South America
How did this man survive 16 months at sea?
A SHIPWRECKED sailor who washed up on a remote reef claims he survived for more than a year adrift on the Pacific, floating more than 12,500km. So how on earth did he survive?
Prison blaze was 'a slaughter'
TEN dead and 38 injured. That's the aftermath of a fire at an overcrowded Colombian jail, amid claims that guards let inmates burn.
Truck causes deadly bridge collapse
FOUR people have died as a truck smashed into a pedestrian bridge on a busy highway, causing the walkway to collapse.
Top cop takes leave, returns as woman
A TOP Brazilian police officer has been praised for his bravery after returning to work from a long holiday as a woman.
TV soaps blamed for sky-high crime
VENEZUELA'S President has a new villain as he campaigns to bring down spiraling crime: wildly popular TV soap opera telenovelas.
The prison from hell where inmates rule
IT'S A PLACE so brutal, even the guards and wardens are in fear. Inmates are killed and beheaded and gangs rule. This is a place you don't want to be locked up in.
Piranha-like fish injure 10 swimmers
A SCHOOL of piranha-like fish has injured at least 10 people bathing in an Argentine river, including children who lost parts of their toes.
Lightning breaks finger off Rio's Christ
LIGHTNING has broken a finger off the right hand of Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. SEE AMAZING PICTURES
Haiti reconstruction still haphazard
A SQUATTER'S paradise is blooming in Port-au-Prince, but there are concerns the rebirth is ignoring the vision for planned, quake-resistant communities.
'Blacks for sale' ad sparks outrage
AN online ad with a picture of two black children offering "blacks for sale'' that could "serve as carpenters, masons, cooks ..." has outraged Brazilians.
Panic as sinkhole swallows home
SECURITY footage shows a mother throwing her child from their home moments before the building is swallowed by a sinkhole.
Ex-Miss Venezuela slain in robbery
ROBBERS murdered a beauty queen and her husband in front of their five-year-old daughter after their car ground to a halt on the side of a motorway.
The race to clean up for Rio
AT low tide, household refuse, old sofas and even washing machines are seen. Now officials are racing to clean up Rio's Guanabara Bay before the 2016 Olympic Games.
Bezos in health-scare airlift
AMAZON founder Jeff Bezos is recovering after being airlifted off the Galapagos Islands because he was suffering from severe kidney stones.
Antarctic rescue ship en route to Aust
AN AUSTRALIAN icebreaker carrying 52 tourists saved from an icebound Antarctic ship is on its way home, leaving behind two ships trapped in pack ice.
Volcano vents 5km-high fury
El Salvador's Chaparrastique volcano has begun to erupt, sending nearby residents scurrying for safety as an ash cloud some 5km high is blasted into the sky.
Boy, 9, scales Argentinian peak
A NINE-YEAR-OLD US boy has become the youngest person in recorded history to reach the summit of Argentina's Aconcagua mountain.
Heiress 'slain' at luxury spa resort
THE great-granddaughter of heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post - who inherited the cereal company that would become General Foods Inc - has been found slain.
Rape victim, 14, denied abortion
LAWYERS for a 14-year old Argentine rape victim say they are appealing against a court decision to deny the girl an abortion.
Brazil president tours flooding
BRAZILIAN President Dilma Rousseff interrupted her year-end holidays to tour flood-hit areas where 40 people have died following torrential rains.
Piranhas injure 60 in Xmas Day attack
PIRANHAS on a Christmas Day feeding frenzy bit off a girl's finger and injured 60 people in a river in the Argentine city of Rosario.
Kidnapped lottery winner freed by cops
BRAZILIAN police have freed the kidnapped $US3 million ($3.4 million) lottery winner whose captors were demanding a ransom of about $US200,000.
'Police brutality is Brazil's dirty secret'
SIX years ago, Elizabeth Martin's nephew was killed by an off-duty cop in Rio de Janeiro. Now she has a warning for tourists in Brazil.
Topless protest falls flat in Brazil
PHOTOGRAPHERS outnumber protesters as a group take to Ipanema beach to make a statement about Brazilian laws which forbid women to go topless.
Snowden offers Brazil asylum deal
NATIONAL Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden claims he would help investigate US spying on Brazil, but only if granted political asylum.
