Regional News

(Jamaica Gleaner) – Jamaicans are being warned to brace for a 10 to 15 per cent increase in the price of rice from Guyana following a hike in the cost to import gain.

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia has doubled the reward for information leading to the capture of Usuga Clan gang leader Dario Antonio Usuga to nearly $1 million, President Juan Manuel Santos said yesterday.

(Trinidad Guardian) – Five men are now in police custody after coast guard intercepted a pirogue loaded with $1.5 million worth of marijuana on Sunday.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s top court yesterday struck down an amnesty law approved last month by the opposition-dominated Congress, scuttling an effort by critics of President Nicolas Maduro to secure the release of jailed opposition activists.

(Trinidad Guardian) Employees at the Rural Development Company (RDC) in Couva have not been paid for the entire first quarter of the year and are owed more than $.75 million in salaries.

LIMA,  (Reuters) – Keiko Fujimori won the first round of Peru’s presidential election yesterday, though the race to be her opponent in the June run-off was locked in a virtual tie between two contenders, three exit polls showed.

(Trinidad Express) ONLINE buyers, calm down. Some of you will get a “bligh”.

CHICAGO, (Reuters) – Scientists in Brazil have uncovered a new brain disorder associated with Zika infections in adults: an autoimmune syndrome called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, or ADEM, that attacks the brain and spinal cord.

(Trinidad Express) ONLINE buyers, calm down. Some of you will get a “bligh”.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Cristina Fernandez, who stepped down as president of Argentina in December after eight years in office, has been charged by a prosecutor with money laundering, local media reported yesterday.

LIMA (Reuters) – Three people were killed and six injured in an attack staged by suspected leftist Shining Path rebels on the eve of Peru’s presidential election, authorities said.

(Trinidad Guardian) Citizens are now paying more to travel after a 15 per cent increase in the price per litre of super gasoline and diesel went into immediate effect yesterday.

(Barbados Nation) Four teenagers were remanded after appearing in court in connection with the gang rape of a teenaged girl last weekend.

(Trinidad Express) Finance Minister Colm Imbert yesterday announced a 15 per cent increase in the prices of super gasoline and diesel in his presentation of the government’s mid-year budget review in parliament.

BRASILIA  (Reuters) – Nearly 40 percent of lawmakers from Brazil’s most powerful party that recently broke with President Dilma Rousseff’s ruling coalition do not think she will be impeached, a survey released yesterday showed.

(Trinidad Express) A businessman charged with laundering almost TT$1 million and operating a gaming house without a licence appeared in court on Thursday.

(Trinidad Express) Trinidad and Tobago should develop its building codes properly, implement legislation and introduce investment to secure recovery in the event of an earthquake.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s government rejected new accusations yesterday that her election was illegally funded with graft money and expressed confidence it can block an attempt to impeach her.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolas Maduro threatened yesterday to seek a constitutional amendment to slash the opposition-led legislature’s term and vowed to lead a “revolution” should his foes wrest him from the presidency.

GUATEMALA CITY, (Reuters) – A Guatemalan court yesterday sentenced five men to terms of up to 53 years in prison for the 2011 killing of popular Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral.