Current Affairs 2011

2011        Jan 2, Four Argentines were arrested in Spain for allegedly transporting almost a ton of cocaine in a private plane. They included Gustavo and Eduardo Julia, sons of the late former head of the Air Force Jose Julia, and Gaston Miret, son of Jose Miret, the former Air Force brigadier who was secretary of planning during Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship. The cocaine was almost pure with a value of more than 30 million euros (about $39 million).
    (AP, 1/7/11)

2011        Jan 6, Spain's second most important lottery dished out euro840 million ($1.1 billion) in new year joy across a country struggling to emerge from recession, with the top prize tickets being sold in a working class area of Madrid.
    (AP, 1/6/11)

2011        Jan 8, In Spain tens of thousands of people marched in the Basque region to protest the government policy of shipping separatist prisoners convicted of terror to jails far from their homes.
    (AP, 1/8/11)

2011        Jan 10, The militant Basque separatist group ETA declared a permanent cease-fire in what it called a firm step toward ending its bloody decades-long independence fight, but Spain's government quickly dismissed the announcement and demanded ETA disband outright.
    (AP, 1/10/11)

2011        Jan 11, Police in Spain and France arrested two suspected members of ETA, suggesting the government in Madrid will keep up pressure on the violent Basque separatist group despite the latter's declaration of a permanent cease-fire.
    (AP, 1/11/11)

2011        Jan 18, A court in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia suspended a ban by the city of Lleida on face-covering Islamic veils in municipal buildings. The ban was suspended while the court studies an appeal lodged by a Muslim association. Only about 3 percent of Lleida's population is Muslim and only a handful of women actually wear body-covering burqas or face-covering niqab garments.
    (AP, 1/18/11)

2011        Jan 18, Spanish police said they have arrested 25 people, including Spaniards and Colombians, and dismantled what they claim is the biggest and most sophisticated cocaine laboratory known to date in Europe. The operation began Dec. 7 and followed two years of investigations.
    (AP, 1/18/11)

2011        Jan 21, The Spanish government said it is drawing up a new plan to restructure the country's regional savings banks, the weak link in its banking system and a major cause of concern over the public finances.
    (AFP, 1/21/11)

2011        Jan 27, Spain arrested Malik Imtanan Sarwar (30), Pakistani man, in Barcelona. Sarwar was said to be linked to a cell that forged passports for al-Qaida-linked groups. Police had been looking for him since seven members of the cell were arrested in Spain in December and three more in Thailand.
    (AP, 1/28/11)

2011        Jan 28, Spain's Cabinet approved a plan to raise the retirement age by two years to 67 for most workers, a key structural reform aimed at reassuring markets that are uneasy over the country's finances.
    (AP, 1/28/11)

2011        Jan 31, A major Spanish savings bank born from a merger of seven institutions, Banco Financiero y de Ahorros, announced plans to list on the market to tap private capital.
    (AFP, 1/31/11)

2011        Feb 2, Spain’s PM Zapatero signed a solemn “social pact” with unions and employers, covering pensions, collective bargaining and more.
    (Econ, 2/5/11, p.62)

2011        Feb 5, In Spain several hundred Basque separatists held small street rallies, hung posters and painted political graffiti on walls throughout the troubled northern region to support a new political party to be launched next week.
    (AP, 2/5/11)

2011        Feb 6, Rock guitarist Gary Moore (58), a former member of influential Irish band Thin Lizzy, was found dead at a hotel on Spain's Costa del Sol. Thin Lizzy had global hits in the 1970s with songs like "The Boys are Back in Town" and "Whiskey in the Jar." Frontman Phil Lynott died in 1986, but with a different lineup the band continues to tour today.
    (AP, 2/6/11)

2011        Feb 7, In Spain Basque separatists launched Sortu (“Create”) a new political party they say rejects violence by the armed group ETA, in an unprecedented step designed to move the troubled region toward peace.
    (AP, 2/7/11)(Econ, 2/26/11, p.56)

2011        Feb 21, British detectives named the country's 10 most wanted fugitives who have bolted to the "Costa del Crime", fleeing the urban ganglands for the Spanish sunshine.
    (AFP, 2/21/11)

2011        Feb 24, In Spain a powerful explosion at a military academy in Hoyo de Manzares killed five soldiers and wounded three when a mine de-activation training drill went awry.
    (AP, 2/24/11)

2011        Feb 25, Spain said it will lower highway speed limits, cut train ticket prices and use more biofuel under an emergency energy-saving initiative because of soaring oil prices brought on by the unrest in Libya.
    (AP, 2/25/11)

2011        Feb 26, In Spain Austin Bice (22), a San Diego State University exchange student, was last seen outside the Riviera concert venue and discotheque in Madrid. Bice’s body was pulled out of the Manzanares River in western Madrid on March 8.
    (AP, 3/6/11)(AP, 3/8/11)

2011        Feb 28, Spanish nuns in Zaragoza first reported €1.5 million ($2 million) were stolen, then lowered the figure to €400,000 ($556,000). Plastic bags stuffed with cash were stolen from a convent, whose cloistered nuns include one who is a well-paid artist. Sister Isabel is well-known in Spanish art circles for realist-style portraits and still-life paintings. Police later said a judge will probe the possibility of tax evasion.
    (AP, 3/9/11)

2011        Mar 1, Spain announced it had narrowly beaten its target for slashing the public deficit in 2010, critical to the eurozone's fourth largest economy regaining confidence in world financial markets.
    (AFP, 3/1/11)

2011        Mar 1, Spanish police arrested four suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA they believe may have been behind several attacks in recent years.
    (AP, 3/1/11)

2011        Mar 7, Spanish drivers slowed down under a new speed limit designed to reduce energy use, angering some motorists but pleasing others who say every euro saved helps a nation slammed by Libya's oil chaos and Europe's financial crisis.
    (AP, 3/7/11)

2011        Mar 10, In France the suspected leader of the Basque separatist group ETA's armed cells and three other alleged members of the organization were arrested in Willencourt in northern Pas-de-Calais region. They included Alejandro Zobaran Arriola (29), who an Interior Ministry statement described as the head of ETA's "military apparatus." Another was the alleged logistics chief, Mikel Oroz Torrea (31).
    (AP, 3/11/11)