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 News Around the Americas
Pot Bust a Giant Loss for Smugglers
 Mike Glenn & Anita Hassan
Authorities charged a truck driver with narcotics trafficking Thursday after seizing more than 7 tons of marijuana, highlighting what experts described as Harris County's leading role as a distribution center for illicit drugs.
Peace Mom Aims to Ramp Up "Peace Surge" After Arrest Thursday
 Erin Quinn
Minutes before the "Peace Mom" was arrested Thursday for blocking a road near President Bush's ranch, Cindy Sheehan said she plans to become more "confrontational" and that it's time to "ramp up" peace efforts.
Mexico Hotel Owner Charged in Swindle of Time-Share Leases
 Rudolph Bush
FBI agents have arrested an American hotel owner on charges he ran a $400 million pyramid scheme through the sale of time-share leases in Mexico.
Iraqis are Entering U.S. through Mexico
 Sandra Dibble
U.S. and Mexican immigration agencies are investigating the arrival of small groups of Iraqis at the border in the past week and their possible connection to smuggling organizations.
UN Envoy Calls Somalia Situation Grim
 Maggie Farley
The conflict between Somalia's transitional government and Islamic militants has escalated dangerously, as Islamist leaders threaten a "holy war" against advancing government troops and allied Ethiopian forces, a U.N. special envoy told the Security Council this week.
Illegal Migrant Arrests Down in U.S.
 Olga R. Rodriguez
Arrests of illegal migrants along the U.S.-Mexican border have dropped by more than a third since U.S. National Guard troops started helping with border security, suggesting that fewer people may be trying to cross.
Hispanic Groups Call for Moratorium on Work Raids
 Jim Forsyth
U.S. Hispanic groups and activists called for a moratorium on workplace raids to round up illegal immigrants, with some saying they were reminiscent of Nazi crackdowns on Jews in the 1930s.
Gerald Ford, 38th President, Dies at 93
 James M. Naughton & Adam Clymer
Former President Gerald R. Ford, who was thrust into the presidency in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal but who lost his own bid for election after pardoning President Richard M. Nixon, has died, according to a statement issued late last night by his wife, Betty Ford.
Surge in Overdoses Blamed on Powerful Afghan Heroin
 AFP
A steep rise in drug overdose deaths in Los Angeles is being blamed on an influx of highly potent heroin from Afghanistan. The Los Angeles Times cited figures from experts saying that heroin-related fatalities in the city and surrounding areas soared by around 75 percent in three years.
After All the Border Hubbub, Little Change Expected in 2007
 Associated Press
It looks like life on the Texas-Mexico border may not be so different in 2007 as it has been in 2006. Before the November elections, border security and immigration reform topped the agendas of politicians at nearly every level of government.
US Military Draft System To Be Tested
 CBS News
The Selective Service System is making plans to test its draft machinery in case Congress and President Bush need it, even though the White House says it doesn't want to bring back the draft.
Mexican Shoppers Helping Make Texas' Holiday Season Profitable
 Alicia A. Caldwell
Hundreds of last-minute shoppers jammed the streets of downtown El Paso on Friday morning, many carrying armloads of plastic shopping bags.
Raul Castro Urges Students to Debate "Fearlessly"
 Manuel Roig-Franzia
Raul Castro has set a surprising new tone for Cuban politics, telling university students in Havana that they should debate "fearlessly" and bring their concerns directly to him.
Bush Issues 16 Pardons
 Associated Press
President Bush gave a pre-Christmas gift to 17 minor criminals, but even after adding these pardons and one sentence commutation to his record he remains one of the stingiest presidents for such federal forgiveness.
Ventura Sailors Take on World
 Stan Whisenhunt
Ventura Yacht Club will be beaming with pride come March when several of its sailors compete in the J-24 World Championships in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Mexican Mother Organizes from Inside Chicago Church
 Andrew Stern
With Christmas fast approaching, Elvira Arellano dispatched her 8-year-old son to Washington to plead her case and that of other immigrant families who fear being torn apart by deportation.
