NOW ONLY $45 PER PERSON PER NIGHT!Vallarta Shores in now offering a Barack Obama approved stimulus package for all of its resort properties. That's right the Economic Stimulus Package has now reached Vallarta through Vallarta Shores International's Stimulus Package. Now until the end of April Vallarta Shores is offering resort stay packages at only $45 per person per night and the reception from the consumer has been well stimulating to say the least. All Vallarta Shores resort properties are participating in this unheard of price. This Stimulus Package applies to you, whether you're looking for a 1 bedroom beachfront condo, a 3 bedroom penthouse suite with chef and private pool, or an 8 bedroom Villa in Vallarta's "Beverly Hills" or anything in between. Call them today to make your reservation and make sure to ask for your Stimulus Package rate and when you return home thank President Obama for his approval.
Call toll free from the US or Canada 1 (800) 228-4552 or locally at (322) 222 3838.

Whether your planning a trip to Puerto Vallarta or your just sick of your tiny hotel room style accommodations Vallarta Shores has something waiting for you that you are destined to love. Visit them at http://www.Vallartashores.com.

NOW ONLY $45 PER PERSON PER NIGHT! Vallarta Shores in now offering a Barack Obama approved stimulus package for all of its resort properties. That's right the Economic Stimulus Package has now reached Vallarta through Vallarta Shores International's Stimulus Package. Now until the end of April Vallarta Shores is offering resort stay packages at only $45 per person per night and the reception from the consumer has been well stimulating to say the least. All Vallarta Shores resort properties are participating in this unheard of price. This Stimulus Package applies to you, whether you're looking for a 1 bedroom beachfront condo, a 3 bedroom penthouse suite with chef and private pool, or an 8 bedroom Villa in Vallarta's "Beverly Hills" or anything in between. Call them today to make your reservation and make sure to ask for your Stimulus Package rate and when you return home thank President Obama for his approval. Call toll free from the US or Canada 1 (800) 228-4552 or locally at (322) 222 3838. Whether your planning a trip to Puerto Vallarta or your just sick of your tiny hotel room style accommodations Vallarta Shores has something waiting for you that you are destined to love. Visit them at http://www.Vallartashores.com.

Understanding your Colonia PLAN PARCIAL

As of January 9, 2009, two of the three neighborhood meetings were well attended. Our Architect/professor, Alfonso Banos presented the plan for density development. His 12 students, at no cost to us, surveyed and categorized the current usage of land and properties within the boundaries of Conchas Chinas. Each and every lot was checked to its survey and the current usage noted. To date, the Colonia has spent about $3,000 US to get this project, which often costs much more, completed.

This was a tremendous project and a valuable tool in preserving our colonia. All types of usage are currently represented: hotel, condominium, single family homes, and even green space. The Plan Parcial designates areas for different density usage AND green space. This plan will be presented to City Hall for their approval. Sensible development will be encouraged. We can possibly have restrictions in place to preserve the colonia. Thank you to the neighbors who chose to participate. This involvement and interest is so important.

The final round of owner review and input is scheduled for THIS FRIDAY, 4pm, at the home of Ann and Jerry Lafferty, Casa Perlita, 176 Rincon Madre Perla. (Just follow the road up from the South entrance, turning right each time you can. You will end on Rincon Madre Perla, with Costo de Oro at the end of the street and Casa Perlita about have way down the block on the left.) Alfonso and board members will be on hand to answer questions. The map of the colonia with the proposed zoning for each lot will be on display. Please come by to check you property. If there are problems, now is the time to find them!

City News CFE Wiring Project

When the Federal Electrical Company, CFE, decided to replace 60 % of the eroding underground electric cable in Conchas Chinas, who knew that we would be held hostage?

The project began in Sept 2008. The registers are being replaced and better insulated wires and tubing are being installed.

