US Internet giant Google is preparing changes to its dominant search system to satisfy EU anti-trust authorities, the Financial Times said Saturday. In a five-year accord with Brussels, Google has promised to make users "clearly aware" when promoting its own search services in specialised areas such as restaurants, finance and shopping, the FT said, citing people familiar with the deal. It will also highlight links to rival specialised search services.

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police will erect barriers around politicians' residences to shield them from protests over the growing number of home evictions and to call for changes to mortgage laws. The Interior Ministry said on Wednesday it ordered police to keep demonstrators at a distance after protests outside the houses of senior members of the governing People's Party, including the Madrid home of Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's economy minister said on Tuesday the European Central Bank should do more to help firms on the euro zone periphery obtain funding, keeping up pressure from Madrid for the bank to extend its crisis-fighting mandate. Speaking at an event in Madrid, Luis de Guindos also said the Spanish economy was likely to have shrunk by 0.6 percent of gross domestic product in the first quarter. That would mean the rate of its decline slowed from 0.8 percent in the last three months of 2012.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy rushed to the defence of King Juan Carlos on Monday, a day after a poll showed the monarch's approval ratings have plunged due to a corruption probe involving members of his family. Rajoy recalled the king's role in helping to restore democracy following the death of dictator General Francisco Franco in 1975 and the decisive action he took to fend off an attempted military coup on February 23, 1981. On that day a section of the army seized parliament, firing shots over the heads of lawmakers, in a bid to establish another military regime.