Regional News

(Trinidad Guardian) Renee T’Anna Lazarus spent her last moments with her older brother discussing how she could better her life through education.

(Trinidad Express) The Office of the Prime Minister disclosed yesterday that China has agreed to deliver a Long Range Vessel to the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard, to increase maritime border security and fights arms and drug smuggling.

(Jamaica Observer)  KINGSTON, Jamaica — Trinidad and Tobago yesterday signed an agreement with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) of the People’s Republic of China for the development of an economic zone and a transshipment port and dry-docking facilities.

(Trinidad Express) Poet Roger Robinson, novelist Robert Antoni and writer Carole Boyce Davies represent Trinidad and Tobago alongside writers from four other Caribbean countries on the long list for the 2014 OCM (One Caribbean Media) Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

(Trinidad Express) Four hundred and thirty four thousand visitors arrived in Trinidad and Tobago last year, Tourism Minister Chandresh Sharma said yesterday.

(Jamaica Gleaner) – Marijuana advocates in Jamaica are on a high after Leader of Government Business in the House of Representatives Phillip Paulwell signalled to stakeholders that the use of marijuana in specific quantities is on the parliamentary agenda for decriminalisation in the upcoming legislative year.

(Trinidad Guardian) – The government is preparing a contingency plan involving Caribbean Airlines to evacuate any T&T nationals and staff of this country’s Caracas Embassy out of strife-torn Venezuela if the situation there deteriorates further, acting Foreign Affairs Minister Roodal Moonilal has said.

(Jamaica Observer) Jamaica will this year join a virtual tidal wave of countries across the globe in decriminalising ganja, forerunner to the establishment of a medicinal marijuana industry estimated to be worth billions of dollars.

(Jamaica Observer) Jamaica can potentially earn US$800 million (J$85.6 billion) annually from exporting Sea Island Cotton, according to expert estimates.

(Trinidad Guardian) Five days after Kesav Ragoo, 20, survived an accident which claimed the life of soldier Junior La Barrie, he and one of his friends were burnt to death after the car in which they were travelling crashed and burst into flames near their Freeport homes on Saturday.

(Barbados Nation) Central Bank Governor Dr Delisle Worrell has recommended that Government scrap the Value Added Tax as a source of revenue since it is complicated, has hurt the tourism industry and is basically “a mess”.

(Barbados Nation) Central Bank Governor Dr Delisle Worrell has recommended that Government scrap the Value Added Tax as a source of revenue since it is complicated, has hurt the tourism industry and is basically “a mess”.

CARACAS (Reuters) – A female student and a young supermarket worker were the latest fatalities from Venezuela’s political unrest as the death toll from 10 days of violence rose yesterday to at least eight.

MAZATLAN, Mexico, (Reuters) – Mexico’s most wanted man, drug cartel kingpin Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, was captured today with help from U.S.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The Supreme Court has ruled that the United States Coast Guard does not have the power under the law to search Jamaican flagged vessels which are docked in the island and are under the custody of local law enforcement.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela’s jailed protest leader urged supporters yesterday to keep demonstrating peacefully against President Nicolas Maduro despite violence that has killed at least six people and rocked the OPEC member nation.

KAMPALA, (Reuters) – Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has put a bill imposing strict penalties for homosexuality on hold to give scientists a chance to prove that homosexuality could be triggered by genes and is not a “lifestyle choice”.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Strewn with smashed headstones, empty whisky bottles and the odd spent bullet casing, Caracas’ 19th century Southern Cemetery is a sprawling symbol of the violent crime engulfing Venezuela.

(Barbados Nation) Another young man met a tragic end yesterday as he was apparently shot and killed while sitting in his car not far from home.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The political divide in Gordon House was on Tuesday bridged  as parliamentarians signalled their unanimous support for The Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) Act 2014 (anti-gang bill), which the Government has crafted to dismantle criminal organisations.