s continuing economic problems are threatening the future of the industry – but it is hoped a discounts campaign will arrest the decline Spanish cinemas are facing an unprecedented crisis after the country's box-office total for 2013 plunged by 15% year-on-year. Multiplexes have been damaged by a combination of piracy, the economic crisis and a sales tax on tickets that has risen from eight to 21%,...
Google was fined for breaking combining personal information from online services and failing to inform users on how it uses data ...
s party sparks fury with plan to tighten laws by allowing abortion only in cases of rape or risk to mother's health The Spanish government is expected to present sweeping reforms to the country's liberal abortion laws this Friday, ushering in changes that women's groups are already calling a "serious step backwards". While the full draft of the reforms has yet to be tabled, the ruling People's party...
s calendar looking for a challenge. It may be an incentive to keep fit, a way to raise money for a charity or an excuse for a cycling holiday. I've looked at the 2014 calendar and these are some of the events that have caught my eye. The toughest There are plenty of contenders out there, starting in the UK with the Fred Whitton Challenge on 11 May (entries open 4 January) which takes in all the toughest...
s cabinet of the austerity-fixated Wolfgang Schäuble is a tragedy for the eurozone periphery Wolfgang Schäuble is back on his throne. Confirmed as finance minister in Angela Merkel's new cabinet, his commandments will be as keenly followed in the corridors of Brussels as in Berlin. Such is the power of Germany's economy that Schäuble holds a key vote, and in many instances a veto, when the eurozone's...
democratise' access to space, with trials of technology to begin in 2020 A group of European space companies plans to offer "budget" trips to space tourists from Spain...
s economic troubles to become the world's largest fashion retailer, with more than 6,400 stores in 86 markets and a rapidly growing online business. More than 120,000 people work for the company, 4,400 of them at the HQ near its La Coruña birthplace. Ortega himself, 77 and still on the board, is now the third-richest person in the world, according to Forbes , with a net worth of $57bn (£35bn). Inditex...
s north-eastern Catalonia region on Thursday agreed the wording of an independence referendum proposed for November 2014 but the Spanish government immediately said the vote was illegal and would not happen. The Catalan regional government head, Artur Mas, said the vote would ask two questions: "Do you want Catalonia to be a state?" and: "Do you want that state to be independent?" Spain's justice minister,...
Mobile phone footage captures the moment a big cat trainer is attacked by a tiger during a circus performance in Madrid ...
Inditex sales rising ahead of its key Christmas trading period Inditex, the global fashion retailers which owns Zara, indicated that sales growth is rising ahead of Christmas as it revealed a 5% increase in sales in the nine months to 31 October. The company said that total sales at constant currency rates were up 10% between the beginning of November and 8 December, implying a 4% rise in underlying...
sexual connotations' of calendar, which raised more than €100,000 for charity A Spanish judge has taken Ryanair to task for sexism, ordering the low-cost airline to drop an advertising campaign for its annual Girls of Ryanair calendar. The racy calendar, which shows female cabin crew stripped down to bikinis, landed the airline in court in Malaga after a Spanish consumer group lodged a formal complaint....
s wife broke an almost three-month silence surrounding their disappearance in the hope that publicity might bring what negotiations had failed to deliver. In doing so Monica Prieto, who has also reported on the Syrian war, has cast new light on a conflict in which about 35 media and aid workers have been kidnapped and 55 killed, and which now ranks among the most dangerous of any war to cover in the...
s attempt to keep up with the increasing number of Spaniards turning to food banks for help. Passersby insert their change and choose which of the 24 items provided by the food bank they want to fund. Items cost between €1 and €3 (80p-£2.50): 1kg of sugar costs €1 and a dozen eggs €2. The machine spits out a little box that shows what has been purchased. "People walking by stop and stare. It looks...
s 1939 victory, he joined the Blue division, the Spanish contingent that fought alongside the Nazis in the second world war, and spent 18 months at the siege of Leningrad. Back in Spain he became a military teacher and in 1955 started to give classes to Prince Juan Carlos, then 15 years old, who had been brought to Madrid to be trained as Franco's heir. In 1965, Armada joined Juan Carlos's staff and,...
Two Spanish journalists were kidnapped in Syria on 16 September by an Islamist group linked to al-Qaeda, it has just been revealed. The abductions of El Mundo reporter Javier Espinosa and freelance photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova were kept secret in the hope that indirect communications with the captors would bear fruit. But no demands have been made by the group, which has been identified as...
families said. Espinosa, who works for El Mundo newspaper, and freelance photographer Garcia-Vilanova were a few kilometres from the border with Turkey and were trying to leave Syria at the time. They were taken to Raqqa city. They were travelling with members of the rebel Free Syrian Army, who were also taken by ISIL but released after 12 days. The incident had not been reported until now because...