MALIBU is a 50m motor yacht delivered by the world renowned Amels Shipyard in Holland

 21-5 Million.

 

BUILDER                    Amels                                 LOA                 50.00m / 164’

 

YEAR                           2001                                   BEAM              9.00m / 29’1’’

 

FLAG                           Cayman Islands                DRAFT            3.10m / 10’

 

NAVAL ARCH           Terence Disdale                 SPEED             12 knots cruising

 

HULL                           Steel                                    ACCOM          12 guests

 

LYING                         Genoa                                 ENGINES       2 x 1,200hp Cummins

MALIBU is a 50m motor yacht delivered by the world renowned Amels Shipyard in Holland with an original interior design by Terence Disdale and a complete refit in 2006 including new interiors by Reymond Langton. The yacht was built to Lloyds +100 A1 SSC G6 LMC, MCA.

This yacht has to be seen to experience the exceptional level of quality craftsmanship onboard.

MALIBU’S placement of the tenders on the bow leaves every deck clear for enjoying a lifestyle oriented by the sea.  Alfresco dining options abound with cocktail tables on the main deck, and dining for 12 offered on both the bridge and sun decks.  The sun deck has a built in sun pad and bar.  For serious sun bathing, the forward area of the sun deck furnishes privacy, full sun and a sensational Jacuzzi.

  

 

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS

 

Type:                                                Displacement Hull

Builder:                                           Amels Shipyard (Holland)

Hull no.:                                          437

Naval Architect:                             Amels Shipyard (Holland)/ Terence Disdale

Interior Designer:                          Reymond Langton

Construction Year:                         2001

Refitted:                                          2006

Classification:                                Lloyds +100 A1 55C G6 LMC, MCA

Construction:                                  Welded Steel

Crew:                                               12

Flag:                                                 George Town – Cayman Islands

Engines:                                           2 x Cummins 1200 hp

Transmission:                                 2 x Reintjes WAF 541

GRT:                                                610 tons

 

 

DIMENSIONS

 

LOA                                                 50.00 m / 164’

Beam                                                9.00 m / 29’7”

Draft                                                3.10m / 10

 

 

SPEED & RANGE UNDER POWER

 

Maximum Speed (knots)              15 knots

Cruising Speed (knots)                 13 knots

Economical Speed (knots)            12 knots

Fuel Consumption                         448 litres per hour @ 15 knots 1800 rpm

                                                         370 litres per hour @ 13 knots, 1400 rpm

                                                         206 litres per hour @ 12 knots, 1400 rpm

Range                                              2955 nm @ 15 knots

                                                         3185 nm @ 13 knots

                                                         5016 nm @ 12 knots

 

 

CAPACITIES

 

Accommodation                             12 in 1 x Master, 2 x Double, 2 x Twin, 2 x Pullman

Crew                                                11-12 Crew members in 5 cabins + Captain

Fuel                                                  95,000 litres/25,096 US gallons

Fresh Water                                    17,400 litres/4,596 US gallons

Lube Oil                                          2,200 litres/581 US gallons

Dirty Oil                                         2,000 litres/528 US gallons

Grey/Black Water                          5,300 litres/1,400 US gallons

Waste Water                                   21,400 litres/5,653 US gallons

Jacuzzi                                            3,200 litres/845 US gallons

 

 

ACCOMMODATION

 

Master Stateroom

On Main Deck the full width owner’s stateroom with en-suite bathroom, private office and salon. It is awash in natural light streaming through floor-to-ceiling windows port and starboard.  Enhancing the suite’s contemporary style is the Reymond Langton designed furniture finished in high-gloss macassar ebony.

 

VIP Cabin

On Lower Deck 2 x VIP double cabins wit en-suite bathrooms accommodate 4 guests. The contemporary theme of the whole interior of the yacht is evident in these staterooms

 

Guest Staterooms

On Lower Deck 2 x Twin cabins with 2x Pullmans with en-suite shower accommodating up to 6 guests. The contemporary theme of the whole interior of the yacht is evident in these staterooms.

 

Captain’s Cabin

Captain’s double bedded cabin with shower on the upper deck aft of the wheelhouse.

 

Crew

The Crew are accommodated in 5 twin cabins with en suite shower rooms on the lower deck forward.

