Edward Snowden, the 30-year-old wanted by American authorities for leaking information about classified US surveillance programs, predicted he would be seen in violation of the Espionage Act and that the “US government will say I aided our enemies”.

WikiLeaks says Snowden has applied to six new countries in his quest for asylum, bringing the total approached worldwide up to 27

The 12-nation Unasur bloc meeting as regional leaders express anger over incident

Grounding President’s plane was an ‘act of aggression’ that will result in complaint to UN

The Barcelona striker was ill due to the high altitude of Argentina's match

Glaciers in the Andes have shrunk by up to 50 per cent since the 1970s, and some could disappear altogether, a study warns.

Thousands of supporters of Hugo Chavez rallied outside his presidential palace in Caracas today in an alternative inauguration for a leader too ill to return home for the real thing.

A third of the Earth's land surface is classified as desert, from the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica to the North African Sahara – and it is a subject that represents a life's passion for landscape photographer George Steinmetz. Inspired by a hitchhiking trip across North Africa in the 1970s, the American aerial artist has spent the past 15 years documenting deserts from above.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon is clearly a fan of lexical clarity – last week, he put a motion to congress to change his country's name from the United Mexican States to, simply, Mexico. It would put Mexicans in a select group of countries without the need to point out that they're an Independent Democratic Republic of Whatever (well done, Canada, Malaysia, Georgia and others).

The trail

Jordi Ruiz Cirera, 28, has won the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012 for his photograph of Bolivian woman who (only reluctantly) agreed to have her portrait taken. 

Argentina's world class forwards were instrumental in a 2-1 away win over Chile last night that gave the visitors a three-point lead in the standings as the South American World Cup qualifying campaign takes a break until March.

Stopping Lionel Messi is the primary concern of South American teams facing Argentina in the World Cup qualifiers. This week it is Uruguay's turn.

On the eve of the Rio+20 conference, the world’s 105 science academies have warned international leaders that a failure to act now on population growth and over-consumption will have “potentially catastrophic implications for human wellbeing”.