At a glance

MOSCOW: The explosion of a car in front of an entrance to the Kremlin on Wednesday was a terrorist attack, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday, quoting police and judicial sources. Car driver Ivan Orlov, 65, known to have extreme nationalist connections, had indicated to questioners that he intended to drive into the Kremlin, the seat of the Russian presidency, Interfax said. It added that a second bomb, several times more powerful than the one which exploded and fitted with a delayed action mechanism, had been found and defused after the blast. Orlov drove his car through police barricades on to Red Square late Wednesday, screeching to a halt metres from a main entrance to the Kremlin and jumping clear an instant before the vehicle exploded. Two officers of the Kremlin guard and a soldier of the presidential guard were seriously hurt and in intensive care in hospital, NTV television reported. Orlov was also slightly injured.

BOGOTA: Troops and shell-shocked civilians surveyed thedamage on Wednesday after a three-day rebel siege that dealt Colombia8217;s beleaguered security forces perhaps their worst blow in more than three decades of civil conflict. An estimated 150 soldiers and police were killed and 45 police officers captured in the onslaught. As many as 1,400 guerrillas levelled the 125-man police garrison in an assault on Sunday in Mitu, a remote southeastern state capital near Brazil, with a barrage of homemade missiles. They seized the city8217;s airstrip, blew up its communications tower and fought off army reinforcements on Mitu8217;s outskirts before retreating about midnight on Tuesday. Despite the bloody attack, President Andres Pastrana insists he will proceed with plans to open peace talks with the rebels in coming weeks to end Colombia8217;s 34-year conflict.

BEIJING: China has issued a fresh warning to the Dalai Lama to keep quiet over contacts with the central government, accusing the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader of whipping up propaganda as he starts a key visit to theUnited States. 8220;The fact that the Dalai Lama is using contacts and negotiations with the central government as a pretext to launch propaganda and sway public opinion can only demonstrate his lack of sincerity,8221; said a government spokesman. 8220;The Dalai Lama must sincerely abandon calls for the independence of Tibet and cease activities designed to split the motherland,8221; said the spokesman, quoted by the official Xinhua news agency late Wednesday. He added that contacts and negotiations between the central government and the Dalai Lama were an internal affair. It is the second official Chinese warning to the Dalai Lama this week and it came on the eve of a visit by the Tibetan spiritual leader to the United States.