Americas

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned that the fall of his regime would destabilise the region "for many years", as US President Barack Obama announced talks with Middle East allies over the crisis, AFP reports.

A former soldier has implicated the Guatemalan president, Otto Pérez Molina, in civil war atrocities during the trial of the former US-backed military strongman Efraín Ríos Montt, proceedings that have heard witnesses recount a litany of horrors.

Senate legislators in Connecticut, where a gunman massacred 20 small children and six adults in December, passed the toughest US law on owning military-style rifles Wednesday, AFP reports.

Slamming North Korean threat to reopen its nuclear facilities, the US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said that Pyongyang's move was "dangerous" and "the US would not accept the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) as a nuclear state".

More than 155 mm of rain fell between midnight Monday and 7 am Tuesday the city weather service said which is a record for rainfall in April in Buenos Aires.

Venezuela's two presidential candidates were burnt in effigy Sunday in an Easter tradition that replaces the biblical Judas Iscariot with disliked public figures, AFP reports.

The US Supreme Court is to consider whether to strike down a law denying federal benefits to same-sex couples, a day after weighing a gay marriage ban.

Julia Pierson, formerly Secret Service chief of staff, will succeed Mark Sullivan, who announced last month that he would retire.

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck near Guatemala City on Monday, but residents said they barely felt the temblor and authorities had no immediate reports of damages or deaths.

Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said the move was a response to “interventionist statements” by US Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson, who called for “open, fair and transparent” elections on April 14.

Shortly before leaving for a trip to Israel, President Barack Obama on Monday said now was the time for Iran to take “immediate and meaningful steps” to reduce tensions with the international community over its nuclear programme.

A small truck loaded with fireworks for a religious event exploded in central Mexico on Friday, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens, with one witness saying he saw "bodies flying" as people ran for cover, AFP reports.