Spaniards are buying fewer cars, fewer clothes and even cutting back on smoking as a grinding recession and rising unemployment force them to slash spending, dealing a severe blow to manufacturers and shops.

Last week, the headlines surrounding big brands such as Spanish fashion retailer Blanco and tobacco group Altadis highlighted the fallout of the consumer slump in Spain.

Spanish factories cut production for the 20th straight month in April, official data showed Friday, sharply braking output of durable goods such as cars or washing machines in the midst of a recession.

Spain's factories and utilities lowered overall output by 1.8 percent over the year to April, after correcting for seasonal variations such as the number of working days in the month, the National Statistics Institute said in a preliminary report.

The queue of Spanish job benefit claimants shrank in May for a third straight month, raw data showed Tuesday, a result hailed by the government as it battles record unemployment.

But Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative Popular Party government admitted that May is often a good month for the labor market.

Spain's troubled King Juan Carlos made a rare outdoor state appearance on Saturday, standing to attention at a low-key military ceremony marked by crisis spending cuts.

Juan Carlos, 75, who had back surgery three months ago, walked with crutches at the brief remembrance ceremony for fallen soldiers at a war memorial in central Madrid on Spain's annual Armed Forces Day.

Spanish police seized a boat carrying three tonnes of cocaine in the Atlantic and arrested 21 people including the vessel's Korean captain and Indonesian crew, officials said on Friday.

"National police officers boarded a fishing boat in the Atlantic ocean with more than three tonnes of cocaine in parcels," on Wednesday, a police statement said.

U.S. rock supergroup Bon Jovi will waive their fee for playing a concert in recession-hit Spain next month, media reported on Thursday, with special low-price tickets for Spaniards struggling in the crisis.

Tickets for the gig in the giant Vicente Calderon football stadium in Madrid are capped at 39 euros ($50) -- a fraction of the top price in other countries on the band's "Because We Can" European tour.

A Spanish judge Friday ordered an investigation into the tax affairs of King Juan Carlos's youngest daughter, Princess Cristina, adding to the woes of the scandal-hit royal family.

A judge in Palma de Mallorca demanded the tax authorities provide him with a report on Cristina's property and non-property assets, investment funds, financial assets and deposits, a copy of the order showed.

Spain's oldest flamenco festival will visit India in 2014, retracing the origins of the classic Spanish musical form, organizers said Wednesday.

The Cante de las Minas festival plans its first overseas event in March in Jodhpur, in Rajasthan state -- considered the home of the migrant gypsies from whom southern Spain's flamenco culture sprang.

Syrian opposition representatives have demanded international guarantees that President Bashar Assad step down in any peace deal, former opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib said on Tuesday, as Russia and the United States step up efforts to organize a peace conference.

The demand was one of eight points set out in a roadmap agreed by delegates to a two-day Syrian National Consultation meeting in Madrid, Khatib said on his Facebook page.

Branches of the divided Syrian opposition held talks in Madrid on Monday seeking to harmonize their approach to the country's bloody civil war, their Spanish government hosts said.

The talks included Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, who resigned last week as leader of the Syrian National Coalition, plus other members of the coalition and "various movements" of the opposition to Syria's President Bashar Assad, the Spanish foreign ministry said in a statement.