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.
American Floyd Landis underlined his yellow jersey credentials with a resounding performance in the Tour de France’s 11th stage, which gave him the yellow jersey on Thursday. Russian Denis Menchov of the Rabobank team took the victory after 206,5km of racing between Tarbes and Pla de Beret, of which almost 62km was climbing into the high mountains.
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.
It makes those who have never seen it stop in their tracks, while Catalans who have grown up with it find their chests swelling with pride. Building castells, the centuries-old Catalan tradition of creating human towers up to 10 levels high, is a cross-cultural snapshot of a region in the political spotlight amid moves to give it great autonomy from Madrid.
Excess speed caused a fatal metro-train accident in the Spanish city of Valencia, a regional minister said on Tuesday, and there are suggestions the train driver may have been ill or unconscious. At the moment of the accident on Monday the black box recorder showed the train was travelling ”too fast”, regional infrastructure minister Jose Ramon Garcia Anton said.
Officials said on Tuesday they had recovered the black box that could confirm government speculation that excess speed caused a metro-train accident in Valencia, in which 41 people were killed. ”The black box has been found and is in the hands of our agents,” said Jose Ramon Garcia Anton, head of infrastructure in the regional government.
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.
No frontier marks the entrance to Spain’s Basque region, but the traveller passing by quaint villages on green hillsides has a clear sense of entering a distinct territory. It is not just the Basque flags here and there. It is, above all, the signs in a strange language unlike any other in the world.
South African athlete Ernst van Dyk was named Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday. Swiss tennis superstar Roger Federer was named World Sportsman of the Year for the second straight year, with the women’s honour going to Croatian skier Janica Kostelic.
Illegal immigrants from Africa arrive on the shores of Tenerife ragged and bleeding, lashed by the waves after days at sea pointing their small and battered craft at the distant peak of the Teide volcano, Spain’s highest mountain. Yet whatever their physical state, they are usually full of joy: they have made it to Europe.
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.
Defending world-champion Fernando Alonso made Spanish sporting history here on Sunday when he became the first home winner of the Spanish Grand Prix. The 24-year-old Renault driver triumphed in stunning fashion, finishing a comfortable 18,5 seconds ahead of his main rival, seven-times champion German Michael Schumacher in a Ferrari.
Christopher Columbus, who died in the northern Spanish city of Valladolid 500 years ago, ended his days alone and bitter, a fate shared by many other great explorers. Spain’s Conquistadors also came to a sticky end against the backdrop of violence and internecine rivalry which thrived in the 16th century, during the brutal conquest and colonisation of Latin America.
Thousands of jubilant Sevilla supporters celebrated into the early hours of Thursday morning after their team won their first European trophy by trouncing Middlesbrough 4-0 in the Uefa Cup final. Fans fired rockets and danced in a noisy celebration held at downtown monumental tower, La Giralda, news agency Efe reported.
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.
Fernando Alonso heads back to his native Spain this weekend determined to win the Spanish Grand Prix for the first time and extend his lead in the drivers’ world championship. Alonso (24) leads the race for this year’s drivers’ crown after winning twice and finishing on the podium in every one of the five races so far.
Another tournament, another disappointment? Spain makes its eighth straight appearance in the World Cup with hopes of success understandably low. A soccer giant at club level, the national team has lifted only one major trophy — the 1964 European Championship.
Real Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane scored on his final appearence at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium but visitors Villarreal soured his goodbye party by holding the Spanish giants to 3-3 draw on Sunday. It was a bittersweet finale for the French legend and three-time World Player of the Year, who did not have one of the better games of his career despite his crucial goal which brought Real level to 2-2 just after the hour.
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.
FC Barcelona won its second straight Spanish league title and 18th overall on Wednesday, claiming the crown when final challenger Valencia was beaten by Mallorca 2-1. Barcelona players began celebrating at halftime of their game at Celta Vigo and went on to toast their success with a 1-0 win courtesy of a 55th-minute goal by Samuel Eto’o.
Barcelona will meet Arsenal in a Champions League final that will delight football purists around the world after holding AC Milan to a goalless draw in Barcelona on Wednesday. The Catalans were unable to add to the 1-0 advantage they had established in the first leg at the San Siro last week.
Real Madrid star and France legend Zinedine Zidane on Wednesday explained his decision to retire after the World Cup finals in Germany and not play on with his club for another year. ”I didn’t make this decision overnight. It’s one I’ve mulled over for a long time,” Zidane told a news conference in Madrid, confirming what he had told French television on Tuesday.
Arsene Wenger revealed he had been confident Jens Lehmann would make the last-minute penalty save that has put Arsenal into the Champions League final. Wenger was dubious about whether Gael Clichy had actually fouled Villarreal striker Jose Mari for the penalty, which Juan Roman Riquelme struck almost straight at Lehmann.
Villarreal will need to rediscover its scoring touch against Arsenal on Tuesday to reach its first Champions League final. Trailing 1-0 on Kolo Toure’s goal from the first leg of the semifinals last week, Villarreal needs to win by two at its El Madrigal stadium to be sure of advancing to play FC Barcelona or AC Milan in the final.
Conditions are ripe for multiparty talks on the future of Spain’s strife-torn Basque region, with armed separatist group ETA having called a ceasefire last month, the leader of the group’s banned political wing said on Wednesday. ”All conditions are in place” for ”a multiparty negotiation” on the future of their wealthy northern region, Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi said.
The first galactico of the Florentino Perez era at Real Madrid, Portugal star Luis Figo, compared the last few years at the Spanish club to a circus in an interview with Spanish newspaper Marca on Wednesday. ”If the most important thing in your project is to make a circus then you have a lot less chance of achieving sporting success.
Real Madrid have included England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho on a seven-man shortlist from which they hope to find a replacement for Juan Ramon Lopez Caro. Four English-based managers and three Italians appear on the shortlist, announced by Real Madrid president Fernando Martin on Monday.