Regional News

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Thousands of Venezuelans fled  their homes yesterday after landslides and swollen rivers  killed at least 21 people and threatened to cause more damage.

(Trinidad Guardian) Twenty-seven thousand new jobs are set to stimulate the economy with the construction of two major projects being undertaken by the Ministry of Works.

(Jamaica Observer) A high percentage of the ambulances assigned to public hospitals are down and almost out for the count, a probe of the institutions by the Sunday Observer has found.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The Canadian police say May’s operation to capture Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke in Tivoli Gardens, west Kingston, and the tumbling of the headquarters of the Shower Posse have had a far-reaching effect on law enforcement in Toronto.

(Trinidad Express) – Police probing the murder of Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago employee Kenny Goddard have unearthed a corrupt practice involving three of their colleagues and a TSTT employee, who were providing security for work crews in high risk areas.

Campaigning closes It’s the last official day of campaigning in presidential and parliamentary elections in Haiti.

(Trinidad Express) A United States soldier and his friend were shot dead when gunmen attempted to relieve the soldier of a silver Nissan Almera motorcar early on Wednesday, police said.

(Jamaica Gleaner) A delegation from the Association for the Resettlement of Returning Residents was expected to meet with the British High Commissioner to Jamaica yesterday.

LIMA (Reuters) – Two Peruvian soldiers were killed after stumbling onto landmines set by a remnant band of Shining Path rebels involved in the cocaine trade, the armed forces said on Wednesday after its worst setback in months.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil’s incoming economic policy  team surprised financial markets by promising deep cuts to budget  spending yesterday, moving to shore up the main weakness in the  country’s booming economy.

RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – Suspected Brazilian gang  members burned cars and buses in Rio de Janeiro yesterday in  a fourth day of violence, defying a heavy police presence and  raids on slum communities that killed 13 people.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – China is taking another great  leap forward in its Latin American energy plans, raising Cuba’s  energy importance in the process, with a deal to lead a $6  billion refinery expansion project on the communist island,  experts said this week.

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Nine workers were killed at two  small coal mines in Colombia when gases ignited and caused  cave-ins, relief workers and the mining regulator said yesterday.

(Barbados Nation) Barbadians were on Monday administered one of the most bitter doses of economic medicine since the 1991 crisis by new Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler.

(Jamaica Observer) The Child Development Agency (CDA) is attributing the spike in the number of reported cases of abuse to the fact that more Jamaicans are taking their legal responsibility to report seriously, than to an increase in the incidents of child abuse.

(Jamaica Observer) Excel Motors Limited, the only local car manufacturing company in Jamaica, is currently preparing to export three models of its Island Cruiser motor vehicles to the Turks and Caicos Islands.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Impoverished Haiti, long afflicted by political turmoil and natural disasters, will hold presidential and legislative elections on Sunday under the scourge of a deadly cholera epidemic.

(Trinidad Guardian) – Works Minister Jack Warner said on Sunday that San Fernando East Member of Parliament, Patrick Manning, owes the country an apology after trying to “assassinate the character” of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Friday in Parliament.

(Trinidad Express) Justice Minister Herbert Volney says his plan to retire from the Judiciary was leaked to the media after it was obtained during a tapped telephone conversation with his wife.

PARIS, (Reuters) – The big surprise with Pope Benedict’s new book is not that he believes the Catholic Church  can permit condom use to prevent the spread of AIDS in some  circumstances, but that he took so long to say so.