Regional News

Low growth The World Bank says that growth in the Caribbean region, excluding Haiti, will accelerate modestly to 3.2% in 2010.

BOGOTA (Reuters) – At least eight people were killed and nine wounded, including two policemen, in a drive-by shooting outside a nightclub in northwest Colombia, police and local media said yesterday.

CANAIMA, Venezuela (Reuters) – Venezuela’s army has evicted thousands of people from makeshift towns in one of the world’s most pristine jungles, where wildcat miners lured by high gold prices rip up the land for the precious metal.

(Barbados Nation) – Prime Minister David Thompson will be taking two months leave from his national responsibilities and could be heading for major surgery.

(Jamaica Observer) – Gunmen on Wednesday held up workers at the Knollis, St Catherine home of Cabinet Minister Karl Samuda, locked them in a room before making their escape with the MP’s shotgun and approximately 100 rounds of ammunition about 12:00 noon.

CARACAS (Reuters) – At a workshop in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, technicians strip down a dozen luxury automobiles and begin the painstaking process of converting them into fortresses on wheels.

(BBC News) – July will mark a fresh beginning for Puerto Ricans – literally – as the government of the US territory begins issuing new birth certificates in an attempt to tackle identity theft.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – President Rene Preval  yesterday rejected U.S. Senate proposals for upcoming  elections in Haiti and said one of them could even sow  “anarchy” in the earthquake-shattered Caribbean country.

OECS economic contraction Economies of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are expected to contract by 2.4% this year.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A congressional panel voted yesterday to lift a decades-old ban on travel and to remove other hurdles to food sales to the Caribbean island.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – A congressional panel is  poised to take the first step toward ending a decades-old U.S. 

(Trinidad Express) Dwayne Douglas Gibbs, the Canadian national likely to be approved by Parliament tomorrow to become the country’s next Commissioner of Police, has promised, once he’s given the nod, that he’s going to put his best foot forward and get the job done.

-Soldiers recall intense firefight against Tivoli gunmen (Jamaica Observer) The intensity of the gunfire that greeted Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldiers when they launched their May 24 operation in Tivoli Gardens left many Jamaicans wide-eyed and O-mouthed.

SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar  al-Assad has invited Brazil to help negotiate peace in the  Middle East, a sign that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva  has strengthened his country’s standing abroad.

(Jamaica Observer) The police will tomorrow begin excavating several suspected burial sites in Tivoli Gardens that were detected by two sniffer dogs brought in from the United States on Wednes-day.

(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said on Friday that the four-year process to select and appoint a police commissioner cost T&T more than $8 million and more than 1,800 murders.

(Jamaica Gleaner) — Jamaican gang leader Christopher “Dudus” Coke pleaded not guilty yesterday to US charges that he ran a massive drug ring in the Eastern US from his Caribbean stronghold.

(Jamaica Gleaner) – The police are moving quickly to seize the assets of at least 20 suspected gang lords who are believed to have amassed massive fortunes through a life of crime.

(Trinidad Express) – A man who was a state witness in a murder trial at the San Fernando Supreme Court was shot dead at his home on Thursday.

(Trinidad Express) – Rape accused Jason Martin has been charged with contempt of court for throwing a shoe that hit his attorney on the head during a High Court hearing on Tuesday.