San Sebastian, Spain - Members of the Basque regional government are planning to sue Spain at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for blocking a referendum-like vote on the self-determination of the northern region, regional Prime Minister Juan Jose Ibarretxe said on Monday.

Ibarretxe urged Basque citizens to join the legal move in defence of the referendum foreseen for October 25.

Madrid - The captain of the MD-82 passenger plane that crashed in Madrid expected the airline Spanair to switch it after discovering a technical problem just before take-off, the Spanish daily El Pais said Monday.

Captain Antonio Garcia Luna, who was killed in the August 20 accident with 153 other people, asked an airport company employee to arrange for two buses to take the passengers to a new aircraft, the daily quoted the employee in question as telling police.

Madrid - Barcelona made an appalling poor start to their league campaign on Sunday, losing 1-0 away to newly-promoted Numancia.

The shock defeat raises fears that Barca will continue to be feeble on the road, the same as last season.

The only goal came after just 14 minutes, when Mario Martinez turned in a Carlos Bellvis centre from the left.

Just three minutes later Samuel Eto'o hit the Numancia post - and it was going to be that kind of day for Barca.

Josep Guardiola's side dominated from start to finish and created many clear chances, but lacked a cool finish.

Lionel Messi always levelled for Barca in injury time, but his free-kick came back off the post.

Jaen, Spain - Alejandro Valverde of Spain won the second stage of the Tour of Spain to take the overall leader's gold jersey on Sunday.

Madrid- Seven people were injured when an apparently mentally

Madrid - A former leader of Basque separatist party Batasuna was released from prison on Saturday, having served a 15-month sentence for "glorifying" terrorism.

Arnaldo Otegi, 50, was met by dozens of supporters as he left the jail in the northern coastal town of San Sebastian.

He was imprisoned following a failed appeal against charges of glorifying terrorism in a speech praising a member of ETA, the Basque separatist group.