Madrid Bomb Injures 43 In Apparent ETA Attack
MADRID -- A car bomb exploded in a Madrid office park Wednesday, near where King Juan Carlos later appeared, injuring at least 43 people in the worst terrorist attack in the Spanish capital since the train bombings by Islamic militants last year that killed 191 people.
The blast occurred about 9:30 a.m., less than an hour after a warning call purportedly made by the Basque separatist group ETA. Police did not have time after the call to fully evacuate a nearby convention center, where the king later met Mexican President Vicente Fox to inaugurate an art show that includes Mexican works.
The bombing, in which no one was seriously hurt, came hours after police arrested 14 suspected ETA members and a week after parliament rejected a plan to give the Basque region broad autonomy bordering on independence.
THE AMERICAS
• BOGOTA, Colombia -- Marxist rebels killed at least 17 soldiers during clashes in northwest Colombia, the military's heaviest battle toll in two years, officials said. At least 11 guerrillas also died in the fighting.
Gen. Carlos Alberto Ospina, the nation's armed forces chief, said two soldiers were wounded and eight others were missing following the third rebel clash with government troops this month.
He said the fighting erupted Tuesday when soldiers opened fire on a column of rebels belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that appeared poised to attack the mountain village of Mutata. The battle continued Wednesday.
EUROPE
• LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized in a televised address to 11 people wrongfully imprisoned for Irish Republican Army bombings three decades ago, a case dramatized in the 1993 film "In the Name of the Father."
Members of the Conlon and Maguire families were jailed for the 1974 bombings in Guildford and Woolwich, England, that killed seven people and injured more than 100. The 11 convicted in the attacks were subsequently acquitted.
• VATICAN CITY -- His forehead smeared with the traditional mark of mortality, Pope John Paul II celebrated Ash Wednesday in his hospital room, missing public prayers opening Lent for the first time in 26 years.
John Paul, 84, surrounded by doctors treating him for flu and breathing trouble, celebrated Mass in his suite at Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic hospital.
• VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican has raised the age of Polish Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz to 81, making him ineligible to vote in a conclave for a pope, after he acknowledged lying about his age during World War II to avoid being sent to a German labor camp. The change reduces the number of cardinal-electors to 119.
AFRICA
• MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A BBC producer died after being shot in the back outside a hotel in the Somali capital by a militiaman, the network said. Kate Peyton, 39, who was based in Johannesburg, had just arrived in Somalia.
-- From News Services