 

 

MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT

 

Engines                                           2 x Cummins 1200 hp @ 1,600rpm

Engine hours                                  Port: 8,301hrs; Starboard: 8,301hrs (Apr 2012)

Generators & Electricity              2 x 170 Kw Cummins @ 1500 rpm each

                                                         1 x 33kw Cummins @ 1500 rpm

Generator hours                            Port: 17,993 hours; Starboard: 18,326 hours (Apr 2012)

Electricity                                       380V volt/3-phase/50Hz

Stabilisers                                      1 x Vosper / Naiad, Zero Speed

Bowthruster                                   1 x HRP 200-60 Electric @ 140 hp

Air Conditioning                           1 x Heinman/Hopman 3 zones +chiller plant

Water Maker                                  2 x Idromar reverse osmosis

Fuel Centrifuge/Separator            1 x Alfa Laval MAB 103 B-24

Passerelle                                       1 x Electric Hydraulic AI 50

 

 

INTERIOR / GALLEY / LAUNDRY EQUIPMENT

 

Galley

1 x Lohberger Oven

1 x Lohberger grill

1 x Lohberger deep fryer

1 x Lohberger stove (4 x induction)

1 x foster Refrigerator

1 x foster freezer

1 x Scotsman AC 45 Icemaker

1 x Metro  Dishwasher

1 x miele microwave - oven

1 x Lohberger  Grill

1 x Foster Walk-ins on tank deck

 

Crew Quarters/Mess

1 x Panasonic combination oven Microwave

1 x Liebherr pro line Refrigerator

1 x GEC Domestic Dishwasher

3 x Miele Professional WS5425 Washing Machines

3 x Miele Professional T5205C Clothes Dryers

1 x Miele Rotating HM 21-100 Irons

 

 

NAVIGATION EQUIPMENT

 

Magnetic Compass                        1 x Cassens & Plath

Gyro Compass                               1 x C Plath Mk1

Automatic Pilot                              1 x C Plath Navi Pilot V hsc

Echo Sounder                                 1 x Furuno FCV 582 L

Radar                                              1 x Decca

Radar                                              1 x Furuno RCV 013

Transponder                                  1 x Furuno

DGPS                                              2 x Litton Marine

Charts                                             1 x Transas

Navtex                                            1 x ICS nav 5

AIS GPS                                         1 x Saab

Log                                                  1 x Seaplath Naviknot III

Wind Instruments                         1 x Walker P310

 

COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT

 

SATCOM                                       1 x Sat TV Seatel

                                                         1 x Sat C Thrane & Thrane

                                                         1 x Sat Fleet 33

                                                         1 x Sat Fleet 77

                                                         1 x VSAT Seatel

VHF                                                2 x Sailor RT 4822

MF/HF                                             1 x Sailor HC 4500

Landline/Intercom                         1 x Panasonic System

Miscellaneous                               1 x Wi-Fi

 

 

DECK EQUIPMENT

 

1 x Anchor Windless System Steen

2 x Anchors 19-2-50

2 x Aft Capstans

1 x Marquipt Both, Port and Starboard

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT EQUIPMENT

 

Main Saloon

1 x Surround sound plasma television

2 x Denon DVD player

1 x Denon amplifier

1 x Sat decoder

1 x Ipad

 

Sky lounge

1 x Surround sound plasma TV

1 x DVD Players

1 x Denon amplifier

1 x Sat decoder

1 x Ipad

 

Sundeck

1 x CD player

1 x Marrantz amplifier

 

Master Stateroom

1 x Surround sound 50’’Plasma TV

1 x DVD Players

1 x Denon amplifier

1 x Sat decoder

1 x Ipad

 

VIP Cabin

2 x 23’’HD

2 x DVD Players

2 x Denon amplifier

2 x Sat decoder

 

Guest Cabins

2 x 23’’HD

2 x DVD Players

2 x Denon amplifier

2 x Sat decoder

 

Crew & Captain’s Cabin

1 x 27” Plasma TVs

6 x 20” Plasma TVs

7 x DVD Players

2 x Sat decoders

 

General

1 x Crestron Multi Media System

1 x X-boxes in the guest suites for the kids on board

1 x LINN Audi throughout yacht

IPod docking stations throughout the yacht

 

