Regional News

(Trinidad Guardian) A tug boat towing a barge from Panama bound for Guyana was involved in the oil spill incident off Tobago – and the wrecked barge, which is leaking the oil, is now sinking.

PORT OF SPAIN,  (Reuters) – A week after an oil spill was first spotted near Tobago’s shore, portions of the stain are moving in opposite directions into the Caribbean Sea, the island’s emergency management agency (TEMA) said yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) Tobago’s Chief Secretary Farley Augustine is calling for the owners of the vessel that capsized in Tobago’s waters, resulting in an extensive oil-spill, to come forward and pay for the damage done.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – Thousands more people could be forced to leave Ecuador and Haiti in 2024 due to humanitarian crises such as intensifying violence, climate impacts and deepening poverty, the International Rescue Committee said in a report on Wednesday.

ASUNCION, (Reuters) – Paraguay’s senate yesterday expelled one of the few opposition voices in national politics, sparking protests in the capital Asuncion and concerns over the fragile state of the country’s democracy.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Jamaican dancehall star Vybz Kartel yesterday asked a London court to overturn his murder conviction, citing attempts to bribe his trial jury and the use of incriminating messages as reasons his conviction is unsafe.

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Drought  and  heat driven by climate change and other factors threaten to cause the collapse of South America’s lush Amazon rainforest system, scientists said on Wednesday in a study that found that nearly half of it could be pushed to a tipping point by 2050.

SEOUL, (Reuters) – South Korea has  established diplomatic relations with Cuba, one of North Korea’s Cold War-era allies,the South Korean foreign ministry said yesterday.

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – The number of critically endangered animal and plant species in Colombia has more than doubled since 2017 and the total list of threatened species in the Andean country stands at 2,103, the environment ministry said on Wednesday.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – A Cuban entrepreneur believes she has hit upon a formula for a unique homegrown perfume she hopes someday to sell to the world.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – A Cuban entrepreneur believes she has hit upon a formula for a unique homegrown perfume she hopes someday to sell to the world.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Jamaica plans to develop an offshore company registry as its next step in the process to attract a portion of the funds that flow to International Financial Service Centres (IFSC) like the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, and others.

CAIRO/JERUSALEM/GAZA,  (Reuters) – Talks involving the U.S., Egypt, Israel and Qatar on a Gaza truce ended without a breakthrough yesterday as calls grew for Israel to hold back on a planned assault on the southern end of the enclave, crammed with over a million displaced people.

(Reuters) – Haitian gangs are increasingly economically autonomous, a Geneva-based criminal research group warned, using funds coerced from private businesses, local residents and families of kidnapping victims to pay for guns and soldiers.

(Reuters) – First responders and volunteers from Trinidad and Tobago today sought to contain an oil spill detected last week in the Caribbean country’s waters and clean areas of Tobago island’s coast already affected by the incident.

HAVANA/HOUSTON, (Reuters) – At a small cafe in the town of Bejucal outside of Havana, owner Germán Martín tries to organize his life and business around increasingly frequent blackouts.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – Police raids on former President Jair Bolsonaro and his associates for allegedly plotting a coup after the 2022 election has weakened right-wing opposition to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of October’s local elections, analysts say.

(Trinidad Guardian) Anthony Smith, a Tuna-puna businessman, who was the first person to be convicted as a human trafficker in Trinidad and Tobago, was on Sunday evening captured by a team of police officers.

(Trinidad Guardian) Soca superstar Machel Montano has been crowned this year’s Calypso Monarch.

(Barbados Nation) Increased seismic activity at the Kick ‘em Jenny submarine volcano near Grenada since Friday, February 9, has placed disaster management officials on alert.