Spain, Migrants and Catalonia

Europe Calling

French and British fishermen have clashed in the English Channel over a hoard of scallops - the latest flare-up in a years-long war over the prized shellfish. SPANISH police are trying to round up the 116 sub-Saharan migrants who stormed a border crossing using force and return them to Morocco. The migrants allegedly threw quicklime and battery acid at border officers as they stormed into the Spanish territory of Ceuta. The Spanish government of Socialist Party (PSOE) Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is being pressured to take a stand in the ongoing row over pro-independence symbols in Catalonia. The conservative Popular Party (PP) and center-right Ciudadanos have called on the government to ban the yellow ribbons, an emblem of support for jailed pro-independence leaders, from all public spaces. Two-thirds of people in the Valencian region have problems with their weight, with 90,000 classified as morbidly obese and another 5,000 super obese. But not many approach the weight of 34-year-old Teófilo Rodríguez who was recently sent home from hospital despite the protests of his family. FLIGHT times from the UK are on average 35 minutes longer than a decade ago, despite improvements in aircraft technology a Which? Travel report claims. The consumer group report claims that airlines are “padding” their schedules to create an impression that flights are arriving on time. PINEAPPLES stuffed with 67 kilos of cocaine have been seized in a police raid on a wholesale market in Spain. The fruits, believed to have a street value of almost €275,000 are believed to have been shipped from Costa Rica to Portugal by boat and then overland to the Spanish capital. POLICE have stopped a drunk woman driver who was eight times over the legal drink drive limit in Spain. Other drivers alerted the police to the erratic driving of the female driver. THE British government has told its taxpayers, including those living abroad, that they must declare their earnings on overseas assets by September 30 or face penalties. The amount of money wrongly paid in benefits as a result of fraud and error soared to £3.8billion last year. This was up £200million on the previous year and came despite a Tory pledge to bring it down. It means more than £70million is lost to fraud and error every week. Police should dramatically increase the use of stop and search to combat spiralling gang violence, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith demands today. A ‘toxic cycle of serious violence’ fuelled by drug dealers who operate ‘with impunity’ is spreading around the country, a major report by the Conservative MP’ s think-tank warns. Michael Palin has slammed the BBC's culture of political correctness after one of its comedy bosses said Monty Python were too 'white and Oxbridge' for modern TV.