Top Colombian rebel leader in intensive care after stroke

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The top commander of Colombia's largest rebel movement was hospitalized Sunday following a stroke and remains in intensive care, just days after his groups handed over the last of its weapons as part of a historic peace deal.

Rodrigo Londono, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, checked himself into a hospital in the city of Villavicencio in eastern Colombia after feeling exhaustion and numbness in his arm, doctors and Revolutionary Armed Forces officials said in a news conference.

Doctors said he remains in intensive care but is recovering well from what they described as a temporary blockage of blood to his brain.

Londono's hospitalization comes less than a week after Colombia reached a major milestone on its road to peace with FARC rebels relinquishing some of their last weapons and declaring an end to their half-century insurgency.

The historic step was taken by Londono along with President Juan Manuel Santos at a demobilization camp in Colombia's eastern jungles.

Though hundreds of FARC caches filled with larger weapons and explosives are still being cleared out, the United Nations has certified that all individual firearms and weapons, except for a small number needed to safeguard the soon-to-disband camps, have been collected.

The step put Colombia closer to turning a page on Latin America's longest-running conflict, which caused at least 250,000 deaths, left 60,000 people missing and displaced more than 7 million.