GULF OIL SPILL

NEW ORLEANS — More than five years after the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history fouled beaches, coated seabirds in thick goo and seeped into delicate marshes, BP is preparing to pay a record $18.7 billion to affected states in hopes of closing a legal drama that has cost the company billions. 

TENNESSEE TRAIN FIRE

MARYVILLE, Tennessee — A CSX train car carrying hazardous material derails and cautches fire in the middle of the night in eastern Tennessee, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people and sending dozens to the hospital with respiratory issues and nausea. 

VATICAN-SOUTH AMERICA

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is taking his "church for the poor" to three of South America's poorest and most peripheral countries, on a trip that will showcase the pontiff at his unpredictable best: speaking his native Spanish on his home turf about issues closest to his heart. 

PRESIDENTIAL RACE-TRUMP

WASHINGTON — Hispanic leaders are warning of harm to Republican White House hopes unless the party's presidential contenders do more to condemn Donald Trump, a businessman turned presidential candidate who's refusing to apologize for calling Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers. 

US-RUSSIA-WHAT WENT WRONG-ANALYSIS

WASHINGTON — The stumbles, blunders and policy chaos that have sent increasingly frosty U.S.-Russia relations into what many now call a new Cold War might have been inevitable.

BRAZIL-SLUM SURFING-PHOTO GALLERY

RIO DE JANEIRO — It's dawn and barefoot boys are hustling down the inclined alleys of the Rocinha slum, surfboards in hand. They're heading to a free surfing school meant to keep them on the waves and away from lives of drugs and crime. 

MEXICO-ARMY SLAYINGS

MEXICO CITY — A Mexican human rights group says military documents show high-ranking officers had given soldiers standing orders to kill criminals ahead of an army mass slaying of suspected drug cartel members after they surrendered.