News / Regional
Venezuela’s Chavez needs another operation
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez will undergo another operation in the coming days after doctors in Cuba found a lesion in his pelvis where surgeons removed a large cancerous tumour last year, he said yesterday. The 57-year-old socialist leader confirmed he travelled to Havana for the tests on Saturday. Rumours of the unannounced [...]
Guatemalan drug suspect faces US extradition
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – A Guatemalan court decided yesterday to extradite a 40-year-old suspected drug trafficker to the United States because of his alleged ties to Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel. Elio Lorenzana, who has said he is innocent and claimed to be a melon farmer, was arrested in November at his home in Huite Zacapa [...]
Guyanese held in Bahamas over drugs
Five people, three Bahamians, ages 56, 45 and 32 along with two Guyanese ages 28 and 26 years, are in police custody after they were found in possession of a large quantity of suspected cocaine, according to a report in the bahamasweekly.com. According to the report around 5 pm on February 19, officers of the [...]
Cuba economy minister promoted to a vice president post
HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuban Economy Minister Adel Yzquierdo Rodriguez has been named a vice president on the Council of Ministers, the government said yesterday, as he continued a rapid ascent up the political ladder. He has been economy minister less than a year and was put on the powerful Political Bureau of the ruling Commu-nist [...]
REDjet bumps up fares for some routes
(Jamaica Gleaner) Low-cost carrier REDjet, which offered airfares for as little as US$9.99 at start-up 10 months ago, has bumped up tariffs for the period leading up to and after Easter for passengers travelling to and from Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad. The airline said it was offering what it described as a promotional sale with [...]
Suriname tribe disappointed over gold concessions
PARAMARIBO (de Ware Tijd) – The Aluku tribe is disappointed because gold concessions its members had applied for repeatedly turn out to have been granted to a political loyalist. Successive governments have ignored concession applications by several Aluku entrepreneurs since 2002. The concessions were granted by Natural Resources (NH) Minister Jim Hok on 4 and [...]
Petrotrin workers celebrate as union cracks Govt’s five per cent wage cap
(Trinidad Guardian) Petrotrin workers celebrated victory through the streets of San Fernando on Friday upon hearing that the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union had smashed the Government’s five per cent wage freeze, bringing looming strike action to a halt. President general of OWTU, Ancel Roget, called off his troops, saying the war had ended after 17 [...]
Assets, cash worth more than J$100m owned by J’can woman forfeited
(Jamaica Gleaner) The Financial Investigations Division (FID) scored a major victory on Friday when the Supreme Court ruled that US$1.3 million which was found in a freezer at the house of a Jamaican woman in St Catherine must be forfeited under the Proceeds of Crime Act. The division had brought a claim against Delores Elizabeth [...]
Jamaica has to curtail crime to attract investment – Japanese envoy
(Jamaica Observer) Jamaica will find it difficult to attract direct investments from Japan if the island fails to curtail its crime problem, says Japanese ambassador Hiroshi Yamaguchi. According to Yamaguchi, theft and security are two major factors considered by Japanese companies when looking for possible overseas investments. And despite Jamaica’s improvements on security, Yagamuchi said [...]
US regrets Cuba failure to free US citizen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US State Department said yesterday it deplored Cuba’s failure to free Alan Gross – a US citizen serving a 15-year prison term in a case that has stalled progress in US-Cuba relations – as part of an announced humanitarian release of some 2,900 prisoners. “If this is correct, we are deeply [...]
CCJ to hear Shanique Myrie case in April
(Jamaica Observer) – The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will in April hear the case of finger-rape victim Shanique Myrie against the Barbadian Government. The Caribbean’s highest court did not however, specify a location where the trial will be held. Myrie’s case is the first brought by a Jamaican to the CCJ. The CCJ held [...]
Petrotrin strike off
(Trinidad Express) – The strike is off. The Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU) and Petrotrin yesterday settled a bitter wage dispute, a day before workers planned to walk off the job. At around 10 am, it was agreed that the workers of the state-owned oil company would accept a nine per cent wage increase over [...]
