Spain

MADRID, December 18. /TASS/: Pope Francis believes that the conflict in Ukraine is a 'world war' and will not end soon, according to his interview with the Spanish newspaper ABC published on Sunday.

"Now [Ukrainian President] Vladimir Zelensky is sending one of his religious advisers to me for the third time," the pontiff reported, "I'm in touch, accepting, helping". "I don't see the end [of the conflict] in the short term, because this is a world war," he noted. "There are already several hands involved in the war," Francis pointed out, "There are many interests.".

MADRID, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Spain's left-wing government on Tuesday presented a bill that would allow workers up to nine days of paid caregiver leave a year and extend all family rights to people living under the same roof even if they have no formal family bonds.

Although each country in the European Union has its own legislation regulating care leave, the proposal, which calls for employers to foot the bill, would put Spain ahead of most countries in terms of paid leave.

07 Dec 2022; MEMO: Some 28 migrants fled from a plane that made an emergency landing in Barcelona on Wednesday, when a pregnant woman faked going into labour during a Morocco to Turkiye flight, before police rounded up half of them, the Spanish government said, Reuters reports.

After landing at El Prat Airport, the woman was checked at a hospital and found she had not gone into labour, the government said.

MADRID, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Bomb disposal experts defused a fifth letter bomb on Thursday as Spain stepped up security to confront a spate of explosive devices sent to high-profile targets, including the prime minister and the Ukrainian ambassador in Madrid.

Early indications suggest that all five of the packages were sent from within Spain, the country's Deputy Interior Minister told journalists.

MADRID (AP) — Spanish police are investigating a suspect letter bomb sent to an air base outside Madrid early Thursday, a day after a letter bomb exploded at the Ukrainian Embassy injuring an employee, the interior and defense ministries said.

Government officials said another explosive package was detected Wednesday evening at an arms factory in the northern Spanish city of Zaragoza. The factory makes grenade launchers which Spain has sent to Ukraine. Police carried out a controlled explosion of the parcel.

MADRID/KYIV, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A security officer at Ukraine's embassy in Madrid was injured when he opened a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador on Wednesday, and Kyiv ordered a bolstering of security at all its representative offices abroad.

The security officer suffered light injuries and went under his own steam to hospital for treatment, Spanish government official Mercedes Gonzalez told broadcaster Telemadrid.

MADRID, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A drug “super cartel” that controlled about a third of Europe’s cocaine supply has been dismantled, police have announced.

Dubbed Operation Desert Light, 49 people were arrested across six European countries including a British national, who is suspected of heading the operation, the EU’s police agency, Europol, said.

More than 30,000kg of drugs were seized during the two-year-long investigation, Europol said.

LAS PALMAS, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Three migrants rescued in Spain's Canary Islands, after apparently enduring an 11-day journey from Nigeria crouched on the rudder of a fuel tanker, should now be returned home under stowaway laws, a police spokesman told Reuters on Tuesday.

In a photograph distributed on Twitter by the Spanish coast guard on Monday, the three stowaways are shown crouching on the rudder under the hull, just above the waterline of the Alithini II.

MADRID, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The Spanish coastguard said it rescued three migrants stowed away on the rudder of a ship that arrived in the Canary Islands from Nigeria.

In a photograph distributed on Twitter by the coastguard on Monday, the three stowaways are shown perched on the rudder of the oil and chemical tanker Althini II.

The Althini II arrived in Las Palmas in Gran Canaria on Monday after an 11-day voyage from Lagos in Nigeria, according to Marine Traffic, a ship-tracking website.

MADRID (AP) — Against a backdrop of Russian bombardments, border closures and a nail-biting 3,500-kilometer (2,150-mile) truck journey across Europe, Spain’s Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum has teamed up with the National Art Museum of Ukraine to secretly bring dozens of 20th century Ukrainian avant-garde artworks to Madrid for a unique exhibition and a show of support for the war-torn country.