Skip Facebook Verification Phone Code

Skip Facebook Verification Phone Code

╔╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╦╗

 Skip Facebook Phone Verification Code  

╚╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╝

 Some of us still do not own any cellular phone especially on remote areas. We don't have enough funds for buying a cellular phone and wasting it just to activate your Facebook account. Well, here's a good solution: Send an activation code on a public text messengers.

Here are the steps:

1.) Go to this site: http://receive-sms-online.com/

2.) Choose any number you like. I prefer you use the "US" one.

3.) Copy the Phone number on the top of the selected page.

4.) On Facebook, paste the number of the public cellular phone.

5.) Wait a few minutes and refresh the "Receive SMS Online" page.

6.) Now check your verification code.

7.) Paste the Verification code!

Multimedia: It’s about election strategy, stupid!

IN Zimbabwe, Zanu PF supporters in the throes of victory have been walking through the streets carrying shovels, calling on their re-elected president Robert Mugabe to bury the Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

RANJENI MUNUSAMY

But Tsvangirai saved Mugabe the trouble by burying himself long before the elections.

Zanu PF supporters in the throes of victory walk through the streets carrying shovels, calling on their re-elected president Robert Mugabe to bury the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Picture: Simphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

Tsvangirai’s lack of political strategy and assumption that Zimbabweans would choose him over Mugabe led to a sweeping victory for Zanu PF — with the aid of some old-fashioned vote rigging. The lesson South Africa should learn from the Zimbabwe experience is that no matter how bad leaders are, do not assume that voters will punish them at the polls.

No matter how bad leaders are, do not assume that voters will punish them at the polls. Picture: Cynthia R Matonhodze

Yes, of course Zimbabwe’s electoral process was flawed. It was always going to be. From previous experience, the MDC — in all its incarnations — should have known it would be. Yet there is no indication that the Zimbabwean opposition anticipated this, particularly the massive discrepancies in the voters’ roll, and set in place a plan to deal with the eventuality before, during or after the elections.

From the time Tsvangirai founded the MDC in 1999, he was quite aware that Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and the securocrats behind him do not play nicely. Tsvangirai has been arrested several times, charged with treason and incitement to violence, severely beaten and faced threats of assassination. A crackdown on the opposition led to hundreds of his supporters being killed, assaulted, imprisoned and harassed.

Tsvangirai became the biggest threat to Mugabe’s grip on power, and in the 2008 presidential elections he won the majority of votes with 47,8% of the poll. In the month between the election and the announcement of the official results it looked for the first time like Zimbabwe could be prized out of Mugabe’s iron grip.

But because neither party had an outright majority (Mugabe had 43,2%), a run-off election was held, which Tsvangirai withdrew from. Without much hesitation, Mugabe took the gap and retained his presidency.

With the intervention of Sadc, and South Africa acting as facilitator, the MDC and its smaller breakaway entered into a power-sharing agreement with Zanu PF. Although Tsvangirai’s role as prime minister was not clearly defined, his and other MDC leaders’ entry into the Cabinet gave them access to resources and insight into the workings of the state. Although unwieldy and problem prone, the unity government brought some level of stability to Zimbabwe with tangible improvement to the economy and a cessation of state-sponsored violence.

But what did Tsvangirai and other leaders of his party do with the leverage, resources and status they gained through senior posts in government? Did they use it to break the stranglehold of the securocrats? Did they use it to understand and defuse Mugabe’s grip on power? Did they take advantage of their strategic positions to work towards electoral victory?

No. They became complacent and enjoyed the fruits of high government office. Tsvangirai became too consumed with his own personal life and his party allowed him to take his eye of the ball. It was only when the July 31 election date was announced that the MDC snapped into crisis mode. But there was still the expectation that the Sadc and African Union would come to the rescue.

Morgan Tsvangirai was quite aware that Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and the securocrats behind him do not play nicely. Picture: Aaron Ufumeli

Even though the MDC did not get access to the voters roll in time, it still went into the election like sheep to the slaughterhouse. By participating in the flawed poll, the MDC gave it legitimacy and had no backup plan as to how to challenge Zanu PF if the election swung in its favour. And now that it did, moaning about flaws in the process and challenging the results in court can do little to reverse Zanu PF’s massive 76% of the parliamentary vote.

The total lack of foresight and reliance on people’s instincts led to the MDC effectively handing Mugabe a runaway victory and his seventh term in office. Tsvangirai was arrogant enough to believe that people would naturally choose him over Mugabe, without him doing any heavy lifting in the run up to the election.

