Colombia on Friday suspended a high-ranking army officer under investigation for links to illegal paramilitaries who are accused of committing some of the worst atrocities in the country’s four-decade conflict. The colonel, removed from his post pending a probe, is the first active top military officer caught up in a widening scandal involving ties among the right-wing militia commanders, politicians and business leaders. President Alvaro Uribe, a conservative Washington ally who has received billions of dollars in U.S. aid to fight Marxist guerrillas and drug traffickers, says he backs the growing probe to allow a purge of those tied to the paramilitaries. Full Story