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A Spanish nurse who treated an Ebola victim in Madrid is thought to be the first person to have contracted the virus outside Africa, health officials say. The nurse tested positive for Ebola in initial tests and doctors are awaiting final results, according to reports. She was part of the team that treated Spanish priest Manuel Garcia Viejo, who died of Ebola on 25 September.

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, has hoisted the gay pride flag over the embassy building in Tel Aviv.  Todd Starnes grabbed the pic from the embassy's Facebook page. “Proudly flying the colors,” Ambassador Dan Shapiro wrote on the embassy’s Facebook page. He posted a photograph showing a rainbow colored flag flying alongside the American flag outside the embassy in Tel Aviv.  “For the first time in history, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv has raised the Pride flag together with our American flag,” Shapiro wrote. “We are proud to join with the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo and its residents...

The Obama administration seems to have forgotten the International Day of the Family last week that was celebrated at the UN and around the world May 15. Yet the administration was very enthusiastic about the May 17th celebration of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, issuing proclamations by the Secretary of Defense and a statement by the President. Moreover, at least one ambassador flew the rainbow flag over his embassy. Spanish papers reported that the rainbow flag flew over the U.S. Embassy in Madrid for at least one day last week and that former Home Box Office executive, now...

The trouble with proclaiming 'victory' over the crisis in Spain (read the whole of Europe) and the ECB enabling governments profligacy with the ghost of OMT future is that it merely emboldens. As Al Jazeera reports, Madrid's garbage collectors have been on strike since November 5 to protest layoffs and pay cuts. With garbage piling up on the streets of Madrid, the mayor issued private trash-collecting companies an ultimatum on Wednesday: end the street cleaners' strike or lose their contracts. More than 30,000 residents have signed a petition to the defense minister asking for the streets to be cleaned....

Inés del Río Prada, of the Basque separatist group Eta, was a member of a unit that killed 24 people, including 12 in a car bombing in the centre of Madrid. Her release earlier this week at the command of the European court of human rights (ECHR), prompted a wave of outrage. The Spanish courts had little choice but to let Del Río go free. She had been sentenced in 1989 to 3,828 years in total, but because of a peculiarity of Spanish law dating back to 1973, she could serve a maximum of only 30. Given time off for...

IRGC and the spiritual vacuum of Latin American leftists The following is a glimpse of the kind of thing I often see while researching the activities of the IRGC (writ large) in Latin America. Communism fails to provide for the spiritual needs of leftwing political activists, and the Islamic Republic of Iran seems to have done a pretty good job of inserting themselves and the Khomeinist version of Shiism into that void. (Either that or the IRI is throwing lots of money around and the leftists are whores, which is certainly possible, but for the moment I'll take the more...

By John Crewdson, Tribune senior correspondent. Reporting and research assistance was provided by Drew Crosby in Madrid MADRID -- The most sweeping criminal indictment to arise thus far from the Sept. 11 attacks reflects a quiet but dramatic change in understanding by investigators here and across Europe of the terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda, and the international Islamic radical-terrorist network of which, they now agree, it is merely a part. As laid out in the indictment, the defendants' alleged activities--from arranging travel and providing introductions to procuring false documents and, especially, moving money--provide the first detailed look at one...

MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities say they have arrested a Panamanian woman arriving at Barcelona airport with 1.38 kilograms (3 pounds) of cocaine concealed in breast implants. The Interior Ministry said Wednesday that border police noticed fresh scars and blood-stained gauze on her chest as well as pale patches beneath her skin.

According to the Spanish daily ABC, a Libyan rebel commander who played a key role in overthrowing the rule of Muammar Qaddafi previously participated in the May 2010 attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza aboard the Turkish-owned vessel the Mavi Marmara. The operation famously culminated in a deadly clash between Israel Defense Force commandos and “activists” armed with iron rods and knives aboard the ship. The paper’s source for the story is the rebel leader himself: Mahdi al-Harati, the commander of the so-called Tripoli Brigades, which are widely credited with having played a decisive role in the rebel...

A Delta flight that was headed to Spain from Kennedy Airport turned around in the air and made an emergency landing after some cut wires were discovered in the plane's bathroom, sources said. Delta Flight 126 took off for Madrid at about 8:10 p.m. When an air marshal on board was alerted to some cut wires in a lavatory on the plane, officials decided to bring the plane back to Kennedy.

