Madrid - The airline Spanair did not heed the safety recommendations of McDonnell Douglas, the maker of the MD-82 jet that crashed at Madrid airport on August 20, killing 154 people, press reports said Tuesday.

Quoting a preliminary draft report by an investigating commission, the reports said the plane's wing flaps, which provide extra lift, were not extended properly for a reason that remains unclear.

The pilots ignored the problem, because the security mechanism that should have alerted them of it was not in order.

A similar problem occurred before a MD-82 crashed in Detroit in 1987, also killing 154 people.

Madrid - Spain's top fashion show Cibeles Madrid Fashion Week was opening for the 48th time on Monday, featuring full-bodied models for the third year running.

The weight of the models continued to arouse interest, with some experts still criticizing them as too thin.

Models participating in the Madrid Fashion Week, formerly known as the Pasarela Cibeles, must have a body mass index - calculated on a height-weight ratio - of at least
18, the limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO) for a person to be considered healthy.

Madrid  - The shares of top Spanish banks plunged Monday following US investment bank Lehman Brothers announcing it would file for bankruptcy protection.

Madrid - The Spanair MD-82 passenger plane that crashed in Madrid on August 20, killing 154 people, already had problems with wing slats that help provide takeoff lift, El Mundo reported Saturday.

The Spanish newspaper said the technical logbook showed that two days before the crash, defects had been detected twice within a few hours in the mechanism operating slats in the wings' leading edges.

Already 11 days before the crash a defect had been registered. In all three cases, pilots had reported that the slats had not deployed properly.

Madrid - The World Expo on water and sustainable development in Zaragoza, which will close on Sunday, was Friday described as a "reasonable success" by the Spanish government.

Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said the three-month event had left an "important legacy" in the northern Spanish city.

Vega put the number of visitors at slightly over 5 million. Organizers had initially expected the Expo to bring 6.5 million people to the city of 650,000 residents.

The Expo is scheduled to present an environmental charter before the closing ceremony on Sunday.

Madrid  - Spain's Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled that a plan by the Basque regional government to stage a referendum-like vote on the self-determination of the northern region was unconstitutional.

The Basque parliament had earlier approved the plan of organizing the vote on October 25. The Spanish government and opposition conservatives lodged a complaint at the Constitutional Court.