Obama welcome sign pulled down

(Photo: Reuters/Jon Nazca)A billboard put up to welcome Michelle Obama, who arrives in town tomorrow with daughter Sasha, was ordered to be taken down by Marbella Council this afternoon. The sign, which also read 'Thank you for choosing Marbella', was placed there by local ad agencies Imagen Consulting and Compremosa Sur. The billboard may be down but the hotel at which the Obamass are staying is now surrounded by Guardia Civil and traffic around Benahavis is becoming more complicated by the minute. (See earlier item here)

Preparations mount for Obamas' Costa visit

COSTA DEL SOL

Followers of every media on and around the Costa del Sol will know that America’s first lady Michelle Obama and her daughter Sasha, 9, are coming for a five-day visit to Marbella tomorrow (Older daughter, Malia, 12, is at summer camp and won't be coming, it seems). But will the world’s most powerful man, Barack Obama, be joining them for his 49th birthday on August 4? Press sources say that the White House insists the president will not be joining his family, but hotel sources claimed that a cake has been ordered for the big night. It is also rumoured that the president will fly into the US air force base in Moron de la Frontera, where he would then be flown by helicopter to the coast.>