Spain

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Plane Makes 1st Solar-Powered Intercontinental Flight

Solar Impulse travels from Spain to Morocco

(Newser) - A plane powered entirely by the sun is nearing the end of the world's first solar-powered intercontinental flight. The Solar Impulse left Madrid early this morning, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, and entered Moroccan airspace, AFP reports. The carbon-fiber plane, which is the size of a jumbo jet but...

Germany at Center of G7 Crisis Huddle

Debt may be pooled in exchange for more central controls

(Newser) - G7 members are holding a conference call today to discuss solutions for the mounting economic crisis in Europe, with German the likely key. The emergency huddle of the finance chiefs of the US, UK, German, Italy, France, Japan, and Canada underscores a mounting panic about the crushing debt of the...

Spanish Bank on the Brink as Run Fears Grow

Government will pour in billions more to prevent collapse

(Newser) - Spain's banking crisis grew sharply worse yesterday, as officials at Bankia, the country's leading mortgage lender, said it would need an additional $24 billion, reports the New York Times . The move effectively nationalizes the troubled bank, just two weeks after the government took over 45% of Bankia , and...

Christopher Columbus: Secretly Jewish?

Explorer was seeking homeland for his people: Spanish scholars

(Newser) - Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer from Genoa, right? Not according to a recent round of scholarship, which portrays him as secretly Jewish and seeking a new land for his people during the Spanish Inquisition, CNN reports. Evidence suggests that Columbus was a "Marrano," meaning he secretly practiced...

Rumors of Spanish Bank Run Trigger Stock Plunge
Rumors of Bank Run in
Spain Trigger Stock Plunge
Moody's downgrades 16

Rumors of Bank Run in Spain Trigger Stock Plunge

More bad news today drives market down again

(Newser) - These are nervous times in Europe. Shares in Bankia, a Spanish bank partly nationalized by the government last week , plunged 30% at one point yesterday following reports that customers had withdrawn more than $1.3 billion over the last week, reports Reuters . Bankia shares recovered some ground after the government...

Spain's Queen Sofia Snubs Brit Jubilee Over Gibraltar

Nations in dispute now over fishing rights

(Newser) - Spain's Queen Sofia is dumping her planned trip to Britain to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee in a long-simmering snit over Gibraltar. It's "hardly appropriate" for Sofia, 73, to attend lunch at Windsor Castle tomorrow in light of the two nations' tensions over the territory, noted...

As Thousands Protest, Spanish PM Backs Austerity

'This is about solving the situation once and for all,' says Mariano Rajoy

(Newser) - Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy today defended his government's harsh austerity measures aimed at correcting Spain's grim economic forecast, one day after tens of thousands of Spaniards took to the streets in protest of his handling of the country's worst crisis in decades. Rajoy said the measures were...

Spain Takes Over 'Poster Child' Bank

Part-nationalization to cause huge losses for Bankia investors

(Newser) - Merging seven struggling banks in Spain appears to have created a big, struggling bank instead of the healthy institution authorities were hoping for. The Spanish government is now grabbing a controlling 45% stake in Bankia, the nation's fourth-largest lender and the one with the most exposure to the country'...

Cops Track New Maddy Clue
 Cops Track New Maddy Clue 

Cops Track New Maddy Clue

Woman says she saw identical girl at Spanish campsite days after disappearance

(Newser) - On the heels of its announcement that Madeleine McCann could still be alive , Scotland Yard is following up on a report that a child matching her description was spotted by a tourist at a Spanish campsite a few days after her 2007 disappearance. Accompanied by a German couple and two...

Spain Sinks Back Into Recession

Unemployment tops 24%, officials committed to further cuts

(Newser) - Hot on the heels of Britain's slide back into recession , now Spain is officially in its second recession in three years, reports the BBC . Spain's National Statistical Institute said the economy shrank 0.3% last quarter, following a 0.3% contraction in the fourth quarter of 2011. As...

