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Rolling Stone published Friday its first special in Spanish on Latin music, which includes a list of the 10 best Latin albums in history and spotlights influential figures in other fields of the arts like literature and acting.

With rapper Pitbull on a title page that kicks off the special, the magazine goes into detail about the growing strength of Hispanic culture.

Rolling Stone considers the 1994 album “Re” by Mexico’s Cafe Tacuba to be the best Latin disc in history, while Santana‘s 1970 disc “Abraxas” is ranked No. 10.

The Hispanic special also features articles on Pitbull, Maluca, Bomba Estereo and the hip-hop duo Calle 13.

Other talents singled out for their work and influence on Latino culture include actors Alexa Vega and Andres Parra, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Junot Diaz and illustrator Catalina Estrada.

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Fourteen federal police officers will be charged with attempted homicide for the Aug. 24 attack on a U.S. Embassy vehicle that left two American government security experts wounded, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said Friday.

A dozen cops were detained immediately after the incident and two more were taken into custody last month.

It was only the embassy vehicle’s armor plating that saved the lives of the two U.S. officials and the Mexican marine accompanying them, the AG’s office said.

Investigators found 152 bullet holes in the vehicle.

Ballistics evidence proved the bullets came from the service weapons of the 14 accused officers, who were dressed in plainclothes and traveling in their personal vehicles at the time of the attack, the AG’s office said.

Several of the accused cops were not involved in the shooting, but did take part in an attempted cover-up, according to prosecutors.

The assault took place on a road in the central Mexican state of Morelos.

The U.S. agents left Mexico shortly after the attack without giving statements to investigators.

The AG’s office said Friday that the U.S. Embassy cooperated with the probe.

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Cuban-American rapper Pitbull on Nov. 19 will release his latest album, “Global Warming,” featuring contributions from guest artists such as Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias, Usher and Chris Brown.

“Global Warming” is a collection of the most representative songs of the Miami native, including “Feel This Moment,” which he performs with Aguilera; “Drinks For You ‘Ladies Anthem,’” with J.Lo; “Tchu Tchu Tcha,” with Iglesias; and “Hope We Meet Again,” with Brown.

It also includes Pitbull’s current single “Don’t Stop The Party,” which he performs with TJR, as well as a song from the comedy “Men In Black 3.”

The artist, who sold more than 1.4 million copies of his earlier album “Planet Pit,” on Nov. 27 will release the DVD “Pitbull: Live At Rock In Rio,” which contains a live concert that the rapper gave in that Brazilian city this past summer.

Pitbull will be performing at the upcoming Latin Grammy awards in Las Vegas and on the American Music Awards.

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A Texas woman is scheduled to appear in court on November 13 for allegedly beating her little sister over snack food.

Police say Deby Mejia’s dislike for her little sister is so intense that something like seeing her eating a bag of Cheetos causes immense rage.

On October 11, Mejia, 23, went to the store, leaving her 10-uear-old sister behind. When she returned home, police say the sight of seeing her sister eating a bag of Cheetos she had gotten from a neighbor. For some reason, the sight sent Mejia into a rage and she began whipping her sister with an extension cord.

Mejia continued the beating by grabbing the girl’s hair and slamming her head on the floor until she was unconscious. She then kicked her sister multiple times.

After the girl showed up to school covered in bruises, officials called police to report the alleged abuse. When investigators spoke with the girl, she reportedly told them she was thinking about committing suicide. The school said this was not the first time they had seen the girl with injuries, and had reported it to CPS.

Mejia was arrested and told police she hated her sister, wished she had never been born, and maintained that she had not done anything wrong. She said she resented being forced to care for her sister when she was still a teenager.

The sister had been under Mejia’s care since their mother was deported to Honduras in 2006.

CPS spokeswoman Estella Olguin told KENS 5, “Apparently this was not a one-time incident. It was a common occurrence.” However, she added, “Had we received a report that a child was caring for a child, that a minor was caring for another minor, that would be something we would definitely get involved and work with ICE.”

Mejia has been booked into Harris County Jail on the charge of felony injury to a child. Her bond was set at $60,000.

Neighbors told police abuse of the girl was not uncommon, one even saying she had seen Mejia force the girl to balance of water on her head while kneeling on a bag of rice.

The younger sister has since turned 11, and is currently in foster care.

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An aspiring journalist was killed in Tegucigalpa Thursday when he resisted assailants who wanted to take his laptop computer, Honduran police said.

