Tag Archives: Spain

Spain arrests two accused of connections to Islamist militants

Spanish civil guards

MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish police have arrested two people in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta accused of connections with Islamist militants, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.

The two detained had been through a long radicalization process and formed part of a group which was thought to be at an advanced stage of preparation for potential attacks, it said.

Police, searching six locations in relation to the arrests, found one gun and three non-firing weapons, the ministry said, though it did not elaborate.

Police had unearthed at least one automatic weapon wrapped in a plastic sheet on wasteland near the locations being investigated, a Reuters witness said.

Spanish police have arrested 180 people accused of connections to Islamist militant groups since raising the country-wide security alert to one below the highest level in 2015.

(Reporting by Paul Day; Editing by Toby Chopra and Hugh Lawson)

The three wise men parade Madrid’s streets amid tightened security

Men dressed as the three wise men

MADRID (Reuters) – The three biblical wise men paraded through Madrid’s streets amid tight security on Thursday, the eve of Epiphany, which celebrates the day they are said to have visited the infant Christ with gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar, accompanied by hundreds of eclectic floats, handed out sweets to the thousands of children lining the Spanish capital’s main boulevard.

Madrid’s authorities deployed 800 police officers, some heavily armed, erected concrete barriers to block access to streets and curbed the movement of trucks after the December attack in Berlin on a Christmas market.

A Tunisian man killed 12 people in the Dec. 19 attack when he plowed a truck into a row of market stalls, leading other European capitals to ramp up security.

The Day of the Kings on Jan. 6 is a bigger day than Christmas for many in Spain. Children often wait until then to open their presents said to have been brought by the wise men and not Santa Claus, the traditional gift-giver elsewhere.

Every Spanish city and most towns hold parades featuring the kings, wearing robes, crowns and billowing beards, and Madrid’s is one of the largest.

In Catalonia controversy has been focused on the attempt by pro-independence organizations to politicize the parade in Vic, a town around 70 kilometers north of Barcelona, with the distribution of lanterns bearing the “estelada” flag, usually used by Catalan separatists.

(Reporting By Jesús Aguado; Editing by Angus Berwick and Richard Lough)

About 220 Migrants storm border in Spanish enclave Ceuta

A Spanish Red Cross worker aids African migrants after they crossed a border fence between Morocco and Spain's north African enclave of Ceuta

MADRID (Reuters) – About 220 African migrants forced their way through a barbed wire fence into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on Monday, clashing with Spanish police who tried to prevent them from crossing the border with Morocco.

Thirty-two migrants were treated in hospital for minor injuries after pushing their way through two gates just before 2 a.m. ET, while three Spanish policemen also needed medical attention, the government said.

Several migrants collapsed from exhaustion after crossing into Spanish territory, Reuters photographs showed. Their legal status in Spain has yet to be determined, and police were searching for some who fled into hills inside the territory, it said.

Spain’s two enclaves in Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla, have been favored entry points into Europe for African migrants, who either climb over their border fences or swim along their coastlines.

After thousands crossed over in 2014 and 2015, Spain stepped up security, partly funded by European authorities, and passed a law enabling its border police to refuse refugees the opportunity to apply for asylum.

Since then Libya has become a more common departure point for African migrants, most from sub-Saharan countries, who attempt the crossing to Italy in rickety boats that often break down or sink. More 3,740 migrant deaths have been recorded this year in the central Mediterranean, most along that route.

(Reporting by Sarah White and Rodrigo de Miguel, editing by John Stonestreet)

Spanish officials seize 20K military uniforms from alleged ISIS suppliers

Police in Spain have neutralized a “very active and effective business network” that allegedly supplied a variety of materials to terrorist groups, the country’s interior ministry said Thursday.

A counterterrorism investigation last month led to the arrest of seven people who are accused of providing “logistical and financial support” to the Islamic State and the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, the ministry announced in a news release. Authorities also confiscated about 20,000 uniforms and other accessories that could have been used “to equip an army that would be perfectly prepared for combat” out of three shipping containers in Valencia and Algeciras.

The ministry said the containers were tied to the business network, and had been labeled as carrying “second-hand clothes” so as not to arouse suspicion from customs officials. However, authorities discovered bundles of uniforms hidden among other clothing inside the containers.

The now-neutralized network helped provide a constant supply of weapons, military equipment and other technological supplies to areas controlled by the Islamic State, the ministry said.

Heat Wave Baking Europe

A heat wave has been baking Europe over the last week setting record high temperatures from Spain to England.

Meteorologists across the continent were reporting temperatures well over 100 degrees fahrenheit including southern France where the daytime highs are expected to top 105 degrees through the rest of the week.

“We have a lot of heat-wave days ahead of us,” MeteoFrance forecaster Francois Gourand told the Associated Press.

Heat in France was causing problems for the power grid, as 120,000 homes in the town of Vannes were left without power on Wednesday.

An all time high temperature for the UK in July was recorded on the first day of the month as London’s Heathrow Airport reported a high of 98.6 degrees.

The heat wave is striking the country at the start of the Wimbledon tennis championships and officials say it’s officially the hottest players have had to compete in the tournament’s history since it began in 1877.   The heat was so intense a ball boy collapsed from the heat and had to be taken out on a stretcher.

