Managua - Nicaragua has renewed an environmental permit for a Chinese company to go ahead with planned construction of a cross-country shipping canal to rival the one in Panama, a government document published Wednesday showed.

Ticuantepe - Thirteen tapirs lounge in the bushes of Ticuantepe Zoo, in eastern Nicaragua, their bellies plump with leaves and fruit -- blissfully unaware of the peril faced by their kind.

- Celebrity rights activist Bianca Jagger lent star power on Tuesday to a protest against the building of a major canal in her native Nicaragua.The 72-year-old is a former actress and ex-wife of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger.

Managua - A rural movement in Nicaragua that opposes the government's plan to build a cross-country canal to rival Panama's on Wednesday said it has taken its fight to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Nicaraguan featherweight challenger Daniel Diaz vowed to dethrone Filipino WBO International featherweight titlist Mark Magsayo in the upcoming Pinoy Pride 41 boxing event set for July 8 at the IEC Convention Center, Cebu City, Philippines.

Filipino rising star Mark Magsayo is set to defend his WBO International featherweight title against Daniel Diaz of Nicaragua in ALA Promotions "Pinoy Pride" series presentation on July 8 at the IEC Convention Center, Cebu City, Philippines.

Managua - A pastor and several followers were sentenced on Tuesday to 30 years in prison for a fatal exorcism in a remote part of Nicaragua in which a woman was thrown naked onto a fire.

Managua - A pastor who carried out an exorcism in remote Nicaragua that resulted in the death of a 25-year-old mother of two was on Tuesday found guilty of murder.

Managua - A Nicaraguan woman who was burned to death in an exorcism that caused worldwide shock was starved and beaten in the week before her killing, witnesses told a court Wednesday.

Juigalpa - Police in Nicaragua blocked thousands of farmers and rural residents from holding a march against a government plan to build a canal across the country, potentially carving up their land."They are closing off all the roads.

Managua - Nicaragua has restored diplomatic ties with Israel suspended nearly seven years ago when the Jewish state sent commandos to attack a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Rosita - In El Cortezal, a remote Nicaraguan village, the silence around an exorcism that left a young woman dead is as complete as the loyalty to the pastor who performed it.

Managua - An Argentine volcanologist and a Nicaraguan guide who fell into an active volcano were in good health Wednesday after being rescued by firemen, officials in Nicaragua said.

Managua - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega officially takes up his third successive term on Tuesday, this time with his wife as vice president as he tightens his decade-long grip over one of Latin America's poorest countries.

Managua - Thousands of Nicaraguans marched in their capital on Thursday to protest President Daniel Ortega's re-election last month, calling it an "electoral farce.

Managua - Nicaraguan police fired teargas and rubber bullets at a convoy of people protesting a giant cross-country canal project that threatens to boot them off their land, according to organizers.

Managua - Otto was downgraded to a tropical storm but not before striking Central America at hurricane force, as an offshore earthquake also shook the region.

- An intensifying hurricane poised to strike Nicaragua and Costa Rica on Thursday with powerful winds and heavy rains that are likely to trigger dangerous floods and mudslides.

- A Caribbean storm verging on a hurricane spun towards the coasts of Costa Rica and Nicaragua on Wednesday, prompting evacuations and red alerts ahead of "life-threatening" flash flooding.

Managua - Nicaragua's first couple, President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, breezed through elections that have extended their rule over one of the poorest countries in the Americas.