| November 10, 2007 | - At an Ibero-American summit in Chile, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Spain's former prime minister a fascist, adding, “fascists are not human. A snake is more human.” “Why don't you shut up?” asked the king of Spain.
| Source:
BBCnews.com
|
| September 26, 2007 | - A February 2003 transcript of a meeting between Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar surfaced showing that Bush had knowledge that Saddam Hussein was prepared to go into exile. In the transcript, Bush complained about former French President Jacques Chirac, who “thinks he's Mr. Arab,” and the European attitude toward Hussein. “Maybe it's because he's dark-skinned, far away and Muslim,” said the President, “lots of Europeans think everything's okay with him.”
| Source:
Reuters via Yahoo! News
|
| February 15, 2007 | - The trial for the 2004 Madrid bombings began; 18 suspects watched the proceedings from a bulletproof glass chamber.
| Source:
The Sun
|
| November 15, 2006 | -
Forests were expanding in Spain, Ukraine, Vietnam, and China.
| Source:
Times Online
|
| October 19, 2006 | - The king of Spain denied that he had shot and killed a drunken bear.
| Source:
IHT via New York Times
|
| September 29, 2006 | - Vigilante airline passengers searched the luggage of a university professor they believed to be a terrorist during a layover in Mallorca.
| Source:
AP via Seattle Times
|
| August 23, 2006 | - Senator Joseph Lieberman compared the Iraq and the Spanish civil wars, saying both were a “harbinger” of worse conflict.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| August 14, 2006 | - An empty submarine suspected of cocaine smuggling was found floating off the coast of Spain.
| Source:
BBC
|
| August 8, 2006 | -
Spain,
Sicily, and North Africa were on jellyfish alert, with over 30,000 people stung so far this summer. The jellyfish explosion, a researcher explained, is due to overfishing and global warming.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| July 31, 2006 | - Hot weather killed 141 people (as well as 25,000 cattle and 700,000 fowl) in California, at least 170 people in France, Italy, and Spain, and dozens of racing dogs in Oregon, and shut down MySpace.
| Source:
CBS
|
| July 10, 2006 | - The prime minister of Spain snubbed the pope.
| Source:
Times Online
|
| July 3, 2006 | - A subway derailment near Jesus station in Valencia, Spain, killed 34 people.
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
680 News
Source 3:
Scotsman
Source 4:
Scotsman
|
| June 7, 2006 | - A report by the Council of Europe charged that European countries (including Germany,
Spain,
Sweden,
Greece, and Italy) served as a “global spider web” for the CIA's secret abduction and unlawful transfer of terrorism suspects to its network of torture camps around the world.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 22, 2006 | - In Spain the Basque separatist group ETA declared a permanent ceasefire.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| January 1, 2006 | -
Hunters in Spain were killing 50,000 hunting greyhounds each year by drowning, poisoning, and hanging them; those greyhounds that “humiliate” their owners by failing to win races or catch hares are often hanged in such a way that their paws barely touch the ground, and as they struggle against the noose, the dogs' nails make a clacking noise. This is known as “the typewriting death.”
| Source:
The Guardian
|
| December 30, 2005 | - An airplane flying from England to Spain made an unscheduled stop in Porto Santo, a 10-mile-long, three-mile-wide island, to eject a disruptive passenger.
| Source:
Telegraph
|
| July 9, 2005 | -
Bulls gored four people in Spain.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| June 4, 2005 | - In Spain, a quarter of a million people protested against the government's plan to negotiate with Basque separatists.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| May 5, 2005 | -
Spain gave 700,000 illegal immigrants amnesty.
| Source:
ISN
|
| April 23, 2005 | - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who belonged to the Hitler Youth before he became a priest, won the papacy by a landslide and styled himself Benedict XVI. The new pope dislikes homosexuality (he moved quickly to condemn a Spanish bill that would permit gays to marry), abortion, and the death penalty, but he loves little kittens. In 2001, he ordered Catholic bishops to hide allegations against pedophile priests from the public.
| Source 1:
BBC News
Source 2:
New York Daily News
Source 3:
The Observer
|
| March 6, 2005 | - Two community colleges in California halted their student-exchange program with Spain after Spain pulled out of the Iraq war.