The time line is:

CUT OPEN ALL TRENCHS

INSTALL NEW AND IMPROVED TUBING

MAKE CONNECTIONS

RETURN ALL STREETS AND SIDEWALKS TO ORIGINAL DESIGN

The horror of the streets with the huge ditches, blind corners filled with debris, and lack of night lighting has been beyond disruptive. The three weeks of Christmas and the wrong order of tubing have delayed the progress. But on the brighter side, there is no monetary cost to Conchas Chinas and in the end, the wiring should last another 20 years.

Please be patient and report any good or bad observations. Sighting of cement trucks and new tubing are signs that this nightmare may have an end. The alternative of this current project would have been to dig huge holes, plant concrete poles and string more lines above the ground. Let's be thankful for small favors.

As of December 16, Casa DoReMi has granted permission for the CFE workers to construct a temporary storage area behind the Bombero Bodega at the S. entrance. Thank you. This may help speed things up.

By AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein – Fri Nov 14, 8:45 am ET
WASHINGTON – Earth seems to have its first fuzzy photos of alien planets outside our solar system, images captured by two teams of astronomers. The pictures show four likely planets that appear as specks of white, nearly indecipherable except to the most eagle-eyed experts. All are trillions of miles away — three of them orbiting the same star, and the fourth circling a different star.

None of the four giant gaseous planets are remotely habitable or remotely like Earth. But they raise the possibility of others more hospitable.

It's only a matter of time before "we get a dot that's blue and Earthlike," said astronomer Bruce Macintosh of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. He led one of the two teams of photographers.

"It is a step on that road to understand if there are other planets like Earth and potentially life out there," he said.

Macintosh's team used two ground-based telescopes, while the second team relied on photos from the 18-year-old Hubble Space Telescope to gather images of the exoplanets — planets that don't circle our sun. The research from both teams was published in Thursday's online edition of the journal Science.

In the past 13 years, scientists have discovered more than 300 planets outside our solar system, but they have done so indirectly, by measuring changes in gravity, speed or light around stars.

NASA's space sciences chief Ed Weiler said the actual photos are important. He compared it to a hunt for elusive elephants: "For years we've been hearing the elephants, finding the tracks, seeing the trees knocked down by them, but we've never been able to snap a picture. Now we have a picture."

In a news conference Thursday, Weiler said this fulfills the last of the major goals that NASA had for the Hubble telescope before it launched in 1990: "This is an 18 1/2-year dream come true."

There are disputes about whether these are the first exoplanet photos. Others have made earlier claims, but those pictures haven't been confirmed as planets or universally accepted yet. The photos released Thursday are being published in a scientifically prominent journal, but that still hasn't convinced all the experts. Alan Boss, an exoplanet expert at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Harvard exoplanet hunter Lisa Kaltenegger both said more study is needed to confirm these photos are proven planets and not just brown dwarf stars.

MIT planetary scientist Sara Seager, at the NASA press conference, said earlier planetary claims "are in a gray area." But these discoveries, "everybody would agree is a planet," said Seager, who was not part of either planet-finding team.

The Hubble team this spring compared a 2006 photo to one of the same body taken by Hubble in 2004. The scientists used that to show that the object orbited a star and was part of a massive red dust ring which is usually associated with planets — making it less likely to be a dwarf star.

Macintosh's team used ground-based telescopes to spot three other planets orbiting a different star. That makes it less likely they are a pack of brown dwarf stars.

The planet discovered by Hubble is one of the smallest exoplanets found yet. It's somewhere between the size of Neptune and three times bigger than Jupiter. And it may have a Saturn-like ring.

It circles the star Fomalhaut, pronounced FUM-al-HUT, which is Arabic for "mouth of the fish." It's in the constellation Piscis Austrinus and is relatively close by — a mere 148 trillion miles away, practically a next-door neighbor by galactic standards. The planet's temperature is around 260 degrees, but that's cool by comparison to other exoplanets.

