Regional News

CARACAS, (Reuters) – One person was killed and dozens were detained following looting of supermarkets in Venezuela’s southeastern city of Ciudad Guayana, the state governor said yesterday, amid the ongoing food shortages in the recession-hit OPEC nation.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezue-lan troops occupied a Caracas warehouse complex used by local food giant Empresas Polar and Nestle to distribute food and beverages, workers and company officials said yesterday.

SANTIAGO, (Reuters) – Hundreds of Chileans took to the streets of affluent Santiago neighborhoods on Wednesday night, clanging kitchenware and waving banners to protest what they say is an explosion in crime in one of South America’s safest nations.

(Trinidad Guardian) Officials at the Ministry of National Security are alleged to have discovered a plot to destabilise the country. The

BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – Brazil announced another cut to education spending on Thursday, the latest step back from President Dilma Rousseff’s pledge to turn the Latin American giant into an “education nation” in her second term.

(Trinidad Guardian) Independent Liberal Party (ILP) leader Jack Warner has been ordered to pay former attorney general Anand Ramlogan close TT$900,000 in compensation after losing defamation lawsuit.

(Trinidad Guardian) All prisons throughout T&T are currently on a “lockdown” as security measures are increased, including the installation of body scanners.

(Trinidad Express) Corruption-accused Jack Warner has written to ­several ­officials that Prime Minister ­Kamla Persad-Bissessar received ­multi-million-dollar payments to thwart the extradition of businessmen and United National Congress financiers Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Five men in northern Mexico were sentenced to an unprecedented 697 years in prison for the gender-driven killing of 11 women, in a state where hundreds of young women have been murdered since 1990.

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s largest party is standing by deeply unpopular President Dilma Rousseff for now despite the defection of one of its own leaders, but that could change if an expected recession stirs up social unrest, party leaders say.

(Trinidad Express) Hours after his second accomplice was shot dead, prison escapee Christopher “Monster” Selby last night surrendered to police.

(Trinidad Express) Sections of St Vincent Street were blocked off by police yesterday in anticipation of the appearance of 11 men at the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court to answer charges for the murder of senior counsel Dana Seetahal.

(Trinidad Express) The National Carnival Commission (NCC) intends to award over $1 million in prizes and incentives to mas bands and steelbands for creativity in Carnival 2016.

(Trinidad Express) Prison escapee Hassan Atwell, 41, has been killed. Reports are that Atwell was not killed by police but by members of the Rasta City gang.

(Trinidad Express) The brother of murdered Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal is questioning the timing of the arrests and charging of 11 men in connection with his sister’s murder.

Eleven people have been charged with the murder of Dana Seetahal SC and will appear in court tomorrow.

(Trinidad & Tobago’s Newsday) – A woman dressed in Muslim clothing, who was given a special visit to one of the escapees at the Port of Spain Prison at mid-morning on Friday, has been identified as the person who allegedly smuggled two pistols and a hand grenade into the prison without being detected.

(Trinidad Express) Just days away from the 25th anniversary of the July 27, 1990, attempted coup, the capital city was thrown into panic and fear yesterday following a jailbreak and the deaths of a policeman and a prisoner.

(Trinidad Express) Hamid Ali has been charged for the murder of Dana Seetahal SC.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The Ministry of Finance and Planning has confirmed that the Government has reached an agreement on a deal with Venezuela to repurchase billions of dollars it owed for oil under the PetroCaribe arrangement.