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GEORGE CLOONEY

How you can join the Clooneys for lunch on Lake Como

Lunch with George and Amal Clooney at their Italian villa? Here's how you can win an invite to die for.

How you can join the Clooneys for lunch on Lake Como
What would you talk about over lunch with Amal and George Clooney? Photo: Pierre Teyssot/AFP

The famous couple are running a charity raffle in which first prize is a double date at their house on Lake Como.

The lucky winners – you and a companion of your choice – will be flown to Italy, put up in a four-star hotel and share a lunch of Italian Prosecco, cold cuts and cheeses with the human rights lawyer and her actor husband.

You don't have to pay to enter, but any donation you choose to make will go to the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which supports projects around the world to bring human rights abusers to justice.

There's just one catch: winners can't be resident in Italy (or Belgium, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Singapore, Sudan, Syria or Thailand). But there's nothing to stop a winner from elsewhere taking an Italian resident as their guest… hint, hint.

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Clooney hasn't always been so keen to welcome fans into his home in the village of Laglio, which he bought in 2001. Plagued by snoopers and paparazzi, he sought help from the town mayor to impose stiff fines for any strangers caught hanging around his luxurious estate and is said to have installed a contraption in his garden that launches raw eggs at boats that get too close.

Despite persistent rumours that he would sell the property in quest of greater privacy, Clooney has held onto his part of Laglio, where house prices have boomed and the local council declared him an honorary citizen. He and Amal chose to marry in Venice and the actor often opts to film in Italy, most recently selecting Sardinia for his TV version of Catch-22. 

The raffle runs until July 14th, with a winner expected to be announced on July 31st. For more details and to enter, click here

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HEALTH

Spain’s ‘2,000-tumour man’ sentenced for scamming donors

A Spaniard known as "the man with 2,000 tumours" who lied about having terminal cancer was handed a two-year jail term Monday for scamming donations from thousands, including celebrities.

Spain's '2,000-tumour man' sentenced for scamming donors
De Cedecejj - Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99402644

Paco Sanz, 50, appeared regularly on television and social media between 2010 and 2017, claiming to have nearly 2,000 tumours as a result of Cowden syndrome.

Saying he had only months to live, he appealed for donations via his web page, through text messages and even a charity gala.   

Although he did suffer from the syndrome, all his tumours were benign and posed no threat to his life.

Prosecutors say the former security guard collected just under €265,000 ($319,000) before being arrested in March 2017 in the eastern Valencia region.   

Among those who sent him money were popular television presenter Jorge Javier Vazquez and Spanish footballer Alvaro Negredo.    

Prosecutors accused Sanz of “taking advantage of his illness” to “obtain illegal funding”.

They said he presented the disease as being “much more serious than it really was” and of falsely claiming he could only be saved if he got experimental treatment in the United States.   

In reality, he travelled to the US to take part in a free clinical trial and “all his costs were covered” by the firm running it, prosecutors added.    

In video obtained by Spanish media at the time of his arrest, Sanz could be seen joking with his girlfriend and family members about the lies he was telling.

As his trial opened in Madrid on Monday, Sanz pleaded guilty to fraud, receiving a two-year jail sentence, while his girlfriend was sentenced to a year and nine months for being his accomplice.

But they are not likely to serve time behind bars, as sentences below two years are usually suspended in Spain for first-time offenders convicted of non-violent crimes.

The trial will continue so the court can determine how much money the pair owe in damages.

READ ALSO: Fraudster parents of sick girl jailed for charity scam

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