The planet is only about 200 million years old, a baby compared to the more than 4 billion-year-old planets in our solar system. That's important to astronomers because they can study what Earth and planets in our solar system may have been like in their infancy, said Paul Kalas at the University of California, Berkeley. Kalas led the team using Hubble to discover Fomalhaut's planet.

One big reason the picture looks fuzzy is that the star Fomalhaut is 100 million times brighter than its planet.

The team led by Macintosh at Lawrence Livermore found its planets a little earlier, spotting the first one in 2007, but taking extra time to confirm the trio of planets circling a star in the Pegasus constellation. The star is about 767 trillion miles away, but visible with binoculars. It's called HR 8799, and the three planets orbiting it are seven to 10 times larger than Jupiter, Macintosh said.

"I've been doing this for eight years and after eight years we get three at once," he said.

MONTERREY, Mexico - The world's most obese man is getting hitched. Manuel Uribe says he will wed longtime girlfriend Claudia Solis on Oct. 26 in Monterrey, Mexico.

The two will be married in a civil ceremony at a location still to be decided.

Uribe is unable to walk, and leaving his house means being towed through the streets on his specially made bed.

This year the Guinness Book of World Records declared Uribe, who tipped the scales at 1,230 pounds in 2006, the world's heaviest man.

The 43-year-old has shed about 550 pounds since with the help of Solis. The two met four years ago.

Uribe said Wednesday he will.

MEXICO CITY - Abraham Leon was getting a checkup when he found out he had high blood pressure and was at risk of developing diabetes.

On the spot, the 5-foot-6-inch, 240-pound lab researcher joined "Vamos Por Un Million de Kilos" (Let's Lose a Million Kilos), a national campaign to get Mexicans to collectively trim about 2 million pounds.

The project is one of several new efforts to fight obesity in Mexico, which is on track to catch up with the United States within a decade as one of the world's fattest countries, according to the Mexican government. Nearly half of Mexico's 110 million people are overweight, and the number of fat children has climbed 8 percent a year over the last decade.

"The longer we carry this excess weight, the more serious the problem becomes," said Dr. Samuel Flores Huerta, director of the Department of Community Health at Children's Hospital. "Obesity is costing this country a lot of money."

Mexico is working to mandate more physical education in public schools and encourage employers and unions to give workers time for exercise. The administration of President Felipe Calderon says it has built or renovated more than 800 public sports facilities around the country. The National Institute of Public Health is promoting food education and healthier choices in schools, such as fruits and vegetables instead of chips and soda.

Mexican cuisine has always been high in fat and carbohydrates. But for decades, people living in small villages could not grow enough crops to eat a lot and had to travel long distances to gather more food.

Now, as the middle class grows and more people move to cities seeking work, diets have become laden with processed and fast foods. At the same time, doctors say, Mexicans spend more time in sitting in cars or watching TV.

The country has the disease rates to prove it. According to government statistics, new cases of high blood pressure increased 24 percent in Mexico in just six years, from 2000 to 2006. New cases of Type 2 diabetes, believed to be linked in part to obesity, jumped 31 percent during that time.

Companies spend a lot to market unhealthy foods in Mexico, said Margarita Safdie, an investigator at the public health institute. In one so-called health-conscious promotion, a company offered a free bottle of water to anyone buying two soft drinks.

"It should be the other way around," Safdie said. "It's not that healthy food is much more expensive. What happens is that calories have become cheaper."

At Alvaro Lozano's taco stand in downtown Mexico City, customers line up every day for a choice of fatty meats on two corn tortillas washed down with a sugary soft drink. He said his customers are more concerned about money and time than about health.

Mexicans have also developed a taste for fast food.

"The food is good, and sometimes I don't feel like cooking," said Ana Lopez, 35, a Mexico City homemaker dining at Kentucky Fried Chicken on the Zona Rosa pedestrian mall.

"Vamos Por Un Million de Kilos" came out of a promotional campaign by the Televisa media company, launched after its sports department noticed a certain irony.

