Sunday, March 9, 2008

Zapatero claims victory in Spanish election
21:19 Spain's governing Socialists claimed victory in today's election but said they had fallen short of an absolute majority."We can say with confidence that the Socialist Party has won," party secretary Jose Blanco told a news conference, adding that the Socialists seemed to have won 168-171 seats in the 350-seat lower house, the Congress. Preliminary results showing Mr Zapatero's Socialist party nearly nine percentage points ahead of the rival conservatives. With 26 per cent of the vote counted, Mr Zapatero's party had 46.1 per cent of votes.

Gardai investigate fatal shooting in Ronanstown
15:01 Links between the murders of two men killed in separate gun attacks were being investigated by detectives in Dublin today.
New European cargo space ship takes-off
10:42 An unmanned Ariane rocket successfully put a cargo vessel into orbit today in Europe's first mission to carry supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), space officials said.
Paisley claims he 'smashed' Sinn Féin
11:50 Northern Ireland's outgoing First Minister Rev Ian Paisley today provocatively asserted that Sinn Fein were no longer "true republicans" because they had accepted Britain's right to govern in Northern Ireland.

In Focus