CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez is famous for speeches that last for hours, and Thursday should have been a special day for the loquacious socialist to let loose. But even with a parade of foreign dignitaries in town to laud him and a large, boisterous crowd on the day he was...

WORCESTER, England — Britons may remember 2012 as the year the weather spun off its rails in a chaotic concoction of drought, deluge and flooding, but the unpredictability of it all turns out to have been all too predictable: Around the world, extreme has become the new commonplace. Especially...

GENEVA, Switzerland, CMC – A branch of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has urged Cuba authorities to immediately free jailed US government subcontractor Alan Gross, claiming that the Spanish-speaking Caribbean island’s judicial system is not independent or impartial. The ...

NEW YORK, CMC – The Grenada-born American legislator, who was arrested during the West Indian American Day Carnival Parade two years ago, is hailing the decision of a court to strike down part of the New York Police Department (NYPD) “stop-and-frisk” policy. “I thank Judge S...

CARACAS, Venezuela, (UPI) -- A Venezuelan Supreme Court ruling letting President Hugo Chavez begin his new term Thursday in absentia was politically motivated, a key opposition leader said. The court's ruling was intended "to resolve the problem" in the ruling United Socialist Party of a growin...

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez’s supporters have not ruled out swearing him in from his hospital in Havana. His detractors are calling for government investigators to go check his pulse themselves. The justices whom Mr. Chávez’s allies have named to the Su...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's decision to postpone the inauguration of President Hugo Chavez as he remains in Cuba battling cancer has prompted furious accusations from the opposition that the government is violating the constitution and should tell the country how ill the socialist leader r...

CARACAS -- Of all the people flocking here Thursday to mark President Hugo Chávez’s new six-year term, the man of the hour, the ailing Comandante, will not be among them. On Tuesday, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello announced that Chávez will miss the event, as he re...

SAO PAULO -- A top Brazilian newspaper is reporting that popular former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be investigated for allegations that he knew about a massive cash-for-votes scheme, the nation's biggest corruption scandal. The Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reports Wednesday that t...

CHICAGO, CMC – A leading United States newspaper Tuesday said that Jamaica’s debt crisis is in a worse financial shape than Greece and suggested that the Portia Simpson Miller administration consider a bailout plan with significant debt relief. The Chicago Tribune in an editorial said t...