Regional News

(Jamaica Gleaner) Detectives from the Kingston Central Police Division have now charged the juror in the Vybz Kartel murder trial who allegedly tried to sway others to change their verdict to not guilty.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Prime Minister of Barbados Freundel Stuart says his country is committed to complying with the decision of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in the Shanique Myrie ruling.

PARAMARIBO – Sunil Oemrawsingh, chairman of 8 December 1982 Foundation, warns that Suriname should refrain from taking sides in the political conflict in Venezuela.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – President Nicolas Maduro yesterday warned airlines not to limit flights in and out of Venezuela, a day after reports a Colombian airline was reducing services to Caracas amid industry complaints of billions of dollars in unpaid debts.

(Jamaica Observer) ST JAMES, Jamaica — Hospiten Group, a Spanish-based company, yesterday morning announc-ed that it will begin construction of a state-of- the- art medical facility at a cost of US$20 million in the upscale community of Cinnamon Hill in Rose Hall, St James.

SANTO DOMINGO, (Reuters) – The homicide rate in the Dominican Republic plunged to an 11-year low in 2013 as the government used the military to back up the National Police, bucking the trend in the Caribbean where increased drug trafficking has brought more violence.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The Contractor general has found a number of breaches of procurement rules in a deal struck between NIF and hotel group Blue Diamond Hotels and Resorts but has recommended no punitive action, opting instead to use the case as a teaching moment for the public sector.

(Trinidad Express) Chairman of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Norbert Masson says democracy in Trinidad and Tobago is being undermined by political party financiers.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela’s state prosecutor said yesterday the death toll from a month of violent protests had risen to 28, after the nation’s top court ordered opposition mayors to dismantle barricades set up by street protesters.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A dirty-looking, commercially worthless brown diamond found in Brazil is yielding priceless information about the composition of a layer deep inside our planet.

(Trinidad Express) In an effort to reduce Trinidad’s carbon footprints, Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Ramona Ramdial said, Trinidad and Tobago will have a state-of-the art recycling plant very soon.

(Trinidad Express) Within the space of 18 hours, the deaths of a 53-year-old singer, a 33-year-old jeweller, and a 31-year-old recovering mental patient, pushed the murder toll in this country to 95.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – With the World Cup in June and July and a presidential election in October, many Brazilians aren’t thinking beyond 2014.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Protesters battled soldiers in the streets of Caracas again yesterday as three more fatal shootings raised to 25 the death toll from a month of demonstrations against Venezuela’s socialist government.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Protesters battled soldiers in the streets of Caracas again on Wednesday as three more fatal shootings raised to 25 the death toll from a month of demonstrations against Venezuela’s socialist government.

KINGSTON,  (Reuters) – Caricom leaders are moving forward with a plan to seek reparations from the former slave-owning states of Europe, according to a lawyer for the island nations.

(Trinidad Express) Something definitely went wrong and health officials were responsible for the death of baby Simeon whose head was cut open during a Caesarean section on Carnival Saturday.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – A court has ordered the operators of two new hydroelectric dams in western Brazil to redo their environmental impact studies on the suspicion they have caused extensive flooding in the area.

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, (Reuters) – A judge in the Cayman Islands fined a Louisiana man $600 yesterday for forcing a Delta Air Lines flight to make an emergency landing after he got into a drunken argument with his wife aboard the plane on their anniversary.

(Trinidad Express) Five men were granted a total of $5.4 million in bail when they appeared before a Sangre Grande magistrate yesterday charged with the daring $4.5 million heist at the Republic Bank’s Sangre Grande branch on Carnival Saturday.