Basques

The Basque separatist organization ETA claimed responsibility Wednesday for the shooting death Sunday of retired air force Brig. Gen. Luis Azcarraga Perez-Caballero, 81.

BEASAIN, Spain - The Spanish countryside is littered with unfinished condos, stillborn reminders of the country's disastrous construction boom gone bust. But the verdant valleys and Atlantic cliffs of the northern Basque Country are virtually free of that blight. Why? For decades, terrorist attacks by the Basque separatist group ETA meant no one wanted to build here. Now with a cease-fire that's held for two years, the region is casting off its reputation for terrorism and garnering one for something else: Economic growth unseen in the rest of Spain.

A Spanish police inspector was gunned down Thursday as security forces braced for a possible new wave of violence by Basque separatist rebels. The killing, apparently by the Basque guerrilla group ETA, came hours after police went on nationwide alert to prepare for possible attacks by the rebels, who have called for a "Day of Struggle" today. Police Inspector Luis Andres Sanpedio was shot in the head outside his home in the northern Basque city of Bilbao by a lone gunman who fled by car.

San Sebastian's old town may be the most food-intensive neighborhood in the world, with street after street of pintxos bars and taverns and roaring restaurants, and hundreds of counters heaped with shellfish, hams and roasted meat -- the answer to a tapas lover's sweatiest dream. You stumble down the crowded streets of this Basque city, stopping in one bar for its anchovies, another for its famous cuttlefish, another for the delicious spider crabs, washing each down with a glass of cider or thin, acidic Txakolina wine.

The alleged top leader of the Basque guerrilla group ETA was flown to Paris for questioning after his arrest in the French Basque town of Bidart, judicial sources said. Ignacio Gracia Arregui, wanted on four international arrest warrants, was captured with a female companion and child Friday in an operation by French and Spanish authorities, backed by French anti-terrorist police. He is suspected of masterminding a failed assassination attempt against Spain's King Juan Carlos in 1995.

Elections Sunday in Spain's northern Basque region will test separatist sentiment and the strength of Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez's flagging Socialist Party. The restive Basque area, one of 17 autonomous regions in post-Franco Spain, is home to ETA separatist terrorists whose drive for independence has claimed more than 700 lives in the last 25 years. In a seven-party race, ETA's political arm is battling to hold on to its 13 seats in the 75-member regional parliament.

A bomb attached to a car exploded Friday, killing a Spanish navy cook and injuring five people in the first fatal attack of the year blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA. The blast took place at 7:40 a.m., a police spokesman said. He said the bomb was attached to the car of Ramon Diaz Garcia, 51, a cook who worked in navy headquarters in this Basque region city. He was married with two children.

A politician was gunned down in a Basque town in the latest in a series of slayings blamed on the armed Basque separatist group ETA, or Basque Homeland and Freedom. Manuel Indiano, 29, was shot 10 times outside his candy store in Zumarraga, about 250 miles north of Madrid, police said. Indiano died in the town's hospital an hour after the attack. Although not a member of the governing Popular Party, Indiano became a councilor in Zumarraga for the party six months ago.

Just who are the Basques and where are they from? Today, about 3 million Basques live along the crest of the Western Pyrenees dividing France from Spain, but, ethnically, they are neither French nor Spanish. Historians believe they wandered into their present homeland between 70,000 and 5,000 years ago. Roman historians called members of one of their tribes Vascones, from which the name Basques seems to originate.

Basque voters have cast their ballots against violence and for dialogue with the armed separatist group ETA, but few people in the region expect to see progress on either front any time soon. The moderate Basque Nationalist Party, advocate of negotiations to end the ETA's terror campaign, won 33 seats in the 75-member Basque legislature in Sunday's regional election--far more than Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party, which rejects talks.

