Regional News

MONTERREY, Mexico, (Reuters) – Armed men killed at  least 20 people in an attack on a casino in northern Mexico  that left the building ablaze with gamblers trapped inside,  officials said yesterday.

SANTIAGO,  (Reuters) – Protesters battled police in  Chile’s capital yesterday, the second day of a two-day strike  against unpopular President Sebastian Pinera that was marked by  sporadic looting but had no impact on the vital mining sector.

PORT OF SPAIN,  (Reuters) – Authorities rounded up  nearly 120 people in Trinidad and Tobago after imposing  emergency rule on the oil-rich Caribbean nation this week to  halt a spike in violent crime.

(Trinidad Guardian) Media magnate Ken Gordon said a state of emergency in T&T was long overdue.

HAVANA,  (Reuters) – Cuban authorities are  investigating the business dealings of Canadian firm Tri-Star  Caribbean, one of the best known trading companies on the  island, foreign business and diplomatic sources said this  week.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – A Brazilian minister accused  his own party of trying to destroy him and said yesterday he  might not have enough support to continue in his job, raising  the odds of yet another high-level departure from President  Dilma Rousseff’s beleaguered government.

HAVANA,  (Reuters) – Cuban President Raul Castro has  sounded increasingly impatient in recent months with the slow  implementation of his economic reforms, which he publicly  blames mostly on bureaucratic sloth and resistance to change.  

(Trinidad Guardian) Government had initially planned to implement a daily 6 pm to 6 am curfew in “hot spots” involved in the limited state of emergency, National Security Minister John Sandy said on Sunday.

SANTO DOMINGO,  (Reuters) – Hurricane Irene  strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane as it swept north of  the Dominican Republic yesterday and could hit the Southeast  United States as a larger and more powerful storm during the  weekend, forecasters said.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Kuti Ra of Greater Portmore, St Catherine, passed six subjects in this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams at the age of 12.

(Trinidad Express) Seven people were gunned down in four separate incidents in Arima, La Horquetta, Beetham Gardens and Pt Lisas between Thursday night and Friday.

(Trinidad Guardian) Nearly eight years after McDonald’s closed its stores in Trinidad due to low sales, the world’s largest chain of fast food restaurants is due to restore its famous golden arches signage and its world famous Big Mac to T&T.

(Barbados Nation) The hierarchy of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) on Thursday apologized for comments made  by one of its members Wednesday night in the House of Assembly.

(Trinidad Express) George Nicholas will stay as chairman of Caribbean Airlines (CAL) after Transport Minister Devant Maharaj did not accept his resignation.

(Trinidad Express) Trinidad is in the middle of a dengue outbreak, Dr Rai Ragbir, the chairman of a special purpose State-board involved in the Government’s fight against dengue, has said.

(De Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – Suriname will receive a hospital as a gift from China.

(Jamaica Observer) The management and workforce of the sugar factories sold to the Chinese company COMPLANT will be largely Jamaican, with China only providing key managers and experts, the company disclosed on Tuesday.

SAO PAULO,  (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma  Rousseff’s seven-month-old government sunk further into crisis  yesterday as a fourth minister quit and another top aide  publicly questioned whether the leader would seek reelection or  step aside in 2014 for her much more popular predecessor.

(Jamaica Observer) The quietness of Frankfield, a community in the central parish of Clarendon, was shaken on Tuesday morning when men armed with machetes invaded a house and attacked its three male occupants as they slept, hacking them to death.

(Jamaica Observer) Joel Chin of VP Records was shot and killed Tuesday night at his home in Stony Hill.