Madrid- Seven people were injured when an apparently mentally

Madrid - A former leader of Basque separatist party Batasuna was released from prison on Saturday, having served a 15-month sentence for "glorifying" terrorism.

Arnaldo Otegi, 50, was met by dozens of supporters as he left the jail in the northern coastal town of San Sebastian.

He was imprisoned following a failed appeal against charges of glorifying terrorism in a speech praising a member of ETA, the Basque separatist group.

Madrid- Spain opposes retaliatory measures against Russia over its policy on t

Madrid  - Spanish police intend to question technicians who failed to inform them that a reverse thruster of the plane involved in the Madrid crash was faulty and had been blocked, the radio station Cadena Ser said Friday, quoting police sources.

The MD-82 belonging to the airline Spanair crashed on August 20, just after take-off for the Canary Islands, killing 154 and injuring 18 people.

Three days earlier, technicians found a fault in the plane's right-hand reverse thruster and locked it. The reverse system helps planes to brake prior to landing.

Safety regulations allow the procedure, but the technicians failed to inform police about it during questioning after the accident.

Madrid  - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has not renewed the mandate of Peter van Walsum, his personal envoy for Western Sahara, who was criticized by the Western Saharawi independence movement Polisario Front, the Spanish daily El Pais reported Thursday.

The Dutch diplomat, whose mandate expires this month, confirmed the report in an article he wrote for El Pais.

Van Walsum, 74, was appointed in 2005 as successor to former US secretary of state James Baker, who resigned in 2004 over the difficulties in solving one of the UN's longest-running conflicts.

Madrid - The Spanair MD-82 passenger plane that crashed at Madrid airport had two technical problems shortly before the fatal flight, which killed 154 people, Spanish press reports Thursday quoted Spanair sources as saying.

The problems are usually regarded as minor, but experts said they might be connected to the accident on August 20.

Three days before the flight, a fault was found in the reverse thruster system of the right-side engine. The system helps planes to slow down when landing by reversing air flow from the turbine.