A former head of Bolivia's anti-narcotics police is arrested in Panama for alleged drugs smuggling and sent to the US to face charges.

Egypt's army passes a draft of constitutional amendments to be submitted to a national referendum ahead of elections to be held within six months.

US billionaire investor Warren Buffett urges Americans to ignore "prophets of doom", and says he believes the country's "best days lie ahead".

Cuba is to release the jailed dissident Diosdado Gonzalez, who had refused to go into exile in Spain, the Roman Catholic Church says.

The UN Security Council votes unanimously to impose sanctions on Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan regime for its attempts to put down an uprising.

More than 140 prisoners escape from a jail in Nuevo Laredo, close to the Mexico-US border, and guards are suspected of complicity in the break-out.

Four dead bodies with their heads severed are dumped in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, in the latest atrocity blamed on drugs gangs.

Church services are held across New Zealand to honour victims of this week's earthquake that devastated the centre of Christchurch.