(Courtesy/USGS) Despite reports of significant shaking Friday morning, there were still no reports of significant damage or injury late Friday afternoon as the result of a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Central America, offshore of the Guatemala - Mexico border.   The quake struck at 8:11 A.M. local time on Friday morning, according to the United States Geolog...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, Apr 13 (EFE).- The Miami Beach City Commission voted against the opening of a Cuban consulate until significant human rights reforms have been made in that country, local media reported Wednesday. With four votes in favor and three against, the commission "has thrown cold water on their mayor's hotly debated idea of a having a Cuban consulate in the city," according...

Members of the media stand outside the Mossack Fonseca law firm office in Panama City April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso PANAMA CITY - Following a raid of its offices late Tuesday by Panamanian authorities, the Mossack Fonseca law firm said Wednesday that it is "ready, willing and eager" to collaborate with the Panamanian Attorney General's Office, which is investigating the murky dealings d...

Pixabay Commons Lima, Apr 12 (EFE). - Two American tourists died in Peru when the cruise ship on which they were touring the Amazon River caught fire, the head of the Iquitos port authority, Oscar Garrido, told EFE. The fatalities were Larry Morris Hammer, 74, and Cristy Jeins Hammer, 72, who died while being taken to the hospital in Iquitos, capital of the Amazon region of Loreto in northe...

A police officer stands guard outside the Mossack Fonseca law firm office in Panama City April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama's attorney general late on Tuesday raided the offices of the Mossack Fonseca law firm to search for any evidence of illegal activities, authorities said in a statement. The Panama-based law firm is at the centre of the "Panama Papers" l...

Microcephaly is a birth defect which causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and brains. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters) A group of Brazilian scientists on Monday released a study proving the relationship between the Zika virus and cases of babies being born with abnormally small skulls, a condition known as microcephaly which has increased exponentially in Brazil in recent mon...

Wikimedia Commons By Carlota Ciudad Rio de Janeiro, Apr 11 (EFE).- Stable sexual relationships in which more than two people are involved, or "polylove" as its participants call it, is gradually gaining ground in Brazil by making use of a loophole in the laws of the country, where more and more unions of this kind are in evidence. Though the number of such cases has grown in recent years...

ARCHIVE/FILE: Some 1,700 tons of cocaine is expected to pass through Costa Rican territory in 2016. (Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Public Security) Eight members of a gang that smuggled up to two tons of cocaine per month through Central America and into the United States were arrested by police in an operation targeting four cities in Colombia, officials said Sunday. The gang's unident...

(Reuters OMX) CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's socialist leader Nicolas Maduro threatened Thursday to seek a constitutional amendment to slash the opposition-led legislature's term from five years to just 60 days and vowed to lead a "revolution" should his foes wrest him from the presidency. The socialist leader's strong words deepened the already bitter political standoff in the OPEC member...

Image;: Wikimedia Commons Lima, Apr 10 (EFE). - The death toll from the ambush of a military patrol earlier this weekend in the jungles of central Peru has risen to four, with five others wounded, while an attack in a nearby region wounded two people, the Armed Forces Joint Command said Sunday. The patrol from the 311th Counterinsurgency Battalion was attacked early Saturday by remnants of ...

Wikimedia Commons Havana, Apr 9 (EFE).- Beer production in Cuba is far from meeting the country's growing demand in stores, inns and hotels, due to the large increase in tourism, a demand that can only be met by building a new brewery, the island's producers said. The current demand for beer is beyond the capacity of Cuba's existing breweries, which have signed contracts for more than 33 mi...

Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro is urging his nation's women to reduce the use of electric hair dryers. (Reuters image) Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro this week asked women in Venezuela to reduce their use of electric hair dryers in order to save energy, asking his nation’s women to reserve their use for “special occasions,” while making no mention of hair dryer use by men. Maduro...

Wikimedia Commons Caracas, Apr 6 (EFE).- The scarcity of clean water and personal hygiene products has increased the cases of scabies, malaria, diarrhea and amoebiasis in Venezuela, the director of epidemiology with the central state of Miranda's health department warned on Wednesday. "The lack of access to a constant supply of good-quality water brings with it, as a consequence, an increas...

Wikimedia Commons Santiago, Apr 6 (EFE).- The Chilean navy on Wednesday detected a huge gathering of uncounted thousands of jellyfish - some 16 kilometers (10 miles) long - off the coast of the South American nation. The navy said that the unusual phenomenon was discovered when the navy was making an overflight of a portion of the Chilean coast. Between San Pedro Bay and the Farellones L...

