Melitón Manzanas was murdered in 1968; Spanish Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco was assassinated in 1973; and a car bomb set off by ETA killed an American tourist in 1985. ETA’s political wing, Herri Batasuna (‘Unity of the People’), was formed in 1978 in reaction to the new Spanish constitution, and fostered close links with the Irish republican party Sinn Féin.
What did the Spanish government do?
In the 1980s, Felipe Gonzalez’s government made a botched attempt at combating ETA by setting up Anti-Terrorist Liberation Groups (GAL); essentially these were mercenaries charged with assassinating key members of the separatist organisation. However, 10 of the 28 people killed by the GAL between 1983-7 turned out to have nothing to do with ETA, which led to the jailing of some of those who had set up the death squads.
Does ETA have public support?
There was strong support for ETA in the Basque provinces during Franco’s reign and into the 1980s: more than half of those surveyed in a poll there in 1979 felt ETA’s militants were ‘patriots’ or ‘idealists’. However, in general, support for ETA has waned since the Franco years as the group sought civilian rather than military targets and its actions became increasingly bloody. In 1997, 6 million Spaniards protested against ETA’s killing of a young local councillor from the Basque region.
Recently ETA’s strength has been sapped further; its political wing was banned in 2003, and, despite broken ceasefires and continued car-bomb attacks on politicians, judges and journalists, the Spanish government—under the leadership of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero since 2004—seems to be winning the battle against the organisation. ETA’s military commander Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina and suspected leader Javier López Peña were both caught in 2008; in all some 750 suspected members of the organisation have been detained since 2000. In March 2009, ETA suffered another big blow when 29 years of nationalist domination in the Basque Country came to an end as the Basque Nationalist Party failed to muster a majority in the region’s elections. This paved the way for the Socialist Party and Popular Party to create an informal coalition. They strongly support the Basque Country remaining part of Spain, and have promised to boost funding to combat ETA.
Guernica
The Spanish artist Pablo Picasso painted his iconic image of Guernica, a town in the Basque Country, after more than one and a half thousand people were killed when bombs were dropped by the Luftwaffe in 1937, in the first major air raid specifically aimed at killing civilians.
Basquetball
The second-largest Basque city of Vitoria-Gasteiz is home to one of Europe’s top basketball clubs, Tau Ceramica. In addition, the Basque people have produced a number of star sportsmen over the years, including the footballers Xabi Alonso, Mikel Arteta, Didier Deschamps, Bixente Lizarazu; rugby players Serge Blanco and Imanol Harinordoquy; cyclist Miguel Indurain and golfer José María Olazábal.
What is a blog?
A blog is a page or site on the internet which is updated with material, usually on a regular basis, by a single writer (‘blogger’). Bloggers can post anything from breaking news to essays, opinions and diaries, often including photos and links to other websites.
What do bloggers write about?
Bloggers write about anything, from what they ate for supper to who they believe is going to win the next general election. Some see blogs as a quick and easy way to communicate their thoughts to a wide audience, but others may simply write in order to clear their thoughts—an online diary. One unifying factor about the majority of blogs is that they are, to varying degrees, personal: ‘A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.’ (Blogger.com)
Are they popular?
Absolutely. Blogging has become a global phenomenon. There are no conclusive statistics on how many blogs there are, but certainly well over 100 million. The popularity of blogs varies enormously, with some attracting few or no visits while others are highly influential and command big readerships.
Who came up with the term?
In 1997 Jorn Barger—an American whose blogs vary from essays on artificial intelligence to James Joyce—came up with the term ‘web log’ when he began logging a daily list of links to websites he had visited. ‘Web log’ was shortened to ‘blog’ by Peter Merholz, a prolific blogger himself, in 1999. However, blogs were in existence before they were given these names. Justin Hall is seen as a pioneer—he began back in 1994 while an intern at Wired magazine. He posted just shy of 5,000 pages worth of entries in 11 years before throwing in the towel.
Dirty laundry
Airing your thoughts on the internet means that anyone might stumble across them, including your employer. In 2004 flight attendant Ellen Simonetti was initially suspended and then fired from her job at the American airline Delta because of photos posted on her blog ‘Queen of Sky’, in which she wrote about the adventures of an anonymous air hostess. One of the photos showed her dressed in uniform, with the company logo visible, which prompted the airline to take action. Similarly, Catherine Sanderson was sacked in 2006 from her secretarial job when her boss stumbled upon her popular blog, ‘Petite Anglaise’, about her life as a Brit in Paris. Although she never named her employers, they claimed that the photos of her on the site identified her, and therefore the firm. Sanderson won a groundbreaking case in which she sued the company for wrongful dismissal and has since written a book, also called Petite Anglaise.
Sleazy does it
Matt Drudge (www.drudgereport.com) is one of America’s best-known bloggers. In 1998 the one-time maverick, who now commands great respect, broke the news that the magazine Newsweek had decided against running a story on President Bill Clinton’s liaison with a White House intern from 1995-7. The following day he revealed her name: Monica Lewinsky. His story was published on a Saturday, and was seized upon by other websites, but it was not until the Wednesday that it appeared in the newspapers.
Diplomatic own goal
Arsenal fan David Miliband, who is also the UK’s Foreign Secretary, got into hot water in 2008 when he aired frustrations on his blog about the Champions’ League quarter-final in which his team lost 4-2 to Liverpool and bowed out of the tournament. The comments in his blog, which is part of the Foreign Office’s website, included criticism of Swiss defender Philippe Senderos, who apparently ‘left half of north London cursing that he was ever let into the country’. An attaché at the Swiss Embassy responded that although the defender may not have had his best game, that was ‘not a reason for a diplomatic incident between two friendly nations’.
Where is it?
Burma is the largest country in mainland South-East Asia, situated between Bangladesh and Thailand on the Bay of Bengal. It sits on plentiful natural resources, including precious stones, gas and oil, which neighbouring giants China and India are keen to get their hands on. However, rather than benefiting from these resources, the people of this once prosperous country have lived in poverty for decades under a corrupt and authoritarian military regime.
What happened after Burma became