Total time: 2 hours, 10 minutes Servings: 6 Note: Crustacean shells (shrimp, lobster or crab) give this soup real depth of flavor, so, if possible, choose shrimp with heads and shells. 1 pound whole, small shrimp 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided 2 leeks, chopped 1 onion, chopped 1 carrot, chopped 1/4 cup brandy 1/2 cup white wine 8 cups simple fish stock, divided 1 cup diced tomatoes Pinch of ground cayenne pepper Salt to taste Pinch of crushed saffron threads 2 slices toasted bread, broken into pieces 1 1/2 pounds boneless monkfish, cut into 1-inch pieces and/or lobster chunks 1/2 pound Manila or littleneck clams (or ¼ cup shucked clams)

San Sebastián, the heart of Spain's Basque Country, is well known for its superb cuisine. The elegant seaside resort of 185,000 lays claim to more Michelin stars per capita than any other city in Europe. Restaurants such as Arzak and Mugaritz, acclaimed for their high-tech gastronomy, attract diners from all over the world. But there's another side to San Sebastián's culinary culture that few outsiders are aware of. The city is home to scores of txokos , private gastronomical societies where members gather to cook, eat, drink, talk and, quite often, sing together.

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For high school senior Alex Wray, there's no stigma to his membership in a troupe that performs traditional old-world peasant dances. The 17-year-old also is an offensive lineman, but he said his varsity football teammates never razz him about his primary passion: dancing with the young adults of the Oinkari company. In many communities, the harmonious mix of arts and athletics could be attributed to "Glee. " In Boise, thank the Basques. "My mom is Basque," Alex said, referring to Basque Country, the small, semi-autonomous chunk of land straddling the border of Spain and France.

The city of Vernon is under pressure to change, but a push is on to keep at least one thing in this 5-square-mile industrial city the same. That's La Villa Basque, a 1960s-era landmark used as a location to film the television show "Mad Men. " Even as state lawmakers seek to dissolve the city around it, Los Angeles-area preservationists are campaigning to convince the restaurant's new operators not to remodel and modernize it. The operators are...

The Basque separatist group ETA declared a permanent cease-fire with Spain on Monday, saying it was committed to abandoning its armed struggle for an independent homeland in favor of "dialogue and negotiation. " But the announcement was greeted coolly by the Spanish government, which repeated its demand that the militant organization instead surrender its weapons and dissolve itself. Madrid is mindful of the failure of such truces in the past, including a "permanent" cease-fire ETA declared in 2006 and broke within a year.

Spanish judges sent the Basque separatist movement's most prominent politician to prison on a terrorism charge. Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the outlawed Batasuna party, was arrested as he walked to a news conference in San Sebastian. Otegi had been found guilty by a lower court of defending terrorism -- a crime in Spain -- over remarks at a 2003 rally.

A hidden bomb exploded as police tried to defuse grenades in launching tubes found outside a police station in the Basque region city of San Sebastian, the Spanish Interior Ministry said. The attack injured nine police officers and two bystanders. Officials described the attack as a trap by the Basque separatist group ETA, which has been accused of using rudimentary tubes to hurl grenades in previous attacks, some on police stations.

Weakened and on the run, the Basque separatist group ETA said Sunday that it was declaring a cease-fire in its armed campaign against the Spanish government and that it was willing to try to achieve its aims through democratic means. It was the latest truce to be offered by the rebels, whose suspected leader was arrested in February. Officials reacted with skepticism and caution to the move, mindful that the militants had declared such cease-fires in the past and then abruptly broken them.

Before home soccer games in this Basque city, local fans wearing their team's red-and-white jersey cram into bars and streets around the San Mames stadium and chant, full-throated, Athletic Bilbao's traditional call to arms. "Athletic, let's go!" they roar in the Basque language, "You're in all our hearts, the people love you, because you were born of the people!" That's no idle boast. Spain's top soccer league is one of the best and richest in the world, with teams such as Real Madrid and FC Barcelona enjoying seemingly bottomless reservoirs of cash to assemble -- and just as swiftly scrap and remake -- dream teams filled with the most talented feet on the planet.