"Some of our sportscasters were talking about fitness while they themselves were obese," said Rafael Bustillos, Televisa director of sport. "It was after that that we decided to start creating awareness about this issue."

Advertisers sponsored spots encouraging viewers to eat healthier foods and showing easy and free ways to exercise in a country where few can afford gym memberships. Then the Mexican Institute of Social Security signed on, recruiting clinic patients like Leon for the weight-loss challenge. The campaign reached its goal in just four months with 2 million people.

"We only recommend that people lose a half to a full kilo (1 to 2 pounds) a week," said Dr. Ernesto Krug, a public health unit director. "More than that is not healthy."

The campaign is now starting a second phase, "Vamos Por Mas Kilos" (Let's Lose More Kilos), targeted more widely, including at adolescents.

Leon, 39, has dropped 40 pounds since May. Before his checkup, he ate tacos, burgers and whatever his wife prepared, and didn't exercise. Now he has learned to cook so he can choose healthy ingredients. He takes the stairs at work and walks at least twice a week with his wife. He also tries to be a role model.

"I have tried to tell my brother to do what I did. He's overweight," Leon said. "But he won't listen to me."

Leon plans to lose 20 more pounds. But already he worries less about heart disease and more about how to replace his baggy wardrobe.

"I think that it has paid off," he said. "Physically, I feel great and more secure with myself."

CARACAS: President Hugo Chávez said that wholesale gasoline sales by private companies in Venezuela will soon disappear after his congressional allies pass a bill nationalizing the business.

Under the measure, which received initial approval in the National Assembly last Wednesday, the state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela will control Venezuela's fuel distribution network but will not nationalize privately owned gas stations.

Dominated by Chávez allies, the National Assembly is expected to give its final approval to the legislation later this week.

Distributors, including subsidiaries of British Petroleum, Exxon Mobil and Chevron, had hoped to persuade the government not to seize total control of their businesses.

But Chávez ruled out allowing private minority stakes, accusing operators on Wednesday of making money at the country's expense.

"This was an old scheme through which some private sectors seized the nation's wealth without a drop of sweat," Chávez said. "That's what they defend."

The law gives distributors 60 days to negotiate the sale of their businesses to the government or face expropriation. It also forces distributors to sell storage tanks and gasoline pumps to Petróleos de Venezuela and to relinquish their brand names.

Congressman Luis Tascón, a former Chávez ally, said the pending legislation could cause shortages at gas stations because the government is not prepared to take full control over distribution.

The Chávez government has never raised gasoline prices and Chávez has ruled out any increase in the fixed pump price of around 12 U.S. cents per gallon, the cheapest in the world. Wholesale fuel distribution in Venezuela generally offers limited profitability because of the combination of fixed prices and high inflation.

"I'm warning the population that if this law is approved, we are going to see shortages in the short term," said Tascón, one of a handful of lawmakers who voted against the bill.

A Petróleos de Venezuela subsidiary controls 49 percent of fuel distribution in Venezuela, with the rest controlled by private companies, according to industry representatives.

Under Chávez, the government has nationalized Venezuela's largest telephone, electricity, steel and cement companies and has assumed majority control over four major oil projects.

Also Wednesday, the president said in talks with the Mexican ambassador, the government has negotiated a deal that will let the Venezuelan authorities take full control of the local plants of the Mexican cement company Cemex.

He gave no details on what his government might pay for a majority stake in Cemex's three Venezuelan cement plants, 30 smaller concrete plants and shipping terminals.

Venezuela seized the facilities on Aug. 19 after compensation talks failed.

Jorge Pérez, a spokesman at Cemex headquarters in Monterrey, Mexico, confirmed the agreement with Venezuela but said compensation must still be determined in talks with the government.

Chávez also said that "time has run out" for an agreement on compensating the country's largest steel maker, Sidor, and that Venezuela will determine on its own what shares in Ternium, the parent company, are worth.

