Grey-faced officer pleaded his innocence after anti-corruption police allegedly caught him in the act of extorting businessman

A Colombian police officer has been admitted to hospital after swallowing a wad of banknotes he extorted from a businessman.

The officer had demanded payments in return for not arresting his victim on trumped-up charges – but did not know that the businessman had already reported the shakedown to Colombia’s anti-kidnapping and extortion unit.

The four Indigenous children were the only survivors of a plane crash that killed their mother

A few tantalising clues kept the rescuers going. The remains of fruit with bitemarks made by small human teeth, a pair of scissors and nappies in the rainforest mud. All offered hope that four children, who had miraculously survived a plane crash that killed their mother, the pilot and the only other adult on board, also survived the dangers of the Amazon.

The oldest was only 13 when the plane went down on 1 May in southern Colombia. The youngest would mark his first birthday lost under the dense green canopy of trees and vegetation, alive with jaguars, poisonous snakes and other threats.