US President Barack Obama has started an extraordinary visit to Cuba, eager to push decades of acrimony deeper into the past and forge irreversible ties with America's former adversary.

Tonight's TV tips.

The highest-level US delegation to Cuba in decades has kicked off two days of negotiations after grand promises by President Barack Obama about change on the island and a sombre warning from Cuba to abandon hopes of reforming the communist government.

One of the world’s largest recorded disasters resulted in the deaths of more than 300,000 people, and has taken years to recover from, writes Dominic MacSorley

Six prisoners from Guantanamo Bay have been transferred to Uruguay, the US government has revealed.

A secretive tree-living carnivore from the cloud forests of the Andes heads this year’s top 10 list of newly discovered species.

An explosive volcanic eruption on Indonesia’s most populous island has blasted ash and debris 18kms into the air, killing two people while forcing authorities to evacuate more than 100,000 and close six airports.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said he is willing to help Colombia's government and leftist FARC rebels broker a peace deal and congratulated both sides on taking steps to end the Western Hemisphere's longest-running conflict.

CELEBRATING the exploits of frontierswoman Martha Jane Canary, Doris Day sang, “Take me back to the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota”, in the 1950s film Calamity Jane.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito are set to team up for a sequel to 'Twins'.

Jo Kerrigan rounds up some of the major theatrical events across the globe this year

Colombian rebels released a fourth captive but a planned handover of two others did not occur.

A powerful cyclone ripped across Australia’s north-east coast, blasting apart houses, laying waste to banana crops and leaving boats lying in the streets of wind and wave-swept towns.

WHEN I think back to my early teenage years, only a few news stories remain implanted in my memory.

THOUSANDS of protesters rampaged through the streets of Haiti’s capital yesterday to contest election results, and they torched the headquarters of the ruling government coalition they accused of rigging the results, witnesses said.

United Nations investigators took samples of foul-smelling waste trickling behind a Nepalese peacekeeping base in Haiti amid claims that sewage from the newly arrived unit caused the cholera epidemic that has made more than 4,000 people ill.

HELICOPTERS with emergency supplies finally landed yesterday on the remote Indonesian islands slammed by a tsunami that killed at least 272 people, while elsewhere in the archipelago the toll from a volcanic eruption rose to 30, including the mountain’s spiritual caretaker.

Helicopters with emergency supplies today finally landed on remote Indonesian islands struck by a tsunami that killed more than 300 people.

The death toll from an earthquake and killer tsunami in Indonesia climbed to 272 today as helicopters with rescuers and emergency supplies finally reached the remote islands.

An Indonesian volcano that had been quiet for four centuries shot a powerful new burst of hot ash more than 10,000 feet in the air today, sending frightened residents fleeing to safety for the second time this week.

Villagers returned to their homes today along the fertile slopes of an Indonesian volcano that spewed hot ash and smoke after lying dormant for more than four centuries – catching scientists off guard.

Clutching her baby for the first time since the Haiti earthquake, Marie Miracle Seignon’s smile – and middle name – says it all.

A senior US senator sharply criticised Haiti's president, portraying him as an ineffectual leader who was hindering recovery from January's devastating earthquake.

AID groups will work from an existing plan for Haiti’s development to help the country recover, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday.

Foreign ministers and aid groups leading the Haiti earthquake effort held their first conference today on how to channel aid into a country that has lost much of its already poor infrastructure.

Desperate earthquake survivors took to the streets in shattered Port-au-Prince today in search of food and water as aid organisations struggled to get supplies through.

Worried aid workers in Haiti today called for more security amid fears of attacks by increasingly desperate earthquake survivors.

DESPERATELY needed aid from around the world began arriving yesterday in quake-stunned Haiti, while rescuers struggled frantically to save the trapped and injured, using pickup trucks as ambulances and doors as stretchers.

Dazed survivors wandered past dead bodies in rubble-strewn streets, crying for loved ones, and rescuers desperately searched collapsed buildings as fears rose that the death toll from Haiti's devastating earthquake could reach into the tens of thousands.

We have been through some difficult times in recent weeks as a result of the bad weather and the continuing downturn in the economy. But that suffering pales into insignificance in comparison with the natural disaster that struck Haiti on Tuesday.

THOUSANDS died in a major earthquake that destroyed the presidential palace, schools, hospitals and hillside shanties in Haiti, the country’s president said yesterday as nations across the world geared up for a big relief operation.

The people of Haiti were tonight still reeling from the earthquake that killed thousands of them and left the fate of millions more hanging on aid supplies.

Thousands of people were feared dead today after a powerful earthquake struck Haiti’s capital, leaving tens of thousands homeless and buried beneath rubble.

A top aide to Honduras’ ousted president accused the United States of involvement in the coup, saying that the plane that flew Manuel Zelaya into exile stopped to refuel at an airfield where hundreds of US troops are based.

Up to 85 people are missing after a boat carrying Haitian migrants capsized and sank off the Turks and Caicos Islands, the US Coast Guard said today.

Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya took a symbolic step into his homeland, vowing to reclaim his post a month after soldiers flew him into exile.

THE lightning and turbulence that may have hit an Air France jet flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris are rarely the cause of plane crashes, analysts say.

Rescuers were searching the ocean off Florida for survivors after a boat carrying about 30 people – many of them Haitian immigrants seeking to escape their country’s crushing poverty – capsized and sank.

Russia flew two strategic long-range bombers to Venezuela today in the first such flight since the Cold War.

Tropical Storm Gustav was weakening this morning as it moved through the Caribbean, a day after hitting Haiti as a hurricane.