Regional News

(Trinidad Express) After months of internal investigations, State owned Petrotrin has fired hospitality officer turned oil transfer specialist Vidya Deokiesingh.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – A Brazilian court yesterday approved the seizure of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s passport, the Justice Ministry said, after an appeals court upheld the corruption conviction of the left-wing hero.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Venezuela’s planned presidential election undermines the oil exporter’s democratic constitutional order and the results will not be accepted as legitimate, a senior U.S.

(Trinidad Express) A taxi cab company owner is Tobago’s first murder victim for the year.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – Members of Venezuela’s leftist government and opposition leaders will meet next week for another round of talks in the Dominican Republic, the Dominican foreign ministry announced yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) More workers are expected to go on the breadline with the announcement yesterday by Caribbean Nitrogen Company [CNC] that it has been forced to immediately shut down its ammonia plant on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate.

A former model in St Vincent and the Grenadines is under a court-ordered evaluation at the island chain’s Mental Health Centre after she was taken before the court for using abusive language to the wife of the Finance Minister, who is the son of Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, according to Iwitness News.

(Trinidad Express) Sarah Joseph has been identified as the woman whose body was found wrapped in a sheet in Cunupia on Monday.

(Trinidad Guardian) Fifty five years after it was formed by legendary calypsonian Lord Kitchener, the Kalypso Revue tent is set to close due to financial constraints.

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) has signalled its interest in working with China to ascertain how its goals and priorities can be best linked with existing, new and emerging development initiatives from the East Asian country.

A status report issued by the Caricom Regional Marijuana Commission says that the subject of ganja has emerged as an issue of social significance across the region.

(Trinidad Express) A Sangre Grande man was shot dead in his bed yesterday morning.

SANTIAGO,  (Reuters) – China invited Latin American and Caribbean countries to join its “One Belt, One Road” initiative yesterday, as part of an agreement to deepen economic and political cooperation in a region where U.S.

PORTO ALEGRE,  (Reuters) – Brazilian politicians, voters and investors will find out on Wednesday whether an appeals court will allow the country’s most popular leader, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to run for president this year after being found guilty of accepting a bribe.

(Trinidad Express) A fourth killing has happened in less than 24 hours.

RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – The number of confirmed cases of yellow fever outbreak in Brazil has tripled in recent weeks, with 20 deaths since July, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

(Trinidad Guardian) Education Minister Anthony Garcia says the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) is of the view that the organisation is “overstaffed and to run the university efficiently it will mean they have to trim fat.”

LIMA,  (Reuters) – Pope Francis celebrated an open air Mass for more than 1 million people yesterday, ending a trip to Chile and Peru marked by tough talk on political corruption but a backlash over what many see as his insufficient resolve to tackle sexual abuse in the Church.

GUATEMALA CITY,  (Reuters) – Former Guatemalan presidential candidate Manuel Baldizon, who is wanted on graft charges, has sought asylum in the United States after he was arrested while trying to enter the country, authorities from both nations said.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – There were more than 25,000 murders across drug-ravaged Mexico in 2017, the highest annual tally since modern records began, government data showed.