Madrid

Spain’s Real Zaragoza face censure again after a Levante player was subjected to racist abuse from fans during their Primera Liga match on Sunday. Referee Fernando Teixeira Vitienes, in his match report, said he heard monkey chants being directed at a Levante player.

Korea missed a great chance to top Pool B when they drew 0-0 against South Africa in the Women’s World Cup field hockey tournament in Madrid, Spain, on Thursday. Korea’s forwards had their opponents’ defence under siege for most of the first half, but Jen Wilson, playing her 100th match for South Africa was inspirational as she kept running into the Korean build-up and creating errors.

For five years, Paul James hitched, trekked and drove to get away from his native West Africa. He survived the Sahara, begged on the streets of Morocco and crossed the Mediterranean in a rubber dinghy to reach what he thought was the promised land. Now in Madrid, he lives on the streets, along with thousands of other Africans in Europe whose journeys in search of new lives have ended in misery.

When Madrid banned extremely thin models from the country’s top fashion show that began this week, it was the kind of measure that European society seemed somehow to be waiting for. The decision sparked immediate controversy among fashion professionals, politicians, in the media and on internet forums.

Spain’s new attempt to expel Senegalese undocumented immigrants has suffered a setback, with Senegal refusing to receive two planes carrying a total of 100 migrants, who were set to leave the Canary Island of Fuerteventura, news reports said on Thursday. The Interior Ministry confirmed a delay for ”technical reasons”, but said the repatriations would be carried out ”immediately”.

Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has accused Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson of stabbing him in the back. Van Nistelrooy left Old Trafford for Real Madrid in the summer in a £10,5-million transfer following a highly publicised rift with Ferguson.

As Europe seeks to reduce dependence on the unstable Middle East’s oil reserves, it is not only looking to continents such as Africa or Latin America, but also to its own soil to ensure supplies. Several companies are investigating the possibilities of starting or increasing oil production in Spain, an insignificant producer so far.

Up to 132 African would-be immigrants were on Thursday feared to have drowned when their boat capsized off Mauritania en route to Spain’s Canary Islands, Spanish news reports said. Eighty-four bodies were retrieved from the sea and beaches near the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott between Sunday and Wednesday.

Eighty-four African would-be immigrants drowned off Mauritania last Saturday when their boats sank attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands, Spanish news reports said on Wednesday. Mauritanian fishermen and rescuers retrieved the bodies from the sea and beaches near the capital Nouakchott, according to the radio station Cadena Ser.

Ronaldo will reportedly stay with Real Madrid this season although the club aims to offload several of his teammates before the imminent transfer deadline. Ronaldo pledged his future to Madrid after talks with club president Ramon Calderon following Sunday’s 0-0 season-opening draw with Villarreal, sports daily Marca said on Tuesday.

Former England captain David Beckham has signed a two-year contract extension with Real Madrid, the president of the Spanish giants has announced. Real president Ramon Calderon told Television Espanola late on Sunday that 31-year-old Beckham has now committed himself to the club until June 2009, the Marca sports daily reported.

Over 100 fires were burning on Wednesday in Galicia, northern Spain, an official said, as police investigated claims, including from the minister of environment, that arsonists had been at work. Sixty-seven of the 110 fires were out of control, according to a local government spokesperson, who said firefighters had spent the night trying to prevent the flames from spreading.

Spanish authorities intercepted a boat carrying 66 illegal African would-be immigrants near the Canary Islands on Friday. One of the migrants had died aboard the boat, which was at sea for 11 days before it was stopped by Spanish authorities off the island of Tenerife, authorities said.

Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy was officially presented on Friday as a Real Madrid player following his arrival from Manchester United, saying the move meant he had fulfilled a dream. Van Nistelrooy (30) signed a three-year contract after passing a medical earlier on Friday and was then presented to the media at the Spanish club’s Bernabeu stadium.

Sweltering temperatures sweeping Europe have brought a plague of jellyfish to Spain’s eastern seashores, forcing holidaymakers to stay out of the sea, the Red Cross said on Thursday. The unwelcome visitors, which can reach the size of a dinner plate, have flourished thanks to a glut of plankton brought on by higher sea temperatures.

Real Madrid have made a new offer for Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy after Manchester United rejected a bid last week. ”The club have made a new offer and are waiting for reply from Manchester,” a Real spokesperson said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old Van Nistelrooy is at the centre of a tug-of-war between Real and Bayern Munich.

Naming a pop group after a judge was always going to have potential legal pitfalls. Spanish pop group Garzon, named after the crusading judge who tried to bring former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to justice, has had to change its name after Baltasar Garzon himself threatened legal action.

A group of 51 mainly African undocumented immigrants who have been moored off Malta for five days will be taken in by several countries, reports said on Thursday. The migrants were rescued by a Spanish fishing vessel from a boat that was adrift and had run out of food.

Manchester United’s Dutch international Ruud van Nistelrooy is on Tuesday due to finalise his -million transfer to Real Madrid, Marca sports daily reported. ”Real Madrid will announce today [Tuesday] the transfer of Van Nistelrooy,” Marca wrote of the man who will be Real’s first signing of the summer.

The European Union will start patrolling the West African coast from July 18 in an attempt to stem illegal immigration to the Canary Islands, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was on Thursday quoted by press reports as saying. Zapatero made the announcement on Wednesday on Tenerife, where he visited immigrant reception centres.

More than 30 people were killed on Monday when a metro train derailed in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia in an apparent accident, as pilgrims began gathering ahead of a papal visit, regional officials said. An interior ministry spokesperson said any terrorist link had been "completely ruled out".

Spanish television cameras frequently capture images of undocumented African immigrants flocking to the Canary Islands. Crowded into wooden fishing boats or disembarking with the help of Red Cross workers, the young men look impassively into the cameras, as if refusing to yield the secret of the other world they come from.

The European Union will deploy vessels and aircraft to intercept boats carrying undocumented immigrants before they leave West African waters. Representatives of the European frontier agency Frontex, 14 countries, the European Commission and Europol met on Tuesday in Madrid to discuss plans to help Spain stem the influx of illegals arriving in the Canary Islands.

As instability in the Middle East threatens energy security, the West is turning to Western and Central Africa, which is emerging as an increasingly important player in global oil markets. The region from the Gulf of Guinea to Sudan is becoming the subject of fierce competition by energy companies in a new scramble for Africa — for its high-quality, easily refinable oil.

Zinedine Zidane scored in his final game for Real Madrid on Tuesday, a consolation in a season-ending 4-3 loss to Sevilla. Madrid conceded all four goals to the newly crowned UEFA Cup champion in a 17-minute spell before halftime after David Beckham had given Real a 2-0 lead.

Russian tennis and merchandising phenomenon Maria Sharapova is due to take part on Thursday in what will be the world’s first beauty contest for ball boys. Sharapova, currently number three in the world tennis rankings, is to help at a casting session in Madrid for male models seeking jobs as ball boys at the city’s WTA Women’s Masters tournament in November.

A former Middle East specialist of the United States Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday condemned what he called an organised campaign of manipulation by the Bush administration to justify the Iraq war. Paul Pillar, a former CIA analyst said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais that the US had particularly wanted to prove a link between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.