Madrid
Spanish police officers evicted the staff of a public TV station in Valencia after it was ordered to shutdown. The staff were protesting against the shutdown bycontinuing to broadcast.
Valencia’s government decided to shutdown the station RTVV (Radio Television
Valenciana) after it was declared necessary to cut staff by more than half.
Police broke into RTTV building and escorted the workers out.
Spain has been struggling to improve its economy.
In Greece, the ERT broadcaster was also shutdown in June but workers barricated themselves in and continued boradcasting. Police have taken them out. (read more about this here)
Madrid’s streets covered in garbage, cleaners on strike
Residents and visitors to Madrid are increasingly being confronted by piles of malodorous rubbish and litter-strewn streets as a strike by street cleaners enters its second week.
The mayor of the Spanish capital has denied the city faces a health risk. The city’s street-cleaners are striking over plans to cut hundreds of jobs, and reduce the remaining workers’ salaries.
Madrid is trying to cut its public service costs at a time when the whole country faces a strict austerity drive. A meeting on Thursday between unions and employers ended with no agreement, meaning the strike will go on.
For more than a week now 3.3 million residents of Madrid have smelled, seen and sometimes stepped in, the product of a strike.
This is not Madrid at its best: Overflowing bins, piles of rubbish, cigarette butts scattered everywhere and other kinds of stinky waste littered across the streets and pavements.
“I understand they need to fight for what is theirs,” said a Madrid resident, Mari Angeles Mateos.
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Spanish sex-trafficking ring stopped
Spanish police say they have arrested 25 people in a sex-trafficking ring that brought women from Nigeria to work as prostitutes.
The women, allegedly lured with the promise of good jobs in Europe, were first flown to Mexico or Brazil, travelling on false identity documents. From there, they were flown to Paris, then smuggled into Spain to work in the sex trade, police say.
Five women who were victims of the sex ring were freed in the raids.
Police found one member of the gang performing an abortion on one of the five women.
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Drug baron caught in Spain
The notorious leader of one of Colombia’s most violent drug gangs has been arrested in Spain: Cipriam Manuel Palencia Gonzalez, the head of the Urabenos gang, is wanted for a string of crimes including the murder of a police officer in Colombia.
He was detained in Madrid on Friday while planning new drug routes to Spain, according to police.
Gonzalez, 34, broke out of jail in Colombia in 2009 and was wounded in a police raid there earlier this year. Six members of the gang were detained in the raid and a police captain was killed. Colombia police allege Mr Gonzalez then hatched a plot to kill more police.
He escaped, travelling first to Venezuela and then to Brazil before flying to Madrid in recent days under an assumed name, a police statement said.
Colombian authorities have reportedly linked his gang to 52 murders.
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Cyan People 