Washington welcomes Cuba's announcement that it is removing the need for citizens to obtain expensive exit permits before travelling abroad.

A painting by the US artist Roy Lichtenstein that went missing 42 years ago has been returned to the widow of its owner in New York.

A UN commission on human rights abuses in Syria warns of the increasing risk of foreign Islamist militants radicalising an already volatile conflict.

UN experts say Rwanda's defence minister is effectively commanding the M23 rebellion in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Spanish activist Angel Carromero is jailed for four years in Cuba over a car crash that killed high-profile dissident Oswaldo Paya.

A Florida man sues the Venezuelan government in a Miami court, demanding the return of artefacts that belonged to independence hero Simon Bolivar.

Two US troops are arrested over the alleged rape of a Japanese woman in Okinawa, amid ongoing opposition to the US military footprint there.

China protests to South Korea over the death of a fisherman killed after coastguards shot him with a rubber bullet during a raid.