Angel Edgardo Lopez, 35, was slain in the downtown Tegucigalpa neighborhood of La Hoya.

The assailants were apparently riding on motorcycles, a police officer told reporters.

Lopez, a journalist student, was a member of the Honduras Biblical Society and worked for several years at Estereo Luz radio in Tegucigalpa.

Honduras’s 2011 homicide rate of 92 murders per 100,000 people was one of the highest in the world, a recent U.N. report said.

About 18 violent deaths occur in the Central American country daily, according to figures compiled by the National Police and human rights groups.

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Singer Lady Gaga on Thursday played soccer and sang with children in a slum in Rio de Janeiro, where she is set to perform this week.

Lady Gaga visited Cantagalo, a “favela” (shantytown) located on a hill in Rio’s Copacabana neighborhood just three blocks from the luxury beach hotel where she is staying.

The New York-born pop performer was outfitted in a light Japanese-style print robe, wore a pink wig and long false orange fingernails, according to media reports.

She played barefoot soccer with some of the kids in the slum, sang her number “Born this way” with dozens of the children and familiarized herself firsthand with the social project being undertaken in the area by Brazil’s Globo television in association with the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Earlier, the often outlandish singer greeted her fans from the balcony of her hotel apparently dressed only in a jersey of the Brazilian national soccer team, and she hung up a sign on which she declared her love for Rio de Janeiro.

Gaga will sing on Friday in Rio and two days later she will perform in Sao Paulo.

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At the end of season 2 of the Oxygen network’s The Glee Project Cuban-American singing/actor Blake Jenner hilariously described himself as “the whitest half Cuban ever.”

Jenner went on to win the season and this week, he made his first appearance on Fox’s Glee.

Check out Jenner as football player Ryder Lynn singing “Jukebox Hero” on Thursday night’s episode.

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In an effort to develop new food innovations and learn about leading cuisine trends, PepsiCo announced its partnership with the ‘World’s Greatest Chef’ Spain’s Ferran Adriá last year.

This week, the company released a limited edition can with Adriá’s image on it. The can is to honor his participation in the company’s El Ser Creativo, Congreso de Mentes Brillantes, and the faces of five others who participated in the congress are also being featured on the cans.

Those featured are members of the 21 “international leaders” who met this week, each giving a 21-minute presentation about societal issues of today.

The cans are being raffled off through a Twitter competition.

The Spanish-language press release about the congress can been read here.

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Season 3 of The Voice had its first live elimination Thursday night and the competition’s Latino singers saw both heartache and love from their fans.

With five members still on each team and everyone looking to make it to the top 12 next week, the performers had to show their judges and the audience why they deserved to say.

At the start of the week, the teams stood as follows:

Team Adam (#TeamAdam)

Bryan Keith (Hernandez) – the talented-in-his-own-right son of Grammy winner Ray de la Paz (Spanish Harlem Orchestra)

Amanda Brown – the superstar voice with a rocker edge who sang backup for Adele and Alicia Keys

Melanie Martinez –the quirky high schooler with a knack for making any song her own

Joselyn Rivera – the 17-year-old budding pop star with a big voice

Loren Allred – the former wedding singer who studied at Berklee College of Music

Team Christina (#TeamXtina)

Sylvia Yacoub - the Egytian-born powerhouse with an equally strong softer side

Devyn DeLoera – the shy home-schooled belter who used music to come out of her shell.

Adriana Louise (Figueroa) – the nervous New Yorker who gives compelling performances with her big voice

De’Borah – the Chicago “church kid” with an impressively unique style

Dez Duran – the former Yale football player with good looks and a smooth voice

Team Blake (#TeamBlake)

Terry McDermott – the skilled rocker from Ireland

Michaela Paige – the 16-year-old radio show host who can sing the pants off many

Cassadee Pope – the former lead singer of Hello Monday looking to prove she can make it on her own

Julio Cesar Castillo – the Spanish-singing Chicago native with Mariachi roots

Liz Davis – the country singer with attitude and a killer set of pipes not unlike Miranda Lambert (Blake’s wife)

Team Ceelo (#TeamCeelo)

Trevin Hunt – the shy 18-year-old learning that with his judge-favorite voice, all he needs is confidence

MacKenzie Bourg – the teen heartthrob who overcame congestive heart failure just last year

Nicholas David – the unsuspecting crooner with a deep, cool voice that surprises listeners every time

Cody Belew – the quirky country singer with excitement and falsetto in his heart

Diego Val – the Peruvian rocker who overcame childhood illness and decided to give back by singing at children’s hospital

Coming in to Thursday night’s live elimination, the singers were told only three would be moving on to next week’s show – two voted in by viewers and a third chosen by their coach.

