If more confirmation were needed of the funereal state of Spain's economy, it can be found in the shape of The Debt Collector in Top Hat and Tails. That's a translation to English of El Cobrador del Frac, the name of a company which specialises in sending men dressed like extras from a 1930s Fred Astaire movie to humiliate debtors into paying up. Its business is booming.

"At the start of the year we noticed demand was increasing," said Juan Carlos Granda, head of El Cobrador del Frac's international department.

Working with a theatricality that would not be tolerated in many countries, the company's Madrid headquarters has a distinctly macho atmosphere. Its offices are full of men in dark suits - female debt collectors are not employed by the company because they are not deemed imposing enough - and the walls studded with hunting trophies.

Sheriff goes to jail for an education

Sheriff Mark Curran of Lake County, Illinois, walked into his own jail yesterday to spend a week as a prisoner, saying he was divinely inspired to learn what it was like to be confined and to sample jail programmes designed to reduce recidivism.

"The biblical adage that we reap what we sow is very true in criminal justice," said Mr Curran, 45, before exchanging his business suit for a prison jumpsuit at the Waukegan, Illinois, facility near Chicago.

Illinois "has historically had one of the worst-run prison systems in the nation... treating inmates like caged animals only to see them released back into their communities angrier and more bitter than they originally were," he said.

Mr Curran will spend time in the general population of some 600 inmates who are awaiting trial on charges of murder, rape and lesser crimes, though at times he will have his own cell.

He will sit in on high school equivalency classes, and spend a night in the high-security unit and in the medical unit.

S. Koreans urged to play less golf

South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak has told officials to give up golf for the moment because it sends the wrong signal just as the economy has hit the rough.

"Golf is not bad but... as prices are unstable and the economic situation is not getting better, President Lee thinks they need to consider public sentiment," Yonhap news agency quoted a presidential Blue House official as saying.

Golf is hugely popular in South Korea but the high cost sees many players fly off to cheaper parts of Asia for a game. An average club near the capital charges $250,000 (€169,000) to $500,000 to join and members can expect to pay $250 per guest for a weekend round of golf.

Fugitive arrested for high-profile kidnap

Police arrested Greece's most wanted fugitive, who is suspected of staging the kidnapping of a prominent Greek businessman earlier this year, officials said yesterday.

After escaping from prison in a Hollywood-style operation involving helicopters and fast cars in 2006, Vassilis Palaiokostas is believed to have organised the kidnapping of a northern Greece industrialist in June.

"We arrested Greece's most wanted fugitive last night. Evidence shows he is also involved in Greek businessman George Mylonas' kidnapping," a police official who declined to be named said.

Mr Mylonas, 49, chairman of the Federation of Industries of Northern Greece and CEO of aluminium company Alumil, was abducted at gunpoint outside his home and released two weeks later after his wife paid an unspecified ransom.

Police found Mr Palaiokostas by tracing the marked ransom money and arrested three other men on suspicion of involvement in the Mylonas kidnapping.

EU Parliament ceiling collapses

The European Parliament will move its opening session to Brussels from its Strasbourg headquarters because part of the debating chamber's ceiling has collapsed, a Parliament spokesman said yesterday.

The move should not prove too disruptive to European lawmakers who meet just four days a month in Strasbourg and spend the rest of their working time in Brussels, an expensive split that has drawn much negative press over the years.

Parliament was forced to shift the September 1-4 session after around 200 square metres of material weighing several tonnes fell to the floor of the Strasbourg building on August 7 when part of the system that holds the ceiling in place broke.