Regional News

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.

(Trinidad Express) An eight-year-old boy has written a letter to the Education Ministry asking for protection against bullying from fellow classmates at the Happy Hill Hindu School in Gasparillo.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Candidates from as many as 125 political parties in Haiti yesterday rushed to meet a deadline to register to run in the country’s long-overdue elections later this year.

(Trinidad Express) An eight-year-old boy has written a letter to the Education Ministry asking for protection against bullying from fellow classmates at the Happy Hill Hindu School in Gasparillo.

MIAMI, (Reuters) – A convicted Haitian drug trafficker whose allegations of government corruption contributed to the ouster of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide, is set to be released from prison after his 27-year sentence was cut in half, his lawyer said on Monday.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haiti’s Justice Minister has appealed a court decision tossing an indictment against two alleged gang leaders following a storm of protest over the politically charged case involving a friend of the family of President Michel Martelly.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – A U.S. cancer research center and a software company reached agreements with Cuban partners during a two-day trade mission to Cuba led by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the first trip of its kind since the rapprochement between Washington and Havana.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Principal of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Archibald McDonald, has moved to quell fears that the decriminalisation of marijuana will result in an increase in the number of emergency medical cases at hospitals in Jamaica.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Colombia’s FARC guerrillas pledged yesterday to maintain their unilateral ceasefire despite an attack by the rebels last week that killed 11 government soldiers, saying peace talks with the government should not be broken for any reason.

HAVANA (Reuters) – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo met senior Cuban officials in Havana yesterday as the head of a high-powered business delegation looking to take advantage of President Barack Obama’s easing of restrictions with the Communist-led island.

(Trinidad Guardian) – Venezuelan Ambassador Coromoto Godoy-Calderon has praised Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for supporting the repeal of the US executive order against Venezuela at the recent Summit of the Americas. Godoy-Calderon

(Barbados Nation) PRIME MINISTER Freundel Stuart last night launched a scathing attack on principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Sir Hilary Beckles, accusing him of a “singular exhibition of bad, bad manners”.

(Trinidad Express) Gunmen ambushed a businessman and his family outside the family home in Caroni last night.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – Two Cuban dissidents yesterday lost in their attempts to become the first openly declared political opponents to win election in Cuba since the 1959 revolution, each failing in races for the municipal assembly.Hildebrando

(Trinidad Express) In an unprecedented action which could lead to the humiliation of the top office holder in the Police Service, the report on the March 23 day of “total policing” has called for the acting Commissioner of Police and the three deputy Commissioners to formally apologise to the nation.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Three students and a 35-year-old Clarendon man were on Wednesday night shot dead in the Monymusk Housing Scheme, Hayes in the parish.

(Trinidad Express) The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has said that over the past ten years 160 matters have been filed and 140 disposed in its appellate jurisdiction.

CURITIBA, Brazil, (Reuters) – Brazilian police yesterday arrested the treasurer of the ruling Workers’ Party Joao Vaccari, moving an investigation of rampant corruption at state-run oil company Petrobras closer to President Dilma Rousseff’s inner circle.

(Jamaica Observer) KINGSTON, Jamaica — On Monday, the Government will sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Krauck Systems and Anchor Financial Group LLC, for the development of projects in Jamaica related to the Global Logistics Hub.