CUBA

The State Department is preparing to compensate victims of mysterious brain injuries colloquially known as “Havana Syndrome" with six-figure payments, according to officials and congressional aides.

Mexican immigration authorities said they found a vertiable United Nations of migrants aboard a freight truck

Ernesto Cruz Graveran's company submitted $4.2 million in bogus Medicare claims over the course of two months, federal prosecutors allege.

U.S. border authorities stopped migrants more often on the southern border for a fourth straight month in May, apparently unaffected by expectations that pandemic-era limits on asylum may be lifted.

An Iraqi man who has been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center for more than 15 years has pleaded guilty to war crimes charges for his role in al-Qaida attacks against U.S. and allied forces along with civilians in Afghanistan.

When leaders gather this week in Los Angeles at the Summit of the Americas, the focus is likely to veer from policy issues like migration, climate change and inflation and instead shift to something Hollywood thrives on: the drama of the red carpet.

When leaders gather this week in Los Angeles at the Summit of the Americas, the focus is likely to veer from common policy changes — migration, climate change and galloping inflation — and instead shift to something Hollywood thrives on: the drama of the red carpet. With Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador topping a list of leaders threatening to stay home to protest the U.S.’ exclusion of authoritarian leaders from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, experts say the event could turn into a embarrassment for U.S. President Joe Biden.

The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season is headed toward Bermuda after killing three people in Cuba and flooding roads in Florida.

Much of the Florida peninsula, along with parts of Cuba and the Bahamas, are under a tropical storm warning as a system that battered Mexico moves through the Gulf of Mexico, killing at least two in Cuba and bringing threats of heavy rain and wind for the weekend.

The president's remarks come as the nation grapples with the aftermath of mass shootings in New York, Texas​ and Oklahoma​.

The Biden administration has renewed a license partially exempting Chevron from sanctions on Venezuela so it can keep operating in the oil-rich, socialist-run nation.

Cuban state news media say that a single vessel carrying 842 Haitians who apparently were trying to reach the United States has landed instead in central Cuba

A single vessel carrying 842 Haitians who apparently were trying to reach the United States has landed instead in central Cuba.

In one of the busiest corridors for illegal border crossings, Cubans, Colombians and Venezuelans are often released to pursue asylum in the United States.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador threatened to skip this year's summit in the United States if Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are excluded.

Abortion is a hot topic with the Supreme Court's reconsideration of Roe v. Wade in this election cycle. Here's what Levittown voters had to say about it.

Under the new rules more travel will be permitted to the island and visa processing will speed-up.

The explosion that devastated Havana’s Hotel Saratoga and killed at leat 43 people also badly damaged Cuba’s most important Baptist church, which is next door

The explosion that devastated Havana's Hotel Saratoga and killed 45 people also badly damaged Cuba's most important Baptist church, which is next door.

Bolivia’s President Luis Arce says he may not go to the Summit of the Americas if some countries are not invited

Emergency workers continued to hunt through the ruins for the missing. Authorities have said they suspect the cause was a leak of gas as a tank truck was servicing the building.

Mexico’s president says he won’t attend next month’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles if the Biden administration excludes Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua

Crews worked through a second night searching for victims of a hotel explosion that killed at least 27 people in Cuba's capital and left more than a dozen missing.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador met with his Salvadoran counterpart, Nayib Bukele, on Friday but did not mention rights complaints about El Salvador's massive roundup of suspected street gang members. López Obrador espouses a “hugs not bullets” non-confrontational policy, while Bukele brags about 24,000 arrests in just over a month and cutting food rations for inmates. As in Guatemala — the first stop on López Obrador's five-day tour to four Central American countries and Cuba — he touted his pet program, known as “Planting Life,” which pays farmers a monthly wage to plant and care for fruit and lumber trees.

Local officials blamed a gas leak for the explosion at the five-star Saratoga Hotel in Havana, Cuba.

A powerful explosion apparently caused by a natural gas leak has blown away outer walls from a five-star hotel in the heart of Cuba’s capital, killing at least 22 people and injuring dozens.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has started a five-day tour to four Central American countries and Cuba by lashing out at the U.S. government.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador started a five-day tour to four Central American countries and Cuba on Thursday by lashing out at the U.S. government. López Obrador criticized American officials sharply for being quick to send billions to Ukraine, while dragging their feet on development aid to Central America. On his first stop in neighboring Guatemala, López Obrador demanded U.S. aid to stem the poverty and joblessness that sends tens of thousands of Guatemalans north to the U.S. border.

Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has started a lightning, five-day tour to four Central American countries and Cuba, stopping first in neighboring Guatemala

The U.S. Embassy in Havana has resumed processing visas for Cubans, though on a limited basis, more than four years after stopping consular services on the island amid a hardening of relations

Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador begins a lightning tour Thursday to four Central American countries and Cuba in five days to discuss his approach to development and ways it might help alleviate the pressure to migrate

The Biden administration is unlikely to invite the leaders of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba to the upcoming Summit of the Americas, a senior State Department official said Wednesday while sidestepping questions about an eventual role for Venezuela's opposition leader at the gathering of hemispheric leaders. The summit, to take place in Los Angeles in early June, will focus on defending democracy and human rights in the Western Hemisphere as well as addressing irregular migration, climate change and efforts to ensure equitable growth as the region emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols told reporters.

The U.N. General Assembly voted to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council, but the total of 95 in favor with 24 no votes and 58 abstentions was a significant reduction from the 141 that voted in favor of last month’s nonbinding General Assembly measure condemning Russia’s “aggression” in Ukraine.

The Defense Department says an Algerian man imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center for nearly 20 years has been released and sent back to his homeland.

Pope Francis is denouncing the “perverse abuse of power” on display in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Prosecutors have initiated discussions on a potential plea agreement to resolve the long-stalled case of five men held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center who have been charged with planning and providing assistance for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Multiple agencies respond to a fire in Marietta Friday. A motorist disobeyed Scott's Law and was subsequently pulled over by a Fulton County Deputy.

Born in Ukraine but taken to Chicago by his parents in 1980, Walter was mired in a geopolitical firestorm between two empires during the Cold War.

The southern Mexico city of Tapachula has been roiled for weeksby near daily protests by migrants frustrated over the lengthy wait for documents from Mexican authorities that would allow them to continue traveling north

A Saudi prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention center who was suspected of trying to join the 9/11 hijackers has been sent back to his home country for treatment for mental illness.

Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua — all long-standing allies of Russia — have voiced support for the Russian leader.

The 47-member nation U.N. Human Rights Council has overwhelmingly approved a resolution aiming to set up a three-person panel of experts to monitor human rights in Ukraine

In a matter of four days, five suspected migrant vessels were stopped in the waters off Key West, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The U.S. government says it will resume limited processing of immigrant visas in Havana

A retired undercover operative for U.S. intelligence, Ric Prado writes of finding his purpose defending American ideals against insurgents, terrorists, and traffickers of people, drugs, and illegal weapons.

Designed by a young Cuban immigrant, the Miami Marine Stadium is hailed as a gem of modern architecture. For the past three decades, however, it has sat shuttered in a state of neglect. Now, as the city's skyline booms, commissioners are set to weigh in on a crucial vote that could help determine if it gets restored.

The Biden administration has been quietly laying the groundwork to release prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention center and at least move closer to being able to shut it down.

A panel of intelligence experts hasn’t identified a single culprit for apparent brain injuries reported by U.S. personnel that have been linked to so-called “Havana syndrome.

Senior Russian officials have warned Moscow could deploy troops or military assets to Cuba and Venezuela if the U.S. and NATO insist on meddling.

Senior Russian officials have warned Moscow could deploy troops or military assets to Cuba and Venezuela if the U.S. and NATO insist on meddling.

Two artists illustrate their own Renaissance takes on "mannerism."

Russia has been threatening to expand military ties with allies Venezuela and Cuba amid rising tensions with the U.S. over Ukraine.

Technology & politics reporter at 538, Kaleigh Rogers, details her reporting on the lasting effects of 'The Big Lie.'

Black women voters tell The Associated Press they want promises fulfilled on protecting access and voting rights. (Jan. 20)

The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection is asking Ivanka Trump, daughter of former President Donald Trump, to voluntarily cooperate with its probe.

First-time unemployment claims took an unexpectedly large jump last week. The U.S. Labor Department reports 286,000 people filed new claims the week ending January 15th. Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, joins CBSN to discuss the latest.

Democrats failed once again to pass their voting rights legislation due to the fact that the Senate filibuster rules were not changed.

The Navy will let Wisconsin keep its beloved badger statue for 50 more years, scrapping plans to move the sculpture to an East Coast museum. The statue, sculpted from melted-down cannons seized from Cuba during the Spanish-American War, was affixed to the first USS Wisconsin before World War I. The U.S. Naval Academy Museum lent it to the state in 1988. The academy museum contacted state officials in March 2020 asking for the statue's return so it could be lent to the nonprofit Nauticus Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, where the second USS Wisconsin is berthed as an exhibit.

