Thousands of people, led by representatives from both central and Basque governments, demonstrated in Andoain in Guipúzcoa yesterday in protest at the assassination by ETA of Joseba Pagazaurtundua. He was the chief of the municipal police in Andoain, and one of the most well-known members of the peace organisation Basta Ya. He died in hospital after being shot three times, twice in the head, as he had his breakfast in a bar on Saturday morning. The gunman escaped on foot; he was wearing a hat and dark glasses. The victim was rushed to the hospital where his wife was working at the time, and clung onto life for some nine hours before being pronounced brain dead. He leaves two children. Apart from the large demonstration in Andoain, a further one hundred silent demonstrations were held in towns across the Basque Country in protest at the attack. Members of the victim's family decided to exclude members of the Basque government from attending the wake. His remains will be cremated and no religious ceremony will be held at the request of the family.
Meanwhile the main political parties are to meet later this month to discuss the anti-terrorism pact and whether terrorists must complete their prison sentences in full. How such ETA members are inserted back into society after release will also be debated.

The President of the Xunta de Galicia, Manuel Fraga, has said he has faced far greater problems than that posed by the Prestige oil disaster, and gave as an example the result of the first elections. He made the comments in an interview published in a local paper and 'La Opinion', adding that he had never felt beaten by the crisis. Regarding the protest group 'Nunca Mais' Fraga claimed that their actions were 'not helping at all.'
Meanwhile the Capitan of the Prestige, Apostoles Mangouras, has been released from prison on bail after his shipping company paid his bail of three million Euros.

The demonstrations against the possible war in Iraq continue to be organised across Spain. The manifesto prepared for the day in a text agreed between the opposition parties PSOE, and IU, with the unions UGT and CCOO as well as several non-governmental organisations, shows that citizens oppose Spain's implication in an attack on Iraq – and more so if human and other resources are used. The text adds comments that the 'war is intended by the Americans to guarantee petrol supplies in the economic and political interests of the United States.' Such a war would be 'injust'.
And in a Partido Popular rally held in Arganda del Rey near Madrid, the President of the Government, José María Aznar had to pause after being heckled by a youth shouting anti war comments. The youngster was booed and eventually evicted from the meeting.

Seven schoolchildren have been slightly hurt when their school bus overturned at Torrejoncillo in the province of Cáceres.

The flooding in the Ebro valley is now receding in the area of Zaragoza, but hundreds of hectares of agricultural land have been affected downstream. The river reached a depth of 5.67 metres in Zaragoza yesterday and more than 700 people had to be evacuated from their homes over the weekend in towns such as Pradilla. The government in Aragón are meeting today to discuss measures to be taken to lessen the effects of the flooding, with an estimated 5% of all agricultural land in the region affected.

Fernando Adalid, the boyfriend of the missing doctor from Tarragona, who has been arrested in Amsterdam connection with her disappearance, has said he travelled to Holland in search of her, claiming that she 'had been kidnapped or had gone'. Family members and locals from the area of La Coanonge from where Gloria Sanz went missing three weeks ago, continue to search locally and are awaiting the deportation of Adalid back to Spain.