Israel is not co-operating with the UN Human Rights Council’s probe of May’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a UN official said today.

The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela agreed to restore diplomatic relations severed nearly three weeks ago by Caracas, smoothing over a dispute over allegations Colombian rebels have camps in Venezuela.

The United Nations panel investigating Israel’s deadly commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla will include Israeli and Turkish diplomats.

Israel today agreed to take part in a UN investigation of its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.

Colombia’s government said it never considered attacking Venezuela, saying Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is deceiving his people by claiming Bogota may have such designs.

The government of President Hugo Chavez fears Colombia’s president-elect could end up doing Washington’s bidding by conspiring against its neighbour, Venezuela’s top diplomat says.

FOREIGN intelligence services spying on the European Parliament?

A former defence minister from a powerful political clan who oversaw a major weakening of leftist rebels won Colombia’s presidency, routing an eccentric outsider in a runoff.

An explosion at a coal mine in Colombia has killed 16 people, with dozens of miners still trapped, the country’s president said today.

President Hugo Chavez told his military to be prepared for a possible confrontation with Colombia, warning that Bogota’s plans to increase the US military presence at its bases posed a threat to Venezuela.

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said his government would buy dozens of Russian tanks because the country felt threatened by a pending deal for the US military to increase its presence in neighbouring Colombia.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair will receive America’s highest civilian award – the Presidential Medal of Freedom – from George Bush next week.

US Democrat Barack Obama took a leaf out of the Bush administration’s conservative Republican song book, saying he would expand federal payments to religious groups that are tackling America’s social problems.

France has asked Venezuela for help with a hurried mission to free an ailing hostage held by Colombian rebels, but President Hugo Chavez says he is powerless until Colombia and the US stop hunting a rebel leader.

The leaders of Venezuela and Colombia appeared to put their differences aside today, agreeing to meet face to face after trading accusations and insults sparked the worst diplomatic crisis between the two South American countries in years.

South American presidents reached an uneasy compromise to resolve a dangerous crisis triggered by Colombia’s military raid in Ecuador, stepping back from a week of insults, troop movements and talk of war.

Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega says he is breaking off relations with Colombia over the country’s raid on a guerrilla base in Ecuador.

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa called his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe a liar who “wants war”, following a raid against guerrillas that set off a diplomatic crisis.

Four hostages were freed by Colombian rebels after six years of captivity and flown to Venezuela, where they appealed to President Hugo Chavez to help press for the freedom of all remaining hostages.

Colombia’s largest guerrilla group is expected to release three captive politicians in the coming days or weeks, France’s foreign minister says.

President Hugo Chavez has accused neighbouring Colombia and the US of plotting a military “aggression” against Venezuela.

Freed hostage Clara Rojas wore a photograph of her three-year-old son around her neck as she described his birth and upbringing among Colombian rebels in jungle camps.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe agreed to allow a representative of Colombia’s largest guerrilla group to travel to Caracas for talks aimed at freeing dozens of rebel-held hostages, including politician Ingrid Betancourt and three US defence contractors.

Former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt is forced to sleep chained by her neck as punishment for having tried to escape from her rebel captors five times, an escaped hostage told family members today.

Crews battling toxic gases recovered 30 bodies from a makeshift coal mine in Colombia following an explosion that killed 32 miners, a civil defence official said.

Colombia have made a surprise entry into the bidding to host the 2014 World Cup.

CONSERVATIVE Alvaro Uribe’s landslide victory in Colombia’s presidential election has interrupted a series of election triumphs by leftist candidates across South America.

US President George Bush said today that videotape threats from al-Qaida’s second-in-command will not drive the US out of Iraq or the broader Middle East.

Venezuela’s leftist leader Hugo Chavez has assumed leadership of the Andean bloc president’s council, telling his peers that Latin America was still bound by a ”colonial system” and proposing they pool their energy resources to achieve economic independence.

President Hugo Chavez said diplomatic and commercial relations with Colombia would be suspended until the country apologised for paying bounty hunters to snatch a senior rebel from Venezuela.

Colombian drug kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela was flown to the United States early today on a US government plane, becoming the most powerful Colombian trafficker ever extradited to face US courts.

Colombia’s main Marxist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, denied it had a plan to kill US President George Bush during a recent state visit.

The Government was tonight urged to maintain pressure on the Colombian authorities for a speedy appeal hearing into the case of three Irishmen detained in the country.

Three Irishmen freed from a Colombian jail should face a speedy retrial if they are forced to remain in the country, a former Irish foreign minister said today.

Campaigners for the release of three Irishmen detained in Colombia were today due to meet senior Government and legal officials to see if they could be flown back to Dublin.

Campaigners for the release of three Irishmen detained in Colombia were tonight hopeful that the prisoners could be back in Ireland soon.

The Government was today urged to continue putting pressure on the Colombian authorities to free the three Irish men in prison there.

THREE Irishmen acquitted of training left-wing Colombian rebels yesterday could be detained indefinitely in South American until an appeal is heard.

Catholic Church mediators who travelled to the jungles of northern Colombia to try to negotiate the release of seven foreign tourists said they were heading home after receiving no word from rebels behind the mass abduction.

COLOMBIA’S new president, Alvaro Uribe, declared a state of near emergency yesterday, and introduced a new tax to help fund the fight against a “regime of terror” after a spate of rebel attacks.

Suspected rebels rained mortar shells onto downtown Bogota and the presidential palace as hard-liner Alvaro Uribe was sworn in as president of Colombia.

At least 52 people have been killed in scattered fighting in Colombia, authorities say.

Hard-liner Alvaro Uribe has been elected president of Colombia in a landslide victory.

Colombian police captured four suspected left-wing guerrillas who were allegedly planning to assassinate a presidential candidate.