Gerry Hadden reports for PRI'sThe World. His assignments have sent him to the northernmost village in Norway to the southern tip of Italy, and just about everywhere else in between.
At Spain’s Institute of Science and Concrete Technology, engineers are trying to find ways to keep buildings and bridges from falling down. The lab is getting attention after the deadly earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria in February.
A ringworm outbreak among Spanish teens has been traced back to barbershops and a fashionable haircut: the fade. Spanish dermatologists blame dirty electric razors.
They’re tiny, they’re toxic, they’re everywhere. Cigarette butts are a huge source of pollution in Spain and lawmakers have said, enough. They're ordering cigarette makers to pay for the cleanup, but smokers worry they’ll end up footing the bill.
It may sound counterintuitive, but the town has its reasons.
Due to soaring electricity costs, bakers in France can’t afford to turn on their ovens to bake bread. They’re demanding help from the government and threatening the unthinkable — to turn off their ovens.
The Canaries begin just 60 miles off the coast of Western Sahara, in the Atlantic Ocean. That relatively short distance makes them attractive to those fleeing hardship at home. But the crossing is treacherous.
Across Spain's Barcelona province children are getting to school in organized convoys of bikes, dubbed "bicibus," or bicycle-bus. As with traditional bus lines, each bicibus route has stops where other cycling students can join along the way. Parents, teachers and other volunteer adults ride, too, to ensure the kids’ safety.
Morocco’s Atlas Lions have a lot to celebrate at this year's World Cup in Qatar. They became both the first Arab and the first African team to reach the semifinals, inspiring Arab unity around the world.
The Madrid-based nongovernmental organization Safeguard Defenders says that China has an extended police network in dozens of countries around the world, with the goal of coercing criminal suspects to return home to China. Beijing doesn't deny they exist, but says they are legitimate and used for legal purposes.
Back in the ‘70s, Argelita's village school in northeast Spain closed down because there just were not enough children. But now, after 47 years, children finally have a place to learn in town.
Europeans have been battling the Velutina hornet for about 15 years. Spanish beekeepers have sent out a mayday for help, but so far they’ve been left to defend their hives on their own.