A key witness in O.J. Simpson's Las Vegas trial acknowledged to a Nevada investigator that the former NFL star paid him off, the investigator told a judge in Santa Monica this morning.
The investigator from the Clark County district attorney's office said Alfred Beardsley admitted that Simpson gave him his Hall of Fame ring in exchange for altering his testimony to help the defense. "I asked what did you get to change your testimony," said Bill Falkner, who worked with prosecutors building the armed robbery and kidnapping case against Simpson.
The answer, he said, was the Hall of Fame ring.
The allegation came at a civil court hearing in which attorneys for Fred Goldman asked a judge to order Beardsley to turn over the ring to help satisfy a $33.5-million wrongful-death judgment against Simpson. A jury acquitted Simpson of the 1994 murders of Goldman's son, Ron, and Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson. A civil jury later found him liable for the deaths.
Beardsley attended the hearing, but when summoned to the witness stand, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify. His attorney said he instructed him not to answer questions because of rumors he heard about a grand jury investigation targeting Beardsley in Las Vegas.
Simpson was sentenced a week ago to nine to 33 years in prison. A jury convicted him in October of armed robbery, kidnapping and other charges stemming from a confrontation with Beardsley and another memorabilia dealer in a casino hotel room last year.
Prosecutors called Beardsley as a witness, but were taken aback when he testified that someone had tampered with an audio recording critical to their case.
Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg ordered him back to court next Friday to hand over the ring. Outside court, however, his lawyer predicted that Beardsley would be empty-handed. "You can't turn over what you don't have," said lawyer Jack Swickard.
Simpson's attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 13:39 ||
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The US government has moved to shut down sellers of fake security software. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has won a restraining order that stops several sellers of "scareware" from continuing to trade.
They had to go to court for that?
Millions of people are thought to have been caught out by the software which, once installed, issues false alerts about viruses and illegal porn. The FTC is pursuing further legal action to win a permanent ban on those peddling the scareware.
FROZEN FUNDS
Court papers submitted by the FTC show that the peddlers of the fake security software tricked websites into advertising their products. The companies behind the fake security software won customers via adverts on many popular websites. Anyone clicking on an advert was taken to the webpages run by the fake security firms which then ran a "scan" looking for security problems. Every scan found a host of security problems and urged visitors to buy software to fix them. Typically the scans found evidence of viruses, spyware and, in some cases, illegal pornography.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Worse than SPI_M.
Teachers clicking and panicking,
I has dem.
A government panel meets next week to start drawing up a Libyan constitution, which was abolished when Moammar Gadhafi seized power almost four decades ago, the committee chairman said Friday. "A plan for a constitution has been submitted to the committee, which will examine it and revise it legally," judge Abdel-Rahman Bututa told AFP, adding that the team of legal experts will hold its first meeting next week.
The constitution project is taking place at the initiative of Gadhafi's reformist son Seif al-Islam with the collaboration of European and US experts, said Yussef Sawan, executive director of the Gadhafi Foundation for Development.
"Work on this project is not starting from zero. There are some references already," said Bututa, citing the Green Book - the collected thoughts of Gadhafi - and a 1988 declaration on people's committees.
In August last year, Seif al-Islam, viewed as a possible successor to his father, outlined plans for the country's first constitution since the 1969 coup.
But he also said there were certain "red lines" that could not be crossed, including Colonel Gadhafi's role as leader of the country and Libya's adherence to Islam and sharia, Islamic law.
No information has been released on the text of the constitution project, which will later be submitted for the approval of the People's Congress, as stipulated under Gadhafi's "jamahariya" or state of the masses system.
One of the US experts involved in the project, political theorist Benjamin R. Barber, told AFP by telephone from New York that the process reflected "the need of change in government structures as they interact with the global economy and with the West." For Barber, the project is like "a dialectic dance between where the Libyans are coming from and where Libya wants to go."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#3
*shrug* Writing constitutions reveals the local idealists, who can then be profitably employed. But living within the constitution's strictures is so rare that only the Swiss and the Americans have thus far maintained it in the long term... although there are other countries working to catch up.
