Regional News

GUATEMALA CITY,  (Reuters) – Information buried in  Guatemalan police archives is being used for the first time in  the trial of two former police officers accused of the forced  disappearance of a union leader during a 36-year civil war.

(Trinidad Express) – The audience at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) in Port of Spain was shocked on Saturday night, as they watched the Calypso King of the World, the Mighty Sparrow, sit throughout his entire performance during NAPA Fest.

(Trinidad Express) – Verna St Rose-Greaves, who has been named Special Advisor on Children’s Affairs to Prime Minister Kamla Persasd-Bissessar, is against the People’s Partnership’s current moves to return to the hangman, saying she will not compromise on her views that capital and corporal punishment have no place in a civilised society.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Cuba’s government should follow the release of 11 political prisoners flown to Spain earlier this month with further liberalising moves, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Drug hitmen stormed a  birthday party and killed 17 people in the northern Mexican  city of Torreon yesterday in one of the deadliest attacks in  Mexico’s drug war that came days after a lethal car bomb.

(Barbados Nation) After investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in training Barbadians for the medical transcription field, Government may have to return to the drawing board and review its much touted programme, earmarked to earn over Bds$20 million in foreign exchange annually.

(Trinidad Express) A police constable who attempted to foil a robbery at a fruit stall in Arima was shot and killed by the robber on Saturday but hours later, cops killed the robber in an alleged shoot-out.

(Jamaica Observer) The significance of Lincoln ‘Sugar’ Minott’s contribution as a critical innovator in the annals of modern Jamaican music will be commemorated at farewell showcase tentatively planned for July 29.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, (Reuters) – A Mexican drug  cartel was responsible for a cell phone-detonated car bomb that  killed four people in a city on the U.S.

HAVANA,  (Reuters) – Cuban revolutionary leader  Fidel Castro took his warning of impending nuclear war to  Cuba’s Foreign Ministry yesterday, where he explained the  reasons for his dire prediction in his fifth public appearance  in 10 days.

(Trinidad Guardian) One minute beautiful Bianca Charles was standing in the company of her boyfriend Nigel Christmas.

St Lucia PM sacks AG (BBC) The Prime Minister of St Lucia, Stephenson King has sacked his attorney general, the first victim of a scandal that has scarred the credibility of the administration.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela exhumed the remains  of 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar yesterday and  will test them to see if he was poisoned by enemies in  Colombia.

(Jamaica Gleaner) – The Manatt, Phelps & Phillips saga has been brought back to life with news surfacing on Wednesday, by way of United States publication AM Law Daily, that the law firm was paid an additional US$15,000 by local attorney-at-law Harold Brady on March 19 this year. 

(Jamaica Gleaner) – The police, as well as the heads of the umbrella private sector organisations, have expressed surprise at extortion claims being made by some members of the downtown business district.

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia has proof leaders of outlawed rebel groups are hiding in neighboring Venezuela, the government said yesterday in a statement likely to further strain already tense relations between the Andean countries.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Netherlands said yesterday claims by Venezuela that Dutch military planes made illegal flights into the Latin American country’s airspace were groundless.

– ten years left (Trinidad Express) – Trinidad and Tobago’s natural gas reserves have fallen again.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An American couple who has pleaded guilty to spying for Cuba will be sentenced tomorrow after a debriefing prosecutors said was tarnished but did not breach their plea agreement.

Optimistic about Caricom Grenadian Prime Minister Tillman Thomas says he is optimistic that regional leaders will get it right eventually and move Caribbean integration forward.