Última hora

ECONOMY

European economic slowdown holding back Spanish exports

Trade deficit doubled in first half of 2014, but Spain will still post current-account surplus this year, says government

Spain’s public debt passes €1 trillion

TOBACCO MARKET

Spanish cigarette sales plummet almost 50% in five years

Cristina Delgado Madrid

Anti-smoking laws, higher taxes, the economic crisis, contraband and cheaper alternatives have all hit the big firms hard

REFERENDUM ROW

Catalan republicans call on premier to ignore top court on self-rule vote

Àngels Piñol / C. Gil del Olmo Barcelona

ERC chief Oriol Junqueras says he will not tolerate delays to November 9 referendum from regional leader Artur Mas, even if central government appeals it

Catalan government insists date for independence vote unchanged

Ruling CiU seeks to limit damage caused by deputy premier’s suggestion that November 9 referendum could be delayed. Summit of pro-independence parties planned for September

Catalan deputy premier suggests self-rule vote may be delayed

Woman and her father stabbed to death on busy Spanish beach

Juan Mari Gastaca Bilbao

Killer, who was arrested after the incident in Cantabria, may have had a relationship with the 42-year-old female victim

IMMIGRATION

The €4,000 shortcut across the Strait of Gibraltar

Mafia groups are offering to take illegal migrants from Morocco to Spain in 15 minutes. Those willing to carry drugs get big discounts

Dozens of migrants put in care of NGOs as state centers reach limit

José Precedo Tarifa

Cádiz police precincts are full following huge influx of boats carrying illegal sub-Saharan immigrants to Spanish shores earlier this week

Morocco: “dysfunctions” led to huge influx of migrant boats

Woman caught smuggling cocaine in breast implants at Madrid airport

El País Madrid

The Venezuelan national was rushed to hospital after she confessed to be hiding 1.7 kilos of the drug

ROCK OF CONTENTION

Gibraltar smuggling cost EU €700m in tax revenue over four years

Fernando J. Pérez / El País Madrid 1

Spain begins judicial investigation into contraband tobacco at OLAF anti-fraud office’s recommendation

Spain to investigate Gibraltar smuggling after EU recommendation

EBOLA OUTBREAK

Bleach and a robot used to disinfect ebola victim’s Madrid hospital room

Pilar Álvarez / El País Madrid 1

New tests confirm that Juliana Bonoha, the nun repatriated alongside late Spanish priest Miguel Pajares, has not been infected

Priest brought to Madrid after contracting ebola dies in hospital

Seventy-five-year-old Spanish clergyman Miguel Pajares, who was flown back from Liberia last week, had been being treated with experimental ZMapp serum

Government will cover cost of ebola priest’s repatriation

An aerial view over Castellón Airport. / ANGEL SÁNCHEZ

Castellón’s plane-less airport hands €660,000 to local soccer club

Sum covers what Valencia government-owned installation, which has yet to receive air traffic, promised in sponsorship for 2009-2010

Spain’s first video-rental store still holding out

Stefania Gozzer Arias Barcelona

Founded in 1980 in Barcelona, Video Instan continues to resist the challenge of the internet. But for how much longer?

Government gives definitive go-ahead to prospecting off Canaries

El País Madrid

Energy firm Repsol says it will begin oil exploration surveys later this year, and expects results by early 2015

ERE INVESTIGATION

Supreme Court to rule on senior politicians in labor fund scandal

Antonio Jesús Mora Caballero / Javier Martín-Arroyo Seville

Seville judge hands over section of massive ERE corruption case involving two ex-Andalusia regional premiers and five others with parliamentary immunity