Spain’s victorious World Cup squad have landed in Madrid amid scenes of joyous celebration in the country’s capital.

A sizeable crowd chanted and car horns sounded as skipper Iker Casillas, carrying the trophy, led the team down the steps of the plane.

The players will have a brief siesta before a reception hosted by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

More than one million fans are expected to line the streets for an open-top bus parade starting at 1800 BST.

The parade will end about two hours later at the esplanade near the Puente del Rey, where the festivities are expected to continue officially until midnight.

Many fans made the trip to Barajas Airport to greet the returning heroes from South Africa.

The flight landed at 1338 local time with Spanish flags flying from the cockpit windows and two fire engines making a guard of honour with their jet streams.

The plane was emblazoned with the words ‘Campeones’ (Champions) and ‘Orgullosos de nuestra seleccion’ (Proud of our squad).

Casillas, who was in floods of tears after the final whistle in Johannesburg on Sunday night, again appeared to be on the verge of crying as he led his team across the tarmac to a waiting coach.

They were taken to a nearby hotel to eat and rest before they head to the Royal Palace for a reception with the Spanish royal family and then to the Moncloa Palace to be greeted by the prime minister.

European champions Spain won the World Cup for the first time in their history thanks to Andres Iniesta’s extra-time winner against the Netherlands at the Soccer City Stadium.

Source (article): BBCNEWS

Source (picture): CBC.CA

World Cup favourites Spain suffered a shock defeat by Switzerland as South Africa 2010 served up its first major upset.

The European champions from Spain enjoyed almost total control of the game in Durban but were wasteful in front of goal and went behind after 52 minutes when a long ball found its way through to Gelson Fernandes, who bundled it into the net.

With Barcelona trio David Villa, Andres Iniesta and Xavi unable to conjure a breakthrough, coach Vicente Del Bosque threw on Fernando Torres, Jesus Navas and Pedro, but to no avail as the Spanish slumped to only their second defeat in 49 games.

The result piles pressure on Spain, who were widely-tipped to finally end decades of underachievement on the game’s biggest stage and Del Bosque’s men could now be forced to face Brazil in the second round if they finish Group H as runners-up. Chile beat Honduras 1-0 in the earlier match.

For the unfancied Swiss, it was a historic first victory over the Spanish and another triumph in the glittering career of their German coach Ottmar Hitzveld.

Del Bosque’s men had quickly settled into their rhythmic short passing game and, with Switzerland struggling to get the ball out of their own half, the match came to resemble a training session.

The first real opening fell to Spain right-back Sergio Ramos, who received the ball in space on the right before dragging his shot wastefully wide, much to the anger of his better-placed team-mates Xavi and David Villa.

Moments later, Iniesta slipped a pass through to Gerard Pique, who cut inside his man before firing straight at goalkeeper Diego Benaglio.

The next attack saw David Silva chip a delightful ball over the Switzerland defence for Iniesta, who was brought down on the edge of the area as he tried to get his shot away. Villa fired the resultant free-kick straight at the wall.

The Swiss were forced into a change midway through the half when former Arsenal defender Philippe Senderos limped off with a foot injury and was replaced by Steve Von Bergen.

Lone striker Villa looked skilful and lively, but when he finally found space in the box, he opted to pass, and chipped tamely across the face of goal.

The second half began in a similar vein until the Swiss took the lead with the first real attack of the game.

A long goal-kick was flicked through to Eren Derdiyok, who bundled it past goalkeeper Iker Casillas and the falling Pique to leave former Manchester City midfielder Fernandes with a simple finish.

Spain, who won all 10 of their World Cup qualifiers, looked visibly shaken and Del Bosque responded by sending on Torres and Navas just after the hour mark.

Iniesta and Torres both curled shots wide before former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso almost broke the crossbar with a stunning strike from just outside the area.

With Spain committing more men forward, the game became stretched and Switzerland came within a whisker of taking a 2-0 lead when Derdiyok cut inside Pique and Carles Puyol before flicking a shot which had Casillas beaten but bounced back off the post.

The last 10 minutes were a predictable Spanish onslaught but, with Torres looking rusty on his return from knee surgery, Spain seemed to run out of ideas as their efforts became increasingly desperate.

As it was, Switzerland held firm for a truly memorable victory - their first in a World Cup opener since 1954.

Source (article): BBCNEWS

Source (picture): TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

MADRID - A Spanish hospital says it has performed the world’s first complete face transplant on a man who lost his jaw, nose and cheeks, and who couldn’t speak or eat by himself, according to El Pais newspaper.

“We thank the patient for his trust — this is a life or death operation,” said Pere Barret, head of burns and plastic surgery at Vall d’Hebrón hospital in Barcelona, the newspaper reported.

The patient has seen himself in a mirror and is satisfied with the results, Barret was quoted as saying.