The MDC never interrogated whether Tsvangirai was the right person to lead the electoral battle and rode the 2008 wave, assuming it would miraculously produce even better results in 2013.

Even with large numbers of ghost voters and ballot stuffing – which the MDC still has to prove in court — there are indications that Zimbabweans are less enchanted with Tsvangirai than they were in 2008. They saw what he did when he had access to power and clearly did not like what they saw.

The MDC also resorted to negative campaigning against Mugabe, rather than putting out a proper governance and recovery plan for Zimbabwe. But it’s not as if Zimbabweans are oblivious to Mugabe’s 33-year destructive reign. It was just that for many of them, Tsvangirai did not appear to be a better alternative.

Ebrahim Fakir, political analyst at the Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa, says the MDC was “horribly strategically inept”, and should have stepped out of the poll particularly in light of the pre-election environment so clearly stacked against them. He said the opposition did not pay sufficient attention to the registration process and should have made an urgent court application to have access to the voters’ roll ahead of time.

With regard to the MDC’s election campaign, Fakir said there are a series of issues the opposition should have defined clearly, including what their tactics were, their constituency and what were they promising them, and whether these promises were realistic, viable and valuable.

“They did make some promises, but the negative campaigning overshadowed the positive messaging. There was also a lot of over-confidence,” Fakir said. He said voters tend to switch off when there is excessive negative messaging and wild accusations.

“Even if the MDC won, the election should still have been null and void. The conditions, context, framework, logistics and preparation were not conducive to running an election. They ought not to have had an election,” Fakir said.

The diet of a strongman

The diet of a strongman

Competitive strongmen eat between 5,000-8,000kcal per day. Small, regular meals - up to six a day - are common.

Robert Oberst's daily intake:

• 3.5lbs (1.6kg) of steak: 4,400kcal
• Six cups (1.2kg) of rice: 1,300kcal

Luke Stoltman's pre-competition breakfast:

• Three fried eggs: 270kcal
• Two slices of brown toast: 130kcal
• Bacon: 450kcal
• Beans: 250kcal
• Muesli: 300kcal

What is life like as a 'strongman'?

They cram themselves into small hatchbacks, spill over airline seats and travel the world on their own money for acclaim and camaraderie. Chris Stokel-Walker meets those competing to be the world's strongest man.

Standing 6ft 4in (1.93m) tall, weighing 21 stone (133kg) and with 22-inch biceps rippling out of his red t-shirt, Mark Felix is an immovable man mountain.

Felix was one of 12 men who competed at Gateshead's International Stadium for the right to attend the final of this month's World's Strongest Man competition in China.

The soft-spoken Grenadian, who lives near Accrington, is a seven-time World's Strongest Man competitor. At 47, he is older than many strongmen.

"With strongman training you need to get everything involved - from power lifting, to Olympic lifting, to general bodybuilding training," he explains.

A strongman event can see competitors loading a vehicle with heavy items, the yoke, where they carry 1,000lbs (454kg) 30m in 60 seconds, the deadlift, the shield carry, repetition lifting of a log, and the distinctive Atlas stones event.

A tweeted picture from Felix of a tuck box he had prepared for the contest shows a collection of almonds, chocolate, blueberries and oat flapjacks, alongside energy drinks.

"We have nuts and plenty of fruits and veg," he says. Felix's daily diet consists of six meals a day, accumulating 7,500 calories in all.

There's a lot of waiting around, he explains, in airports, hotels and motorway service stations on the way to and from competitions.

Though Felix is one of the best-known names in the UK sport, he sometimes works odd jobs as a plasterer when he takes time away from competitions to let his body recover.

Fellow competitor Lloyd Renals is an NHS physio. With a bald head, large beard and calves as big as many people's thighs, Renals looks rather like the stereotype of a lumberjack.

When Renals taps out a text on his mobile phone, it looks tiny in his hands.

Lloyd Renals during the yoke, carrying 1,000lbs (454kg) for 30m

His strongman career is only three years old, but his rise has been stratospheric. As well as winning England's Strongest Man competition two years ago, he was second in Britain's Strongest Man competition last year, losing out to Laurence Shahlaei.

Renals has a soft spot for "lifting really awkward bits of equipment".

He has to battle a sweet tooth. "I try and keep everything in check, down to how many grams of protein. If I do eat a lot of sweets, I put on the weight really quickly. I love chocolate," he says.

The hard travel, the strain of the events and the diet of a strongman can be difficult.

