Spain

MADRID (AP) — The Spanish government says it has closed airspace around Madrid’s international airport after drones were reported in the area.

The Transport Ministry said in a tweet Monday that the airspace around the Adolfo Suárez Madrid Barajas airport has been closed and advised people to check with the airport’s authorities for further developments.

Enaire, Spain´s air navigation authority, had earlier reported delays in flights owing to the presence of drones in the area.

MADRID (Reuters) - Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido joined thousands of supporters at a demonstration in Madrid on Saturday after arriving in Spain on the last leg of a European tour.

Speaking in a central square packed with supporters holding signs calling for ‘democracy’, Guaido emphasized the importance of international support in unseating Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro from power.

BARCELONA, Jan 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The death toll from a violent storm that has wrought havoc across huge swathes of Spain’s eastern and southern coastline rose to 11, with rescue workers still searching for four people.

The latest victim was a 50-year-old man who was fishing in coastal Ametlla de Mar, according to civil protection authorities in the northeast Catalonia region.

23 January 2020; AFP: The death toll from a storm that has lashed Spain with strong winds and heavy snow has risen to seven, while four people were missing, officials said.

Gale-force winds and huge waves have smashed into seafront towns, damaging many shops and restaurants, wrecking beach facilities and flooding some streets in the east of the country since Sunday.

13 Jan 2019; MEMO: A Danish man who joined Daesh in Syria and who is consequently serving eight years imprisonment in Spain has revealed that he was working for Denmark’s intelligence services.

The 30-year-old Danish national, Ahmed Samsam, travelled to Syria “several” times in order to join the terror group under the authorisation and direction of Denmark’s Police Intelligence Service and Defence Intelligence Service, as was reported in the Danish newspaper Berlingske yesterday.

11 Jan 2019; MEMO: The public prosecutor of Spain’s Anti-Corruption Court has issued an indictment against Saudi officials, revealing their involvement in the largest-ever corruption case in the country, Alkhaleejonline.com reported on Friday.

MADRID (Reuters) - The Unidas Podemos alliance of hard-left parties is set to take a deputy premiership and four ministries in Spain’s first coalition government in decades led by the Socialists of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, according to sources.

Sanchez is expected next week to announce the cabinet line-up of around 20 posts, up from 17 previously.

Following are snapshots of the likely ministers from Unidas Podemos (Together We Can), including Pablo Iglesias who is set to become one of three deputy prime ministers.

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain is targeting gross debt issuance of 196.5 billion euros ($218.76 billion) in 2020, down 6.2 percent from the 2019 target, the head of the Spanish Treasury, Carlos San Basilio, said on Wednesday.

The Treasury plans net debt issuance of 32.5 billion euros compared with just under 20 billion euros issued last year.

($1 = 0.8982 euros)

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez failed on Sunday in a first attempt to get parliament’s backing to form a government, leaving him two days to secure support to end an eight-month political gridlock.

Sanchez, who has been acting prime minister since elections in April and November did not produce a conclusive result, needed an absolute majority of at least 176 votes in his favor in the 350-seat house to be confirmed in the job. He failed to secure this, a result that had been expected.

MADRID, Jan 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Spain’s electoral board ordered that Catalan separatist president Quim Torra be disqualified from being a member of Catalonia’s regional parliament, meaning he would lose his presidential post.

The electoral board decision comes after Catalonia’s High Court of Justice last month convicted Torra of disobedience for failing to remove separatist symbols from public buildings during an election campaign and banned him from holding public office for 18 months.