The European Commission released on Monday final deficit and debt data for eurozone and EU states that was in line with upward revisions announced in late March by key countries such as Spain and France.

The figures showed that Spain posted a 2012 deficit of 10.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), including the cost to the state of recapitalizing broken banks.

Thousands of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, many wearing white lab coats, and their supporters marched in Madrid Sunday to protest against government spending cuts and plans to partly privatize medical services.

The demonstrators blew whistles and chanted "nothing for the private sector" as they marched from leading hospitals in Madrid to the landmark Plaza de Sol square in the center of the Spanish capital.

Police have smashed a gang which used fake bomb vests in the kidnapping of 21 businessmen in France and Luxembourg to raise over three million euros in ransom, Spanish police, which took part in the operation, said Sunday.

Eight suspects, including the ring's suspected leader who had escaped from a French jail last year, were detained in Spain and another eight were arrested in France, Spanish police said in a statement.

In the garden of the cannabis smoking club in the town of Mogan on Spain's Canary Islands, lush green marijuana leaves with serrated edges bask in the sun before being harvested, dried and processed to be consumed on site.

Several members of the club located on the southwest coast of the island of Gran Canaria calmly roll a joint or smoke a water pipe while one man dissects fragrant dried marijuana flowers before storing them in a jar.

An appeal to exclude Princess Cristina, the daughter of Spain's king, from testifying in a corruption hearing focused on her husband will be decided on May 20, a court announced on Friday.

Public prosecutors lodged the appeal with the court on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca on April 3, arguing that the princess was being unfairly summoned to testify because of her royal rank, and that proof against her was "non-existent".

Spain's center-right government, under pressure from the Catholic Church and its ultraconservative wing, has vowed to "promptly" tighten the nation's abortion laws, angering the opposition Socialist Party which had eased access to the procedure.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy promised during the 2011 election campaign that swept his Popular Party to power to reform the abortion law but the changes to the legislation have been repeatedly put off, prompting a rebuke from the Spanish Church.

A 16th century religious tapestry stolen from a Spanish cathedral in 1979 and sold at auction three years ago for $369,000 was returned to Spain on Wednesday by the US customs service.

In a statement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said special agents from its Homeland Security Investigations unit seized the artifact last November from the unidentified Texas business that had bought it.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Madrid on Sunday to demand the abdication of Spain's scandal-hit monarchy.

Waving thousands of red, gold and purple republican flags, the crowd chanted: "Tomorrow, Spain will be republican".

A Spanish union acting as a private plaintiff in a corruption case against Inaki Urdangarin, King Juan Carlos' son-in-law, asked a court Wednesday to order him to surrender his passport to prevent him from accepting a job offer in Qatar.

Spanish media reported Monday that Urdangarin, a 45-year-old former Olympic handball champion, has been invited to either help manage Qatar's national handball team or promote the sport in the oil and gas-rich Gulf state.

The Madrid stock exchange jumped more than 3 percent on Wednesday, with the Ibex 35 flying past the symbolic 8,000 point milestone, following a strong Wall Street opening.

The Ibex 35 index increased 3.32 percent to 8,133.5 points at 1625 GMT, after closing up 1.1 percent to 7,872.5 points on Tuesday.