 

OFFICE EQUIPMENT

 

PC/Printer:                                1 x Asus , 1x Canon

Fax/Copier:                               1 x Panasonic

Monitors:                                  1 x Samsung

 

 

TENDERS & WATERSPORTS EQUIPMENT

 

Tenders

1 x Custom 22ft. Tender with FNM HTLP 250 hp

1 x Novurania 22ft. 660XL Equator with 250 hp Yanmar

1 x Rescue tender Canguro 420 gs

 

Water Sports

1 x Yamaha Waverunner XL700

1 x Yamaha Jet Ski SL 700A

Snorkel gear & fishing gear, water skis, towable toys

 

Diving Compressor

1 x BAUER

 

Crane

1 x 2000 kg Yacht Tec JA01001

1 x 2000 kg Yacht Tec JA00379

 

 

SECURITY & SAFETY EQUIPMENT

 

1 x Panasonic closed circuit television (CCTV) system with

4x Cameras and motion detectors (main deck) + 4 cameras in the engine room

3 x CCTV Monitor screens in wheelhouse, crew mess room and engine room

4 x Door alarms: stern /aft escape, engine room escape, fire escape.

44 x Fire / heat / smoke detectors throughout yacht

2 x Fixed C) 2 Systems locates in Engine room and Galley

28 x Fire extinguishers in all places necessary

 

 

COMMENTS

 

MALIBU is a 50m motor yacht delivered by the world renowned Amels Shipyard in Holland with an original interior design by Terence Disdale and a complete refit in 2006 including new interiors by Reymond Langton. The yacht was built to Lloyds +100 A1 SSC G6 LMC, MCA.

This yacht has to be seen to experience the exceptional level of quality craftsmanship onboard.

MALIBU’S placement of the tenders on the bow leaves every deck clear for enjoying a lifestyle oriented by the sea.  Alfresco dining options abound with cocktail tables on the main deck, and dining for 12 offered on both the bridge and sun decks.  The sun deck has a built in sun pad and bar.  For serious sun bathing, the forward area of the sun deck furnishes privacy, full sun and a sensational Jacuzzi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Superyachts@holmesandco-london.com Feadship – De Vries Design Todhunter Earle Naval Architect

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRICE: EUR 44,950,000

 

 

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS

Type                                          Full Displacement Motor Yacht

Hull                                   669

Builder                                      Feadship – De Vries Design                                       Todhunter Earle Naval Architect                         De Voogt

Exterior Design                         De Voogt

Interior Design                          Redman Whitely Dixon, Todhunter Earle

Year                                           2005

Refit                                           2009

Classification                            Lloyd´s 100A1 SSC YachtLMC UMS MCA compliant

Construction                             Steel Hull & Aluminium Superstructure

Crew                                          14

Flag                                            Cayman Islands Engines                                      2 x 1,520 Hp CAT GRT                                           782 tons

Net Tons                                   234 tons

Displacement                            800 tons

 

DIMENSIONS

LOA                                           55.50m / 182’1’’ LWL                                           49.10m/161’1’’ BEAM                                        10.40m /32’9’’DRAFT                                      3.23m / 10’4’’

 

SPEED & RANGE UNDER POWER

 

Maximum Speed                      14.5 knots

Cruising Speed                         12.5 knots

Fuel Consumption                    520 litres @ 15.5 knots

350 litres @ 13.5 knots

220 litres @ 12.5 knots

Range                                        4,500 nm @ Eco  Speed

3,500 nm @ Max Speed

CAPACITIES

9

Accommodation                        10 x Guests in 5 cabins

Crew                                          14 x Crew in 6 cabins

3 x Double, 2 x Double with PullmanFuel                                            99,880 litres / 26,386 US gallons FreshWater                               24,160 litres / 6,382 US gallons

 

ACCOMMODATION

Guests’ Accommodation

1 x Master cabin

..  

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Bank of England meets amid talk of £50bn stimulus

Bank of England policymakers meet today to decide whether to change interest rates or to pump in more money into the ailing economy, with leading economist saying they may opt to inject a further £50bn of stimulus.

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Europe is on the verge of financial chaos.

