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The Catalan government led by President Artur Mas will launch a lawsuit against Spain's central government for "curbing freedom of expression". Photo: Quique García/AFP

Catalan leaders to defy Madrid and stage poll

Updated: The government of Spain's Catalonia region put itself on a collision course with Madrid on Tuesday by vowing to press ahead with a symbolic independence vote this weekend despite a court-ordered block. READ

Arts

A picture taken on Monday shows an artwork from the Study of Perspective series by Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei at Barcelona's La Virreina Image Centre. Photo: Lluis Gene/AFP

China's Ai Weiwei gets Spain art show

A Barcelona gallery on Tuesday inaugurated a retrospective of works from the past three decades of dissident artist Ai Wei Wei, who has been banned from leaving China since 2011. READ

Models perform at the end of the 2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at the Lexington Avenue Armory in November 2013 in New York. Photo: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP

Spain's 'Metro model' to star for Victoria's Secret

Less than a year after being spotted by a talent scout at a Madrid Metro station, Spanish model Blanca Padilla is to take part in the 2014 Victoria's Secret lingerie show, one of the biggest events on the fashion calendar. READ

Economy matters

European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici at the EC headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday. Photo: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP

Brussels forecasts years of pain for Spain

Spain can now expect growth of 1.7 percent in 2015, down from the 2.1 percent originally forecast by the European Commission, while unemployment and public debt levels are set to remain stubbornly high until at least 2017, Brussels said on Tuesday. READ

Hitler? The politician denied that his Swastika-free costume represented the Nazi leader but claimed that he had "the right to dress however he liked" at a private party. Photo: Wiki Commons/Crisco42

Politician cops hell for Halloween Hitler costume

Toni Rodríguez, a councillor in Spain's scandal-hit ruling Popular Party, has added fuel to the fire of opponents by choosing to dress as Hitler during a recent Halloween party. READ

No arrests were made during the meeting, but police took the details of 28 members of the fascist groups. Photo: Al King/Flickr

Madrid: fascists crash Catalan talkfest

A discussion featuring pro-independence groups from Spain's Catalonia region in Madrid on Monday was disrupted by around 30 right-wing activists who shouted fascist slogans and jostled participants. READ

Police in the popular tourist town of Fuengirola were initially alerted by calls from concerned neighbours. Photo: Anne Sewell

Costa del Sol: Man 'beheads' sister after row

A 22-year-old man in Fuengirola, on southern Spain's Costa del Sol, has been arrested after he called police to admit to killing his sister following an argument. READ

Gibraltar air controllers claim that they were forced to order the BA plane to change direction some 10-15 miles from the runway. Photo: Nick Herber/Flickr

Gibraltar flight 'forced off course by Spanish jet'

A British Airways flight was forced to veer off course by a Spanish military jet while landing in Gibraltar, authorities of the contested British outpost said on Monday. READ

When seasonally adjusted the number of people seeking work in October in Spain was down 19,393, the labour ministry said. Photo: Gerard Julien/AFP

80,000 Spaniards join jobless line in October

Just under 80,000 people signed on at Spain's unemployment offices in October, the lowest increase in a traditionally difficult month for jobs since 2010, official figures released on Tuesday show. READ

Royal affairs

Three judges from a court in Palma de Mallorca will take a decision on Friday on whether to accept Cristina's not guilty plea. Photo: Jaime Reina/AFP

Court set to decide on fraud trial for princess

A Spanish court will decide on Friday whether to put the sister of the country's King Felipe VI on trial for tax fraud — unprecedented in the history of the monarchy — or accept her not guilty plea. READ

Features

Spain's stunning Alhambra Islamic palaces: Shutterstock

Take The Local's Spanish history quiz

Spain is full of famous places, faces and names. But how well do you know the history of this amazing country? Find in The Local's latest quiz! READ

The Local List

You had better listen up. Photo of woman with wooden spoon: Shutterstock

Top ten: things your Spanish 'mamá' says

Spanish mothers are renowned for their close relationships with their children. But while they may come across as over-protective, they ultimately do it because they care. Here, The Local lists ten things she might say. READ

Cinema prize

Antonio Banderas has starred in over 100 movies, playing Benito Mussolini and Che Guevara along the way. Screen grab/YouTube

Gallery: Hits and misses of Antonio Banderas

The Málaga-born actor who cut his teeth with Pedro Almodóvar before conquering Hollywood is to be awarded the Goya (or Spanish Oscar) of Honour for lifetime achievement by Spain's Film Academy. Here The Local casts an eye over some of the best and worst films he's starred in. READ

Spanish Face of the Week

Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias was one of just 2,000 people at the proclamation party for Spain's new king Felipe (pictured) in June. File photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images/AFP

Exposed: student conman who fooled king

A 20-year-old student from an elite business school who was arrested last week on suspicion of swindling, forging documents and impersonating public officials cozied up to the cream of Spanish society, even managing to attend King Felipe VI’s proclamation. READ

Spanish Language

Photo of a couple: Shutterstock

Top Ten: best new Spanish words

Spain’s royal language watchdog, the RAE, has just published its massive new dictionary. Here The Local lists ten of the best words appearing for the very first time for your reading pleasure. READ

More News

The bank said cost reductions were greater than expected. Photo: Philippe Desmazes/AFP

