
Pope Benedict at a huge outdoor Mass on Sunday condemned drug trafficking and corruption in Mexico, urging people to put aside violence and revenge in the country where a murderous war between cartels has led to tens of thousands of deaths.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will return to Cuba to begin radiation treatment for cancer on Sunday, but said he was in ‘good shape’ and would be back home in several days.

Cuba released 70 members of the dissident Ladies in White group detained during the weekend but warned them not to attend activities related to next week's visit of Pope Benedict, the group's leader said.

Cuban authorities detained on Sunday about 70 members of the dissident group Ladies in White, drawing fresh attention to human rights issues days ahead of a visit by Pope Bendict XVI.

Uruguay’s minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Almagro described on Friday as ‘inadmissible” the exclusion of Cuba from the VI Summit of the Americas scheduled for next April 14/15 in Cartagena, Colombia.

Cuba said it was unacceptable that it will not be invited to an upcoming hemispheric summit in Colombia and blamed the United States for insisting that Cuba be excluded.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Venezuela's Hugo Chávez will return home next week from Cuba where he is recovering from surgery to remove a cancerous tumour.

President Hugo Chavez said he will need radiation treatment for cancer in the run-up to Venezuela's October presidential poll though he insisted there was no metastasis after the removal of another tumour.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez came out of cancer surgery overnight in Cuba and is recovering in a hospital, two sources said on Tuesday, but there was still no official word on the leader's condition.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez said on Tuesday he would have to undergo another operation after doctors in Cuba found a lesion in his pelvis where surgeons removed a large cancerous tumour last year.