Global capital markets, now the most powerful force on earth, are rapidly losing confidence in the financial coherence of the 17-nation euro zone. A market implosion there, like that triggered by Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008, may not be far off. Not only would that dismantle the euro zone, but it could also usher in another global economic slump: in effect, a second leg of the Great Recession, analogous to that of 1937. This risk is evident in the structure of global interest rates. At one level, U.S. Treasury bonds are now carrying the lowest yields in history, as gigantic sums of money seek a safe haven from this crisis. At another level, the weaker euro-zone countries, such as Spain and Italy, are paying stratospheric rates because investors are increasingly questioning their solvency. And there’s Greece, whose even higher rates signify its bankrupt condition. In addition, larger businesses and wealthy individuals are moving all of their cash and securities out of banks in these weakening countries. This undermines their financial systems. 423 Comments Weigh InCorrections? Personal Post The reason markets are battering the euro zone is that its hesitant leaders have not developed the tools for countering such pressures. The U.S. response to the 2008 credit market collapse is instructive. The Federal Reserve and Treasury took a series of huge and swift steps to avert a systemic meltdown. The Fed provided an astonishing $13 trillion of support for the credit system, including special facilities for money market funds, consumer finance, commercial paper and other sectors. Treasury implemented the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program, which infused equity into countless banks to stabilize them. The euro-zone leaders have discussed implementing comparable rescue capabilities. But, as yet, they have not fully designed or structured them. Why they haven’t done this is mystifying. They’d better go on with it right now. Europe has entered this danger zone because monetary union — covering 17 very different nations with a single currency — works only if fiscal union, banking union and economic policy union accompany it. Otherwise, differences among the member-states in competitiveness, budget deficits, national debt and banking soundness can cause severe financial imbalances. This was widely discussed when the monetary treaty was forged in 1992, but such further integration has not occurred. How can Europe pull back from this brink? It needs to immediately install a series of emergency financial tools to prevent an implosion; and put forward a detailed, public plan to achieve full integration within six to 12 months. The required crisis tools are three: ●First, a larger and instantly available sovereign rescue fund that could temporarily finance Spain, Italy or others if those nations lose access to financing markets. Right now, the proposed European Stability Mechanism is too small and not ready for deployment. ●Second, a central mechanism to insure all deposits in euro-zone banks. National governments should provide such insurance to their own depositors first. But backup insurance is necessary to prevent a disastrous bank run, which is a serious risk today. ●Third, a unit like TARP, capable of injecting equity into shaky banks and forcing them to recapitalize. These are the equivalent of bridge financing to buy time for reform. Permanent stability will come only from full union across the board. And markets will support the simple currency structure only if they see a true plan for promptly achieving this. The 17 member-states must jointly put one forward. Both the rescue tools and the full integration plan require Germany, Europe’s strongest country, to put its balance sheet squarely behind the euro zone. That is an unpopular idea in Germany today, which is why Chancellor Angela Merkel has been dragging her feet. But Germany will suffer a severe economic blow if this single-currency experiment fails. A restored German mark would soar in value, like the Swiss franc, and damage German exports and employment. The time for Germany and all euro-zone members to get the emergency measures in place and commit to full integration is now. Global capital markets may not give them another month. The world needs these leaders to step up.

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Bankia shares are suspended in Madrid

Trading in shares in the Spanish lender Bankia have been suspended in Madrid. The market regulator CNMV said it was "due to circumstances that may affect the normal share trading". Bankia is reported to be due to ask the government for a bailout of more than 15bn euros ($19bn; £12bn) after a board meeting later on Friday. Bankia, which is Spain's fourth-largest bank, was part-nationalised two weeks ago because of its problems with bad property debt. Any extra government money would be on top of the 4.5bn euros in state loans that the government had to convert into shares in the group in the part-nationalisation process. Shares in Bankia's parent company Banco Financiero y de Ahorros (BFA) have also been suspended. Bankia was created in 2010 from the merger of seven struggling regional savings banks. It holds 32bn euros in distressed property assets.

