Colombian police prevents presedental palace attack

Police raided a house in downtown Bogota and found what appeared to be homemade rockets that were going to be used to attack the presidential palace, President Alvaro Uribe said.

"Several tubes filled with explosives were discovered," and they were pointed at the presidential palace and a nearby military base, both located in downtown Bogota, Uribe told local Caracol radio on Tuesday night. Uribe did not say if any arrests were made or what led authorities to the home in the Las Cruces neighborhood, just south of the presidential palace. The discovery comes less than 24 hours after a leading Colombian senator allied with Uribe survived a bomb attack apparently mounted by leftist rebels, raising fears of an upsurge in violence ahead of legislative and presidential elections next year.

"I want to ask this favor ... that we Colombians help each other by alerting (the authorities) of any terrorist actions," Uribe told the radio station, reports the AP. I.L.