Colombia to open talks with second rebel group

The Colombian government was yesterday set to open talks with the country's second-largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), but a down-to-the-wire hostage dispute has kept the nation in suspense.

The talks -- if they happen -- will open a new front in President Juan Manuel Santos's efforts to bury an armed conflict that has burned for more than half a century and killed more than 260,000 people.

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Santos, the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, has already signed a peace deal with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

But voters rejected it in a referendum on October 2, sending the two sides back to the drawing board.