Barcelona (Spain), Aug 22 : Spain's Banco Sabadell acquired nearly all of the assets and certain liabilities of Florida-based Lydian Private Bank under the terms of an agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

The FDIC closed down Palm Beach-based Lydian Private Bank Friday and reached a loss-share agreement with Banco Sabadell under which the Spanish bank's Sabadell United Bank unit will take over the failed institution.

Turning the heat on to Google, HTC Corp. today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona launched its new smart phone that is strikingly similar to Google's Nexus One launched last month.

Desire, as named by HTC, comes with Android 2.1, a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, a five megapixel camera, FM radio and an optical joystick. The smart piece from HTC also possesses new improved HTC Sense user interface to allow higher social networking capabilities to the user.

Microsoft may show Windows Mobile 7 at upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. CEO Steve Ballmer may unveil the much awaited platform in February 15 - 18 event as Ballmer has scheduled a press conference at the show.

Barcelona, Dec 18 : There will be no change at the top of the spectacularly successful Spanish Davis Cup team after captain Albert Costa confirmed he will remain in the job.

The 2002 French Open champion will now try and follow up a breakthrough first year in which he led the Rafael Nadal-Fernando Verdasco side to a fourth trophy of the decade in the international team competition.

All details were worked out satisfactorily as the Spanish federation extended his contract less than a fortnight after the sweeping finals victory over the Czech Republic.

Barcelona, Dec 3 : Fernando Verdasco is working hard on staying humble as defending champion Spain enter the Davis Cup final later Friday against the Czech Republic as heavy favourites.

The world number nine is expected to pack the one-two punch in singles for the hosts with Rafael Nadal when the draw is made later Thursday.

David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez make up the rest of the squad for a nation seeking a fourth Davis Cup title this decade.

Both Verdasco and Nadal have at least a few small points to quickly prove after each left last week's season-ending World Tour Finals with 0-3 records in group play.

Barcelona - The Volkswagen subsidiary Seat will reduce the working hours of about two-thirds of its 11,000 Spanish employees to make up for declining demand, the company announced Thursday.

The employees will rotate in working less hours until Seat begins producing the Audi Q3 model in mid-2011.

Seat made losses of 228 million euros (340 million dollars) in the first nine months of 2009, sinking deeper into red figures.

Barcelona  - Protests continued Wednesday during a key meeting of United Nations climate negotiators in Barcelona, urging the 181 participating countries to agree to drastic cuts to carbon dioxide emissions ahead of December's Copenhagen climate conference.

Dozens of environmental activists briefly blocked entries to the conference building, displaying a banner reading: "Without drastic reduction, there is no way out."

Barcelona, Nov 2 : India's Armaan Ebrahim ended his campaign in the inaugural FIA Formula 2 Championship on a high as he came in 12th and 10th in the Sunday's final round of the series at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Fresh of an impressive debut outing the previous weekend with the VW India team at in the German Formula 3 Championship, Armaan was second fastest overall in the second practice session Friday trailing only Philipp Eng by a whisker.    

Barcelona  - A Spanish gold coin dating from 1609 was auctioned for 800,000 euros (1.2 million dollars) on Thursday, the auction house Aureo & Calico said in Barcelona.

The coin known as a centen, worth 100 reales, had been minted in Segovia in central Spain. It was the only one of its kind that is known to exist from that year.

The central European buyer agreed to pay the starting price, which was not followed by higher offers. The price was one of the highest ever paid for a single coin.

Barcelona - Barcelona are evaluating the possibility of giving their superstar Lionel Messi permission to take a brief holiday, so that he can rest physically and mentally from a stressful time, the daily Sport said Monday.

"Such a dense schedule, saturation from tension in Argentina, unfair and disproportionate criticism of his play and the many doubts raised in his country around his commitment to the national team have led him into a dead-end. Messi is mentally exhausted and needs a break," the Catalan daily said.

Madrid  - European champions Barcelona announced on Wednesday that striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be out of action for around a week, with a lightly sprained right ankle.

