
-
MSF slams US-backed Gaza aid scheme as 'slaughter masquerading' as aid
-
Lorde kicks off Glastonbury festival with surprise set
-
Alex Marquez dismisses helping brother Marc's title bid
-
Son of Norway princess suspected of three rapes
-
Alive but weakened, Iran's Khamenei faces new challenges
-
Heatwave across the Med sparks health and fire warnings
-
UAE name powerful team to support Pogacar in Tour de France
-
Stocks rise as US-China reach trade deal framework
-
Alcaraz starts Wimbledon defence against Fognini
-
Spain makes Booking.com scrap 4,000 tourist rental ads
-
One of Hong Kong's last opposition parties says it will disband
-
UK govt climbs down on welfare cuts in latest U-turn
-
Kusal Mendis steers Sri Lanka to commanding lead over Bangladesh
-
Anderson teases Dior debut with Mbappe, Basquiat and Marie Antoinette
-
Global tensions rattle COP30 build-up but 'failure not an option'
-
China's top diplomat to visit EU, Germany, France next week
-
Manager Van Nistelrooy leaves relegated Leicester
-
Eel-eating Japan opposes EU call for more protection
-
Messi's PSG reunion, Real Madrid face Juventus in Club World Cup last 16
-
China confirms trade deal framework reached with United States
-
Dollar holds losses on rate cut bets, trade hope boosts stocks
-
India accused of illegal deportations targeting Muslims
-
Australia and Lions yet to resolve tour sticking point
-
Green bonds offer hope, and risk, in Africa's climate fight
-
Game 'reloots' African artefacts from Western museums
-
Renters struggle to survive in Portugal housing crisis
-
Western Japan sees earliest end to rainy season on record
-
Ketamine 'epidemic' among UK youth raises alarm
-
'Shocking' COP30 lodging costs heap pressure on Brazil
-
India investigates 'unnatural' death of five tigers
-
Anderson teases Dior debut with Mbappe, Basquiet and Marie Antoinette
-
Bangladesh pushes solar to tackle energy woes
-
Wallabies veteran White relishing 'unreal' Lions opportunity
-
Hong Kong's dragnet widens 5 years after national security law
-
Tibetans face up to uncertain future as Dalai Lama turns 90
-
'Simple monk': the Dalai Lama, in his translator's words
-
Man City crush Juventus, Real Madrid reach Club World Cup last 16
-
Stocks climb, dollar holds on trade hopes and rate bets
-
Bezos, Sanchez to say 'I do' in Venice
-
Vinicius stars as Real Madrid ease into Club World Cup last 16
-
New-look Wimbledon prepares for life without line judges
-
Japan executes 'Twitter killer' who murdered nine
-
UN conference seeks foreign aid rally as Trump cuts bite
-
Dying breed: Tunisian dog lovers push to save age-old desert hound
-
Springboks launch 'really tough season' against Barbarians
-
Syria's wheat war: drought fuels food crisis for 16 million
-
Ex-All Black Kaino's Toulouse not expecting 'walkover' in Top 14 final
-
Rwanda, DRC to ink peace deal in US but questions remain
-
Combs defense team set to take the floor in trial's closing arguments
-
Fraser-Pryce eases through in Jamaica trials farewell

Spanish government under attack over undercover police tactics
The Spanish government is under fire over allegations police officers infiltrated far-left and green groups and had sex with activists to win their trust and gain information.
The scandal broke when Catalan media La Directa reported in January that a police officer going by the name of Daniel Hernandez had sexual relations with various members of a Barcelona squat and far-left movements since 2020.
The intimate relations in one case lasted nearly a year, according to the alternative publication based in the Catalan capital.
Six women have filed a complaint against the officer, accusing him of sexual abuse. They argue their sexual consent was obtained on the basis of lies.
One of the women's lawyers, Mireia Salazar, told AFP the goal of the complaint was "to know how far these practices go, which in our opinion, have no legal justification."
The scandal deepened after the Madrid branch of climate activist group Extinction Rebellion said last week it had been infiltrated by a female police officer who "had sexual relations with at least one of its members".
The affair recalls the case in Britain of Kate Wilson, an environmental activist who was tricked into a sexual relationship with an undercover officer for nearly two years.
In a landmark ruling in 2021, a tribunal concluded that the police had violated her human rights.
- 'Moral limit?' -
In Spain the Hernandez case has sparked outrage, especially in the northeastern region of Catalonia which sparked the country's worst political crisis in decades in 2017 with a failed independence push.
It comes after Spain's central government admitted last year that it spied on the mobile phones of 18 Catalan separatist leaders using Israeli spyware Pegasus.
"Where is your moral limit, where is your ethical limit?" Gabriel Rufian, a top lawmaker with Catalan separatist party ERC, asked Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez last month during a debate in the assembly.
"It is not just a threat to political freedoms, ideological freedoms, but also -- it seems -- sexual freedoms", he added in a reference to the case of the undercover Barcelona police officer.
Sanchez's minority leftist coalition government regularly relies on the ERC to pass legislation in parliament.
Criticism has also come from far-left party Podemos, the junior coalition partners of Sanchez's Socialists.
"It is violence against women," secretary of state of equality, Angela Rodriguez of Podemos, told Catalan radio station Rac1.
"And I think that the sooner that we know what happened and justice can be done, the better it will be for the reputation of security agencies," she added.
- 'It was a shock' -
The scandal comes as Sanchez's government grapples with waning support ahead of regional elections in May and a year-end general election.
Contacted by AFP, both the interior ministry and the police declined to comment on the allegations.
But during a recent debate in parliament, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska dismissed the ERC's accusations of "illegal activities" by police as "a lie".
Undercover police also reportedly infiltrated a far-left group in the Mediterranean port of Valencia, and a Barcelona housing rights group called "Resistim al Gotic", although in these cases there are no allegations of improper sexual relations.
According to La Directa, a police officer calling himself Marc Hernandez pretended to be a "Resistim al Gotic" activist for nearly two years before the publication unmasked him in June.
"When the information was revealed, it was a shock," Marti Cuso, a member of the group, told AFP.
"We did not suspect anything, we had no clues that his person could be a police officer," he added.
P.Costa--AMWN