Newspaper executive shot dead

A newspaper executive was shot dead yesterday in Spain's northern Basque region in the first killing blamed on the armed Basque separatist group ETA since crucial regional elections earlier this month. Santiago Oleaga Elejabarrieta, 54, was shot seven times, including three times at head, in a hospital car park in San Sebastian, state radio said. Oleaga, married with two children, worked as financial diretor of leading regional newspaper El Diario Vasco (The Basque Daily), the newspaper said.