Madrid, Spain | AFP | A 13-month old baby girl received the world’s first intestinal transplant, Spanish health authorities have announced. The baby “has already been discharged and is in perfect condition at home with her parents”, said the statement from Madrid’s La Paz hospital, issued Tuesday. The baby received the organ via asystolic donation — from a donor at the end of their life. This method of donation means “the organ to be […]
Tag: Spain
Spanish court orders Shakira to stand trial in tax fraud case
Barcelona, Spain (AFP) by Mathieu Gorse and Daniel Silva A Spanish court has ordered Colombian music superstar Shakira to stand trial on charges of fraudulently failing to pay 14 million euros in tax, filings showed Tuesday. Prosecutors in Barcelona said in July they would seek a prison sentence of more than eight years against the singer and a fine of nearly 24 million euros ($24 million), after she rejected a plea deal over accusations of […]
Some embassies in Haitian capital close citing unrest
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AFP) — Several countries said this week they were temporarily shutting their embassies in Haiti’s capital, amid unrest over fuel price hikes. That move has sparked demonstrations in one of the Americas’ poorest countries, where the government is struggling to take on powerful gangs and provide basic services. The embassy of the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti, said it was closing its “doors to the […]
Heatwave batters Spain’s Mediterranean mussel crop
DELTEBRE, Spain (AFP) – “There’s nothing left here,” sighs Javier Franch as he shakes the heavy rope of mussels he’s just pulled to the surface in northeastern Spain. They are all dead. With the country hit by a long and brutal heatwave this summer, the water temperature in the Ebro Delta, the main mussels production area of the Spanish Mediterranean, is touching 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). And any grower who hasn’t removed their […]
Spain, Portugal battle to control huge wildfires
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain and neighboring Portugal fought against large wildfires on Tuesday, while three people were badly injured after their train hurtled into a smaller Spanish blaze. Some 300 firefighters spent a difficult night battling a huge wildfire in southeastern Spain that has burnt through nearly 10,000 hectares in an area notoriously difficult to access, officials said Tuesday. The fire began when lightning hit the Vall de Ebo area in Valencia late Saturday […]
WHO says heatwave caused 1,700 deaths in Spain, Portugal
Copenhagen, Denmark | AFP The World Health Organization’s European office on Friday said the heatwave baking Europe has caused over 1,700 deaths on the Iberian peninsula alone, calling for joint action to tackle climate change. “Heat kills. Over the past decades, hundreds of thousands of people have died as a result of extreme heat during extended heatwaves, often with simultaneous wildfires,” WHO regional director for Europe Hans Kluge said in a statement. “This year, we […]
Spain, Portugal swelter under new heat wave
Madrid, Spain (Agence France-Presse) Temperatures were set to soar above 40 degrees Celsius across large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday as the Iberian Peninsula faces a second heat wave in less than a month. The mercury was to hit 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) in Spain’s southeastern region of Extremadura and 41 degrees in Andalusia, Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET said. Temperatures in Spain’s normally cooler northwestern region of Galicia were predicted to rise […]
AU urges probe into deaths of Africans at Spain-Morocco border
NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — The African Union Commission chief has voiced shock at the “violent and degrading” treatment of African migrants trying to cross from Morocco into Spain after 23 people died, and called for an investigation into the incident. About 2,000 migrants stormed the heavily fortified border between the Moroccan region of Nador and the Spanish enclave of Melilla on Friday. At least 23 migrants died and 140 police officers were wounded in the […]
Europe swelters in record-breaking June heatwave
by Stuart Williams with Mathieu Gorse in Madrid Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Spain, France and other western European nations sweltered over the weekend under a blistering June heatwave, with some wildfires still blazing even as the weather began to ease. The soaring temperatures were in line with scientists’ predictions that such phenomena will now strike earlier in the year thanks to global warming. Emergency services battled several wildfires Sunday in northern Spain. The […]
Spain battles wildfires as heatwave persists
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Emergency services battled several wildfires Thursday as Spain remained in the grip of an exceptional heatwave that has seen temperatures reach 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Farenheit). The most alarming blaze, near Baldomar in Catalonia, has already destroyed 500 hectares of forest but could spread to over 20,000, the government in the northwestern region said. No-one has been evacuated yet but the Catalan authorities have cordoned off several residential areas […]
Spain in grip of heatwave as France braces for soaring temperatures
Spain was on Monday already in the grips of a heatwave expected to reach “extreme” levels, and France is bracing for one, too, as meteorologists blame the unusually high seasonal temperatures on global warming. The “unusual” temperatures for the time of year follow the hottest May in at least 100 years in Spain, Ruben del Campo, spokesman for the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet) said. He told AFP that the current heatwave would bring “extreme temperatures” […]
Spanish monkeypox outbreak linked to sauna
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — A sauna in Spain’s capital has been forced to close over a suspected link to a monkeypox outbreak in the country, health authorities said Friday. Several European countries have reported cases in recent days, and the World Health Organisation is investigating whether some outbreaks spread within the gay community. The Paraiso sauna, a gay-friendly establishment whose name means “paradise” in the heart of Madrid, said on Twitter it was shutting its […]
