"Tropical storm warnings were issued for Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean on Monday as Tropical Storm Chantal chugged along a course that could take it near Florida's Atlantic coast by the weekend."

"As Central American coffee growers are staggered by a spreading fungal disease, the price and availability of good coffee hangs in the balance."

"The government of Nicaragua is fast-tracking a bill that would authorize a company from China to build a new canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The dream of a Nicaraguan canal dates back more than a century."

"LIMÓN, Costa Rica -- Costa Rican environmentalist Jairo Mora Sandoval was murdered on May 30, while attempting to protect leatherback turtle nests on Moín Beach, on Costa Rica’s northern Caribbean coast. He was 26."

"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A U.S. agency has issued a long-awaited report saying it found no proof that decades of military practice bombing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques sickened residents who blame it for high rates of cancer, asthma and other illnesses."

"For a clue to the possible impact of climate change on modern society, a study suggests a look back at the end of classic Maya civilization, which disintegrated into famine, war and collapse as a long-term wet weather pattern shifted to drought."

"As the Caribbean grapples with the pollution of its waters, the ratification of a protocol designed to help arrest the problem appears to be gathering steam."

"KINGSTON, Jamaica -- An extensive fuel spill has fouled a stretch of shoreline and oiled pink flamingos and other wildlife in a nature preserve in Curacao, conservationists and residents of the tiny Dutch Caribbean island said Monday."

"Spain's Repsol oil company announced Tuesday it was 'almost certain' to withdraw from exploration in Cuba, after spending an estimated $150 million on a dry well and seeing far more profitable prospects in other countries such as Brazil and Angola."

"KEY WEST -- In Cuba’s North Basin, the Spanish company Repsol has begun risky exploration for oil and natural gas on a semi-submersible rig, now just 77 nautical miles from Key West and even closer to the ecologically sensitive Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. In a month or so, Repsol expects its drilling through 5,600 feet of seawater and about 14,000 feet of layered rock will reach the reservoir. That’s frightening for many who live and work along the island chain."

"A mysterious epidemic is devastating the Pacific coast of Central America, killing more than 24,000 people in El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2000 and striking thousands of others with chronic kidney disease at rates unseen virtually anywhere else. Scientists say they have received reports of the phenomenon as far north as southern Mexico and as far south as Panama. ..."

"MIAMI -- The U.S. is not ready to handle an oil spill if drilling off the Cuban coast goes awry but can be better prepared with monitoring systems and other basic steps, experts told government officials Monday."

Two years after the earthquake in Haiti that took at least 250,000 lives and left many camping in the open, the outpouring of several billion dollars in aid from charitable organizations has done little to rebuild the country.

Marjorie Valbrun reports for iWatch News (Center for Public Integrity) January 10, 2012.

SEE ALSO:

A mysterious kidney disease is killing hundreds of men yearly in Central America. The men are all sugar cane workers. Dehydration and heat stress from strenuous work are key contributing causes, but researchers suspect that exposure to an unknown toxic substance may be an important triggering factor also.

Sasha Chavkin and Ronnie Greene report for iWatch News (Center for Public Integrity) December 12, 2011.

"A federal agency announced Thursday that it had found no evidence that decades of live fire and bombing exercises by the Navy on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques had caused health problems documented among its residents."