Regional News

HAVANA, (Reuters) – Cuba’s economy bounced back from recession and expanded an estimated 1.1 percent in the first half of this year, driven by growth in tourism, construction and agriculture, Economy Minister Ricardo Cabrisas told the National Assembly yesterday.

LIMA,  (Reuters) – Peru’s former left-leaning President Ollanta Humala, ordered to spend 18 months in pre-trial detention, was moved on Friday to a prison built for his longtime foe ex-autocratic leader Alberto Fujimori.

(Trinidad Guardian) In the coming months, the public will see a number of new initiatives being rolled at the country’s prisons.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – A Brazilian congressional committee yesterday voted against sending a corruption charge against President Michel Temer to the Supreme Court for the leader to be put on trial.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – A rogue Venezuelan police pilot wanted for lobbing grenades and shooting at government buildings appeared briefly at an opposition vigil on Thursday night in a surreal twist to the crisis-worn country’s political drama.

HOUSTON/HAVANA,  (Reuters) – Venezuela’s crude and fuel deliveries to Cuba have slid almost 13 percent in the first half this year, according to documents from state-run oil company PDVSA viewed by Reuters, threatening to worsen gasoline and power shortages in the communist-run island.

LIMA,  (Reuters) – United Nations human rights experts yesterday called on Peru to suspend negotiations on a new contract for a large oilfield in the Amazon until past pollution was cleaned up and the rights of indigenous groups respected.

(Trinidad Express) Her killer used a heavy piece of wood, likely a two-by-four, to beat Kelly Ann Clarke to death.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela’s state prosecutor’s office said yesterday it would charge two people linked to a former transportation minister for involvement in bribery schemes associated with the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht SA.

SAO PAULO,  (Reuters) – A steep decline in sugar and oil prices over the last six months has diminished the hope of financial recovery for a number of Brazilian mills, and could put new dealmaking in the sector on hold, according to industry experts.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s government has seized assets from dozens of foreign corporations in nationalizations by the late President Hugo Chavez and the embattled current government of Nicolas Maduro.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – The speaker of the lower house of Brazil’s Congress yesterday urged that a vote be held this week on a corruption charge facing President Michel Temer.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Prime Minister Andrew Holness has ordered an audit of the cell phone bills of government ministers and state ministers following a Television Jamaica (TVJ) revelation that in one year, Finance Minister Audley Shaw has racked up more than $8 million in charges.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Jamaicans are set to lose more of their favourite cable channels as the Broadcasting Commission plans to direct local cable licensees to remove additional unauthorised stations from their subscriber packages.

(Trinidad Guardian) President of the Prisons Officers Association, Ceron Richards, fears that Sunday’s jailbreak in Guyana is a disaster waiting to happen at the Port-of-Spain State Prison.

CARACAS (Reuters) – From blocking off the office heliport to plotting protests, workers at Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office are making plans to fight her expected removal by allies of President Nicolas Maduro, according to three sources.

LIMA (Reuters) – Peru asked Ecuador yesterday to “immediately” stop building a wall along the two South American countries’ 1,529-km (950.08-mile) border and has called for an urgent bilateral meeting to discuss the issue, Peru’s foreign ministry said.

(Jamaica Gleaner) – The government is moving to get United States media that broadcast content produced in Jamaica to pay up in the same way that country has been pressing cable providers here to obtain the requisite licences to broadcast their content.

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A wharf in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro used as a marketplace for African slaves has been declared a United Nations heritage site to preserve evidence of “one of the most brutal episodes in the history of humankind”.

(Trinidad Guardian) Majority CL Financial shareholders intend to add two more of their directors to the CLF Board at a special July 26 meeting and they’re prepared to take legal action against Government if it tries to block the meeting, says Carlton Reis.