Regional News

(Jamaica Gleaner) The school community at Munro College in St Elizabeth is in mourning following the death of third form student 14-year-old Diego DeSouza who passed away in his sleep in the early hours of this morning.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Former Education Minister Ruel Reid and two members of his family are among five people arrested in the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU)-Education Ministry corruption probe.

(Trinidad Express) The pastor detained by police in connection with the “rescue” of 69 men and women on Wednesday, appeared before a Parliament Joint Select Committee (JSC) in June 2016.

(Trinidad Guardian) Six­ty-nine peo­ple rang­ing from the ages of 19 to 70 years have been found locked away in cages at a church lo­cat­ed along the East­ern Main Road in Arou­ca on Wednes­day morn­ing.

(Jamaica Observer) Ninety-five year-old Nora Johnson, a resident of Mendez district in Point Hill, St Catherine, is the latest recipient of a new home under the Government’s Indigent Housing Programme, which is expected to significantly improve her standard of living.

(Trinidad Guardian) Venezue­lan pi­rates who op­er­ate out of Patos Is­land, one of Venezuela’s small un­in­hab­it­ed is­land, have re­port­ed­ly kid­napped three Ica­cos fish­er­men for ran­som.

(Trinidad Guardian) In 2020 the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) will cre­ate a cen­tre with the ca­pac­i­ty to mon­i­tor and analyse so­cial me­dia ac­tiv­i­ty via the use of sur­veil­lance sys­tems, and the TTPS will al­so get the Ar­moured Per­son­nel Car­ri­ers which Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith had ad­vo­cat­ed since he was the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter un­der the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship regime.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Government Senator Robert Morgan has “unequivocally” withdrawn a controversial tweet he posted on Monday with which the Opposition has taken issue.

(Jamaica Observer) Residents of Twickenham Park housing scheme in St Catherine are enraged.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman tried to give $1 million to Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez’s election campaign after being promised protection for his cocaine shipments, a witness at Hernandez’s criminal trial in New York said yesterday.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Jamaica has been given the go-ahead to list the first-ever Caribbean green bond on the stock market, which will be used to raise money to fund environment-friendly projects.

(Trinidad Express) Moruga labourer Christopher Moore was having an argument with a man over a cellphone when he was gunned down on Saturday.

(Trinidad Newsday) The Prime Minister took the witness stand on Tuesday in an assessment for damages before a High Court master in which he is seeking compensation for defamatory statements made against him by former chairman of the Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG), Brian Stone.

(Jamaica Observer) Opposition Senator Dr Andre Haughton this morning issued an apology for his “love breast” comment, which was made in Parliament on Friday, causing public uproar.

(Trinidad Express) From 2020 travellers will have shorter waiting times at the airports.

(Trinidad Express) Senior Geoscientist at Touchstone Exploration, Xavier Moonan, says the Piparo mud volcano would be closely monitored in the coming weeks as fractures continue to widen.

(Trinidad Express) Criminals are now using aerial drones to smuggle drugs, cellphones and other contraband to inmates at prisons in Trinidad.

(Trinidad Guardian) Sev­er­al times a year, in­creased con­cen­tra­tions of Sa­ha­ran dust move across our re­gion, turn­ing our typ­i­cal­ly blue skies in­to a dusty and hazy mess.

(Trinidad Guardian) Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert read the 2020 Bud­get in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yester­day.

QUITO,  (Reuters) – Ecuadoran state-run oil company Petroamazonas EP suspended operations at three oil fields in the Amazon region yesterday, the country’s energy ministry said, as protests against austerity measures convulsed the country.