Ecuador charged on Thursday the CIA infiltrated its military and knew of a Colombian military raid against rebels in Ecuadorean territory - accusations that could fray ties with Washington.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe acknowledged on Wednesday police had opened fire on indigenous protesters during demonstrations for land rights and against a free trade agreement with the United States.

A strong 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck in the Pacific near the Mexico-Guatemala border on Thursday, but there was no tsunami alert and no initial reports of casualties.

Hurricane Omar strengthened into a major Category 3 storm as it raced towards Puerto Rico and the small islands of the northeastern Caribbean, threatening to bring torrential rains that could trigger dangerous floods and mudslides on Thursday.

South American leaders told Bolivia's rebel governors to cease violent protests and strongly backed leftist President Evo Morales, who left an emergency summit in Chile and headed home on Tuesday for talks with his opponents.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has thrust the OPEC nation into its worst diplomatic crisis for years by expelling the U.S. ambassador in a growing feud between Washington and Latin America's leftist leaders.

A weakened Hurricane Ike swept toward western Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico oil fields early on Tuesday after its high winds and heavy rains ripped a wide swath of destruction through the eastern side of the island, killing at least four people.

Hurricane Ike pounded northeastern Cuba with 120 mile per hour (195 kph) winds, torrential rains and massive waves that rolled through coastal towns on Sunday on a path toward the Gulf of Mexico oil fields and possibly New Orleans.

Survivors of Tropical Storm Hanna crowded a shelter in the Haitian port city of Gonaives on Thursday, weeping for loved ones swept away by the floods and lining up to register for food that did not arrive.

Tropical Storm Gustav was blamed on Thursday for at least 68 deaths in the Caribbean and U.S. forecasters said it could hit New Orleans and Gulf of Mexico oil fields as a potentially powerful hurricane next week.

Venezuela seized foreign owned cement plants on Tuesday, a show of strength as President Hugo Chavez moves forward with a plan to make South America's top oil exporter a socialist society.

Tropical Storm Fay, which killed at least 57 people in Caribbean countries over the weekend, moved slowly on Monday along Cuba's southwestern coast, where it was expected to make landfall before heading to Florida as a possible hurricane.

Bolivian President Evo Morales easily won a recall vote on Sunday and vowed to push on with socialist reforms that his rightist opponents in South America's poorest country are trying to block.

More than 17 percent of HIV patients being treated for their infection in China developed resistance to available drugs by 2006 and 2007, according to a new nationwide survey.

A military court on Wednesday convicted Osama bin Laden's driver of supporting terrorism but acquitted him on the more serious charge of conspiring with al Qaeda in the first U.S. war crimes trial since World War Two.

Osama bin Laden's driver performed vital services that enabled "the world's most dangerous terrorist" to launch attacks, a prosecutor told jurors before they began deliberations on Monday in the first U.S. war crimes trial at Guantanamo.

Many developing countries that are combating AIDS are facing dire shortages of qualified doctors and nurses as healthcare workers leave for developed countries where they are paid many times more.

Brazilian police on Thursday arrested a man accused of having decapitated and mutilated his British teenage girlfriend after a spat over drugs, a spokeswoman said.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has added a large Spanish-owned bank to the list of companies to be run by the government in the oil exporting nation, furthering his plans of building a socialist state.