Colombia’s Constitutional Court shut the door on President Alvaro Uribe’s aspirations for a third straight term, ruling unconstitutional a law that would have let voters decide in a referendum whether he could run again.

Venezuela is seeking to improve diplomatic relations with the United States despite long-standing tensions with Washington, President Hugo Chavez said.

Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe signed legislation calling for a national referendum on amending the constitution to allow him to seek re-election for a second time.

President Alvaro Uribe has swine flu and officials are contacting other South American governments whose leaders attended a summit last week with the Colombian leader, authorities said.

US President Barack Obama has discussed the global economic crisis and improving US relations with Latin America with his counterparts in Australia and Colombia.

Colombia’s director of domestic intelligence resigned after her agency was caught spying on a prominent political opponent of President Alvaro Uribe.

Colombian spies tricked leftist rebels into handing over kidnapped presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US military contractors today in a daring helicopter rescue. No shots were fired during the rescue.

COLOMBIA freed Ingrid Betancourt and three US military contractors from leftist guerrillas after military spies tricked rebels into giving them up without a single injury, the defence minister said. In all, the operation freed 15 hostages including Colombian soldiers and police, Juan Manuel Santos said.

Colombia offered to suspend the sentences of jailed guerrillas if the rebels first free hostages including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

A summit of Latin American leaders aimed at cooling Colombia’s growing border crisis turned into an angry showdown today, with the president of Colombia accusing his Ecuadorian counterpart of having been financed by Colombian rebels.

A CRISIS between three Latin American nations worsened yesterday when Venezuela said it was closing its border with Colombia, as diplomatic talks to stave off war were about to begin.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned his Colombian counterpart that war would break out between the South American neighbours if Colombia’s military crossed into Venezuelan territory.

Colombian rebels today provided a pick-up location for two hostages they have held for years, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said, and the Colombian government gave him the green light to launch a rescue mission.

VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez is prepared to send planes and helicopters into neighbouring Colombia to pick up three hostages who have been held for years by leftist rebels.

A powerful earthquake shook Peru’s coast, killing at least 17 people as it toppled buildings and caused hundreds to flee office buildings.

About 150 protesters attacked riot police with rocks and metal barriers and ripped down lampposts in Colombia’s capital Bogota as US President George Bush paid a six-hour visit to the close US ally.

A red carpet official welcome and rioting protesters greeted US President George W Bush yesterday as he stopped briefly to renew US support for its ally Colombia.

Crews battling dangerously high levels of methane gas recovered 19 bodies from a coal mine in north-east Colombia following an explosion that killed 32 miners, a civil defence official said today.

Communist officials have rallied hundreds in outdoor meetings to publicly declare their support for ailing leader Fidel Castro to reassure Cubans’ worried about their long-ruling leader.

Peru’s President-elect Alan Garcia says voters have sent a clear message to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez: Keep out.

Bruce Willis has come under fire from Colombian politicians, after the actor said the United States should consider “doing whatever it takes to end the cocaine trade” in the South American nation.

A video released by Colombian guerrillas aired yesterday showing 12 kidnapped lawmakers pleading with their government to work with Venezuela’s leftist President Hugo Chavez to help obtain their release.

Chile’s historical rivals and long-time allies joined yesterday in congratulating president-elect Michelle Bachelet, with one South American leader saying women were more than qualified to rule in the region.

Thousands of people in Nicaragua have been evacuated from their homes as Hurricane Beta neared Central America’s Caribbean coast early today, pounding the mainland with heavy rains and high winds.

A leader of Colombia’s smaller rebel group has been released from prison today in hopes that he will be able to persuade his fellow guerrillas to hold peace talks.

Venezuelan investigators are picking through the shattered wreckage of a plane that crashed with 160 people on board, trying to determine what caused the engines to fail and sent the jet plunging from the sky in the country’s deadliest air disaster in history.

Heavy fighting between leftist guerrillas and their right-wing paramilitary foes in north west Colombia has forced more than 2,000 mainly villagers from their homes, the UN said today.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called poverty the greatest threat facing Latin America as he and the leaders of Spain, Colombia and Brazil, agreed to join forces in to stamp out widespread poverty, prevent terrorism and work for peace.

MARXIST guerrillas killed at least eight soldiers and wounded 13 others in attacks across Colombia, the army said.

Marxist guerrillas killed at least eight soldiers and wounded 13 others in separate attacks across Colombia, the army said.

The daughter of a politician held hostage held for the past 1,000 days by rebels in Colombia today accused the country’s president of not doing enough to win her release.

A grief-stricken father in Colombia today identified the body of his 14-year-old daughter who was kidnapped by terrorists nearly a year ago as she boarded a school bus in the capital, Bogota.

THE Government was urged today to stand up and fight for the return home of three Irishmen forced into hiding in Colombia after being cleared of terrorism charges.

The Government was urged today to stand up and fight for the return home of three Irishmen forced into hiding in Colombia after being cleared of terrorism charges.

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

The Government must keep the pressure on Colombia’s President to respond within 10 days to its request that the case of three Irishmen be speeded up, campaigners insisted today.

The Colombian President has promised Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to look into speeding up the case of three Irishmen detained in his country, it emerged today.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has called on the authorities in Colombia to permit the return to Ireland of three men who have been aquitted on charges of training Farc guerillas in the South American state.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, is expected to raise the case of the so-called Colombian Three when he meets Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at an EU-Latin America summit in Mexico this weekend.

THE drug-fuelled war in Colombia has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western hemisphere, with more than two million forced to flee their homes and several Indian tribes threatened with extinction.

THE three Irishman were arrested in August 2001 as they prepared to board a plane back to Ireland after spending some time in the rebel FARC-controlled area of Colombia.

Five backpackers have begun their final trek to freedom in the jungle-covered mountains of northern Colombia after three months in captivity, a member of a humanitarian mission said today.

A massive search for seven foreign backpackers being held captive by leftist rebels in northern Colombia will continue, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe vowed today.

THE commander of Colombia’s armed forces became the latest senior official to quit his post, abruptly turning in his resignation and ending a 42-year military career.