Madrid - The Basque separatist organisation ETA has been sending more letters to Basque companies demanding money for not being targeted for attacks, El Pais newspaper reported Saturday.

It said ETA had been demanding between 30,000 and 130,000 euros from companies, warning that failure to pay would mean they faced being targeted.

ETA is known to finance its operations partly by such protection money operations. In the organisation's jargon, the companies are required to pay "revolutionary taxes" or "contributions towards liberating the Basque Country".

Madrid - Fabio Cannavaro will be out of action for at least a week after pulling a muscle in his right thigh in Wednesday's Greece-Italy friendly.

Cannavaro, 35, will miss Real Madrid's home game against Recreativo Huelva on Saturday, as well as Tuesday's Champions League clash away to BATE Borisov.

Madrid - Concern was mounting in Spain on Friday over a possible Russian purchase of nearly 30 per cent of the country's largest oil company Repsol YPF, with the governing Socialists appearing divided over the issue.

Repsol should remain a "clearly Spanish and independent" company, senior European affairs official Diego Lopez Garrido said amid reports that the Russian oil giant Lukoil was about to become Repsol's main shareholder.

Madrid - The Spanish property bubble has long since burst, the Spanish economy is entering into recession and football attendances are down - even for flamboyant leaders Barcelona.

Spanish clubs spent around a third less in the 2008 summer transfer market than in 2007, and most clubs have no plans at all to buy players in the upcoming January transfer "window".

All except one, that is.

Reigning champions Real Madrid are planning to dominate the winter transfer market, in the hope of revitalizing a squad plagued by injury and poor form.

Madrid - A political row has erupted in Spain over attempts to investigate alleged human rights crimes during the 1936-39 civil war and General Francisco Franco's dictatorship, according to press reports Friday.

Far-left parties are accusing Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government of having helped to block a judicial investigation into the abuses committed by Franco, whose uprising led to the war. Franco ruled Spain from the end of the war until his death in 1975.

Madrid - Spanish judicial experts expect no major new investigations into alleged human rights abuses during the 1936-39 civil war and General Francisco Franco's ensuing 36-year dictatorship, the daily El Pais said Thursday.

High-profile judge Baltasar Garzon's decision to drop the first such inquiry on Tuesday was described as a big blow by representatives of Franco's victims.