Madrid  - The quarter-finals of the Spanish King's Cup produced two contrasting first-leg clashes on Wednesday: an epic 3-2 win for Valencia over Sevilla, followed by a colourless 0-0 draw between crosstown rivals Espanyol and Barcelona.

Holders Valencia came from 2-1 down to score a dramatic win, thanks to late goals from Ruben Baraja and Juan Mata.

Valencia had taken a sixth-minute lead through David Villa, taking advantage of a schoolboy mistake from Adriano.

Madrid - The number of foreign tourists visiting Spain declined by 2.6 per cent to 57.4 million visitors in 2008, the government said Wednesday.

Spain is the world's second-biggest tourist destination after France, according to the World Tourism Organization.

Tourism secretary of state Joan Mesquida downplayed the drop, saying the number of tourists remained on the same level as in 2006, while 2007 was a record year.

The number of British tourists to Spain declined by 3 per cent to 15.7 million and French tourists by 8.5 per cent to 8.1 million.

The regions to lose the most tourists were Catalonia in the north-east and Andalusia in the south, where tourism fell by 6.7 and 4 per cent respectively.

Madrid - The militant Basque separatist group ETA early Wednesday threatened to carry out attacks against entrepreneurs, technicians and others associated with the construction of a Basque high-speed rail network, and against national Spanish and local media.

In a communique published by the Basque newspaper Gara, ETA claimed responsibility for the killing of entrepreneur Ignacio Uria on December 3.

Uria's company participated in the construction of a high-speed rail network linking three Basque cities with each other, Madrid and France by 2013.

Madrid  - Spanish giants Valencia are poised to sign veteran goalkeeper Cesar Sanchez, according to media reports in Spain on Tuesday evening.

Premier League club Tottenham have, apparently, agreed to sell the contract of former Spanish international Cesar to Valencia, for an undisclosed fee.

Casar, 37, has hardly played for Tottenham since joining from Zaragoza six months ago.

Valencia have been looking for an experienced keeper since Sunday, when first-choice Renan tore muscles in his left thigh in the 3-2 defeat away to Athletic Bilbao.

Madrid - The Colossus, one of the most famous paintings attributed to Spanish master Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), was created by another artist, a Goya expert at the Prado art museum said Tuesday.

Manuela Mena was expected to make the conclusions of her investigation public in an upcoming report.

The painting, which shows a giant from the rear walking behind frightened people, has a "classicist" style which does not resemble that of Goya, Mena explained earlier.