The results:

Team Adam:
Eliminated – Loren Allred, Joselyn Rivera

Moving on – Bryan Keith, Melanie Martinez, Amanda Brown

Team Xtina
Eliminated – De-Borah, Devin DeLoera

Moving on – Adriana Louise, Sylivia Yacoub, Dez Duron

Team Blake
Eliminated – Julio Cesar Castillo, Liz Davis

Moving on – Terry McDermott, Michaela Paige, Cassadee Pope

Team Ceelo
Eliminated – Diego Val, MacKenzie Bourg

Moving on – Trevin Hunt, Nicholas David, Cody Belew

In the end, three Latinos were voted off, but three still remain – Bryan, Adriana, and Melanie.

Be sure to watch and vote for your favorites when The Voice returns on Monday and Tuesday on NBC at 8/7c.

You can check out the full elimination episode below.

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Spain’s Iberia will shed 4,500 jobs, nearly a quarter of its 20,000-strong workforce, as part of a series of permanent structural changes to salvage the airline, its parent company said Friday.

The restructuring plan for Iberia, which posted a record operating loss of 262 million euros ($340 million) for the first nine months of 2012, is aimed at restoring profitability, the International Airlines Group, formed in 2011 by the merger of Iberia and British Airways, said in a filing with Spain’s CNMV stock market regulator.

The announcement of Iberia’s restructuring, which also will involve eliminating 25 airplanes - mostly short-haul aircraft - and reducing operating capacity by 15 percent in 2013, coincides with the release Friday of IAG’s third-quarter results.

The holding company lost 39 million euros ($50 million) in the first nine months of the year - due in large part to troubles at Iberia - after posting a 338 million euro profit for the same period of 2011.

IAG said a Jan. 31, 2013, deadline has been set for reaching a deal with the unions, but that if no agreement is signed more job cuts and a greater reduction in Iberia’s size and operations will be necessary to safeguard the company’s future.

Iberia CEO Rafael Sanchez-Lozano acknowledged that the plan is harsh, but said if profound structural changes are not put in place the “company’s future is bleak.”

He said Iberia was losing money at the tune of 1.7 million euros ($2.1 million) per day across all of its markets.

Although the sovereign debt crisis battering Spain - and much of the rest of Europe - has affected Iberia, the airline’s problems are structural and predate the country’s current economic woes, Sanchez-Lozano said.

Spain’s two largest labor federations, the CCOO and UGT, and the Sepla pilots’ union rejected the restructuring plan for Iberia.

Francisco Rodriguez, who heads the UGT’s airline division, said it would dismantle the company and places exclusive blame for “management’s failure” on the workers.

Rodriguez, who said Iberia informed the unions that the changes are not negotiable, slammed the plan as “radical” and told reporters that it “deserves a radical response,” although he did not elaborate.

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When Democrats tried to get the DREAM Act and a path to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants through Congress in 2010, Republicans blocked the immigration reform measure in the Senate. But after a campaign in which GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney staked out harsh anti-immigration positions, and with President Obama winning 75 percent of Latino voters, several key leaders in the Republican party are coming out in favor of immigration reform:

House Speaker John Boehner (OH): Saying the issue has been around for far too long, Boehner said in an ABC interview that “I’m confident that the president, myself, others can find the common ground to take care of this issue once and for all.”

Former Gov. Haley Barbour (MS): Haley argued on the “Today” show that Republicans need to be in favor of good policy. “And good policy on immigration in the United States is, we are in a global battle for capital and labor, and we need to have what is good economic policy for America on immigration because we do need labor,” he said. “We not only need Ph.Ds in science and technology, we need skilled workers and we need unskilled workers. And we need to have an immigration policy that is good economic policy, and then — and then the politics will take care of itself.”

Radio host Sean Hannity: On his radio show Thursday, Hannity told his listeners that he has “evolved” on immigration policy and now supports a “pathway to citizenship.” The problem can’t go on, he added. “It’s simple to me to fix it,” Hannity said. “I think you control the border first. You create a pathway for those people that are here — you don’t say you’ve got to go home. And that is a position that I’ve evolved on. Because, you know what, it’s got to be resolved. The majority of people here, if some people have criminal records you can send them home, but if people are here, law-abiding, participating for years, their kids are born here, you know, first secure the border, pathway to citizenship, done.”

