Regional News

(Jamaica Gleaner) Tagging Jamaicans as “ingenious advanced thinkers,” Chilean Ambassador Alfredo García said Jamaica’s gesture to host the 33 miners who were trapped, their spouses, and rescue workers for a vacation here is fantastic.

(Trinidad Express) British Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague have given Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar a commitment to revisit the issue of the level of Air Passenger Duty (APD) imposed on tourists travelling to the Caribbean by the former Gordon Brown administration.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Marina Silva, the Green Party candidate who placed a surprisingly strong third in Brazil’s presidential election and has emerged as a potential kingmaker in the runoff vote, sounds very unlikely to endorse either remaining candidate.

(Barbados Nation) A major drug overhaul is in the works for Barbados, says Minister of Health Donville Inniss.

Big Drugs Haul The British Royal Navy says it caught a gang of drug smugglers with cocaine worth $26.9 million in the Caribbean.

DAKAR (Reuters) – More than 160 Haitian students arrived in West Africa on Wednesday, taking up Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade’s offer of free education in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated their nation earlier this year.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez hailed its alliance with Russia and said his country had a right to develop nuclear energy as he started a visit to Moscow yesterday.

Amputation recommendation for thieves St Lucians continue to expressed their anger at the shooting death of an eight year-old this week.

(Jamaica Gleaner) – The government has yielded to calls for a commission of enquiry into the handling of the extradition request for ousted Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

(Jamaica Gleaner) – The Court of Appeal has granted former Matthew’s Lane strongman, Donald ‘Zeeks’ Phipps leave to go to the UK based Privy Council.

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – Once an oasis of calm, Mexico’s richest city has become a central battleground in the country’s increasingly bloody drug war as cartels open fire on city streets and throw grenades onto busy highways.

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) – Hurricane Paula dumped rain on the Caribbean resort of Cancun yesterday as it moved away from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula toward western Cuba.

PARIS,  (Reuters) – French demonstrators hit the  streets in record numbers yesterday in their latest protest  against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to shake up the pension  system, and striking transport workers badly disrupted trains.

ACCRA,  (Reuters) – Organised crime in West Africa  risks wiping out gains in a region once plagued with frequent  coups and wars unless governments work together to tackle the  threat, a top official of a regional grouping said yesterday.

OSLO, (Reuters) – China broadened its retaliation  against Norway yesterday for the selection of a Chinese  dissident for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, cancelling a second  cabinet-level meeting and a Norwegian cultural event in China.

(Trinidad Express) In what appears to be a rap on the knuckles of the Works Minister, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced on Saturday night that the TT$47 million contract awarded by the Airports Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (AATT) to Harry Persad and Sons for the upgrade of lighting at Piarco would be reviewed for the purpose of having it struck out.

COPIAPO, Chile (Reuters) – Chilean rescue workers on Wednesday will likely start to evacuate 33 miners trapped deep underground after finishing drilling an escape shaft, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said yesterday.

QUITO (Reuters) – Recent police riots in which Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa was teargassed, roughed up and trapped in a hospital for hours by officers angry over bonus cuts has been turned into a music video.

(Trinidad Guardian) The Government has agreed to reconsider its Clico payout plan if a suitable alternative can be found.

(BBC) As of tomorrow a new chapter in the annals of Caribbean history will be written with the dissolution of the Dutch Caribbean federation known as the Netherlands Antilles.