By Manuel Jimenez SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - An alleged leader of the New York arm of a global cyber crime ring, which stole $45 million from two Middle Eastern banks, was shot dead during an attempted robbery in the Dominican Republic last month, Dominican police said on Friday. Alberto Lajud-Pena, 23, was killed on April 27 in a house in the city of San Francisco de Macoris about 100 miles northeast of the capital, Santo Domingo, according to police. ...

By Jessica Dye, Joseph Ax and Jim Finkle NEW YORK/BOSTON (Reuters) - In one of the biggest ever bank heists, a global cyber crime ring stole $45 million from two Middle Eastern banks by hacking into credit card processing firms and withdrawing money from ATMs in 27 countries, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday. The U.S. Justice Department accused eight men of allegedly forming the New York-based cell of the organization, and said seven of them have been arrested. The eighth, allegedly a leader of the cell, was reported to have been murdered in the Dominican Republic on April 27. ...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Haitians have fled their troubled country for years, attempting to reach the U.S. or other Caribbean islands by heading north across the open sea or trekking across the island of Hispaniola to scratch out a living in the Dominican Republic.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A Chilean court's halt to construction of Barrick Gold Corp.'s $8 billion, border-straddling mine on the high spine of the Andes is only the latest setback in Latin America for the world's largest gold miner.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelans complain that what goes into their Sunday dinner plate comes from abroad: Steak, from Brazil; plantains, the Dominican Republic; rice, South Africa; Parmesan cheese, Uruguay; oats, Chile. Even coffee, in a country famed for it, often is Colombian.