Catalan President Artur Mas says a vote on the region’s independence from Spain will be “impossible” to stop even if Madrid is against the referendum. “If the Catalan population wants to vote on its future, it’s practically impossible to stop that forever,” Mas said in an interview on Wednesday. He said the Spanish government should realize that it cannot stand... 

Thousands of demonstrators in Madrid take part in a Labor Day protest against the Spanish government’s austerity policies, May 1, 2013. Thousands of protesters have staged rallies in Spain to express resentment against austerity measures, recession and the soaring rate of unemployment in the country. Spaniards took to the streets in some 80 cities in trade union-organized Labor Day demonstrations...