Relaxing restrictions would help Cuban residents, lawmakers say, but could have political costs.

A Miami-Dade police officer attending a high school wrestling match while off-duty over the weekend got a little carried away, police said, attacking and pushing someone to the ground in the gymnasium, then lifting his shirt and tapping his holstered firearm while being escorted out of the gymnasium.

Belquis Gonzales and her family enjoy something close to celebrity status in a small town in Serbia, where they live after fleeing Cuba five years ago. While most emigrants from the Caribbean island go to the United States or Spanish-speaking countries, Gonzales and her husband chose Serbia — a rare country in Europe for which Cubans do not need visas - and arrived there via Russia. “We didn’t know anything about Serbia,” Gonzales told The Associated Press at the family's home in Lajkovac, a town about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

Gusty winds, heavy snow showers and chilly rain were felt across the Northeast on Dec. 6 as a cold front moved into the region.

The new republic should be wary of swapping the purely symbolic figurehead of the Queen for a deeper servitude to China.

Cuba’s top diplomat says the fizzled attempt by young activists to encourage anti-government protests this week was a failure in political communication by the organizers, who he accuses of being supported by U.S. interests

A call for protests has gone unheeded in Cuba as some of the organizers complain that government supporters had surrounded their homes so they couldn’t go out, while others said they were warned by police that they would be arrested if they took to the streets

Biden administration says ‘circumstances have changed’ in Cuba as it tries to fashion a new policy toward the island.

Migrants describe how Belarusian forces shuttle migrants up and down the 250-mile border with Poland to find the best places to cross.

This week we share music stories from NPR News that you should know about, featuring Cimafunk, Susana Baca and 'El Charro de Mexico' Vicente Fernandez.

The reported cases come days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken's planned visit to Bogotá.

Cuba has released the draft of a new family code that would allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt as well as give children greater participation in decisions that affect them.

Three men held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center were formally charged Tuesday in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings and other plots in Southeast Asia 18 years after they were taken into U.S. custody.

Newly formed Hurricane Nora is brushing the Pacific coast of Mexico's Jalisco state near the Puerto Vallarta area for an overnight pass-by.

Forecasters say tropical depression Fred is slowly strengthening and could regain tropical storm status on Saturday.

Tropical depression Fred is heading for a drenching of Cuba and the Bahamas on a forecast track that would carry it toward South Florida as a tropical storm by Saturday.

The Justice Department’s inspector general says it did not find evidence that FBI agents shared inside information about the Hillary Clinton email investigation with Rudy Giuliani.

Investigators say the loss of braking power on a rain-soaked flooded runway caused a plane chartered by the Pentagon to slide into a Florida river in 2019.

Allyson Felix at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Three of the eight quarterfinalists in women's beach volleyball are North American.

A report released Wednesday shows philanthropic funding to promote global human rights reached a record $3.7 billion in 2018.

Civil unrest in Cuba continues as people continue to protest in the streets, demanding change from the Communist government.

Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has returned to Haiti after nearly a month in Cuba.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other officials are pressing the White House to support efforts to preserve internet service to antigovernment protesters in Cuba.

The problems of two tiny Caribbean states, Cuba and Haiti, have vexed U.S. presidents for decades.

Demonstrators backing rare street protests by thousands in communist Cuba have blocked a stretch of a major South Florida highway.

Thousands of people poured into the streets in Cuba on Sunday in what is becoming the largest anti-government protest in decades.

North Korea has told the World Health Organization it tested more than 30,000 people for the coronavirus through June 10 but has yet to find a single infection.

The Biden administration faces increasing pressure to respond to a sharply growing number of reported injuries suffered by diplomats, intelligence officers and military personnel that some suspect are caused by devices that emit waves of energy that disrupt brain function.

The U.S. military says most prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center have now received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

A senior defense official tells The Associated Press that prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center can now begin getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

For most of his life, Raul Castro played second-string to his brother Fidel — first as a guerrilla commander, later as a senior figure in their socialist government.

For most of his life, Raul Castro played second-string to his brother Fidel — first as a guerrilla commander, later as a senior figure in their socialist government.

Raul Castro says he is stepping down as head of Cuba’s Communist Party, ending an era of formal leadership by he and his brother Fidel Castro that began with the 1959 revolution.