The patient still cannot eat on his own and needs help breathing, the doctor said.  In order to regain key functions and recover the ability to speak, breath and even smile, he will have to go through a rehabilitation plan.

The March operation on the man in Barcelona, who lost his face in an accident five years ago and has undergone nine previous operations, involved 30 medical professionals and lasted 24 hours, the newspaper reported.

The Times of London said the man was a farmer, in his 30s, who accidentally shot himself in 2005.

The patient is doing well, the doctors told a press conference, although he is still not eating alone in order not to force his facial muscles, El Pais reported.

While 11 other face transplants have been performed around the world, the the hospital said these only involved parts of the patients’ faces.

During the operation, doctors extracted the donor’s face, and then removed the jaw, nose, cheeks and parts of the eye cavities. Then the medical team took all of the donor face’s soft tissue, including musculature, veins and nerves — things that “give mobility to the face, the eyelids and mouth,” Barret told reporters, according to the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the recipient was being prepared by extracting deformed parts of his face and making sure his immune system would not not reject the transplant, the doctor explained.

In order to transplant the face, the medical team has to connect four jugular veins, extract bones and join all the musculature and bloodvessels, according to El Pais.

“A face doesn’t work if it cannot move,” Barret was quoted as saying.

A scar surrounds the patient’s entire face, running along the roots of his hair, ears and under his chin, the newspaper said.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): MSNBCMEDIA

PAMPLONA, Spain - A charging bull gored a man to death Friday at Pamplona’s San Fermin festival, the first such fatality in nearly 15 years. Nine others were injured in a particularly dangerous and chaotic chapter of the running of the bulls.

The San Fermin festival Web site said the unidentified man was gored in the neck and lung during a run in which a rogue bull separated from the pack, which is among the worst things that can happen at Spain’s most popular fiesta.

Photographs showed the young man lying on a stretcher moments after the goring, his face and neck stained with blood and his eyes only half-open. An emergency medical worker is leaning over him, applying what appears to be gauze to his neck wound.

Three other people were also gored, and six suffered bumps, bruises and other lesser injuries, said Fernando Boneta, director of Virgen del Camino Hospital.

The last fatal goring at the running of the bulls claimed the life of 22-year-old American Matthew Tassio in 1995. In 2003, a 63-year-old Spanish man, Fermin Etxeberri, was trampled in the head by a bull and died after spending months in a coma.

Friday’s death raises to 15 the toll since record-keeping began in 1924.

This run, the fourth of eight held at San Fermin, was by far the most perilous of this year’s festival. The last three runs were comparatively placid affairs, with no serious injuries.

Spooked and aggressive
The bulls covering the half-mile course with six accompanying steers tend to mind their own business and keep running as long as they stay in a pack. A bull that gets separated is more likely to get spooked and aggressive and that is just what happened Friday.

A brown, 1,130-pound bull named Cappuccino fell early in the run and ended up on its own.

When it reached a stretch right outside the bullring that marks the end of the course, it started charging right and left, and even ran back the wrong way several times. Runners scurried for safety to wooden barriers along the route as the bull attacked. Herders waving sticks tried in vain to guide it into the ring, even yanking on the animal’s tail to turn it around.

This went on for a minute and a half, which is a long time at San Fermin.

At one point the bull picked one man up with its horns and flipped him into the air, then kept going after him as he lay curled up on the ground, covering his face. But that man got up and ran away, and was apparently not seriously hurt.

It was not clear if Cappuccino was the same bull that gored the young man who died. The festival Web site said the victim was killed at an earlier stretch in the route.

The bulls used in Friday’s run, from a ranch called Jandilla, have a reputation for being fierce at San Fermin. They hold the record for the most gorings in a single run — eight, one day in 2004.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): BOSTON, Z.ABOUT

A massive explosion of unknown origin sinks the battleship USS Maine in Cuba’s Havana harbor, killing 260 of the fewer than 400 American crew members aboard.

One of the first American battleships, the Maine weighed more than 6,000 tons and was built at a cost of more than $2 million. Ostensibly on a friendly visit, the Maine had been sent to Cuba to protect the interests of Americans there after a rebellion against Spanish rule broke out in Havana in January.

An official U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March that the ship was blown up by a mine, without directly placing the blame on Spain. Much of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed little doubt that Spain was responsible and called for a declaration of war.

Subsequent diplomatic failures to resolve the Maine matter, coupled with United States indignation over Spain’s brutal suppression of the Cuban rebellion and continued losses to American investment, led to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898.

Within three months, the United States had decisively defeated Spanish forces on land and sea, and in August an armistice halted the fighting. On December 12, 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed between the United States and Spain, officially ending the Spanish-American War and granting the United States its first overseas empire with the ceding of such former Spanish possessions as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.

In 1976, a team of American naval investigators concluded that the Maine explosion was likely caused by a fire that ignited its ammunition stocks, not by a Spanish mine or act of sabotage.

HISTORY.COM
Date: 2009-02-15