| Madrid grants house arrest to separatist hunger striker
MADRID: An ETA guerrilla convicted of multiple murders will serve the rest of a jail sentence under house arrest to prevent his death from a hunger strike, the Spanish government said yesterday.
Photographs of an emaciated Inaki (Ignacio) de Juana strapped to a hospital bed with a feeding tube in his nose have reinforced his iconic status among supporters of ETA, which wants independence for the Basque Country.
De Juana will be transferred to his home to serve out the remainder of a sentence he was given after he had completed 18 years behind bars for 25 ETA murders in the 1980s.
“I am convinced that if I had not taken this decision, Ignacio de Juana would have died in the next few weeks," Interior Minister Alfredo Rubalcaba told a news conference.
De Juana's lawyer said house arrest would not be enough for her client to start eating again.
EU Says Spain, Belgium Have "Sound" Budget Policies
BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones)- Some of the European Union's newest member countries need to improve their budget plans, the European Commission said Wednesday. In contrast, the commission praised Spain and Belgium for having "sound" fiscal policies planned until 2010. The commission's diverging views on the "old" and "new" E.U. members are a key concern for the bloc's economic policies and the future of the single currency. In order for new E.U. countries to start using the euro, they must keep their budget deficits below 3% of gross domestic product. "I am concerned that (Romania, Latvia and Bulgaria) envisage a loosening of fiscal policies in 2007 at a time of favorable economic growth. This is not consistent with the objective of running prudent fiscal policies," the commission's top economic official Joaquin Almunia said in a statement.
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