21.   Spain has granted its Basque region almost complete autonomy, and as a result the assassinations that wracked the region for years have all but ceased.

22.   The Basque region has an active separatist group that for years has used bomb attacks and kidnappings to fight Madrid.

23.   The court also cleared former Deputy Prime Minister Narcis Serra and a Socialist Party leader from the Basque region, Jose Maria Benegas.

24.   The creation of the European Union makes possible the emergence of independent states in Wales, Scotland, and the Basque region of Spain.

25.   The famous handwoven linens of the Basque region cover the beds.

26.   The law is aimed at young supporters of the armed Basque separatist group ETA who carry out acts of street violence in the northern Basque region almost every weekend.

27.   Those kidnappers also demanded the transfer of rebel inmates to jails in the Basque region.

28.   Police combed the Basque region Tuesday for members of an assassination squad of the separatist group ETA, a day after one of its alleged members was arrested.

29.   Police said they defused a powerful car bomb early Tuesday in a wealthy neighborhood of this small town in the northern Basque region.

30.   Others were injured when trees were uprooted and roofs collapsed in several towns in the northern Basque region.