English in Madrid

Austrian heiress Marlene Engelhorn announces plan for €25m giveaway An Austro-German heiress is setting up a citizens group to decide how she should give away much of the fortune she inherited from her grandmother. Marlene Engelhorn, who is 31 and lives in Vienna, wants 50 Austrians to determine how €25m (£21.5m) of her inheritance should be redistributed. "I have inherited a fortune, and therefore power, without having done anything for it," she said. "And the state doesn't even want taxes on it." Austria abolished inheritance tax in 2008, one of a handful of European countries that do not impose inheritance tax - or death duties. Ms Engelhorn believes that is unfair. She is a descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, the founder of German chemical and pharmaceutical company, BASF, and inherited millions when her grandmother died in September 2022. Traudl Engelhorn-Vechiatto's wealth was estimated by US magazine Forbes at $4.2bn (£3.3bn; €3....

Source: Wikipedia (Dani Yako)   Diego Maradona ‘hand of God’ shirt sold for record £7.1m at auction   Blue Argentina No 10 jersey kept by England player Steve Hodge beats mark set by 1892 Olympic manifesto   The shirt worn by Diego Maradona when he scored twice – including the “hand of God” goal – to knock England out of the 1986 World Cup has sold for a record-breaking £7.1m at auction.  The late Argentinian player described his opening goal in the quarter-final as “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God”. He and the England 898mkio Peter Shilton leapt to reach the ball, which touched Maradona’s left hand and bounced into the net . The referee did not have a clear view and allowed the goal to stand .  Minutes later, Maradona dribbled past a host of England players to score again, a strike that was voted goal of the century in a 2002 poll of 340,000 fans in 150 countries. Argentina went on to win the tournament. ...

Source:  Markus Winkler on Unsplash Ronaldo accepts €18.8m deal over tax evasion Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has cut a deal with a court in Madrid over tax evasion charges , accepting an €18.8m (£16.6m) fine . A huge media presence met the player outside the court, after a judge refused his request to appear by video or to enter the building by car to avoid the spotlight . The deal, agreed in advance, includes a 23-month jail sentence . But in Spain, convicts do not usually do time for sentences under two years. The non-violent nature of Ronaldo's offence means he is unlikely to spend any time at all in jail, serving it on probation instead. The court appearance lasted mere minutes as Ronaldo accepted the deal offered by prosecutors. The current Juventus player, who played for the club in Italy the night before, arrived smiling and giving a thumbs-up , apparently unfazed by the media presence. His lawyers had argued that given his fame, avoidin...

Source:   Hai Nguyen en Unsplash The potato farmer who swapped   bankruptcy for making millions For a Herefordshire potato farmer, William Chase is impressively savvy about the need for positive publicity, and the importance of telling a good story. It is a talent that helped him move from being bankrupt, aged 32, to becoming a multimillionaire by the time he was 48. Along the way he created and sold best-selling upmarket crisps brand Tyrrells, and won a high-profile battle against supermarket giant Tesco. Now 56, and the founder and owner of Chase Vodka, a luxury version of the spirit made from potatoes grown on his farm, the serial entrepreneur says: "People love stories, the real stories behind things. "And the media was very important to me from the first days of Tyrrells. "I was a guy who had been beaten up by the supermarkets, and people love to support  the underdog ." 'Ashamed' The son of potato farmers who ...

Grandfather who watched £1,000 cash blow away after he tripped outside bank stunned as kind strangers return almost every penny Onlookers - mainly teenagers and young people - began grabbing the notes and managed to collect all but £20 Grandfather says the kindness shows 'there is still some decency' in the world Source: Daily Mail Vocabulary : to blow away - a passer-by - an onlooker - to grab - to trip - to stop in your tracks - to scramble - to swirl - to run off - to head - to hand back - faith (n) - in this day and age - a labourer - to withdraw cash - to fall flat on your face - grip (n) / to grip - to clutch - scores - to drop - a lad - to chase - a bloke - a youngster - a fistful - crumpled (adj) - lap (n) - as far as I'm concerned - to get stick - Do you think the same thing would have happened here? Do you think people are generally honest? 

Image Source King to tighten belt as cutbacks affect Royal Household budget The Royal Household is embarking on its own austerity drive after the government included a two-percent cut in its allocation in the draft 2012 state budget. King Juan Carlos and his entourage will receive 8.2 million euros from the state this year, 170,000 euros less than last year. The many cuts will be in personnel costs and spending on protocol and public relations. Sources close to the Royal Household said Wednesday that the reductions in salaries would be applied progressively so that they affected mostly those on higher wages. The remuneration of 11 top officials in the king's entourage are in the front line.  Sources said it had not been ruled out that the assignations of individual members of the Royal Family would also be cut. The other areas where belt-tightening will be applied include official gifts, hotels used during trips and receptions to honor guests. Current spending on such ite...

Source: newsy.com Waitress Sues Police After They Seize Her $12,000 'Tip' A big tip is always appreciated by a waitress... but for a waitress in Minnesota, a twelve-thousand dollar tip was apparently a little too generous. So, she reported it to the police and now she’s suing to get the gratuity back. Source: newsy.com Vocabulary : to sue - to sieze - a tip - to report stg (to the police) - wads of bills - to come forward - to claim the cash - to smell like stg - to award - an anchor (TV) - a frying pan - to struggle - a paycheck - to deserve - finders keepers - Do you think that the waitress should get the money? Why / why not?

