Bmx Champion, 13, Kidnapped

Assailants kidnapped a 13-year-old cycling champion Friday, forcing him off a school bus in Medellin, police said.

Several men stopped the bus around 7 a.m. and bundled Andres Fernando Varela into a taxi.

Varela was a junior BMX cycling champion in Colombia in 1995.

Kidnappers often demand large ransoms in Colombia, and abductions of children have risen in recent months.