Bogota  - Shackled every night, forced to walk through jungles and subjected to extreme deprivation, a released Colombian hostage said the worst aspect of his captivity was the loss of family, not his physical trials.

Alan Jara, a former governor of the central Colombian province of Meta who was held hostage by leftist rebels for seven and a half years, said Wednesday that enduring the absence of his family was tougher than being bound and abused.

Bogota  - Alan Jara, former governor of the central Colombian province of Meta, was released Tuesday by leftist Colombian rebels after more than seven years in captivity.

"I am free. I have rested for seven-and-a-half years, now it's time to work," Jara told reporters in Meta capital Villavicencio.

Bogota  - Leftist rebels in Colombia on Tuesday released a former provincial governor that they had held hostage since 2001, a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed.

Alan Jara, former governor of the southern province of Meta, was handed over to Red Cross officials, Yves Heller, the spokesman for the organization in Colombia, told reporters.

Following Jara's release by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the jungle in southern Colombia, he was set to travel in a Brazilian helicopter to the city of Villavicencio, near the Colombian capital Bogota, Heller said.

Bogota  - At least 20 peo

Bogota  - A Colombian politician held hostage by leftist rebels is not set to be released before Tuesday despite earlier plans that he might be free again Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

However, the Red Cross noted that plans for the release of Alan Jara, a former governor of the central Colombian province of Meta, and that of former regional legislator Sigifredo Lopez continue, after the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) offered to free them.

Bogota - A car-bomb attack that killed two people and left 15 others injured was planted by leftist rebels, Mayor Jorge Ospina of the Colombian city of Cali said Monday.

General Gustavo Ricaurte, the Cali police commander, directly blamed "FARC terrorists" for the attack that happened late Sunday.

Just hours earlier, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had freed four hostages, fulfilling the Marxist insurgent group's promise of a unilateral release.