Regional News

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – The death toll in  Haiti’s cholera epidemic climbed yesterday, reaching 800,  according to a U.S.

(Barbados Nation) A delinquent court system. That’s how the Barbados Bar Association described the justice system in Barbados in a stinging letter sent to the Acting Chief Justice Sherman Moore earlier this week.

PORT-AU-PRINCE,  (Reuters) – A three-week-old cholera  epidemic that has killed more than 640 people in Haiti is  spreading quickly in the northwest coastal city of Gonaives,  authorities said yesterday.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – A U.S.-developed video game that  lets players try to kill Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel  Castro sparked an angry reaction from Cuba yesterday, the  latest charge in the long history of bitter U.S.-Cuba

(Go Jamaica) Dancehall entertainers Vybz Kartel and Mavado remained in custody yesterday afternoon at the Constant Spring Police Station in St.

(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has been named as an international achiever alongside humanitarian Queen Rania, actress Julia Roberts, pop star Fergie and 23-year- old Katie Spotz who rowed 2,817 miles alone in 70 days.

(Trinidad Express) Talk show host and cricket    commentator Fazeer Mohammed is questioning the timing of his dismissal from State-owned media network Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG) following an argument he had with a minister over Trinidadian Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissesar.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Failure by the Group of 20  nations this week to achieve a global solution to the problem  of currency imbalances could lead to a trade war, Brazil’s  Foreign Trade Secretary Welber Barral said.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Colombia will extradite a businessman accused of being a major drug kingpin back to his native Venezuela to face justice, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday on Cuban television.

Banana exports derailed Agriculture officials in St Lucia say it will be several months before the island’s hard-hit banana industry recovers from the devastation caused by Hurricane Tomas.

(Jamaica Observer) The certification and re-registration process for contractors seeking government contracts has become so mired in corruption that Contractor General Greg Christie said his office will now perform forensic examinations of each application.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – The dissident group “Ladies in  White” accused the Cuban government yesterday of failing to  meet a deadline to release political prisoners and vowed to  continue their weekly protest marches until all are freed.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Head of the Organised Crime Investigation Division (OCID), Superintendent Fitz Bailey, has raised concerns about the absence of a regulatory framework to prevent unscrupulous persons from importing equipment used in the local multimillion-dollar debit-card scam.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Sonia Pottinger, who blazed a trail as reggae’s most successful female music producer, died Wednesday evening at her St Andrew home.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Earthquake-hit Haiti escaped a fresh disaster threatened by Hurricane Tomas, but the storm caused flooding, forced thousands from their homes and increased humanitarian challenges posed by a cholera epidemic, aid workers said yesterday.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Hurricane Tomas soaked Haiti’s crowded earthquake survivors’ camps and swamped coastal towns as it swirled between Haiti and Cuba yesterday, trailing thunderstorms that still could cause flooding and mudslides.

(Trinidad Guardian) – Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says criticism of her proposal to give conditional relief to St Vincent, St Lucia and other Caricom states is a storm in a teacup.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – A plane carrying 68 people  crashed in a mountainous region of central Cuba after issuing  an emergency call, state-run media said yesterday, and there  were no initial reports of survivors.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Strengthening Tropical  Storm Tomas drenched Haiti yesterday, threatening fragile,  crowded earthquake survivors’ camps in the poor Caribbean  country that is also reeling from a deadly cholera epidemic.

SAN JOSE, (Reuters) – A landslide caused by heavy  rain killed 20 people in Costa Rica yesterday as President  Laura Chinchilla considered declaring a national emergency to  help the coffee-growing nation deal with widespread flooding.