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Brink's Mat the reason that Great Train Robber was shot dead in Marbella

The Brink’s-Mat curse even touched on the Great Train Robbery gang of 1963. One of them, Charlie Wilson, found himself in trouble when £3 million of Brink’s-Mat investors’ money went missing in a drug deal. In April 1990, he paid the price when a young British hood knocked on the front door of his hacienda north of Marbella and shot Wilson and his pet husky dog before coolly riding off down the hill on a yellow bicycle.

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British tourist falls to her death from hotel balcony in Magalluf

23 year old British tourist has fallen to her death from the third floor balcony of her hotel in Magalluf, Mallorca. Emergency sources said it happened at 4.25am Saturday morning at the Hotel Teix in Calle Pinada. Local police and emergency health services went to scene. After 20 minutes of an attempt to re-animate her heart, the woman was pronounced dead. Online descriptions for the Hotel say it is the best place to stay of you are looking for non-stop partying, adding it not suitable for families.

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Four of the last reporters and photographers willing to cover crime stories have been slain in less than a week in violence-torn Veracruz state

Four of the last reporters and photographers willing to cover crime stories have been slain in less than a week in violence-torn Veracruz state, where two Mexican drug cartels are warring over control of smuggling routes and targeting sources of independent information. The brutal campaign is bleeding the media and threatening to turn Veracruz into the latest state in Mexico where fear snuffs out reporting on the drug war. Three photojournalists who worked the perilous crime beat in the port city of Veracruz were found dismembered and dumped in plastic bags in a canal Thursday, less than a week after a reporter for an investigative newsmagazine was beaten and strangled in her home in the state capital of Xalapa. Press freedom groups said all three photographers had temporarily fled the state after receiving threats last year. The organizations called for immediate government action to halt a wave of attacks that has killed at least seven current and former reporters and photographers in Veracruz over the last 18 months. Like most of those, the men found Thursday were among the few journalists left working on crime-related stories in the state. Threats and killings have spawned an atmosphere of terror and self-censorship, and most local media are too intimidated to report on drug-related violence. Social media and blogs are often the only outlets reporting on serious crime. Veracruz isn't the only battleground for Mexican media. In at least three northeastern states, journalists are under siege from assailants throwing grenades inside newsrooms and gunmen firing into newspaper and TV station buildings. In the state of Tamaulipas, on the border with Texas, local media stopped covering drug trafficking violence, mentioning drug cartels or reporting on organized crime shortly after two gangs began fighting for control of Nuevo Laredo in 2004. As part of that war, reporters were targeted to keep them silent or because they had links to gangs. Mexico has become one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists in recent years, amid a government offensive against drug cartels and fighting among gangs that have brought tens of thousands of deaths, kidnappings and extortion cases. Prosecutions in journalist killings are almost nonxistent, although that is widely true of all homicides and other serious crimes in Mexico. The latest killings came in Boca del Rio, a town near the port city of Veracruz where police found the bodies. The victims bore signs of torture and had been dismembered, the state prosecutors' office said. One victim was identified as Guillermo Luna Varela, a crime-news photographer for the website http://www.veracruznews.com.mx who was last seen by local reporters covering a car accident Wednesday afternoon. According to a fellow journalist, who insisted on speaking anonymously out of fear, Luna was in his 20s and had begun his career working for the local newspaper Notiver. The journalist said Luna was the nephew of another of the men found dead, Gabriel Huge. Huge was in his early 30s and worked as a photojournalist for Notiver until last summer, when he fled the state soon after two of the paper's reporters were slain in still-unsolved killings. He had returned to the state to work as a reporter, but it was not immediately clear what kind of stories he was covering recently. State officials said the third victim was Esteban Rodriguez, who was a photographer for the local newspaper AZ until last summer, when he too quit and fled the state. He later came back, but took up work as a welder. The London-based press freedom group Article 19 said he, like the other two, had been a crime photographer. The fourth victim was Luna's girlfriend, Irasema Becerra, state prosecutors said. Article 19 said in a report last year that Luna, Varela and Rodriguez were among 13 Veracruz journalists who had fled their homes because of crime-related threats and official unwillingness to protect them or investigate the danger. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in 2008 that Huge had been detained and beaten by federal police as he tried to cover a fatal auto accident involving officers. Last June, Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco, a columnist and editorial director for Notiver, was shot to death in Veracruz along with his wife and one of his children. Authorities that month also found the body of journalist Noel Lopez buried in a clandestine grave in the town of Chinameca. Lopez, who disappeared three months earlier, had worked for the weeklies Horizonte and Noticias de Acayucan and for the daily newspaper La Verdad. The following month, Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz, a police reporter for Notiver, was found with her throat cut in the state. Lopez was found after a suspect in another case confessed to killing him, but the other two murders have not been resolved. The cartel war in Veracruz reached a bloody peak in September when 35 bodies were dumped on a main highway in rush-hour traffic. Local law enforcement in the state was considered so corrupt and infiltrated by the Zetas and other gangs that Mexico's federal government fired 800 officers and 300 administrative personnel in the city of Veracruz-Boca del Rio in December and sent in about 800 marines to patrol. Mike O'Connor, the Committee to Protect Journalists' representative for Mexico, said journalists in Veracruz were exercising an unusual degree of self-censorship even before Ordaz and Lopez were killed. He said media avoided much coverage of crime and corruption. "Important news was not covered because it might upset the Zetas. Then these guys were killed and self-censorship cracked down even more," O'Connor said. "Almost all of the police beat reporters left town after those killings." Regina Martinez, a correspondent for the national magazine Proceso, continued to cover crime-related stories along with a handful of other journalists, however. On Saturday, authorities went to her home in Xalapa, the state capital, after a neighbor reported it to be suspiciously quiet. They found the reporter dead in her bathroom with signs she had been beaten and strangled. "Self-censorship was extraordinarily strong but whoever killed these journalists wanted more," O'Connor said. "It still wasn't enough to satisfy whoever killed these journalists." Mexico's human rights commission says 74 media workers were slain from 2000 to 2011. The Committee to Protect Journalists says 51 were killed in that time. It noted in a statement on the Mexico killings that Thursday was World Press Freedom Day.

