Spain

MADRID, May 25 (Reuters) - Killer whales severely damaged a sailing boat off the coast of southern Spain, the local maritime rescue service said on Thursday, adding to dozens of orca attacks on vessels recorded so far this year on Spanish and Portuguese coasts.

In the early hours of Thursday, a group of orcas broke the rudder and pierced the hull after ramming into the Mustique on its way to Gibraltar, prompting its crew of four to contact Spanish authorities for help, a spokesman for the maritime rescue service said.

22 May 2023; MEMO: Spain issued a fresh condemnation of Israel on Monday, rejecting the rhetoric used by Israel's far-right Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, at the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in East Jerusalem, Anadolu News Agency reports.

In a statement, Madrid called on Israel to "scrupulously respect the status quo of holy sites" and for all parties to "do everything possible" to avoid fresh tensions and preserve stability.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — An F-18 fighter jet crashed at an airbase in the Spanish city of Zaragoza but the pilot ejected successfully, the Spanish defense ministry said Saturday.

The aircraft landed within the perimeter of the base, the defense ministry said on Twitter.

The base, which lies about 10 miles (16 kilometers) outside the city, belongs to the Spanish Air and Space Force.

Videos posted on social media showed a plane in flames falling towards the ground.

The pilot was already in hospital and his life was not in danger, the air force said.

LAS PALMAS, Spain, May 9 (Reuters) - Archaeologists on Spain's Gran Canaria island are puzzled: who were the six young men whose skeletons were found face-down, hands tied and covered with stones in a cliff-side cave?

Evidence at the Caleta de Arriba site points to a violent death centuries ago which could pre-date the 15th century Spanish conquest of the archipelago off northwest Africa.

"They are not buried in the strict sense ... This is a funerary practice that denotes very strong symbolic violence," explained Veronica Alberto, head of the excavation.

MADRID (AP) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro began a state visit to Spain on Wednesday to seek support for his peace plan for the South American country while urging for greater action against climate change from Europe.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia greeted Petro and his wife in Madrid, where they will later attend a state dinner hosted by the Spanish royals.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Socialist leader, is a backer of Petro, an ex-rebel who became Colombia’s first leftist president last year.

MADRID (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was due to arrive in Spain on Tuesday on the second stop of a European tour aimed at resetting relations and making progress on a long-delayed trade deal between the EU and the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Following five days spent in Portugal, Lula will arrive in Madrid to attend a business forum this afternoon ahead of meetings with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and King Felipe VI on Wednesday.

MADRID, April 22 (Reuters) - Two men died and 10 others were injured after a fire at a restaurant in the Spanish capital Madrid, emergency services said on Saturday.

The blaze started late on Friday night at Burro Canaglia Bar&Resto, an Italian restaurant in the central neighbourhood of Salamanca.

An eyewitness told El Pais newspaper that the fire started after a waiter was flambeing a dish and the flames set fire to the ceiling and walls.

Diners struggled to flee as the blaze started near the main exit, emergency services said.

MADRID (AP) — Drought now affects 60% of the Spanish countryside, with crops like wheat and barley likely to fail entirely in four regions, the main Spanish farmers association said on Thursday.

MADRID, April 12 (NNN-XINHUA) — The latest data from the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) showed that last month was the second hottest March of the 21st century recorded in the country, with the least rainfall in about 30 years.

Despite a spell of freezing weather at the start of March, the average temperature for the month was 11.6 degrees Celsius for mainland Spain, which is 1.8 degrees above the average for the period of 1991-2020, said the AEMET.

MADRID (AP) — Renewable energy investors who lost subsidies promised by Spain are heading to a London court to try to claw back $125 million from the government — a decadelong dispute with ramifications for clean energy financing across the European Union.

The outcome will be closely watched by investors after the U.S. passed a new law offering incentives for homegrown green technology. Experts say the Inflation Reduction Act is already drawing clean energy investment away from EU countries like Spain, leaving the 27-nation bloc much less competitive globally.