A meeting of foreign ministers of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) on the crisis between Venezuela and Columbia has proven unsuccessful.

An extraordinary meeting of UNASUR, which was requested by Venezuela to address the tension between Caracas and Bogota, ended with only vague commitments to peace, El Universal reported on Thursday.

A top Mexican drug trafficker has been killed during a shootout with the army in western Mexico, the country's Defense Department officials say.

Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel was reportedly killed in a suburb of Guadalajara -- the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco -- on Thursday while resisting arrest. Firing on the military personnel, he killed one and wounded another before he was killed, CNN quoted Brig. Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas as saying.

South American foreign ministers gather in Ecuador to discuss broken ties between Venezuela and Colombia and find a peaceful solution to the escalating diplomatic row.

The meeting of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) is the first encounter between the two governments since Venezuela severed relations with Colombia last week.

As relations between Colombia and Venezuela deteriorate, Argentina has stepped in to restore diplomatic ties between the two neighbors.

With Colombia and Venezuela on the brink of war, the South American community is trying to find a peaceful solution.

Rogelio Segovia Hernandez, top drug lieutenant in a Mexican drug cartel, has been arrested in northern Mexico, federal police say.

The senior drug dealer, believed to be one of the top officials in the Juarez drug cartel, was captured in Chihuahua on Tuesday, the police said in a statement on Wednesday.

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro says he will recount the story of how he came to power in his memoirs to be released in August.

The book, to be called The Strategic Victory, is the first volume of his memoirs.

Colombia has rejected Venezuela's peace plan to end the dispute over allegations that Venezuela is sheltering leftist guerrillas.

“A true peace plan begins with not interfering in the internal affairs of any country,” Colombia's Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said on Wednesday, the VHeadline website reported on Wednesday.

Venezuela has beefed up its troop presence along the border with Colombia amid heightened tension between the two South American nations.

Caracas has sent about one thousand troops to the border, citing the threat of an armed conflict with Bogota.

Prosecutors in Mexico have accused the director and guards at a prison of letting inmates out and lending them guns and vehicles to carry out drug-related killings.

The inmates, who are members of drug cartels, were believed to be behind three mass shootings, including the massacre of 17 people at a party earlier this month, the attorney-general's office said on Sunday.

Canada has imposed a fresh round of sanctions against Iran's energy sector hours after the European Union approved similar unilateral measures.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters on Monday that the new sanctions include a ban on Canadian investment in Iran's oil and gas sectors.