Madrid - Spain's Nuclear Security Council (CSN) will urge nuclear plant operators to invest more in their safety, the daily El Pais said Wednesday.

The CSN, which is the country's top authority on nuclear energy, has called a meeting with plant operators in September following a string of incidents at Spanish plants.

Recent accidents include a fire at the Vandellos II plant on Sunday, which led to its closure until the causes are clarified, and a radioactive leak which did not cause health damage at the Asco I plant in November.

Both plants are located near Tarragona in the north-east.

Madrid - The Spanish health authorities are investigating the death of a woman whose son died earlier of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), the human variant of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)

Madrid - One week after a Spanair MD-82 passenger plane crashed at Madrid airport, killing 154 people, the causes of the accident remain unknown, Spanish media reported Wednesday.

The pilot did not report anything to the control tower after take- off, the daily ABC said.

The plane hit the ground tail first outside the runway, according to a commission investigating the accident.

The tail then broke off and the plane bounced for 1,200 metres, hitting the ground three times and suffering increasing damage.

Madrid - Spain's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 1.8 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2008, down from the 3.8 per cent annual rate for 2007, the National Statistics Institute said

Madrid - The Spanair passenger plane which crashed in Madrid last week lacked engine power to take off, Spanish press reports said Tuesday.

A stewardess who was the only crew member to survive, and most other witnesses reported that the plane was struggling to rise in the air, according to the daily El Pais.

One of the plane's two engines had the reverse system, which helps aircraft to slow down when landing, turned on. It was not known whether the pilot had activated it when noticing that the plane was unable to take off.

Wednesday's crash killed 154 people. A six-year-old boy who lost his 16-year-old sister in the accident became the first survivor to leave hospital on Monday.