Regional News

(Trinidad Express) Noah Simmons woke up on his 16th birthday yesterday, stepped outside his home and was shot dead.

(Trinidad Express) Four days after a shootout with his colleague at Ruby Tuesday, Grand Bazaar, Sgt Darryl Honore has died.

(Trinidad Express) Five persons are expected to appear before an Arima Magistrate, jointly charged with the possession of 38.8 kilogrammes of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

(Trinidad Express) Josiah Kyle Nicholas, 21, has appeared in court charged with crimes including the kidnapping and buggering of two boys in Port of Spain and Arima three week apart in April.

HOUSTON/CARACAS (Reuters) – U.S. oil firm ConocoPhillips has moved to take Caribbean assets of Venezuela’s state-run PDVSA to enforce a $2 billion arbitration award over a decade-oil nationalization of its projects in the South American country, according to three sources familiar with its actions.

HAVANA,  (Reuters) – A group of Cuban artists launched an alternative arts festival this weekend in Havana in response to the Communist government saying it was postponing the official biennial by a year to prioritize funding on rebuilding after Hurricane Irma.

(Trinidad Guardian) Acting Attorney General Stuart Young has accused some lawyers of facilitating gang members and their illegal activities as he called on the police to act expeditiously to bring these lawyers before the courts in handcuffs.

(Trinidad Guardian) Unable to successfully clamp a leaking sub-sea Well S-694 in the Soldado Northfields, Petrotrin officials are now moving to engage in a costly TT$10 million venture to abandon the leaking well in the hope of protecting the seas from catastrophe.

(Trinidad Guardian) It’s official – Rio Claro imam Nazim Mohammed has confirmed that his daughter Anisa Waheed Mohammed and two granddaughters have each been sentenced to 20 years in jail by Iraq’s courts for alleged association with the Islamic State (ISIS).

BOA VISTA, Brazil, (Reuters) – The Brazilian Air Force has begun flying Venezuelans from a remote border region to elsewhere in Brazil, trying to defuse a humanitarian crisis as tens of thousands of migrants flee an economic collapse in their country.

(Trinidad Express) Phillip Basant, the younger brother of Rachael Sukhdeo, has been shot dead.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – The chairman of Venezuela’s top bank Banesco yesterday condemned a 90-day state takeover and arrest of 11 executives as locals thronged cash machines and sped up transfers to other institutions.

(Barbados Nation)The man charged with robbing and punching former Senator Maxine McClean was sentenced to a total of 26 months in prison yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) Homicide victim Bevan James may have been killed for his car.

(Barbados Nation) Barbados’ foreign reserves problem is so serious that Government is seeking a US$60 million to US$70 million bail-out from the private sector.

(Trinidad Express) Gunmen fired upon a group of people at Petit Valley yesterday and killed two men.

(Barbados Nation) Central Bank Governor Cleviston Haynes says the Barbados economy contracted in the first quarter of this year.

SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court yesterday ruled to restrict federal lawmakers’ protection from prosecution, a move hailed by some experts as a blow to impunity for the powerful, but a decision that may open new avenues for politicians to stall cases.

(Trinidad Express) A coconut vendor on his way home after work was shot dead on Wednesday.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Britain’s government launched a review yesterday into the treatment of some Caribbean migrants who were invited to Britain after World War Two but have been left without documents and denied basic rights.