Leader: Brazil doubled high-speed access in 1 year

Brazil's president says the nation has nearly doubled its high-speed internet connections in the past year.

In Cuba, mystery shrouds fate of Internet cable

It was all sunshine, smiles and celebratory speeches as officials marked the arrival of an undersea fiber-optic cable they promised would end Cuba's Internet isolation and boost web capacity 3,000-fold. Even a retired Fidel Castro had hailed the dawn of a new cyber-age on the island. Photo Gallery Available

Guyana activists call for repeal of sodomy law

Gay rights activists in Guyana are calling for the South American nation to repeal cross-dressing and sodomy laws.

Army soldiers flank Daniel Ramirez, alias "El Loco," during his presentation to the media in Mexico City, Monday, May 21, 2012. Ramirez is believed to be a member of the Zetas drug cartel allegedly involved in the dumping of more than 40 hacked-up bodies on a highway outside the city of Cadereyta near Monterrey. The bodies with their heads, hands and feet hacked off were found May 13.

Mexican army: Zetas leaders ordered killing of 49

The army charged Monday that the top leaders of the hyper-violent Zetas drug cartel ordered underlings to leave 49 mutilated bodies in a northern Mexico town square, then had banners hung around the country denying responsibility in an effort to have their enemies blamed for the massacre. Photo Gallery Available

Lucio Adan Nelson Quin, 22, rests while recovering in a public hospital from the wounds caused during an attack involving U.S. helicopters in a DEA-supported anti-drug crackdown by Honduras police in Las Mosquitia region, in La Ceiba, Honduras, Sunday, May 20, 2012. On Friday May 11, Lucio and more than a dozen others dove from a riverboat into the water for cover from Honduran police, who with DEA agents aboard, say they were hitting drug traffickers who fired first. Four died.

Survivor: Honduran police fired on passenger boat

Lucio Adan Nelson dozed on a riverboat ferrying him home from a visit with his mother when helicopters appeared overhead and started shooting. He and about a dozen other passengers traveling in the middle of the night jumped into the water for cover. Photo Gallery Available

A voter casts his ballot during the presidential election in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Sunday, May 20, 2012.

Dominican president-elect celebrates disputed win

Dominican President-elect Danilo Medina thanked his supporters Monday for a first-round win in an election that left many in the main opposition party bitterly claiming fraud and his main opponent refusing to concede. Photo Gallery Available

4 dead in Trinidad road crash; top judge injured

Four people are dead in Trinidad and Tobago after a motorist swerved over a median and slammed into an incoming car carrying the twin-island nation's top judge.

FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2009, file photo, former hostage Sigifredo Lopez, a former provincial lawmaker, gestures as he reunites with his family after his release from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Cali, Colombia. The Prosecutor's Office announced Wednesday, May 16, 2012, the capture of Lopez as the alleged author of the kidnapping and murder of 11 of his comrades who, after being held captive for more than five years, were executed by the FARC in 2007.

Colombia stunned by lawmaker's alleged betrayal

Even Colombians accustomed to treachery and deceit after more than a half-century of civil conflict and drug violence were stunned by the arrest of a one-time provincial lawmaker for allegedly helping plan the mass kidnapping of 11 colleagues later slain by leftist rebels. Photo Gallery Available

Supporters of former president and candidate for the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party, Hipolito Mejia, ride atop a vehicle during his closing campaign rally in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Friday May 18, 2012. Dominicans will go the polls to elect a new president on Sunday.

Dominicans weigh comeback for brash ex-president

Dominicans formed orderly lines at voting stations across the country Sunday to choose a new president from a field that includes a brash former president whose last term ended with an economic crisis and a technocrat from a governing party that has spent the past eight years on a public works spending spree. Photo Gallery Available

Guatemala's Fuego volcano belches ash, lava

The Fuego volcano in central Guatemala has begun shooting lava and columns of ash into the air, and authorities have raised the alert level in the area.

Mexican youth march against old ruling party

Thousands of college-age demonstrators marched down Mexico City's main boulevard Saturday to protest a possible return of the old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, which held Mexico's presidency without interruption from 1929 to 2000. Photo Gallery Available

Members of the dissolved army march past a U.N. armored vehicle in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, May 18, 2012. Former and would-be soldiers were arrested after they refused government orders to disband and marched through the capital on Friday. The ex-soldiers and their young recruits have been pressing President Michel Martelly to honor his campaign goal of restoring the armed forces, which was abolished in 1995 because of its abusive record.

Haiti: Two Americans in jail charged with conspiracy

Two Americans jailed in Haiti were charged with conspiracy for participating in a street march that pressed for the return of the country's disbanded army, a Haitian government official said Sunday. Photo Gallery Available

A sign shows the official government-set exchange rate of 4.47 Argentine pesos per 1 U.S. dollar at a money exchange house in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, May 16, 2012. The AFIP tax collection agency recent measure to control and approve every currency exchange operation in the country has made practically impossible for Argentines to buy dollars, forcing them to get the currency on the black market.

Argentina: Black market grows with currency

Along a busy street in the Argentine capital, the man in the brown suit doesn't need to speak above a whisper to sell his goods: "Money change. Money change." Those who want to swap pesos for dollars follow him through a run-down mall to a lingerie store. There, amid bras and pantyhose, he closes deals for greenbacks. Photo Gallery Available

Police: Ohio tourist fatally run over in Jamaica

Police in Jamaica say that a woman from Ohio has died after being hit by a minibus near the popular tourist town of Montego Bay.

4th high-ranking Mexican army officer detained

Mexico's army announced Friday that it had detained a fourth high-ranking officer during a civilian investigation into alleged military links to drug cartels. Three generals were previously detained.

4 killed in military helicopter crash in Venezuela

Venezuela's defense minister says a military helicopter has crashed during a training flight, killing four servicemen.

Police secure the area where the body of Mexican police reporter Marco Antonio Avila Garcia was found inside a black plastic bag on the side of a road near the city of Empalme, south of Ciudad Obregon, in Sonora state, Mexico, Friday, May 18, 2012. Avila Garcia was abducted by three masked gunmen a day earlier as he waited for his car to be washed in Ciudad Obregon.

Journalist kidnapped and killed in northern Mexico

The tortured body of a Mexican police reporter was found on the side of a road in the northern state of Sonora on Friday, a day after he was kidnapped by gunmen while waiting at a car wash, authorities said. Photo Gallery Available

Haiti's President Michel Martelly, center, accompanied by first lady Sophia Martelly and newly appointed Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, arrive for a Flag Day ceremony in Arcahaie, Haiti, Friday, May 18, 2012. Haitians on Friday marked the 209th anniversary of their flag's creation.

Remnants of Haiti's army march in the capital

Hundreds of former and would-be soldiers in Haiti refused government orders to disband and marched through the capital on Friday, a show of force that culminated in the evening with a tense exchange of gunfire with police outside an old military base. Photo Gallery Available

Relatives of inmates protesting against measures taken by authorities to control a riot at the La Planta prison clash with National Guard soldiers outside the jail in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 17, 2012. Gunfire erupted on Thursday inside the prison where armed inmates have prevented security forces from retaking control for nearly three weeks.

Hundreds leave Venezuelan prison, ending standoff

A three-week prison standoff that pitted armed inmates against troops ended Friday as Venezuelan officials said the last of more than 1,600 inmates filed out and agreed to be moved to other prisons. Photo Gallery Available

Journalist kidnapped in northern Mexico

Mexican authorities say masked gunmen have kidnapped a police-beat reporter in the northern state of Sonora.

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