Madrid - The Spanish government is moving jailed members of the militant Basque separatist group ETA to prisons closer to their homes in an attempt to persuade the group to give up armed struggle, press reports said Wednesday.

The government has moved several dozen terrorism convicts who have renounced ETA's ideology of violence.

Prisons in Spain and France hold more than 700 ETA convicts.

Madrid - Valencia striker Juan Mata was called up Tuesday to replace the injured Andres Iniesta in Spain's squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifying games against Turkey.

Iniesta will be out of action for around two weeks after pulling a muscle in his right thigh in Barcelona's 6-0 thrashing of Malaga on Sunday.

He is hoping to be fit for Barca's Champions League quarter-final first leg clash against Bayern Munich on April 8.

Valencia, Spain - A 39-year-old Spanish former breast cancer patient will become the world's first woman to give birth to twins after receiving a transplant of her own ovarian tissue, officials said Tuesday in the eastern city of Valencia.

Women who are treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy often experience precocious ovarian failure, health official Manuel Cervera explained.

Bilbao, Spain - Spanish Catholic bishops on Tuesday pursued their campaign against the planned liberalization of abortion, with Bilbao bishop Ricardo Blazquez slamming abortion as forming part of "a culture death" in "western civilization."

Abortion was comparable to terrorism, war, slavery or domestic violence, Blazquez, a former president of the Spanish Bishops' Conference, and his deputy said in a statement.

Madrid - A trial began in Spain on Tuesday of three military officers accused of falsely identifying 30 of the 75 victims of the worst air crash in the history of Spanish peacekeeping missions in May 2003.

The Yakolev 42 was en route from Afghanistan to Spain when it crashed in Turkey, killing the 62 peacekeepers and 13 mainly Ukrainian crew on board.

Thirty Spanish families were given the wrong bodies, which were exhumed later on for their correct identification.

Valladolid, Spain  - The lowly Vuelta of Castilla and Leon cleared up more issues than expected in the duel between US cycling legend Lance Armstrong and young Spaniard Alberto Contador for leadership of the Astana team.

Armstrong, 37, crashed in the first stage of the race and withdrew with a broken collarbone.

With the injury, he leaves team leadership to his challenger without a great show of force by either. More importantly, Armstrong's training is greatly jeopardized ahead of the Tour de France in July.