FOREIGN NEWS
Weeks of heavy rain have brought widespread flooding to wide swathes of eastern and southern Mexico.
Hundreds of thousands of people have seen rapidly rising rivers break their banks and inundate their communities.
Authorities have been trying to evacuate the worst-hit areas but some people are refusing to leave, seeking refuge on the roofs of their houses.
Among the most severely affected areas is Tlacotalpan, a colonial-era town declared a world heritage site.
Most of Tlacotalpan's residents have left the town to seek shelter elsewhere in the state of Veracruz, Mexican officials said.
Over the past few weeks, some 200,000 people in Veracruz have been forced to abandon their homes.
'Worst to come'
The torrential rains and subsequent flooding have also affected the states of Tabasco, Chiapas and Oaxaca.
In Tabasco, more than 124,000 people have been affected but many have opted to stay.
"They are refusing to leave their homes and they don't want to go to shelters because they have a culture of living with water," said Tabasco Governor Andres Granier.
"What worries me is that the worst is yet to come for Tabasco. The state and these people cannot keep suffering these problems each year, or live in permanent uncertainty."
Tabasco was the scene of devastating floods three years ago.
During a visit to the state on Tuesday Mexican President Felipe Calderon said the rains in the region during July and August were three and a half times more than usual.
The rainy season does not officially end until November.
The government has pursued flood-control measures in recent years. Mr Calderon said these had helped to avoid a wider disaster but he accepted that more needed to be done.
Former newspaper editor and Britain's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan will replace TV presenter Larry King on the US network CNN, it has been announced.
Morgan's selection as King's replacement had been widely expected for the past few months.
CNN president Jon Klein said Morgan can "look at all aspects of the news with style and humour with an occasional good laugh in the process".
The 45-year-old is familiar to US audiences from America's Got Talent.
Referring to King in a statement, Piers said he had "dreamed of one day filling the legendary suspenders of the man I consider to be the greatest TV interviewer of them all".
Morgan will start his new job in January. It is not known whether he will continue with his judging roles on the US and UK talent shows.
But Morgan told ITV News at Ten: "Obviously some things are going to have to give."
He said he was considering his future as a judge on Britain's Got Talent and would make an announcement "before too long".
Asked who he would like to interview, he said US President Barack Obama would be at the top of his list.
Record-breaking broadcaster
King, who began presenting Larry King Live on CNN in 1985, announced in June he would step down as host of the show in the autumn.
The veteran broadcaster, 76, recently made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest-running show with the same host in the same time slot.
His programme attracts leading politicians, musicians, athletes and actors - often giving exclusive access to the bespectacled host, who famously puts little preparation into his inquisitions.
To mark his 25th anniversary in the host's chair this summer, he spoke to Lady Gaga, Bill Gates and President Obama, garnering some of his highest ratings in recent years.
According to his official biography, King will retire having conducted more than 40,000 interviews.
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has replaced the leaders of the country's military, intelligence service and police.
The appointments, which come four months ahead of planned presidential elections, are subject to approval by parliament, a presidential spokesman said.
He gave no reasons for the reshuffle.
Mr Goodluck has not yet said if he will stand in the elections scheduled for January.
The president promoted the former head of the air force to chief of defence staff and named new air force, army and navy chiefs.
They replace officers who had been due to retire at the end of August, a presidential spokesman said.
Mr Goodluck also appointed new heads of the Nigeria Police Force and the State Security Service.
The reshuffle of security leaders comes a day after at least 700 prisoners escaped during an attack on a jail in northern Nigeria.
Four people died in gunfire after members of the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram attacked the prison.
Some 150 suspected members of the sect where among the detainees who escaped, officials said.
The UN's secretary general has urged Rwanda not to withdraw its peacekeepers from Sudan over a leaked report saying its troops may have committed genocide.
Ban Ki-moon said he was "disappointed" the draft had been released, after he held talks with President Paul Kagame in Kigali in a bid to ease tensions.
The report accuses Rwandan soldiers of massacring civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s.
Rwanda says the document is "malicious" and "ridiculous" and wants it amended.
The UN last week delayed publication of the document until 1 October, to give countries more time to comment on its contents.
'Simple demands'
Mr Ban unexpectedly flew to Kigali on Tuesday to discuss the threat by Mr Kagame to withdraw Rwanda's 3,500 peacekeeping forces.
Rwanda has 3,300 soldiers and 86 police serving with a joint UN and African Union force, Unamid, in the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur. It is led by Rwandan Lt Gen Patrick Nyamyumba.
Another 256 troops serve with the UN Mission in Sudan (Unmis), which is supporting the implementation of a peace deal between north and south.
After meeting Mr Kagame in the capital, Mr Ban told reporters: "Both the president and I are disappointed that the draft report has been leaked.
"The United Nations is interested in establishing all the facts relating to DRC uncovered by this mapping exercise."
Mr Ban said he had commended Rwanda's support of the whole UN agenda and peacekeeping operations in Sudan, and hoped it would continue.
"I have asked President Kagame to continue with that contribution around the world and in particular when we are going to see a referendum in Sudan in January next year," he added.
Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo declined to say whether Mr Kagame had withdrawn his threat about the peacekeepers, but said the government was happy that Mr Ban had come to listen to their views.
"My government has very simple demands and that is that our concerns and our worries and indeed our revolt concerning the draft report that was leaked to the media a few weeks ago, be heard," she added.
Ms Mushikiwabo earlier described the leaked report on neighbouring DR Congo from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) as "fatally flawed" and "incredibly irresponsible".
The draft of the 600-page probe accuses Rwandan troops and their Congolese rebel allies of killing tens of thousands of Hutus after invading the country to hunt those responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
"The systematic and widespread attacks described in this report... reveal a number of damning elements that, if they were proven before a competent court, could be classified as crimes of genocide," it states.
Rwanda is not the only country targeted in the report. Other nations who sent troops into DR Congo, such as Angola, are also mentioned, but Rwanda has come in for the most severe accusations.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has said she will publish their concerns in an annex to the report.
Honduran police have blamed street gangs linked to Mexican drug cartels for the killing of at least 18 people in a shoe factory.
The massacre in the city of San Pedro Sula was connected to a dispute over territory between groups of drug traffickers, officials said.
Up to four men armed with assault rifles burst into the factory and opened fire on Tuesday.
All the victims were said to be young men. Several others were wounded.
San Pedro Sula's police chief, Hector Mejia, said the attack was part of an escalating dispute between the rival Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18 gangs.
The "maras" are criminal gangs that originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s and spread through the US into Canada, Mexico and Central America.
The most famous groups - the Mara 18 (M18) and Mara Salvatrucha (MS) - count tens of thousands of members in Central America.
Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said police believe the shoe factory attack was a settling of scores.
"This area is considered a Mara 18 stronghold and the people inside (the factory) were close to the MS," he said.
Mexican cartels use Central America as a smuggling route. Local gangs receive drugs in return for helping transport narcotics, officials say.
San Pedro Sula, about 165km (100 miles) north of the capital Tegucigalpa, is in an area where gangs are known to refine cocaine before it is moved into the US.