Given the certain "red lines", this is one of those amusing constitutions intended for display in a museum even before it's finalized. Perhaps the Libyans will get to write another one in another half century... just for the practice.
Zimbabwe's central bank on Friday introduced a Z$500m note, as the African country struggles to cope with the world's highest inflation and crippling currency shortages.
The half-billon note, worth about $10, was released together with a Z$200m bill, which the central bank said in a statement was introduced for the "convenience" of the public.
Finance minister Samuel Mumbengegwi announced the new bills in a government gazette, bringing to 29 the number of new notes put into circulation this year alone.
Just last Thursday, Zimbabwe introduced a Z$100m bill that at the time was worth $14. One week later, it's worth less than 50c.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Zimbabwe's government is strongly accusing Britain of causing a "genocidal" cholera epidemic labeling it as genocide "of our people".
"Cholera is a calculated, racist attack on Zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power, Britain," which has received full support from its American and Western allies so that they can have a pretext to invade the country, Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told a press conference.
Then his lips fell off.
The epidemic which has engulfed Zimbabwe "is a serious biological, chemical war force, genocidal onslaught, on the people of Zimbabwe by the British," AFP quoted him as saying.
"Careful where you're walking! Those are my lips!"
The accusations came as the World Health Organization (WHO) said the death toll had risen to 792. And the worst part of it, hospitals have no drugs, no equipment and no staff left to treat the cholera epidemic, which is spreading as sewage and water lines have broken down, contaminating the drinking supply.
Damn those Brits!
A day earlier, President Robert Mugabe said in a nationally broadcast speech that "there is no cholera" - comments his spokesman George Charamba said Friday were meant as "sarcasm."
Mugabe's remarks stoked anger internationally as well as by aid agencies. The aid groups warn the epidemic could last for months. Britain, France and the United States cried out loudly for Mugabe to step down.
The South African Anglican Bishop Joe Seoka told The Times newspaper that Mugabe must be viewed as the 21st century Hitler as he should be held responsible for the deaths and sufferings of Zimbabweans under his rule, and calling for him to face war crimes charges at The Hague.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
So they're marinating in their own sh*t due to their own inability to fix broken pipes and the Zimbob governments's first impulse is to blame whitey?
#6
I'm 36 years old and I still cant quite figure out what the 'rules' are concerning race discussion in our society. If you have a handle on them I'm sure more than a couple of us would love to hear the hard and fast guidelines.
#9
rule of thumb for blogs = same for polite society: if you think it might be incorrect, assume it is. If you don't care, go ahead. I have mixed the two, but only in personal - in bidniss, STFU
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2008 21:22 Comments ||
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Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina vowed to fight religious extremism if she won parliamentary election later this month, saying she would seek support for a South Asian task force to tackle it.
Bangladesh has been battling hardline groups that want to turn the secular democracy into an Islamic nation based on shariah law. Officials say the groups may also try to disrupt the December 29 elections aimed at restoring democracy after two years of emergency. "If elected in the December 29 polls, we will ban communalism in national politics and would propose to form a South Asian task force to combat religious militancy," Hasina said after she released the election manifesto of her Awami League party. "We will fight militancy, contain rising of commodity prices and face the fallout of global slowdown -- among top priorities of our government," she said.
Hasina and her bitter rival and former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia are the front-runners in the election to choose a new prime minister for the nation of 140 million people. Khaleda, who launched her campaign on Friday from the holy city of Sylhet, promised a clean and responsive government in a nation where corruption is seen as widespread. "We are going to fight and win the election. We will establish good governance," she said. An army-backed interim administration took power in Bangladesh in January 2007 after months of political violence, imposed a state of emergency, banned political activities and launched a crackdown on corruption.
