Ricardo García Vilanova and Javier Espinosa greeted with hugs and kisses from family members on arrival at Madrid airport
It was late afternoon yesterday when the families of Ricardo García Vilanova and Javier Espinosa got the reunion they had waited 194 days for. As the pair, tired and visibly skinnier, stepped off the plane at the Torrejón air base in Madrid, they were greeted with hugs and kisses from family members.
It was Espinosa, the award-winning El Mundo journalist based in the Middle East since 2002, who broke the news that the ordeal was over. Just after 9pm on Saturday night, he called the newsroom after their captors had delivered them to Turkish authorities. "Hi, it's Javier Espinosa," he calmly told the receptionist. "Write down this number and call me back. We're good, both of us, Ricardo and I. Tell [my wife] Monica and our parents." The Spanish government sprang into action, sending a Falcon 900 to retrieve the two men. Government officials and a handful of El Mundo staff joined the families in greeting the pair on the tarmac. Later Espinosa and García Vilanova made their way to the El Mundo newsroom.
Early polls put Islamist Justice and Development party ahead with 44%-46% of vote, with main opposition on 23%-28%
Turkey's embattled prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appeared to fight off serial allegations of sleaze on Sunday night when his governing Justice and Development party (AKP) gained a substantial victory in nationwide local elections seen as a barometer of the prime minister's popularity.
Inconclusive projections and partial ballot returns showed the AKP likely to hold Istanbul and reach its declared goal of more than 40% of overall votes.
Home Office confirms death of 40-year-old woman at immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire
A 40-year-old woman died on Sunday in Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire, the Home Office has confirmed. Police are investigating the woman's death and the prisons and probation ombudsman has been informed.
There are unconfirmed reports that the woman was heard shouting for help shortly before she died. She was understood to be from Jamaica. A spokesman for the East of England ambulance service said: "We were called to Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre at 8.17am after receiving reports that a woman was in cardiac arrest. We attended along with the air ambulance service. She was sadly pronounced dead at the scene."
Would-be swindlers were carrying a case of forged bearer bonds as they tried to enter the Vatican gates 'to meet cardinals'
The papal gendarmerie and Italian police have foiled a massive potential fraud at the Vatican bank after two men stopped at the gates to the Vatican were found to be carrying a case containing large amounts of forged bearer bonds, Italian police say.
Lt Col Davide Cardia of the financial police said the would-be swindlers, who were wearing business suits, tried to convince Swiss Guards at a Vatican City gate this month that cardinals were expecting them.
Sri Lanka 85-9; England 86-3. England win by seven wickets
Sarah Taylor and Anya Shrubsole superb for England
Sarah Taylor and Anya Shrubsole fired England into the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 with a comfortable win against Sri Lanka in Sylhet.
Shrubsole continued her outstanding tournament by taking three for nine as Sri Lanka struggled to 85 for nine in their 20 overs after choosing to bat first, with Taylor claiming four dismissals two catches and two stumpings.
Warm temperatures, which reached more than 20C in parts of Britain, are expected to remain for much of the week
Parts of Britain basked in weather warmer than mainland Spain and Ibiza as temperatures reached over 20Con Sunday. London was the hottest part of the country, with temperatures reaching a maximum of 20.4C (68.7F) at St James's Park at 1pm, according to the Met Office.
This made the capital hotter than Madrid (17C), the Balearic Islands (18C) and the French Riviera (16C-17C), weather forecaster MeteoGroup said.
Protesters say deal was rushed through and could leave Taiwan beholden to China's Communist party leaders
More than 100,000 protesters took to the streets of Taiwan's capital on Sunday as a two-week-long campaign against a trade pact with China gathered steam, piling further pressure on the island's leader.
The rally in Taipei where many were dressed in black and some clutched sunflowers to symbolise hope was one of the largest in recent years in Taiwan, an island that split from China over six decades ago after a civil war.
Big hitters stress Israel backing to Republican Jewish Coalition
Billionaire Sheldon Adelson donated more than $90m in 2012
Two of the highest-profile Republican state governors on Saturday called for more aggressive leadership on America's challenges abroad, emphasising their support for Israel as they courted powerful Jewish donors.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker also stoked speculation about their own presidential ambitions as they discussed how to reclaim the White House in 2016.
