World IN BRIEF : GEORGIA : Opposition Leader Killed, Wife Hurt

Gunmen shot and killed one of Georgia’s most prominent politicians and badly wounded his wife, a member of Parliament, as the two drove away from their home. Georgy Chanturia, 35, head of the moderate National Democratic Party, died after his attackers blasted his car with machine gun and automatic rifle fire, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. Chanturia’s wife, Irina Sarishvili, a former deputy prime minister, was wounded in the abdomen. The couple were veteran democratic activists who incurred the wrath of Soviet authorities many times before Georgian independence in 1991.