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), who is running for the chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told Politico that Republicans will have to change how they reach out to Latino voters. “In some fashion, the way we have dealt with immigration gives us a black eye. And we need to figure out how to talk about issues and pursue policies that matter to Latino, Hispanic voters,” he said. And that’s clear from the exit poll results. Among Latino voters, immigration was the second most important issue behind jobs. Sixty percent of Latinos in the U.S. know someone who is an undocumented immigrant, and 90 percent are within two generations of immigrating to the U.S. After Romney spent most of his campaign embracing harmful immigration policies, most Latino voters reported that they thought Romney was “hostile toward Latinos,” while 66 percent said they believe Obama “truly cares about Latinos.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Senate Immigration, Refugees and Border Security Subcommittee, described it as a “breakthrough” that Boehner is willing to work on immigration reform, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) has vowed to pass an immigration law. But other GOP congressional members have been resistant to reform in the past — House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) previously has promised to not hold a hearing on the DREAM Act — so it has yet to be seen if more Republicans will come around on immigration reform as well.

Read more at Think Progress →

Hundreds of thousands of Argentines took to the streets in different parts of the country to protest President Cristina Fernandez’s policies, a mass demonstration organized on social-networking sites.

Marchers gathered Thursday at the Obelisk of Buenos Aires, a city icon and epicenter of the protests in this capital, chanting slogans accusing Fernandez of lying to the people.

One large group, greeted as they made their way along the street by the blowing of horns and banging of pots and tambourines, arrived at that landmark carrying a massive, 200-meter-long (655-foot-long) flag.

Although official figures on the number of demonstrators have not yet been released, local media put the total at hundreds of thousands of people.

The protests lasted just over two hours in most of the country, although in Buenos Aires a group of people made their way from the Obelisk to the emblematic Plaza de Mayo square outside the presidential palace.

The demonstrations took place peacefully nationwide except for a few isolated incidents.

As in a previous nationwide protest on Sept. 13, marchers demanded greater public safety amid constant media reports about violent home robberies and other crimes, respect for freedom of the press and an independent judiciary.

They also denounced high inflation, the government’s currency controls and a possible constitutional amendment that would allow Fernandez to run for a third term in 2015.

Huge protests also were held Thursday night in cities in the country’s interior such as Cordoba, Salta, Rosario, Tucuman, Mendoza, Santa Fe, La Plata and San Carlos de Bariloche.

Government supporters, meanwhile, denounced the marches as an attempt by the opposition to destabilize the government.

Fernandez, for her part, hailed Argentina’s “total democracy” on Thursday and urged opposition leaders to reveal their true intentions.

The president, whose late husband and predecessor Nestor Kirchner came to power in 2003 amid one of the worst economic and social crises in the country’s history, was first elected in October 2007 and then won a second term in a landslide last year.

But her approval rating has plunged over the past 12 months, according to the latest survey by private consulting firm Management & Fit.

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U.S. heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. began construction Thursday on a $500 million factory in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon.

The investment will generate 1,000 direct jobs, Caterpillar Mexico chief Ron Riekena said during the ceremonial laying of the cornerstone for what will be the company’s largest plant in Latin America.

Also present for the event was Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina.

The facility, located at an industrial park in Cienega de Flores, will produce components for Caterpillar’s off-highway trucks, excavators and bulldozers, Riekena said.

Construction should be completed in late 2014, the executive said, attributing Caterpillar’s choice of the Nuevo Leon site to the state’s good infrastructure and transport links and its skilled workforce.

The Peoria, Illinois-based firm had profits of $4.9 billion last year, up 82 percent over 2010, thanks to increased demand for its products.

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Microsoft aims to create a “technology hub” in Rio de Janeiro, the head of the U.S. software giant’s Brazil division said here Thursday, a day after the company announced plans for a 200 million reais ($100 million) research center in a city better known for beaches and its annual Carnival.

“We hope to stimulate a flow of knowledge among the Microsoft research teams, local universities, emerging firms and the Brazilian market,” Michel Levy told a press conference.

The Advanced Technology Laboratory in Rio will be Microsoft’s fourth such facility worldwide and its first in Latin America.

