The British government summoned the Spanish ambassador to the Foreign Office in London on Thursday over the actions of a Spanish naval vessel near Gibraltar.

A Spanish navy ship tried to divert two commercial vessels heading to the port of Gibraltar by wrongly claiming they were in Spanish waters, Europe Minister David Lidington said. 

Spain may have been embarrassingly dethroned as World Cup holders, but Real Madrid and Barcelona are still champions at making money after they were named as the world's two richest sports franchises.

For the second successive year, Forbes business magazine tagged European champions Real Madrid, where Cristiano Ronaldo plays, as the number one sports team with a value of $3.44 billion.

Spain's government Friday approved controversial new fines for holding unauthorized demonstrations, sparking protests from civil rights groups.

Following warnings from judicial authorities, Madrid watered down measures from an earlier bill, but maintained tough penalties for unauthorized demos if they are deemed a security threat.

Spaniards flocked to pay homage on Tuesday to Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano, one of the world's greatest footballers, who inspired millions of fans during the dari days of the Franco era.

Hundreds of people queued around the block by the towering walls of the club's Santiago Bernabeu stadium where Di Stefano's body lay in state, a day after he died following a heart attack, aged 88.

Spanish police Tuesday arrested 26 suspected members of the Italian Camorra mob accused of laundering mafia money through companies in Spain, prosecutors said.

Officers arrested the suspects in raids in Madrid and seized cash, firearms and drug-related material, the anti-corruption prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Fighting between African migrants in Morocco near the Spanish enclave of Melilla left at least 20 people injured on Sunday, local authorities said.

The unrest broke out in Gourougou forest overlooking the enclave where migrants gather waiting for a chance to sneak into Melilla as a passage to Europe.

Vast crowds of revelers in high heels, wigs and figure-hugging dresses cavorted in the streets of Madrid on Saturday in what is billed as the biggest gay pride parade in Europe.

Tens of thousands crammed one of the Spanish capital's broad central avenues, the Paseo del Prado, in the early evening to the din of drums and whistles in a parade scheduled to last seven hours.

A key suspect has accused Spanish King Felipe VI's brother-in-law Inaki Urdangarin of embezzling public funds, according to written testimony submitted by the prosecutor Thursday.

Accountant Marco-Antonio Tejeiro, a fellow suspect in the fraud case facing Urdangarin, offered the first direct evidence against the 46-year-old husband of Felipe's sister, Princess Cristina.

Film crews will shoot part of the fifth season of popular fantasy television series "Game of Thrones" in the countryside of southern Spain, producers said on Wednesday.

Part of the epic series "will be filmed in various natural locations in the province of Seville," capital of the Andalusia region, said a statement on the website of the regional film council attributed to HBO, the U.S. network behind the series.

Spanish King Felipe VI's sister Cristina appealed on Wednesday against tax and money-laundering charges that threaten to land her in an unprecedented criminal trial.

If Cristina ends up in the dock, it would be a first for a direct relative of a Spanish monarch and a big headache for Felipe who took the throne on June 19 promising an "honest and transparent monarchy".