Bogota - Colombia was experiencing a curious controversy Thursday, after a photograph of US presidential candidate Barack Obama was printed on the tickets of a lottery with a jackpot of some 253,000 dollars.

The photograph of the US Democratic Party candidate was used by the lottery in the central Colombian province of Meta as a "tribute" to blacks, according to lottery manager Magdalena Gonzalez.

Bogota - The nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its annual report Thursday that the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is blocking the probes of politicians with ties to extreme-right paramilitaries.

The 140-page report, under the headline "Breaking the Grip? Obstacles to Justice for Paramilitary Mafias in Colombia," evaluated progress made and criticized "the influence" of the paramilitaries.

Bogota - Two days of clashes between indigenous peoples and police have claimed at least one life and injured an estimated 50 people as native communities blockaded the main road between the cities of Popayan and Cali.

The clashes on Wednesday alone injured 20 people, none of them seriously, a source at the town hospital said. The death occurred on Tuesday.

The demonstrators are demanding access to land and insisted that the government put an end to the violence that indigenous leaders suffer.

Bogota - Eight Colombian soldiers were killed Wednesday when they stepped into a mine field as they fought leftist rebels in south-western Colombia.

Army spokesmen said a sergeant and seven enlisted soldiers died in the incident outside the municipality of Barbacoas, in the Narino province, on the border with Ecuador.

The radio network Caracol quoted Brigadier General Leonardo Barrero as saying that the mine field had been set up by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Colombia, Sept 30 : The first presidential debate of 2008, between John McCain and Barack Obama, reveals that most of the statements were positive.

A content analysis by a University of Missouri expert, reveals that 53 per cent of the statements in the September 26 debate were positive, followed by attacks (39 per cent) and defenses (9 percent).

The first debate of 2008 was a bit more negative than past elections’ debates, but not vastly more negative, according to Bill Benoit, MU Professor of Communication. Benoit also opined that the 1960 and 1976 and 2004 presidential debates were similar in tone: 57 per cent positive statements, 35 per cent attacks and 9 per cent defenses
(refutations of attacks).

Bogota - In clashes between Colombian military and leftist rebel group