■ UNITED STATES
Release of hostages sought
Relatives of three Americans held by Marxist guerrillas in Colombia met on Saturday in Florida with a Colombian lawmaker acting as a mediator to win the release of dozens of hostages. Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba talked in Orlando with the families of Thomas Howe, Keith Stannsen and Marc Gonsalvez, US State Department contractors who were seized in Colombia in February 2003 after the rebels shot down their plane in the jungle during an anti-drug mission. Cordoba is trying to get the Uribe administration and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to agree on an exchange of 500 FARC prisoners for 45 hostages held by the rebels, including the Americans and Franco-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. The Americans' families will also meet with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
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