Madrid - Esperanza Aguirre, one of the leaders of Spain's main conservative opposition People's Party (PP), arrived Thursday in Madrid after surviving the terrorist violence in Mumbai.

Madrid regional Prime Minister Aguirre was visiting India with a delegation of Spanish businessmen and politicians, when shooting and explosions broke out near their hotel, press reports quoted members of the delegation as saying.

Aguirre and others hid behind a desk and threw themselves to the ground while bullets were flying by in the hotel lobby.

Madrid - Spanish football giants Valencia on Wednesday announced the signing of left-back Thiago Carleto from Brazilian club Santos.

Marrakech/Madrid - Environmental organizations Tuesday criticized an agreement reached by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to promote the recovery of Mediterranean bluefin tuna.

The measures were totally insufficient to protect the species, which overfishing had brought to the brink of collapse, environmentalists said.

The consensus, reached Monday by 45 ICCAT contracting countries and the European Union in the Moroccan city of Marrakech, cuts the total allowable catch for 2009 to
22,000 tons, down from 28,500 tons this year.

The catch is to be further cut to 19,950 tons by 2010.

Madrid - A debate was going on in Spain Tuesday about the presence of religious symbols in public places after a court in the northern city of Valladolid ordered a school to remove crucifixes at the request of some parents.

The crucifixes violated the constitution, which said Spain was a non-confessional state, the court said.

The Socialist government and the conservative opposition initially steered clear of a confrontation over the sensitive subject.

Education Minister Mercedes Cabrera said schools could take individual decisions on crucifixes based on what parents wanted.

Madrid - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Tuesday announced measures to shore up the country's car industry, the slowdown of which is endangering an estimated 50,000 jobs.

The government is preparing a 2009-2010 plan to revive an economy hit by the global crisis. The plan includes measures to help the "important" car industry, Zapatero said.

"We will make efforts up to where we can legally," said Zapatero. But Spain could not act "outside the lines marked by the European Union," and would wait until the European Commission presented its plans for the car industry on Wednesday, the premier said.

Madrid- A planned deal for the Russian oil giant Lukoil to become the biggest shareholder of Spain's top oil company Repsol YPF could collapse over lack of financing and Spanish political opposition, media reported Tuesday.

Lukoil is interested in buying nearly 30 per cent of Repsol in a deal estimated at up to 9.8 billion euros (12.5 billion dollars).

The purchase would include a 20-per-cent stake now held by the debt-ridden construction company Sacyr Vallehermoso and part of a 12.5-per-cent stake owned by Criteria, a holding of La Caixa bank.