Seven people were killed in a bizarre religious ritual in a jungle community in Panama, in which indigenous residents were rounded up by about 10 lay preachers and tortured, beaten, burned and hacked with machetes to make them "repent their sins.”

The Antonetti family sat in the shade of a tree eating orange slices while contemplating the long day ahead of them. They found a nearby government shelter was too crowded, so they have slept in the car since the family's home was damaged by the 6.4 magnitude quake that struck Puerto Rico on Jan. 7

The Senate overwhelmingly approved a new North American trade agreement Thursday that rewrites the rules of trade with Canada and Mexico. The vote was 89-10.

The leader of a militia that rounded up migrants at gunpoint along the U.S.-Mexico border has pleaded guilty to a federal weapons charge.

Smuggling gangs in Mexico have repeatedly sawed through new sections of President Donald Trump's border wall in recent months by using commercially available power tools, opening gaps large enough for people and drug loads to pass through, according to U.S. agents and officials with knowledge of the damage.

After months of delay, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has agreed to let Puerto Rico gain access to nearly $8.3 billion in disaster mitigation funding.

People throughout the Canadian province of Ontario awoke Sunday to cellphone alerts warning them of an “incident” at a nuclear plant just east of Toronto — only to be told later the message was a mistake.

In remarks to members of the small town of La Mora, which was shattered by the Nov. 4 killings of three women and six children from the extended Langford, LeBaron and Miller families, Mexico's president said the first goal is to bring those responsible to justice.

Crews could start building a private border wall in South Texas within the coming days following a federal judge's ruling Thursday that lifted a restraining order against the project.

In recent days, the opposition leader who drew thousands of Venezuelans to the streets last year only to see his momentum steadily fizzle as President Nicolás Maduro remains firmly in power appears to have gotten his mojo back.

Nearly 200 Puerto Rico National Guard members are assisting in the recovery efforts following a series of earthquakes this week that have shaken the island and left thousands homeless.

Colombia's president said Friday that rebels were behind an early morning attack on an air force base that injured an officer.

Evidence indicates it is “highly likely” that an Iranian anti-aircraft missile downed a Ukrainian jetliner near Tehran late Tuesday, U.S., Canadian and British officials said Thursday.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed his government will get answers after a Ukrainian passenger jet crashed, killing at least 63 Canadians, just minutes after taking off from Iran's capital.

Guatemala swears in Alejandro Giammattei, a conservative physician opposed to gay marriage and abortion, as its new president Tuesday while the country's outgoing leader exits amid swirling corruption accusations.

More than 2,000 people in shelters. Nearly one million without power. Hundreds of thousands without water. The damaging aftermath of a 6.4-magnitude earthquake is deepening as the island’s government says it is overwhelmed.

The number of people arrested or stopped entering the United States on the Mexico border fell for a seventh straight month in December, with Mexicans making up a larger part of the mix, authorities said Thursday.

Ottawa police said Wednesday one person was killed and three seriously injured in a shooting in a central part of the city.

Cars, cots and plastic chairs became temporary beds for hundreds of families who lost their homes in southwest Puerto Rico as a flurry of earthquakes struck the island, one of them the strongest in a century.

Puerto Rico was hit by a series of new earthquakes on Saturday including one which measured 5.9 on the Richter scale, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The U.S. promised “appropriate action” Friday in response to its assessment that an Iranian missile was responsible for downing a Ukrainian jetliner that crashed outside Tehran, as the Iranian government denied playing a role in the killing of all 176 people on board.

A new community has popped up in this earthquake-damaged town in southwest Puerto Rico: it houses 300 people, a dozen police officers and one macaw.

Everyone on board died. They were students, newlyweds, doctors and parents. The youngest was a 1-year-old girl, Kurdia Molani, who was flying back home with her parents to the Toronto suburb of Ajax.

Most agents retire after 20 to 25 years. But Chancy Arnold always planned to work until the Border Patrol made him leave. That will be in July, when he turns 57. "Since Day 1," Arnold said, "I was going to work until the end."

An Iranian accused of involvement in the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Argentina has added to speculation over the mysterious death of a prosecutor who investigated the attack.

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Puerto Rico before dawn on Tuesday, killing one man, injuring at least eight other people and collapsing buildings in the southern part of the island.

No injuries or structural damage were immediately reported, although some residents reported small landslides that prompted crews to temporarily close roads along parts of Puerto Rico's south coast.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó was violently blocked Sunday from presiding over a special session of congress in which rivals tried to install a substitute in what was condemned as a hijacking of the country’s last democratic institution.