Hasina and Khaleda were both arrested for alleged graft but released after nearly a year in prison, to ensure their parties -- the biggest in Bangladesh -- take part in the polls, to make it credible and acceptable. Khaleda, cheered on by thousands of her supporters, offered prayers in Sylhet where she was due to address a rally. She will unveil BNP's manifesto in Dhaka on Saturday.
Ban: Hasina and Khaleda have alternated as prime ministers for the past 15 years and also remain the front-runners to be the next prime minister, analysts and diplomats say. Khaleda, cheered on by thousands of her supporters, offered prayers in Sylhet where she was due to address a rally. She will unveil BNP's manifesto in Dhaka on Saturday. The government lifted the ban on political rallies on Friday and will withdraw the emergency on December 17 ahead of the election. "Yes, one of these two will become the country's top executive following the election as there is no alternative yet," said professor Ataur Rahman, chief of Bangladesh Political Science Association.
"Despite talks of political reforms over the past two years, politics in this country has remained on the known tracks. Hardly anything has changed," he told Reuters. The interim authority headed by former central bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed and backed by the military, has vowed the election will be free and fair.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Blago could learn a thing or two from these bags
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2008 8:46 Comments ||
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Ecuador hasn't decided whether to default on foreign debt as oil revenue plunges and doesn't take the decision "lightly," Finance Minister Maria Elsa Viteri said.
President Rafael Correa will announce the decision when he is ready to do so, Viteri told reporters today in Washington. She's scheduled to meet U.S. congressional staff during the trip as the government seeks to drum up support for its position that much of its foreign debt was contracted illegally.
"This should not affect other debt issuance in the future," Viteri said.
'Course not. Just ask GM ...
Ecuador has threatened to default on $3.9 billion in bonds because it says a government-commissioned audit found evidence of criminal violations in connection with the issuance of the debt. The government skipped a $30.6 million bond payment on Nov. 15, invoking a 30-day grace period.
#4
Well, it's comforting to know the United States is not the only country living beyond its means.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/13/2008 13:40 Comments ||
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#5
The percentage you're paying is too high-priced
While you're living beyond all your means
And the man in the suit has just bought a new car
From the profit he's made on your dreams
But today you just read that the man was shot dead
By a gun that didn't make any noise
But it wasn't the bullet that laid him to rest
Was the low spark of high-heeled boys
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/13/2008 17:59 Comments ||
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#1
German banks' problems are identical to the US:
Banks have on their books derivatives which were created to ensure value while prices were rising but which also made them worthless if prices declined.
No bailout is going to work unless and until banks have a "Come to Jesus" moment about the value of those holdings. Banks are deliberately holding the economy hostage by holding these toxic securities while refusing to properly book their actual value.
TARP will fail, miserably, by next March. The only economic program that is currently hard at work are the equities markets' drive to price in a deflationary environment and price in the coming Obaman socialist government in the US.
The Libor hasn't done anything scary in months. 30 year home loans are down over the last month. The lack of investment in long term projects isn't because there's no money to be had. Its because the money isn't sure it will be paid back.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/13/2008 3:30 Comments ||
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#4
German banks' problems are worse than US. They were much more highly leveraged.
#5
Not just more highly leveraged. They also have long owned significant shares in the companies they deal with, and their operations are by law a lot less transparent, which has allowed all sorts of rot to grow over the decades.
#6
Socialist schemes come to a crashing halt when the US T-bill bubble collapses. I saw a nose bleeding, anguished report from an economist, decrying the utter madness of the following:
1) Bubble demand for T-bills is reaching a frenzy, so much that once bond issues are purchased, they are being "scalped" to others who missed out. Demand is 4 to 1 over issue.
2) The FED wants in on the action, by issuing its *own* bonds at zero yield. This is weird beyond weird, almost defying analogy. It may not even be legal, but at this point, I don't think that matters.
3) When the T-bill bubble bursts, economists quoted by Bloomberg have said it will be "spectacular". Another said it will be like watching Mount St Helens erupt, and knowing that no matter how fast you run, or could even drive away, you're done. So you might as well enjoy the show.