Ternium is a subsidiary of the Argentine-Italian conglomerate Techint. It owned 60 percent of Sidor until it was nationalized in May.

Chávez added that the two sides disagree over a Ternium request that the government guarantee immunity from future claims by workers or others in Venezuela

In a new and disturbing twist on the obesity epidemic, some overweight teenagers have severe liver damage caused by too much body fat, and a handful have needed liver transplants. Many more may need a new liver by their 30s or 40s, say experts warning that pediatricians need to be more vigilant. The condition, which can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure or liver cancer, is being seen in kids in the United States, Europe, Australia and even some developing countries, according to a surge of recent medical studies and doctors reports.

The American Liver Foundation and other experts estimate 2 percent to 5 percent of American children over age 5, nearly all of them obese or overweight, have the condition, called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. 'It's clearly the most common cause of liver disease,' said Dr. Ronald Sokol, head of public policy at the liver foundation and a liver specialist at Children's Hospital and University of Colorado Denver.

Some experts think as many as 10 percent of all children and half of those who are obese may suffer from it, but note that few are given the simple blood test that can signal its presence. A biopsy is the only sure way to diagnose this disease. As fat builds up, the liver can become inflamed and then scarred over time, leading to cirrhosis, a serious condition, which in years past was mostly caused by hepatitis or drinking too much alcohol. Liver failure or liver cancer can follow, but if cirrhosis has not yet developed, fatty liver disease can be reversed through weight loss. The disease is most common in overweight children with belly fat and certain warning signs, such as diabetes or cholesterol or heart problems. However, it's been seen in a few children of normal weight.

Genetics, diet and exercise level all play a role. It is most prevalent among Hispanics, relatively rare among African-Americans, and more common among boys than girls. 'There are people in their 30s or early 40s that will require a liver transplant' from developing the condition as a kid, predicts Dr. Jose Derdoy, head of liver transplants at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis. With fatty liver disease becoming more common in adults, many experts predict it will become the top cause of liver transplants by 2020. 'There aren't enough livers to go around,' says Dr. Philip Rosenthal of the University of California-San Francisco Children's Hospital.

His patient, Irving Shaffino, a 15-year-old Mexican-American who lives outside Lubbock, Texas, was lucky to get a transplant a year ago. He was in end-stage cirrhosis and, at 5-feet-4 1/2, weighed 180 pounds. Irving had been fat since age 6, thanks to a high-starch, high-fat diet of Mexican food, pizza and burgers, said his mother, Guadalupe Shaffino. At age 8, she said, he had a distended stomach and by his early teens, breathing problems kept him tethered to an oxygen tank at home.

Without health insurance, the family couldn't find a local hospital that would do a transplant.

'My son begged me, 'Don't let me die, Mommy,' so I did everything in my power to find a place to help him. Thanks be to God, we found a way,' said Guadelupe Shaffino, a restaurant cook.

UCSF Children's Hospital, with money from a state health program, agreed to do the transplant. Rosenthal, who oversees the hospital's pediatric liver transplant program, took over care of Irving. The doctor said without a new liver Irving would have died, maybe within months. 'He was in bad shape,' said Rosenthal.

Soon after tests were completed and Irving got on a transplant waiting list, an organ was found.

'It felt like a miracle, because people say you could be on the transplant list for years,' Irving said. Within a couple of months of the July 26, 2007 operation, Irving had weaned himself from the oxygen tank and could go on walks, although he got winded quickly.

Back home in Texas, his medications are down from 11 to four and Irving said he's replaced soda and fast food with fruit, vegetables and whole grains. 'I want to get into sports again,' he said. 'I want to get down to maybe 150' pounds. Sadly, however, Irving has made little progress in losing weight. While he's grown an inch and a half since his operation, he's still obese and his weight was up to 219 last month.