Franciscan monks try to raise £75,000 on Kickstarter to fix room in Rome church where saint is said to have stayed
Crowdfunding and medieval history have come together in Rome, with a group of Franciscan monks using the internet to raise funds to restore a dusty cell apparently used by St Francis of Assisi.
Located in the Trastevere district, the church of San Francesco a Ripa looks much like any of the other 900 churches in the Eternal City and is better known for a statue by Baroque master Gian Lorenzo Bernini. But the monks in charge say its real treasure, tucked away on the first floor, is a cell that hosted St Francis. "We need $125,000 (£75,000) to restore the cell of St Francis," said Brother Stefano Tamburo, who is in charge of the church-monastery.
Former Russian oil tycoon and staunch Kremlin critic jailed for a decade given one-year permit with possibility of renewal
The former Russian oil tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was freed late last year after a decade in prison, has been granted a one-year residence permit in Switzerland, migration authorities said on Sunday.
"His application was approved," Martin Reichlin, a spokesman for the country's federal migration office, said.
UK researchers say discovery suggests dietary advice should focus on genetic predisposition to digest different foods
British researchers have discovered a link between a gene that breaks down carbohydrates and obesity, which may pave the way for more effective, individually tailored diets for people wanting to lose weight.
Researchers at King's College London and Imperial College London found that people with fewer copies of a gene responsible for carbohydrate breakdown may be at higher risk of obesity. The findings, published in Nature Genetics, suggest that dietary advice may need to focus more on a person's digestive system, based on whether they have the genetic predisposition and necessary enzymes to digest different foods.
Landslide win for millionaire-turned-philanthropist deals blow to prime minister, Robert Fico, before 2016 general election
A non-aligned centrist, Andrej Kiska, swooped in to clinch Slovakia's presidency by a landslide, dealing a heavy blow to the credibility of the prime minister, Robert Fico, before a general election in 2016.
Kiska, 51, who made his fortune in the consumer-credit business before giving most of it away, will be Slovakia's first president since independence in 1993 without a past in the Communist party. He has vowed to re-establish the people's trust in the office of president" and make politics "more human". Kiska scored 59.4% of the vote against 20.6% for Fico on a turnout of 50.48%, the election commission said.
From 1980s images of a Chinese woman with her TV to endless shots of a black dog on a black sofa, Dutch publisher Erik Kessels' collections of 'found photographs' are beautiful, surreal and unsettling.
In pictures: the world's weirdest photo albums
By any standards, Me TV is an odd photo book. It comprises eight found snapshots of a middle-aged Chinese woman standing in front of her new television set. In each, her pose is identical, right down to way the little finger of her left hand rests on the TV cabinet. Save for the fact that she is wearing a different top in each photograph, they could be the same image reproduced eight times. But, where others might see only the mundane, Erik Kessels, publisher of Me TV, sees something much more profound.
"From the very many images I have seen that document TVs in China in the 1980s, these are the among the best," he says. "They tell the story about how big a deal it was to have a new television in China in the 1980s. You can see how proud she is. Plus, the repeated pose is a little bit surreal. The series is both documentary and conceptual, without meaning to be either. This is the beauty of found photography."
A TV ad campaign by a package-holiday company in Denmark aims to persuade Danes to have sex on holiday in a bid to boost the country's low birthrate
Hotel rooms are one of life's great aphrodisiacs at least that's the theory behind a new campaign from Danish package-holiday specialist Spies Rejser. Its latest TV campaign, Do It For Denmark, aims to encourage Danes to go on holiday in the hope that they might procreate while abroad.
"Can sex save Denmark?", the advert asks. The Danes may be the happiest people in the world, but it would seem that their boundless joy is not resulting in little bundles of joy. They are among the most gender-equal people on earth with one of the highest proportions of women in work which is, I think we can agree, all good. However, the country's birth rate is at a 27-year low of 10 per 1,000 people (compared with the UK's positively fecund 13).
On one level, sexual attraction is simply a matter of chemicals. So could a scent-focused singles night help you find a new mate?
