Spanish Santander Bank announces new profits

According to a statement made by Spain's Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), the position of leading Spanish bank Santander grows in strength as the bank enjoyed increased profits during the first quarter of this year. Net income during the said period rose by 26 percent to 1,493 million euros.

This rise in profit is partly thanks to the performance of Abbey, acquired by Santander in 2004 as revenue from the British bank rose by a massive 76 percent to 244 million euros largely caused by the cost-cutting policies carried out last year.

The Santander Bank has also had a very successful term in its operations in Latin America, where profits grew by 47 percent to 618 million euros. The Santander Bank has acquisitions in Latin America worth over $16 billion dollars, and the bank's shareholders will be delighted with the performance of its banks there which comes just when the rise in interest rates in Spain caused by the rise in Euriber is likely to slow lending growth at Spanish banks.

Net interest income increased 23 percent to 2.89 billion euros from 2.36 billion euros and fee income rose 24 percent to 1.75 billion euros.

Life expectancy in the Spanish population

According to a study published by the Spanish Health Ministry yesterday called "Health in the Spanish population", out of all the countries in the European Union, Spanish women have the longest average life expectancy - 83. In the overall ranking of men and women, Spain comes third in average life expectancy, behind Italy and Sweden.

The study, based on data from 2002 also concludes that Spain also has the lowest levels of deaths caused by heart attacks, heart disease, breast cancer and sirosis

However, not all is good news. Spain has one of the worst records of deaths caused by diabetes and traffic accidents. Yesterday the government released the final figures of deaths caused by traffic accidents over the Easter week - 108. A massive 47 percent of the people who were killed were not wearing their seatbelt when the accident occurred.

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29 suspects charged over Madrid bombings

After two years and one month of interrogations and examination of evidence, Juan del Olmo, the Spanish judge in charge of the investigations into the 2004 Madrid bombings, has charged 29 suspects of participating in the terrorist attack. Among the accused are 3 men who, together with the 7 suspects who blew themselves up in a flat in Madrid soon after the attacks, Judge del Olmo believes participated directly in planting the bombs on the trains . Of the 29 accused, six have been charged with 191 counts of murder and 1,755 counts of attempted murder.

The 1,460-page indictment signed by the Judge concludes that contrary to the Popular Party's first stance, and to the insinuations made by certain members throughout the parliamentary commission of ETA involvement, no concrete evidence has been found to suggest that Basque terrorist group ETA were involved in the Madrid terrorist attacks. Del Olmo concludes that the members of the group who planned and carried out the bombings were inspired by websites encouraging attacks on countries like Spain who at the time were participating in the invasion of Iraq. Their aim was to force governments to withdraw their troops from Iraq. In his long report, Judge del Olmo claims, that in 2003, just after the terrorist attacks in Casablanca, Aznar was warned by secret services of the very real threat of a terrorist attack in Spain.

The suspect facing most charges is the Spanish miner accused of supplying the terrorists with the explosives needed to make the bombs which were then placed in rucksacks and detonated by mobile phones. He is accused of collaborating with an armed band in the murder of 192 people: the 191 victims of the train bombs and the policeman who died when caught in the blast during the police raid which led the 7 suspects in a flat in Leganes, Madrid, to blow themselves up.

Spain's Defence Minister resigns

Important Government changes in Spain.

Spanish president José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called a surprise press conference this morning to announce important changes in his government caused by the sudden resignation of former Defence Minister, José Bono.

Zapatero has used the resignation to reshuffle his cabinet. Former Interior Minister (equivalent to Home Secretary), José Antonio Alonso, is to occupy the post of Defence Minister, and he will be replaced in the Interior Ministry by former government Spokesman, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba. Both Alonso and Rubalcaba are close friends and key party allies of the Spanish president.

Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba played a key role in negotiating the support of other political parties in Spanish congress needed by PSOE party in order to form a Socialist government. He has also been a key negotiator in the talks and debate leading up to the Catalan Statute. His immediate task now is to lead the negotiations with ETA and play a key role in the possible peace process resulting from the permanent ceasefire announced by the Basque terrorist group last month.

In the press conference this morning, Zapatero said that José Bono had decided to resign for personal reasons, but that this would not be the end of his political career. It is rumoured that José Bono, one of Spain's most popular (and loudest) politicians, may be chosen by his party to fight the regional elections in Madrid which has been in the hands of the Popular Party for the last 16 years.

The other person to leave the cabinet, also on her own request according to Rodriguez Zapatero, is the Education Minister, María Jesús San Segundo who has never really managed to make her mark on the political scene over the past two years and has preferred to adopt a very low profile despite Education reform being one of the key policies of the present government. She will be substituted in her post by Mercedes Cabrera Calvo-Sotelo, former profesor of the Complutense University in Madrid and current Chair of the Education Reform Parliamentary Committee.

Spain's Government announces new Scientific Digital Library

Today the Spanish Minister for Education announced the creation of a new digital library to provide the academic community in Spain with immediate access to scientific articles and books. According to the government, the new digital collection will be the largest scientific library in Spain and will provide Spain's 150,000 researchers with access to the knowledge they require for their experiments and study.

This new digital collection will be called the Biblioteca Electrónica de Ciencia y Tecnología (Electronic Library of Science and Technology) and it is expected to cost about 80 million euros. According to the Education Minister, it will have 8,000 data bases and users will be able to consult the online editions of all the world's main scientific journals.

It was not made clear whether the government intends to spend money on the digitisation of these journals, something which has already been carried out in countries where use of Internet is more extended than it still is in Spain, or whether it plans to take advantage of a consolidated digital collection of scientific journals such as Stanford University's Highwire Press by way of a strategic agreement.

The Education Minister, Maria Jesus San Segundo, said today that the aim of the new Scientific Digital Library is to double the number of Spanish researchers who have access to electronic collections. According to the Minister, by next Autumn 150,000 researchers and 50,000 university students will be able to use the new facility.

Mobile phone virus detected in Spain

The Spanish company Hispasec Sistemas has detected an "epidemic" of a virus called Commwarrior, a worm which affects mobile phones and is transmitted from phone to phone in public places. So far the virus has been detected in Madrid Barajas Airport, a clinic in Malaga, academies, bars and restaurants all over Spain.

The worm uses Bluetooth short-reach wireless technology to jump from one mobile phone to another, affecting phones that have Symbian Series 60 operating system (various Nokia, Panasonic, Sendo and Siemens models).

The virus Commwarrior appeared in 2005 and is transmitted via Bluetooth aswell as multimedia messages which send images, sound and video. When a telephone gets infected, it automatically sends messages to all the number in its directory. The virus affects the phone when the message is opened. Otherwise, it does not get infected.

Mobile users in Spain who receive a message with a .sis file are advised to erase it straight away without opening it.

It is possible to erase the worm manually, although to avoid having to do so, mobile users in Spain are advised to install an anti-virus which can be downloaded onto a computer with infrared or Bluetooth connection and then be installed into the phone.

More information on the virus here: http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/commwarrior.shtml