A Colombian man will get a US$1.3 million reward for information that led to Sunday’s rescue of four police officers held for nearly 12 years by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, top Army General Oscar Gonzalez said on Wednesday.
The general also did not reveal the identity of the person who will receive the reward from the government for the vital information he provided, but media reports said he deserted the FARC rebel group late last year.
A 300-strong elite military commando on Sunday raided a FARC camp in the jungles of southern Guaviare department, rescuing a four police officers, including a general, a colonel, held for about 12 years.
PHOTO: EPA
The four were among the longest held hostages by FARC and the general was the highest-ranking officer in captivity.
One soldier was killed in the attack, but apparently no rebels as they all fled their camp leaving everything behind, commando chief General Freddy Padilla said.
The operation was billed as the most prominent hostage rescue since that of French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans in 2008, which was carried out by the same military commando in Operation Chameleon.
FARC rebels still hold at least 19 soldiers.
Two medieval fortresses face each other across the Narva River separating Estonia from Russia on Europe’s eastern edge. Once a symbol of cooperation, the “Friendship Bridge” connecting the two snow-covered banks has been reinforced with rows of razor wire and “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank obstacles on the Estonian side. “The name is kind of ironic,” regional border chief Eerik Purgel said. Some fear the border town of more than 50,0000 people — a mixture of Estonians, Russians and people left stateless after the fall of the Soviet Union — could be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next target. On the Estonian side of the bridge,
Jeremiah Kithinji had never touched a computer before he finished high school. A decade later, he is teaching robotics, and even took a team of rural Kenyans to the World Robotics Olympiad in Singapore. In a classroom in Laikipia County — a sparsely populated grasslands region of northern Kenya known for its rhinos and cheetahs — pupils are busy snapping together wheels, motors and sensors to assemble a robot. Guiding them is Kithinji, 27, who runs a string of robotics clubs in the area that have taken some of his pupils far beyond the rural landscapes outside. In November, he took a team
SHOW OF SUPPORT: The move showed that aggression toward Greenland is a question for Europe and Canada, and the consequences are global, not just Danish, experts said Canada and France, which adamantly oppose US President Donald Trump’s wish to control Greenland, were to open consulates in the Danish autonomous territory’s capital yesterday, in a strong show of support for the local government. Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington needs to control the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island for security reasons. Trump last month backed off his threats to seize Greenland after saying he had struck a “framework” deal with NATO chief Mark Rutte to ensure greater US influence. A US-Denmark-Greenland working group has been established to discuss ways to meet Washington’s security concerns
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
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