Spain's Constitutional Court on Wednesday unanimously ruled that a referendum on secession called by the wealthy northeastern region of Catalonia in November was illegal, confirming an earlier decision to temporarily suspend the vote.

The court ruled that laws passed by the regional government of Catalonia in September allowing it to call and organize such votes was unconstitutional because only the central government had the power to stage a referendum on issues of sovereignty.

Spain said Tuesday it had broken up an online network accused of recruiting young women to join Islamic State militants fighting in Iraq and Syria and arrested four suspects.

The early morning arrests came as European nations scramble to halt a surge in young people wanting to traveling to Iraq and Syria to fight with the jihadists.

A 5.2-magnitude earthquake jolted Madrid and central Spain on Monday, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Spain's National Geographic Institute initially reported the quake, which hit at 5:16 pm (1616 GMT), as having a magnitude of 5.4 but later revised down the reading.

Eight Spanish police officers suspected of beating a Cameroonian migrant trying to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla have been summoned to appear in court for questioning, officials said Friday.

The court in Melilla carrying out an investigation wants to "determine if the behavior of the officers fell within the law," a court statement said.

A Moroccan court sentenced a former Spanish soldier to eight years in jail Friday for heading a cell that planned to carry out "terrorist acts" in the kingdom, the MAP news agency reported.

Another 17 members of the group, broken up in January 2014, were jailed for between three and 10 years in connection with their activities, mostly in the north of the country.

Britain and Spain said Thursday the solution to the Ukrainian conflict had to come through dialogue and should not involve military aid to Ukrainian forces.

"We do not believe that at the moment it would be helpful to provide lethal support to the Ukrainian armed forces," British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told a news conference with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo in Madrid.

Hundreds of Spaniards marched in Madrid and similar protests were called in other cities on Saturday against a government plan to toughen penalties for unauthorized demonstrations.

Blowing whistles and banging drums, several hundred marched to Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square. Organizers called for similar gatherings in about 20 other cities.

Spain's former king Juan Carlos has lodged an appeal against a paternity suit brought by a woman claiming to be his daughter, a judicial source said on Saturday.

His lawyers launched the court appeal to fend off the first lawsuit faced by the 77-year-old, since he lost his total immunity on abdicating last June.

Morocco on Wednesday vowed further crackdowns on illegal migrants after rounding up hundreds of foreigners close to the Spanish enclave of Melilla, in a move criticized by local rights groups.

The interior ministry said the operation Tuesday evacuated a forest "where migrants live in very precarious conditions."

Over 600 African migrants charged the border fence separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco on Tuesday, with at least 35 managing to climb the dangerously high barrier, including five who were injured, Spain's government said.

They were the latest in a flow of thousands of migrants trying to reach Melilla and the other Spanish north African territory of Ceuta, which together make up Europe's only borders with Africa.