The Spanish Senate on Tuesday approved the establishment of a permanent force of 2,200 U.S. Marines based in southern Spain, who can be swiftly deployed to crises in Africa.

The U.S. already has a rapid reaction force of about 800 troops at Moron de la Frontera, near Seville, who were deployed temporarily in the wake of the 2012 attack on a U.S. mission in Benghazi, eastern Libya.

At least five people died and another six were injured on Monday in an explosion at a fireworks factory in northeastern Spain, local authorities said.

Two of the injured in the blast at the factory on the outskirts of Zaragoza near the city's airport are in intensive care, the regional government of Aragon said in a statement.

European countries will increase identity checks and baggage controls on trains after American passengers thwarted an attack on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris, France's interior minister said Saturday.

Bernard Cazeneuve said the checks would be carried out "everywhere it is necessary" but did not give other details. He spoke after an emergency meeting in Paris with top security and transport officials from nine countries and the European Union in the wake of last week's attack attempt.

Thousands of half-naked revellers pelted each other with tomatoes on Wednesday in the town of Bunol in eastern Spain, bathing the streets with red goo in the 70th annual "Tomatina" battle.

A string of trucks laden with 150 tonnes of tomatoes rolled through the town's narrow streets, as teams on board distributed the load to surrounding crowds for people to throw at each other during the hour-long morning festivities.

European ministers will gather in Paris for security talks at the weekend following last week's "targeted and premeditated" jihadist attack on a high-speed train that was foiled by passengers, it was announced Wednesday.

Prosecutors have charged 25-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El Khazzani over the attack, which saw him watch a jihadist video on his phone before entering a toilet in the train, remove his shirt, and step out armed with an assault rifle, 270 rounds of ammunition and a Luger pistol strapped to his chest.

Spain and Morocco on Tuesday arrested 14 people on suspicion of belonging to a network that recruited and sent fighters to the Islamic State group.

One suspect was detained in Spain while the other 13 were arrested in cities across Morocco, a Spanish interior ministry statement said, describing it as a "joint anti-terrorist operation".

President Francois Hollande bestowed France's highest honor on a group of Americans and a Briton on Monday saying the whole world "admires their courage and cool composure" in overpowering a Moroccan gunman on a crowded train.

Anti-terror investigators were questioning the alleged attacker, 25-year-old Ayoub El Khazzani, who boarded the high-speed train in Brussels bound for Paris on Friday armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a Luger automatic pistol, ammunition and a box-cutter.

A fraud probe into former IMF head Rodrigo Rato, which has embarrassed Spain's conservative government, made headlines again Tuesday following the arrest of a suspect in the case as he was about to board a plane for Mexico.

Rato, a former finance minister with the ruling Popular Party, has become a symbol of corruption among Spain's elites which has fuelled the rise of new parties ahead of a general election later this year.

Spain's interior minister will be questioned in parliament on Friday as a constant flow of corruption scandals casts a shadow over the next general elections expected at the end of the year.

Yet while analysts agree that corruption "burdens" both the ruling conservative Popular Party (PP) and the main opposition Socialists, they disagree on the political fallout.

Collecting obscene amounts of money, writing illegal contracts, handing out bribes -- all things you can do with a new Spanish mobile app inspired by headlines of corruption in Spain.

"Corrupt Mayor Clicker" is a free game created by three young developers who were seeking a way to "criticize the corruption in a satirical way."