RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian police on Friday surrounded an old Indian museum complex next to Rio de Janeiro's legendary Maracana football stadium in a bid to expel a group of indigenous people and their supporters to make way for works related to the World Cup. Several Indians armed with bows and arrows were posted on the roof of the large stone structure. Riot police clashed with supporters of several dozen Indians from throughout Brazil, some of whom have been squatting in the crumbling complex for years.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's last dictator, Reynaldo Benito Bignone, has received another sentence of life in prison, this time for human rights violations involving detainees inside the Campo de Mayo military base. As many as 5,000 so-called subversives were held inside the base during Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship. Most were killed and made to disappear. This trial ended with the 85-year-old Bignone convicted of illegal arrests, kidnapping, robbery, torture and murder against 23 of the detainees, including seven women who gave birth inside the clandestine prison.

LONDON (AP) — Some marked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's death with tears; others with cheers. There was deep mourning in Latin America, condolences from Europe and Asia and, from Iran's president, predictions of great works in the afterlife. President Barack Obama, meanwhile, focused on "a new chapter" for Venezuela, following 14 years in which Chavez cast himself as a bulwark against U.S. domination.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Elba Esther Gordillo began her career as a school teacher and became one of Mexico's most flamboyant and powerful political operators, displaying her opulence openly with designer clothes and bags.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan students protested in chains outside the Cuban Embassy in Caracas on Thursday, condemning what they say is the Caribbean nation's meddling in their country's affairs while President Hugo Chavez remains on the island undergoing cancer treatment. Some students exchanged shoves with police in anti-riot gear outside the embassy. Protesters sang the Venezuelan national anthem, wearing chains and cords wrapped around their bodies and bound with locks in a representation of what they view as a government beholden to Cuba's interests.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Just over a week since a nightclub fire killed nearly 240 revelers in southern Brazil, Carnival festivities hit full stride Friday, raising questions about the safety of those who will pack party spaces across the nation. In the days following the deadly blaze at the Kiss club in the university town of Santa Maria, authorities across Brazil increased fire inspections and closed dozens of clubs in many major cities, mostly citing problems with the establishments' paperwork.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — In a country riven by political strife, Venezuela's military often has served as the arbiter of power. It has launched coups and frustrated them and dispatched soldiers to guarantee stability, distributing food, fighting crime and securing oil fields. Now with President Hugo Chavez battling for his life, the stance of the 134,000-strong armed forces again will be crucial.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Nothing shows the extent of Hugo Chavez's grip on power quite as clearly as his absence from his own inauguration Thursday. Venezuela gathered foreign allies and tens of thousands of exuberant supporters to celebrate a new term for a leader too ill to return home for a real swearing-in.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — It's been a decade since Argentina tarnished its reputation worldwide and became an economic misfit by engaging in the biggest sovereign debt default in history, yet it is still haunted by the old bonds. Although Argentina's government restructured nearly all of the debt defaulted in the 2001 economic crisis, President Cristina Fernandez finds herself in a bitter U.S. court fight with holdout creditors that has raised the threat of severe financial repercussions.