Spain

Barcelona, Feb 15 (AP-PTI) The pro-union Socialist Party claimed a narrow win in regional elections in Catalonia late Sunday, but the bloc of parties supporting secession by Spain's northeastern corner widened their control of the regional parliament.

With 99 per cent of the votes counted, the three main parties pledging to carve out an independent Catalan state increased their number of seats in the regional parliament to 74. In 2017, those same parties won 70 seats of the 135-seat chamber, just two above the majority.

MADRID, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Spain and Portugal on Tuesday extended police checks along their internal land border until March 1 in a bid to control the spread of new coronavirus variants.

According to Tuesday's edition of Spain's Official State Gazette (BOE), border crossings are only allowed at authorized posts, and exceptions are made for those crossing the border for work or study purposes, as well as for accredited residents returning home from another country in the Schengen travel area and for diplomatic personnel.

MADRID, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Spain reported 16,402 new cases of the novel coronavirus in a 24-hour period, bringing the country's tally since the start of the pandemic to 3,005,487, the Health Ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry also reported 766 fatalities in the past 24 hours -- the highest number of deaths in a single day since April -- taking the total number of victims of the virus to 63,061.

Meanwhile, the incidence rate of the virus continues to fall, dropping from 667.33 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Monday to 630 cases on Tuesday.

MADRID, Feb 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Madrid health authorities on Friday confirmed the first case of the Brazilian variant of COVID-19 in the region, three days after Spain restricted air travel with Brazil and South Africa to curb the spread of virulent new strains.

A 44-year-old man who arrived at Madrid’s airport on Jan 29 tested positive for the coronavirus and subsequent lab tests confirmed he had caught the new strain, the regional government of Madrid said in a statement.

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Catalonia will elect its parliament on Feb.14, after a court annuled the regional government’s plan to move the vote to May 30 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The election is considered a litmus test for the Catalan separatist movement.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The unrelenting increase in COVID-19 infections in Spain following the holiday season is again straining hospitals, threatening the mental health of doctors and nurses who have been at the forefront of the pandemic for nearly a year.

In Barcelona’s Hospital del Mar, the critical care capacity has more than doubled and is nearly full, with 80% of ICU beds occupied by coronavirus patients.

MADRID (AP) — While most of Europe kicked off 2021 with earlier curfews or stay-at-home orders, authorities in Spain insist the new coronavirus variant causing havoc elsewhere is not to blame for a sharp resurgence of cases and that the country can avoid a full lockdown even as its hospitals fill up.

The government has been tirelessly fending off drastic home confinement like the one that paralyzed the economy for nearly three months in the spring of 2020, the last time Spain could claim victory over the stubborn rising curve of cases.

MADRID (AP) — Blame COVID-19 travel restrictions or Brexit but whatever the cause, some British citizens trying to return to their homes in several European countries this weekend have been barred from boarding flights.

Airlines refused documents that before Brexit had been valid proof of the Britons’ status as residents in Spain, Italy and Germany, although Spanish authorities claimed that the issue had been resolved by mid-Sunday.

MADRID (Reuters) - The main hurdle in talks between Spain and Britain over Gibraltar’s post-Brexit status is keeping cross-border traffic fluid, Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said on Tuesday.

Madrid and London are negotiating how to police the land border between Spain and Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula, as it was excluded from the last-minute exit deal reached between Britain and the European Union last week.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — While corks may have popped in London and Brussels over the end to a four-year saga known as Brexit, there is one rocky speck of British soil still left in limbo.

Gibraltar, a British colony jutting off the southern tip of Spain’s mainland, wasn’t included in the Brexit trade deal announced on Christmas Eve between the European Union and the United Kingdom to reorganize the commercial and trade relations between the now 27-member bloc and the first nation to exit the group.