The Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon Major General Alberto Asarta will end his tenure at the head of the mission on January 28, 2012, reported As Safire newspaper on Saturday.

It said that he will likely return to Spain where he will assume a high-ranking official position.

Spain summoned Syria's ambassador to Madrid on Friday, complaining of allegations that members of his embassy abused Syrian opposition sympathizers on Spanish soil, the Spanish government said.

The foreign ministry summoned ambassador Hussamedin Ala'a "after repeated complaints by Syrian and Spanish-Syrian citizens, opponents of the current regime, of acts allegedly committed by members of the embassy in clear abuse of their status," it said in a statement.

Spanish companies beat French rivals to a contract to build a high-speed railway on the Muslim pilgrim route between Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, authorities said Wednesday.

The 6.7-billion-euro contract went to the Al-Shoula Consortium of 12 Spanish companies, including state rail operator Renfe and Saudi firms Al Shoula and Al Rosan, the Spanish government and the state Saudi Railways Organization said.

Spanish film distributors cut lesbian love scenes with "Desperate Housewives" actress Eva Longoria from a movie, prompting a gay film festival to cancel its screening in protest, the organizer said Monday.

The film "Without Men" tells the story of a small village whose women are left to amuse themselves when their menfolk go off to war. It also stars actor Christian Slater.

Suspected Islamist militants kidnapped two Spaniards and an Italian working at a refugee camp in western Algeria early Sunday, officials and security sources said.

A colleague of one of the Spanish hostages said over Spanish radio that "several gunshots were heard" and two people were wounded during the kidnapping from the Rabuni camp near Tindouf, mainly inhabited by Sahrawi refugees from Western Sahara who seek greater autonomy.

Spain is claiming an end to four decades of violent bombings and shootings after the Basque separatist group ETA announced it would lay down its arms and try to negotiate its demand for a separate nation.

ETA has killed more 800 people in its drive for an independent state and stopped short of declaring it was defeated, but issued an historic announcement Thursday ending its armed struggle with an appearance via video of three ETA members wearing trademark Basque berets and masks with slits for their eyes. At the end of the clip, they defiantly raised their fists in the air demanding a separate Basque nation.

France vowed Tuesday to do everything in its power to keep its triple-A rating following a warning from Moody's, as markets fell after Germany dampened hopes that an EU summit will resolve the Eurozone crisis.

Paris shares tumbled by as much as 2.01 percent early Tuesday after the Moody's warning, following earlier falls on Asian markets amid concerns over the spreading impact of the Eurozone's debt woes.

Male crickets prioritize the life of their female partners ahead of their own, even though it means a dramatic rise for the former in the risk of being eaten, research published Thursday said.

In perhaps the insect equivalent of holding the door open, infrared video pictures of a wild population of field crickets (Gryllus campestris) in Spain showed males giving females priority access to the safety of a burrow.

Aitor Hernandez has been looking to buy a new glass pipe to smoke cannabis since June but waited for an annual cannabis fair which got underway Friday near Madrid to make his choice.

"You can see all the types of pipes that exist, the newest styles, in one place, it's great," the tattooed 23-year-old said, carrying the box with his new pipe at the fair held at a bullring in the Madrid suburb of Leganes.

More than 150 Spanish police raided a suspected al-Qaida financing ring Tuesday, arresting five Algerian men and seizing computer material, the government said.

Police suspected the men sent money to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which has its roots in Algeria and carries out attacks and kidnappings in north Africa, the interior ministry said in a statement.