Santander profits surge 52 percent in 3rd quarter

Santander, the eurozone's biggest bank by market value, said Tuesday its profits jumped by 52.1 percent in the third quarter due to higher earnings in its main markets and lower costs. READ

Doctors at San Espases hospital performed emergency surgery but were unable to save the child's life. Photo: Chixoy/Wiki Commons

Baby held in dad's arms killed by passing van

A three-month-old baby boy being held in the arms of his father was killed recently on the Spanish island of Majorca after being struck by the wing mirror of a passing van. READ

Spain's automotive federation ANFAC predicts total new car sales for the year to reach 850,000 units. Photo: Josep Lago/AFP

New car sales surge in Spain

New car registrations surged for a sixth straight month in Spain in October, jumping 26.1 per cent over the same month in 2013, but with total sales still well below pre-crisis levels. READ

Pic of the day

Runners begin dressed in white but are doused with a different colour of paint at each KM mark of the race. Photo: Cristina Quicler/AFP

Spectacular 'Color Run' race lights up Seville

Runners in the southern Spanish city of Seville celebrated in style with coloured paint after finishing a messy 5-kilometre (3 mile) fun run on Sunday. READ

The regulations, aimed at curbing Barcelona's reputation as a 'pothead's paradise' for tourists, will ban clubs from supplying new members for at least 15 days. Photo: Lluis Gene/AFP

Barcelona to lift cannabis club age limit to 21

Cannabis clubs in Catalonia will face stricter regulations from Thursday with the region's parliamentary health commission set to raise the minimum age for membership from 18 to 21 while prohibiting new clubs from opening near schools and nurseries. READ

African would-be migrants holding one of the crosses honoring people who died trying to cross the Berlin Wall. Image: Zentrum für politische Schönheit/YouTube

Stolen Berlin Wall memorial taken to Spain

Crosses in Berlin honouring those who died while trying to cross the German capital's Wall have been taken by a refugee rights group to the Spanish enclave of Melilla in North Africa to highlight the desperate situation on Europe's southern borders. READ

The clerics speculated that archbishop García Aracil, who is due to retire next year, could be preparing the residence for his personal use. Photo: Archdiocese of Mérida-Badajoz

Priests slam Spain's 'archbishop of bling'

Fifty priests have signed a letter criticizing a archbishop in one of Spain's poorest regions for allegedly converting a floor of the official bishop's palace into a "luxury suite" with marble floors, walk-in dressing rooms, and a jacuzzi bath. READ

Some 900,000 Spaniards regularly use e-cigarettes according to the industry body ANCE. E-cigarette photo: Shutterstock

Burn out: e-cigarette market crashes in Spain

The number of shops selling e-cigarettes has plummeted by 90 percent in Spain in just 12 months, an industry body claims, citing lobbying by pharmaceutical companies as one of the causes for the sudden decline. READ

Emergency services performed CPR on the 23-year-old who fell onto the concrete bank of Seville's Guadalquivir river. Photo of Triana Bridge: Shutterstock

Seville: Erasmus student dies in selfie fall

Updated: a Polish student on the Erasmus exchange program has died after falling seven metres while attempting to take a selfie photograph of herself in front of Seville's iconic Triana bridge. READ

Weather watch

Barcelona's beaches were still busy in late October as locals and tourists enjoyed the unusually warm weather. Photo: Flickr/. SantiMB .

October in Barcelona: the hottest in 100 years

Temperatures in Barcelona were 3.7ºC above average, the hottest since records began in 1914, during a sweltering October in which Catalan beaches were packed with people enjoying the unseasonal sunshine. READ

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From our other editions:

Photo: APA (Archiv/epa)

Jihadist sought crowds to boost bomb deaths

Investigators have begun to carefully probe the background of Austria's latest radicalized teenage jihadist, whose pre-detention was extended on Wednesday afternoon after a court hearing in St. Pölten in Lower Austria. READ

Islamic State (Isis) supporters in Syria. Photo: Rami Al-Sayed/AFP

Swiss confirm European terror plot by three Iraqis

Swiss authorities confirmed on Friday that three Iraqis arrested in March are suspected of having planned a terrorist attack in Europe on behalf of the Islamic State group. READ

Russia has banned food imports from the EU. Photo: DPA

German exports to Russia dive by a quarter

German exports to Russia have collapsed by more than a quarter, according to figures released on Wednesday, as sanctions brought about by the Ukraine crisis take effect. READ

A Russian MiG-29. Photo: Krasimir Grozev/WikiCommons

Russia simulated an attack on Denmark

The Danish Defence Intelligence Service has released its new long-term risk assessment which reveals that Russia carried out a "a more offensive" military exercise aimed at a heavily-populated target. READ

The Local List

Here's what you should never say in France. Photo: Shutterstock

Ten things to never say to a French person

Ah, France. The land of lazy workers, surrender and adulterers. Come again? Say that stuff to a French person’s face and chances are you've made them really angry. Here we’ve listed some of the worst things you can say to a French man or woman. READ

Ebola crisis

S troops at the Vicenza base. Photo: Edward Braly/HO US Army/AFP

Uproar over US troops' Ebola quarantine in Italy

The decision to put a dozen American soldiers returning from Liberia into quarantine for Ebola at their base near Venice rather than in the United States sparked controversy in Italy on Wednesday. READ