Bogota Colombia

This is a story about fifth graders drilling in school to avoid assassination. It is about a 10-year-old girl pleading with her father to take her out of the country. It is a story about fear. This is also a story about judges who go to work every day despite death threats, often taking city buses because they cannot afford a taxi ride, let alone an armored car. So this is a story about courage, too.

The creations of Colombian fashion designers Pepa Pombo, Silvia Tcherassi, Esteban Cortazar and others have lighted up fashion shows around the world in recent years and raised the country's profile in the world of haute couture. But the high-fashion clothes of Amelia Toro, a Bogota-based designer, are perhaps the most uniquely Colombian. She incorporates handicrafts made by indigenous communities, including the Wayuu, Kuna and Putumayo tribes, into dresses and coats that retail for $4,000 or more.

Enticed by the promise of salsa concerts, cheap cocktails and male strippers, the women of Bogota left the kids--and the men--at home Friday night. In decreeing a "Night Without Men," Bogota's zany philosopher-mayor, Antanas Mockus, in effect turned over the Colombian capital to women for an evening of all-female frolicking, while asking the men to see to diapers and dirty dishes.

Listening to yet another constituent complain about the thousands of neglected, scruffy mutts that prowl the streets of his town, Mosquera Mayor Luis Alvaro Rincon went ballistic. "A street dog," he ground out, "is a dead dog." His fist pumping and voice rising as applause at the community gathering grew, he said, "It's an order. Round them up and kill them!" Rincon's exasperation last summer was in some ways understandable. This suburb of Bogota has long been a dumping ground for canines whose owners are too uninterested or financially strapped to care for them.

Luis Eduardo Garzon is hardly part of Colombia's ruling elite. He doesn't own a tie, he didn't finish college, and he hangs out in sweaty salsa clubs. But after a turbulent electoral weekend, he has streaked into the stratosphere -- a former golf caddie turned shining star of Colombia's emergent left-wing political force. Portly and unpretentious, Garzon won 47% of the vote in municipal elections Oct. 26 to become mayor-elect of the bustling capital, Bogota.

A decade ago, the Bosa slum was the black hole of Bogota. Its darkest corner was Laurel Park, a grassless, trash-strewn lot with open sewage and gun-toting gangs bent on muggings and murder. Today, Bosa has paved streets, new schools, health clinics and cafeterias, and links to a new mass transit system. Laurel Park has been rechristened Park of the Arts and is alive with children at play and free theater, fashion shows and concerts.

A car bomb left by a person in military uniform exploded in the parking lot of a military university in Bogota, the capital, wounding at least 23 people, the defense minister said. The blast occurred at Nueva Granada Military University, which was hosting an event attended by foreign dignitaries and the army's commander, Gen. Mario Montoya. Vice President Francisco Santos blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country's largest leftist rebel group.

An act of bravery took a tragic turn in Colombia when authorities discovered the body of a 25-year-old woman who had exchanged herself for her kidnapped father. The army said Wednesday that officials have found the body of Melina Pereira, who had been held since April by kidnappers identifying themselves as members of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. She was shot three times in the back at close range, military officials said.

She was a young woman with a message, and she wanted the whole city to hear it. So on a recent afternoon, she marched over to one of Bogota's busiest street corners, stood before a flimsy-looking cardboard kiosk, punched a green button and addressed the video camera that whirred to life. "To all publicists: I've had it up to here with seeing butts and breasts. There are more intelligent ways to market a product," she said, her voice full of exasperation.

CARACAS, Venezuela - The sale of Globovision, Venezuela's last major television station critical of the government, raised concern Tuesday that no mass media platform may remain on which to challenge the Chavista administration of President Nicolas Maduro. The sale of the station for an undisclosed price by an ownership group led by Guillermo Zuloaga, now self-exiled in Miami, was completed Monday night, according to a statement the broadcaster posted on its website. Zuloaga had said mounting government fines and political harassment had left him with no choice but to sell.

A decade ago, the Bosa slum was the black hole of Bogota. Its darkest corner was Laurel Park, a grassless, trash-strewn lot with open sewage and gun-toting gangs bent on muggings and murder. Today, Bosa has paved streets, new schools, health clinics and cafeterias, and links to a new mass transit system. Laurel Park has been rechristened Park of the Arts and is alive with children at play and free theater, fashion shows and concerts.

A car bomb left by a person in military uniform exploded in the parking lot of a military university in Bogota, the capital, wounding at least 23 people, the defense minister said. The blast occurred at Nueva Granada Military University, which was hosting an event attended by foreign dignitaries and the army's commander, Gen. Mario Montoya. Vice President Francisco Santos blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country's largest leftist rebel group.

She was a young woman with a message, and she wanted the whole city to hear it. So on a recent afternoon, she marched over to one of Bogota's busiest street corners, stood before a flimsy-looking cardboard kiosk, punched a green button and addressed the video camera that whirred to life. "To all publicists: I've had it up to here with seeing butts and breasts. There are more intelligent ways to market a product," she said, her voice full of exasperation.

Luis Eduardo Garzon is hardly part of Colombia's ruling elite. He doesn't own a tie, he didn't finish college, and he hangs out in sweaty salsa clubs. But after a turbulent electoral weekend, he has streaked into the stratosphere -- a former golf caddie turned shining star of Colombia's emergent left-wing political force. Portly and unpretentious, Garzon won 47% of the vote in municipal elections Oct. 26 to become mayor-elect of the bustling capital, Bogota.

An act of bravery took a tragic turn in Colombia when authorities discovered the body of a 25-year-old woman who had exchanged herself for her kidnapped father. The army said Wednesday that officials have found the body of Melina Pereira, who had been held since April by kidnappers identifying themselves as members of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. She was shot three times in the back at close range, military officials said.

Enticed by the promise of salsa concerts, cheap cocktails and male strippers, the women of Bogota left the kids--and the men--at home Friday night. In decreeing a "Night Without Men," Bogota's zany philosopher-mayor, Antanas Mockus, in effect turned over the Colombian capital to women for an evening of all-female frolicking, while asking the men to see to diapers and dirty dishes.

The creations of Colombian fashion designers Pepa Pombo, Silvia Tcherassi, Esteban Cortazar and others have lighted up fashion shows around the world in recent years and raised the country's profile in the world of haute couture. But the high-fashion clothes of Amelia Toro, a Bogota-based designer, are perhaps the most uniquely Colombian. She incorporates handicrafts made by indigenous communities, including the Wayuu, Kuna and Putumayo tribes, into dresses and coats that retail for $4,000 or more.

A Colombian jetliner, feeling its way through fog and rain, missed its first approach to Kennedy International Airport Thursday night, then tried again and crashed about 50 yards from a house in a wealthy, secluded area of Long Island. Authorities said at least 40 people were killed, but that as many as 74 survived.

A Colombian jetliner, feeling its way through fog and rain, missed its first approach to Kennedy International Airport Thursday night, then tried again and crashed about 50 yards from a house in a wealthy, secluded area of Long Island. Authorities said at least 40 people were killed, but that as many as 74 survived.

This is a story about fifth graders drilling in school to avoid assassination. It is about a 10-year-old girl pleading with her father to take her out of the country. It is a story about fear. This is also a story about judges who go to work every day despite death threats, often taking city buses because they cannot afford a taxi ride, let alone an armored car. So this is a story about courage, too.