Regional News

SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – Automaker Hyundai Motor 005380.KS is planning to invest more than $1.1 billion in Brazil by 2032, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said yesterday.

(Trinidad Guardian) Diesel has been identified as the oil-like substance which has been leaking from the Gulfstream barge and blanketed 15 kilometres of Tobago’s shoreline since February 7, when the vessel ran aground at Cove, Tobago.

PUNTO FIJO, Venezuela, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA plans to discharge in the coming days a cargo of 1.73 million barrels of Russian Urals crude, which it will partially use for domestic refining, according to a source and a shipping document seen by Reuters yesterday.

(Trinidad Guardian) A senior official of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) on Tuesday confirmed that the president of the regional development finance institution, Dr Hyginus “Gene” Leon, is the subject of an administrative process.

RIO DE JANEIRO,  (Reuters) – Brazil opened a conference of foreign ministers from the G20 group of nations today by blaming the United Nations and other multinational bodies for failing to stop mounting wars and conflicts that are killing innocent people.

(Trinidad Express) Billion-dollar transnational companies are “cheating” the public revenue; going after them to ensure they pay their taxes is important, says Independent Senator Anthony Vieira.

(Trinidad Guardian) UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar says there should not be any Salaries Review Commission (SRC) increases for herself, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley or President Christine Kangaloo, but the salary increases should be given to the hardworking public servants.

SANTIAGO,  (Reuters) – A Chilean appeals court yesterday ordered the reopening of an investigation into the death of the leftist poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda in 1973 soon after the military seized power in a coup.

RIO DE JANEIRO,  (Reuters) – The diplomatic spat between Brazil and Israel entered a third day yesterday, with Brazil’s foreign minister calling Israel’s response to comments made by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the Gaza Strip “unacceptable” and “untruthful.”

BUENOS AIRES, (Reuters) – Poverty levels in Argentina hit 57.4% in January, the highest in at least 20 years, according to a report by the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) cited by local media on Sunday.

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombia’s government could restart aerial bombing campaigns against illegal armed groups, as long as intelligence makes certain minors will not be affected, Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez said yesterday.

(Trinidad Guardian) Flying with American Airlines (AA) soon and planning to check a suitcase?

LONDON,  (Reuters) – British foreign minister David Cameron vowed yesterday to help protect the Falkland Islands as long as they wanted to remain under British control despite attempts by Argentina’s new leader to reopen negotiations on their sovereignty.

PORT-AU-PRINCE,  (Reuters) – Sixteen people from the same family were found dead in a remote mountain town in southern Haiti, a local official said yesterday, with local news outlets noting the deaths were reported a day after the family attended a funeral.

(Trinidad Express) It costs just Can$7 (about TT$35) to obtain an electronic travel authorisation (eTA) for citizens of Trinidad and Tobago to travel to Canada for tourism or to visit their friends and family, says Canadian High Commissioner Arif Keshani.

(Trinidad Guardian) A soldier has been shot and killed in Diego Martin.

(Trinidad Express) Cocaine valued at over half a million dollars has been found washed ashore at Cove Estate, Tobago.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – A Haitian judge in charge the investigation into the 2021 assassination of the Caribbean nation’s last president has charged some fifty people, including his widow and a former prime minister, according to a document leaked to local media.

JERUSALEM, (Reuters) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is not welcome in Israel until he takes back comments likening the war against Hamas militants in Gaza to the Nazi genocide during World War Two, the Israeli foreign minister said on Monday.

(Trinidad Express) Two men and an 18-year-old woman were shot and killed by police in Tunapuna early yesterday morning during what a senior officer described as an exchange of gunfire.