Zaragoza, Spain - Spanish firefighters and soldiers were Thursday combating a wildfire that has consumed 2,200 hectares of forest and bush in two days near Zaragoza in the north, officials said.

Hundreds of people were battling the blaze which was reported under control. About 300 residents of the village of Castejon de Valdejasa who were evacuated have returned home.

The fire was sparked by a car which caught fire in a traffic accident.

Another wildfire near Segovia meanwhile prompted the evacuation of about 100 people from Moral de Hornuez.

Zaragoza, Spain  - Spanish firefighters and soldiers were Wednesday battling a wildfire that consumed more than 1,500 hectares of pine forest and bush near Zaragoza in the north, local officials said.

Nearly 300 people living in the village of Castejon de Valdejasa were evacuated because of smoke, but later returned home.

The summer's first major wildfire was sparked by a car which caught fire in a traffic accident near Zuera.

Madrid - Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos, considered one of the most brutal terrorists with the underground Basque movement ETA, was realised from jail on Saturday, triggering a call for a series of protests throughout Spain.

A 52-year-old former policeman, de Juana had been sentenced to more than 3000 years in jail for 25 counts of murder. Owing to the Spanish legal system his sentence was considered served after only 18 years behind bars.

Valencia, Spain  - Spanish bank notes contain the highest concentrations of cocaine in Europe, according to a study made public on Thursday.

Randomly selected Spanish euro notes contained traces of cocaine at an average concentration of 155 microgrammes, according to the study by Valencia University made public in the magazine Trends in Analytical Chemistry.

Cocaine was found not only on notes that had been in direct contact with the drug, but on nearly all notes in circulation, said Miguel de la Guardia, co-author of the study.

He attributed the phenomenon to cross-contamination between bank notes, as well as in money-counting machines in banks.

Madrid - Spain's Basque authorities have warned the regional police force that the militant Basque separatist group ETA may be planning an imminent large-scale attack against it, press reports said Thursday.

A part of ETA's Vizcaya complex, regarded as its most important structure, appears to have remained intact despite the arrests of 11 of its suspected members or collaborators, including its leader, last week, the Basque regional Interior Ministry wrote to the police force Ertzainza, instructing it to step up security.

ETA was thought to be planning an attack during some of the summer's regional festivities which draw large amounts of members of the public and police to protect them.

Madrid - A bomb exploded early Tuesday at the southern Spanish beach resort of Torremolinos on the Costa del Sol, with no injuries reported, police told local media.

The explosion at 12:20 am (2220 Monday GMT) was under a footbridge and near two hotels. There was no warning before the explosion.

Police have cordoned off the area and are investigating whether it was an attack by the Basque terrorist organization ETA.

A hotel employee told El Mundo newspaper that many hotel guests, primarily Spainards and British, were scared and reported seeing dark clouds of smoke.