Colombia's FARC rebels kill 18 govt soldiers
Colombia's leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), killed 18 government soldiers and injured dozens more in three separate attacks on Monday, a week before the presidential inauguration, army officials said.

In one of the bloodiest attacks in recent years, FARC rebels ambushed an army patrol in the province of Norte de Santander, close to the border with Venezuela.

Army officials said that 15 government troops, including an officer, a non-commissioned officer and 13 ordinary soldiers. Were killed in the attack.

The group had been on its way to investigate reports about a car bomb at a highway.

The ambush coincided with a car bombing in northeastern Bogota on Monday morning, which killed one man and injured 21 soldiers and one civilian woman.

Bombers had packed the car with 20 kg of explosives, and activated the bomb when an army bus carrying 45 troops was passing.

Also on Monday, two soldiers died and six more were injured in another bomb attack in Tumaco, a port on Colombia's Pacific coast, which borders Ecuador.

The soldiers died in a FARC ambush when they were chasing FARC rebels who had firebombed a public bus on a main road leading to Pasto, the capital of the Tumaco department, army officials said.

Police and army officials said they believed the rebel attacks were intended to sabotage next Monday's inauguration for Alvaro Uribe, who was re-elected president earlier this year.