"Your biceps are on the verge of aching, then you've got to get up and do another event," he admits. "These are not light weights. It's all bicep heavy and back heavy. All the events have their dangers at the end of the day.

"Speaking as a physio, this is awful. But as a competitor, this is perfect."

The strain on the body is compounded by the travelling involved. Domestic competitions invariably involve trips up and down Britain's motorways.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Flights are brutal... but it sucks worse for the person next to me”

Robert Oberst

Cramped conditions in a car are commonplace for Renals - at home he folds himself into a Peugeot 206 hatchback.

"Travel is bloody awkward," he says - even when you're not delayed. "And planes are not designed for us. If you've got a bum, you're knackered."

"Flights are brutal," agrees Robert Oberst, America's Strongest Man, "but it sucks worse for the person next to me."

Oberst is a 28.5 stone (400lb) hulk with a wild beard, wearing a bright pink vest. He's capable of lifting 400kg in the deadlift. A tattoo, his wife's handprint, is on his left upper arm.

Robert Oberst eats 3.5lbs (1.6kg) of steak a day

Flying all the way to Gateshead from Fresno, California, presents a challenge. "The flight attendants were quite good," he explains. "They let me stand up a lot."

If he's lucky, airlines will try and arrange for him to be in a more spacious row, or to sit by himself. He often requires seatbelt extensions.

Oberst played American football for years as a left tackle in the offensive line before working as a bouncer at a bar. A fellow worker encouraged him to take part in strongman events.

"I had my pro card four months later," he says, patting his barrel chest. "This is my full-time job."

The volume of food Oberst packs away on a daily basis is enormous: "I eat three-and-a-half pounds of meat a day, six cups of rice, a bunch of pasta, and no cheese or dairy. It's just all high protein, low fat stuff.

"It's very strict," he says. "I get one day off every four weeks where I can eat what I want."

New to the strange world of strongmen is Luke Stoltman, a 28-year-old piping surveyor who works offshore from Aberdeen on oil rigs most of the year.

Stoltman's shape is different to his fellow strongmen. While they are often barrel-chested, he is lither at a mere 21 stone (133kg). "I'm quite vain," he admits. "I want to keep the abs."

His diet is expansive. He'll eat anywhere between 5,000-7,000 calories each day, mainly from pasta, chicken and green beans. Stoltman's one sop to flavour is a slathering of barbecue sauce on his meals.

Breakfast before the Gateshead competition was three fried eggs, two slices of brown toast, bacon, beans and muesli. But Stoltman's usual breakfast is porridge oats, protein shakes and scrambled eggs.

This is his first year competing seriously. Previously, Stoltman flirted with the bodybuilding scene, before a friend nudged him towards strongman competitions.

His first competition - Scotland's Strongest Man - he won.

Adrenaline carries him through the strongman events, including the Atlas stones (where successively heavier stones must be hoisted up onto platforms). But those stones can cause some damage, Stoltman admits. "Afterwards, you realise your arms are cut up," he says. "In the shower, that's when the pain hits you."

Few can make a full-time living from being a strongman - the paydays are passable, but few and far between.

Within two days of the competition Renals is back fixing patients' bodies: "I've only got so many days annual leave." Two days after that Stoltman will be back at work, too. It's a hard life.

Successful executives and the four-hour sleep myth.

Successful executives often 'snack' on sleep (Thinkstock)

For Gregory McKee, getting a good night’s sleep is as important as eating right and exercising regularly. If he doesn’t get eight hours of shuteye, the founder and managing director of La Jolla, California-based STS Capital Partners will have trouble functioning the next day.

wo months ago, McKee took an overnight flight across the country for a meeting. He barely slept. By mid-afternoon he was disengaged and he kept leaving the room to get more coffee and soda. He couldn’t make out a word of his sleep-deprived notes when he reviewed them later that night.

“They were useless,” said McKee, whose international investment banking specialises in mergers, divestitures and strategy.

On the flipside, Darren Witmer can’t imagine sleeping for eight hours. He goes to bed at about 3:00 and wakes up four hours later. The chief executive officer of Cary, North Carolina-based business consultancy Reset My Business swears he’s perfectly fine the next day. No drowsiness, no excessive coffee drinking, and no problem reading his notes at the end of the day.

“It’s a little weird,” he admitted. “My wife’s a physiologist and she’s been watching with intrigue.”