Teen fan shot dead in football riot
A TEEN has been shot and killed in Buenos Aires after a Boca Juniors "supporters' day" erupted into violence, police and witnesses said.
Argentina descends into chaos
SEVEN people are dead and looting is widespread in Argentina, as police strike for better pay - all while the country celebrates 30 years of democracy.
Brazil vows to act on hooliganism
BRAZIL has pledged to stamp out stadium violence after hooliganism marred a weekend game, raising doubts about the World Cup.
Highly radioactive waste guarded
IT could take at least two days before stolen then abandoned highly radioactive cobalt-60 is taken away from a site now under heavy armed guard.
Uh oh. Radioactive bomb scare
IT'S like an episode of Homeland - but real. Gunmen hijacked a truck from a servo and there was reason to panic.
Police strike leads to looting
AS police went on strike for better pay, anarchy came to the streets of Cordoba in Argentina, with reports of widespread looting and two deaths.
Radioactive material stolen: IAEA
THE United Nation's nuclear watchdog has been told that a truck carrying medical radioactive material has been hijacked.
Indian 'cultural warrior' killed
THE South American Indian who took his battle with sugar growers to the world - and became a film star in the process - has been murdered.
The world's oldest toilet discovered
SCIENTISTS have discovered that a communal latrine containing faeces that dates back 240 million years to the time of "megaherbivore" reptiles.
World Cup stadium collapse kills two
PART of the stadium that will host the World Cup opener in Brazil next year has collapsed, killing two people.
Death god's temple still packs a scare
THE skulls should have been a dead giveaway. A recently uncovered temple in Mexico is the first found dedicated to the ancient god of death Mictlantecuhtli.
Sewage clogs Rio's Olympic waterways
BRAZIL'S waterways are full of rubbish and untreated sewage and could pose a health threat to Olympic athletes, officials warn.
Dead baby found alive 10 hours later
A NEWBORN baby came back from the dead more than 10 hours later when her father came to collect her in a box from the morgue and heard a sound.
Jet skids off runway in Buenos Aires
AN AUSTRAL jet with 96 passengers aboard skidded off a runway at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza airport Friday after landing in a storm.
Welcome to the kidnap capital of the world
FIVE people are kidnapped and held to ransom here every day. The murder rate is on par with a war zone and law and order is failing so badly that even the criminal gangs are scared.
3 boys shot dead in Thailand's south
5:40PM THAI police say a family had returned from a local mosque and was about to enter their house when gunmen shot three children dead.
China police get man accused of killing 6
5:24PM CHINESE police catch a man accused of killing two men he thought were having affairs with his wife, along with the men's wives, two boys and an old man.
Abuse charge for educator in YouTube case
4:55PM A US school administrator subject of a YouTube video seen nearly a million times could get life in prison on child abuse charges.
Google must move 'mystery' barge in SF
4:36PM PERMIT issues mean Google must move a floating, four-story building in the middle of San Francisco Bay following numerous complaints.
Another big winter storm hits US east
3:50PM SNOW is nearing 20cm in Philadelphia and New York as yet another round of freezing winter weather grips parts of the United States.
No role in lane closures: US governor
3:50PM DURING an hour-long radio call-in, possible 2016 US presidential candidate Chris Christie has reiterated that he had no role in contentious lane closures.
More than 400 dead dolphins in north Peru
3:33PM PERUVIAN authorities say autopsy results are expected in two weeks on more than 400 dolphins found dead on the country's northern beaches.
US murderer recaptured after manhunt
3:18PM MICHAEL David Elliot, who escaped while serving life sentences at a US prison for the 1993 murders of four people, has been recaptured.
Police 'scared' fans at Hillsborough
12:23PM A NEW investigation into the Hillsborough tragedy, which killed 96 Liverpool fans in 1989, has uncovered a mass of doctored statements given by UK police.
A croc may be on the loose in the UK
12:23PM POLICE in southwest England are on the alert after a bus driver reported spotting a 1.8m crocodile under a bridge in Bristol.
US skydiving survivor walks again
12:23PM A 16-YEAR-OLD girl who plummeted more than 900m when her parachute failed to open correctly will be in hospital a while longer but should recover fully.
Strong 6.1 quake off eastern Indonesia
11:40AM THE US Geological Survey says a magnitude-6.1 earthquake has hit 318 kilometres east of Dili, East Timor.
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