Madrid - A Spanish judge has ordered the remains of eight people to be exhumed from the Valley of the Fallen, a huge mausoleum near Madrid where many of the opponents of deceased dictator Francisco Franco are buried, the daily El Pais reported Thursday.

Madrid  - The Spanish Interior Ministry has rejected a request for political asylum by Omar bin Laden, son of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, media reported Thursday.

The 28-year-old had argued that he did not feel safe in any Arab country.

Spain based its rejection partly on a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Interior Ministry sources were quoted as saying.

The report said there was no evidence that bin Laden's life was in danger in Saudi Arabia, which he is a citizen of, according to the daily El Pais.

Bilbao, Spain  - Several political parties in Spain's northern Basque region on Thursday criticized the militant Basque separatist group ETA, which threatened with new attacks to force the government to negotiate with it.

ETA would not stay with its "arms crossed" but maintain a "resistance against repression," the group said in a communique made public by the Basque newspaper Gara on Wednesday.

Bilbao, Spain - Several political parties in Spain's northern Basque region on Thursday criticized the militant Basque separatist group ETA, which threatened with new attacks to force the government to negotiate with it.

ETA would not stay with its "arms crossed" but maintain a "resistance against repression," the group said in a communique made public by the Basque newspaper Gara on Wednesday.

ETA said it was convinced that Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government would resume the attempt at negotiations it abandoned in December 2006 after ETA violated its ceasefire with a car bombing, killing two people at Madrid airport.

Madrid - The Spanish Interior Ministry has rejected a request for political asylum by Omar bin Laden, one of the 19 children of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, media reported Thursday.

The 27-year-old son of Osama bin Laden had argued that he did not feel safe in any Arab country.

Spain based its rejection partly on a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Interior Ministry sources were quoted as saying.

Madrid  - Nobel Literature laureate Portuguese author Jose Saramago on Wednesday urged