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A wildfire roared through a remote expat community in southern Spain overnight, killing at least 12 people as victims tried to flee the flames in cars and on foot, authorities said Friday. Eight people were injured, and 23 missing, Andalusia's regional leader Juan Manuel Moreno said. The blaze, one of Spain's deadliest wildfires, broke out late Thursday in a semi-arid area near the Sierra de Los Filabres mountains in Almeria province, as the country has been dealing with soaring temperatures. Most of the victims died after ignoring shelter-in-place instructions, said Antonio Sanz, head of Andalusia's emergency services. Some tried to escape via a dry riverbed that "turned into a death trap," he said. Four victims were believed to be British nationals because the steering wheel of their burned-out car was on the right side, as with British vehicles, regional authorities said. Other unspecified nationals also were believed to be among the dead, and the death toll was expected to rise,
Spain has closed its airspace to US planes involved in the Iran war, Defence Minister Margarita Robles said Monday. Spain had already said the US could not use jointly operated military bases in the country for operations related to the Middle East conflict. "This was made perfectly clear to the American military and forces from the very beginning. Therefore, neither the bases are authorised, nor, of course, is the use of Spanish airspace authorised for any actions related to the war in Iran," Robles told reporters. Spain's government under Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been Europe's most critical voice of US and Israeli military actions in the Middle East. "I think everyone knows Spain's position; it's very clear," Robles said, calling the war in Iran "profoundly illegal and profoundly unjust.
A diplomatic tussle between the United States and Spain over the war in Iran intensified on Wednesday when the governments exchanged contradictory statements over the possible use of Spanish military bases by American armed forces for operations in the Middle East. Moments after a White House spokesperson said that the Spanish government in Madrid had agreed to help the US, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares came out and flatly denied that the European government had changed its position. "I can refute (the White House spokesperson)," Albares told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser. "The position of the Spanish government regarding the war in the Middle East, the bombing of Iran and the use of our bases has not changed one iota." The disagreement broke out on Tuesday when US President Donald Trump had threatened to cut off trade with Madrid, hours after the Spanish prime minister said that his government wouldn't "be complicit in something that is bad for the world." Albare
Travel aggregator Ixigo's board has approved the acquisition of a 60 per cent stake in Spain's second-largest train booking platform Online Travel Solutions (Trenes), for 11.70 million euro (over Rs 125 crore). The proposed acquisition will help leverage Ixigo's product, technology and AI leadership in the European OTA market as Trenes is engaged in the business of providing an online platform for train ticket bookings, primarily catering to the Spanish market, with operations extending to certain other parts of Southern Europe. Consequent to the acquisition, Online Travel Solutions, S.L. will become a step-down subsidiary of Ixigo, it stated in a late-night regulatory filing on Friday. The board of directors of Ixigo also approved the acquisition of a 45.02 per cent stake in Squad As Service, S.L., Spain (Sqaas) for a total consideration of 0.45 million euro (over Rs 4.83 crore). The total consideration for both acquisitions includes non-compete fees and authorisation of the signi
Spain plans to ban social media access for children under 16, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Tuesday, in a move designed to shield young people from the harms of online content. The progressive Spanish leader spoke at a summit in the United Arab Emirates, where he chided the world's biggest tech companies for allowing illegal content such as child sex abuse and nonconsensual sexualised deepfake images and videos on their platforms, saying that governments also needed to "stop turning a blind eye." "Today, our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone," Sanchez said. "We will no longer accept that." In doing so, Spain joins a growing number of countries, including Australia and France, which have taken or are considering measures to restrict minors' access to social media. In January, French lawmakers approved a bill banning social media for children under 15, paving the way for the measure to take effect at the start of the next school year