Regional News

GENEVA, (Reuters) – Tobacco growing causes “massive harm” to the environment through extensive use of chemicals, energy and water, and pollution from manufacturing and distribution, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) Good news on gas is on the horizon. The Express understands British Petroleum (BP) has had success in its exploration of two wells — Savannah and Macadamia.

BRASILIA, (Reu-ters) – Brazilian Presi-dent Michel Temer must respond within 24 hours to federal police questions about his alleged involvement in a sprawling political graft probe, a Supreme Court judge ruled yesterday, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation told Reuters.

(Trinidad Guardian) The Government Information Services Limited (GISL) will be no more and its 60 employees will be sent home, Minister of Communications Maxie Cuffie confirmed yesterday.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra resigned yesterday and will move to Madrid to be closer to her family, President Mauricio Macri said.

CARACAS (Reuters) – The president of Venezuela’s opposition-run Congress yesterday accused Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs of “aiding and abetting the country’s dictatorial regime” following a report that it had bought $2.8 billion in bonds from the cash-strapped country.

(Trinidad Guardian) University of the West Indies history professor, Dr Brinsley Samaroo, great-grandson of indentured Indians, in a moving search for his roots in India, found his relatives in the village of Baraich in Uttar Pradesh and keeps a close connection with them.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – Scandal-plagued Brazilian President Michel Temer yesterday named a new justice minister, placing a respected legal figure in the position as the leader defends himself against corruption allegations.

(Trinidad Express) A man recently released from prison was ambushed and shot dead outside a bar in Barataria yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) A woman was found chopped to death in an apartment in Cunupia on Saturday.

(Trinidad Express) A gunman on a bicycle shot dead a Chaguanas businessman and wounded his daughter yesterday.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Courier services have told customers that the Venezuelan customs authority has banned them from importing items such as gas masks, slingshots and bulletproof vests used by some demonstrators in anti-government protests.

LIMA (Reuters) – The financial arm of the World Bank is considering issuing about $2 billion in bonds to finance environmentally friendly projects in Peru, the nation’s economy minister said yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) More than 11 years after she was kidnapped at gunpoint from her San Juan business place, severely beaten and then buried alive in a shallow grave in a cashew field in Claxton Bay, five of the men who were charged with the murder of Samdaye Rampersad, were each sentenced to 28 years in prison yesterday.

CANCUN, Mexico,  (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Haiti’s expanded national police force of 15,000 will be able to maintain security after the United Nations withdraws more than 2,300 peacekeeping troops following 13 years in the Carib-bean nation, its president said.

(Trinidad Express) Pharmacist Raziah Sieuchan was found stabbed to death in her Lange Park, Chaguanas, home yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) The 53 criminal matters that former Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar left undone so she could accept an appointment as a High Court judge, must all be restarted.

(Trinidad Guardian) Ravi Anthony was shot twice and one of his arms and legs were chopped off by his killers, who then tried to set his body afire before dumping it in a forested area in Sister’s Road, his autopsy has found.

(Trinidad Express) The Prime Minister has made good on his promise and disclosed the details of his trip to Chile on Sunday.

(Jamaica Observer) The long-running case against Cash Plus boss Carlos Hill collapsed on Wednesday in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston due to the unwillingness of witnesses to testify.