Bogota, Jan 7 - A suspected FARC rebel believed to be behind the kidnapping and subsequent murder of a provincial governor was arrested from Colombia, authorities said.

Henry Lopez Sarmiento was picked up Monday on the charges of abduction and murder of Caqueta Governor Luis Francisco Cuellar, the army's Medellin-based unit and the Attorney General's Office said.

Bogota, Dec 30 - Colombian security forces have seized nearly two tonnes of cocaine in an operation in northwestern part of the country, officials said.

Troops seized 1,786 kilograms of cocaine near the town of Puerto Escondido in Cordoba province Tuesday, the army said in a statement.

The cocaine belonged to rightwing militia group Black Eagles that was demobilised in 2006 as part of a peace process with the government.

The military said the consignment was ready for shipment. No arrests were made in connection with the seizure so far. (IANS)

Bogota, Dec 28 - Drug enforcement agents in Colombia's Pacific port Buenaventura seized some 750 kg of cocaine in separate shipments bound for Belgium and Spain, officials said.

The cocaine was hidden in coffee and polypropylene shipments, the head of the National Police's drug enforcement unit, Gen. Francisco Patino, told reporters Sunday.

Drug enforcement agents have seized 123.5 tons of cocaine this year, Patino said.

Agents found 425 kg of cocaine Wednesday in a 25-ton shipment of polypropylene bound for Spain, the general said.

Bogota, Dec 24 - Relatives of Luis Francisco Cuellar, a Colombian governor who was abducted and killed this week by suspected FARC rebels, have said that the politician had insufficient police protection despite having been kidnapped on four other occasions.

Luis Fernando Cuellar, son of the slain governor of the southern province of Caqueta, told several local radio outlets Wednesday that only three police officers had been assigned to protect his father.

Bogota, Dec 23 - The governor of the southern Colombian province of Caqueta, Luis Francisco Cuellar, was found dead a day after suspected FARC rebels snatched him from his home in the provincial capital, officials said.

Cuellar's bound, bullet-riddled body was discovered in Sebastopol, a rural area near Florencia, provincial government secretary Edilberto Ramon Endo told RCN radio.

The governor was abducted by kidnappers wearing Colombian army uniforms who "apparently are with the FARC", Endo said late Monday in disclosing the kidnapping.

After hurling a grenade at the front door of the residence, the assailants opened fire, killing one of Cuellar's police bodyguards before entering the home and seizing the governor.

Bogota  - Authorities confiscated counterfeit US bank notes totalling more than 2 million dollars in two operations in the city of Medellin, the Colombian Judicial Police said on the weekend.

Agents seized more than 1 million counterfeit dollars sent to a Medellin courier business from the town of Quinchia, in Risaralda province, the police statement said Saturday.

"During the operation, 24 packages were confiscated containing 10,320 notes of 100-dollar denomination, equivalent to 1,032,000 dollars," it said.

Police investigators said the counterfeit dollars were intended for distribution outside Colombia.

Bogota  - A bombing of a rebel camp by the Colombian Air Force left 30 to 40 people dead, Oscar Barreto, the governor of the Colombian province of Tolima, said Friday.

Late Thursday, media reports had said some 40 rebels of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were killed near the town of Planadas, in the centre-western Colombian province of Tolima.

Military spokesmen said the Army entered the area following the bombing and found six dead rebels and an injured man.

Bogota  - Members of former far-right paramilitary groups in Colombia were responsible for about 25,000 murders in recent decades, a report by the attorney general's office in Bogota said Wednesday.

Around 3,700 militants took part in the violence over a period of 20 years. The perpetrators were offered an amnesty programme between 2003 and 2006 that guaranteed them milder sentences of up to eight years if they confessed to their crimes.

Bogota  - A video showing 10 police officers and soldiers alive more than a decade after they were captured by leftist rebels was released by the Colombian government.