Exactly how much to sleep is a question many busy professionals struggle with. Despite research studies exalting thevalue of a full night’s sleep — ideally between seven and nine hours each night — many people eschew a few hours of sleep in favour of extra time to work, rather than taking that time from family and personal interests.  

And it’s hard to ignore images of successful businesspeople like Martha Stewart and Donald Trump, who boast that they sleep only three or four hours a night. The implication: big success can’t really be achieved unless you give up sleep — and lots of it.

So is less sleep, or more, better for your career?

Most people, no matter where they live in the world, need about eight hours of sleep to perform at the best of their abilities, said David Dinges, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading sleep researcher in America. Less than 5% of the world population are naturally short sleepers, meaning that their body clocks simply operate on a shorter sleep cycle of four or five hours per night. Still, many people sleep less on purpose and may feel fine the next day.

Hidden impacts

For most people, though, missing out on a good night’s rest has an impact in the morning. Eric Olson, the co-director of sleep medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, says that attention, dexterity and vigilance to details can suffer when people sleep less than seven or eight hours for more than a day or two in a row. Too-short sleepers may also have trouble remembering details and find themselves susceptible to numerous health issues, including obesity and even premature death.

What’s more, many short sleepers use the extra awake time to work, but it isn’t always prime productivity time. Witmer admits that his late night hours — he often works between 21:00 and 2:00 — aren’t as productive as when he works between 8:00 and 17:00. “I’m not at my peak performance at 2 a.m.,” he said. “But even 50% productivity is better than nothing.”

Still, many short-sleepers believe the amount of time they spend working at something is the key to getting ahead.  So, is the fact that Donald Trump sleeps three or four hours a night really behind his successes? Probably not, Dinges said.

The Trumps of the world are often more productive because they don’t have to worry about every day issues like paying for education or saving for retirement, he said. High-powered executives and other wealthy people also typically have teams of people taking care of mundane life tasks like laundry, paying bills and shuttling children to activities. That frees them up during the most productive hours of the day to focus on the work that makes them successful.

Snacking on sleep

Even people who boast of never missing a full night’s sleep — or barely needing any — may be miscalculating exactly how much rest they really get, according to Dinges. People who sleep less often avoid exhaustion by making up some of those hours — many sleep longer on the weekend, for instance. Busy executives may rest on long plane rides or while being driven in a car to a meeting.

“They snack on sleep,” Dinges said.

Witmer sleeps for a nine-hour stretch several times a month. Lawyer Richard Bobholz, another four-hour sleeper, often takes 45-minute naps in the afternoon. “When I wake up I’m ready to go again,” Bobholz said.

Research also shows that the average typical sleeper overestimates the number of hours of they sleep. Dinges says they’re likely in bed for closer to six-and-a-half hours, rather than the eight they report.

Ultimately, getting eight hours of sleep is ideal, mostly from the perspective of better health, Olson said. For those who sleep far fewer hours, there may be a bit of foolery going on, he said, because too little sleep — even if you feel just fine the next day — usually saps productivity.

“These people may be busy,” said Olson about the four-hour sleeper, “but they’re not being as efficient as they should be.”

Wedding guest blues

When wedding season kicks into high gear you may find yourself invited to a few. While celebrating the lifelong commitment of a friend or family member is priceless, it is almost never cheap.

As expenses stack up for parties, travel, gifts and new clothes, it’s easy to become financially overwhelmed. A June online survey in the US by Harris Interactive found that 5% of adults who attended at least one wedding in the last year were in debt because of the cost of the celebration. And 25% said they’ve declined a wedding invitation because of the costs involved.

If you don’t want to miss the next nuptials you are invited to — but don’t want to go into debt to attend — acting early is key to keeping spending in check.

Here’s how to celebrate the big day, without breaking your budget.

Porsche’s secret stash

Crouched down behind the car you see above, I'm stumped. I have the nagging feeling I've seen this clip somewhere before, but right now I can't place it.

It's not a regular car part, though. Ah, got it, it's the front clamp from an old wire ski binding - don't ask me how I know this, but I'm fairly sure no one else here can identify it.

"Do you know what this is?" comes a voice at my shoulder. I stand up, ready to reveal my disturbingly in-depth knowledge of ancient ski equipment, but before I can fix my features to smug, he continues, "It's from an old ski binding. The engineers were having difficulty holding the engine cover of the 910 down safely, and, over dinner one night, Mr Piëch spoke about this to his good friend Mr Geze, whose firm made these bindings, and this was the solution."

