A powerful car bomb exploded outside a police station in northern Spain today, killing one officer and wounding four others in an attack blamed on the militant Basque separatist group ETA, police said.

Spaniards are voting today in a general election overshadowed by a killing blamed on Basque separatists that evoked memories of the 2004 election in which Islamic militants killed 191 people in bombings aimed at bringing down a conservative government.

A three-judge panel has convicted two former leaders of the armed Basque separatist group of ordering the kidnapping of a prison official and sentenced them to 32 years in prison.