A car packed with at least 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of explosives blew up in an office district of Colombia's capital on Thursday, shattering windows and injuring at least nine people, police said. No deaths were reported. The blast occurred at 5:30 a.m. (1030 GMT) outside a 12-story building housing Caracol Radio, the Spanish news agency EFE and the Ecuadorean consulate, as well as the offices of several politicians and banks. Gen. Cesar Pinzon, the city's police chief, suggested leftist...

The US government hopes that the deal made by Venezuela and Colombia to restore relations results in a "positive solution" to mutual "longstanding" disagreements, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday. "We expect this outreach by President (Juan Manuel) Santos and the reception by President (Hugo) Chávez leads to some positive resolution of the longstanding issues," Clinton told reporters after a meeting at the US State Department...

Six months after President Porfirio Lobo took office, Honduras has made little progress toward addressing the serious human rights abuses since the 2009 coup, Human Rights Watch said today. Threats and attacks against journalists and the political opposition have fostered a climate of intimidation, while impunity for abuses remains the norm. "Violent attacks on journalists and political opponents have had a profound chilling effect on basic freedoms in Honduras," said José...

1:54 pm Chávez said at the airport that he went to Colombia to ratify his love. "Long live Colombia! Long live Venezuela! And long live unity between us!" 1:53 pm Chávez: "We will begin here to patiently build what was torn to pieces." 1:50 pm: Chávez: "Coming to Santa Marta is the first wise decision we have made… This is a sacred land." 1:44 pm Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez arrived in Simón Bolívar...

The editor of the newspaper Correio de Notícias, Afonso Locks, was followed and beaten last week in the city of Cerejeiras (in the state of Rondonia ), by persons linked to ex-Mayor José Eugênio Zigue de Souza, reported Folha de Rondônia, where the journalist also is a correspondent. On July 30, Locks was followed by two vehicles and then beaten in front of a radio station, the article said. According to the site Rondonotícias, among the aggressors was the son...

Incoming US Ambassador to Venezuela Larry Palmer reported the US Senate on presumed low morale in the Venezuelan armed forces and Cuba's meddling, according to a questionnaire released on Wednesday. The questions, as reported by Efe news agency, were forwarded by Republic Senator Richar Lugar, as part of an assessment made by the US Congress to confirm or not Palmer's nomination to the US Embassy in Caracas. Based on the report, morale in Venezuelan armed forces "is considerably...

Mexican police on Saturday rescued two television journalists kidnapped by drug cartel members who demanded networks broadcast their messages. Security Minister Genero Garcia Luna said cameramen Javier Canales and Alejandro Hernandez were being held in the northern state of Coahuila by members of the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's most powerful drug trade organization. The Sinaloa cartel is run by Mexico's top drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman. The two journalists were abducted...

With just 300 or so Muslims in all of Nicaragua, it became an instant mystery here when a big new mosque suddenly seemed to spring up recently in a residential neighborhood. Like, who paid for it? The ever-present Managua rumor mill quickly turned to the government of Iran. Its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Muslim, and Nicaragua's leftist leader, Daniel Ortega, a Catholic, say they share a revolutionary kinship. As part of a grandiose effort to show that Iran is a global superpower, Mr....

The European Union ordered on Tuesday to freeze all the funds and economic resources from the International Development Bank of Venezuela, a subsidiary of Iran's Export Development Bank, for presumed ties with the Iranian nuclear program. The action, disclosed on Tuesday in the European Union official journal, is directly applicable in all the community countries and it is binding, Efe reported. The Venezuelan bank, already punished by the US Department of the Treasury, denied on its...

A ceremony to swear in 12,000 members of the election patrols of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) served as a backdrop for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to announce the suspension of his trip to Cuba, where he was scheduled to participate in the events to commemorate the attack on the Moncada barracks. He attributed his decision to a likely armed attack against Venezuela. In a brief speech, Chávez once again threatened to suspend oil shipments to the...