Spain

Madrid; 9 Marc 2019; GANASHAKTI: For the second year running, Spanish women went on strike Friday for International Women’s Day, with several protests kicking off over what has become a hot topic in the country’s election campaign.

“If we stop, the world stops.” Armed with this slogan, Spain’s largest unions CCOO and UGT organised a two-hour work stoppage — the first starting at midday — while smaller unions have called for a 24-hour strike.

05 Mar 2019; DW: The UK and Spain signed a deal on Monday to combat tax fraud and money laundering in Gibraltar once the UK leaves the European Union. 

Under the agreement, individuals and companies in Gibraltar will have to pay taxes in Spain if they conduct most of their business there.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A top executive at Chinese tech supplier Huawei poked fun at U.S. intelligence on Tuesday as he sought to reassure people attending the world’s biggest mobile industry fair that the company’s technology is secure.

Guo Ping, Huawei’s rotating chairman, used his keynote speech at MWC Barcelona to fight back against U.S. allegations that the company’s technology poses a national security risk to next-generation mobile networks.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — China’s Huawei is set to take the wraps off a new folding-screen phone, joining the latest trend for bendable devices as it challenges the global smartphone market’s dominant players, Apple and Samsung.

The company on Sunday plans to unveil the device, which can be used on superfast next-generation mobile networks that are due to come online in the coming years.

Huawei will reveal the phone on the eve of MWC Barcelona, a four-day showcase of mobile devices, as the company battles U.S. allegations it is a cybersecurity risk.

16 Feb 2019; DW: Spanish authorities on Saturday said around 200,000 protesters marched through Barcelona against the trial of 12 Catalan separatist leaders, calling for them to be released immediately.

The march was led by a line of protesters holding a long banner that read "Self-determination is not a crime." Other banners described the Catalan leaders on trial as "political prisoners."

12 Feb 2019; DW: The trial of 12 Catalan secessionist leaders involved in an attempt to secede from Spain got underway in the country's Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The long-awaited trial has re-ignited tensions over the future of Catalonia. Hundreds of police, including from anti-terrorism units, have been deployed around the Court building in Madrid.

09 Feb 2019; DW: Talks between the Spanish government and Catalan separatist parties ground to a halt before they even began on Friday, with both sides accusing the other of stubbornness.

Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said the pro-independence groups had refused to accept a framework for talks proposed by Madrid because they wanted an independence referendum included on the agenda.

MADRID, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Spain's unemployment rose 2.61 percent in January from a month earlier, or 83,464 people, as employers cut temporary jobs for the Christmas season, official data showed Monday.

The end of the Christmas and New Year period had its traditional negative effect on the job market in Spain. This is the steepest January rise in unemployment since 2009 when the economic crisis shed around 200,000 jobs. The figure is well above the 63,747 rise in unemployment seen in 2018 or the 57,257 increase in 2017.

MADRID, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- As millions of stargazers around the world watched the super wolf blood moon on Sunday night, some noticed a small flash on the moon's surface, which a Spanish researcher said was caused by the impact of a meteorite.

"A rock hits the moon during the total eclipse," Jose Maria Madiedo, an astrophysicist of the University of Huelva in Spain, tweeted Tuesday. Attached to his tweet was a YouTube link displaying the impact flash during the lunar eclipse.

23 Jan 2019; AFP: Cristiano Ronaldo avoided jail on Tuesday but was ordered by a Spanish court to pay 3.57 million euros ($4.1 million) for committing tax fraud when he was at Real Madrid.

The court sentenced him to a two-year jail sentence that it immediately reduced to a fine of 365,000 euros, which adds on to another penalty of 3.2 million euros, the sentence read.