While the heat bothered some residents, others took it in stride.

“I’m loving it. I can’t complain,” university student Maggie Cloud told the AP. “We pay so much money to go abroad to holidays, and now we have the weather here. It’s cheaper.”

Madrid Cultural Counselor Resigns Over Anti-Semitic Comments

A man who had been appointed Saturday to be Madrid’s “Cultural Counselor” and a new city councilman has resigned as counselor over anti-Semitic jokes and comments made on twitter in 2011.

Guillermo Zapata tweeted in 2011 “How do you fit five million Jews in a SEAT 600 [a Spanish car]?  In the ashtray.”

Zapata claimed it was all humor and not how he feels about Jews.

“Now some of those tweets, which were written within the context of a conversation on black humor, have been recovered with the goal of presenting them as though they represented my ideas….while in fact I do not defend them at all,” Zapata wrote Sunday.  “I firmly condemn all forms of racism, and, of course, anti-Semitism. I believe the Jewish Holocaust teaches us a lesson that humanity must never forget, so that it is never repeated.”

However, critics of Zapata quickly pointed out how he defended a now-disgraced journalist who denied the Holocaust.

Jews in Spain were quick to issue condemnation for the statements.

“The Jewish community of Madrid has issued an immediate communique asking for explanations and obviously denouncing these types of comments and we also stated that we will not tolerate any kind of anti-Semitism,” said David Hatchwell, the president of the Jewish community of Madrid and vice president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain.

March Against Abortion In Spain Draws Thousands

A march in Spain against abortion drew tens of thousands of people into the capital city of Madrid.

“Yes to life!  No to abortion!” the tens of thousands of marchers chanted outside the headquarters of the Popular Party, the controlling party in the nation.

The leaders of the march wanted to get the message through to the ruling party that they will lose tens of thousands of voters if they allow abortions in the country to increase or back off on their vows to restrict the process in the country.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy abandoned efforts to completely ban abortion because his party could not reach a consensus.

“As president of the government I have taken the most sensible decision,” he said. “We can’t have a law that will be changed when another government comes in.”

The march’s leaders used evidence from around the world to prove restrictions that were opposed by members of the ruling party had no merit.  One such example came from former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Coop.

“Protection of the life of the mother as an excuse for an abortion is a smoke screen. In my 36 years of pediatric surgery, I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother’s life,” Koop stated. “If toward the end of the pregnancy complications arise that threaten the mother’s health, the doctor will induce labor or perform a Caesarean section. His intention is to save the life of both the mother and the baby. The baby’s life is never willfully destroyed because the mother’s life is in danger.”

Spanish Nurse First To Contract Ebola Outside Of Africa

For the first time, someone has been infected with Ebola outside the African continent.

A Spanish nurse who treated a missionary and priest returned from West Africa after contracting the virus has been confirmed to have the same strain of Ebola as the priest.

“We are working in coordination to give the best care to the patient and to guarantee the safety of all citizens,” Spanish Health Minister Ana Mato told reporters on Monday.  The nurse, whose name was not released, is reportedly in stable condition.

The woman’s husband and two others have been placed in isolation and at least two dozen others who had close contact with the woman are under observation by health officials.  The hospital where she worked is also examining any other health care workers that had contact with the priest.

Worldwide, at least 370 health care workers have been infected with the disease while treating patients connected to this outbreak.

Journalist Ashoka Mukpo, the fifth American known to have the virus, has arrived in Nebraska and is receiving treatment.  Mukpo said that he believes he was infected when he was splashed while spray-washing a vehicle where someone had died from Ebola.

The Dallas area infected patient, Eric Duncan, is in critical condition.

Bus Stop Ads In Spain Promote Child Pornography

A poster that promoted what it termed “abuse free” child pornography has been removed from a bus stop outside a major cathedral in Barcelona, Spain.

The advertising firm that manages the bus stops said the poster promoted “abuse-free child pornography,” bearing the word “freedom” in large letters over a picture of a half dressed underage girl.

The ad asked people to send them photos of themselves as children for posting on a website that promoted what they termed the abuse free images.

A spokesman for the advertising agency said the ad was placed inside one of the company’s glass display cases that can only be opened by employees of the company.  The company did not say who purchased the ad or who placed the posters in the display case near the Sagrada Familiia cathedral.

No one knows how long the poster was displayed before a local reporter called city council officials about the poster’s content.  The council had to ask the ad agency to remove the poster.

Spain and Italy Warned Over Budget Plans

The European Commission is warning the Spanish and Italian governments that their draft budgets for 2014 do not comply with new debt and deficit rules. The Commission also said that France and the Netherlands barely qualified for the new standards.

According to the European Union’s charter, countries that do not comply will likely have to revise their tax and spending plans before they can be submitted to national parliaments. The warning marks the first time the EC has taken this step.

Eurozone members states are required to cut deficits until they reach a balanced budget. They also have to reduce levels of public debt. The Commission usually gives countries flexibility if their deficit is below the EU ceiling of 3% of the nation’s gross domestic product.

The Commission said that France, while just below the 3% threshold, was making only “limited progress” in reforms.

The Eurozone economy grew by .1% from July to September in data released Thursday, down from .3% growth in the previous quarter.