Colombia hostage has hepatitis

The mother of one of three US military contractors kidnapped by left-wing rebels in Colombia in 2003 said she was heartbroken to learn from an escaped captive that her son was suffering from hepatitis deep in the Amazon jungle.

"I knew in my heart he was alive, but I didn't know he was sick," said Jo Rosano, mother of Marc Gonsalves, in Bristol, Connecticut.

A Colombian police officer, Jhon Frank Pinchao, said on Wednesday he had fled from the same jungle camp where the Americans and a former presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, were being held.

Mr Pinchao said he last saw the hostages on 28 April, the day he took advantage of a lapse by his captors to flee after more than eight years in captivity. After surviving 17 days in the jungle, Mr Pinchao was found on Wednesday by an drugs patrol near the south-eastern town of Mitu.

He said Mr Gonsalves was suffering from hepatitis, but not did not provide any more details about the man's condition or that of 11 other hostages.