#7
German banks not only are highly leveraged, opaque and self-dealing. Many of them also skirted EU banking regulations by purchasing risk offsets from AIG which were possibly illegal and definitely a breach of banking oversight.
If AIG had failed, not only our banking system but a number of Western European and Asian ones would have toppled due to the fact that they offloaded risk onto AIG. All of them crashing more or less together would thrust us into a major international depression. Still might.
#8
They also have long owned significant shares in the companies they deal with
That's the broken Japanese model that Asian banks (at least outside China) abandoned a decade ago.
It creates a double hit to a bank's capital if a client company goes bust - Bad unrecoverable loans and worthless shares the bank owns as part of its capital base.
And offloading risk to a 3rd party is what caused the financial crisis. It should be made illegal for banks to do this except with other banks. When non-banks do this, it's legalized gambling. Including when insurance companies do it.
It's curious that the biggest culprits in this whole mess, insurance companies, get hardly any of the blame.
The rioting that has gripped Greece for almost a week showed troubling signs of spreading across Europe yesterday, as violence erupted in several cities. Youths smashed shop windows, attacked banks and hurled bottles at police in small but violent protests yesterday in Spain and Denmark, while cars were set alight outside a consulate in France.
A day earlier, protesters gathered at the Greek embassy in Rome and attacked police cars and other vehicles and setting trash on fire.
Authorities say the incidents have been isolated so far, but acknowledge concern that the Greek riots -- which started over the police killing of a 15-year-old on Saturday -- could be a trigger for anti-globalization groups and others outraged by economic turmoil and a lack of jobs. "What's happening in Greece tends to prove that the extreme left exists, contrary to doubts of some over these past few weeks," French Interior Ministry spokesperson Gerard Gachet said.
As Europe plunges into recession, unemployment is rising, particularly among youths. Even before the crisis, they complained about the lack of jobs, saying they felt left out as the continent prospered.
At least some of the protests appear to have been organized over the Internet, showing how quickly a message can be spread. "We're encouraging non-violent action here and abroad," said Konstantinos Sakkas, a 23-year-old protester at the Athens Polytechnic. "What these are abroad are spontaneous expressions of solidarity with what's going on here."
In Denmark, protesters pelted riot police with bottles and paint in downtown Copenhagen at a rally Wednesday. In Spain, youths attacked banks, shops and a police station in Madrid and Barcelona Wednesday. Some of the protesters chanted "police killers." Eleven people were arrested at the two rallies that each drew 200 people.
Daniel Lostao, president of the state-financed Youth Council, said young people in Spain face daunting economic challenges. Still, he said he doubted the protests in Spain would grow. "We do not have the feeling that this is going to spread."
Elsewhere in Europe, more than 15 people occupied the Greek consulate in Berlin Monday, hanging a banner out the window with the dead Greek teenager's name, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, and the words "Killed by the State." About 100 people protested at the Greek consulate in Frankfurt on Tuesday.
In France, protesters set fire to two cars and a garbage can apparently stuffed with flammable material outside the Greek consulate in Bordeaux early yesterday and scrawled graffiti on the building threatening more unrest, Michel Corfias, the Greek consul, said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The continent of Europe is so wide, Mein Hertz.
#5
Nanny State Failure is an ugly thing and the spoiled brats they call citizens , well, phuque 'em
Posted by: conservative USA ||
12/13/2008 10:58 Comments ||
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#6
I'm sure that the socialist response to the looting and arson is to allow it to happen and insure none of the rioters are made to feel uncomfortable.
India is all set to test layered missile defence in December 2008. This test will involve 2 Ballastic Missile interceptors intercepting a single modified Prithvi Missile. The first interception will take place at an distance of 80 km altitude. The second interception will take place at the distance of 30 kms altitude. The 80 Km or exo-atmospheric intercepter is expected to hit the incoming missile and the 30 Km or the endo-atmospheric interceptor will try to destroy the largest surviving debris.
