Europe, Spain | featured news

The king of Spain offered an unprecedented apology Wednesday for going on an elephant-hunting safari in Africa while his subjects struggle with recession and high unemployment at home.

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson said on Wednesday he plans to spend $35 billion on a mini-Las Vegas strip in Spain where he is courting the country's two top urban areas, Barcelona and Madrid, with plans for a casino complex.

Though Spain’s economy is struggling, prostitution is booming, exploding into public view in cities and towns.

Just when we thought the euro crisis had subsided for a bit, Spain is bursting back up as a trouble spot. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the country is “facing an economic situation of extreme difficulty.” Spain is struggling to borrow money and can’t hit its deficit targets.

Two military planes laden with 17 tons of silver and gold coins scooped up from a Spanish warship that sank during a 1804 gunbattle landed in Spain on Saturday, ending a 200-year odyssey that took the treasure from an ocean floor to Florida courtrooms.

In Spain, the prime minister pledged spending cuts and a banking-system cleanup, while in Italy, the prime minister called for “efforts in favor of growth.”

Spain's new government said on Friday the public deficit for 2011 would come in at 8 percent of gross domestic product, well above a target of 6 percent, and announced income and property tax hikes and a civil servant wage freeze in response.

Monday's euro-zone downgrade warning by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services is a muscular move by a firm that was pilloried for its supposed laxity in the financial crisis. S&P put the long-term sovereign-debt ratings of 15 euro-zone nations, including struggling Italy and Spain, on negative watch. That typically means there is at least a 50% chance of a downgrade within 90 days, but the firm said Monday that it expected to announce any rating changes "as soon as possible" following this week's European Union summit, where policy makers are expected to lay out plans to enforce stricter budget rules.

Italy and Spain have not asked to be rescued by the International Monetary Fund, the head of the lender said on Monday as she urged European leaders to quickly solve the region's festering debt crisis.

Asian stocks slumped Friday after a spike in Spanish government borrowing costs added to the uncertainty over Europe's debt crisis and investors braced themselves for China.