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Locked Up Abroad is different.

Reality TV is, at its core, about letting viewers revel in the bad decision-making of others: those who speak without thinking, who backstab, who have sex without condoms, who cheat. Frustratingly, though, reality shows—to which I am unapologetically addicted—tend to reward bad behavior, by giving its villains notoriety, spinoffs, opportunities to endorse weight-loss products, a nice sideline in paid interviews with supermarket tabloids, and other D-list rewards.

Locked Up Abroad is different. The National Geographic show, the sixth season of which premiered last week, gives its stars something they wouldn’t get on other reality shows: their comeuppance.

Having debuted in the U.K. (under the title Banged Up Abroad), Locked Up Abroad showcases one person (sometimes a couple) who ends up in prison overseas. Participants fit into one of two categories. The first group are the (largely) innocent: the married missionary couple who were kidnapped in the Philippines by the Islamist group Abu Sayyaf, for instance, or the seemingly goodhearted duo who wanted to help children in Chechnya, but ended up held hostage. These tales of the altruistic and naive can be difficult to watch.

But then there are those who rather deserve what happens to them. Typically these are drug smugglers, and their episodes follow a familiar arc. A young person—they’re almost always young—is bored or in need of cash (usually both). She is desperate or feels invincible (usually both). Someone approaches her and offers a seemingly great deal: an all-expenses-paid, luxurious overseas trip in exchange for a small favor. Sometimes the would-be employer is upfront and admits he needs a drug mule, but downplays the risk; other times, he hints at harmless-sounding illegalities, like bringing back legal goods to beat the export tax. In a few cases, the cover story is painfully thin: Come with me to check out this cool new nail polish technology only available in Thailand, for example. (That woman was in a vulnerable place: She had just been released on bail after killing her partner’s former husband—in self-defense, she claimed.)

The drug smugglers are caught, of course, usually at the airport, and brought to prison. And while a few episodes have taken place in developed countries—Spain, Japan, South Korea—the majority of our anti-heroes end up incarcerated in places with some of the dirtiest and most dangerous penitentiaries in the world.