Indian has so far tested exo-atmospheric and endo-atmospheric interceptors in stand alone modes.
On 6th December 2007 DRDO carried out the 2nd launch of a Single Stage Interceptor Missile against an incoming ballistic missile target of enemy represented by a modified Prithivi Missile. The Endo-Atmospheric Interceptor (AAD) intercepted a modified Prithvi Missileat 15 km altitude. On 27 Nov 2006, exo atmospheric test, Prithvi Air Defence Exercise (PADE), intercepted a modified Prithvi-II Missile at an altitude of 50 km.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Secretary General of the Iraqi Communist Party, Hameed Majeed Moussa, on Friday participated in a public rally that included speeches and poems as part of the party's campaign for the upcoming provincial elections within the National Current electoral slate.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Following the collapse on Thursday evening of efforts to rescue U.S. automakers with congressional legislation, the Bush administration shifted positions on Friday and said that it would dip into the money set aside for the $700 billion financial bailout to keep General Motors and Chrysler from going bankrupt.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/13/2008 15:20 ||
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The price of Venezuela's basket of oil and refined products fell 9.1 percent to $31.36 a barrel, a four-year low, a day after the country's legislature passed a budget based on $60 oil.
The country, which provides 11 percent of U.S. oil imports, needs higher output and higher prices to balance its books next year. Venezuela pushed last month for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output to arrest the price declines.
That's going to hurt the 'needs higher output' part of the equation unless we assume that Hugo is the only one who would cheat on his quota ...
The current oil price is 48 percent below the $60-a-barrel assumption. The budget also assumes that output will grow rather than shrink as would be required by an OPEC cut.
"This budget is overblown, based on indicators that aren't accurate and based on production that doesn't take into consideration the coming OPEC cuts," Pastora Medina, a lawmaker in the country's National Assembly, said yesterday during the budget discussion.
Venezuelan oil sells at a discount to the benchmark West Texas Intermediate, which fell $1.47, or 3.1 percent, to $46.51 as of 1:05 p.m. in New York. It has fallen 68 percent since touching a record $147.27 a barrel July 11.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 13:44 ||
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#1
Hey, Hugo! Your "Allende moment" is coming closer with each passing day. It's thoroughly and deeply deserved, too.
#1
I've heard there's no shortage of 100 oz gold bars, just the bit and pieces retail investors tend to accumulate. That's the problem with retail gold - bid and ask spreads are huge - buy high, sell low is the retail investor's experience.
#4
My advice is to buy ten gallons of hand-lotionk withdraw all your FIAT money and turn it into Whiskey and Fishhooks, don't be deceived by hucksters trying to sell you gold. Ever try to eat gold? Ever get a buzz from silver? Dawgs, you are wanting to trade your cash for Likker, Fishooks, and Stuff (stuff to be named later).
#5
good advice. I cashed in the 401K and bought cases of Jack Daniels and Dynamite. Screw the fishhooks. I want the fish to float come to me
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2008 19:42 Comments ||
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#6
I cashed in the 401K 10 years ago. I invested in black powder, fish-hooks, and incandescent light bulbs. When incandescent bulbs become unavailable I will make a killin' on the Black Market. I makes me own likker.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/13/2008 19:48 Comments ||
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#7
Gold has been generally falling for most of the year. If there was a "shortage" the price would be going up. It isn't.
Also, the dollar is rising relative to the Euro and other world currencies. We might have it bad but other countries have it worse. As the dollar rises, gold will fall. Gold is traded on world markets in dollars.
Buying gold right now is a dumb idea. There is no inflation, the dollar is strong, and all appearances are that the US stock market hit bottom on November 20.
I would hold cash and buy into any down markets. If you already are invested, now wouldn't be the time to get out. I would start buying in regular small intervals to use dollar cost averaging to make the most gain out of current low prices.
