Another Mexican drug lord caught, but victory elusive

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Saturday he was implementing a mandatory visa system for all American citizens visiting the country, as a way to "control" US interference.

Chilean leader Michelle Bachelet led calls to eliminate gender inequality by 2030 on Saturday as a two-day meeting of the United Nations Women organization wrapped up in Santiago.

Cuba's removal from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism will be key to restoring formal diplomatic relations between the two nations, the lead Cuban negotiator said in remarks published Saturday.

Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, gunned down on Friday in a contract-style killing, gave an interview this month admitting he had feared for his life over his opposition to President Vladimir Putin.

Colombia's Supreme Court has convicted the country's former intelligence boss and a presidential chief of staff of spying on judges, journalists and politicians during the presidency of Alvaro Uribe.

Boris Nemtsov's name was added to the list of Kremlin opponents who have been killed or died in suspicious circumstances in recent years after the slaying of the prominent opposition leader in central Moscow Friday.

UN envoy Staffan De Mistura held talks in the Syrian capital on Saturday to try to finalise a deal to freeze fighting in the war-ravaged second city of Aleppo.

The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Saturday urged the separatists to take a "historic" decision to lay down arms, a key step in efforts to end Turkey's long-running Kurdish insurgency.

Iraq's national museum officially reopened Saturday after 12 years of painstaking efforts during which close to a third of 15,000 pieces looted during the US-led invasion were recovered.

AFP on Saturday issued an apology to French industrialist Martin Bouygues, chairman and CEO of the conglomerate Bouygues, for reporting his death.

President Vladimir Putin on Saturday vowed to punish the killers of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov as Russian opposition figures denounced what they called a "political murder" and Western leaders called for a full probe.

Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate on Saturday drove US-backed rebels out of a strategic northern military base in fierce fighting that left dozens dead, a monitor said.

An Egyptian court on Saturday branded the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas a "terrorist" group over its alleged links with jihadists behind deadly attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula.

Moscow city authorities on Saturday gave permission for opposition leaders to hold a march in memory of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, after they cancelled a planned protest rally.

Two people were killed by shelling in east Ukraine Saturday as isolated clashes rattled a shaky truce with pro-Russian rebels and observers warned the country was at a "crossroads".

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday celebrated his 91st birthday with a lavish million dollar bash that was slammed by the opposition as "obscene" in a country wracked by poverty.

Three hours before his death, Boris Nemtsov gave an interview to a Moscow radio station, condemning President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine and calling for an end to the conflict.

A drone strike Saturday killed three Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen, a tribal source said, in a region where the United States is the only country operating the unmanned aircraft.

The murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was carefully planned, investigators said Saturday, pointing to details of the weapon used and the killers' knowledge of his movements.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has said his country's stance is "clear" on the pending executions of two Australian drug smugglers, despite the suggestion by Australia's prime minister that he is "carefully considering" his position.

A snap election began in Lesotho on Saturday, two years earlier than scheduled and six months after an attempted coup plunged the small southern African nation into crisis.

Kuwait has joined its Gulf partners Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates and decided to reopen its Yemeni embassy in Aden, instead of the militia-controlled capital Sanaa.

Faced with a seemingly unending bloody conflict in Syria and the rise of the Islamic State group, is President Bashar al-Assad the lesser of the country's evils and should the West re-engage with him?

Australia is considering joining New Zealand in a training mission in Iraq to help counter the Islamic State (IS) militant group, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Saturday.

The United States set out what it called its "bottom lines" to reach a deal with Iran to rein in its nuclear program, ahead of new talks next week.

Bomb attacks in Nigerian towns and cities look likely to increase in the run-up to forthcoming elections, despite the military claiming increasing successes against Boko Haram in captured territory.

Human interest meets ecological endangerment in a small whaling village on a small barrier island in Alaska. Watching midwinter Arctic sea ice turn to water, inhabitants are forced to accept relocation but lack the means.

Feuding US lawmakers narrowly avoided a Department of Homeland Security shutdown at the 11th hour, but funded the agency only until March 6, forcing Congress to revisit the issue next week.

The U.S. House rejected Republican leadership, failing to approve a three-week extension of Department of Homeland Security funding and setting up a dramatic showdown hours before the agency goes into partial shutdown.

International monitors said the conflict in Ukraine was at a "crossroads" as further losses among government forces rattled a two-week-old truce just as it seemed to be gaining traction.

The Russian Interior Ministry announced early Saturday morning that 55-year-old Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on a bridge near the Kremlin Friday night. Mr. Nemtsov was shot in the back four times.

Western leaders on Saturday condemned the drive-by shooting of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, as he was walking across a bridge near the Kremlin.

Mexico's much-maligned attorney general, who has faced public anger over the investigation into the presumed slaughter of 43 students, stepped down Friday and was given a more low-key cabinet post.

Pensioner Alla Troyan shares her room with ten other displaced people in a dilapidated social centre in Ukraine's port city Mariupol, after fighting in their nearby village forced them to flee.

A radical Islamic preacher has been arrested in Norway after praising last month's deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris, police said Friday.

A newly-released United Nations report on detainee torture in Afghanistan details widespread serious abuses committed by Afghan security forces, and multiple "credible and reliable" reports of recent torture by US forces.

A gunman who killed seven people in rural Missouri before turning the gun on himself was related to at least four of his victims, police said Friday.

Once again this winter, following days of very heavy rainfall across the region, the banks of a riverbed running through central Gaza were breached, flooding dozens of Palestinian homes.

The United States and Cuba said they made progress Friday in talks on restoring diplomatic ties and Washington could reopen its Havana embassy before a key April summit if differences are overcome.