Ibrahimovic, 27, sprained the ankle in Tuesday's 4-1 romp away to Racing Santander, and was substituted in the 53rd minute.

He will miss Saturday's league game away to Malaga, but could be fit in time for Tuesday's Champions League clash at home to Dynamo Kiev.

Ibrahimovic, 27, scored the first goal in Santander and has scored in all four of Barca's league games so far.

Madrid  - Samuel Eto'o is demanding 3 million euros (4.4 million US dollars) from former club Barcelona, which the Catalan giants are refusing to pay, radio station Catalunya Radio reported on Tuesday.

Eto'o and his agents believe that this amount corresponds to 15 per cent of the transfer fee from his July move from Barca to Italian champions Inter Milan.

The Association of Spanish Footballers ruled several years ago that players were entitled to 15 per cent of the transfer fee paid for them.

Barcelona  - A performance by Israeli singer Noa on Friday sparked controversy in the Spanish city of Barcelona, where dozens of pro-Palestinian activists protested against her presence, while the rest of the audience gave her a thundering applause.

The protestors whistled and stood up as Noa entered the stage during an official event in the city, which had been organized to mark the national day of the semi-autonomous north-eastern Spanish region of Catalonia of more than 6 million residents.

The protesters displayed Palestinian flags, scarves and posters reading "Boycott Israel."

Barcelona - Spain's second-biggest city Barcelona has hired Telma Ortiz, 35, sister of Crown Princess Letizia, to manage its relations with Asia and the Pacific, the city hall announced Friday.

An economist who has worked for development projects on several continents, Ortiz will try to launch new relations with countries such as India, Pakistan, Vietnam or the Philippines, the city hall said.

Barcelona - A court in Spain's north-eastern Catalonia region on Thursday blocked one village's planned referendum on independence for the state, judicial sources said.

The vote had been called for September 13 by Arenys de Munt, a village of 8,000 near Barcelona.

In a preliminary ruling, the Barcelona court accepted the appeal lodged by lawyers representing the Spanish state, who argued that only the state could stage referendums.

Barcelona  - A pedestrian was killed when a suicidal woman jumped from her eighth-floor balcony and landed on top of him in north-eastern Spain, the newspaper El Punt reported Wednesday.

The woman, who had jumped down from a height of 25 metres, was killed outright. It happened in Viladecans, near Barcelona, on Monday.

The pedestrian, who was a Ukrainian national, died at hospital. A woman who was accompanying him escaped unhurt. (dpa)

Barcelona - Overweight children do not only risk becoming sick adults, but may develop health problems in childhood, according to a study made public on Tuesday.

Overweight children risked developing pathological changes which contributed to the appearance of an early form of arteriosclerotic vascular disease, according to the study by scientists at Leipzig University in Germany.

The researchers studied 80 overweight and 60 normal-weight children aged 12 years. Their findings were disclosed to a congress of the European Society of Cardiology in the north-eastern Spanish city of Barcelona.

Barcelona - Three beaches were closed on Wednesday near Barcelona in north-eastern Spain after a shark was sighted 100 metres off shore, police said.

The beaches in Vilanova i la Geltru were closed to swimmers, but kept open to sunbathers. The shark had been sighted by a lifeguard and several swimmers. (dpa)

Barcelona - The Japanese automaker Nissan is planning to temporarily cut 2,025 jobs at its factories in Barcelona and Montcada, north-eastern Spain, trade union sources said Wednesday.

The suspension of labour relations, which would last up to 78 days, would follow the sacking of 698 people in July within a Nissan restructuration plan in Spain.

Nissan is expecting to produce only 50,000 cars in the Barcelona area this year, down from 135,000 units in 2008, according to company sources.

Barcelona (Spain), Aug. 10 : Barcelona is lining up a mega bid for Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas, but the team management has said that it will not go broke in trying to meet the Gunner’s demands.

According to The Sun, the European champions have already missed out on Liverpool''s Javier Mascherano and are now keen to have the services of Spanish midfielder Fabregas.

Fabregas left Nou Camp for the Gunners when he was 16, and has since admitted he would like to return to Barcelona.