Americas

By Agencies

An entirely new kind of planet dominated by water and not by rock, gas or other common materials has been identified by US scientists.

Read more: 'Waterworld' super planet confirmed

By Agencies

Several guards have confessed to helping members of a Mexican drug gang escape from a prison before other members massacred dozens of rival inmates, a state official said.

Read more: Guards 'helped' deadly Mexican jailbreak

By Agencies

Hundreds of relatives of inmates who died during a prison fire in Honduras have forced their way into a morgue in the capital, Tegucigalpa, to demand the remains of loved ones.

Read more: Morgue raided after Honduras prison fire

By Agencies

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said that he will have to undergo another operation after doctors in Cuba found a lesion in his pelvis where surgeons removed a large cancerous tumour last year.

Read more: Venezuela's Chavez to undergo surgery

By Agencies

Biological research is increasingly debunking the view of humanity as competitive, aggressive and brutish.

Read more: Humans are 'naturally nice'

By Agencies

Mexican authorities have sacked the director of Apodaca prison in the northeast after jailed members of the Zetas drug cartel stabbed and bludgeoned 44 members of the rival Gulf cartel to death before escaping en masse.

Read more: Mexican jail chiefs sacked after deadly riot

By Agencies

Members of the UN Security Council have been visiting Haiti, home to one of the organisation's most controversial peacekeeping missions.

Read more: UN's popularity in Haiti hits new low

By Agencies

Violence at a prison on the outskirts of Mexico's northern business city of Monterrey has killed at least 20 people, authorities said.

Read more: Mexico prison fight leaves many dead

By Agencies

The biggest names in entertainment clapped hands, swayed to gospel hymns and sang along with the choir at Whitney Houston's funeral in the church where the future pop star once wowed the congregation as a young girl.

Read more: Chorus of sorrow at Whitney Houston's wake

By Agencies

Michel Martelly, the Haitian president, has been attacked as he walked in a Carnival procession in central Port-au-Prince, but he escaped unharmed, the National Palace has said.

Read more: Haiti government says president attacked