World: Latin America

HAVANA - The U.S. State Department issued a statement late Monday decrying attacks on three Cuban bloggers, including one who has gained international attention for her searing observations about life on the communist island.

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico - The Mexican government has declared parts of the Gulf coast state of Tabasco disaster zones due to flooding from days of heavy rains, freeing up federal relief funds for the area.

VERAPAZ, El Salvador (AFP) - Rescue workers combed through mud, rubble and debris in search of survivors from raging floods and landslides that killed at least 136 people, after a late-season hurricane devastated swaths of Central America.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela and Russia say they are working on a series of agreements for Moscow to provide the South American country with technology for the development of industries ranging from robotics to biochemistry.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Rock-throwing supporters of Nicaragua's governing Sandinista party have attacked a small protest march by the opposition.

TIJUANA, Mexico - Prosecutors in the Mexico state of Baja California say they freed a U.S. citizen who was kidnapped last week near the border.

VERAPAZ, El Salvador - Tears streamed down Elsy Portillo's badly bruised face Monday as she walked behind coffins carrying her mother and only child in this town buried by a landslide, one in a series that killed at least 130 people in El Salvador.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - The head of Honduras' Congress said Monday there is no guarantee lawmakers will vote on whether to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya before the Nov. 29 election that will choose his successor.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentine journalists, academics and ruling party lawmakers met Monday to challenge the conclusions of an international media group that Latin American leaders are exerting too much control over the press.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Honduran authorities said Monday that they have discovered a secret landing strip on property once owned by a slain congressman suspected of trafficking in precursor chemicals for methamphetamine.

MIAMI (AFP) - Hurricane Ida took aim at the United States and oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday after causing flooding and landslides that killed 124 people in El Salvador.

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia said on Sunday it will appeal to the U.N. Security Council and the OAS after Hugo Chavez, the fiery leftist president of neighboring Venezuela, ordered his army to prepare for war in order to assure peace.

MOBILE, Alabama (Reuters) - A weakened Tropical Storm Ida drenched the U.S. Gulf Coast and oil installations on Monday, shutting down nearly 30 percent of Gulf energy production.

BOGOTA (AFP) - Colombia is to seek UN help after Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez instructed his military to ready "for war."

MIAMI (AFP) - A late-season hurricane bore down on the oil fields of the Gulf of Mexico Monday after ravaging parts of Central America and killing at least 124 people in El Salvador.

VERAPAZ, El Salvador - Civil defense officials in El Salvador raise death toll from floods, landslides to 124.

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez on Sunday ordered Venezuela's military to prepare for a possible armed conflict with Colombia, saying his country's soldiers should be ready if the United States attempts to provoke a war between the South American neighbors.

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - The death toll from flooding and mudslides in El Salvador triggered by the passage of Hurricane Ida jumped to 124 people, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes said in a national radio broadcast.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying Honduras' top prosecutor, but neither he nor his bodyguards were harmed, police said Sunday.

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - At least 91 people died and another 60 or more are missing after floods and mudslides in El Salvador triggered by Hurricane Ida, the government said on Sunday.

SAN SALVADOR (AFP) - Torrential rains caused by a low pressure system in the Pacific and the tail-end of Hurricane Ida killed some 91 people and left some 60 others missing in El Salvador, civil defense officials here said Sunday.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Latin American governments are increasingly intervening in the news business, creating and favoring official media, regulating content and distribution and using other legal methods to silence their critics, a newspaper group said Sunday.

SAN SALVADOR (AFP) - Torrential rains caused by Hurricane Ida have killed at least 50 people and left several others missing in El Salvador, civil protection officials said Sunday.

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - At least 42 people have been killed by flooding and mudslides in El Salvador due to heavy rains caused by Hurricane Ida, Interior Minister Humberto Centeno said in a press conference carried by national radio.

MORELIA, Mexico - The Mexican army said Saturday it has seized a shipment of almost a quarter-ton of opium in the country's northern mountains, one of the largest such seizures made in Mexico.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The lower house of Haiti's parliament confirmed Jean-Max Bellerive as prime minister on Saturday, clearing the way for the economist and veteran politician to form a new government.

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' ousted president and de facto leader gave signs they would try again on Saturday to form a unity government to guide the country out of a four-month crisis after the process collapsed a day earlier.