Regional News

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.

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.