Anti-coup protesters display pictures of deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon, Myanmar, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. The Obama administration reveled in the restoration of civilian rule in the longtime U.S. pariah as a top foreign policy achievement and a potential model for engaging with other adversaries, such as Iran and Cuba. But today, Myanmar is once again an international outcast, facing a new wave of U.S. sanctions. Still, the Obama administration continued to have faith in her. Despite Kerry’s two trips to Myanmar, the administration became rapidly consumed with the Iran nuclear deal and normalization of ties with Cuba.

The Caribbean is hunting for visitors and vaccines to jump-start the stalled economy in one of the worlds most tourism-dependent regions (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)SAN JUAN – The Caribbean is hunting for visitors and vaccines to jump-start the stalled economy in one of the world’s most tourism-dependent regions. Clear waters and warm sand attracted a record 31.5 million tourists to the Caribbean in 2019, but visits plummeted by an estimated 60% to 80% as the pandemic hit last year. “Many countries prefer hurricanes compared to what has happened with the pandemic,” said Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, a former Bahamian tourism minister who also led the Caribbean Tourism Organization. Cuba — the largest Caribbean nation and the only one working on its own vaccines — choked off arrivals after seeing infections surge. Neil Walters, acting secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

They waved flags to catch the attention of a Coast Guard helicopter crew that flew over the island while on a routine mission Monday. A Coast Guard helicopter earlier this week spotted the two men and one woman and hoisted them in baskets from a rocky cliff in Anguilla Cay, a Bahamian islet close to Cuba. The Associated Press requested interviews with the survivors, but Coast Guard and immigration officials have not released their identities and did not grant access for interviews. The U.S. Coast Guard did not respond to requests clarifying what considerations were made before the group was flown into the United States. However, the rocky, uninhabited island is routinely monitored by the Coast Guard for strandings of migrants hoping to reach U.S. soil.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)WASHINGTON – The U.S. is backing off for now on a plan to offer COVID-19 vaccinations to the 40 prisoners held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The plan drew some criticism after The New York Times reported that the vaccination of prisoners would start in the coming days. At the time, U.S. Southern Command said it expected to have enough vaccine for all of the approximately 1,500 personnel assigned to the detention center. AdThere have been no reported cases of coronavirus among the detention center prisoners. The U.S. opened the detention center in January 2002 to hold detainees suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

In this photo reviewed by U.S. military officials, the Office of Military Commissions building used for Periodic Review Board hearings is seen, Thursday, April 18, 2019, in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. Gen. Lloyd Austin, Biden's nominee to be secretary of defense, this week reaffirmed the intention to close Guantanamo to the Senate committee considering his nomination. The case was rejected by the Pentagon legal official known as a convening authority for reasons that aren't publicly known. Obama reduced the prisoner population but his effort to close Guantanamo was blocked by Congress, which prohibited transferring anyone from the base to the U.S. for any reason. “I believe it is time for the detention facility at Guantanamo to close its doors," he said.

Location 85 miles SE of Wilmington North Carolina Wind 45 mph Heading ENE at 21 mph Pressure 29.65 Coordinates 76.8W, 33.3NDiscussionAt 400 AM EST (0900 UTC), the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Eta was located near latitude 33.3 North, longitude 76.8 West. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the east-northeast near 21 mph (33 km/h) and this motion is expected to continue with an increase in forward speed through Saturday. On the forecast track, Eta is expected to gradually pull away from the southeast U.S. Coast today. Eta could intensify a little as an non-tropical cyclone during the next day or so before it becomes absorbed by a larger non-tropical cyclone on Saturday or Saturday night. Land HazardsSURF: Swells generated by Eta will affect portions of the southeastern United States coast today.

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on Monday re-designated Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” hitting the country with new sanctions that could hamstring President-elect Joe Biden's promise to renew relations with the communist-governed island. Since Trump took office, after a campaign that attacked Obama's moves to normalize relations with Cuba, ties have been increasingly strained. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez condemned the U.S. action. The latest sanctions put Cuba alongside North Korea, Syria and Iran as the only foreign nations deemed state sponsors of terrorism. Obama’s removal of Cuba from the “state sponsors of terrorism” list had been a major target of Trump, Pompeo and other Cuba hawks in the current administration.

FILE - In this March 25, 2016 file photo, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger performs in Havana, Cuba. The Rolling Stones are releasing a new version of their 1973 album Goats Head Soup with three unheard tracks. (AP Photo/Enric Marti, File)LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla. – Mick Jagger, Florida Man? The Rolling Stones front man recently purchased a mansion south of Tampa as a Christmas present for his girlfriend, ballet dancer Melanie Hamrick. “It was very cool hearing Mick Jagger’s voice over the phone; that was neat,” Ciaccio told the Herald-Tribune.