| Source:
USA Today
|
| December 14, 2004 | - The prime minister of Spain accused his predecessor of erasing all computer files related to last year's Madrid terrorist bombing. "Not a single trace of any files was left behind," said one official, "zero, nothing."
| Source:
New York Times
|
| November 10, 2004 | -
President Bush refused to return the phone calls of Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, opting instead to meet with former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar.
| Source:
FT
|
| October 2, 2004 | -
Spain's cabinet approved a measure legalizing gay
marriage.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| May 21, 2004 | - A club in Barcelona was offering to implant a radio frequency ID chip in VIP members' arms so that they don't have to wait in line to get in or use money to pay for drinks.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| April 15, 2004 | - The Spanish government said that the bombers in Madrid sold hash and ecstasy and drank holy water from Mecca.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 3, 2004 | - The Department of Homeland Security announced that visitors from Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, Australia, and 21 other countries will be photographed and fingerprinted when they enter the United States.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 14, 2004 | - A videotape emerged in which Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the March 11 bombings in Madrid. "This is an answer to your cooperation with the Bush criminals and their allies," the tape said. Three days later, Spanish voters, who overwhelmingly opposed their government's support of the Iraq war, turned out the ruling Popular Party in favor of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, which pledged to bring Spanish troops home from Iraq.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| March 12, 2004 | - Ten bombs blew up four commuter trains in Madrid during the morning rush hour on March 11, killing 200 people and wounding about 1,500. The Spanish government initially blamed Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, the Basque separatist group.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| January 19, 2004 | -
Spanish bordello owners were protesting a court ruling that the owner of an "alternative club" in Seville must pay social-security tax on the prostitutes who work there. The owners, who claim that the women are technically freelance marketing consultants, said that paying such taxes would turn them into pimps.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 25, 2003 | -
Spain foiled a Basque terrorist plot to blow up a train in Madrid's busiest station on Christmas Eve.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 5, 2003 | - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, currently serving as president of the European Union, declared that Europeans have a duty to support the American war in Iraq, even if it means "a change in international law, which previously held that the sovereignty of a single state was inviolable." Berlusconi also denied that he is short; "I'm as tall as Aznar," he said, referring to Prime Minister José María Aznar of Spain. "I'm the average Italian," he continued. "Right?"
| Source:
New York Times
|
| November 29, 2003 | - Seven Spanish intelligence agents were killed near Baghdad.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| October 19, 2003 | - President George W. Bush traveled to Asia and gave a speech in Manila comparing Iraq to the Philippines, a former U.S. colony that was "liberated" from Spain in 1898 and occupied for 48 years. Bush said that the Philippines, which he called "the oldest democracy in Asia," should be seen as the model for a new democratic Iraq, and then quickly left the country because of security concerns.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| November 27, 2001 | -
Spain announced that it would not extradite eight men who were arrested for participating in the September 11
attacks unless the United States agreed to give them a civilian trial; the military courts envisioned by the Bush Administration would violate the European Convention on Human Rights.
| |
| October 16, 2001 | - A car bomb went off in Madrid.
| |
| September 4, 2001 | - A big car bomb set by Basque terrorists blew up in Madrid.
| |
| March 27, 2001 | - Spanish authorities removed 30 truckloads of garbage, weighing 154 tons, from a man's home near Madrid after neighbors complained about the smell.
| |
| November 7, 2000 | - A car bomb, apparently set by the Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna terrorist group, killed three people in Madrid, including a supreme court justice.
| |
| October 24, 2000 | - The town of Jarrell, Texas, hosted a “Running of the Bulls, Texas Style” in imitation of the annual event held in Pamplona, Spain; Hereford, Watusi, and Brahman bulls reluctantly shambled after uncomfortably sober cowboys in a large set of portable pens.
| |
| October 10, 2000 | - An African who in 1888 was snatched from his grave, stuffed, and put on display in Spain was returned home for a decent burial.
| |
| September 26, 2000 | -
Traffic was snarled in Sweden, Ireland, Spain, and Germany because of fuel-tax protests.
| |
| August 1, 2000 | -
Spain has laid claim to the remains of its armada of sunken warships, which lie scattered throughout its former empire, laden with untold riches.
| |
