Regional News

(Reuters) – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is planning to lead one of the first trade missions to Cuba since the Obama administration loosened travel and trade restrictions on the Communist-ruled Caribbean island, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

(Barbados Nation) BASSETERRE – Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas yesterday announced that he had advised the Governor General to dissolve the Parliament with immediate effect.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haitian President Michel Martelly announced plans yesterday to form a consensus government within the next 48 hours in a bid to rescue the impoverished Caribbean nation from a looming political crisis.

(Trinidad Express) The High Court erred in the matter of the emailgate lawsuit.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Antigua’s Commissioner of Police, Vere Browne, has been sent on suspension.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazilian electricity rates could rise as much as 60 percent in 2015 in order to cover the higher cost of power and to pay for subsidies for system expansion, low-income consumers and remote communities, a government source told Reuters on Friday.

(Trinidad Express) Attorney General Anand Ramlogan said yesterday a legal victory was scored against Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley for what he said was his failure to file a defence in a defamation case against him, involving the allegations made in the emailgate fiasco.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Minister of Science Technology Energy and Mining Phillip Paulwell has approved the transfer of control of FLOW and Columbus Networks Jamaica Limited from their parent company Columbus International Inc to Cable and Wireless Communica-tions Plc (CWC).

(Trinidad Express) Posts and opinions from users of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites are being monitored by the Government.

(Trinidad Express) Posts and opinions from users of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites are being monitored by the Government.

(Jamaica Gleaner) In addition to not having a formal risk-management framework, the PetroCaribe Development Fund (PDF) has been breaching its own guidelines, making US$100 million in unsecured loans available to entities, while at the same time charging commitment fees that are lower than the rate approved.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Governors in three Venezuelan states have banned nighttime queuing as huge lines continue to snake around shops across the scarcity-plagued OPEC nation.

(Jamaica Observer) KINGSTON, Jamaica – Professor Brendan Bain yesterday lost his application to extend an injunction that was preventing the University of the West Indies (UWI) from terminating his service as director of the regional co-ordinating unit of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Network (CHART).

(Trinidad Express) The Massy Stores conglomerate was yesterday forced to remove an advertisement for its insurance arm, Massy United Insurance Ltd, that had drawn accusations of “sexism” from scores of Facebook users.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – The Haitian parliament was dissolved yesterday after the failure of last-ditch negotiations for a deal to extend the terms of its members to avert a political crisis in the Caribbean country.

(de Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO — President Desi Bouterse should accept his defeat at the High Council in the Netherlands and resign at once.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – Most of the 53 Cuban prisoners released from jail under a historic U.S.-Cuba

(Trinidad Express) Relatives of Dana Seetahal SC say they are starved for information from the police about the investigation into her murder, uncertain of whether any headway is being made, and fearful her killers will go free.

CARACAS/ SAN CRISTOBAL (Reuters) – At least a dozen protesters arrested in Venezuela remained in jail yesterday and masked assailants burned a bus amid scattered unrest over swelling lines for basic goods, activists said.

WASHINGTON/HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba has released all 53 prisoners it had promised to free, senior US officials said, a major step toward détente with Washington.