Spanish judges on Tuesday ordered a 55-year-old ETA prisoner freed after Europe's rights court ruled against her prolonged detention, opening the way to the release of dozens of other violent Basque separatists.

The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights ruled Monday that Ines del Rio Prada be released, condemning Spain for retroactively cutting short the years of remission she had earned from prison work.

Europe's human rights court Monday condemned Spain over the prolonged detention of an ETA militant and ordered her rapid release, opening the way for dozens of other convicts to be freed.

The European Court of Human Rights upheld its previous ruling in favor of releasing Ines del Rio Prada, a 55-year-old jailed member of the armed Basque separatist group.

Spain's banks reported Friday record high bad loans in August, revealing persistent balance-sheet weakness despite a eurozone-funded bailout.

Bad loans rose from the previous month by 2.0 billion euros ($2.7 billion), or 1.13 percent, to an unprecedented 180.7 billion euros ($247 billion).

Spain's public debt, rising unchecked for the past five years of economic crisis, will peak at just over 101 percent of output in 2015, the government said Thursday.

The country's ratio of debt to gross domestic product (GDP) will hit 101.13 percent in 2015 before easing to 101.09 percent in 2016, according to government documents sent to the European Commission which were published Thursday.

Moroccan police drove back 400 African migrants who tried to rush across the country's border into Spain on Thursday, an official said.

It was the latest in a wave of desperate bids by Africans to reach Europe that have left hundreds dead and police and migrants injured.

A Spanish court on Wednesday sentenced two senior policemen to 18 months in jail for helping militants of the armed Basque separatist movement ETA escape arrest.

The High Court also banned the pair -- Enrique Pamies, former police chief for the Basque Country region of Spain, and Jose Maria Ballesteros, a former inspector in the anti-terrorist brigade -- from holding public office for four years.

Pedro Almodóvar, the leading Spanish film director, has accused the government in Madrid of carrying out a rigorous plan to exterminate Spanish cinema, joining an increasingly angry battle between film-makers and the rightwing governing People's party (PP).

In an article published on the website infoLibre, Almodóvar criticized the finance minister, Cristobal Montoro, for a hike in VAT on tickets which has been widely blamed for causing many cinemas to shut, with the loss of hundreds of jobs. Last week, Montoro said the problems faced by the industry, which include cuts to government funding for domestic films, were nothing to do with taxes or funding, but instead to do with the poor quality of the films.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators massed in Catalonia on Saturday seeking to drown out calls for independence with a show of Spanish unity on the country's national day.

Holding aloft a giant banner with the Spanish and Catalan flags, the pro-unity demonstrators flooded Catalonia square in Barcelona, the northeastern region's capital, a month after Catalan separatists formed a massive human chain to call for Catalonia's independence.

Crown Prince Felipe presided for the first time over Spain's national day celebrations on Saturday, while King Juan Carlos recovers from a hip operation.

Spain's 75-year-old king left hospital on October 1 after surgeons replaced his prosthetic left hip in the latest of a string of operations that have raised questions over his reign and fueled speculation of a possible abdication.

A Spanish judge investigating a ruling party corruption scandal on Friday ruled out summoning Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as a witness.

High Court investigating judge Pablo Ruz wrote in a ruling that "it was not necessary to hear" Rajoy and several other top Popular Party officials as requested by the plaintiffs.