RICHARD Fahey is sending over a strong raiding party to the Curragh tomorrow for the opening day of the Irish Flat season.

A humanitarian commission boarded a helicopter and flew deep into a snow-capped Colombian mountain range today in hopes of picking up two foreign backpackers whom their rebel captors have pledged to release.

A British tourist who was kidnapped 12 days ago in the snow-capped mountains of northern Colombia has escaped from his captors and has been picked up by an army patrol, Colombia’s army chief said today.

The search was continuing today for eight tourists kidnapped while hiking in Colombia.

A group of eight tourists were kidnapped while hiking in Colombia, officials have confirmed.