Regional News

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – Mexican firms will need to cut deals with suppliers and consider buying goods elsewhere once a conflict over U.S.

(Barbados Nation) Sagicor Financial Corporation has welcomed Government’s decision to get help from the International Monetary Fund.

(Trinidad Guardian) Petrotrin recorded revenue of $11.3 billion for the six month period ending March 31 —a 9.6 per cent increase compared with the corresponding period in 2017.

(Barbados Nation) Owen Arthur has been advised to “see politics and leave it” after repeatedly failing to minimise the appeal of Mia Mottley.

(Barbados Nation) The Barbados Government’s decision to suspend debt payments to external commercial creditors has triggered a credit rating downgrade for Barbados by a regional agency.

VATICAN CITY,  (Reuters) – Pope Francis has called for an end to violence in Nicaragua, where at least 15 people were killed this week in protests against President Daniel Ortega and his proposed changes in social security.

HAVANA,  (Reuters) – Cuba’s national assembly named former President Raul Castro yesterday to head the commission charged with carrying out changes to the constitution that would provide legal backing to the island’s economic and social opening.

SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – Rampant corruption scandals and a deep recession soured many foreign investors on Brazil in recent years, but one Canadian group saw opportunity.

HAVANA,  (Reuters) – Seven people drowned and two remain missing as a result of flooding last week in Cuba caused by storm Alberto that forced tens of thousands to evacuate and caused a spill of oily water in Cienfuegos bay, Cuba’s Civil Defense authority said.

(Jamaica Observer) Four young men were yesterday shot dead during a firefight with police from the St Catherine South Division in Cressa Lane, Old Braeton.

(Barbados Government Information Service) The Government of Barbados yesterday announced a multi-pronged plan to address critically-low levels of international reserves, unsustainably high levels of public indebtedness, poor growth and major failings in public infrastructure and social safety nets.

(Jamaica Observer) NEGRIL, Westmoreland — Two women were among four people killed in a bizarre, two-motorcycle collision on the Sheffield main road here on Wednesday night.

HAVANA,  (Reuters) – Cuba and the United States are making the re-establishment of postal services permanent after a trial run, the state-run Cuban News Agency reported yesterday, as cooperation in some areas inches forward despite a chill in relations under the Trump administration.

GRAND ANSE, Grenada, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Caribbean countries should dive into the “blue economy” to exploit marine resources, giving their economies a much needed boost, while protecting coastal eco-systems, economists said.

(Barbados Nation) Prime Minister Mia Mottley has painted a sobering picture of the Barbados economy.

RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO,  (Reuters) – Brazil showed signs of returning to normal yesterday as an oil workers union ended a strike ahead of schedule and an 11-day trucker protest wound down, a welcome breather for a government suffering from rock-bottom approval levels.

(Trinidad Express) A couple has been found dead at their Williamsville home.

(Trinidad Express) Convicted fraudster Kern Romero was not murdered. Romero, 32, a friend of Chief Justice Ivor Archie, died on Sunday night at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex from complications associated with an illness.

 (Trinidad Guardian) Three US residents have been sentenced for illegally purchasing 36 guns and smuggling them into T&T from Atlanta, Georgia.

(Jamaica Observer) The Windalco bauxite company, majority-owned by the Russian company UC Rusal, is now facing an uncertain future as both local and overseas banks are allegedly refusing to do business with the company.