Spain

BARCELONA, June 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The obligation to wear masks outdoors in Spain is to be lifted on June 26, with the corresponding decision to be approved at an extraordinary Cabinet meeting next week, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on the sidelines of an event in Barcelona.

“This will be the last weekend that people will have to wear masks outdoors in Spain,” the socialist politician said. He said he was happy to be able to convey this “important message” to his 47 million compatriots.

BARCELONA/MADRID, June 18 (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is poised to pardon the jailed leaders of Catalonia's failed 2017 independence bid, betting the time has come for a political gamble that he hopes will ultimately cement his legacy.

Opinion polls show about 60% of Spaniards - as well as all the country's main opposition parties - oppose freeing the nine politicians and activists sentenced to long terms in 2019 for their role in the chaotic and at times violent events that triggered Spain's biggest political crisis in decades.

LANZAROTE, Spain, June 18 (Reuters) - More than 40 African migrants were rescued after their boat ran aground on the rocky coast of Lanzarote in Spain's Canary Islands late on Thursday, emergency services said, while over 100 people on two more boats made it safely to other islands.

At least three people died and at least two more were missing, including a six-year old girl. Rescue workers with a helicopter were searching the coast around Lanzarote's northern region of Muelle de Orzola for them on Friday morning.

17 June 2021; MEMO: People across Spain are calling for more to be done to address racism in the country after the brutal murder of a Moroccan immigrant in the southern region of Murcia, Anadolu Agency reports.

Younes Bilal, 37, was shot point-blank range by a former military officer while spending time with friends at a cafe in the town of Mazarron on Sunday, according to local media reports.

15 June 2021; MEMO: Zara under fire as Head Designer Vanessa Perilman attacks Palestinian model Qaher Harhash on Instagram.

(Reuters) --- Thousands of Spaniards protested in Madrid on Sunday against government plans to pardon 12 Catalan politicians who were convicted over the region’s failed independence bid in 2017, a move the demonstrators see as a threat to national unity.

Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo gave the clearest indication yet that the pardons of the Catalan separatists were "close" in an interview published on Sunday with La Vanguardia newspaper, but the issue has bitterly divided Spaniards.

MÁLAGA, Spain, June 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Spain opens its borders to vaccinated travellers from all over the world on Monday, hoping an influx of visitors will revitalise its all-important tourism sector which has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Spain is a safe destination,” Health Minister Carolina Darias insisted, adding that the country was “in the process of reclaiming its global leadership in tourism”.

(Reuters) --- The most prominent of Catalonia's jailed separatist leaders on Monday said his camp had made mistakes and needed to adapt its strategy, a move that could help the Spanish government's efforts to ease tensions over the region.

Oriol Junqueras is in prison over his role in organising an unauthorised referendum in 2017 and for the short-lived declaration of independence that followed it.

(Reuters) --- The lawyer of Brahim Ghali, a leader of Western Sahara's Polisario Front who is in hospital in Spain, will ask the Spanish High Court to drop a war crimes case against him.

"The facts which form the basis of the accusation against him are absolutely and categorically untrue," lawyer Manuel Olle told reporters after a hearing on Tuesday.

Ghali, who appeared remotely in court, said the allegations were politically motivated and denied any wrongdoing, according to Olle.

MADRID, May 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — International cruise ships will be able to dock in Spanish ports from June 7, the Spanish government said, lifting a ban imposed when the Covid-19 pandemic began.

The measure will be lifted due to the easing of the virus in Europe where most cruise passengers come from, as well as rising vaccination numbers, a transport ministry statement said.

It was also due to the falling numbers of virus cases in regions where most cruise ships dock.