The men in the videos shown Monday had padlocked chains around their necks as they spoke to their families and thanked journalists and activists who broadcast messages to them via radio reports during their captivity at the hands of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Bogota  - The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Monday handed over proof of life of six police officers and three soldiers they have been holding hostages, in some cases for more than 10 years.

Marleni Orjuela, president of the Colombian Association of Relatives of Kidnapped Police Officers (Asfamipaz), said that relatives received nine videos Monday from Senator Piedad Cordoba - who has for years been involved in mediation efforts with FARC - in northern Bogota.

Bogota  - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who just returned from a regional summit in Argentina, has come down with swine flu, his office said Sunday in Bogota.

All participants in the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) summit, including the other presidents, were exposed to the illness "through diplomatic channels" and were warned to watch for symptoms of the A(H1N1) virus, Uribe's office said.

There was no word yet on whether other regional leaders had been infected.

Bogota  - Conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Tuesday that he would seek a third term in office if a referendum on presidential re-elections was approved.

In a meeting with members of the ruling party, Uribe said he was keen to remain in power if a referendum allowing him a third presidential term was held.

A year before the end of his second mandate, Uribe has proposed a bill to Congress that calls for a referendum to change the constitution to allow him a third consecutive term.

Bogota/Mexico City  - At least nine miners died and one was injured in an underground explosion Thursday in Amaga in the north- western Colombian province of Antioquia.

Authorities said the accident happened in El Bloque, in the Nechi mining region between the towns of Amaga and Fredonia.

The blast was apparently due to an accumulation of gas in the mine, about 1 kilometre below the surface. The resulting collapse trapped the victims, local authorities in Amaga said. (dpa)

Bogota - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Monday named the head of a coffee growers' group to be the South American nation's defence minister.

Gabriel Silva, chief of the National Federation of Coffee Growers since 2001, will replace Juan Manuel Santos, who resigned in May to run for president. Silva is to take the position next month.

He served as Colombia's ambassador to the United States in the 1990s.(dpa)

Bogota - At least 45 rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were killed Saturday in an aerial bombardment of Meta province, the Caracol radio station reported.

The attack came as Colombian forces were hunting down Jorge Briceno, one of the leaders of the leftist rebel organization.

FARC, who have been fighting the state for more than 45 years, largely finance themselves with proceeds from drug trafficking.

Bogota  - The killing of a hippopotamus that escaped from a private zoo once owned by slain drug lord Pablo Escobar has sparked public outrage in Colombia.

Pepe, a 2-ton hippo, was shot through his heart on June 18 in a government-ordered killing near the town of Puerto Berrio, about 160 kilometres north-west of Bogota. Photographs surfaced last week of the carcass surrounded by 15 gun-toting soldiers in fatigues, reminiscent of a trophy shot.

Bogota  - A family in the Colombian town of Malambo told local media Thursday that they saw the ghost of the late pop superstar Michael Jackson while they were watching the music video of Jackson's hit Thriller.

The alleged ghost of the King of Pop first appeared as a chemical odour and then in a shadow of the singer.

Bogota - Ingrid Bentancourt, the former Colombian presidential candidate who was rescued from leftist rebels exactly a year ago, asked Thursday that the world not forget the people who remain in captivity in the South American nation.

Betancourt was kidnapped by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in February 2002 and spent over six years in captivity before being rescued on July 2, 2008 by Operation Jaque, an undercover Colombia Army operation.

Bogota  - At least eight leftist rebels and four Colombian soldiers were killed Monday in the conflict-torn South American country.

The eight members of the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were shot in battles in the northern and southern parts of the country, a military spokesman said.

The four soldiers were killed in a minefield set by rebels in Cauca province in the country's south-west. They were involved in an operation targeting drug smugglers. (dpa)

Bogota - Fierce battles between the Colombian military and Marxist guerillas left 14 people dead in the latest fighting.

There were few details about the fighting in La Macarena National Park in the southern Colombian jungle, where five soldiers and five rebels were slain, the military said.

The military statement said that its task force Omega would continue to press the offensive against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has been fighting an insurgency for 45 years. The statement labeled FARC a "terrorist organization."