Vienna - Ending over 400 years of all-male tradition, the Spanish Riding School in Vienna announced Wednesday it had accepted two women as apprentices to train with its famous white Lippizaner horses.

Now that they have passed a one-month trial period, 21-year-old Austrian Hannah Zeitlhofer and 17-year-old Sojourner Morrell from Britain will spend the next three to five years as students of the dressage troupe before they can advance to become "candidate riders."

Madrid - A judicial investigation into the August 20 air crash that killed 154 people in Madrid has begun hearing witnesses, Spanish judicial sources said Wednesday.

Judge Juan Javier Perez will hear witnesses, including a stewardess who saw the accident from another plane, and airport employees for several weeks.

Cordoba, Spain - Cuba is confident that Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will become the first Spanish prime minister to make an official visit to the island since 1986, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Wednesday.

Zapatero would also be the first Western European leader to visit the island since 1999, when his predecessor Jose Maria Aznar and then Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio attended an Ibero-American summit in Havana.

Perez Roque spoke in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba, which he visited after meeting his counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos in Madrid on Tuesday.

Madrid - Spain's main Ibex-35 index reacted to the slowdown on Wall Street, slipping 1.2 per cent to 10,103 points as trading opened on Wednesday.

Madrid - Santander, Spain's leading bank, plans to take advantage of the ongoing financial crisis to take control of Sovereign Bancorp, which has suffered recent losses, according to a media report.

Negotiations for the takeover are still underway, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, quoting Santander.

According to the report, Santander wants to offer about 1.8 billion euros (2.5 billion dollars) for Sovereign Bancorp, in which the bank already has a 25 per cent stake.

Santander bought that stake three years ago, when Sovereign's shares sold for 27 dollars. Now they are worth 3.80, which means Santander has lost about 2 billion euros on the investment.