Dieter Landenberger is manager of Porsche's archives and a man who probably knows more about Porsche's history and heritage than the Porsche family themselves. This is fortuitous, as I'm currently in a warehouse containing many curious Porsches, most of which I'm struggling to identify. There is a reason I'm here. Porsche has a museum (if you haven't been and happen to find yourself in Stuttgart, go. It's amazing. Especially the escalator) but the 80 cars there are just the tip of a 500-strong iceberg. All of which have to be stored somewhere.

This is the somewhere. It's not far from the museum, just another industrial building in an industrial corner of an industrial city. It used to house a production line, but will soon store an entire back catalogue of automotive greatness (and not-so-greatness). I say soon because the ink on the lease is still wet. That's right, TopGear is here to help Porsche move its family jewels into a new home. Let's hope its insurance policy is up to date.

Big shiny trucks arrive, doors are opened, glimpses of cars appear and ramps are lowered. A man jumps on to a bright red Porsche tractor of considerable vintage and concours condition. There's a typically agricultural noise accompanied by a localised and particularly noxious fog cloud. When it clears, the tractor is revealed to be towing a totally see-through Cayenne Hybrid out from the transporter's interior. If Porsche were really concerned about CO2 emissions, this would surely be happening the other way round...

I lend a hand and loosen the ratchet strap on a Type 597 Jagdwagen military jeep. It lurches backwards, at which point some German expletives occur and I realise that old cars don't necessarily have effective handbrakes. Nor are they in perfect nick. Some are decidedly moth-eaten in fact, like the battered 906 that seems to have crashed headlong through each and every one of the 46 intervening years.

It looks properly battle scarred, all peeling bonnet badge, shagged upholstery and rotting composite panels. It's possibly my favourite car in the whole place, a story behind each ding and wrinkle. Dieter looks it over sympathetically and says: "It would be a shame to over-restore this car, we want to keep the authenticity of these cars alive. That, for us, is a big challenge."

I'm glad to hear him say it. Glad, too, that most of these cars are in less than pristine condition. The majority smell musty inside, dust is evident, they look like they've lived a bit. Or at least been in storage for a while. They jar with the polished floor and fresh paint that's been daubed around here. But this facility is evidence of how seriously Porsche takes its back catalogue. This, surprisingly, is a relatively recent phenomenon. The firm only started keeping the first and last cars from each production run a few years back. It's now making up for lost time by going on the open market and buying important cars back. It recently got hold of a 993 Cabrio. From Julio Iglesias. Yeah.

Why are Britons buying?

UK car sales have been a surprising bright spot for Europe. (Atilla Altun/Getty Images)

New car sales in Europe are in an unprecedented swoon. Latest data shows a 5.6% year-on-year decline across the Eurozone.

And as more data is released, the situation remains dire. Just last week, struggling French firm PSA Peugeot-Citroën predicted further decline.There is, however, a European exception: Britain.

This may be the Isles’ second-best year on record. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the UK’s main automotive trade body, has just revisedits full-year sales figure upwards, after a 17th consecutive month of growth.

But why is Britain on the mend? After all, is the region’s economy not still strained?

It certainly is, and has been since 2008, but bizarrely, a unique set of conditions has created an environment where, for a number of consumers, buying makes good financial sense.

When the recession hit, many Britons stopped buying cars. Now running middle-aged motors, these consumers have awakened to maintenance costs that cast their machines as financial liabilities. (Forking out for repairs does not please austerity-tuned Brits.)

These consumers are ready to shop, and a range of reasons to buy awaits them. Because automakers have made such strides in fuel efficiency over the past half-decade, the fuel economy of a new car is a major selling point – as one might expect in a country with near-$10/gallon petrol.

Record-low financing rates of 0.5% is another factor making new car purchases more viable. And plans such as Personal Contract Purchase (PCP), where an end-of-term balloon payment keeps deposits and monthly payments low, means a new car is not the liability that it represented in pre-recession days.

Switched-on global automakers have rolled out UK-specific incentives to further goose sales, in an effort to offset losses elsewhere in Europe. They know motorists in the UK are buying, and are subsequently making sure their products, to keep the factories churning.

Then there are compensation payouts from the unique-to-Britain Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal, where banks sold PPI – intended to protect the purchaser if he or she cannot service the debt – to unknowing customers, prompting the Financial Services Authority to impose tougher rules. As a result, banks are obliged to pay compensation worth billions to victims.

