Spain

Sephardic Jews invited back to Spain after 500 years

by News Sources 03.09.2013

BBC News reports: More than 500 years ago, tens of thousands of Jews fled Spain because of persecution. Now their descendants are being invited to return. Before the infamous Spanish Inquisition of the 15th Century, some 300,000 Jews lived in Spain. It was one of the largest communities of Jews in the world. Today, there [...]

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Austerity is making Spain’s ‘pact of silence’ fall apart

by News Sources 10.03.2012

Paul Mason writes: “Independence for Catalonia? Over my dead body… and those of many soldiers.” That was how Francisco Alaman reacted to the 1.5 million strong demonstration in Barcelona last month, with many calling for independence for the region. It’s a view. Quite strongly held not just on the right in Spain but on the [...]

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The shape of modern Spain is being questioned

by News Sources 09.26.2012

Following protests in Madrid which turned violent on Tuesday night, Giles Tremlett writes: Even before the march, government officials had loudly claimed that protesters were troublemakers from both the left and the right. Perhaps that is why riot police felt they could hide their identity badges – a move that protesters say proves they feel [...]

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Hunger on the rise in Spain

by News Sources 09.26.2012

The New York Times reports: On a recent evening, a hip-looking young woman was sorting through a stack of crates outside a fruit and vegetable store here in the working-class neighborhood of Vallecas as it shut down for the night. At first glance, she looked as if she might be a store employee. But no. [...]

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In Spain ‘there is no future’

by News Sources 05.23.2012

El País reports: Con la que está cayendo…” This expression – which literally means “With this downpour,” but metaphorically is used as “With things as bad as they are” – keeps cropping up in conversation, as Spaniards spend their days with one eye on the stock market and the other on the risk premium – [...]

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Spain’s stolen babies

by News Sources 04.04.2012

Lorna Scott Fox writes: On 20 March, a Spanish judge gave prosecutors leave to proceed with a case against an 80-year-old nun charged with kidnapping. According to lawyers for victim groups, as many as 350,000 babies were stolen from poor, single or left-wing mothers between 1938 and the late 1980s. Sister María Gómez Valbuena, who [...]

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NEWS: Madrid train bombings convictions

by Paul Woodward 10.31.2007

21 guilty, seven cleared over Madrid train bombings By Paul Hamilos and Mark Tran, The Guardian, October 31, 2007 A Spanish judge today found 21 people guilty – but acquitted seven – of the Madrid train bombings that killed more than 190 people in one of Europe’s worst terrorist atrocities in recent years. To the [...]

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