Regional News

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuban gross domestic product grew 4 percent in 2015, official media reported yesterday, as internal reforms overshadowed negative trends such as falling commodity prices.

(Trinidad Guardian) More than two weeks after being admitted to the Eric Williams Sciences Complex in Mt Hope for pains related to her pregnancy, 28-year-old Stacy Ramkissoon has died. Ramkissoon

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s key ally in Congress is certain it can head off an impeachment threat, but in return the party demands a radical change of policy course to pull the economy out of its deepest downturn in 25 years.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The United States (US) Embassy in Kingston has confirmed that Jamaicans spent US$25 million (approximately J$3 billion) this year in application fees for visas to enter that country.

A 31-year-old security guard was knocked down and killed when an angry nightclub patron ploughed into him, a colleague and two police officers yesterday morning.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba is willing to keep improving relations with the United States even though Washington has failed to meet its key demands for normalization, Cuban President Raul Castro said on Friday, a day after the anniversary of detente.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A poll published yesterday in Brazil  gave a mild boost to the political survival prospects for President Dilma Rousseff, as she saw a slight bounce in her approval ratings, halting what has been an almost continuous slide for most of the year.

(Trinidad Guardian) There have been 29 lab-confirmed cases of the H1N1 influenza (swine flu) in this country so far for 2015, with three resulting in death.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff named leftist economist and close aide Nelson Barbosa to replace fiscally conservative Finance Minister Joaquim Levy yesterday, signaling a dramatic break with the deficit-cutting policies her administration has pursued for most of this year.

(Jamaica Observer) After more than two years in Federal custody, flamboyant Jamaican deejay Flippa Mafia was yesterday found guilty of first-degree distribution of cocaine, second-degree money laundering, and second-degree conspiracy in Camden County Court, New Jersey.

SAN SALVADOR, (Reuters) – The Nicaraguan government yesterday proposed that the United States fly out thousands of Cuban migrants who have been stranded for several weeks on the Costa Rican border with Nicaragua.

(Trinidad Guardian) Cabinet yesterday agreed to a huge reduction of the budgetary allocation to the International Soca Monarch and the National Chutney Soca Monarch for Carnival next year.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Two nephews of Venezuela’s powerful first lady pleaded not guilty yesterday to U.S.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The United States and Cuba have agreed to restore scheduled commercial airline service for the first time in more than five decades in a deal allowing 110 round-trip flights a day between the former Cold War foes.

AMSTERDAM, (Reuters) – Nicaragua violated Costa Rica’s sovereign territory by establishing a military presence in parts of a disputed waterway, and must compensate its neighbour, the United Nations’ highest court said yesterday.

(Jamaica Gleaner) People’s National Party (PNP) Central Westmoreland Member of Parliament (MP) Dwayne Vaz has buckled under pressure from a wave of stinging public criticism and has “categorically and unreservedly” apologised for his offensive utterances on a political platform in Mount Salem, St James, last week.

(Trinidad Express) A teenager who refused to heed her parents’ advice to change her lifestyle, was found burnt, along with a friend, in the back seat of a car in Chaguanas on Monday night.

(Trinidad Express) Police continue to question four suspects following the murders of PC Russell Ramnarine, 24, and university student Avery Keshwar, 22, on Monday morning in Aranjuez.

(Trinidad Guardian) Another person has died after contracting the H1N1 virus, commonly referred to as swine flu.

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors are preparing to unveil drug trafficking charges against the head of Venezuela’s National Guard, according to people familiar with the case, as the United States investigates the suspected involvement of senior Venezuelan officials in the cocaine trade.