Madrid  - Spain's King Juan Carlos was received with republican protests when visiting a mining region in Asturias in the north, the daily El Mundo said Friday.

The monarch had to bear with flags of Spain's 1931-36 Second Republic, shouts of "long live the republic" and loudspeakers playing the republican anthem on his way to visit a coal miners' training centre in Sama de Langreo on Thursday.

Madrid  - A debt-ridden construction entrepreneur kidnapped the manager of his bank office in southern Spain to pressure him for a loan of 50,000 euros (65,500 dollars), El Pais reported Friday.

The Belgian national living in Marbella approached the manager in a parking lot near the bank on Tuesday, the daily reported.

He pointed a pistol at the man, saying hired killers would hurt his family unless the manager arranged for him to get the loan and gave him his car.

Caracas/Port of Spain  - President Hugo Chavez warned Thursday that Venezuela and "other countries" will veto the final declaration of the Summit of the Americas that is set to take place from Friday in Trinidad and Tobago.

"Venezuela vetoes the declaration of the Americas," he said in the eastern Venezuelan town of Cumana.

Toledo, Spain  - Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Valladolid archbishop Braulio Rodriguez Plaza, 65, primate of the Catholic Church in Spain, former primate Antonio Canizares announced Thursday.

Rodriguez Plaza will succeed Canizares as the prelate of Toledo and primate of Spain.

The two posts, which have traditionally belonged together, were left vacant in December when Canizares was appointed prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments at the Vatican.

Madrid - Spain's attorney-general said Thursday he would oppose a request by judge Baltasar Garzon to investigate six US officials over torture claims at the Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba.

Garzon made international headlines in 1998 for issuing an international arrest warrant against General Augusto Pinochet over the deaths of Spanish citizens in Chile.

He has now asked prosecutors to advise whether he should investigate a complaint lodged by an association defending prisoners rights in March.