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The U.S. Geological Survey says a strong but deep earthquake has shaken western Colombia. The agency says the quake struck at 9:16 a.m. (1606 GMT) Saturday and had a magnitude of 7.0. it was located about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Pasto. There are no immediate reports of damage.

Colombia announced that it produced an average of 1.01 million barrels of oil per day in January, marking the first time that average crude output for a month surpassed the one million-barrel mark that the government had set as a target for the country's oil industry. Last month's figure was more than 7% higher than the 944,000 barrels a day produced in January 2012, the Mines and Energy Ministry said in a statement. For all of 2012, average oil output stood at 940,000 barrels of oil per day, which represents a 3.16% increase from 2011. Colombia has seen its oil...

NASA has revealed that the Columbia crew were not told that the shuttle had been damaged and they might not survive re-entry. The seven astronauts who died will be remembered at a public memorial service on the 10th anniversary of the disaster this Friday at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle was headed home from a 16-day science mission when it broke apart over Texas on February 1, 2003, because of damage to its left wing. Ten years ago, experts at NASA's mission control faced the terrible decision over whether to let the astronauts know that they may die on...

Treasury Targets Major Money Laundering Network Linked to Drug Trafficker Ayman Joumaa and a Key Hizballah Supporter in South America 6/27/2012 WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated four individuals and three entities involved in laundering the proceeds of narcotics trafficking for drug kingpin Ayman Joumaa. Treasury also designated a Colombia-based individual under its terrorism authority, Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, for directing Hizballah’s fundraising activities in the Americas. This individual was previously designated under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) for his role in narcotics-related money laundering. Today’s designations further expose Ayman Joumaa’s network as...

MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities say they have arrested a Panamanian woman arriving at Barcelona airport with 1.38 kilograms (3 pounds) of cocaine concealed in breast implants. The Interior Ministry said Wednesday that border police noticed fresh scars and blood-stained gauze on her chest as well as pale patches beneath her skin.

An investigation for the agency that oversees the U.S. Secret Service suggests Director Mark Sullivan lied during his congressional testimony in the Colombia prostitution scandal that ensnared 13 of his agents, multiple law enforcement officials and congressional sources tell FoxNews.com. Investigators with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) have completed their investigative report, which will be referred to the Department of Justice along with a memorandum of activity that lists potential criminal actions. The report indicates Sullivan may have obstructed Congress by lying about the criminal associations of prostitutes involved in the scandal. The report...

I am President Obama’s classmate at Columbia University, Class of ’83. I am also one of the most accurate Las Vegas oddsmakers and prognosticators. Accurate enough that I was awarded my own star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars. And I smell something rotten in Denmark. Obama has a big skeleton in his closet. It’s his college records. Call it “gut instinct” but my gut is almost always right. Obama has a secret hidden at Columbia- and it’s a bad one that threatens to bring down his presidency. Gut instinct is how I’ve made my living for 29 years since...

@mrubin1971Two news stories from recent weeks, if true, should raise a red flag in the United States that Iran is preparing to use Hezbollah to strike at U.S. interests in Latin America, if not in the United States itself.First, this story from the Lebanese news portal Naharnet and sourced in part to Israeli radio. The Naharnet story was taken down shortly after it appeared: Hezbollah is using a training base established by Iran in northern Nicaragua near the border with Honduras, the Israeli radio reported on Thursday [September 6]. “The area is cordoned off and there are around 30 members...

Will the Cartagena brothel case make an unwelcome reappearance in the middle of Barack Obama’s re-election efforts? That’s what sources from law enforcement and Capitol Hill told Fox News yesterday, saying that an upcoming report on the Secret Service scandal will also name two White House staffers as suspects: "Federal law enforcement personnel and a congressional committee are anxiously awaiting an overdue inspector general’s report that they believe may reveal the involvement of two White House advance team members in the Secret Service prostitution scandal in Colombia earlier this year." more at link-

The Mexican government will aim to follow the lead of Colombia in the fight against drug trafficking, according to the country's elected president. Enrique Peña Nieto, who met with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday, will take office in Mexico on December 1 and he has already revealed his desire to learn from Colombia’s strategy on drug control. Several drug cartels are currently in the midst of a fierce fight for power in Mexico, leading to continued violence which has allegedly left at least 55,000 people dead in six years. Peña Nieto will succeed current Mexican President Felipe Calderon...

