The Cuban government has released some of the 53 political prisoners on a US list, the state department says, amid a thaw in US-Cuban relations.

President Barack Obama pledges to help Mexico in its fight against drug-related violence, after talks with his counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto.

A man claiming to be a senior defector from the Lord's Resistance Army is taken into custody by US forces in the Central African Republic.

President Barack Obama will veto a bill approving the controversial Keystone XL pipeline if it passes Congress, the White House has said.

A Honduran Aids activist who gave an impressive speech aged 12 at a 2008 international conference is kidnapped in the city of San Pedro Sula.

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell agrees to a $84m (£55m) settlement with residents of the Bodo community in the Niger Delta for two major oil spills.

A trial of a potential drug to treat Ebola has started at a Medecins Sans Frontieres centre in Liberia.

Firefighters tackling a 12,500-hectare bushfire in South Australia say they are growing more confident they can contain it.