Specialists say many kids diagnosed with fatty liver disease come to subsequent checkups heavier, and at best, just one in four loses significant weight, the only treatment known to stop and even reverse the disease.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Bill Melendez, the animator who gave life to Snoopy, Charlie Brown and other "Peanuts" characters in scores of movies and TV specials, has died. He was 91.

Melendez died Tuesday at St. John's Hospital, according to publicist Amy Goldsmith.

Melendez's nearly seven decades as a professional animator began in 1938 when he was hired by Walt Disney Studios and worked on Mickey Mouse cartoons and classic animated features such as "Pinocchio" and "Fantasia."

He went on to animate TV specials such as "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and was the voice of Snoopy, who never spoke intelligible words but issued expressive howls, sighs and sobs.

Melendez was born in 1916 in Hermosillo in the Mexican state of Sonora. He moved with his family to Arizona in 1928 and then to Los Angeles in the 1930s, attending the Chouinard Art Institute.

Melendez took part in a strike that led to the unionization of Disney artists in 1941, and later moved to Warner Bros., where he worked on Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck shorts.

In 1948, Melendez left Warner Bros. and over the next 15 years worked as a director and producer on more than 1,000 commercials and movies for United Productions of America, Playhouse Pictures and John Sutherland Productions.

At UPA, he helped animate "Gerald McBoing-Boing," which won the 1951 Academy Award for best cartoon short.

Melendez met "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz in 1959 while creating Ford Motor Co. TV commercials featuring Peanuts characters.

The two became friends and Melendez became the only person Schulz authorized to animate his characters.

Melendez founded his own production company in 1964 and with his partner Lee Mendelson went on to produce, direct or animate some 70 "Peanuts" TV specials, four movies and hundreds of commercials.

The first special was 1965's "A Charlie Brown Christmas." The show reportedly worried CBS because it broke so much new ground for a cartoon: It lacked a laugh track, used real children as voice actors, had a jazz score and included a scene in which Linus recited lines from the New Testament.

However, the show was a ratings success and has gone on to become a Christmastime perennial.

Melendez created Emmy-winning specials based on the cartoon characters Cathy and Garfield, and was involved in animated versions of the Babar the elephant books and the C.S. Lewis book, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

He also was co-nominee for an Academy Award in 1971 for the music for "A Boy Named Charlie Brown."

In all, his productions earned some 19 Emmy nominations, including six awards.

Melendez is survived by his wife Helen; sons Steven Melendez and (Ret.) Navy Rear Adm. Rodrigo Melendez, six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren

Nicaragua has recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, backing the Russian stance on the breakaway Georgian regions and siding with other leftist Latin American countries to defy Washington.

The Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla leader who had close ties to Moscow during the Cold War, has criticized the Georgian attempt to regain control of South Ossetia and supported the counterattack by Russia.

Venezuela and Cuba have sided with Russia in the dispute, but Ortega went further in fully recognizing the regions' independence.

"The government of Nicaragua recognizes the independence of the republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and we are completely with the Russian government's position," Ortega said in a speech late Tuesday.

Russian troops overwhelmed the Georgian military in a brief war last month that brought international condemnation. Moscow said it had sent troops and tanks to defend South Ossetia from the Georgian bid to retake the rebel region by force. Many world leaders also criticized Russia after it recognized the two regions as independent states.

The breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria - itself not recognized internationally - has followed Russia in formally acknowledging the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela said last week that he backed the Russian position on the regions, but stopped short of formally recognizing them. Belarus, a close ally of Russia, did the same.

Ortega, who lost power in a 1990 election, was voted back into power in 2006 on a platform of reconciliation. Since then, he has irritated Washington with his warm relationship with Chávez.

Cuba is continuing to send signals that Havana wants to strengthen its relationship with Moscow. State-run media on Thursday highlighted the arrival of Russian aid following Hurricane Gustav.

State television showed two huge cargo planes arriving at the José Martí airport, which serves Havana, at the top of its morning news broadcast. Cuban soldiers were seen unloading supplies. Such scenes have not been seen in Cuba since the Soviet Union collapsed.

