Bogota  - Eight Colombian police officers were killed Friday in a bomb attack by leftist rebels on a road in the northeastern province of Arauca, on the border with Venezuela, officials said.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, although both the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army
(ELN) - both leftist groups - are active in Arauca.

The attackers allegedly killed off those who survived the initial bombing.

COLUMBIA, S. C., Dec. 4  -- The Columbia, S. C., City Council has closed a legal loophole that kept officials from prosecuting people for having sex in parks, officials said.

Under the new ordinance passed Wednesday, it is illegal to "knowingly or intentionally" have sex on any "streets, sidewalks, bridges, alleys, plazas, parks, driveways, parking lots, automobiles (whether moving or not), and those portions of buildings open to the general public," The State newspaper of Columbia reported.

"We are not going to tolerate criminal behavior in our public places and parks," Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said. "This gives law enforcement and the parks the tools to enforce it."

Bogota  - Tens of thousands of Colombians poured into the streets of the South American country's cities Friday to demand the release of more than 3,000 hostages being held, sometimes for years, by Colombian rebels.

"Freedom by Christmas," demonstrators demanded. Many wore ghostly white to symbolize their solemn message.

Bogota  - Ten people were killed in an avalanche Wednesday in the south-western Colombian town of Miranda, following heavy rains that have fallen on the South American country for weeks.

Colombian radio station Caracol said the avalanche caused by an overflowing river buried people living in a humble area of Miranda, 300 kilometres southwest of Bogota, in the province of Cauca.

According to rescue teams, the rain has affected 255 municipalities in 26 of Colombia's 32 provinces since mid-September. Forty-four people have died, while some

Bogota  - Some 50,000 people suffered damage to their property in north-western Colombia after the Cauca river overflowed following heavy rains, regional authorities said Tuesday.

The Cauca - a tributary of the Magdalena river, the largest in Colombia - broke its levees on Tuesday and completely flooded the town of Nechi, in the province of Antioquia, some 400 kilometres north of Bogota.

Lima - Canada and Colombia signed a free trade agreement in Lima as their leaders prepared to attend an Asia-Pacific summit there.

"We are taking a very important step at a moment of great difficulty because of the world financial crisis," said Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper witnessed the signing of the pact Friday by the two countries' trade ministers.

Both Uribe and Harper called on the US Congress to ratify a US-Colombia free trade pact, which was signed long ago.