The number of people reported sick in Germany from a foodborne bacterial outbreak that has already killed 16 spiked over the last 24 hours, with nearly 100 more people suffering from severe and potentially fatal symptoms, the national disease control centre said today.

Riot police in central Barcelona clashed today with protesters at one of the makeshift camps that have been erected in cities across Spain to protest against high unemployment and other woes.

Spanish police have arrested eight people who allegedly planned to sell Iran military transport helicopters that they obtained in Israel.

Thousands of people have spent the night outdoors in the south-eastern Spanish city of Lorca in fear of further tremors after Spain’s most destructive earthquakes in 50 years killed eight people and injured dozens more.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has announced he will not seek a third term in office at general elections in 2012.

Spain placed striking air traffic controllers under military authority today and threatened them with jail terms in an unprecedented emergency order to get planes back in the skies and clear chaotic airports clogged with irate travellers.

Spain’s civil aviation agency has said some striking air traffic controllers were returning to work after the government threatened prison terms under military law.

Spain’s government has declared an unprecedented “state of alarm” amid an air traffic controllers’ strike which has largely closed the country’s airspace.

Spain’s military have taken control of the country's airspace after air traffic controllers staged a massive sickness walkout that stranded at least 330,000 travellers on the eve of a long holiday weekend, forcing the government to shut down Madrid’s big international hub and seven other airports.

THE outlawed political wing of Basque separatist group ETA said yesterday it would reject violence in its drive to be legalised, but the government said it must go further to be able to participate in elections.

SPAIN’S government yesterday rejected a ceasefire by Basque fighters ETA as totally inadequate and demanded it renounce guns and bombs forever in its battle for an independent homeland.

JUST as this country did with our own terrorists, Spain is having difficulties accepting that the ceasefire announced by Basque separatists ETA is genuine.

The Basque regional government delivered a rebuff to ETA after the armed separatist group announced another ceasefire and suggested it might turn to a political process in its quest for an independent homeland.

Two Spanish police trainers were shot dead by their Afghan driver during a training session in western Afghanistan today.

Three members of Basque separatist group Eta were jailed for 1,000 years each today for a bombing that killed two people at Madrid airport.

A VIOLENT storm with fierce rain and hurricane- force winds battered France, Spain and Portugal yesterday, leaving at least 45 people dead.

THE leader of the armed Basque group ETA was arrested in France yesterday, officials said, in another setback for the separatists, who have seen five of their commanders taken into custody in the last two years.

Spain is on full security alert for retaliation from Eta terrorists after the group’s leader was arrested this week.

Spain has rejected a final appeal for asylum by a son of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his British wife and put them on a plane bound for Egypt, the Interior Ministry and a lawyer for the man said today

A CAR BOMB exploded in a University of Navarre car park in northern Spain yesterday, slightly wounding 17 people, after a warning call in the name of Basque separatist rebels ETA, the government said.

Liverpool have injury worries up front ahead of Saturday’s match at home to Wigan after both Fernando Torres and Ryan Babel limped off while on international duty.

Atletico Madrid are awaiting confirmation the stadium ban imposed by UEFA has been postponed which would see Liverpool play at the Vicente Calderon next Wednesday.

Spain got tough with striking truckers who disrupted food and fuel supplies, deploying riot police to lift blockades of a border crossing with France and a major highway outside Madrid, and making dozens of arrests.

Spain got tough today with striking truckers who have disrupted food and fuel supplies, deploying riot police to lift blockades of a border crossing with France and a major highway outside Madrid, and making dozens of arrests.

Spain’s acting interior minister says the country is headed for a long period of violence from the Basque separatist group Eta.

Both of Spain’s major political parties called off all campaigning in the run up to Sunday’s general election after a politician was shot dead by Basque terrorists today.

The Basque terrorist group ETA was blamed for the murder of a Spanish politician today, two days before the country’s general election.

Fourteen suspected Islamic militants arrested in Spain today may have been planning a terrorist attack in Barcelona, officials warned.

Spanish police found 275lb (125kg) of bomb-making material following the arrest of two suspected members of the armed Basque group ETA, the Interior Minister said today.

A Spanish civil guard was shot and killed today in a clash with members of Basque separatist group Eta in south-west France, the first death involving the group since it abandoned a cease-fire in June, police said.

AUTHORITIES in Spain say they have foiled a plot by a suspected member of Eta to blow up a ferry carrying thousands of British tourists.

Basque separatist group ETA clearly intended to cause casualties in a bomb attack it planned this week, Spain’s interior minister said today.

The Basque separatist group Eta today claimed responsibility for a powerful car bombing that killed two people, but insisted a “permanent” ceasefire it called in March remained in force and said the fatalities were unintentional.

Spain’s ruling Socialist party today said a peace process launched with a March ceasefire announcement by armed Basque separatists was now dead, not just suspended, following a weekend car bombing.

Crews sifting through tonnes of rubble have reached the core area of a car bombing blamed on Basque separatists, but cannot go any faster as they search for two missing men, Madrid’s mayor said today.

A powerful car bomb exploded at Madrid’s international airport today, injuring 26 people and leaving two missing in an attack blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA.

Spanish politicians tonight greeted the IRA’s announcement that it was laying down arms and expressed hope that the move would encourage the armed Basque group Eta to do likewise.