Police in a Spanish enclave in North Africa caught a teenager trying to sneak in from Morocco hidden in the petrol tank of a Mercedes car, officials said today.

King Juan Carlos will begin a visit to Spain's two North African enclaves today that has sparked a diplomatic spat with Morocco, which claims the territories as its own.

Spanish police today arrested two suspected members of an Islamic extremist group who are believed to have had a role in the Casablanca bombings of 2003.

Tougher border security at Spain’s two north African enclaves has increased illegal immigration into Italy, the interior minister said.

Amnesty International accused Spanish and Moroccan security forces yesterday of using excessive force and violating immigrants’ rights in trying to repel waves of Africans seeking to gain a foothold in Europe over the past month.

DOZENS of African illegal immigrants who charged across the border into the Spanish enclave of Melilla have been deported to Morocco after a week of deadly clashes, officials said yesterday.

Six Africans were killed in clashes with Moroccan security services near the Spanish enclave of Melilla, the official Moroccan news agency said today.

Nearly 1,000 Africans tried to cross over from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Melilla before dawn today by scaling razor wire fences.

MORE than 300 Africans tore through a razor-wire fence separating Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Melilla yesterday, clashing with police in the latest wave of undocumented immigrants seeking a foothold in Europe.

Spanish and Moroccan officials had no comment on reports today that their respective security forces were responsible for shooting at five immigrants who were killed when hundreds rushed a barrier at one of its two enclaves on the northern Morocco coast.

Two Africans died today as hundreds of migrants tried to climb a fence separating Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, the Spanish Interior Ministry said.

A judge today jailed two Moroccan brothers on provisional charges of collaborating with a terrorist group in connection with the deadly Madrid train bombings last year, but ordered their parents to be released.

A 12-kilo bomb hidden in a bag on a busy high-speed rail line in Spain reignited terrorism fears in a country still traumatised by last month’s Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.

MORE THAN 300 people, mainly woman, children and the elderly, died as they slept when a powerful earthquake struck northern Morocco in the early hours yesterday.

SPAIN and Morocco are to hold high-level reconciliation talks on patching up relations after being persuaded by the US to step back from a dispute over the islet of Perejil.

SPAIN'S Foreign Minister yesterday offered to withdraw troops from a disputed Mediterranean island recaptured from Morocco, but only if Morocco promises not to reoccupy it.

Spain’s Foreign Minister today offered to withdraw troops from a disputed Mediterranean island recaptured from Morocco, but only if Morocco promises not to reoccupy it.

MOROCCO claimed yesterday that a tiny Mediterranean island at the centre of a growing dispute with Spain is an "integral part" of the North African nation, but that it wanted to use diplomatic means to resolve differences.

SPANISH Foreign Minister Ana Palacio yesterday called on Morocco to get the message Madrid is trying to convey by deploying gunboats near a tiny abandoned island invaded by Moroccan soldiers.

Spain has sent three war vessels to protect its possessions in North Africa as Morocco continued a military occupation of an uninhabited Spanish islet for a third day.

Four people were reported killed and 40 others injured when an airliner crash landed on a road near Malaga airport on Spain’s Costa del Sol today.

At least three people are feared dead and some 40 others injured after a passenger plane crash landed in Malaga.

We are receiving reports a plane has crashed on a road near Malaga airport in Spain.