Peak Season Under Way for Homeward Central Americans
 Lynn Brezosky
Not much happens at the Free Trade Bridge here, one of the most remote and least-used international crossings on the Southwest border. Not much until the holidays, that is, when Central American immigrants from around the nation pull in with chains of secondhand cars and other goods bound for resale during holiday trips home.
Accused Mexican Drug Lord May Face US Death Penalty
 Reuters
The alleged leader of Mexico's most infamous drug cartel pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to U.S. federal charges of murder, racketeering, drug trafficking and money laundering across the U.S.-Mexican border.
A Day in the Life of a Border Patrol Agent
 Tim Gaynor
Puerto Rican by birth and a bilingual English-Spanish speaker, Gerald Viera, 30, works five 10-hour shifts a week. He only knows his duties when he turns up at the station each day.
US Applies Afghan War Tactics on Mexican Border
 Bernd Debusmann
The United States has begun to apply tactics perfected in the war in Afghanistan to tighten control of the border with Mexico, using a mix of age-old hunting techniques and high-tech spy-in-the-sky surveillance.
China Tightens Adoption Rules for Foreigners
 Pam Belluck & Jim Yardley
China plans to tighten rules on foreign adoptions, barring people who are single, obese, older than 50 or who fail to meet certain benchmarks in financial, physical or psychological health from adopting Chinese children, according to adoption agencies in the United States.
Low-Wage Workers From Mexico Dominate Latest Great Wave of US Immigrants
 Julia Preston
Since the early 1990s, the US has seen the largest wave of immigration in its history. Of 300 million people now living here, about 37 million were born in another country. Not since the trans-Atlantic rush a century ago have immigrants made up such a large portion of the population.
Education About Rights is Job No. 1
 Albor Ruiz
The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division and the consul general of Mexico in New York, Ambassador Ramón Xilotl-Ramírez, signed an agreement to combine resources to educate and inform Mexican workers about their rights under American labor laws.
Bribe Culture Seeps into South Texas
 Houston Chronicle
The bribe has long been a shortcut to wealth and power along the Texas-Mexico border. But these days, it's not just politicians lining their pockets or crooked lawmen taking bags of cash to overlook drug loads.
Smugglers Trade in Dreams
 Liz Mineo
For both mother and son, who were interviewed this summer in the house she built with money she saved cleaning houses in Florida and Baltimore, the journey to the land of opportunity started in the backroom of a travel agency in this tropical city in southeastern Brazil.
Tucson Military Recruiters Ran Cocaine
 Arizona Daily Star
Together, a dozen or so recruiters formed the nucleus of one of the FBI's biggest public corruption cases, the sting known as Operation Lively Green, which unfolded in Southern Arizona from 2002-2004 and was made public last year.
Katrina Begets a Baby Boom by Immigrants
 Eduardo Porter
In the latest twist to the demographic transformation of New Orleans since it was swamped by Hurricane Katrina last year, hundreds of babies are being born to Latino immigrant workers, both legal and illegal, who flocked to the city to toil on its reconstruction.
South Texas Drug Bust is Huge
 ksat.com
A San Antonio-based cocaine smuggling drug has been put out of business by the Drug Enforcement Agency, resulting in the seizure of 210 kilograms of cocaine, $4.5 million in cash and arrests of 29 people, including an elementary school teacher and an elderly woman, officials said Wednesday.
Raid Shakes U.S. Immigrants on Mexican Holy Day
 Reuters
Eyewitnesses told of anguish as police swooped on several meat packing plants in the United States' largest immigration raid on Tuesday, the day Mexicans honor their beloved national icon, the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Poll: 7 Out of 10 Americans Disapprove of Handling of Iraq War
 Jon Cohen
Negative assessments of the war in Iraq - the central issue in last month's midterm election - continue to hold down President Bush's job approval ratings and could cast an pall on the final two years of his presidency.
US Has Most Prisoners in World Due to Tough Laws
 James Vicini
Tough sentencing laws, record numbers of drug offenders and high crime rates have contributed to the United States having the largest prison population and the highest rate of incarceration in the world, according to criminal justice experts.
