Tag Archives: spain

Madrid, Spain | AFP | Spain on Tuesday defended holding in prison nearly 500 migrants who arrived in the country by boat. Following criticism by rights groups, the Spanish government said it was due to a lack of space at immigration detention centres. “We feel it is better that the migrants …

Madrid, Spain | AFP | Around 600 African migrants were rescued off the coast of Spain in 24 hours, a sea rescue patrol said Saturday. The Guardia Civil and Salvamento Maritimo rescue service added that operations to recover further migrants were still under way. Spain is the third busiest gateway …

Barcelona, Spain | AFP | Spanish authorities said they rescued over 250 migrants, including children, on Saturday who were making the perilous Mediterranean crossing to Europe. “We saved 251 people from five improvised vessels all in the Alboran Sea,” Spain’s maritime safety authorities said on Twitter, referring to the westernmost portion …

Madrid, Spain | AFP |  The sacked speaker of Catalonia’s parliament left a prison near Madrid on Friday hours after supporters posted her bail of 150 000 euros ($175,000), ending her brief detention over the region’s controversial independence drive. A judge at the Supreme Court in Madrid on Thursday had …

Paris, France | AFP |  Pop star Shakira was forced to cancel the first swathe of concerts of her world tour Friday because of a problem with her vocal cords, the tour’s promoters said. The Colombian singer postponed two concerts this weekend in Paris and a Belgian date on Sunday …

Barcelona, Spain | AFP | Protesters blocked roads, highways and train tracks in Catalonia on Wednesday as part of a region-wide strike called by a pro-independence union. According to the Catalan Transit Service, people blocked roads in more than 50 places in the region, including major motorways like the AP-7 …

Madrid, Spain | AFP | A Spanish judge was set Friday to issue an arrest warrant for Catalonia’s deposed leader Carles Puigdemont over his region’s contested independence drive, in a move likely to further escalate tensions in Spain’s worst political crisis in decades. The European arrest warrant was due a …

Barcelona, Spain | AFP | Spain enters uncharted and potentially perilous territory on Monday as Madrid moves to take over the running of Catalonia in response to the rebellious region’s parliament unilaterally declaring independence. Catalan leaders, dramatically sacked late Friday by the central Spanish government, have urged “democratic opposition” to …

Girona, Spain | AFP |  Real Madrid suffered a backlash on the field rather than from an expected hostile atmosphere amid political turmoil in Catalonia as they slumped to a shock 2-1 defeat at Girona on Sunday. Goals from Cristhian Stuani and Portu in four second-half minutes cancelled out Isco’s …

Madrid, Spain | AFP | The biggest game of the La Liga season so far is shrouded in political tension as Barcelona visit Atletico Madrid on Saturday in their first trip to the Spanish capital since a Catalan independence referendum marred by violence. Barca played their last match behind closed doors …