State Visit
China’s President Xi Jinping arrived in Spain yesterday for a business-focused state visit as Beijing seeks to strengthen ties with Europe.
Xi, who landed in Madrid was scheduled to meet King Felipe last night and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez today.
No press conference is scheduled during his three-day visit, which is a stop-off on his trip to a meeting of G20 leaders in Argentina.
It is the first state visit to Spain by a Chinese president in 13 years.
Migrants
Three European non-governmental organizations are criticizing ongoing negotiations by the European Union to return 12 migrants to Libia who were rescued last week by a Spanish fishing vessel.
The trawler has been stranded in waters north of Libya since last Thursday, awaiting permission to disembark the migrants.
The NGOs in a joint statement yesterday said that Libya can’t be considered a safe port and that migrants could be tortured or trafficked if returned.
Together in the United 4 Med alliance, the three groups say Spain should urge Malta and Italy to open their ports to the migrants.
Spain’s foreign minister said on Monday that the two Mediterranean countries had rejected the migrants because their rescue took place in waters under Libya’s jurisdiction.
Drug Bust
AN expat has been arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking after crashing his car and exposing almost 480 kilos of hashish and cocaine in Malaga.
The 30-year-old Frenchman was busted after crashing his Range Rover into a truck in Las Pedrizas, where officers found a cache of 15 packages hidden inside several backpacks.
Officers also discovered that the car been stolen from Switzerland and had false plates.
The incident took place at around 10.45pm on Saturday on the A-45 towards Granada.
The man was arrested after being taken to a Malaga hospital with a broken leg.
Missing
Police in Benidorm are reporting that after a four-day search, Norah Garratt, the British lady who had been missing in the area, has been found.
Sources claim she was found by police on the outskirts of the town after she had fallen ‘into a crevice’ and she has been taken to Villajoyosa hospital to be checked over.