U.S. weapons that were exported to Mexico as part of the controversial "Fast and Furious" program ended up in the hands of Colombia crime syndicate Oficina de Envigado, reported newspaper El Tiempo Monday. According to the newspaper, investigations by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have established that some of the weapons found during the arrest of Oficina boss "Sebastian" were part of the thousands of arms lost in the Fast and Furious program. "Two rifles that were seized in February with "Frank," the brother of Sebastian also are part of the tracking operations of the ATF,...

Griselda Blanco, the drug kingpin known for her blood-soaked style of street vengeance during Miami’s “cocaine cowboys” era of the ’70s and ’80s, was shot to death in Medellin by a motorcycle-riding assassin Monday.

The US authorities say they have seized $150m (£95m) from a bank allegedly linked to a money-laundering scheme of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Last year, US officials accused the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) of helping the group launder profits from drug trafficking and other crimes. The funds were allegedly used to ship cars from the US to West Africa, with the proceeds smuggled back to Lebanon. The US classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. "As we alleged last year, the Lebanese Canadian Bank played a key role in facilitating money laundering for Hezbollah-controlled organisations across the globe," the head...

Former GM Workers Sew Mouths Shut to Protest Work ConditionsPublished August 16, 2012 Fox News Latino Disabled workers from General Motors in Colombia have gone on a hunger strike and sewn their mouth shut with threads. The workers, who say they were injured on the job and then fired, want GM to give them other jobs. The workers, who’ve been camping out in front of the United States embassy in Bogotá for three weeks, say if they don’t get another job, they will die. “I have terrible pains in my stomach, my lips are swollen and sore, and I am...

The plea agreement drops robbery and battery charges against the man, who was to be released. A man who grabbed a stranger in downtown Roanoke in March pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted abduction. Mauricio Ramirez-Diaz, 22, initially had been charged with assault and battery and attempted robbery, but in June a Roanoke grand jury added abduction with attempt to defile and misdemeanor sexual battery to the counts against him. Through a plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed the robbery and battery charges and amended the abduction charge to a lesser felony. Ramirez-Diaz, who had been held since March, was given a two-year...

Excluding the cost of Colombian prostitutes for U.S. Secret Service agents, U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has discovered that hotel rooms and rental vehicles alone for President Obama's scandal-plagued trip to Colombia cost taxpayers nearly $1 million. Slated for inclusion in the presidential entourage had been "the Secretary of State, several other Cabinet members, and at least one CODEL," or congressional delegation, according to U.S. Department of State planning documents that the Monitor has obtained. The trip called for the rental of 1,046 hotel rooms at 13 separate establishments in Cartegena, Colombia, where the sixth annual Summit of the Americas...

One of the Colombian escorts at the center of the Secret Service scandal emerged from hiding today, recounting in detail her night in Cartagena with a member of President Obama's protective detail and saying she fears for her safety. Dania Suarez, a 24-year old dark-haired beauty, appeared on a call-in show carried by Colombia's W Radio and Carocol Television Friday morning, telling callers the agent was "heavily intoxicated" and everything in his luggage and his papers was left open in his room and could have been easily stolen.

What the Secret Service could learn from drunken sailors Roberto Loiederman, a merchant seaman from 1966 to 1974, is a writer in California. He co-authored “The Eagle Mutiny,” an account of the 1970 mutiny on a U.S. vessel. What happened in Cartagena, Colombia, with the Secret Service seems unsavory to me, but not for the reasons you might think. I make no judgments about men spending a night with escorts. As far as I’m concerned, those who take a holier-than-thou attitude about this are like Inspector Renault in “Casablanca” when he says he’s “shocked, shocked” to discover there is gambling...

It was easy to see this coming. When the news about Secret Service agents hooking up with prostitutes in Columbia first broke we were told there were 11 men (some reports had it at 12) being investigated. Immediately we heard six were kicked out leaving; five “still under investigation.” In this case “under investigation” meant being squeezed to see if they would break and roll on their partners. Three decided to clam up and take whatever was coming instead of turning on their teammates. That left two. Any good cop knows why those two weren’t immediately fired. They handed up...

The investigation into the Colombia prostitution scandal has broadened to include the White House Communications Agency, Nextgov has learned. Laura Williams, a spokeswoman for the Defense Information Systems Agency, which manages the White House office that provides the president with secure communications, confirmed that one individual from WHCA is under investigation, but could not provide any more details at this time.