Regional News

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia and the United States signed a pact yesterday increasing US access to military bases in the South American country, deepening its standing as Washington’s main ally in the region.

(Trinidad Guardian) – Law enforcement agencies have been put on alert for a deadly weapon, concealed in a cellphone, known as the “mobile phone gun.”

(Jamaica Gleaner) – The drama started about 11 on Thursday morning while work was being done on a section of the roof of the terminal building.

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Senate foreign relations committee approved Venezuela’s request to join the South American trade bloc Mercosur yesterday despite concerns over President Hugo Chavez’s thwarting of democracy.

(Trinidad Express) – Kidnap victim Imran Mohammed-Khan owes his freedom to a brother and to the police officers who caught the suspects and killed them all in an alleged shoot-out on Wednesday.

Old Harbour, St Catherine (Jamaica Observer) – The police on Wednesday morning shot dead three men in an alleged gunbattle, which lasted for approximately half-hour, in the quiet, upscale New Harbour Village in this busy town.

(Trinidad Guardian) – The fight for undocumented workers in the US has moved from the pulpit to the streets, and finally to Capitol Hill.

(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Patrick Manning has spent in excess of $1million on 32 foreign trips between January 2007 and March 31 this year.

Bahamas bank delisted A Bahamas-based bank is among firms and individuals removed from an international blacklist by the UN Security Council’s Taliban and al Qaeda sanctions committee.

(Trinidad Express) Two days after Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced in Tobago that he had no desire to become the nation’s executive president, as proposed in the draft constitution, he has made an about turn by indicating “if the people want me, I will be prepared to serve”.

(Antigua Sun) Chairman of the Antigua Labour Party Gaston Browne said efforts by a group of United States investors to sue the local government over the Sir Allen Stanford matter is out of line.

(Trinidad Express) Operations at the San Fernando High Court came to a standstill on Monday as word spread that a police constable attached to the Court and Process branch had contracted the H1N1 influenza virus or swine flu and was critically ill.

(Jamaica Observer) The Scientific Research Council (SRC) will next year start testing imported foods to determine whether they have been genetically modified (GM).

Antigua Sun) – Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer is reiterating his government’s commitment toward regional integration through adherence to the principles of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.

CCJ readiness quizzed The new president of the Dominica Bar Association, Levi Peter, says he is not convinced that the Caribbean is ready for its own supreme court.

(Trinidad Express) Prime Minister Patrick Manning says he has no desire to become the nation’s executive president as proposed in the working document for the latest draft constitution prepared by a round table of scholars operating out of his Office.

(Trinidad Express) A 15-year-old schoolboy was left to die on a street near the Manny Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella Friday night after being chased, beaten and stabbed in the chest.

(Jamaica Observer) Caribbean Cement Company has said that, effective today, it will begin offering discounts on its Carib Cement Plus product by $40 per 45.5 kilogram bag.

(Trinidad Express) An archaeological team has found more evidence on a site at St John’s Road, South Oropouche, that people lived there 7,000 years ago.

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Renewed talks to resolve Honduras’ deep political crisis collapsed yesterday over whether leftist President Manuel Zelaya could return to power after he was toppled in a June coup.