Bogota  - Colombia's leftist FARC rebels said Sunday they would unilaterally release six hostages next month, Anncol news agency reported.

The hostages, including former provincial governor Alan Jara, regional representative Sigifredo Lopez, three police officers and a soldier, are to be handed over to opposition Senator Piedad Cordoba in early January, according to a text from FARC's leading secretariat obtained by the news agency.

Bogota  - A former FARC rebel's planned departure from Colombia to live in asylum in France was stopped at the last moment on Monday after the public prosecutor requested a delay.

Wilson Bueno Largo, alias Isaza, had fled a FARC camp in Colombia in October along with a hostage and was to fly to France with high- profile former hostage Ingrid Bentancourt on Monday.

But prosecutor Mario Iguaran asked for the stay in order to determine whether Isaza was guilty of kidnapping and to wait for a justice decision on his pardoning.

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.

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.