Transparency International This official statement by Transparency International was issued in the wake of the Panama Papers affair. Gonzalo Delaveau Swett, Chair of the Transparency International chapter in Chile, resigned from his postafter being linked to the Panama Papers, and thus presumably involved in the shadowy world of hiding money in secretive offshore accounts: “We are deeply tr...

(Wikimedia Commons) WASHINGTON (EFE) Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump says he will block remittances sent home by Mexican citizens in the United States if that country does not agree to pay for the wall he wants to build along the border between the two nations, according to a document his campaign released on Tuesday. The two-page memo dated March 31 and entitled "Compelling Me...

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega listens during an official meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an official state visit by the Nicaraguan president to Iran in 2007. (Iranian state media) Iran's Army Commander Major General Ataollah Salehi has announced plans to deploy warships and destroyers in Central American and Latin American waters, Iran’s semi-official FARS...

Source: Diego Reyna Facebok Toronto, Apr 4 (EFE).- A Mexican construction worker helping to build Trump Tower in Vancouver, British Columbia, placed his country's flag on the building to protest recent statements by U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Diego Reyna placed the flag over the weekend, Canadian media reported Monday, and he later posted a photo on the social media ...

Source: Alfredo Guzman Twitter Mexico City, Apr 4 (EFE).- A Mexican government contractor, a former CEO of state-owned oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, and an associate of notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman are some of the individuals whose names appear in the Panama Papers. Mexican media outlets Aristegui Noticias and Proceso magazine, part of the International ...

Robert Allen Lopez had been on the run for nearly 20 years. (WFOR Miami / Screen capture / Fair Use) An American fugitive who has been on the run for nearly 20 years was deported to Miami from Nicaragua on Saturday, escorted by officers of the United States Marshals Service. Robert Allen Lopez, 49 was arrested by Nicaraguan authorities on November 14th, 2015, after entering the Central Amer...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Apr 2 (EFE).- Six experts have concluded that at least 17 people were incinerated at a garbage dump in the southern Mexican town of Cocula and said more tests would be carried out to determine whether the bodies of all 43 students who went missing in 2014 could have been burned to ashes there, the latest development in a case that has garnered international atten...

Havana, Apr 1 (EFE).- Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev will arrive in Cuba on Saturday afternoon for an official visit that will include a meeting with Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, the Caribbean island's state-run media said. Prior to his meeting with Castro, Nazarbayev is expected to pay tribute to Cuban independence hero Jose Marti - a tradition for visiting heads of state and other di...

REUTERS/Janine Costa By Anastasia Moloney BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The scale of sex trafficking around illegal gold mines in parts of Latin America - including Costa Rica’s northern neighbor, Nicaragua - is "staggering," and thousands of people working in the region’s gold mines are prey to labour exploitation by organised crime groups, a think-tank said on Wednesday. "When ...

Veracruz, Mexico, Mar 29 (EFE).- The alleged rape of a girl by four young men from wealthy families in the Gulf state of Veracruz has rocked Mexico, prompting people to take to the streets to protest the case's handling. The girl was leaving a disco in January 2015 in Boca del Rio when she was forced into a vehicle by college students Enrique Capitaine, Jorge Cotaita, Diego Cruz and Gerardo Rod...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, Mar 27 (EFE).- The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a group of 26 Cuban migrants on a raft near the Florida coast, seven of whom had bullet wounds, spokesmen for the force told EFE on Sunday. The group of Cubans was discovered on their raft near Key West, where they were attempting to land, on Saturday. Seven of the migrants had been shot and six of them were taken t...

Turismo Miramar Buenos Aires, Mar 27 (EFE). - Residents of Miramar, a coastal city in Argentina's Buenos Aires province, have built the world's tallest chocolate Easter Bunny, a creation that stands 5.2 meters (just over 17 feet) tall and weighs 3,000 kilos (3.3 tons), city officials told EFE on Sunday. "In the past six years, around this time, we have made giant Easter eggs, but since othe...

U.S. President Barack Obama and Argentina's President Mauricio Macri visit the Parque de la Memoria (Remembrance Park) where they will honor victims of Argentina's Dirty War on the 40th anniversary of the 1976 coup. (REUTERS OMX) (VOA) U.S. President Barack Obama said the United States was slow to speak out on the atrocities committed during Argentina's former dictatorship but says his adminis...

