Sansalvador - Central America's "northern triangle" -- consisting of its most crime-ridden nations -- waged a coordinated crackdown this week on two major gangs infamous for extortion, murder and violence: Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18.

Sansalvador - A court in El Salvador sentenced a teenage rape victim whose baby died at birth to 30 years' jail for murder, an abortion rights group said Friday.

Sansalvador - El Salvador on Thursday became the first country in the world to ban the mining of metals in what campaigners called a landmark move for environmental protection.

Sansalvador - El Salvador's main zoo is in trouble for claiming a hippo died of a brutal stabbing attack by unidentified people, when an autopsy finally revealed the animal in fact died of possible poor care.

Fort Worth - U.S. immigration officers forcibly removed a Salvadoran asylum seeker in desperate need of brain surgery from a Texas hospital on Wednesday and transferred her to a for-profit prison without contact with her family and almost no access to her lawyers.

- Inside a Salvadaron prison Francisco Lopez teaches fellow ex-gang members how to make paper figurines, as part of a program designed to reinsert them into society once they are released.

Sansalvador - El Salvador on Tuesday became the second Central American country to receive tens of millions of dollars in US aid to fight the root causes forcing its citizens to emigrate.

Sansalvador - Relatives of more than 1,000 people murdered in the worst massacre of El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war are to be given up to $35,000 each by a compensation commission set up Tuesday, the government said.

Sansalvador - Central America's northern three countries -- Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras -- remain among the most violent in the world despite intensified security crackdowns on their lawless gangs.

Sansalvador - A former president of El Salvador who is detained pending trial for alleged embezzlement was transferred to an ordinary jail Tuesday.

A few days ago, police in El Salvador said it had gone a full 24 hours without any murders, which is rare in a country that has been plagued by gang warfare.

Sansalvador - A Pacific Ocean earthquake with a 7.0 magnitude shook El Salvador and Nicaragua on Thursday, officials said, an hour after a powerful hurricane hit Nicaragua's Caribbean coast.

Sansalvador - Former El Salvador president Elias Antonio Saca will be kept in jail pending trial on charges of embezzling millions of dollars while in power, prosecutors said Saturday.

Sansalvador - A former president of El Salvador, Elias Antonio Saca, arrested with six other people over the weekend, stole $246 million from state coffers, the Central American nation's chief state prosecutor said Monday.

Sansalvador - Police in El Salvador arrested the country's ex-president Elias Antonio Saca and six other suspects including three serving government officials on Sunday for alleged embezzlement and money laundering, authorities said.

Sansalvador - Three Central American presidents announced Wednesday they are forming a joint force to combat gangs and organized crime groups that have made their countries among the most dangerous on Earth.

Sansalvador - Central America's relentless struggle with gangs and street crime has created a worrying consequence: prisons so overcrowded they serve more as schools for felons than institutions for rehabilitation, according to experts.

Sansalvador - The Supreme Court in El Salvador has declared unconstitutional an amnesty law that protected perpetrators of crimes committed during the country's 1980-1992 civil war.

Sansalvador - More than 3,000 people were violently killed in El Salvador in the first half of this year, according to the latest official figures.

Sansalvador - In many countries, tattoos are simple adornment, a small sign of unconventionality, of minor rebellion. In El Salvador, however, they are usually the mark of gang members who live -- and often die -- by codes of violence.