"Saturn Devouring His Son is the name given to a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It depicts the Greek myth of the Titan Cronus (in the title Romanised to Saturn), who, fearing that he would be overthrown by his children, ate each one upon their birth." My wife and I saw the real canvas transfer of the painting by Goya (1746-1828) in the Museo del Prado in Madrid several years ago. I do know how to hotlink graphics, however this painting is highly disturbing, and possibly the product of a disturbed mind. Click the reference links below to view...

I am sure this will be happening in Madrid as it did in London. Richard Dawkins brought at least one laspsed Catholic back to the Church during the Papal visit to the UK. She saw the the anti-Pope snarling mob led by Dawkins and Tatchel, with their plastic devil horns and inflated condoms, sex "toys" and angry faces and she saw the sheer joy of those cheering the Pope and the banners carried by the enthusiastic youth. She said it wasn't about arguments, it was about faces. Dawkins & co. glaring and hopeless, those who were there cheering the Pope...

video http://madrid11.com/Hunh, guess the media doesn't want to cover this mob.Probably 'cuz it's their kindgdom that's being looted and burned.

ROME, July 5, 2011 - World Youth Day is not an invention of Benedict XVI, but of his predecessor. Pope Joseph Ratzinger, however, has introduced two very significant innovations. The first was in Cologne, in the summer of 2005. At the culmination of the nighttime vigil, Pope Benedict knelt before the consecrated host. At length, and in silence. With hundreds of thousands of young people touched by this act of adoration. Since then, with Pope Benedict, silent Eucharistic adoration has become a constant not only of the World Youth Days, but also of other mass gatherings, for example the vigil...

Tens of thousands of Spaniards defied a protest ban Saturday and crowded town squares across the nation to demonstrate against high unemployment ahead of local elections on Sunday. Thousands of demonstrators swarm Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square, defying a protest ban by the country's electoral commission. Saturday is a so-called "Day of Reflection," when political campaigning - and demonstrations - are banned.

Wilmington, Delaware (CNN) -- Police have found homicide victim John Wheeler's cell phone, according to a taxi driver who was interviewed by investigators this week. Athel Scott told CNN National Correspondent Susan Candiotti that police told him they found the cab driver's number in the phone of Wheeler, the former Pentagon official who was found dead in a Delaware landfill. He said investigators wanted to know how his number got there. Scott... says he told the police he didn't have any idea. "I never got a call from the man. I don't know him... He's never been in my cab....

Authorities Conclude Switzerland Likely Used as Base for Financing, Logistical Support for 9/11 Attacks by Al-Qaida By Daniela Sigrist Associated Press Writer Published: Jun 24, 2004 BERN, Switzerland (AP) - Investigators have concluded that Switzerland was likely used as a base for financing and logistical support for the Sept. 11 attacks by al-Qaida, the country's attorney general said Thursday. Federal Prosecutor Valentin Roschacher said authorities plan to begin court proceedings in the coming weeks in three terror cases, capping investigations started four days after the 2001 suicide hijackings in New York and Washington. A special task force initially was charged...

More than a million people are marching in Barcelona to call for greater autonomy for the Catalan region. The demonstration comes a day after a constitutional court declared that there was no legal basis to recognise Catalonia as a nation.

Protesters march through Madrid to protest changes to Spanish law making abortion easier March 7, 2010. Thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators thronged central Madrid on Sunday to protest against changes to Spanish law which will make it easier for women to seek a termination. The banner reads "No to abortion. We have a right to live. " Madrid, Spain, Mar 10, 2010 / 12:51 am (CNA).- Nearly one million Spaniards marched in cities across the country on March 7 defending the right to life of the unborn and demanding that the government revoke Spain's new law on abortion recently passed by...

Portuguese police have seized half a tonne of explosives at a house that they say was being used as a base by Basque separatist group Eta. The discovery, which also included bomb-making equipment, was made in the central Portugal town of Obidos. Fake licence plates, detonators and maps were also found, officials said. A militant group fighting for an independent Basque homeland, Eta has been blamed for more than 820 deaths during its campaign in Spain. "The material was stored in secure conditions which indicates the work of professionals," local police chief Helder Barros said. Several of the explosives were...