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Clashes During Demo Against Mosque Construction in Spain
PREMIA
DE MAR, Spain, May 19 (News Agencies) - A right-wing rally against the
construction of a mosque in this northeastern Spanish town turned
violent Saturday, May 18, when 1,000 demonstrators clashed with some
80 anti-fascist opponents, witnesses said.
Police
had to separate the two sides and at least one person suffered
injuries.
The rally was organized by extreme right-wing politician Josep
Anglada, head of a group called "Platform for Catalonia."
Meanwhile
in Bilbao in the Basque country, torn by separatist strife, some
10,000 people demonstrated peacefully for a non-violent political
solution to the province's problems.
They
called for a peace conference and urged the Basque militant separatist
organization ETA to renounce violence.
Last
Wednesday, May 15, Spanish police said they had foiled a car bomb
attack on this weekend's E.U.-Latin American summit, arresting several
members of the armed ETA group and seizing 226 kilograms (498 pounds)
of explosive.
ETA
has been fighting for more than 30 years for an independent Basque
homeland comprising four provinces in northwestern Spain and three in
southwestern France. The campaign has claimed the lives of more than
800 people.
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