MEXICO

Hurricane Ida slammed into Nicaragua's Caribbean coast on Thursday after dumping heavy rain on little-developed offshore islands where hundreds of people were evacuated from flimsy homes.

CNOOC Ltd has agreed to buy a minority stake in four prospects in the Gulf of Mexico from Norway's Statoil, opening crude oil reserves in the U.S. Gulf to China for the first time.

Japan Airlines Corp, which is seeking a state bailout, said it would hold a briefing on changes to its route and flight frequency plans on Thursday at 2 a.m. EST.

The U.S. commercial real estate market, slammed by the credit squeeze and recession, is likely to hit bottom in 2010, according to a survey of industry investors, developers, lenders and consultants.

Merck & Co and Schering-Plough Corp said their $41.1 billion merger will be completed later on Tuesday, marking the close of the second huge deal in the pharmaceutical industry in recent weeks.

Leaders of the 21 APEC economies are concerned that high level political commitment to conclude the Doha Round of world trade talks has yet to translate into substantive progress and called for a deal next year, a draft statement from the grouping seen by Reuters on Monday said.

You read it here first. Here are Billboard's predictions for the Latin Grammy Awards, which will be handed out on Thursday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. As always, our choices are based on past voting behavior and recent trends in the Latin music market.

A U.N. scheme designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions and transform the livelihoods of millions of people in developing countries is picking up speed, with dozens of projects being developed or evaluated.

Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc and PepsiAmericas Inc sold fewer soft drinks in the United States than analysts anticipated, signaling that consumers remain cautious about spending and pushing shares of both bottlers down.

These are heady days for the medical tourism industry. With U.S. healthcare prices spiraling upward, more and more insurers and individuals are looking abroad for treatment. By some estimates, 650,000 Americans will check into foreign hospitals from Mexico to Thailand this year.

British Airways , American Airlines and Iberia may have to give up take-off and landing slots for their Oneworld trans-atlantic alliance to go ahead, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

British Airways , American Airlines and Iberia may have to give up take-off and landing slots for their Oneworld transatlantic alliance to go ahead, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

British Airways , American Airlines and Iberia may have to give up take-off and landing slots for their Oneworld transatlantic alliance to go ahead, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Dutch brewer Heineken has held discussions to buy the brewing operations of Mexican conglomerate Femsa , the Financial Times reported on Sunday in its electronic edition.

South East Asian leaders are meeting in Thailand to work toward creating a political and economic union for the region by 2015.

A combination of investment risks threatens to obstruct an already stumbling U.N.-backed $6.5 billion market in clean energy projects in emerging nations, years before the scheme's first phase is due to end.

Telmex, Mexico's leading fixed-line phone operator, posted an 11.9 percent drop in third-quarter net profit on Wednesday as growing competition and an economic slump led to canceled phone lines.

Space agencies and Google Inc are helping an international project to monitor forests by satellite to fight global warming, the head of an international earth observation group said on Tuesday.

Mexico's lower house finance committee approved on Tuesday raising value-added tax and high-earner income tax rates as part of a government plan to reduce the country's dependence on waning oil revenues.

Los Amigos Invisibles, the Venezuelan funk band from Caracas that relocated to Brooklyn more than eight years ago, will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2011. But the party has already started, with the group enjoying an ever-growing following throughout Mexico, South America and its adopted home country.

With Halloween just around the corner, you may be wondering where some of the spookiest, creepiest, eeriest, most haunted and/or best places to visit on Halloween are located around the