Regional News

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela raised its minimum wage to 1 million bolivars per month yesterday, the third increase this year that puts the figure at just $1.61 at the black market exchange rate.

(Barbados Nation) Queen’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim has apologised to Magistrate Graveney Bannister following an outburst in the Bridgetown Traffic Court last Friday.

(Jamaica Observer) SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — As news spread on Friday that four decomposing bodies had been discovered in a sandy stream bed in Pennants, northern Clarendon, family members and friends of four missing St Elizabeth men set off for that distant place, hoping against hope.

(Trinidad Guardian) Two alleged robbers are dead while another remains at large following a failed robbery attempt in Petit Valley on Friday.

(Barbados Nation) An outburst by a Queen’s Counsel who ended his tirade with an expletive left those in the Bridgetown Traffic Court in shock on Friday.

(Trinidad Express) Two men who were charged with murdering a Chaguanas man and raping his female friend during a robbery in Chaguanas in 2005, will spend just about 11 more years in prison custody before being released back into the free world.

(Barbados Nation) Voters now have to face the presiding officer and the polling clerk when they go to put their “x” in the upcoming May 24 general elections.

MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Russia’s Rusal will be forced to quit the global aluminium market and focus on domestic consumers if the U.S.

SOCOPO, Venezuela, (Reuters) – It is mid-morning on a weekday yet all that can be heard in the once-bustling corridors of the Orlando Garcia state primary school is the swish of palm trees outside in the wind.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – The Inter-American Court of Human Rights yesterday began hearing the first case of alleged state-led human rights violations in Mexico to be brought since the country militarized its battle against violent drug cartels over a decade ago.

(Trinidad Express) Guyanese writer Imam Baksh was last night presented with the 2018 CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature.

(Reuters) – U.S. oil major Chevron Corp has evacuated executives from Venezuela after two of its workers were imprisoned over a contract dispute with state-owned oil company PDVSA, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

(Trinidad Guardian) Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon and Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi yesterday met with the United Nations Resident Coordinator Richard Blewitt and Protection Officer of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ruben Barbado, over last Saturday’s repatriation of 82 Venezuelans.

(Trinidad Express) Teachers will no longer mark the School Based Assessment (SBA) from September unless compensated, says President of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) Lynsley Doodhai.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Mining Minister, Robert Montague, yesterday told Parliament that the Government is lobbying the U.S.

(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday urged T&T nationals in the United Kingdom to return home and help fight crime by sharing their experiences and expertise.

(Trinidad Guardian) The steelpan fraternity has been plunged into mourning after an avid bass players of the Invaders Steel Orchestra was killed while trying to run away from a robbery in progress yesterday.

The United Nations System in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday expressed concern after authorities in  Twin-Island Republic announced they had facilitated the return to Venezuela of scores of Venezuelan citizens, including asylum seekers, who had been in detention.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro became on Saturday the first foreign leader to meet with Cuba’s Miguel Diaz-Canel since he became president of the communist-run island this week, underscoring the importance of the Venezuelan-Cuban alliance.

(Trinidad Guardian) A Venezuelan military aircraft landed at Piarco International Airport yesterday to take back 82 nationals to their homeland.