News headlines

SPANISH NEWS

Chaos is expected to be the rule of the day today as all the Iberia pilots start a strike that is to last until July 16. Their trade union representative Bernardo Obrador stated last night that the strike ‘ was not motivated by anything to do with salaries, or money, but after Iberia has created the budget airline Catair, this puts our right to work under threat’. The website of Iberia will carry the full details of all the cancelled flights for every day the strike continues.

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Politics continued to be the order of the day following the visit of Pope Benedict to Valencia, with many observers stating that the P{rime Minister had simply ‘missed a golden opportunity once again’ during his audience with the pope, merely talking banalities and refusing to go into any of the very large numbers of divergent points that currently exist between the Zapatero Government and the Vatican. Equally, commenting on the fact that both the Prime Minister and his deputy got roundly booed when the entered and left the Archbishop’s palace in Valencia after meeting the Pope, Socialist General Secretary Pepiño Blanco stated that those who jeered ‘were paid to do so by the Partido Popular’.

RESTAGING IT

The forensic department of the Police Force will today restage the tragic accident that took place last Monday in the Valencia Metro in which 42 people died. Meanwhile, of the seven injured from the accident still remaining in hospital, two of them – both women aged 44 and 40 remain in a ‘very serious condition’ according to hospital spokesmen. Of the others, one still remains ‘seriously ill’, whilst three are gradually recuperating and one is expected to be released later this week after suffering some light injuries.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Italy beat France last night in a penalty shootout that ended the World Cup matches in Germany. The two teams had finished level at 1-1 after extra time in a dramatic encounter in which Zinedine Zidane was set off for head-butting and the decisive penalty was scored by Fabio Grosso.

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Also yesterday, Roger Federer hung on to become the Champion of the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament for the fourth year in a row, beating Mallorcan Rafael Nadal in a game that lasted almost three hours.

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The famous Pamplona bull runs yesterday claimed another victim: a 31-year-old New Yorker, who was left paralyzed during the annual Festival made famous by Ernest Hemingway in his book ‘The Sun Also Rises’. Earlier in the week a New Zealander was gored in the thigh and a British man was also injured. A statement from the Navarre authorities revealed that due to the international fame of the Festival, more and more foreigners are taking part.

PIRATES PLUNDER

The second film in the “Pirates of the caribbean” saga starring Johnny Depp, Kiera Knightly and Bill Nighy has broken all records at the United States box office. All in all the film took in a colossal $132 million over last weekend, with the $55.5 million it took in on Friday alone made it the single biggest daily receipt in United States Box Office History.

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