#8
OOps, expand that USD / Euro graph back to about June to see what I was talking about. I forgot the default link only shows a short recent period. You can drag the slider to expand the graph.
Drivers clocked 9 billion fewer miles on the nation's roads in October even while gas prices were dropping, suggesting a downturn in driving that began a year ago is attributable to more than just energy costs.
Federal Highway Administration data released today show the number of miles driven dropped 3.5 percent in October compared with the same month a year ago. Between November 2007, when the driving decline began, and October, Americans drove 100 billion fewer miles. That's the largest continuous decline in driving the nation has experienced.
Gas prices averaged $3.15 a gallon in October, down from a high of $4.09 in July, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#3
Even the airlines shopping around for the station with the lowest prices at the pump. Fly no frills Southwest Airlines, "You're free to move about the country".
#5
Every other time we've had an oil crunch, people have seemed to think that we just had to get through this latest round of ME idiocy and things would get back to "normal."
People don't think that anymore. People want to see the end of oil as a transportation necessity. If GM lives to bring the Volt to market, I think an awful lot of them will sell, as will any other car that enables its owner to escape the gas pump vampires.
#8
your comment hurt my head, LOL. I'd just go out on a limb and say providing transport with adequate:
passenger capacity, loading capacity (trunk space), adequate safety features and survivability in accidents, gas mileage, range, and consumer preference features (status gauges, music, GPS (now), etc.) might weigh in on consumer preference,
but, hey, that's just me
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2008 19:39 Comments ||
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#9
Frank is want him F-150 writtenn into 2nd Amendment. amIrite> ;)
#11
LOL - I got 69,500 on it now - expecting A LOT more before I buy another. If nothing else, I can dig my Toy FJ40 out of hibernation (12 mpg)
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2008 20:56 Comments ||
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#12
Frank, IIRC they're guaranteeing 40 miles on one charge. That's good enough for an awful lot of people's needs and I'm thinking they'll sell pretty well.
#13
really? I knew the 40 was their pledge. I drive 50-100 every day at work. On family trips: San Diego to Lake Tahoe/Carson City - I would have to stop and charge.....15 times?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2008 23:40 Comments ||
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Oil prices settled nearly US$2 lower on Friday after the collapse of a US$14-billion rescue plan for U.S. automakers kept Wall Street and oil markets volatile. U.S. crude oil settled down US$1.70 at US$46.28 a barrel, after falling below US$44 earlier. London Brent crude settled down 98 US cents at US$46.41 a barrel.
Oil recovered from earlier lows as U.S. stocks pared losses on the possibility that the White House or U.S. Treasury might come through with an aid package for the automakers, after the Senate failed to approve a rescue plan late Thursday.
Oil has fallen from record highs above US$147 a barrel in July as the global economic crisis dents demand in large consumer nations.
U.S. bank Goldman Sachs on Friday predicted oil could drop as low as US$30 as the credit crunch puts a strangle-hold on the world economy. "The auto bailout plan dying in the Senate is weighing on all markets," said Tom Bentz, an analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc. "Thursday's late pullback is looking like another failure on the upside."
BNP Paribas itself cut its 2009 price forecast to US$53 a barrel from US$75 previously on Thursday.
"The collapse in world oil demand in the fourth quarter of 2008 as the global credit crunch intensified now threatens to push oil prices below US$40 a barrel in the near term," Goldman Sachs said in a research note.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The US government has moved to shut down sellers of fake security software. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has won a restraining order that stops several sellers of "scareware" from continuing to trade.
Zimbabwe's government is strongly accusing Britain of causing a "genocidal" cholera epidemic labeling it as genocide "of our people". 
The rioting that has gripped Greece for almost a week showed troubling signs of spreading across Europe yesterday, as violence erupted in several cities. Youths smashed shop windows, attacked banks and hurled bottles at police in small but violent protests yesterday in Spain and Denmark, while cars were set alight outside a consulate in France.
