Spain

BMW has been striving to reconcile its dueling images for years. Best known for its luxurious, sport-oriented cars, the German manufacturer's motorcycles are only beginning to shed their reputation as wheels for safety-conscious old men, thanks to exciting new bikes like the S 1000 RR and K 1600 LT. At this weekend's International Motorcycle Shows event in Long Beach, BMW is likely to confuse its image even further when its first scooters make...

Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s prime minister, has found a new ally in his quest for lower borrowing rates and liquidity in his recession-racked country: France’s new President Francoise Hollande. A week after his inauguration, Hollande met with Rajoy at the Elysee Palace to talk policy before heading to a European Union summit in Brussels later in the day.

The alarm over potential bank runs in Greece and Spain this week has highlighted an often-overlooked fact: Europe's debt crisis is also, in many ways, a major banking crisis. In capitals such as Athens, Madrid and Rome, large portions of the sovereign debt racked up by spendthrift governments are owed to the countries' own banks, locking governments and the banks in an embrace so tight that disaster for one would almost certainly spell doom for the other. International bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal have helped to keep not just their governments but also their banks afloat, as well as financial institutions in other parts of Europe with large exposure to those nations' debts.

Roger Federer rallied to beat Tomas Berdych , 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, and win the Madrid Open for a third time on Sunday. Earlier, Serena Williams overpowered top-ranked Victoria Azarenka , 6-1, 6-3, to win the women's final. While Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal had blamed the new blue-clay court for their early exits, Federer's biggest obstacle was to overcome an opponent who had beaten him in three of their previous five meetings. "It is amazing to win here again," said Federer, who will overtake Nadal as the second-ranked player behind Djokovic.

Hard-core Harry Potter fans who devoured the books, camped out for the movies and trekked through the theme park now have a new way to relive the boy wizard's adventures. PHOTOS: Making of Harry Potter studio tour Debuting Saturday, the Making of Harry Potter behind-the-scenes tour at theWarner Bros.studios in England will let wizards, mudbloods and muggles pull back the curtain on the movie-making secrets of the most successful film series of all time. Located 20 miles outside of London, the three-hour self-guided tour will take visitors past sets, props, costumes, models and special effects exhibits from the eight "Harry Potter" movies.

A fossil jawbone, rudimentary tools and animal skeletons from a cave in Spain extend the earliest occupation of Europe by human ancestors back to as much as 1.3 million years ago, half a million years earlier than previously believed, researchers reported Wednesday. The findings suggest that early hominids swept out of Africa, through the Near East and into Europe much more rapidly than previously believed, said Spanish researchers who reported the find in the journal Nature.

Picasso and bullfighting are cultural touchstones in Spain. Now add Internet piracy. The unauthorized downloading and streaming of movies and television shows from the Web is a growing problem for the entertainment industry around the world. In a few key countries such as Spain, however, it has become an epidemic that is forcing movie studios to consider no longer selling DVDs in the country. A cavalier attitude toward piracy has made it mainstream behavior in Spain. "Almost everybody I know downloads movies," said Mercedes Carrasco, 45, a student from Caceres who downloads about two movies each week.

The alert came from an informant who warned of impending suicide attacks on the Barcelona subway. And because the suspected bombers thought the spy was ready to die with them, officials say, he urged authorities to act fast. The paramilitary Guardia Civil raided mosques and apartments in port neighborhoods housing one of mainland Europe's largest Pakistani communities. A judge jailed 10 suspects. Spain warned that bombers had been dispatched for follow-up attacks in Paris, London, Lisbon and Frankfurt.

The $1.5 billion Paramount Park in Spain hopes to rival Disneyland Paris as a European tourist destination when the movie theme park debuts in spring 2015. > Photos: Paramount Park Murcia theme park in Spain Located on the Mediterranean coast about 270 miles southeast of Madrid, Paramount Park Murcia will feature 30 attractions with an adjacent shopping center, hotels and casino. Construction is expected to begin in spring 2012 on a 100-acre theme park set around a central lake that will combine the themed lands of Disneyland with the movie backlots of Universal Studios . While not an investor, Paramount Pictures will license movie properties to the developer and provide design direction for the theme park.

There's an imaginary border that crosses through the South of France and northern Italy, angling through Greece and Turkey toward the Middle East. Call it the olive oil line -- to the north, the cuisines are flavored with butter and other oils; to the south, the warm Mediterranean flavors of olive oil predominate. Another culinary border follows it almost exactly: the Great Garbanzo Divide. Also known as the chickpea, the garbanzo is a round, golden legume known in the Old World eons before true beans found their way from the New World.

