POLICE have arrested five men suspected of deliberately starting forest fires raging across north-western Spain that have killed three people.

Manuel Fraga, the last political survivor of General Francisco Franco’s regime, has lost power in Spain’s Galicia region after an election decided by overseas voters.

Despairing fishermen have continued battling to defend Europe’s richest shellfish beds from a major fuel oil spill.

Portugal began deploying floating barriers across a river mouth today, fearing patches from a major oil spill affecting Spain could drift south.