SPAIN: Catalonia Resents Madrid's Spending; Separation Movement Grows.

LATIMES/ Henry Chu/    The relatively wealthy residents of Catalonia blame Spain's economic woes on Madrid and its irresponsible and discriminatory ways, using $9 billion usd of Catalan tax money to support the rest of the nation while ignoring the region's needs for better infrastructure and quality public services. They claim that schoolchildren in the poor region of Extremadura have more computers in their classrooms — with the help of money from Catalonia — than their own students. Their solution, regional independence from Spain, is gathering support.

SPAIN: More Than 1 Million Catalans Protest, Demanding Greater Autonomy.

BBC/      Saturday in Barcelona, more than a million people marched demanding greater autonomy for the Catalan region, a day after a constitutional court declared that there was no legal basis to recognize Catalonia as a nation. Despite the protest, many apparently were still rooting for Spain in the World Cup.
Sunday, Spain won the match versus Holland 1-0... in double overtime.