Regional News

(Trinidad Express) Trinidad and Tobago has been named the “happiest” Caribbean nation again.

(Trinidad Express) The Government has entered into an agreement to purchase naval vessels for the Coast Guard, at a cost of around TT$1 billion, a deal that was brokered by fired national security minister Gary Griffith.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela opposition leader Henrique Capriles said yesterday that the OPEC member’s accumulated inflation rate was 50 percent during the first four months of 2015.

SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court yesterday ordered the release from jail of nine engineering executives charged in the corruption investigation at state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s socialist government yesterday announced a nationwide electricity rationing plan to tackle a surge in demand caused by rising temperatures in recent weeks.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Members of the U.S. House of Representatives launched an effort yesterday to prevent new travel from the United States to Cuba, one of the first legislative attempts in Congress to thwart President Barack Obama’s move to normalize relations with the Communist-ruled island.

BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When Colombian authorities intercepted phone calls between a young woman and a member of Colombia’s most powerful drug cartel, the Urabenos, they heard the woman offer merchandise with “zero kilometers”.

(Trinidad Express) – Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said on Sunday she will not be “jumbied” into setting an election date.

NEW DELHI/LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – German development worker Caroline Siebald and her boyfriend Charles Gertler, an American glaciologist, were on a rafting trip in Nepal when the earthquake struck and initially panicked about how to let their families know they were safe.

(Trinidad Express) THE democracy of Trinidad and Tobago will be compromised if the London-based Privy Council is abolished as this country’s final court of appeal and replaced by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) without a referendum from the population.

A(Trinidad Guardian) By the end of this year, the first antibiotic-free and hormone-free chicken farm is expected to be established in T&T.

(Jamaica Observer) Jamaica’s taxation levels are higher than most of its developing nation peers, according to a new study by UHY, an international accountancy network.

(Trinidad Express) An exercise conducted on Saturday morning in Morvant by officers of the North Eastern Division Task Force resulted in the discovery of a Uzi submachine gun, a 12-gauge pump action shotgun, and an army jacket.

(Barbados Nation) Watch what you post on social media – the police are watching.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Ash from the Chilean volcano Calbuco, which erupted without warning this week, reached as far as southern Brazil yesterday and prompted some airlines to cancel flights to the capitals of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition mayor Antonio Ledezma was out of jail and in a Caracas clinic yesterday, awaiting an operation after being granted house arrest on medical grounds.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – A woman who bashed President Nicolas Maduro on the head with a mango has been promised a new house for her troubles in a surreal tropical tale that has gone viral in Venezuela.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – A former minister in President Nicolas Maduro’s government denied in an interview published yesterday accusations of corruption during the purchase of three ferries from Spain and said he was being hounded for denouncing currency crimes.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuelan authorities requested yesterday that jailed opposition mayor Antonio Ledezma be granted home arrest due to medical problems, a move that could soften international pressure over his case.

(Barbados Nation) Minister of Fiannce Chris Sinckler is convinced the economy “has begun a turnaround” and that Barbadians are now witnessing the economic recovery they have longed for.