Regional News

NEW YORK, (Reuters Life!) – The tiny island of  Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos has been voted the top  beach destination in the world, according to the travel website  TripAdvisor.

PORT-AU-PRINCE/ MIAMI, (Reuters) – As the carnival  music star “Sweet Micky”, Haiti’s shaven-headed Michel Martelly  captivated audiences with an engaging style, provocative  on-stage antics and satirical lyrics.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Michel Martelly, a  shaven-headed singer and political outsider, won Haiti’s  presidential election in a landslide victory that tapped into  deep popular desire for change in the poor, earthquake-battered  Caribbean state.

(Trinidad Express) President George Maxwell Richards revoked the appointment of Police Service Commission (PSC) chairman Nizam Mohammed, yesterday morning.

(Trinidad Express) The ethnic imbalance within the upper echelons of the Police Service, that favours Afro-Trinidadians, was pushed centre stage by Police Service Commission chairman Nizam Mohammed two Fridays ago at a Joint Select Committee (JSC) meeting at the Parliament, when he stated his intention to fix the disparity.

LIMA (Reuters) – Left-wing nationalist Ollanta Humala has extended his lead in Peru’s presidential race and former Prime Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski may now be in second place, polls showed on Friday before the April 10 vote.

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Al Qaeda operatives are in Brazil planning attacks, raising money and recruiting followers, a leading news magazine reported yesterday, renewing concerns about the nation serving as a hide-out for Islamic militants.

BRASILIA (Reuters) – President Dilma Rousseff is among the most popular presidents in Brazil’s recent history based on their approval ratings three months into office, an opinion poll showed yesterday.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela began dismantling a notorious police force yesterday as part of moves by President Hugo Chavez’s government to tackle high crime rates that could hurt his re-election chances next year.

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – US and Guatemalan agents captured Guatemala’s top drug trafficker yesterday as the United States pitches in to help curb drug cartels’ expanding reach in Central America.

(Trinidad Express) – President George Maxwell Richards appears to have no choice but to remove Nizam Mohammed as chairman of the Police Service Commission.

(Jamaica Gleaner) – Jamaica’s foreign affairs ministry is sending a team of officials to Barbados to discuss Shanique Myrie’s allegations of abuse at an airport there.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition coalition will consider privatizing companies currently in state hands if they defeat President Hugo Chavez in elections in December 2012, a senior alliance official said.

(Go Jamaica) The Government has indicated that it will be raising with Caricom the issue of the alleged mistreatment of a Jamaican woman by Barbados customs and im-migration officials.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Former US President Jimmy Carter will meet with Cuban President Raul Castro, the leader of Cuba’s Catholic Church and the island’s Jewish community during a Havana visit starting  tmorrow amid speculation he will seek the release of a jailed American aid contractor.

(Trinidad Guardian) Police Service Commission chairman Nizam Mohammed says there are too many Africans in the hierarchy of T&T Police Service  and he intends to address the issue with assistance from the Parliament. 

(Barbados Nation) Immigration and Customs authorities have categorically denied charges by a Jamaican woman that she was finger-raped and thrown out of Barbados when she arrived on the island just over a week ago.

(Jamaica Observer) Prime Minister Bruce Golding yesterday again denied that Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke paid the US$50,000 fee to United States law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips over the request for his extradition to the US on gun and drug trafficking charges.

(Jamaica Observer) Allegations by a Jamaican woman that she was finger-raped by an immigration officer before being thrown out of Barbados, have brought the spotlight on poor treatment of Jamaicans visiting that eastern Caribbean island.

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Most loving couples hope their marriage will last “until death us do part”.