Nun, 80, Charged in Church-Linked Baby-Snatch Ring

'Shut up or you'll be charged with adultery,' victim says she was told

(Newser) - An 80-year-old nun has been busted in Spain for her role in a massive Catholic church-linked baby-theft ring, according to investigators. The ring took babies from hundreds of poor or unwed mothers dating back to the 1980s and sold them into adoption, say officials. Sister Maria Gomez Valbuena, the first...

Brothels, Sex Trafficking Booming in Spain

Nearly all the nation's prostitutes are smuggled in from elsewhere

(Newser) - Spain's economy may be on the verge of imploding, but one area remains more lucrative than ever—prostitution. Especially in border areas close to France, thousands of women line countryside roads, offering sex for $40 or so. Of the up to 400,000 prostitutes working in Spain, about 90%...

Strike, Protests Paralyze Spain
 Strike, Protests Paralyze Spain 

Strike, Protests Paralyze Spain

Millions protest austerity drive, labor laws changes

(Newser) - Spain's leaders insist that the country will not become the next Greece, although yesterday's events certainly looked familiar to residents of Athens. Police clashed with demonstrators who torched trash bins and cars in Barcelona amid a nationwide general strike called by unions in response to labor law changes...

25 Anonymous Hackers Busted in 4 Countries: Cops

Interpol targets group's Latin American operations

(Newser) - Some 25 suspected members of the Anonymous hacking collective have been arrested in Europe and South America, according to Interpol. The international police agency says 250 items of IT equipment were seized in raids in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Spain, the BBC reports. The suspects—including "Pacotron," the...

Eurozone Economy Shrinks
 Eurozone Economy Shrinks 

Eurozone Economy Shrinks

Nine of 17 member states post a fall

(Newser) - For the first time since 2009, the eurozone economy contracted last quarter. The fourth quarter of 2011 saw the GDP shrink 0.3% compared to the third quarter; the last quarterly contraction occurred during the second quarter of 2009 when the GDP dropped 0.2%. Meanwhile, the GDP grew just...

First-Ever Neanderthal Paintings Discovered

Nerja caves in Spain contain art that pre-dates Homo sapiens

(Newser) - Cave paintings in Spain may be the oldest ever found and the first known by Neanderthal artists, New Scientist reports. Oddly resembling a DNA double helix, the paintings actually depict seals—which locals in Malaga, Spain, would have eaten at the time. Charcoal remains near the paintings, in Spain's...

Entire Town Wins Lottery&mdash; Except for One Guy
Entire Town Wins Lottery—
Except for One Guy
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Entire Town Wins Lottery— Except for One Guy

Residents of Spanish village of Sodeto get piece of $950M jackpot

(Newser) - Costis Mitsotakis has to be more than a little annoyed. Of the 70 households that make up the village of Sodeto, Spain, his was the only one that didn't buy a ticket in the country's giant Christmas lottery. Which means he is now the only one who isn'...

Death Toll Rises in European Cold Snap

Europeans grapple with worst winter in years

(Newser) - While much of the US basks in unseasonably warmish weather, Europe continues to be locked in a deep freeze that's getting even colder. More than 100 people have died in Ukraine, Italy is suffering its coldest winter in 27 years, and conditions are so severe in Serbia that thousands...

Behind Europe's Economic Mess: 'Willful Amnesia'

Austerity measures violate basic economic tenets: Paul Krugman

(Newser) - Europe has been lauded for its commitment to austerity measures as a means of restoring its economies. But a quick look at the state of those economies reaffirms what any economist should already have known, writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times : The effort is backfiring. Krugman explains that...

Nantucket Boat Lost 3 Years Washes Up ... in Spain

'That's amazing,' says the US owner

(Newser) - A rogue wave caused the 26-foot Queen Bee to dump its two-person crew into the ocean off the shore of Nantucket in August of 2008. The two boaters, 58 and 68 years old, somehow survived the swim to shore despite choppy waters. Three years later, their boat has washed ashore...

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