The Mar de Musicas Festival will be held in Cartagena between July 4 to 24 at a variety of venues .This festival is regarded as the place to be for art , literature , music and cinema from around the world .This year the highlighted country will be Morocco .Arab , African and European cultures will combine to provide entertainment at all levels .On July 4 it will be the Islamic musical superstar Khaled who will be performing .The rest of the festival will draw upon performers from around the world .Marianne Faithful from the UK and country and Western singer Lucinda Williams from USA.Mercedes Sosa from Argentina will be performing classics such as Gracias a la Vida .

There will be reggae singer Buju Banton , Malian singer Rokio Traore and jazz from Madelaine Peyroux .A full programme will be available in the middle of May .

In 2009 Khaled is supposed to collaborate with shakira on a new albumn .He is a internationally known Algerian singer of what is known as Rai .These songs speak of social issues  and it is a type of folk music .

Five years ago in Alicante ” Class One ” was introduced to the waters of Alicante .This is the Formula One of the water ways .It returns to Alicante in May and June this year .The Gran Premio de Espana begins on May 29 and goes on until June 7.It takes place in the waters off Postiguet beach and eleven boats from eight different countries will be taking part .It is part of the World Offshore Championships .The main race takes place on June 7 with all of the previous days being used to set it all up .It will attract about 15,000 spectators .

Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta -Jones will be acting together once again in Ciudad de la Luz studios in Alicante in May and June .They are filming the story of Salvador Dali and his wife under the direction of Simon West .There will also be some filming in London for the 14 million euro film .

Terra Natura in Benidorm has decided to extend the period during which the unemployed are able to enter the zoo for free .The period has been extended until June 30th .During the Easter period more than 4000 unemployed people took the opportunity to visit Terra Natura .

In Alfaz del Pi the local police force has acquired seven new officers and next week another two will join making the force number up to 41.The council spokesperson has said that this  is the policy of the Alfaz del Pi council to continually upgrade the force .It has also purchased a new four wheel drive which will be delivered in the next few weeks .

Last week a Swedish couple from Torrevieja were living their lives in a not very happy way but at least the wife was alive .Then the 66 year old woman was found dead with her drunken 67 year old husband sitting beside her body .The police took the husband into custody finding it very difficult to make the arrest as he was very drunk.The reason for making the arrest was that there were marks on the woman’s neck which suggested that she had been strangled .She had been dead for some hours before the police arrived at the scene .

Neighbours have said how the couple led a very volatile life .The husband drank heavily and it now seems that there was a great deal of domestic abuse , although the wife had never made a formal complaint to the police .

The results of the post mortem has now shown that the woman was strangled and a judge has detained the husband without bail on suspicion of the murder of his wife and also habitual domestic violence . The man has denied killing his wife .

The couple were about to return to Sweden for the summer which is what they did each year .The surrounding community is very shocked by what has happened .

The Expat Association used to serve a very useful function but sadly it is now defunct .A founder member of the Association has been warning expats returning to the UK in their vehicles to be particulary careful after an Orihuela Costa expat had his car impounded in Northamptonshire .The warning to drivers is to make sure that they have as much evidence with them as possible to prove that they have not spent more than 6 months in the country in consecutive months .

The Orihuela man was not even given the chance to give any evidence and it was based on a single sighting .Each of these is against EU community laws .There has to be some credible evidence that the registered user of the car has exceeded the cumulative period of six months in any 12 month period of time .The opportunity to prove this must be given .

This car seizure initiative is one thought up by the DVLA and is one that involves the whole of the UK .There does however seem to be an over zealous attitude toward it in Northamptonshire .

When you have just arrived at your destination , in this case Alicante ,and you are tired and it is late and dark , the last thing that you want to happen is a theft .This is what happened to a British couple when they arrived at El Altet last week .They went off to pick up their rental car and couldn’t open it with the remote , so had to open the boot with the key .It was very dark and the car was at the far end of the carpark .It all sounds like a set up .Whilst the wife was waiting with the luggage , along comes a man and takes all of the luggage and drives off .The luggage contained everything , money , house keys , passports , you name it and it was in those cases .This is a devastating thing to happen and sadly it is happening more and more frequently .People are being followed to their holiday destination and being robbed as they get out of their cars .

The British couple say that the Spanish police were wonderful but feel that the British Embassy was less than helpful .When you are in such a plight and you need help the last thing you want when you ring the Embassy is an answering machine .

It has to be said that you need all of your wits about you when you arrive at an airport .There is a lot of information available but rule number one is not to pack all your valuables , money and documents in your luggage .