Madrid

Spain’s double world champion Fernando Alonso ended speculation over his driving plans for the 2008 Formula One season on Monday by announcing his return to Renault. Alonso won his two titles in 2005 and 2006 with the French team before moving to McLaren, with whom he finished third in this year’s title race.

Real Madrid on Thursday unveiled new signings Arjen Robben and Gabriel Heinze at the Bernabeu stadium after they passed medicals, with both men saying they were delighted at the opportunity to swap the English Premiership for La Liga. Dutch winger Robben (23) arrived from Chelsea while Argentine defender Heinze (29) joins from Manchester United.

Two small explosions hit part of the Spanish section of Wednesday’s Tour de France cycle race after a telephone bomb threat from a caller claiming to represent Basque separatist rebels ETA, newspaper website El Pais said. No one was hurt and the race was not called off after the explosions, which came after the caller said that ETA had planted several bombs.

Spanish intelligence has arrested a suspected double agent who had been sending state secrets to Russia, the head of the National Intelligence Agency (CNI) said on Tuesday, according to local radio. The double agent had been working for Russia until 2004, CNI head Alberto Saiz said, according to Cadena Ser radio.

The Spanish coast guard was searching on Thursday for about 50 Africans whose wooden boat capsized as the would-be illegal migrants neared the end of a voyage to the Canary Islands. Coast guard boats picked up 48 survivors after their narrow boat overturned about 142km south-west of the resort island of Tenerife.

A Spanish judge has taken away visiting rights from a man who took his 10-year-old son to a running of the bulls during the annual Pamplona festival last week, Spanish media reported on Tuesday. The boy’s mother filed a police complaint after seeing a photograph published in a newspaper of her smiling ex-husband leading their son by the arm just a few steps ahead of the bulls.