Spain

PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain (AP) — The U.S. government seized a mega yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch with close ties to the Russian president on Monday, the first in the government’s sanctions enforcement initiative to “seize and freeze” giant boats and other pricey assets of Russian elites.

Spain’s Civil Guard and U.S. federal agents descended on the yacht at the Marina Real in the port of Palma de Mallorca, the capital of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Associated Press reporters at the scene saw police going in and out of the boat on Monday morning.

MADRID, March 20 (Reuters) - Morocco's ambassador to Spain will return to Madrid after Spain clarified that it supported Rabat's autonomy proposal for Western Sahara, a Spanish government source said on Sunday.

Ambassador Karima Benyaich was recalled to Morocco in May 2021 in protest after Madrid admitted a Western Sahara independence leader for medical treatment using Algerian documents. Morocco said it was not informed in advance.

MADRID, March 18 (Reuters) - The sister of an Iranian-American environmentalist made a plea for his release after two dual nationals including British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe were allowed to leave the country this week.

Taraneh Tahbaz told Reuters that her brother, Morad Tahbaz, who also holds British citizenship, had been taken back to prison on Friday after being released on furlough on Wednesday.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The Russian tanks and missiles besieging Ukraine also are threatening the food supply and livelihoods of people in Europe, Africa and Asia who rely on the vast, fertile farmlands of the Black Sea region — known as the “breadbasket of the world.”

MADRID, March 1 (Reuters) - Spain will send 150 additional troops to Latvia as part of a wider NATO buildup in the Baltic region following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Spanish Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

Spain, which already has 350 troops in the alliance's enhanced forward presence battlegroup in Latvia, is increasing the number in line with the NATO response plans "to preserve peace and security after the invasion."

MADRID (AP) — Surging energy prices and fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine are making European leaders think hard about energy security — particularly their decades-old reliance on Moscow for natural gas.

ACEREDO, Spain (AP) — Roofs peeking out of the water have become a common sight every summer at the Lindoso reservoir in northwestern Spain. In especially dry years, parts would appear of the old village of Aceredo, submerged three decades ago when a hydropower dam flooded the valley.

But never before has the skeleton of the village emerged in its entirety in the middle of the usually wet winter season.

MADRID, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Spain Economy Minister Nadia Calvino on Thursday said she would no longer attend events if women were not equally represented among the speakers.

Calvino, who is also deputy prime minister in a socialist-led government where women outnumber men for the first time in Spanish history, said progress on gender diversity in Spain risked backsliding.

MADRID, February 2. /TASS/: The US and NATO have offered Moscow a dialogue on arms control and measures to prevent incidents in exchange for de-escalation in Ukraine and the withdrawal of Russian troops and peacekeepers from Crimea, Transnistria, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia, according to the Spanish newspaper El Pais which released the full text of the confidential US-NATO responses to Russia’s proposals on security guarantees.

MADRID, January 29. /TASS/: European Union members are divided over the scale of sanctions that could be imposed on Russia in the event of an attack on Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in an interview with Spain’s El Mundo newspaper.

"All EU member states agree that Ukraine needs to maintain its sovereignty," he pointed out. "Disagreements concern the scale of sanctions on Russia and military assistance to Ukraine, which should be agreed by the union or NATO," he specified.