- Darvish tames Ohtani as Padres thrash Dodgers
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- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- AC Milan fall at Fiorentina after De Gea's penalty heroics
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
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- Lewandowski hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
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- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
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- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
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- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Arshdeep, Chakravarthy help India hammer Bangladesh in T20 opener
- Lewandowski's quickfire hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
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- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
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- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
Spain tries to calm spiralling row with Venezuela
Spain tried to calm the war of words with Venezuela Friday with relations between the two countries almost at breaking point after Caracas recalled its ambassador.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil summoned the Spanish ambassador there to a meeting Friday after ordering his country's envoy to Spain to come home for "consultations".
The new flare-up followed Spain's Defence Minister Margarita Robles calling the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro a "dictatorship" Thursday, and expressing her support for "the Venezuelans who had had to leave their country" because of his regime.
Gil called the comments "rude and insolent".
Caracas was also angered by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's decision to meet Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia earlier in the day.
He fled to Spain on Sunday and requested asylum.
The meeting came just hours after the head of Venezuela's parliament called for ties with Madrid to be cut.
But Madrid tried to cool the rhetoric Friday by insisting that it was Venezuela's right to exercise its "sovereign decision".
"I have recalled ambassadors several times -- a recall is the sovereign decision of each state," insisted Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares.
"We are working to have the best relations possible with our fraternal cousins in Venezuela," he told public radio.
Madrid has been at loggerheads with its former colony since a disputed presidential election there in July, with Spanish lawmakers voting to urge Sanchez's government to recognise Gonzalez Urrutia as the "legitimate winner" of the vote which Maduro claims he won despite international scepticism.
- Spain stands with 'democracy' -
Sanchez published a video on X showing him walking in the gardens at his official residence with Gonzalez Urrutia and the opposition figure's daughter Carolina Gonzalez, who lives in Spain.
"Spain continues to work in favour of democracy, dialogue and the fundamental rights of the brotherly people of Venezuela," he posted, adding that he "warmly welcomed Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia to our country".
The 75-year-old went into hiding after the July 28 poll that the opposition insists he won, with Maduro ordering his arrest.
The United States on Thursday announced new sanctions against 16 Venezuelan officials, including some from the electoral authority, for impeding "a transparent electoral process" and not publishing "accurate" results.
Venezuela issued a statement shortly afterwards denouncing the sanctions as a "crime of aggression".
The US has recognised Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner of the election.
So far, however, Spain and other European Union nations have limited themselves to refusing to accept Maduro as the victor and calling on the Venezuelan government to release the voting tally sheets.
"From a political point of view, the Spanish government has been clear since the elections were organised," Sanchez had said Wednesday.
"We are doing something very important: working for unity in the European Union so that we can find a way out that reflects the democratic will expressed at the ballot box by the Venezuelan people."
P.M.Smith--AMWN