The 234ft royal yacht, the Al Diriyah, is docked at Marbella’s glitzy Puerto Banus marina.When King Fahd last summered in Marbella in 1999, he and his vast retinue spent €90m. Hoteliers, restaurateurs, jewellers and florists are waiting expectantly after estimates that the royal party will this time spend up to €6m (£4m) a day.A local florist is to supply €1,500 of fresh flowers to the palace daily during the royal visit. Five hundred mobile phones have been ordered, the palace will receive 50 specially ordered cakes a day and a direct line of credit has been set up with the nearest branch of a leading department store, which is to remain open round the clock to satisfy instantly every royal whim.News of the largesse of the man locals call King Midas has affected even unemployed Moroccans, 200 of whom queued outside the palace gates yesterday hoping to be employed as a gardener, chauffeur, kitchen hand or cleaner. They seemed undeterred by reports from those who worked for the Saudi royal family last time. They were quoted in the Spanish press as saying that their wealthy employers were generous with salaries and tips but treated them “like dogs”.The palace contains within its grounds a new hospital wing with an operating theatre, a sophisticated telecommunications centre, luxury villas for close family and courtiers, and servants’ quarters.The rest of the King’s support network, expected to swell to 3,000 with those flying from Geneva and Ryadh in coming days, will be housed in luxury mansions near by, plus hundreds of rooms and suites in hotels in Marbella, Estepona and Fuengirola. A plane will fly in weekly from Ryadh bringing the King water from Mecca, dates, lamb, rice and spices.King Fahd usually meets international dignitaries while in Spain, and is expected this time to receive Colin Powell, the American Secretary of State.

General Powell is among those most anxious about the health of the ruler of the richest country in the Middle East and America’s staunchest ally in the region.Behind the mind-boggling displays of wealth lurk fears that the glory days of the House of Saud are ending. With no clear line of succession, the death of King Fahd is expected to unleash a power struggle among rival pretenders to the throne that could fatally weaken the ruling family.Unconfirmed reports say that within Saudi Arabia’s hermetic secrecy, anti-American unrest, even revolutionary fervour, is growing. Western expatriates, alarmed by rumours of a royal power struggle after King Fahd’s death that could presage upheaval and bloody reprisals, are quietly leaving. This may be the last summer King Midas splashes his money around Marbella.. They swooped in low, waving to the bikini-clad women on the beach below and sending parasols and deckchairs flying in squalls whipped up by their propeller blades. They allegedly skimmed Italy’s south-east coast so the airmen could get a closer look at women sunbathing. People on the beach said the helicopters appeared to slow down as they approached, panicking tourists as whirlwinds enveloped them.Italy’s relations with the US military have been strained since a disaster in 1998 when a low-flying American jet sliced through a ski lift’s cable on Mount Cermis in northern Italy, killing 20 holidaymakers.

The pilot was acquitted of malpractice by a US court martial but later sentenced to six months in prison and sacked from the marines for destroying evidence.Locals insisted he had flouted the rules for kicks. An Italian parliamentary inquiry branded the jet’s crew “criminals” and said it was clear that the crew and the US military chain of command were responsible. Italy and the United States reached an accord on tightening restrictions on low flights.Now Italian prosecutors are investigating whether the new flight restrictions were violated in Barletta. The Milan daily Corriere della Sera commented yesterday: “In a country still marked by the tragedy of Cermis, even a summer stunt by a squadron in transit risks transforming itself into an international incident.”. Spain is setting up a pioneering network of radar and sensitive night-sight cameras along its southern coast in a hi-tech attempt to crack down on the trafficking of drugs and immigrants from Morocco. The aim is to detect the small wooden pateras and rubber dinghies that smuggle thousands of would-be immigrants from Morocco to Spain each year. With the Integrated External Vigilance System (SIVE), infra-red cameras and radar capable of detecting the presence of a person or an outboard motor will alert officials stationed along the coast.”The government is committed to fighting the trafficking of human beings with the rule of law and new, useful and resolute methods such as the SIVE,” Angel Acebes, the Interior Minister, said while inaugurating the system on Wednesday in Algeciras.The most popular route is across the hazardous Strait of Gibraltar, which is only nine miles wide at Tarifa.

Many of those packed into fragile little vessels are repatriated, while thousands manage to slip through. Thousands are believed to die in the attempt.The system is also intended to combat hashish traffickers who ship their produce to Europe across the strait.. Residents of the historic city of Dresden were holding their breath last night, hoping against hope that the Baroque core of their city would be spared by Europe’s worst floods for a century. Destroyed by British bombers in February 1945, the church is now in the last stages of restoration, complete but for its dome encased in scaffolding.