Dec. 20 is a national day of mourning in Panama in memory of the victims of the 1989 US invasion of the country. At the time, it was the largest invasion since Vietnam and the first after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the US, it was heralded as liberating the country from dictator Manuel Noriega, a former US ally. But in Panama, many saw it as something much different. The victims of the US action are still demanding justice.
The widening of the Panama Canal is nearing completion, and could be ready to allow bigger ships to pass through next year. But a European consortium constructing the new locks says it wants more money to finish the job.
A multibillion-dollar expansion of the Panama Canal is proving a boon to scientists. The construction has revealed a trove of fossils, revealing a wide array of creatures that lived at the southern end of North America 20 millions years ago.