Lotto-crazy Spaniards await world's biggest jackpot

Biting their nails and pacing back and forth, lottery-mad Spaniards could think of little else today as the clock ticked towards the awarding of 236 billion pesetas (£840m) in the biggest payout on Earth.

The annual Christmas lottery, officially nicknamed El Gordo - the Fat One - puts the entire nation on tenterhooks, with crowds huddling by television sets in bars and living rooms, waiting to see whether their five-digit number would be the lucky one.