Regional News

(Jamaica Gleaner) The bloodletting in St James continued on the weekend, with seven persons being killed and one being injured by gunmen in separate incidents.

SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – Brazil’s Petróleo Brasileiro SA has applied to federal environmental agency Ibama to provide environmental protection services in exchange for wiping out all its fines for environmental offenses, the state-controlled oil company said late on Saturday.

(Trinidad Guardian) With an estimated 2,500 households severely affected by flooding up to yesterday, the unrelenting Inter-Tropical Conversion Zone over the past four days is proving to be even worse than Tropical Storm Bret.

GENEVA/LONDON (Reuters) – The World Health Organisation (WHO) should overturn its decision to appoint Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador, global health leaders said on Saturday, describing the move as unjustifiable and wrong.

YASUNI PARK, Ecuador (Reuters) – The manager of state oil company Petroamazonas defended Ecuador’s plans to expand exploitation of major oil reserves in one of the world’s most species-diverse rainforests, saying it will ensure minimum environmental impact and use appropriate technology.

(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has admitted the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) and other State agencies must improve their disaster relief response times.

OTTAWA,  (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has been badly shaken by a conflict-of-interest controversy about his finance minister, but the Liberal government’s upcoming fiscal update offers an opportunity to reset the public focus on Canada’s strong economy, political observers say.

(Trinidad Express) Soldiers have been engaged to assist other State agencies in the rescue of some 200 citizens marooned in flood waters in Woodland and Barrackpore.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – Cuba unveiled a replica of a New York statue of independence hero Jose Marti yesterday, putting a gift from the hometown of U.S.

LIMA,  (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Wedged between the rubbish-choked Rimac river and lanes of traffic belching fumes, the Cantagallo slum in downtown Lima is a far cry from the Amazon rainforest land that the Shipibo-Konibo people were forced to flee two decades ago.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Key members of Venezuela’s opposition, divided and dispirited after losing gubernatorial elections over the weekend, will travel abroad to denounce what it says is a “fraudulent” voting system under leftist President Nicolas Maduro.

(Reuters) – Black people in Canada’s most populous province spent longer behind bars awaiting trial than white people charged with many of the same categories of crimes in each of the past five years, according to data obtained by Reuters.

(Trinidad Guardian) Yesterday’s Divali Day celebrations were washed out for several families who were left marooned in their homes after flood waters inundated their houses and communities in several areas in South, North East and Central Trinidad.

BRASILIA (Reuters) – A congressional committee voted 39-26 on Wednesday to reject charges against Brazilian President Michel Temer stemming from a corruption case involving the world’s largest meatpacker.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA)  has granted the first two licences for participation in Jamaica’s medical marijuana industry.

CARACAS/HOUSTON, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s state-run oil firm, PDVSA, is increasingly delivering poor quality crude oil to major refiners in the United States, India and China, causing repeated complaints, canceled orders and demands for discounts, according to internal PDVSA documents and interviews with a dozen oil executives, workers, traders and inspectors.

(Trinidad Guardian) Preliminary investigations have revealed that the source of the oil spill that occurred in Chaguaramas over the weekend can be an offshore rig.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The top U.S. and Canadian and trade officials yesterday accused each other of sabotaging efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, even as they and Mexico agreed to extend talks into the first quarter of 2018.

(Trinidad Guardian) Even as two companies have been procured to commence clean-up operations after a massive oil spill in Chaguaramas on Saturday, the spill is said to be quickly spreading southeast in the Gulf-of-Paria, already reaching Cocorite.

(Trinidad Express) The State is soon to start legal action against former Government minister  Dr Roodal Moonilal over allegations of bid rigging with respect to some ten contracts through the Estate Management and Business Development Company (EMBD) in 2015.