When most new romances seem to be sparked online and on your phone, could Pheromone Parties, an LA dating craze, provide the perfect antidote? Sleep in a T-shirt for three days, bag it and take it to a bar. Then let people smell it. If they're drawn to your scent, they have their photo taken with your bag, so you can track them down and get chatting.
The premise is that pheromones are the chemical triggers of sexual attraction. Our DNA will respond to mating potential and drive us to hook up.
Chiropractors claim that the posture people adopt when using their mobile phones could shorten their lives. Is this really true?
Texting is bad for your health. Do it while walking and you can bump into walls or step out into traffic. Studies have linked excessive texting with insomnia, stress and painful tendons (BlackBerry thumb). Now the United Chiropractic Association (UCA) has warned that texting for long periods could lower life expectancy because it makes people lean forward. The association links "forward-leaning posture" (defined as dropping the head forward and rounding the shoulders) with the risk of developing hyperkyphosis in old age. Hyperkyphosis is an abnormal rounding of the upper spine that reduces the space available for the heart and lungs, so they are put under pressure and work less effectively. An older person with hyperkyphosis, chiropractors warn, will suffer the same increase in the risk of death as an obese person. The association is encouraging people to have their posture checked by a registered chiropractor. So should you limit your texting immediately?
The story of the man who sells his soul for worldly gain has been a powerful influence on composers and writers for centuries. As three new Fausts open at the Royal Opera House, novelist Philip Hensher journeys into the abyss
Faust is always with us. When it first appears in written form, in 1587, much of the narrative is already here: the signing of a contract in blood, a period of worldly power, including great influence over specific royal courts and the ability to call great figures back to life. Other elements in the story, such as a woman whom Faust drags down and who ultimately redeems herself, and sometimes, him too, would have to wait.
But the story goes back long before that. Scholars trace it to Simon Magus in the Acts of the Apostles, the magician of Samaria who tries to purchase the holy powers of the Apostles. Some form of the bargain that makes a gain at too great a cost surfaces in imaginative literature throughout history Great Expectations and The Godfather are variations on the Faust story. It may be one of those fundamental narratives, like Cinderella, that seems to be hardwired into the human brain to help us make sense of a sequence of events. Tony Blair's story was frequently described in a casual way as "Shakespearean", but "Marlovian" would have been more accurate. The tragedy of a politician who is seen as selling his principles for power fits the Faust plot with uncanny precision. If Blair looked like Faust, a small investigation into how the unusual adjective "Mephistophelean" followed Peter Mandelson around is rather instructive.
John Crace condenses a pale imitation of Austen's gothic pastiche with added vampire intrigue into a bite-sized 600 words
It was a source of constant disappointment to Catherine Morland that her life did not more closely resemble her books. Though by the end of this one, she would be glad of all the distance she could get. Improbable as it may seem in the 21st century, Cat, as she preferred to be known (short for Catatonic), had never once left her small Dorset village in her 17 years. Indeed it was not entirely clear she was aware of anything but the Twilight novels of Stephenie Meyer. So it came as some surprise to Cat to be informed by her neighbours, the Allens, that there was a place called Edinburgh in Scotland and that they were inviting her to join them for the festival.
To her surprise, on arrival in the city of contrasts, intimate surprises and contrasts, Cat found she had been invited to the Highland Ball! She wasn't entirely sure why Highland Ball! had an exclamation mark but she assumed it was the style of a Jane Austen parody, and so worried instead about her inability to reel. Fortunately, Mrs Allen had already considered this possibility and had arranged for Cat to have dancing lessons with the enigmatically pale Henry Tilney.
Four young people share their stories of working in low-wage jobs, from Party City to McDonalds to coffee shops and groceries
"Here, put your ear right here," Caroline Albanese says, pointing at her wrist. As you get closer, you can hear the bones in her wrist make a strange click, click, click as she turns her hand. "That happened while I was blowing balloons at Party City one day," she explains, sounding proud of the old battle wound. The injury, which happened when her hand got stuck between two helium tanks, included a broken finger and caused her to miss over a week of work. "I didn't know you could get workers' compensation back then. No one told me," she says.
Yet regrets about her time at Party City are few and far between. It was her first job and while it was not exactly a dream job, it helped her pay for college. Not all 16-year-olds are as lucky anymore, with many low wage jobs being filled with college students, graduates and those who have found themselves out of a job due to bad economy.
