According to the army, soldiers were taking part in an operation in San Juan de Micay when they were blocked by about 600 locals.

Colombian authorities have rescued 27 out of 72 soldiers who were held captive in the southwest of the country in an area controlled by rebel fighters and a key zone for cocaine production.

In a statement on Sunday, the military noted 45 soldiers “remain deprived of their liberty under the guerrilla regime”.

“The National Army maintains a presence in the area, taking steps to restore order and ensure the return of the kidnapped personnel,” it added.

The incident took place in the Micay Canyon in the Cauca Department, in an area known for coca crops and a rebel faction of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), known as the Central General Staff, that has been attacking military positions.

According to the army, the soldiers had been taking part in a military operation when about 600 people “obstructed the deployment of troops” in San Juan de Micay.

The army added that the move was “intended to facilitate control of routes used for drug trafficking and illegal mining”.

Colombia has struggled to maintain security in some rural areas, where drug gangs and rebel groups are fighting over territory abandoned by FARC after it made peace with the government in 2016.

Last year, President Gustavo Petro launched an offensive to regain control of the area, but he has encountered strong local resistance.

In a post on X, Petro said it was time to let the soldiers go free.

“They could be your children. The children of Colombia must embrace each other and outlive their parents. The dialogue commission is ready and it is the word of the president,” he wrote.

According to the government, detentions in the local community are often carried out on the orders of armed groups in the area where there is little state presence.

But this is the second time in less than a month that members of a defunct FARC group have captured soldiers.

Last month, 33 soldiers were taken by villagers under the orders of a rebel group in the southern Department of Guaviare after a gunfight that killed 10 members of the former FARC group.

At the time, the army said the villagers holding the soldiers were demanding the return of the body of the killed rebels, which was transported to a morgue in the provincial capital. The soldiers were returned four days later.

A woman accused of murdering her two children and hiding their remains in suitcases is being tried in New Zealand, in a high-profile case that has shocked the country.

Hakyung Lee, who was extradited from South Korea to New Zealand in November 2022, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder.

The remains of her children were discovered in suitcases by a family who had purchased the contents of an abandoned storage unit at an auction in Auckland.

The bodies were believed to have been stored there for several years.

The trial opened on Monday and is expected to last up to four weeks. The prosecution will open arguments on Tuesday, according to local media.

Given the public attention the case has received, the judge told the jury that Ms Lee’s guilt or innocence must be determined based on facts.

Justice Geoffrey Venning added that it’s also likely that the case will be determined “whether, at the time the children were killed, Ms Lee was insane”.

Ms Lee, 44, will represent herself in court with two court-appointed lawyers acting as stand-by counsel. She remained silent when asked to enter a plea on Monday.

A New Zealand national who was born in South Korea, Ms Lee lived in Auckland for several years before she returned to South Korea in 2018.

The year before – 2017 – the children’s father died of cancer. And the two children, aged six and eight, died some time after that, though it is not known when exactly.

Their bodies then discovered in August 2022 after a family bought a trailer load of goods, including the suitcases, in an online auction.

Local media reported that the sale was part of an effort to clear abandoned items from a storage unit.

Police said the buyers had no connection to the deaths.

Ms Lee was arrested in Ulsan, South Korea in September 2022 after Interpol issued a global red notice for her.

Man who absconded with his three children in 2021 shot dead after firing on police, authorities say.

A New Zealand father who absconded with his three children after a dispute with his ex-partner nearly four years ago has been killed by police, authorities have said.

Tom Phillips, who had been on the run in the New Zealand wilderness with his children since December 2021, was shot dead after he was confronted by police following a burglary in the rural town of Piopio, police said on Monday.

Phillips, who had been involved in a dispute over custody of the children, was killed after he fired “multiple shots” at the first responding officer at the scene, causing him serious injuries, police said.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers said Philips, who had yet to be formally identified, was accompanied by one of his children, who was not injured in the incident.

Rogers said authorities were urgently seeking to locate his two other children.

“Following the incident, we have been in contact with Phillips’s family and we will be working to provide them with all available support,” Rogers said.

In a statement to Radio New Zealand, the children’s mother, Cat, said she was “deeply relieved” for her children.

“They have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care,” she said.

Philips’s disappearance from the remote community of Marokop with his three children – now aged 12, 10 and nine – gripped New Zealand and generated global headlines.

Despite a number of sightings over the years and appeals by his family, Philips, who was facing criminal charges including aggravated robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm, managed to continually frustrate efforts by authorities to pinpoint his whereabouts.

Authorities had announced the most recent sighting of Philips less than two weeks ago, releasing security camera footage appearing to show him and one of his children breaking into a rural store.

South Korea’s government says it has reached an agreement with the US to release its citizens detained in a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia.

The chief of staff of South Korea’s president said a chartered plane would be sent to bring the detainees home if administration procedures were completed.

Kang Hoon-sik said the authorities were trying to improve the visa system to prevent such incidents in the future.

US officials detained 475 people – more than 300 of them South Korean nationals – who they said were found to be illegally working at the battery facility, one of the largest foreign investment projects in the state.

Media in both countries report that South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is expected to travel to the United States on Monday.

The White House has defended the operation at Hyundai, dismissing concerns that the raid could deter foreign investment. President Donald Trump took aim at the raid in a post on social media and called for foreign companies to hire Americans.

“I am hereby calling on all Foreign Companies investing in the United States to please respect our Nation’s Immigration Laws,” Trump said in the post on Sunday.

He said the US would make it easy for foreign companies to legally bring their “great technical talent, to build World Class products” but, asked that in return, these companies “hire and train American Workers”.

A worker at the plant spoke to the BBC about the panic and confusion during the raid. The employee said the vast majority of the workers detained were mechanics installing production lines at the site, and were employed by a contractor.

He also said a minority of those arrested had been sent from head office in Seoul and had been carrying out training, which the BBC has not been able to confirm.

More extensive immigration raids like the operation at the plant are likely, Trump administration border tsar Tom Homan told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.

“We’re going to do more work site enforcement operations,” Homan said.

“No one hires an illegal alien out of the goodness of their heart. They hire them because they can work them harder, pay them less, undercut the competition that hires US citizen employees.”

Video released by ICE officials showed Asian workers shackled in front of a building, with some wearing yellow vests with names such as “Hyundai” and “LG CNS”.

“People on short-term or recreational visas are not authorized to work in the US,” ICE said, adding that the raid was necessary to protect American jobs.

“This operation sends a clear message that those who exploit the system and undermine our workforce will be held accountable,” Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Steven Schrank said in a statement on Saturday.

South Korea, a close US ally, has pledged tens of billions of dollars in American manufacturing investment, partly to offset tariffs.

The timing of the raid, as the two governments engage in sensitive trade talks, has raised concern in Seoul.

Trump has actively encouraged major investments from other countries while also tightening visa allocations for foreign companies.

LG Energy Solution, which operates the plant with Hyundai, says many of the LG employees arrested were on business trips with various visas or under a visa waiver programme.

The company has said it is suspending most business trips to the US and directing employees on assignment in the US to return home immediately.

South Korean media widely described the raid as a “shock,” with the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper warning it could have “a chilling effect on the activities of our businesses in the United States”.

The factory, which makes new electric vehicles, had been touted by Georgia’s Republican governor as the biggest economic development project in the state’s history, employing 1,200 people.

The arrested workers are being held at an ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia.

LG Energy Solution said 47 of its employees and about 250 workers for contractors at the joint venture factory were detained.