Regional News

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.

(Trinidad Express) – Dennis Pantin, economist, commentator, and University of the West Indies professor, has died.

BEIJING, (Reuters) – China and Argentina have  agreed to invest about $10 billion over several years to  renovate the Latin American country’s dilapidated railway  system and build a subway for its second-largest city.

ABIDJAN, (Reuters) – The world’s mangroves are being  destroyed up to four times faster than other forests, costing  millions of dollars in losses in areas such as fisheries and  storm protection, a report said yesterday.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – As Cuba shipped off more freed  political prisoners to Spain, former leader Fidel Castro stayed  in the spotlight on Tuesday, making his third public appearance  in the past week after four years in seclusion.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Mexican President Felipe  Calderon yesterday fired his interior minister, who angered  political allies and upset Mexicans for downplaying the deaths  of tens of thousands of people in the nation’s drug war.

(Trinidad Express) – Government is considering scrapping the multi-billion dollar contracts awarded for the acquisition of three Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) and four AW139 helicopter gunships, by the former People’s National Movement (PNM) government.

GENEVA (Reuters) – United Nations and other aid agencies appealed to the world yesterday not to forget earthquake-devastated Haiti and to keep financial support coming in for its long-term reconstruction.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada dismissed criticism of the international reconstruction effort in Haiti yesterday, saying much is being done to help the impoverished country recover from the huge earthquake that hit it on Jan.

Fidel’s television appearance State-run Daily Granma said ailing revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was to make a rare television appearance yesterday.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – Cuban revolutionary leader  Fidel Castro made his first known public appearance since  falling ill four years ago in a visit this week to a Havana  scientific facility, a blog and a Cuban government website  reported on Saturday.

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada’s top military officer in Haiti has been relieved of duty and is under investigation for allegations of an inappropriate relationship, the second time in recent months that the head of a Canadian military mission has been removed.

(Trinidad Guardian) – Her girlish flowered dress, pink mini-sweater and white wedge-heeled sandals gave no impression on Tuesday that she had come to cut big men down to size.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Jitters over whether a merger of Air Jamaica and Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) would fall through were put to rest on Thursday night, as Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said her government would honour the deal, despite perceived looming risks.

QUITO, (Reuters) – Ecuadorean private media groups  have called on the leftist government to stop airing spots on  state television during World Cup matches that accuse  journalists of distorting the truth in the Andean nation.  

UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon  yesterday made British envoy to Australia Valerie Amos his new  aid chief, replacing fellow Briton John Holmes, who coordinated  relief efforts after Haiti’s earthquake in January.  

(Trinidad Express) The courts will soon have the power to forfeit the property of gang members.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba took the first steps toward releasing 52 political prisoners as the island’s Catholic Church yesterday notified five they would be freed soon in a deal struck with the Cuban government that drew praise from Washington.

(Trinidad Express) –  Energy Minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan confirmed [on Wednesday] that government had pulled the plug on the Alutrint aluminium smelter project at La Brea Industrial Estate.

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) has put in place a number of measures to tackle the effects of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, should some countries become directly affected by it.