Source:  Akin Cakiner en Unsplash Italian cat inherits €10m fortune Tommaso, a four-year-old, one-time stray from Rome, is thought to have become the world's richest cat. Since the death of his 94-year-old mistress last month, he has become a property magnate — or perhaps mog nate — with flats and houses worth an estimated €10m scattered from Milan in the north to Calabria in the south. In a handwritten will, signed on 26 November, 2009, Tommaso's mistress — the childless widow of a successful builder — gave her lawyers the task of identifying "the animal welfare body or association to which to leave the inheritance and the task of looking after the cat Tommaso". One of the lawyers, Anna Orecchioni, told the Rome daily Il Messaggero they considered several organisations without getting adequate guarantees of the cat's future comfort and welfare. In the meantime, the old lady met a fellow cat-lover – named only as Stefania – in a park. "Sometimes I'd go t...

Spain town reintroduces peseta to boost economy A small town in northern Spain has decided to reintroduce the old Spanish currency - the peseta - alongside the euro to give the local economy a lift. Shopkeepers in Mugardos want anyone with forgotten stashes of the old cash at home to come and spend it. Source: BBC News   Vocabulary : to boost - alongside - (to give stg) a lift - a stash (of cash) / to stash - a purchase - a cash register - a slump - to get round to doing stg - a hardware store - staggering (adj) - to slip (down the back of a sofa) - to tap (reserves) -   Do you miss the peseta? Do you think the euro was a good idea?

Source:  kevin laminto on Unsplas h Insurance premiums to change after ECJ gender ruling Insurers cannot charge different premiums to men and women because of their gender, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. The decision means that women can no longer be charged lower car insurance premiums than men, and the cost of buying a pensions annuity will change. The court was ruling on a challenge by a Belgian consumer group Test-Achats. It had argued that a current exemption for insurers contradicted the wider European principle of gender equality. "Taking the gender of the insured individual into account as a risk factor in insurance contracts constitutes discrimination," the ECJ said. The requirement for unisex insurance premium and benefits will start on 21 December 2012, giving national governments and the European insurance industry time to adjust. Different risks For car insurance, women are generally a lower risk to insure than men but will, in...

Source: Eduardo Soares on Unsplash Santander has work to do admits new boss Santander's new UK boss Ana Patricia Botin has admitted to MP s that the bank has "a lot of work to do" following reports that it had the most customer complaints of any British bank. Ms Botin was questioned by the Treasury Select Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie MP after the Financial Services Authority found that the high-street bank had amassed 216,158 complaints in the first six months of 2010. It has also repeatedly ranked at the bottom of customer satisfaction polls , the most recent being from Which?, MoneySavingExpert.com and JD Power & Associates. Santander's service levels are said to have suffered while it tried to integrate the Abbey and Alliance & Leicester brands acquired in 2004 and 2008 respectively. The purchase of 318 branches from Royal Bank of Scotland is set to be completed in December 2011. The bank’s boss told MPs that service was "beginning ...

Source:  Foto de Fauzan Saari en Unsplash World Cup 2010: Iker Casillas defends Spain's £500,000 a man win bonus • Spain players on €600,000 bonus to win World Cup • European champions have largest financial incentive to win The Spain captain, Iker Casillas, has hit back at criticism over the cash bonus each player will be paid if the European champions win the World Cup in South Africa. Reports in Spain suggest Casillas and his team-mates will each get €600,000 (almost £500,000) should they win Spain's first World Cup, the largest bonus among major contenders. A spokeswoman for the Spanish football federation would not confirm the amount, which was negotiated with the federation by Casillas and his two vice-captains, Xavi and Carles Puyol. "It's an issue that always comes up ," Casillas said during preparations for Spain's final warm-up match against Poland in Murcia tomorrow. "You can comment and talk, especially at this time when ev...

Source: Vienna Reyes en Unsplash Cristiano Ronaldo transfer: World-record deal shows football is booming , says Sepp Blatter Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, has defended Real Madrid's £80 million move for Cristiano Ronaldo, despite widespread criticism  of the Spanish club's huge outlay in the transfer market this week. Real's world-record swoop for Manchester United's Ronaldo came just three days after the previous record £56 million move for AC Milan forward Kaka. Real's spending is at odds with the financial climate, but Blatter insists the Ronaldo deal merely emphasises the healthy state of football. "What does £80 million mean when 10 years ago another player with the same name (Ronaldo of Brazil) moved from one club to another for $50 million?" Blatter said. "It means that there is still a demand to have the stars. "We are in a very sensitive market, in an economic crisis, but football remains a fantastic product, not just ...

Source: Wikipedia (ElfQrin)   US man gets $2.6m for domain name A US man has sold the domain name pizza.com for $2.6m (£1.3m) - after maintain ing (1)  the site for just $20 a year since 1994. Chris Clark, 43, accepted the offer from an anonymous bidder after a week-long online auction . "It's crazy, it's just crazy," Mr Clark, who lives in North Potomac, Maryland, was quoted as saying by the Baltimore Sun newspaper. "It will make a significant difference in my life, for sure," he added. Regret Mr Clark registered the domain name in 1994, when the world wide web was just starting. He had hoped that pizza.com would help to get a contract with a pizza firm for his consulting company. He sold his business in 2000, but kept pay ing (2) the $20 annual fees for maintaining the domain, which he also used to sell advertisements. . In January, Mr Clark decided to sell it after hear ing (1) that another domain - Vodka.com - wa...