The Spanish government defiantly ruled out calling early elections today despite having almost no parliamentary support for spending cuts designed to combat the country’s debt crisis.

A trawler hijacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean has been spotted by navy aircraft and the 36-man crew is safe, the Spanish government said today.

A group of day-trippers have confessed to starting the blaze that killed 11 firefighters in central Spain in the country’s worst firefighting loss in years, an Interior Ministry official said today.

Spain’s socialist government today approved a bill to legalise same-sex marriages, putting the predominantly Roman Catholic country on course to become only the third country to recognise gay marriages.