetables. Incidentally I can’t get the hang of making perfect rice in Ecuador; mine always turns out gluey rather than tender and separated. Help someone!

The very talented Layla Pujol has a beautifully illustrated recipe for seco de borrego, and is currently working on a cookbook which I’m looking forward to.

Judy and I took a bus from the Posada de Tigua to the indigenous town of Zumbahua where we hired a driver to take us onward to the crater lake of Quilotoa. There the fun began.

Written by Andrew Howe 

The good news is that we took the anti-clockwise route around the crater rim, tackling the highest peaks first. The path starts out flat and easy, affording spectacular views of the emerald waters that the locals claim are bottomless. The trail then ascends rapidly.

Altitude was not a problem (even though the path ascends to 3,800 meters above sea level) but the trail is frequently narrow, occasionally very exposed – with sharp drop offs – and the soil sandy and friable. Gusting, shifting winds compounded our feeling of vulnerability – visions of being swept over the rim into the crater! We descended some of the steeper slopes on our bottoms, ripping the seat of my trousers in the process.

The hike took us six hours – not bad going considering I’m well into my sixth decade. We glimpsed farmers working in the valleys and encountered a few indigenous folk on the trail – one man had a mattress strapped to his back as he ambled along with his wife following behind! Along the way red, blue, yellow, purple and orange páramo flowers formed a colouful and showy mosaic.

Toward the end of the hike a young man on a horse, Agustín, paused to ask if we needed transport from Quilotoa. After a very welcome beer in a village store we piled into a camioneta with Agustín at the wheel, a friend at his side and a motley crew of villagers in the back.

After stalling the engine a couple of times and lurching down the road in fits and starts (much to the amusement of passing friends who nudged each other and pointed) it transpired that our driver was very much a learner which did not inspire confidence as we had some hairy twists and turns in the mountain road to negotiate. When we arrived at Zumbahua Agustín’s pal took over the driving duties and Judy and I made it back to the Posada de Tigua in one piece, and with 15 minutes to spare before a delicious dinner was served.

It was an unforgettable day but beware the plethora of confusing information about the hike around the rim of Quilotoa. It is not easy. Indeed a rusty sign posted at the end of the trail announces that the hike is difficult and should be undertaken with a guide and a minimum of four people. I shall do better research in the future.

Written by Chris White

She attended a friends outing at Alderley Edge in Cheshire where not being able to disguise her face from nearby cameras, she made the announcement, declaring that she had been driven to surgery after being haunted by the memory of having been cruelly bullied at school because of the size of her nose.

A close friend of the star explained to The Sun yesterday that she had been continuously haunted since childhood about comments made about her nose at school, saying: “She was still racked with self doubt. She was bullied throughout her school days about the size of her nose and it really affected her badly. She finally plucked up the courage and flew out to a foreign clinic at the start of last month. She was absolutely terrified before the op and there were points when she thought about pulling out.”

In December Flanagan gave an exclusive interview in which she spoke openly about her life long battle with depression. It has recently become known that Flanagan has long since undergone medication for Attention Deficit Disorder and Bipolar Disorder.

Flanagan is engaged to Black footballer Scott Sinclair. Flanagan was recently criticised for not being around to care for Sinclair of he was forced to undergo medical procedures for injuries sustained playing football.

Written by Chris White

Britney Spears has said that the cartoon is targeted at younger people aged between 8 and 14 and but insists that the prime motivator for her creation of the song was so that her sons Sean Preston and Jayden, saying: “It has a young feel to it. But the main reason why I did it was because my boys, they’re obsessed with the Smurfs.

We’ve [my sons and I have] seen the Smurfs movie a million trillion times, and they were told they could be in the video and all this cool stuff so that’s the reason why I did it.”

Spears described the track as “straight pop” and as having a “young feel to it”.

Speaking to journalists Spears said: “It’s definitely in the beginning stages right now. I want to take this album and have a new approach with it, make it different from anything I’ve ever done.”

The Smurfs 2 features and evil wizard called Gargamel who creates an army mischievous Smurf clones called Naughties. The movie is scheduled for release on July 31^st this year.

Written by Chris White

Scotland Yard confirmed to reporters that yesterday a 70-year-old man, “voluntarily attended a Central London police station and accepted a caution for assault”.

In a statement Scotland Yard said: “Officers from the community safety unit at Westminster were aware of the Sunday People article which was published on Sunday 16 June and carried out an investigation.”