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff speaks during a meeting with jurists at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Gregg Newton With reporting by EFE and Reuters The Government of Costa Rica expressed its concerns this week about the deepening political crisis in Brazil, as Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said she will not resign in Brazil's worst political crisis in ...

Wikimedia Commons Bogota, Mar 22 (EFE).- The top leader of Colombia's FARC on Tuesday described the meeting the day before in Havana between the rebel group's peace negotiators and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as historic, "unprecedented and unthinkable." "(It was) a historic meeting with the U.S. secretary of state, something unprecedented and unthinkable. We received support from hi...

Preferred weapon of guerrillas and drug cartels. It's the 1980s all over again in Nicaragua, but this does not mean a return to skinny ties, big hair, Miami Vice, and New Wave hits by Flock of Seagulls. According to a recent report by investigative reporter Frances Robles of The New York Times, the 1980s revival in Nicaragua means armed rebel groups unhappy with the political status quo. Un...

U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuba's President Raul Castro shake hands during their first meeting on the second day of Obama's visit to Cuba, in Havana March 21, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria By Daniel Trotta and Matt Spetalnick HAVANA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama was received by Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana on Monday at the start of historic talks where the U.S. leader ...

U.S. President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and their daughters Malia and Sasha, exit Air Force One as they arrive at Havana's international airport for a three-day trip, in Havana March 20, 2016. REUTERS/stringer By Matt Spetalnick, Daniel Trotta and Jeff Mason HAVANA (Reuters) - President Barack Obama arrived to small but cheering crowds on Sunday at the start of a historic visit to C...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, Mar 19 (EFE).- The U.S. Coast Guard said nine undocumented Cuban migrants died while trying to complete a perilous journey by boat to the Florida coast. "Our deepest condolences to the families of the nine people who recently did lose their lives," Capt. Mark Gordon, the head of enforcement for the Coast Guard's 7th District, said Friday. "Unfortunately, tragedy ...

Source: International News Safety Institute Mexico City, Mar 17 (EFE).- Attacks on the press rose 21.8 percent in Mexico last year, compared to 2014, with seven members of the media murdered and 397 cases, or one every 22 hours, registered, the Articulo 19 press rights organization said in a report. Public officials were involved in 41.5 percent of the cases, the press rights group said. ...

50-cal rifle. Wikimedia Commons Washington, Mar 17 (EFE).- The U.S. government has confirmed that a rifle found earlier this year at drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman's hideout in Mexico entered the country as a result of the failed Fast and Furious gun-walking operation. In a letter made public Wednesday and sent to members of Congress, the Justice Department confirmed a Fox ...

The tents of Cuban migrant refugees are seen at a border post with Panama in Paso Canoas, Costa Rica, earlier in December Photo: Reuters OMX Just days since Panama and Costa Rica declared that the airlift of thousands of Cuban migrants that had been stranded in both countries en route to the United States had been completed, ostensibly putting an end to the Cuban migrant crisis that saw some 8...

Agencia Venezolana de Noticias Caracas, Mar 16 (EFE).- Venezuelan security forces are continuing to search for more missing persons after 17 bodies were found earlier this week at an illegal gold mine in southeastern Venezuela. National ombudsman Tareck William Saab, the head of a commission named by President Nicolas Maduro to investigate the disappearances, told reporters Tuesday that the...

Source: User jsbarrie Flickr Commons Guatemala City, Mar 14 (EFE).- Some indigenous people in Guatemala suffer under "contemporary forms of slavery," the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said Monday. "The working conditions of indigenous people continue to be of great concern since these workers are often "subjected to different forms of exploitation" such as "forced labor" or "slave...

(FILE / White House photo) Editor's note: This story was updated on March 14, 2016 at 3:48 p.m. (GMT -6) with quotes obtained by the EFE news agency. Despite a long editorial by the Cuban government last week in state media stating that the communist island has no intentions of changing its policies and demanding that Washington cease meddling in its internal affairs, U.S. President Barack ...

Source: Discovery Havana, Mar 12 (EFE).- Cuba has welcomed 1 million foreign tourists to date in 2016, a 14.6 percent surge over the same period last year, the Tourism Ministry, or Mintur, reported. The year in course has been characterized by "continuous growth" in the number of tourists to Cuba from such markets as Germany, Britain, the United States, France, Italy and Argentina, a Mintur...