“People have relatively small amounts of money they may have received from windfalls,” said Keith Lewis, the SMMT’s head of communications. But a way to maximise the benefit of these windfalls, however small, is to apply them toward a deposit on a new car, Lewis said. Many are doing just this.

The SMMT also cites the 2009-10 UK Scrappage Incentive Scheme. This brought 335,000 drivers of older cars into the new car market. Three to four years later, these drivers now must decide whether to stick with the car they have or jump to a new one. As the initial PCP expires, switching into a new vehicle at minimal cost is an undeniable temptation. Once on the new car ladder, why step off?  

Even British drivers who prefer to buy used are trading up. PCP cars are indeed coming onto the used market, but not in such quantities to satisfy the demand for good used cars. Simply put, there aren’t enough quality used cars to go round, pushing prices up and making them, bizarrely, comparable on price with factory-fresh cars in dealer showrooms.

And even with all this positivity, still the encouraging news comes. SMMT interim chief executive Mike Baunton this week said a range of economic factors had given the organisation yet more confidence. “Our raised sales forecast emphasises how positively we view the rest of 2013.”

Growing sales in a recession-hit market, with predictions of further growth – is there a more paradoxical car market in the entire world?

Ariel Castro 'hell' house demolished in Cleveland

he house in Cleveland, Ohio, where Ariel Castro held three women in brutal captivity for years has been torn down.

At about 07:30 local time (11:30 GMT), a wrecking machine smashed through the house to begin the demolition.

Castro, 53, a former school bus driver, was sentenced to life in prison last week after admitting hundreds of rape, kidnapping and other charges.

He abducted Michelle Knight, 32, Amanda Berry, 27, and Gina DeJesus, 23, from the Cleveland streets between 2002-04.

Authorities say he kept the women chained for long periods in the house, beating and starving them and forcing one of them to miscarry several pregnancies.

Cheering onlookers

The women were freed in May after one of them escaped while Castro was out of the house, and summoned help.

He was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years on 1 August.

Michelle Knight, centre, visited the house where she was held captive for 11 years

On Wednesday morning, Ms Knight spent several minutes in front of the house where she was held for 11 years as Castro's captive, a period she had described at his sentencing as "hell".

Then a crew of workers wearing high-visibility jackets tore the house down using heavy demolition kit, as neighbours and television crews looked on. Onlookers cheered.

Within minutes, the house was reduced to a pile of rubble.

Castro's neighbours in the working-class district of Cleveland had vowed to see the house demolished at the conclusion of the trial.

Gibraltar border row: UK and Spain PMs in talks

UK PM David Cameron says he had a "constructive" phone conversation with his Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy over the Gibraltar border checks row.

No 10 said during the call Mr Rajoy offered to reduce the checks, which Britain's ambassador to Spain has described as "disproportionate".

But in a subsequent statement, the Spanish PM insisted the checks were "perfectly in line" with regulations.

He did not mention any offer of curbing the border checks.

No 10 is standing by its interpretation of the call.

Artificial reef

Ten days ago Spanish authorities increased vehicle checks at the border, causing major delays for tourists and residents.

It has also reportedly mooted bringing in a new 50 euro (£43) fee on every vehicle entering or leaving the British territory.

This followed Gibraltar's decision to drop 70 concrete blocks into the sea next to its territory, which it said would create an artificial reef and encourage sea life to flourish.

Mr Cameron had called the Spanish PM to express his "serious concerns" over deteriorating diplomatic relations between the two countries, Downing Street's press office said.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said he too had spoken to his Spanish counterpart. "I urged the Spanish authorities to de-escalate the situation," he reported.

Gibraltar and Spain have a long-running disagreement about how best to exploit the region's marine resources.

The concrete blocks effectively prevent Spain's favoured technique, which involves raking the sea bed, a spokesman for the Foreign Office explained.

Gibraltar's chief minister Fabian Picardo has said he has no intention of removing the reef.

But on Monday he indicated that new regulations would allow "sustainable" fishing by Spanish fleets in Gibraltar's territorial waters for the first time since they were barred in 2012, the spokesman added.

Mr Hague said this showed Gibraltar's "genuine willingness to resolve the fishing dispute".

But Spanish authorities have said Gibraltar had laid the blocks "without the necessary authorisation" in "waters that are not theirs", contravening environmental laws and damaging Spain's fishing industry.

In a statement issued after the call with Mr Cameron, Mr Rajoy said he had reiterated his desire to "seek a swift solution" to the row.

But also said he had reiterated Spain's position that the "unilateral act of installing cement blocks in Algeciras Bay was unacceptable".