Take last week’s episode, “From Hollywood to Hell.” (And pardon my spoilers, but this installment is too good not to describe in detail.) In 2001, actor Erik Aude was living the marginal Hollywood dream. An ür-bro, he had played bit parts in Dude, Where’s My Car?(credited as “Musclehead”) and 7^th Heaven (“Boyfriend”) when a gym buddy asked him to go to Turkey to bring back “leather goods.” Aude makes the trip, and though a drug-sniffing dog alerts authorities at the Turkish airport, they find nothing—so Aude feels sure the whole thing is legit. He even recommends that one of his brothers start couriering for his friend. Then, when his brother backs out of a planned trip to Pakistan in 2002, Aude steps in, and shit gets real.

It is difficult to feel sorry for Aude. After his escort dumps him in an Islamabad hotel and warns him not to leave because the area is unsafe for Americans, he doesn’t head to the embassy or the airport. Instead, he goes jogging—and even tries to flirt with girls in headscarves on the street (with disastrous results). And when he is taken to the airport with just one suitcase, he is (he claims) not the least bit suspicious that he might be a drug mule. When a customs official asks him whether his trip was for business or pleasure, he cheeses, “Pleasure is my business.”

Aude’s episode is mind-bogglingly watchable, not least because he—of course!—plays himself in the re-enactment. In his telling, he was a virtual action star: On at least three occasions, he single-handedly fights back dozens of Pakistanis. After he takes out a prison bully, he is hailed a hero. He rejects a reduced sentence because it would require him to plead guilty—and his pride is more valuable than his freedom, he says.

Aside from those truly in the wrong place at the wrong time, the most sympathetic characters of Locked Up Abroad may be the embassy employees called in to assist the suspected smugglers. Inevitably, Locked Up Abroad participants are horrified that the embassies of their homelands—usually English-speaking countries like the U.S., the U.K., or Australia—can’t do more for them. I can just imagine U.S. Embassy workers calling “not it” every time they get word from local authorities about some young American knucklehead who thought he could sneak past security with a bag full of cocaine.

Tonight’s episode is called “The Juggler Smuggler,” and its “hero” is Mark Greening, a “party-loving” drug-runner who knows his latest trip is “doomed” when he doesn’t get his fortune told by “his favorite Gypsy woman.” I can’t wait.

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Low fare airline bmibaby to close

Low fare carrier bmibaby is set to close later this year, threatening the loss of hundreds of jobs and the ending of its flights. The carrier transferred to International Airlines Group, the owners of British Airways, last month, but consultations have now started with unions about its closure in September. The GMB union said it was "devastating" news, especially for the East Midlands, where hundreds of jobs are now threatened with the axe. With bmi Regional, bmibaby transferred to International Airlines Group ownership on completion of the purchase from Lufthansa. IAG has consistently said that bmibaby and bmi Regional are not part of its long-term plans. A statement said: "Progress has been made with a potential buyer for bmi Regional, but so far this has not been possible for bmibaby, despite attempts over many months by both Lufthansa and IAG. Bmibaby has therefore started consultation to look at future options including, subject to that consultation, a proposal to close in September this year." Peter Simpson, bmi interim managing director, said: "We recognise that these are unsettling times for bmibaby employees, who have worked tirelessly during a long period of uncertainty. Bmibaby has delivered high levels of operational performance and customer service, but has continued to struggle financially, losing more than £100 million in the last four years. In the consultation process, we will need to be realistic about our options. "To help stem losses as quickly as possible and as a preliminary measure, we will be making reductions to bmibaby's flying programme from June. We sincerely apologise to all customers affected and will be providing full refunds and doing all we can with other airlines to mitigate the impact of these changes." Jim McAuslan, general secretary of the pilots' union Balpa, said: "This is bad news for jobs. Bmibaby pilots are disappointed and frustrated that, even though there appears to be potential buyers, we are prevented from speaking with them to explore how we can contribute to developing a successful business plan. "The frustration has now turned to anger following the news that Flybe (which is part owned by BA) has moved onto many of these bmibaby routes without any opportunity for staff to look at options and alternatives. Balpa's priority is to protect jobs; and we will use whatever means we can to do so." The changes mean that all bmibaby flights to and from Belfast will cease from June 11, although this will not affect bmi mainline's services to London Heathrow. Bmibaby services from East Midlands to Amsterdam, Paris, Geneva, Nice, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newquay, and from Birmingham to Knock and Amsterdam, will end on the same date.

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Posted in: Low fare airline bmibaby to close