IF there is a lesson from the attacks on Paris last Friday, it is that Islamic State has become a truly global threat, more brutal than even al Qaeda, and with the arms, training and money to carry out its plans.

With Barcelona and the Catalans on the precipice of achieving independence,

Tens of thousands of Basques held hands yesterday to form a 123km chain stretching across the northern Spanish region calling for the right to hold a vote on independence.

Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of northern Bilbao calling for an amnesty that would allow Eta prisoners to serve out the remainder of their sentences in their native Basque region rather than in jails further afield.

A priest who helped broker the IRA’s ceasefire in 1994 has died at the age of 82 in hospital in Dublin.

It took years of hard and often fractious negotiations before the gun was finally taken out of politics in the North.

A Basque separatist terrorist sentenced to thousands of years in prison has walked free after the European Court of Human Rights ruled her rights to have her the term reduced were violated.

Europe’s top human rights court has ordered Spain to release a Basque separatist militant, saying her extended detention was illegal, a ruling victims groups warned would let dozens of prisoners walk free.

I NEARLY met Conor Faughnan recently.

Basque politicians have launched a nationalist party after Spain’s highest court ruled it could be established because it was not directly linked to the militant separatist group ETA.

Spain’s Interior Ministry says an alleged leader of the Basque separatist group ETA has been arrested in eastern France.

Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy secured backing for his austerity drive in a vote in his home region of Galicia yesterday, but a clear win for nationalist parties in the Basque Country could prove a headache for central government.

Two suspected Basque terrorists have been arrested by armed police in London, officials said today.

Where once under-achieving Spanish players were more virility and machismo than style and substance, now they go in search of a hat-trick of major tournament titles.

French police have arrested ETA’s military leader Oroitz Gurruchaga Gogorza and his deputy in a joint operation on the Basque separatist group with the Spanish police.

The Spanish government has rejected a request for talks from the Basque separatist group ETA.

Carlos the Jackal has been sentenced to life in prison – again – in a Paris trial that ended with him rallying for revolution and weeping for Muammar Gaddafi.

Basque separatist group ETA, which renounced violence last month after spending more than 40 years trying to shoot and bomb its way into achieving an independent state, now says surrendering weapons is on its agenda, a newspaper reported today.

A SPANISH judge has withdrawn from the murder trial of four members of Basque separatist group ETA after an open microphone in court caught her calling them “bastards.”

BASQUES digesting the apparent end of separatist group ETA’s armed campaign are taking it with quiet, careful relief.

Spain has ruled out talks with the Basque separatist group Eta even as it welcomed an end to four decades of bombings and shootings following the group’s announcement it was laying down arms.

Spain is claiming an end to four decades of bombings and shootings after the Basque separatist group ETA announced it would lay down its arms and try to negotiate its demand for a separate nation.

THE Basque armed group ETA has issued a statement saying it is ending its 43-year armed campaign for independence, and calling on Spain and France to open talks.

The armed Basque separatist group ETA has declared "the definitive cessation of its armed activity" after four decades of bombing and shooting for a homeland independent of Spain.

INTERNATIONAL negotiators, including former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, called last night on armed Basque group ETA to declare a definitive end to violence.

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan is joining a handful of international political figures at a conference on Spain’s Basque conflict aimed at encouraging an end to the violence of the armed group ETA.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams are in the Basque country today, where a major development is expected in Spain's peace process.

THE ordinary people of Spain got rid of terrorist group ETA by marching in the streets in their hundreds of thousands regularly to let them know they weren’t wanted.

Spain’s National Court has convicted two members of Basque separatist group Eta of attempted murder and sentenced them to 377 years in prison.

THE suspected leader of Basque separatist group ETA’s armed cells and three other alleged members of the organisation were arrested in France, Spanish and French officials said.

Four men suspected of being members of the Basque separatist group Eta, including a suspected military chief, have been arrested in northern France, a judicial official said today.

THE outlawed political wing of armed Basque separatists ETA announced yesterday its rebirth as a new party that rejects violence and intends to contest elections.

Basque separatists have launched a new political party they say rejects violence by the armed group ETA.

Spanish police have arrested at least 10 suspected members of groups outlawed for their links to the armed Basque Group ETA, the Interior Ministry said today.

Two suspected members of ETA have been arrested, less than 24 hours after the Basque separatist group declared a permanent ceasefire, Spain’s Interior Ministry said today.

Spain's government has rejected a permanent ceasefire declared by the terrorist group ETA, because it believes it does not go far enough.

A statement in the pro-independence newspaper Gara did not mention ETA giving up its weapons, a key Spanish government demand.

THE outlawed political wing of Basque separatist group ETA said yesterday it would reject violence in its drive to be legalised, but the government said it must go further to be able to participate in elections.

The banned political wing of Basque separatist group Eta is to create a new party that rejects violence.

Spanish police arrested 13 suspected members of a group considered to be the youth branch of the armed Basque organisation ETA today.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dismissed a Spanish judge's account of Basque separatists receiving weapons training in his country, calling it a farce aimed at discrediting his government.

SPANISH police said they have arrested seven suspected members of the armed Basque group ETA, maintaining pressure on the organisation despite its recent ceasefire announcement.

Spanish police said today that they have arrested seven suspected members of the armed Basque group ETA, maintaining pressure on the organisation despite its recent ceasefire announcement.

THE armed Basque separatist group ETA is ready to observe a permanent and verifiable ceasefire, two members of the outfit said in an interview published yesterday.