End of the world? Not this year.
New Zealanders were first to report that, despite widespread doomsday rumors, Earth was okay.
For many Mexicans, social mobility moves downward too easily
A slim majority of Mexicans has made its way into an emerging middle class, but staying there isn’t easy.
Trial of Peru’s Comrade Artemio starts
Florindo Eleuterio Flores is last member of Shining Path, Maoist group that terrorized Peru in ’80s.
In Brazil, a landholder who fights for farms, not forests
Agribusiness is big, and Katia Abreu does not claim to speak for the trees.
In Brazil, a landholder who fights for farms, not forests
Agribusiness is big, and Katia Abreu does not claim to speak for the trees.
The ex-bus driver who could be Venezuelan president
Nicolas Maduro, the tall, broad-shouldered VP, has been anointed successor to Hugo Chavez.
Photo Gallery
Maintaining a middle-class life in Mexico
A portrait of families in the town of Chalco.
Latest Headlines
- Report: Brazil's Lula to face investigation in cash-for-votes scheme
- 5 Americans among 7 dead in Peru crash of helicopter owned by Oregon company
- Killing of 4 by feral dogs in Mexico opens debate on dog care, sympathy for seized animals
- Venezuela lawmakers postpone Chavez's inauguration, opposition says it violates constitution
- Venezuelan government says Hugo Chavez won't be able to attend scheduled swearing-in
- Puerto Rico majority party pushes for part-time legislature
- Preliminary probe into Colombia's Uribe for allegedly sponsoring far-right militia
- US seizes $1.7M in gold bars from Curacao, site of recent heist
- Brazil says there is no need to ration electric energy
- Guatemala builds a private city project targeting elites hoping to escape crime
Elsewhere in World
Asia / Pacific
- Hong Kong lawmakers make symbolic bid to impeach city's Beijing-backed leader
- Hundreds of thousands jam Philippine capital in annual religious procession of Black Nazarene
- Influential Chinese newspaper to publish as management, reporters pull back from standoff
- Rapes common in rural India, but justice for victims is not
Africa
- UN wants to use surveillance drones in conflict-wracked Congo but faces opposition from Rwanda
- UN blames Sudan government, southern rebels for humanitarian crisis; Nearly 1 million need aid
- Raging fire burns through waterfront slum of sawmills and shacks in Nigeria's largest city
- Algerian terrorist convicted in 2003 kidnappings of European tourists, given life sentence
Middle East
- Syrian information minister criticizes West for rejecting Bashar Assad's peace plan
- UN blames Sudan government and rebels for humanitarian crisis; 900,000 need aid
- Wet, wintry weather brings fresh misery to Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey
- Tunisian suspect in attack on U.S. consulate in Libya freed for lack of evidence
Europe
- Italy's foreign minister says 3 Italians, 1 Ukrainian kidnapped Dec. 23 off Nigeria freed
- Italy's foreign minister says 3 Italians kidnapped Dec. 23 off Nigeria have been freed
- Czech center-right government survives crisis after junior coalition party decides to stay
- French budget minister Jerome Cahuzac faces tax evasion allegations
The Americas
- Report: Brazil's Lula to face investigation in cash-for-votes scheme
- Venezuela lawmakers postpone Chavez's inauguration, opposition says it violates constitution
- Killing of 4 by feral dogs in Mexico opens debate on dog care, sympathy for seized animals
- Venezuelan government says Hugo Chavez won't attend scheduled swearing-in
National Security
- Gov't spent $18 billion on immigration enforcement in 2012, topping all other federal officers
- Obama chooses Hagel as defense chief, calls him 'the leader our troops deserve'
- Pentagon mulls whether to open more battle zone jobs to women, but how many really want them?
- Obama administration rejects Syrian president's plan to stay in power, begin peace process