Venezuela’s Chavez calls presidential foe a ‘pig’
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tore into opposition candidate Henrique Capriles again yesterday, calling him a “low-life pig” in an ever-more vitriolic campaign ahead of the October election. “Now we have the loser, welcome! We’re going to pulverize you in the October 7 election,” Chavez said of the Democratic Unity coalition candidate in [...]
Soldiers move into Petrotrin
(Trinidad Guardian) Soldiers moved into state-owned Petrotrin and set up base two days ahead of an impending strike action. At around 2 pm on Wednesday, about 15 soldiers went through the main gates to the petroleum company at Pointe-a-Pierre and set up operations at the hostel of the Augustus Long Hospital. This development drew angry [...]
Venezuela firm files arbitration against Chavez gov’t
CARACAS/BRIDGETOWN (Reuters) – A Barbados-based holding company led by executives of Venezuelan food and beermaker Empresas Polar has filed an international arbitration claim against President Hugo Chavez’s government over its nationalization of a fertilizer project, documents show. The move may set a precedent for Venezuelan companies seeking access to international courts to settle disputes with [...]
Hugo Chavez’s great pre-election giveaway
CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has launched a wave of state-backed social programmes in the run-up to an October presidential election. The leftist leader insists they are simply another step in his efforts to eradicate poverty in the OPEC member nation, but opposition critics say he is using state coffers to shore up [...]
Guyanese artist George Simon for Sabga award
(Trinidad Express) Founder of the Adult Literacy Tutors Association (ALTA), Paula Lucie-Smith, has been named as one of three persons who will receive this year’s Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence. Michael Mansoor, chairman of the ANSA Caribbean Awards’ Eminent Persons Panel (EPP) selection committee, yesterday named Lucie-Smith, Prof Leonard O’Garro from St Vincent [...]
In T&T: Three men charged with chopping schoolgirl to death
(Trinidad Guardian) Almost two weeks after Valencia schoolgirl Amanda Pamponette was chopped to death by a group of men near her home, three men, among them a neighbour, appeared in court yesterday charged with her murder. Nderi Anthony John-Williams, 31, of Phase One, La Horquetta, Arima, Jason Cooper, 29, of Peter Avenue, Valencia and Darren [...]
Venezuela’s Capriles faces uphill battle against Chavez
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition flagbearer Henrique Capriles could give President Hugo Chavez the closest race of his career, though the socialist leader’s charisma and deep pockets provide formidable advantages as he seeks re-election in October. With a polished smile and energetic style, the 39-year-old Capriles plans to criss-cross Venezuela yesterday galvanizing supporters and trying [...]
Barbados on verge of another financial downgrade
(Barbados Nation) Barbados is on the verge of another financial downgrade. And Deputy Central Bank of Barbados Governor Harold Codrington says to avoid it the island must keep trimming its fiscal deficit. Codrington spoke against the backdrop of international credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service lowering its domestic currency rating on Barbados last June to [...]
Boy, 5, saves family from house fire
(Trinidad Express) – Five-year-old Shrelon Callendar heroically saved his family from an inferno that engulfed their home in the early hours of Sunday morning, quickly alerting his father to the flames and smoke he saw spreading through the building. “At about one o’ clock in the morning, he ran into my room yelling, ‘Daddy, daddy, [...]
Oil palm industry projected for Nickerie
PARAMARIBO (de Ware Tijd) —Chinese investors have projected a palm oil industry in the District of Nickerie, just like in Marowijne and Para, legislator Rashied Doekhie tells de Ware Tijd. Talks are currently underway so Doekhie refuses to name the investors. The politician confirms positive tests for soil samples to test whether Nickerie is suited [...]
Barbados CLICO bought
(Barbados Nation) CLICO International General Insurance has been purchased by Sandridge Limited. Following 18 months of legal discussions, the deal was signed last Friday by hotelier Bernie Weatherhead, on behalf of Sandridge Limited, and Terrence Thornhill, acting on behalf of CLICO Holdings. The signing took place at the law offices of Clarke Gittens Farmer. In an [...]
St. Kitts’ citizenship business surging
(Reuters) – St. Kitts’ economic citizenship programme was established in 1984, shortly after the country’s independence from Great Britain. But Kittitian officials, including Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, say interest has jumped in the past few years. The surge comes hand-in-hand with the involvement of Henley & Partners, which has managed and marketed parts of the [...]