Rafa Benitez emotionally hailed the “closing of a circle” as he returned to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu yesterday as first team coach - but the former Los Blancos youth team player and reserve trainer now has to quickly show that he can handle his dream job as Real Madrid first team coach.

An unemployed Spaniard who said he was a ruined businessman rammed a car containing gas cylinders into the headquarters of Spain’s ruling People’s Party in Madrid, triggering a police alert, official spokesmen said. No one was injured.

A Spanish nurse who treated two ebola victims at a hospital in Madrid has contracted the virus herself in the first case of contagion outside of Africa, health officials said.

Most Spaniards want their new king, Felipe, to play a greater role in politics and build bridges between the country’s divided parties and regions, a poll showed yesterday.

Sergio Ramos is Real Madrid’s most interesting player.

After Lionel Messi had done his talking on the pitch in Barcelona’s thrilling 4-3 La Liga win at Real Madrid on Sunday night, Cristiano Ronaldo did some crying off it.

Barcelona midfielders Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta should recognise their surroundings when they emerge from the tunnel for tonight’s Champions League last 16 first leg at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium.

He was accused of crying, but José Mourinho responded with snorting laughter.

Spain midfielder Santi Cazorla may have been expecting the question, but he was still hesitant with his answer.

At least 24 people are reported to have died after a Spanish train derailed, toppling passenger cars on their sides and leaving at least one torn open as smoke rose into the air.

BY the time we hit 30, most women have been bitten by the baby bug.

International fashion giant Zara has come under fire from a human rights group after Argentinian police swooped on sweatshops making clothes bearing its labels.

As expected the last week brought startling revelations of performance enhancing drug use in Spanish football.

Prosecutors questioned the former treasurer of Spain’s prime minister Mariano Rajoy’s party yesterday in an investigation launched following new allegations of corruption.

Spain’s Prime Minister has denied reports alleging that he and members of his governing Popular Party accepted or made under-the-table payments.

Spain’s influential El Pais newspaper has apologised for publishing a “false photo” of elusive, cancer-stricken Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, removed the image from its website and withdrew its print edition.

Suicide rates in Catalonia, the region in the north-east of Spain where the tragic Sant Andreu graveyard deaths occurred, have increased by 10% in one year alone and reflect a nationwide trend. Spain is slipping into despair as unemployment rates in the under 25s reach 52%. Overall unemployment is twice that of Ireland’s. Richard Fitzpatrick reports from Barcelona

Spain’s ailing banks are unlikely to need all of the €100bn which was made available by the country’s euro partners, Spanish economy minister Luis de Guindos said.

Nobody in Madrid was getting too carried away after Xabi Alonso’s double strike saw Spain beat France 2-0 in Donetsk.

The clichés were flowing as Spanish observers rained on Ireland’s unexpectedly poor performance in losing 3-1 to Croatia in Sunday’s Euro 2012 Group C game.

DAVID Cameron promised his ravenous right-wing pack of euro-haters that he would fight “like a British bulldog” — but he ended up being savaged by a French poodle.

Passengers protesting over a rise in Madrid subway fares simultaneously pulled the emergency brakes on 13 trains and delayed thousands of rush-hour travellers.

Spain’s King Juan Carlos has successfully undergone hip replacement surgery to repair minor damage related to arthritis worsened by a fall, his fourth operation in less than two years, royal palace officials said today.

Antonio Banderas will play Pablo Picasso in '33 Days'.

Two earthquakes struck south-east Spain in quick succession, killing at least 10 people – the country’s highest quake-related death toll in more than 50 years - injuring dozens and causing major damage.

Two earthquakes have struck south-east Spain in quick succession, killing at least three people and causing major damage to buildings, an official said.

THERE are four dedicated sports tabloid newspapers in Spain. Two unashamedly row in behind Real Madrid, the other two behind Barcelona.

Spain’s beleaguered prime minister suffered an embarrassing election setback as a poll showed his party trailing ever further behind the opposition conservatives at the national level.

BASQUE separatist group ETA declared a ceasefire yesterday in its bloody 42-year campaign for a homeland independent of Spain, vowing to give up guns and bombs to seek a democratic solution.

French newspaper Le Monde is to take its controlling ownership stake out of the hands of editorial staff and sell it to an outside buyer.

Madrid: Aides to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero all denied a report that Sarkozy had threatened to pull out of the euro.

TERMS such as “failure”, “catastrophe” and “nightmare” filled the Spanish press yesterday in the wake of Real Madrid’s Champions League exit at the hands of Lyon.

Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta is set to wear a mask against Hull on Saturday to protect a broken nose.

Spanish media said a small bomb exploded in a restaurant on the island of Majorca today after a telephone warning from ETA.

SPANISH police have arrested a man whom they suspect hired a contract killer to murder his boss in a desperate bid to avoid being laid off, newspaper El Pais reported yesterday.

ITALIAN Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday said photos in a Spanish newspaper of topless women sunbathing at his seaside villa were an invasion of privacy and his lawyer said he would take legal action.

Embattled Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi today promised he would resign immediately if he were shown to have lied about his relationship with an 18-year-old model at the heart of a scandal that has gripped the country for weeks.

TO motivate his players for the Champions League final in Rome, the Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola showed them clips from Ridley Scott’s epic ‘Gladiator’ just minutes before the match.

A single lightning bolt killed 52 cows at an Uruguayan ranch.

Rangers' UEFA Cup final conquerors Zenit St Petersburg have angrily denied match-fixing allegations made in the Spanish media regarding their last-four win over Bayern Munich.

Spain's civil aviation chief said a glitch in an air temperature gauge that forced the doomed Spanair jet to abandon its first take-off attempt an hour before it crashed should be examined.

OUT of the Spanish tragedy came some amazing stories of sheer good luck.

A Spanish airliner bound for the Canary Islands at the height of the holiday season crashed, burned and broke into pieces today while trying to take off from Madrid, killing 149 people on board, officials said.