At least 17 migrants died in the space of 24 hours while trying to cross the sea from North Africa to Spain, and rescuers picked up more than 100 others, the Spanish coast guard said on Monday.

Spanish prosecutors called Friday for Catalan separatist leaders to be jailed for up to 25 years on charges of rebellion or misuse of public funds over last year's failed secession bid.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani receives the credentials of Spain's ambassador to Qatar, Maria Belen Alfaro Hernandez, at the Amiri Diwan Wednesday.

Spanish police said Thursday they had seized over six tonnes of cocaine hidden in a shipment of bananas and arrested 16 suspects, some of them wanted in the Netherlands.

A migrant died Sunday and 19 others were hurt after around 200 people scaled a fence to enter Spain's Melilla enclave from northern Morocco, local Spanish authorities said.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met the outgoing ambassador of Spain to Qatar, Ignacio Escobar Guerrero, at the Amiri Diwan Wednesday.

Storms packing nearly 180 kilometre-per-hour winds hit Portugal early Sunday leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power before carrying heavy rain on into Spain, authorities said.

At least nine people died, including two British nationals, and six others were missing Wednesday in devastating flash floods on the Spanish holiday island of Majorca, authorities said.

Former International Monetary Fund chief Rodrigo Rato will have to serve a four-and-a-half year jail sentence for misusing company credit cards when he worked at state-owned lender Bankia, Spain's Supreme Court confirmed on Wednesday.

Pro-independence protesters obstructed major roads and a high-speed railway line in Spain's Catalonia region on Monday, a year after a banned referendum on secession was marred by police violence.

Thousands of people demonstrating both for and against Catalan independence shut down parts of central Barcelona on Saturday, two days before the anniversary of a vote on secession last year that polarised the wealthy Spanish region.

The rich culinary heritage of Andalusia was showcased at a special live cooking event organised at Qatar National Library (QNL), in partnership with Spain’s Islamic Culture Foundation of Madrid.