Eta gunmen kill couple

Gunmen shot dead a conservative councillor and his wife in the street of the southern Spanish city of Seville early yesterday - the latest victims of a sustained terror campaign by Eta Basque separatists.

Alberto Jimenez Becerril and his wife Ascension Garcia Ortiz, both 37, were gunned down in the early hours while walking home after dinner with friends. Mr Jimenez was shot in the back of the head, and his wife in the chest. They had three young children.

The attack brings to four the tally of local councillors of the ruling conservative Popular Party killed in the past six months; yesterday's was the first killing outside the Basque country. A PP spokesman in Seville said Mr Jimenez had been afraid for some time that he might be a target, after his name appeared on a list captured from Eta by the police.