Police spokesman Marlon Montano told a press conference that there is no specific information that Al Qaeda has a presence in Nicaragua.

Nevertheless, he said police have taken pertinent measures to prevent actions by any terrorist organization in Nicaragua, and the police intelligence office keeps contacts with its counterparts in the region in order to coordinate preventive actions.

"We have heard of threats to the region by Al Qaeda, but we don't have official information about the existence of a terrorist presence in the region; nonetheless, we are working to collect more information," said Montano.

He said that though there is no information about terrorist presence in Nicaragua or Central America, the police authorities do not rule out the possibility of international terrorism acting in the region or in Nicaragua.

"We are convinced that international terrorism could pretend acting in the region, as they have done before in other regions. So it is our obligation to work to neutralize and prevent any actions in this sense," said Montano.

Colombian Peace Commission calls for dialogue with rebel group
The Colombian government's Peace Commission on Tuesday called for a dialogue between government negotiators and the country's largest rebel group after it rejected the government's hostage swap proposal.

Spokesman for the commission, Monsignor Luis Castro, who is also Vice President of the Episcopal Conference, said he proposed the creation of a security zone, which would allow for a personal meeting between the negotiators of the government and representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The Colombian government offered last Wednesday to release 50 FARC guerrillas jailed for sedition in exchange for freedom of 62 politicians and military officials kept in rebel captivity, which include former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US nationals.

FARC on Monday rejected the condition set by the government in the proposal, which says guerrillas freed from prison must either leave the country or enter a government-sponsored program to bring them back into society.

But FARC welcomed the offer as a sign of the will to do a deal, and said it hopes the two sides eventually can find common ground for some type of swap.

Highlighting the new attitude brought about by the government's proposal, Castro said the negative response from the rebel group makes the situation remain the same as one year ago.

Nevertheless, he said he considered the FARC response leaves the doors open and, therefore "there are hopes for this to go ahead."

The difficult thing is to find a place to set a negotiation table, as FARC has indicated it wants dialogue, Castro added.

FARC is the country's most powerful guerrilla group with up to 17,000 combatants. It had requested the government many times to free more than 400 jailed guerrillas in return for the hostages it held. But the requests have been rejected by the government.

Colombia has been plagued by a four-decade civil war, in which leftist rebels, far-right paramilitary and governmental troops fight one another, with an average of 3,500 people killed every year.

About 2,000 people, including 22 foreigners, were kidnapped in Colombia last year.

Bomb blast in Colombia injures four children
A bomb went off near a rural school in the city of San Jose de Fragua, 450 kilometers from the capital Bogota, leaving four children wounded, local authorities said Tuesday.

The injured have been taken into a hospital near the city in the southern department of Caqueta.

The result of the first investigation from a station network of Radio Cadena Nacional (RCN) showed that the bomb was placed to be detonated when a patrol passed by. But it exploded at a wrong time.

The Colombian authorities have not pointed out which rebel organization should be responsible for the event, although the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and some parts of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) remain in the area.

Colombia has been plagued by a four-decade-old civil war, in which leftist rebels, far-right paramilitary and governmental troops fight one another. An Average of 3,500 people were killed every year.

Chavez's foes to create fund to probe referendum
The Project Venezuela party, part of Venezuela's opposition coalition, said Tuesday that it would create a fund to investigate possible frauds in the failed recall referendum to oust President Hugo Chavez.

Henrique Salas, former presidential candidate in the 1998 elections, said that his party Project Venezuela planned to donate nearly 13,000 US dollars to the fund.

Salas said he waited for other anti-Chavez groups to join him in the proposal so as to increase financial resources to help with the probe of irregularities in the Aug. 15 referendum.

Observers, led by former US President Jimmy Carter and the Organization of American States, said they had seen no evidence of vote manipulation so far.

Meanwhile, another opposition organization Sumate acknowledges that no irregularities have been found to date.