Patrick Markey

Suspected Farc guerrillas have captured 23 Colombian oil contractors carrying out exploration work for Canada's Talisman Energy.

US and Nato troops killed about 50 insurgents during attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday, calling in air strikes to repel an assault on an outpost.

Rescuers pulled two barely alive survivors from the rubble of Port-au-Prince on Friday as hungry and homeless Haitians clamoured for food.

Colombia said on Tuesday Farc guerrillas slit a state governor's throat hours after they kidnapped him during a brazen raid.

Honduras' de facto government on Monday resisted pressure from opponents and the international community over ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

The Organisation of American States prepared to suspend Honduras on Saturday after a caretaker government refused to restore President Manuel Zelaya.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez won a referendum vote on Sunday that lets him stay in power for as long as he keeps beating his rivals.

The founder and chief commander of Colombia's Farc rebel force, Manuel Marulanda, has died after more than 40 years fighting the state from jungle and mountain camps. If confirmed, the death of Manuel Marulanda, who organised the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas in the 1960s, would be the heaviest blow yet to Latin America's oldest insurgency.

The presidents of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela ended a border dispute on Friday with a summit handshake after a week of regional diplomacy in the face of hostile rhetoric and troop build-ups.''And with this ... this incident that has caused so much damage [is] resolved,'' leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said.

Colombia's military said on Saturday its troops had killed a top rebel commander in an attack on a jungle camp across the border in Ecuador in a severe blow to Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency. Raul Reyes, one of seven members of the secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, was killed in an operation that included air strikes and fighting with rebels across the border.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stormed to a re-election victory in Sunday's vote, handing him an ample mandate to broaden his promised socialist revolution and challenge Washington's influence in Latin America. Chávez told cheering supporters at his presidential palace late Sunday his landslide was a blow to United States President George Bush's administration.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stormed to a re-election victory in Sunday's vote, handing him an ample mandate to broaden his promised socialist revolution and challenge Washington's influence in Latin America. Chávez told cheering supporters at his presidential palace late Sunday his landslide was a blow to United States President George Bush's administration.