News stories by Tito Drago

The budget for maintaining the Spanish royal household, and the use made of these public funds by King Juan Carlos, are fuelling ongoing debate as Spain endures a severe economic crisis accompanied by severe cuts in social spending and soaring unemployment.

If Spain's Supreme Court convicts judge Baltasar Garzón in what is known as the Historic Memory case, he will appeal the verdict before the European Court of Human Rights, where all the indications are that his appeal may receive a sympathetic hearing.

Spain's new conservative government has announced changes in environmental policy that are a significant step backwards for environmental protection in the country, provoking an immediate, harsh reaction from the opposition and civil society.

Another trial opened Tuesday with Spain's best-known judge, Baltasar Garzón, in the dock for attempting to investigate crimes against humanity committed during the 36-year dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

International mediators meeting in a peace conference Monday in Spain's northern Basque region were hopeful that the armed separatist group ETA would respond positively to their call for the group to lay down arms.

As the number of apartments and houses left empty in Spain due to failure to make mortgage or rental payments climbs, tens of thousands of families, including many immigrants, are living on the streets, in shantytowns, or crowded into seedy boarding houses.

Protesters from several European Union cities have begun to follow the example of hundreds of demonstrators from Spain who are marching from Madrid to Brussels, the bloc's de facto capital, in a growing protest against the effects of the economic crisis and the fiscal adjustment policies adopted to combat it.

Spain put the brakes on the use of clean energies to generate electricity, as the government approved an energy savings programme to cope with its large oil bill which affects its commitment to reduce non-renewable sources by 2020.

Spain's political parties demanded that ETA surrender its weapons and abandon violence for good, in response to a statement issued by the group Monday in which it declared a permanent ceasefire, verifiable by the international community, and called for negotiation.

The highest authorities of Spain's judicial system will have to explain to the Congress of Deputies their repeated refusals to bring U.S. soldiers to trial for the 2003 killing of journalist José Couso in Baghdad. The recent diplomatic cables made public by the whistleblower organisation Wikileaks reveal contacts with U.S. authorities aimed at preventing a trial.