149 Dead in Plane Crash at Madrid Airport A Spanish airliner bound for the Canary Islands at the height of the vacation season crashed, burned, and broke into pieces Wednesday while trying to take off from Madrid, killing 149 people on board, officials said. There were only 26 survivors in the midafternoon crash, said Spanish Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez, whose department is in charge of civil aviation. It was Spain's deadliest air disaster in more than 20 years.
While making a slit-eyed gesture and standing near a Chinese dragon, members of Spain's Olympic basketball teams posed for an advertisement, apparently unaware of offensive overtones. Two large photos, one of each team's members pulling back the skin by their eyes,
filled an entire page in Spain's most popular newspaper.
A sponsor of the Spanish Basketball Federation published the questionable good-luck message, but apparently the sport's governing body saw no reason to object either, as its seal also appears on the ad.
ETA has claimed responsibility
for four bombings that struck popular coastal resorts in northern Spain yesterday. The group issued warning calls before the detonations and no casualties were reported. The explosions are considered the beginning of ETA's usual Summer bombing campaign that targets vacation spots as a way to gain attention for its 40 year struggle to win an independent Basque state in northern Spain.
With Italy's
new laws against sleeping, eating, drinking, and singing in public all aimed at making the place more pleasant (or less, if you fancy a chianti and snooze al fresco) you'd think it'd be in the top two European countries with the best quality of life. Not so amigos, as
Bush would say.
Let's start at the bottom: The poor UK has the lowest quality of life in Europe — even though Brits earn the most —
according to research released yesterday.
That money can't buy them happiness — they pay a king's ransom for essential goods: 18 percent above the average for diesel, 49 percent more for gas, and 5 percent more for electricity.
The annual running of the bulls kicked off in Pamplona, Spain yesterday and so far
one Irish tourist has been killed. Despite the risk of death and injury, thousands of people let bulls chase them for over 800 meters on the way to the bullfight arena.
While human injury upsets everyone, some animal rights activists get particularly upset about how the traditions entails "torturing and killing a defenseless animal." PETA
describes the festival like this: Bulls are bred in fields and are not accustomed to the noise of the crowd or being surrounded by people. They are kept in crowded, dark enclosures, and when they are prodded onto the streets with electric shocks, they are momentarily blinded by the sunlight.
Red, gold, and the wordless melody of the Spanish national anthem filled Vienna's Ernst-Happel stadium Sunday night, as Spain beat Germany 1-0 to win the European Championship and
end 44 years of underachieving.
Back in Madrid, Spain,
fans and patriots waved the Spanish flag, watched fireworks, and partied in the streets. Firefighters cooled off the Summer celebration by spraying the crowds with water.
Check out the photos of Spanish jubilation and German disappointment.
