FARC is also demanding the release of two members held by the US. In the Florida y Pradera municipalities themselves, hope for peace is offset by anxiety that the area might simply be overrun by FARC. But he has also given serious consideration to the creation of a demilitarised zone in the municipalities of Florida y Pradera in the south of the country ­ agreeing, essentially, to withdraw Colombia’s armed forces from the area in exchange for the release of the hostages. He has said that he won’t release any of the 500 FARC prisoners in his custody unless he receives an assurance first that they have renounced violence. Both sides, however, have laid down conditions for talks that suggest they are still some distance apart.
Alvaro Uribe, Colombia’s pro-US president who first came to office as a hardliner determined to smash FARC by force, has slowly softened his stance in the face of public demands for a truce.

A Colombian politician who has had contact with both sides, former senator Alvaro Leyva, said many of the conditions for holding talks had now been fulfilled “They can’t miss this chance. We just have to keep on building trust,” he said over the weekend. Both the government and FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, have indicated their willingness to negotiate face to face ­ as, indeed, they have for the past couple of years. The release of 62 high-profile Colombian hostages, including the former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, looked to be imminent yesterday as the government inched closer to crucial talks with the left-wing FARC guerrilla movement. But many experts say passing the 300 million milestone should be a wake-up call that demands a reappraisal of the extraordinary, unparalleled rate of consumption by the world’s largest economy and its third largest by population..

It is a milestone for sure but is this a cause for celebration or anxiety?

Some American commentators are already saying the landmark is a chance to note the US is perhaps the only country in the developed world where the economy is being bolstered by a population that is growing at a discernable rate. In London it has been on the rise for about a decade and rates in some areas such as Newham are as high as 100 per 100,000.. The population of the United States will pass 300 million today, or tomorrow No one knows exactly where, no one know precisely when. Do not let this problem get further out of hand’.”The comments came as health officials launched a campaign to fight the epidemic, which has been prompted by rapid spread of the disease in Baltic countries, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.About 450,000 people fall sick with TB and nearly 70,000 die from it in the European region each year.Lasha Goguadze, senior health officer for the IFRC, said: “TB is one of the poverty-related diseases and these countries are not able to cope with the problem.”With a highly-mobile population in Europe, TB is spreading to more affluent areas. Sarkozy next year even if he is formally chosen as their party’s candidate in January.. Health officials raised the alert yesterday over a new drug-resistant and more deadly form of tuberculosis, saying the disease now poses a more serious threat to Europe than at any time since the Second World War.