Regional News

(BBC) – The main road along Havana’s seafront, the Malecon, was sealed off on Sunday as thousands of Cubans flocked to a free open air concert by the veteran American funk disco band Kool & the Gang.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Hugo  Chavez yesterday renamed Angel Falls, the world’s tallest  waterfall, saying it should be called by its indigenous name  Kerepakupai Meru.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Several young professionals in the public and private sectors are warning that a spate of mass migration is on the horizon if the Government does not clean up its act and roll back the new tax package.

(Trinidad Express) Acting top cop James Philbert has admitted his officers may have used excessive force against protesters outside the Red House in Port of Spain.

CULIACAN, Mexico, (Reuters) – Mourners trickled into  a palatial chapel in the heart of Mexican drug trafficking  territory yesterday to pay their respects to late drug lord  Arturo Beltran Leyva, shot dead by security forces this week.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – A Brazilian toddler is making  a good recovery after surgery to remove the first of 31 sewing  needles pushed into his body by his stepfather in a cruel act  that has enraged locals, the hospital said yesterday.

(Trinidad Guardian) – High-level talks between Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica on Wednesday focused on forming one carrier for the Caribbean.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The American father of a boy at the centre of a Brazil-US custody dispute made an emotional appeal to be reunited with his son yesterday, calling the situation “cruel, tragic and sad.”

BOGOTA (Reuters) – The death of Mexican drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva will help disrupt trafficking ties between Mexican cocaine gangs and their Colombian counterparts, the Andean country’s police chief said yesterday.

Voting progressing well Electoral officials in Dominica were reporting a steady trickle of voters heading for polling booths around the country yesterday morning, as the island holds a general election.

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia on Thursday demanded Venezuela hunt down and extradite about 15 rebel chiefs it says have taken refuge across the border at a time when the two governments are caught up in a simmering diplomatic feud.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A Brazilian man and two women have been arrested on suspicion of putting 42 metal sewing needles into the body of a 2-year-old boy in what may have been an occult or religious act, police said yesterday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It’s too soon for Americans to plan a Cuban vacation of beach, mambo and mojitos, but the US travel industry is gearing up for a return to its largest Caribbean destination before Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

CUERNAVACA, Mexico (Reuters) – Mexican security  forces have shot dead top drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva in the biggest strike yet for President Felipe Calderon’s drug war but  one which could trigger fresh bloodshed.

Caricom observers prepare The members of a Caribbean Community (Caricom) Electoral Observer Mission in Dominica to monitor Friday’s general election say they have already met with several key players ahead of the national poll.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Three UN human rights experts yesterday accused President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela of creating a climate of fear among his country’s legal profession with the arrest last week of a woman judge.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A Brazilian federal court yesterday ordered a 9-year-old boy at the centre of a high-profile custody dispute to be handed over to US authorities in Brazil so he could return with his father to the United States, a lawyer for the father said.

Election date coming Prime Minister Denzil Douglas has told Kittitians and Nevisians that he intends announcing an election date “in the weeks ahead”.

(Trinidad Express) Nyla Khan, mother of a two-year-old boy, was tied up and tortured inside her home before she was chopped twice on the neck, relatives said on Monday.

-poll (Trinidad Express) In Sep-tember 2008, the Government appointed a Commission of Enquiry under the chairmanship of Prof John Uff to examine the operations of the Public Sector Construction Industry and the procurement regime with particular reference to the Urban Development Corporation (UDeCOTT), the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and the Cleaver Heights Housing Project.