Saachi (70), an Iraqi Jew born to a wealthy Jewish textile family in Bagdad, attempted to spin the incident as a “playful tiff” but Ms. Lawson (53), has so far not commented. – In yesterday’s issue of The Evening Standard Saatchi explained in an interview: “About a week ago, we were sitting outside a restaurant having an intense debate about the children and I held Nigella’s neck repeatedly, while attempting to emphasise my point. There was no grip, it was a playful tiff.

Nigella’s tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt.

We had made up by the time we were home. The paparazzi were congregated outside our house after the story broke yesterday morning, so I told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled.”

Saatchi and Lawson, the daughter of former prominent Tory MP Nigel Lawson have been married since 2003 however, Lawson has chosen to keep her maiden name.

Lawson has two children by her dead husband John Diamond who died in 2001, Cosmina and Bruno. A spokesman for Lawson has confirmed that Ms. Lawson has left the family home with her two children, but refused to confirm whether or not the move was temporary.

Written by Chris White

Liberty Global which owns Virgin Media, confirmed that it had made a preliminary offer but refused to comment on its size however market analysts have put the figure in the margin of between £6 and £7 billion. Last week’s Vodafone bid is thought to be in the range of £6 billion.

Liberty Global’s bid to acquire Kabel Deutschland would if successful place more pressure on Vodafone to issue higher initial offers in future takeovers. However, a successful bid by Vodaphone would ensure the telecoms giant’s transformation from a specialiser in European mobile phone networks to a large scale telecommunications provider.

Global Liberty’s latest move is part of the strategy of its billionaire new director John Malone who is determined to expand the company’s presence in Europe.

Liberty Global bought out the UK cable operator Virgin Media for US$23.3 billion / £14.85 billion last February.

Written by Chris White

The trial of Gaddafi’s son who is to be tried alongside Gaddafi’s former Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi and Mansur Daw the former head of Gaddafi’s “People’s Guard” is due to begin in August. A representative of the Libyan Prosecutor’s Office Al-Seddik Al-Sur said that the case would not be divided, so that all three suspects would be tried at the same time in the same Libyan dock.

Speaking to reporters Al-Sur said: “These [former] officials met together to drum up a policy of repression and a common criminal plan, putting them on trial separately would perturbate the proceedings.”

The announcement comes on foot of a dispute between the new authorities of Libya and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued an order for Seif al-Islam to be tried in The Hague for War Crimes & Crime Against Humanity.

Earlier this month the new Libyan Government appealed against the ICC’s decision to prosecute al-Islam, which last week resulted in the ICC suspending, but not reversing the International Court Order foral-Islam to be handed into The Hague.

Youths were reported to have attack the police with rocks, wounding five officers and to have set several parked cars and the State Assembly Building ablaze.

Police were forced to resort to tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray to disperse the rioters.

In Brazil’s inland capital of Brasilia demonstrators, – many of whom were students – managed to breach the government security perimeter at Brazil’s National Congressional building and proceeded to scale the roof of the building, chanting slogans such as “the people have awakened” and waving placards.

The demonstrators agreed to come down when asked by police negotiators but then formed a human chain around the AFP News Agency building.

The initial cause for the demonstrations were increases in the subsidised price of public services, with a price hike in the price of public bus fares in Sao Paulo acting as the catalyst for a whole range of issues ranging from government nepotism and corruption to incompetence on the part of local authorities .

Before June 2^nd a single bus fare was R$3 (3 reals) / US$1.40 / £0.90, but the price hike on June 2^nd raise the fare to R$3.20 (3.20 reals), or an increase of 15.5% since January 2011 – an increase which the Sao Paulo authorities responsible argue is well below current inflation levels.

With the country due to host both the World Cup this year and the World Olympics in 2016, many have argued that vast public resources currently being funnelled into public works intended to facilitate the events, have left Brazil’s public sector workers and dependants in an impoverished condition.

Garry Duffy, the BBC’s correspondent in Sao Paulo this morning reported much widespread anger over the Brazilian Government’s perceived decision to devote vast sums of public money on public works to accommodate international events, while neglecting the nation’s health and education services.

Commenting in the huge level of spending conducted by the Brazilian Government Brazil’s Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo said: “The government assumed the responsibility and the honour to stage these two international events and will do so, ensuring the security and integrity of the fans and tourists.”