The complex will also house an accelerator for business startups and a local operations center for the company’s Bing search engine, Microsoft said.

Every two years, the accelerator will select 15 Internet startups to receive administrative, technological and financial support. Each firm will be eligible for financing up to 1 million reais ($500,000).

Though the laboratory will not be ready before the end of next year, the Microsoft business accelerator is due to become operational by the second quarter of 2013.

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An Argentine judge has embargoed the assets of U.S. oil supermajor Chevron Corp. in the South American country, a victory for plaintiffs trying to collect on a $19 billion judgment against the company in Ecuador for environmental damage.

Judge Adrian Elcuj Miranda on Wednesday upheld a petition by an Ecuadorian court that was filed under the terms of a regional treaty, the attorney for the plaintiffs in Argentina, Enrique Bruchou, said in a press conference.

The goal of the 47 named Ecuadorian plaintiffs is to collect on a $19 billion sum that Chevron has been ordered to pay for irreversible environmental damage between 1964 and the early 1990s by Texaco.

The plaintiffs represent some 30,000 rainforest villagers and Indians who say Texaco, which Chevron acquired in 2001, spoiled their lands and damaged their health by dumping billions of gallons of toxic drilling waste in a 480,000-hectare (1,850-sq.-mile) area of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

They are seeking to enforce those rulings in countries such as Argentina, Canada and Brazil because Chevron has few assets in Ecuador.

The embargo covers 100 percent of Chevron Argentina’s stock - valued at roughly $2 billion - and all of its dividends -, its 14 percent stake in the company Oleoductos del Valle, 40 percent of the company’s oil sales to refineries and 40 percent of the funds it has deposited in Argentine banks, he said.

Chevron is the fourth-largest oil producer in Argentina with output of 35,000 barrels per day in 2011, according to the company’s Web site.

James Craig, Chevron’s spokesman for Latin America, told Efe that all of the oil company’s operations in Argentina are conducted by subsidiaries and that the plaintiffs have no right to attach subsidiary assets.

The case in Ecuador is currently before the National Court of Justice in Quito, but the sentence is already enforceable because Chevron has refused to post a bond with the high court to prevent enforcement of an appellate court’s judgment.

On Oct. 16, an Ecuadorian judge issued a ruling ordering the U.S. multinational to turn over its assets in the Andean nation, which the plaintiffs say total some $200 million.

The pollution case was initially filed in New York in 1993, but Chevron succeeded in having it moved from the United States to Ecuador in 2003, four years before President Rafael Correa came to power amid voter anger at corruption and traditional politicians.

But Chevron now says that the case has become politicized under the leftist Correa and that it cannot receive a fair trial.

Although the oil company maintains that Texaco was cleared of any liability for damages, plaintiffs say that mid-1990s agreement with the government did not release it from third-party claims and that Chevron is reneging on its pledge to abide by whatever decision was handed down by Ecuadorian courts.

Chevron said on its Web site after the initial 2011 verdict by a court in the Ecuadorian Amazon town of Lago Agrio that state oil company Petroecuador should be the target of local communities’ legal action.

It noted then that Texaco ceased operating in Ecuador in 1992 and that Petroecuador has been “the sole and exclusive owner and operator of greatly expanded operations in the area from (that year) to the present.”

Chevron has appealed the Ecuador pollution verdict to the World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID.

The San Ramon, California-based company also has brought legal action in a U.S. federal court in New York against the plaintiffs’ U.S. and Ecuadorian lawyers for violations of the federal racketeering statute, accusing them of trying to extort a financial settlement from the company.

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Officials from the European Union and 11 Latin American nations gathered here Thursday at the headquarters of the World Trade Organization to sign a pact ending a two-decade-long dispute over banana tariffs.

“This is a truly historic moment,” WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said after witnessing the signing. “After so many twists and turns, these complicated and politically contentious disputes can finally be put to bed.”

The Latin American nations represented at the event in Geneva were Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela and Peru.

The documents signed Thursday formalize commitments set out in the 2009 Geneva Banana Agreement, crafted by negotiators from the EU, Latin America and the United States.

Under the accord, the EU pledges to gradually reduce tariffs on banana imports from 176 euros ($224) per metric ton to 114 euros ($145) over the course of eight years.

It was Costa Rica that fired the first shot in what came to be known as the “banana war,” filing a complaint in 1991 against the EU policy of giving preferential treatment to imports of agricultural goods from Europe’s former colonies.

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