Regional News

(Trinidad Guardian) A night of karaoke fun turned deadly when masked men sprayed bullets into a crowded bar in Marabella on Wednesday night, killing three patrons.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – A new package of U.S. disaster assistance sailed through the House of Representatives yesterday, despite President Donald Trump expressing impatience with having to devote federal resources for hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico’s recovery.

BOGOTA,  (Reuters) – A peace deal between Colombia and Marxist FARC rebels is being threatened by drug trafficking and cultivation of coca, the base ingredient for cocaine, a peace official said yesterday, in the wake of a confrontation between coca farmers and police that killed seven.

  FALLS CHURCH, Va.,  (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Thursday the policies that allow immigrants to seek asylum in the United States were broken and subject to “rampant abuse and fraud.”

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil’s federal audit court yesterday ordered a freeze of former President Dilma Rousseff’s assets as well as those of José Sérgio Gabrielli, ex-head of state-run oil company Petrobras, over a $580 million loss in the 2006 purchase of a Texas refinery.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. federal government is working on a long-term plan to help Puerto Rico rebuild after Hurricane Maria tore up the island territory’s power grid and other infrastructure three weeks ago, an administration official said yesterday.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – U.S. and Mexican CEOs gathered in Mexico City yesterday said it would be better to live with no North American Free Trade Agreement than be saddled with a bad deal, as industry braces for the end of a treaty that drives $1 trillion in annual trade.

(Trinidad Guardian) Three men who robbed a woodwork shop in Cunupia were all shot and killed by responding police officers last evening.

RIO DE JANEIRO,  (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A Brazilian activist on Tuesday won a top international honor for her long fight against a giant hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rainforest that has forced tens of thousands of indigenous people from their homes.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – A Brazilian congressional report recommended yesterday that President Michel Temer should not face trial for obstruction of justice and membership in a criminal organization, arguing that the charges against him were unfounded.

(Trinidad Express) The wife of Rio Claro businessman Larry Garcia appeared in court yesterday charged with his murder.

BARINAS, Venezuela, (Reuters) – Tirelessly traversing the lethargic plains of Venezuela, a brother of former leader Hugo Chavez and an ally of a famous opposition detainee vie for votes.

(Trinidad Guardian) Plans for birthday celebrations turned to funeral arrangements yesterday, after prison officer Richard Sandy was killed by an ex-convict he knew while liming at a bar in Gasparillo.

– UN Secretary General   Touring hurricane-devastated Dominica yesterday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says the level of support the island now needs cannot be attained through traditional instruments.

(Trinidad Guardian) There are people in this country who are hoarding foreign currency in the hope that the Trinidad and Tobago dollar will be devalued and they will become enriched, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has said.

(Trinidad Guardian) Two days after Irving Ming, 87, was reported kidnapped and a $10,000 ransom demanded, police officers Friday found his body stuffed in a barrel under his house.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – An indigenous woman backed by Mexico’s rebel Zapatista movement registered on Saturday to run as an independent candidate in next year’s presidential election, adding to a growing list of hopefuls bucking established political parties.

MANAGUA,  (Reuters) – New Orleans evacuated some residents from areas outside its levee system as Tropical Storm Nate swirled toward the U.S.

(Trinidad Guardian) Former CL Financial (CLF) executive chairman Lawrence Duprey is being sued by a former subsidiary in The Bahamas for US$122 million, over a failed land development in Florida.

SAN JOSE,  (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Nate killed at least 10 people in Central America yesterday as it pummeled the region with heavy rain while heading toward Mexico’s Caribbean resorts and the U.S.