Colombian political leader murdered
Colombian Conservative Party leader Cesar Hincapie Silva was murdered at home in Armenia, capital of the central-western department of Quindio, authorities said Monday.

Hincapie Silva, a 62-year-old lawyer, was a member of the team of Senator Omar Yepes and also president of the Quindio Chapter ofthe Bolivarian Society.

His body, tied up, gagged and stabbed, was found by his secretary Monday morning, police said.

Authorities are investigating the motive of the murder, Quindio Police Commander Imar Rubiano said.

Silva's friends and colleagues said he was absent from several meetings over the weekend and he had not been threatened.

Also on Monday, two marines were killed and three others injured in an ambush launched by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a rebel group, in a rural area of southwest Colombia, said an official.

The FARC attacked a patrol of the Pacific Naval Force in the Bajo Calima zone, near the port of Buenaventura, some 600 km southwest of Bogota, he said.

The injured marines have been sent to a hospital in Buenaventura, he said.

At least 16 guerrillas of the FARC and the rebel National Liberation Army of Colombia (ELN) as well as the right-wing paramilitary were killed in fighting with government forces in several regions of the country over the weekend, the army said Sunday.