Spain's Constitutional Court has ordered Catalonia's parliament to suspend a planned session next week during which separatist lawmakers wanted to declare independence.

Catalonia's regional government is considering when it will declare independence from Spain in the wake of a disputed referendum which triggered Spain's worst national crisis in decades.

Catalan separatists called for international mediation with the Spanish government.

Barcelona's mayor Ada Colau has demanded "an immediate end to police charges against the defenceless population".

Latest: Catalonia "has won the right to become an independent state", the Spanish region's leader Carles Puigdemont said.

Spain's state prosecutor is investigating more than 700 Catalan mayors for cooperating with a referendum on independence that has been suspended by a court.

Former Barcelona captain and coach Pep Guardiola has spoken of his sorrow following Thursday's terrorist attack in his home city. MANCHESTER CITY MANAGER PEP GUARDIOLA SADDENED BY BARCELONA TERROR ATTACK

World leaders have condemned the bloody terror attack outside the British Houses of Parliament that ended in the deaths of four people and left up to 40 injured.

The number of Spaniards registered as without a job fell to the lowest level since 2009 in June, bolstering Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s pledges on job creation.

EU economy chief Pierre Moscovici has said Greece’s European creditors have agreed to provide debt relief so long as the country’s government can deliver on the terms of its third bailout package.

Forget the London clubs. Forget Manchester. Forget Paris, Monaco and Rome. The most significant foreign investment in European football came last week and it’s not Russian, Arab or American but Chinese, writes David Shonfield.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has dismissed Catalonia’s non-binding vote on secession from Spain as a failure and ruled out talks about holding a legal independence ballot.

A bus carrying a group on a religious excursion has crashed in southern Spain, killing 14 people and injuring another 38.

Catalonia’s president Artur Mas says Catalans want the same chance as Scots who were given the right to vote for independence.

Tensions over Gibraltar escalated yesterday when the British territory’s chief minister accused Spain of “sabre-rattling” and behaving like North Korea after Madrid floated the idea of a new border crossing fee and airspace controls.

Voters in the industrious and economically important north-eastern region of Catalonia began casting their ballots as polling stations opened on Sunday in elections that could determine the future shape of Spain.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said he would only consider asking for financial aid for his country once the European Central Bank (ECB) has fleshed out its crisis-fighting plans for buying government bonds.

Spain’s grinding economic misery will get worse this year despite the country’s request for a European financial lifeline of up to €100bn to save its banks, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said today.

The shockwaves from Greece’s failure to form a coalition government have continued to reverberate around markets, though upbeat US economic indicators gave the more positive-minded investor something to latch on to.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy today defended his government’s harsh austerity measures aimed at correcting Spain’s grim economic forecast, one day after tens of thousands of people took to the streets in protest against his handling of the country’s worst crisis in decades.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is insisting his country will not follow Ireland in seeking a bailout.

EUROPEAN leaders return to work this week seeking to buy time for the Spanish and Italian governments to wrest control over their debt and rescue the single currency from fragmentation in its 10th anniversary year.