The expected next US Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, urges the country's politicians not to allow automatic spending cuts to take effect at the end of the month.

Six Mexican men are arrested in connection with the rape of six Spanish women in the beach resort of Acapulco last week.

Heavy fighting between the army and left-wing FARC rebels in the southern Colombian province of Caqueta leaves at least seven soldiers dead.

On the second anniversary of the beginning of Bahrain's uprising, Amnesty International calls for the Gulf island nation to release "prisoners of conscience".

California police end the hunt for an ex-policeman accused of murder, a day after finding a charred body in a cabin where he was thought to be hiding.

Three people are arrested in the US and accused of a conspiring to smuggle endangered black rhinoceros horns to China, prosecutors say.

American Airlines and US Airways are planning to form one of the world's biggest airlines, according to media and newswire sources.

South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is arrested over the fatal shooting of his girlfriend at his home in Pretoria, local media say.