North Korea threatened Wednesday to reconsider proposals for dialogue with South Korea, condemning this week's propaganda balloon launch by U.S. and South Korean activists as an "intolerable" provocation.

The threat came two days after North Korean defectors led by Park Sang-Hak teamed up with activists from the U.S.-based Human Rights Foundation to launch some 100,000 anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border by balloon.

From fruit sellers to artists drawing Havana cityscapes, Cubans are hopeful that Wednesday's highest-level U.S. government visit in 35 years will shed Cold War-era rivalries and improve their daily lives.

The U.S. delegation will arrive in Havana following the historic decision by U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro in December to seek normal diplomatic relations.

North Korea argued Wednesday that the admission of inaccuracies in the memoir of a high-profile gulag survivor rendered any existing or future U.N. resolution on Pyongyang's human rights record "invalid".

Defector Shin Dong-Hyuk acknowledged this week that some elements of his story as told in the best-selling book "Escape from Camp 14" were inaccurate, although he stressed that the crucial details of his suffering and torture still stood.

Press freedom is increasingly "under siege," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Tuesday as he paid tribute to the slain journalists of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

"The truth is that freedom of the press, whether symbolized by a pencil, a pen, a camera, or a microphone is under siege, purposefully," Kerry told a conference called to examine ways to improve security for journalists.

U.S. lawmakers visiting Havana voiced hope Monday that historic talks between U.S. and Cuban officials this week will mark a "new era" of relations, ending decades of Cold War-era hostility.

The six-member delegation of congressional Democrats, led by Senator Patrick Leahy, met Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez as well as dissidents and Cardinal Jaime Ortega during their two-day visit.

Rights group Amnesty International urged European countries on Tuesday to come clean on alleged cooperation with CIA operations involving torture and help bring those responsible to justice.

"Governments can no longer rely on unsubstantiated 'national security' grounds and claims of state secrecy to hide the truth about their roles in the torture and disappearance of people," said Amnesty counter-terrorism and human rights expert Julia Hall.

Shots were fired Saturday night from a speeding vehicle outside U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's residence in Delaware, the Secret Service said Sunday.

Biden and his wife Jill were out for the evening when the incident took place, at approximately 8:25 pm (0125 GMT Sunday), the Secret Service said.

A top Iranian negotiator voiced optimism Saturday that talks with the United States seeking to nail down a complex nuclear deal could succeed if Washington showed "good will".

"We remain hopeful and I think that if the other side has the necessary good will and determination, it will be possible to reach a deal," Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told the Fars news agency.

Two U.S. teens are on the run after they allegedly blazed a trail of crime across several states, stealing multiple cars and dashing from the police. 

Police in the southern state of Kentucky said Friday they are looking for 18-year-old Dalton Hayes and his 13-year-old girlfriend Cheyenne Phillips after they stole as many as three cars, some with firearms in them.

Haiti's President Michel Martelly on Friday swore in as the country's new prime minister Evans Paul, a political opponent who was chosen after last month's resignation of Laurent Lamothe.

Paul took office during a ceremony at government headquarters attended by diplomats and political figures.