On Dec. 3, 1979, gunmen intercepted a bus carrying sailors bound for Sabana Seca Naval Base and opened fire in a terrorist attack. Two sailors were killed and 10 wounded in the incident.

Revelers around the globe said farewell to a decade that will be remembered for the rise of social media, the Arab Spring, the #MeToo movement and, of course, President Donald Trump.

Rudy Giuliani participated in a September 2018 phone call with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that was part of a shadow effort, backed in part by private interests, to ease him from power.

Iran's foreign ministry summoned Brazil's chargé d'affaires in Tehran following an official Brazilian statement that some experts interpreted as backing the U.S. killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó pushed through rows of national guardsmen blocking congress Tuesday to retake his seat and pledge in a darkened building with no power to press forward in his bid to topple the country's socialist president.

Before Alaska crabber Brock Rainey headed out to start a new season, he checked in with his longtime friend Mike Daily. This winter was no different. "Tossing lines for the Bering Sea today...Love you brother," Rainey texted in the hours before the boat he crewed on – the Scandies Rose – left Kodiak on Monday.

Emma Sanchez waited patiently in line at the foot of a bridge leading across the Rio Grande and into Texas, one of tens of thousands of people stuck on Mexico's northern border seeking political asylum in the United States.

U.S. investigators came to believe after Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega's ouster that many of his puzzling actions could be attributed to his occult rituals. But in the end, witchcraft proved no match for the 82nd Airborne and other troops that descended on Panama City in the early hours of Dec. 20, 1989.

Federal agents have seized $250 million from convicted ex-Venezuelan national treasurer Alejandro Andrade, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for his central role in a $1 billion money laundering scheme that allowed him to hide a fortune in overseas banks as well as luxury real estate in South Florida.

Michael Enright's strange, sinuous meanderings have taken him on two harrowing tours of battle in Syria as a volunteer with the formerly U.S.-backed Kurdish militia. They also have thrust him into the byzantine pathways and switchbacks of the U.S. immigration system and, by his account, the wilds of international spy networks.

Federal prosecutors indicted Jacques Yves Sebastien Duroseau, a native of Haiti, in North Carolina last week on gun-smuggling charges. Duroseau told investigators he “picked every gun” to bring into the country so he could teach Haitian soldiers how to shoot.

As rioting broke out across Chile in October, President Sebastian Pinera watched his political agenda go up in smoke.

Julian LeBaron, a family spokesman and longtime anti-violence activist said the family wasn't satisfied with the arrests of the triggermen, but wanted the detention of "the people who were responsible for giving the order" to carry out the attack.

A court in the South American country of Suriname convicted President Desi Bouterse on Friday in the 1982 killings of 15 political opponents and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

The Cuban government recently reintroduced the U.S. dollar to the island's economy, hoping to capture more of the currency it desperately needs. It has opened shops that sell appliances and automotive parts only in dollars.

The parcel was sent from Niagara, Ontario, shipped via Canada Post, and addressed to Campobello Island, New Brunswick. But when it arrived at Dale Calder's home, he found it had been opened by agents of a foreign government.

An immigrant bond fund has helped free 34 people from Immigration and Customs Enforcement Centers this year.

The United States will not classify Mexican drug cartels as international terrorist organizations — at least for now. President Donald Trump tweeted Friday afternoon that he was holding off on the designation at the request of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

It's a Friday morning and, as at any other school, children are cutting paper, drawing, reading aloud and playing with friends. Their teacher patiently arranges desks and gives instructions. What's unusual is the setting: the inside of a passenger bus that has been converted into a classroom.

Chanting "we are not afraid," thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets Saturday in the largest anti-government demonstration in months, marking a bid by the opposition to reinvigorate the movement against President Nicolás Maduro after a string of popular uprisings across South America.

The tour bus hit a Chevrolet SUV head-on when the SUV went into its lane trying to overtake another car, according to reports.

Mexico's government expressed alarm Tuesday after President Donald Trump said he was planning to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, a move that officials here fear could complicate security cooperation and trade between the neighbors.

Sixteen people were arrested Wednesday in what federal officials described as a "brazen" smuggling attempt that involved cutting a section of the border wall in Southern California.

Analysis

Even when police aren't using live ammunition, protesters are still dying from nonlethal weapons, according to human rights groups.

ANALYSIS

Recent events in Bolivia, Ecuador and Chile reflect a broad shift in the region that’s testing the military, police and governments alike. Sick of austerity, feeling left behind, people are venting by taking to the streets, clashing with police and setting buildings on fire.