He had a resourcefulness, an enjoyment of life and positive outlook.” The association has just 34 members left.His wife, Vera, whom he married in 1918, died in 1976 Their other son, William, is also dead.. Doctors in Madrid have lost their lawsuit against an irreverent booklet that portrays them as incompetent quacks A judge accused them of acting like the Inquisition. A judge accused them of acting like the Inquisition.
The collective pride of Madrid’s medical profession was so wounded by disrespectful cartoons in a patients’ rights booklet that depicted them as saw-wielding idiots that they sued the Patients’ Defence Association, which had produced the offending publication.The patients’ association, Adepa, edited the 23-page practical guide to provide straightforward advice on how to use the health services.But the booklet’s knockabout tone, and particularly the black humour of the drawings accompanying the text, raised hackles among the medical community, who consider their work too important to be lampooned. One of the cartoons shows a patient with an expression of agonised terror lying on a bed, while a surgeon tries to saw off his head.”Don’t complain that medicine is not an exact science,” the doctor says.

Another shows a doctor trying to saw off the leg of a patient who says he’s only there to have his tooth pulled. “We’re running a special offer this week,” the doctor says.The Madrid Medical Association sued Adepa days after the booklet appeared in January, calling it offensive and asking a judge to seize all 3,000 copies.The regional court refused, saying the demand smacked of the censorship practised by the 15th-century Grand Inquisitor, Fray Tomas de Torquemada.Carmen Flores, Adepa’s president and founder, said the cartoons were harmless, and accused the doctors of throwing a childish tantrum “It’s idiotic. If the problem is comic strips, then all the newspapers and magazines would have to shut down.”Ms Flores said Adepa helped people to pick their way through Spain’s labyrinthine healthcare system, beset by long waiting lists and overcrowded hospitals.. Taxes on restaurant meals in France are due to be cut next year but most meals will be no cheaper than before, a survey published yesterday suggests. Only 7 per cent said they would pass on the whole of the tax cut to customers; only four in 10 expected to cut prices at all.The survey also found that the tax cut would generate fewer jobs than the government and restaurant industry had claimed. Supporters of the tax cut said it would create 40,000 jobs in 18 months, but the poll of 386 restaurateurs suggests the figure would be 18,000.With fewer people eating out because of the economic downturn, many chefs say they need the tax cut simply to stay in business. Michel Sarran, a Michelin two-star chef in Toulouse, said: “The restaurant business provides more bankrupts than any other.

This tax cut is a question of survival.”The findings of the survey will embarrass the government, which sold the VAT cut to Brussels on the grounds that it would benefit the tourist industry and the economy. Although the principle has been accepted by the European Commission, the changes must be approved by all EU governments in the autumn.The tax measure is already controversial. Cutting it to 5.5 per cent would reduce the government’s annual income by €3bn (£2.1bn) at a time when the budget deficit is threatening to break EU rules for the third year in succession.. Nato is facing a new rift after a threat by Washington to withdraw US fighter jets from Iceland as part of a shake-up of American military forces in Europe. Mr Oddsson has hinted that, if the US does remove the jets, America will have to end its military presence in Iceland.That would not be palatable to the Pentagon which has 1,200 naval staff in the country from which it operates four P-3C Orion antisubmarine aircraft as part of its reconnaissance of the North Atlantic, a task it still regards as a high priority.Officials admit there is little military reason for stationing the jets in Iceland, and that the threat after the end of the Cold War no longer justifies it. But diplomats say the decision will have important political implications and could damage America’s relations with a country which has been a loyal supporter.”It is hard to argue on an operational basis that these jets are needed,” one Nato source said.”But defence, in the round, is also about offering reassurance and about maintaining alliances and keeping friendships.”Lord Robertson made representations at a senior level in Washington to try to defuse the row, and succeeded in winning a postponement of any announcement.The source said: “His intervention was requested by the Icelandics. He’s not allowed to be judgemental in a situation like this: if a Nato member state requires the secretary general to intervene with another Nato member he’s dutybound to do so.

The argument came down to one of, ‘If you take away the fighter jets, what is there in it for Iceland’.”In 1994, the US withdrew eight fighters from Iceland but agreed to keep four permanently at the Keflavik naval air station, near Reykjavik.The deal was to be renegotiated in 2001 but talks were postponed as the US contemplated a broader review of its forces in the aftermath of 11 September. The idea of scaling down the presence in Iceland is only a small part of the wide US military reorganisation.The Pentagon is particularly keen to reduce its military presence in Germany in favour of smaller, more flexible and quickly deployable forces that might be based in Eastern European nations that have joined the alliance, including Bulgaria, Romania and other former Soviet bloc countries.. A judge ruled yesterday that a British woman accused of shooting her ailing daughter should remain in prison while awaiting trial, the suspect’s lawyer said. Mrs Allison is charged with murder.Mrs Mininni’s lawyer, Carmelo Piccolo, said a judge decided that his client should remain in prison at least until an indictment was handed down, probably in September.Mr Piccolo said the daughter, who suffered from the painful stomach condition toxoplasmosis, had killed herself as part of a suicide pact that the mother did not complete.