- At the village market, my friend Pepa buys a couple of small white fish, a handful of clams, a few shrimp. I ask what she's preparing. " Una sopa marinera, de pescado ," she replies. A fish soup. Nothing fancy, no complications, just a simple home-style fish soup, ready in minutes. In Spanish, " marinera " has nothing to do with tomato sauce - it means mariner's style, fishermen's fare. These seafood soups are traditional aboard fishing boats or in fishermen's homes, where the remains of the day's catch find their way into the soup pot. From the village where Pepa and I shop, we look down to the Mediterranean coast, where a fishing port receives fresh seafood daily.

It was like Michael Jordan missing a game-winning free throw or LeBron James bouncing a dunk off the rim. It was Justin Verlander losing a World Series game on a wild pitch or Eli Manning blowing the Super Bowl with an interception in the end zone. It's rare that the biggest and best players in any sport fail to deliver in the clutch — that, after all, is how they got to the be the biggest and best. But it happened on successive days in last week's UEFA Champions League semifinals, with both Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo missing penalty kicks that conceivably could have sent their teams to the final.

In the upcoming HBO movie "Hemingway & Gellhorn," actors Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman bring to life the passionate and stormy relationship between Ernest Hemingway and World War II correspondent Martha Gellhorn — the inspiration for the writer's classic novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls. " But the real star of the cable network's film, which premieres May 28, is San Francisco and the Bay Area. Although the movie takes place in nine countries, it was shot over 40 days last spring entirely on location within about 20 miles of the Northern California city.

Argentina's government made official its plan to take control of the nation's largest oil company, YPF, provoking a diplomatic crisis with Spain, where the company's largest shareholder is based. In a televised address from the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said she would ask the country's congress to approve a law to nationalize a 51% controlling interest of YPF, justifying it by declaring that oil production was in the national interest.

MADRID - The son of two teachers, Moises Leon got an education degree in hope of joining the ranks of the comfortable middle class that his parents worked all their lives to raise him in. But his graduation coincided with Europe's debt crisis, and Spain's spending cuts have put a teaching job out of reach. So he works two part-time jobs, as a day-care assistant and a private English teacher, that together earn him barely $1,000 a month. At 28, he still lives with his parents.

The 17 nations of the Eurozone agreed Friday to increase their bailout resources in an attempt to keep a lid on the debt crisis that has hobbled the region's economy and raised doubt about the future of the euro. But the new total of about $1 trillion in rescue funds still falls short of what many analysts and investors have suggested is necessary to insure major economies such as Spain and Italy against a possible default. Also, more than a third of the money is already committed to rescue packages for Greece, Ireland and Portugal, meaning that the actual amount available is considerably less.

It already looks like 2012 will prove to be a good year for globetrotting ride enthusiasts as theme parks in Asia, Europe and South America are planning to roll out major new attractions. > Photos: Best new international theme park rides for 2012 Theme parks around the world are preparing a highly anticipated slate for 2012 that includes record-setting roller coasters, one-of-a-kind attractions, pulse-quickening thrill rides and family-friendly themed lands. Since it is still early, I'll update my Top 20 over the coming months as new projects are announced.

There's an imaginary border that crosses through the South of France and northern Italy, angling through Greece and Turkey toward the Middle East. Call it the olive oil line ? to the north, the cuisines are flavored with butter and other oils; to the south, the warm Mediterranean flavors of olive oil predominate. Another culinary border follows it almost exactly: the Great Garbanzo Divide. Also known as the chickpea, the garbanzo is a round, golden legume known in the Old World eons before true beans found their way from the New World.

MADRID - Millions of Spaniards stayed off the job Thursday to protest new labor laws that allow companies to opt out of collective bargaining pacts, reduce wages and fire workers more easily. The general strike stalled public transportation and shut factories and schools across the country. Angry confrontations erupted between hordes of protesters and riot police officers, but no major violence was reported. It was the first such large-scale labor action against the policies of conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the strongest public rebuke yet of his austerity measures.

In the recently completed documentary "Kumpanía: Flamenco Los Angeles," narrator Bruce Bisenz opens the film by saying, "Flamenco is a fragile art. It exists on the verges of society, just as the Gypsies once existed in the same way. " But the film, along with this weekend's second Los Angeles International Flamenco Festival in Redondo Beach, may help bring L.A.'s flamenco scene out of the shadows. Both are shining the spotlight on Los Angeles as a hub of vibrant flamenco talent.