SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – Brazil’s economy had its worst showing in more than a decade in the last quarter of 2008, shrinking a larger-than-expected 3.6 percent as the global financial crisis took a heavy toll on Latin America’s biggest country.
(Nassau Guardian) NASSAU, The Bahamas – Bahamian professionals, religious leaders, businesses, churches and two government entities – Bahamasair and the Broad-casting Corporation Of The Bahamas – collectively have US$23 million in annuities tied up in CLICO Bahamas and it remains unclear how much, if any, of that money will be recovered as the company is in liquidation.
VIENNA, March 10 (Reuters) – A United Nations drive to cut supply and demand for illegal drugs has shown no progress globally in the decade since it was started, a European Commis-sion report said yesterday.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former U.S. President Bill Clinton visited Haiti yesterday and urged the Caribbean state to use international backing to haul itself out of grinding poverty.
(Trinidad Express) Half of the Cabinet has some type of an investment “portfolio”, “an annuity or something” with Colonial Life Insurance Co (CLICO), a subsidiary of the CL Financial Group, which received a multi-billion-dollar bailout from the State, says Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
(Jamaica Gleaner) Divi-sional commander for the St James police, Superintendent Maurice Robinson, is appealing for calm following a quadruple murder in the parish on Sunday.
HOUSTON, (Reuters) – The Houston office of the FBI is seeking to identify victims in its criminal fraud investigation of Stanford Financial Group and its affiliated companies, the agency said yesterday.
(Trinidad Guardian) Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira has presided over the billion-dollar bail-out of the CL Financial group, even as she herself has owned shares in the conglomerate, Guardian investigations have revealed.
(Trinidad Express) Non-performing loans on the books of the state-impounded CL Financial-owned Clico Investment Bank (CIB) could account for over 20 per cent, significantly more than the industry standard of two-to-three per cent, sources close to the bank have disclosed.
(BBC) The president of the Caribbean Development Bank, Compton Bourne, said Friday that the problems facing conglomerate CL Financial point to a serious gap in the region’s regulatory system.
DAR ES SALAAM, (Reuters) – Developing countries could face a financing gap of $270-$700 billion — equivalent to the latest U.S.
(Jamaica Gleaner) – Tragedy struck at a basic school in the Tucker-Irwin area of St James on Thursday afternoon when a little girl died after an abandoned piano in a schoolyard fell on her.
Trinidad Express) – A 33-year-old man who raped and sodomised his 73-year-old mother was caught by police officers around 3 am on Thursday.
(Trinidad Express) – The Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) has begun investigations to determine whether the erroneous reports of the “discovery of children in a container on the port within Trinidad and Tobago was public mischief on the part of the broadcasting stations involved”.
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has taken over a eucalyptus tree farm run by Ireland’s Smurfit Kappa, his latest move on foreign companies as he tightens his grip on the farm and food sectors.
Bahamas eyes beauty boost Officials in the Bahamas are hoping this year’s Miss Universe pageant will add some beauty to an ugly year for tourism.
Receiver seeks Stanford ease The court-appointed receiver in charge of the operations and assets of the Stanford Financial Group has asked a federal judge to release some client brokerage accounts that contain $250,000 or less.
(Barbados Nation) – The region has not co-operated enough in terms of how each country regulates its financial matters, and the Clico crisis has painfully exposed this.
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela said yesterday it has no plans to take over any additional holdings of US food giant Cargill after socialist President Hugo Chavez ordered the seizure of the rice plant, renewing his nationalization drive.
(Trinidad Express) – The collapse of a large financial conglomerate and continued exposure to plunging oil and gas prices make Trinidad and Tobago’s economy vulnerable, a new report from the International Monetary Report has shown.
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