Police have smashed Spain's largest counterfeit clothing ring, arresting 99 people, including two imams, over the sale of 235 tonnes of fake designer clothes and shoes, the government said Saturday.

The ring made the counterfeit items in illegal factories in northern Portugal and then shipped them across the border by van to Xinzo de Limia, a city of around 100,000 people in northwestern Spain, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Spain's government on Friday approved a tightening of the abortion law that would end women's right to opt for the procedure freely up to 14 weeks of pregnancy, outraging pro-choice campaigners.

Ministers at a cabinet meeting adopted a draft bill for a law which would allow abortion only in cases of rape or a threat to the mother's health, Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon told a news conference.

Spanish banks' bad loans hit the highest level for 50 years in October, data showed on Wednesday, despite the sector getting good marks from creditors as it exits its bailout program.

The level of bad loans -- ones judged highly unlikely to be repaid -- rose to 13 percent of all outstanding credit from 12.68 percent in August, figures from the Bank of Spain showed.

Security forces averted an attempt by about 1,000 migrants to rush a towering, triple-layer border fence separating Morocco from the Spanish-held north African territory of Melilla, Spain's government said Tuesday.

Authorities say it was the latest bid by desperate migrants to enter the Spanish cities of Melilla and Ceuta by scrambling over the six-meter (19-foot) border fences or crossing the Mediterranean in flimsy vessels.

Spain's public debt, which has risen unchecked for the past five years of economic crisis, hit a new record of 93.4 percent of gross domestic product in the third quarter, the Bank of Spain said Friday.

Spain's center-right government, which last month announced it would ease its austerity reforms over the coming two years since the economy appears to be emerging from recession, has set a year-end debt-to-GDP target of 94.2 percent.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy vowed Thursday to block an attempt by Catalan leaders to hold an independence referendum on November 9, 2014.

A few hours after Catalan political chief Artur Mas unveiled the date and wording of the poll, the Spanish leader refused even to countenance a break-up of the nation.

Spanish police said Wednesday they had arrested eight people on the holiday island of Majorca as part of an operation coordinated by Interpol against a Russian organized crime group.

The eight are suspected of laundering money for the Taganskaya criminal group, police said in a statement.

A radical group linked to al-Qaida kidnapped two Spanish journalists reporting in Syria in September and is holding them captive, El Mundo newspaper reported on Tuesday.

El Mundo correspondent Javier Espinosa and Ricardo Garcia Vilanova, a freelance photographer, were seized on September 16 in Raqqa province, the Spanish daily said on its website.

A judge will rule within weeks whether to summon Spanish King Juan Carlos' daughter as a fraud suspect, a court said on Monday, fueling a grave crisis for Spain's royals.

The king's youngest daughter Cristina, 48, would be his first direct relative ever to appear in court on suspicion of wrongdoing if the judge on the Balearic Islands decided to summon her for questioning.

Spanish rescue services rescued 90 African migrants over the weekend who were making a desperate attempt to reach Europe in makeshift boats, according to officials.

On Sunday rescuers and police said 44 migrants were intercepted in Spanish waters, while another 46 were rescued on Saturday, a local government official said.