Spain News: 08.08.08

Here are some Spain items in the news lately:

• Spain’s announcing some measures to help cut energy consumption, including reducing the speed limit and building one million electric or hybrid cars.
• Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde may not have been the Spaniard who stood on the top step of the Tour de France podium, but he just won a one-day race in his home country – the Clasica San Sebastian – and is now poised to fight for gold in Beijing, which would just help make 2008 even better for Spanish sports.
• A Basque separatist has been released from a prison outside Madrid after serving 21 years. He was convicted of killing 25 people and sentenced to 3,000 years, and his release has prompted reactions from both sides.
• Spain’s finance minister says the state of the country’s economy is worse than previously feared, and that it could sink to zero growth.
• There are wildfires burning through northeastern Spain, and so far 300 people have been evacuated.
• Due to high unemployment rates in Spain’s construction industry, a union of construction workers is headed to France to pick wine grapes.