Clashes Break Out After Pinochet's Death
 Eduardo Gallardo
Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who terrorized his opponents for 17 years after taking power in a bloody coup, died Sunday, putting an end to a decade of intensifying efforts to bring him to trial for human rights abuses blamed on his regime.
Sheehan Among Four Convicted of Trespassing
 Samuel Maull
Peace activist Cindy Sheehan and three other women were convicted of trespassing Monday for trying to delivery an anti-Iraq war petition to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and refusing to leave.
Minuteman Fence Rising on Border Ranch
 Brady McCombs
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is backing its big talk with a big fence. The volunteer border watch organization has financed and coordinated the construction of a 0.9-mile-long, 13-foot-high steel mesh fence east of Naco.
Mexico's Patron Saint Impacts Lives Worldwide
 Tom Ragan
Thousands of Latino communities stretching from the US to South America will be holding early morning, candle-lit processions Tuesday to honor the 475th anniversary of the Blessed Virgin's sighting on a Mexican hillside.
Run for the Border
 Tim Eberly
For authorities in Fresno County, the fugitive pipeline to Mexico is a well-worn path. Someone commits a crime — from murder to drug-peddling to rape — and high-tails it for the border.
Augusto Pinochet, Chilean Dictator, Dies at 91
 Jonathan Kandell
General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, the brutal dictator who repressed and reshaped Chile for nearly two decades and became a notorious symbol of human rights abuse and corruption, died Sunday at the Military Hospital of Santiago. He was 91.
US House OKs Oil Drilling in Gulf of Mexico
 H. Josef Hebert
The House approved oil and gas drilling Friday in a vast area of the Gulf of Mexico south of Florida's Panhandle and agreed to steer hundreds of millions of dollars in royalty payments to Gulf states to restore coastal wetlands and repair hurricane damage.
Jailed Media Worldwide Hits Record: US Watchdog
 Reuters
The number of journalists jailed worldwide for their work rose for the second year with Internet bloggers and online reporters now one third of those incarcerated, a U.S.-based media watchdog reported.
Richardson Speaks Against Border Fence
 Jennifer Talhelm
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson says a fence at the Mexican border authorized by Congress this fall "gets in the way" of U.S.-Mexico relations, and he wants the new Democratic Congress to reverse the legislation.
Sinking Off Mexico a Mystery
 Brett Clanton
A U.S. ship doing work for Mexico's state-owned oil company sank in the Gulf of Mexico last week, but the vessel's 30 crew members were rescued before it went down.
US Court Rejects Interpretation of Immigration Drug Law
 Linda Greenhouse
The US Supreme Court rejected the government’s interpretation of immigration law on Tuesday, ruling that a noncitizen is not subject to mandatory deportation for a drug crime that, while a felony in the state where the crime was prosecuted, is only a misdemeanor under federal law.
US Border Patrol Sees Drop in Arrests
 Alicia A. Caldwell
The number of illegal immigrants arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border fell sharply in October and November, a decrease the U.S. Border Patrol attributed in part to having more agents.
US Pentagon Resists Pleas for Help in Afghan Opium Fight
 Josh Meyer
The Pentagon, engaged in a difficult fight to defeat a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, has resisted entreaties from US anti-narcotics officials to play an aggressive role in the faltering campaign to curb the country's opium trade.
Raul Castro Proposes Negotiations to Washington
Sara Roumette
The Cubans gathered around the Revolutionary Square on Saturday, December 2, heard Raul Castro's voice follow the gun salvoes with disbelief.
Border Pot Seizures Up Sharply
 Brady McCombs
Marijuana seizures by U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Tucson Sector appear headed to new highs for a second consecutive year.
Gaps Seen in Virtual Border Fence Plan
 Spencer S. Hsu
A Bush administration plan to build a "virtual" fence along the Mexico border will cost $7.6 billion and be completed by 2011, but the government lacks clear benchmarks for success, according to a report to Congress by the Department of Homeland Security.
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