The Catalan family drama “Alcarràs” won the Golden Bear award for best movie at the Berlin International Film Festival on Wednesday.

SPAIN, Feb 12: Twelve Catalan separatist leaders involved in an attempt to break from Spain went on trial on Tuesday under intense scrutiny, as tensions over the future of the region flare again.

MADRID, Feb 10: Tens of thousands of people waving Spain’s red-and-yellow flag demonstrated in Madrid on Sunday to oppose any concessions by the government to Catalan pro-independence parties and to call for early elections.

BARCELONA, Jan 30: Catalonia’s parliament speaker on Tuesday postponed a session intended to re-elect the region’s fugitive ex-president, saying the planned meeting would not take place until there were guarantees Spanish authorities “won’t interfere.”

Pro-independence parties in Catalonia have held their absolute majority in snap regional elections, dealing a blow to the Spanish government which had called the polls in the hope of defusing the secessionist push.

Catalans go to the polls following the independence referendum and the imposition of direct rule by Madrid. The vote is being held with separatist candidates either in exile or in jail and polls suggesting a tight result.

MADRID, Dec 4: A Spanish judge on Monday ordered that four prominent members of the Catalan independence movement should remain in custody, including the no. 2 of the ousted regional government, who will campaign in a polarized regional election from a jail near Madrid.

BARCELONA, Oct 23: Catalonia’s regional parliament will hold a plenary meeting on Thursday, a lawmaker with the ruling Catalan separatist coalition said Monday. Many fear the session will become a cover for a vote on declaring independence from Spain.

BARCELONA, SPAIN, Oct 22: Spain announced an unprecedented plan Saturday to sack Catalonia’s separatist leaders, install its own people in their place and call a new local election, using previously untapped constitutional powers to take control of the prosperous region that is threatening to secede.

BARCELONA, Oct 16:  Catalonia’s leader called for dialogue with Spain and a meeting with the country’s prime minister, complying with a Monday deadline to respond to a request from the central government to state explicitly whether the regional president had declared independence.

MADRID, Oct 4: Catalonia’s regional government is mulling when to declare the region’s independence from Spain in the wake of a disputed referendum that has triggered Spain’s most serious national crisis in decades.

BARCELONA, Oct 2: Catalonia’s government was holding a closed-door Cabinet meeting Monday to discuss the next steps in its plan to declare independence from Spain following a disputed referendum marred by violence. Regional officials say the poll, which Spain insists was illegal and invalid, shows that the majority who voted favor secession.

BARCELONA, Oct 1: Spanish riot police smashed their way into the polling station where Catalonia’s regional leader was due to vote in the disputed independence referendum on Sunday. Scuffles erupted outside between police and people waiting to vote.

BARCELONA, Sept 22: Local derbies hold a special place as far as football is concerned. Without stating the obvious of the heated local rivalries in derbies, some also have tremendous impact on a community, a city or a whole nation. Catalan derby is no less exciting or pulsating in Spain.