Spain seizes ancient artifacts and makes arrests in smuggling raid, Spanish Congress simplifies its name and more news on Tuesday July 22nd.
Spain seizes ancient artifacts and makes arrests in smuggling raid
Spanish police said Monday they have arrested seven people suspected of trafficking looted archaeological relics and had seized around 3,200 artifacts as part of the operation.
The seized objects were mostly coins from a variety of eras but they also included Roman sling bullets, oil lamps, arrowheads, and a glass vessel from the Roman period, police said in a statement.
The authorities suspect the items were illegally taken from archaeological excavation sites and sold online without permits to buyers in countries including Italy, Japan and the United States.
“Some of the seized objects are in such a good state of preservation that they could only have been extracted from an archaeological site that is not yet known,” the statement said.
The suspects were arrested in the southern region of Andalusia and they face multiple charges, including membership in a criminal organisation, money laundering and breaches of cultural heritage protection legislation.
The seized artifacts have been sent to the Archaeological Museum of Seville for analysis.
Active fires in eight regions of Spain
New blazes in Palencia, Málaga, Huesca, Ciudad Real, Barcelona and Ibiza mean that eight of Spain’s 17 regions now have active wildfires, as the country goes through a difficult period of incendios (fires in Spanish).
So far this year, more than 24,000 hectares of forest and land have been engulfed by flames this year.
Three new laws may be passed today
Tuesday’s plenary session in the Congress includes the potential ratification of three decree laws on advance payments to regional governments and municipalities, the reinforcement of the electricity system after the blackout, and the declaration of cultural events as being of public interest.
The question remains whether the government will obtain the necessary support to push all three through.
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Spanish Congress simplifies its name
Spain’s Congreso de los Diputados, the equivalent of the UK’s House of Commons or the US’s House of Representatives, gets a name change on Tuesday July 22nd.
From now on, it will just be known as Congreso, eliminating the masculine gender of de los Diputados to make it more inclusive to female MPs.
READ ALSO: What is Spain’s inclusive language debate and why is it so controversial?
With additional reporting by AFP
