Plowing toward the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, Category 5 Hurricane Maria has put locals on high alert after the powerful storm inflicted “mind-boggling” damage on the island of Dominica late Monday night. “This is going to impact all of Puerto Rico with a force and violence that we haven’t seen for several generations,” Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló... 

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is seeking the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in US history, after failed negotiations with creditors over its $70 billion debt crisis. That’s more than four times the debt Detroit collapsed under. On Wednesday, the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico announced they had moved to place the US territory into federal bankruptcy court, making... 

Over a million liters of a cyanide solution leaked from Barrick Gold’s Veladero mine in Argentina’s western San Juan province – nearly five times more than previously reported. Meanwhile, a judge has lifted a ban on pumping toxic substances at the site. The Toronto-headquartered mining company initially said it had spilled just 224,000 liters of the toxic liquid into the Potrerillos River. By... 

A man from Mexico in the US illegally is accused of holding a young woman captive in a locked room where he raped her for months and subsequently impregnated her. Detectives with the Hidalgo County Special Investigative Group apprehended Noe Manuel Mendoza, 52, after receiving a 9-1-1 call from the Texas home where a 20-year-old woman was reportedly detained against her will after being smuggled into...