The deputy head gunned down by a pupil during a school shooting rampage lost her fight for life 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 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.

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez gathered his closest Latin American allies to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the country’s independence movement and used the occasion to denounce US “meddling”.

A car bomb ripped open cars and storefronts in the administrative centre of Colombia’s Pacific port of Buenaventura, killing six people and wounding more than 30, authorities said.

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.

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.

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.

THE world’s heaviest man has got married.

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

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.

The former husband of French hostage Ingrid Betancourt said today that he fears she is dead after six years of rebel captivity in Colombia’s jungle, expressing doubts about a government offer to obtain her release.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

Colombia’s defence minister has denied accusations that army troops massacred eight peasants, including four children, in a remote village in northwest Colombia a week ago, saying no soldiers were in the area at the time.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.