Madrid  - Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon on Friday officially resigned over an affair involving unqualified delegates at the club's last board meeting.

Calderon made the announcement at a news conference at Real's Bernabeu stadium, confirming news reports from earlier in the day.

Vice-president Vicente Boluda will take over as interim president until elections can be organized.

Madrid- The Spanish government Friday revised its 2009 economic forecast dramatically downwards, saying the economy would shrink by 1.6 per cent in its first contraction in 16 years.

Until now, the government had officially expected the economy to grow 1 per cent, down from an estimated 1.2 per cent in 2008.

The public deficit will increase from 3.4 per cent in 2008 to 5.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), far above the 3-per-cent threshold set by the European Union stability pact.

Unemployment will soar by 3.6 per cent to 15.9 per cent.

Madrid - Ninety per cent of Spaniards welcome the election of Barack Obama as US president, a poll made public on Friday showed.

The high percentage was only comparable with the number of Spaniards who had opposed the US invasion of Iraq, which was backed by Spain's then conservative government, according to the Elcano Institute.

The international studies institute interviewed 1,000 people for the poll in December.

Those interviewed regarded Obama as the best world leader, followed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and future US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Madrid - The Spanish government was Friday expected to lodge a low-key protest with the Cuban embassy over Cuban criticism of Madrid regional Prime Minister Esperanza Aguirre, who was slammed for her anti-Castrist views, the Spanish media reported.

Aguirre has repeatedly criticized the leftist revolution that took place under the leadership of Cuba's former president Fidel Castro 50 years ago, and gave her backing to an anti-Castrist demonstration scheduled for February 1 in Madrid.

Madrid - The international art event known as the Cow Parade began in Madrid on Friday with 105 colourful fiberglass cows showing up in the Spanish capital.

The life-size models painted by professional and amateur artists can be seen in central districts of the city until March 31, after which the artistically best of them are to be auctioned for a minimum price of about 1,500 euros (2,000 dollars) each, media reports quoted officials as saying.

Madrid - A debate was rolling in Spain on Thursday on whether an unprecedented strike planned by the country's judges was legal.

Such a way for judges to press their demands was "inadequate" and "disturbing," the prosecutors' association UPF said, while the association Judges for Democracy stressed that the law did not prohibit judges from staging a work stoppage.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government is engaged in a power struggle with the judges, who regard its plans for judicial reform as insufficient.