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico: Tropical Storm Julio grew stronger as it bore down on the resort-dotted tip of the Baja California peninsula on Sunday, prompting more than 2,500 families who live along river beds to evacuate.

Strong winds and heavy rains buffeted the southern peninsula as police and emergency workers toured neighborhoods in Cabo San Lucas, evacuating families who live homes of wood and corrugated roofs. They were taken to shelters around the town.

"We're expecting the worst of the tropical storm this afternoon," said Ernesto Ibarra, a municipal delegate.
The possibility of 3 to 6 inches (7.5 to 15 centimeters) of rain in the normally parched raised fears of flash flooding.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Julio was not expected to become a hurricane, though it will likely strengthen.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) Sunday and was centered about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of the resorts at Cabo San Lucas. Tropical storm force winds extended 85 miles (65 kph) at some points.

The Mexican government issued a tropical storm warning from Punta Abreojos on the West Coast of the peninsula around the southern tip and up to Mulege on the East Coast.

As of Monday at 10:30 am the storm was over central Baja. Julio was moving north-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).

PARIS: At least 45 people died Wednesday and 44 others were injured when an airliner en route to the Canary Islands of Spain swerved off the end of a runway at Madrid's airport, Spanish officials said.

"There were 178 passengers on board, including the crew," said Valentin Narro, a government official at the Interior Ministry's office for Madrid. "There are 45 dead and 44 injured."

A Red Cross official at the airport said the aircraft, Spanair Flight JK5022, swerved off the runway during takeoff. Spanair said the accident happened at 2:45 p.m.

Narro could not confirm whether the aircraft had caught fire. Television footage of the accident showed clouds of white smoke billowing over the runway at Madrid Barajas International Airport.

Olivia Acosta, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross at Barajas airport, said 22 ambulances were at the scene and that a makeshift hospital had been set up.

"There are teams of psychosocial workers to help the victims," she said.

Spanair is a troubled low-cost carrier owned by SAS, Scandinavian Airlines System. SAS confirmed that an accident had taken place at the Madrid airport involving Spanair Flight JK5022 from Madrid to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. The plane model was a Boeing MD-82, a type of MD-80.

The MD-80 is a long, narrow plane with engines mounted to the rear of the fuselage and the tail high in the air.

In April, the Federal Aviation Administration inspected American Airline MD-80s and found a maintenance problem: wiring bundles that had been improperly wrapped and attached inside wheel wells. The airline canceled 3,300 flights.

The wiring is required to be stowed in a way to avoid chafing by moving parts in the wheel well, which otherwise could result in an electric short.

Spanair, founded in 1986, has hubs in Madrid and Barcelona and flies within Spain and the rest of Europe, as well as West Africa.

The airline, which carried 11.2 million passengers last year, is part of the Star Alliance, which also includes United Airlines, Air Canada, SAS and Lufthansa of Germany.

SAS tried to sell the money-losing airline last year, only to drop the effort in June after it could not find a buyer. Spain's largest airline, Iberia, pulled out of discussions, and later initiated separate merger talks with British Airways.

On Wednesday, before word of the crash, Spanair pilots had threatened to go on strike, saying management did not have a plan to fix the carrier's problems.

Spanair lost $81 million in the first half of the year, and SAS has said that it plans to cut a quarter of Spanair's flights and eliminate about 1,000 jobs, or about a third of its employees.

A majority of Spanair's fleet is from the MD-80 family, although it also includes Boeing and Airbus jets.

SAS said that it was doing "everything possible to help passengers and next of kin and to assist Spanish authorities at this difficult time."

Spanair said that the flight was a code-share flight with Lufthansa LH 2554, and that it had set up an emergency number for relatives of passengers.

The plane had been headed to Gran Canaria in Spain's Canary Islands, which are a popular vacation destination off the West African coast.