Regional News

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s constitutional court likely will not rule until next year on President Alvaro Uribe’s re-election bid, complicating the time frame for the US ally to secure a third term, the court’s chief said yesterday.

(Barbados Nation) – Government is being urged to close a legal loophole to prevent non-nationals from fraudulently gaining Barbadian citizenship through marriages of convenience.

Puerto Rico blast An explosion early Friday morning at a gasoline facility in Puerto Rico rocked a neighbourhood outside Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan, causing at least some minor injuries and forcing evacuations as firefighters raced to prevent additional blasts.

(Trinidad Express) – Describing his Member of Parliament for Diego Martin West Dr Keith Rowley as “a raging bull” when he is opposed, Prime Minister Patrick Manning told the Parliament on Wednesday that he suffered 12 years of Rowley’s “bullying” in silence.

 CARACAS (Reuters) – Leftist President Hugo Chavez called on Venezuelans on Wednesday to stop singing in the shower and to wash in three minutes because the oil-exporting nation is having problems supplying water and electricity.

(Trinidad Express) – The country’s murder toll increased by two on Wednesday afternoon, after two Laventille men were gunned down in Diego Martin.

(Barbados Nation) – Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin has ordered a full-scale internal investigation into the theft of two police Glock guns.

Inquiry set to resume Former Nevis Premier Vance Amory has lost his case challenging the legality of the Commission of Inquiry set up to look into the operations of his former Concerned Citizens Movement administration.

GENEVA (Reuters) – India and Brazil will take the European Union to court at the World Trade Organisation, diplomats said yesterday, raising the stakes in a bitter dispute over seizures of generic drugs. 

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Police killed seven suspected drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro yesterday, bringing to 33 the total number of deaths since the city’s worst recent outbreak of violence erupted over the weekend.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Cocaine kingpin Diego Montoya, the one-time head of Colombia’s Norte del Valle cartel, apologized in a US court to the victims of drug violence and was sentenced yesterday to 45 years in prison.

(Jamaica Observer) – Gunmen on Tuesday morning torched a house in the community of Long Wall in Stony Hill, St Andrew then shot dead a father and his son as they tried to escape the inferno.

…while escorted by cops (Trinidad Express) Peter Garcia was in handcuffs, police officers at his side, on the compound of a court, with dozens of officers nearby, when he was shot dead by men mocking the State’s ability to protect.

(Jamaica Observer) Scores of Jamaicans are believed to be among the 1.7 million illegal immigrants in the United States who have opted to return home in the last two years, rather than endure the harsh realities of a tough American economy and stricter enforcement of immigration policies.

KINSHASA (Reuters) – The diamond industry’s Kimberley Process is failing due to a lack of accountability and follow-up, paving the way for an illegal trade that could see a return of conflict stones to world markets, campaigners said.

Court rules against new boundaries A proclamation of new constituency boundaries in St Kitts and Nevis was yesterday ruled invalid by the courts.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Police in Rio de Janeiro could get 100 million reais ($58.3 million) from Brazil’s federal government to bolster the force after weekend drug violence claimed at least 17 lives and turned parts of the seaside city into virtual war zones.

(Jamaica Gleaner) – Controversial dancehall entertainer Bounty Killer has found himself in another run-in with the law.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil wants to forge a common position among all Amazon basin countries for a global climate summit later this year, the country’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said yesterday.

(BBC) Just how much freedom is allowed on the Internet has been tested in a court case in Dominica, in which a former beauty queen contestant has been awarded substantial damages.