Madrid  - Spain's National Court has acquitted three Islamist extremist suspects of financing the al-Qaeda terrorist network, media reported recently.

Those acquitted included Syrian-born Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, known as Abu Dahdah, who is serving a 12-year sentence on the separate charge of having headed an al-Qaeda cell in Spain.

Abu Dahdah was initially handed 15 more years for helping to prepare the attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States, but the Supreme Court found that there was not enough evidence to support that charge.

Madrid - The disciplinary committee of the Spanish football federation announced on Friday evening a fine of 3,000 euros (4,093 dollars) on veteran Sevilla striker Frederic Kanoute for displaying a shirt in support of the Palestinian cause.

Kanoute - a French-born Muslim who plays for the Mali national team - showed the shirt after scoring for Sevilla in Wednesday's 2-1 King's Cup defeat of Deportivo Coruna.

The committee believes that he has contravened Article 137c of the federation's regulations, which forbids political and religious messages by players on the field.

Madrid - More than a million descendants of Spaniards who went into exile during the 1936-39 civil war or the 36-year dictatorship of General Francisco Franco could be eligible to seek Spanish nationality, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.

That possibility is based on a 2007 law seeking to redress the wrongs suffered by the leftist losers of the war, which was won by Franco. The period for applications opened on December 28.

Madrid - Uruguayan striker Sebastian Abreu has agreed to join Spanish second division side Real Sociedad from Argentina's River Plate, the Spanish club said Friday.

Abreu, 32, has agreed to a six-month contract with the Basque club, with the option for it to be extended until June 2010. He is due to fly in to San Sebastian on Friday evening for medical checks.

The striker, known as the "madman" because of his eccentric mannerisms, has played for 15 different clubs in a colourful career.

He was signed by Liga club Deportivo Coruna in 1998 but hardly managed to get a game for the Galicians.

Madrid - Heavy snowfall hampered traffic in several parts of Spain on Friday, forcing Madrid's Barajas airport to suspend flights temporarily and creating kilometres-long traffic jams in the capital.

Airport operating company AENA said flights would be resumed as soon as possible at the airport, which has also been affected by an alleged unofficial work to rule stoppage by pilots of the main Spanish airline Iberia.

Several roads leading to Madrid were cut off.

Madrid - Former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar has denied denigrating US president elect Barack Obama when describing his victory as "historic exoticism and a predictable economic disaster," press reports said Friday.

Aznar issued a communique Thursday announcing possible legal action against those who had "deliberately misinterpreted" his comments to the Spanish edition of Vanity Fair magazine.

The interview prompted Socialist deputy leader Jose Blanco to refer to Aznar as a "reactionary person" with "racist roots."