Apollo, Manchester
Tempah says he wants to make 'deeper music' after battling with the notion of selling out, but there are few signs of hidden depths amid this ear-splitting performance
"Manchest-ah!" yells Tinie Tempah, as he appears atop a giant roofed construction, wearing a silver glitter suit. A bona fide pop star following two unit-shifting albums, he performs his lucrative grime/dance/hip-hop/pop formula backed by an ear-splittingly loud live band, with shrieking guitar solos played by metal men with beards.
First scheduled for last December, the "Demonstration" tour was postponed owing to "needing more rehearsals", and an ambitious gig at Manchester's vast arena became two at the smaller if not exactly intimate Apollo. Tempah seems to have undergone other dark nights of the soul.
Demand for affordable Scandinavian chic has helped Danish chain of variety stores go from strength to strength in Britain
Whether it's noir detectives, Faroese knits or home furnishings, Scandinavian chic has never been cooler. Now the Danes have even given the pound shop a Nordic makeover and British shoppers can't get enough.
It's lunchtime on Monday and trade in Tiger's central London store is brisk as office workers browse rainbow-coloured displays of toys, stationery and hobby paraphernalia such as knitting needles and glitter glue. With 80% of the products selling for £5 or less, the concept is Danish design at Woolworths' prices.
Tim Dowling works from home, has a busy family life, and likes the odd shower. Heartless creatures that we are, we've challenged him to cut his energy use at home in half: what will he have to resort to in order to achieve it?
Comments on this piece will be opened at 9am on Monday morning.
The basic idea is simple: I mean, if I am able, to cut my energy use in half, just by changing my habits. First, however, I need to know how much I am using normally.
For electricity that's easy. A week early Richard Woods from Energeno showed up with a Wattson meter, which displays the amount of juice youre drawing off the grid in real time. The box was bigger than I imagined it would be, and looked like a minimalist MP3 player.
They can play for hours, settling into dense, swirling grooves without exhausting their hits, but this show needs a greater sense of momentum
"Show your hands if you're wearing black nail varnish," commands XFM presenter Jon Holmes, introducing the first of the Cure's two Teenage Cancer Trust shows. When a surprising number of arms shoot upward, he sighs: "Forty-year-olds in black nail varnish. That's scary." But not as scary, we soon discover, as Robert Smith in full fig: big-screen closeups reveal that the 54-year-old frontman has acquired a passing resemblance to Gene Simmons of Kiss, which seems fitting: both the Cure and Kiss are fan bands these days, mining catalogues so extensive that they could tour for the rest of their days without repeating themselves too often.
The Cure, however, would benefit from heeding the Simmons dictum: "Rock is about grabbing people's attention." They may be able to play for more than three hours without exhausting their hits, but they've yet to work out how to build up a show: song follows song an incredible 45 in all but there are few peaks or teasers, let alone much of the fraught darkness that got them here in the first place.
Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
Eastern poetry, mushrooms and Schoenberg's composition classes emerged as recurring themes in Lee's randomly ordered readings from John Cage's anthology
Comedian, Observer commentator and experimental-music fan Stewart Lee has a great line about the branch of Nando's that displaced his favourite jazz club: "They ought to introduce a new menu which, through improvisation and chance procedure, redefines the parameters of what chicken could be."
His current project uses improvisation and chance procedure to redefine what a standup gig might become. In truth, it's not a standup show at all, given that Lee is seated and reading from a script not his own, but John Cage's anthology of short stories, epigrams and mini-essays which the composer recorded in 1959 while his regular collaborator, David Tudor, performed improvised music in another room.
Ukip could do well in the European elections, but better times will chip away at its bedrock of insecurity and nostalgia
The second Clegg-Farage bout may be even more engaging than the first. Snap polling last week judged Nigel Farage the winner. But Nick Clegg won too. He was seen as a conviction politician prepared to mix it for his unpopular beliefs, and as the champion of pro-European sentiment that spreads wider than his party.
There was also a straw in the wind pointing to happier times: YouGov just found more people saying they would vote Lib Dem in the European elections in May than in the general election. If true, that reverses the norm, whereby the Lib Dems poll lower in the European elections than in local or Westminster competitions.