Spain

ARGUINEGUIN, Spain, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Spain's sea rescue service on Wednesday picked up more than 300 migrants trying to reach the Canary Islands in rickety boats, with nine of them clinging to a semi-sunken dinghy.

The rescue service said it was unaware of any drownings as reported by a rights group.

Helena Maleno, founder of the Walking Borders migration monitoring group, said 18 people had died trying to make the perilous crossing to the island of Lanzarote from Africa. Reuters could not confirm that figure independently.

MADRID, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Spain's government handed over a list of almost 1,000 properties claimed by the Catholic Church on contested legal grounds to a federation of local authorities on Thursday, taking a first step towards resolving long-running feuds over ownership.

The conflict stems from a law introduced by former conservative Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in 1998 that allowed the Church to register properties linked to religious practice as possessions, even without proof of ownership.

MADRID, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Spain has sent warships to join NATO naval forces in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea as tension in the region rises over the Russian military build-up on the Ukrainian border, Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Thursday.

A mine-sweeper is already en route and a frigate will sail within three or four days, Robles told reporters. The Madrid government is also considering sending fighter jets to Bulgaria, she said.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s medical community has scored a victory after a court ordered that a regional government must compensate doctors with up to 49,000 euros ($56,000) for having to work without personal protection suits during the devastating early months of the pandemic.

The lawsuit brought by a doctor’s union is the first of its kind to be won in Spain, whose health care system was pushed to the brink when COVID-19 first struck.

MADRID, Jan 11 (APP): Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Tuesday met his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares and urged the Spanish government to review the Pakistan travel advisory following remarkable improvement in the law and order situation.

During the meeting, the foreign minister, who arrived here Monday, discussed the bilateral relations, trade and economic relations, besides regional and global situation.

Ambassador of Pakistan in Spain Shujaat Rathor also attended the meeting.

MADRID, Dec 31 (Reuters) - After nearly two years of COVID-19-induced uncertainty, Madrid's bars and restaurants had been counting on solid bookings over the festive season to bolster their finances, but soaring contagion has triggered a wave of last-minute cancellations.

"We all thought... we'd be able to make some money and pay off many things that are overdue," said Juan Lozano, head waiter at the La Querida restaurant in Madrid's Pozuelo neighbourhood, which was almost fully booked in early December.

MADRID, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Scientists declared the eruption on Spain's La Palma officially over on Saturday, allowing islanders to breathe a sigh of relief nearly 100 days after the Cumbre Vieja volcano began to spew out lava, rock and ash and upended the lives of thousands.

After bursting into action on Sept. 19, the volcano suddenly went quiet on Monday Dec. 13 but the authorities, wary of raising false hope, held off until Christmas Day to give the all-clear.

MADRID, Dec 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Spain is to impose the mandatory wearing of face masks outdoors and step up booster COVID-19 vaccination, the country’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, announced yesterday.

The measures were announced following a virtual meeting with Spain’s regional leaders.

“One measure with very broad consensus among all the regional presidents … is the mandatory use of face masks outdoors,” Sanchez told the press, after the meeting.

MADRID, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Spain will make it compulsory to wear a face mask outdoors again as part of a package aimed at containing the fast spreading Omicron coronavirus variant, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told regional leaders on Wednesday.

With nearly 80% of its population vaccinated and a booster programme gathering pace, Spain was largely spared the rampant wave of infections that led several northern European countries to toughen curbs in the autumn.

MADRID, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Spain's coronavirus infection rate rose above 500 cases per 100,000 people on Friday, crossing over the threshold considered "very high risk" by the Health Ministry and more than doubling since the start of December.

On Friday the infection rate, or incidence, as measured over the preceding 14 days, was 511 cases per 100,000, up 38 points on Thursday's 473. There were 33,359 new infections and 41 deaths according to Health Ministry data.