
Venezuelans have long had to shop around to find scarce foods. Consumers have had particular trouble lately finding staples such as chicken, cooking oil, sugar and coffee, as well as toilet paper and some medicines.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is confronting "new complications" because of a respiratory infection nearly three weeks after undergoing cancer surgery, his vice president said in Cuba as he visited the ailing leader for the first time since his operation.

The top negotiator for Colombia's main rebel group announced a unilateral cease-fire on Monday, before heading into much-anticipated peace talks with government counterparts in the Cuban capital of Havana.
An art and photo show focusing on the trade in firearms and their deadly effects in Mexico may soon be going to the United States, the same place where many of the weapons come from.

Venezuelan opponents of President Hugo Chavez cheered Sunday's election results, in which a newly unified opposition gained a significant bloc of seats in the country's National Assembly and apparently a majority of the popular vote.