NEW YORK, CMC - A high-ranking New York Police Department (NYPD) officer has acknowledged setting monthly quotas for summonses, arrests and stop and frisks of Caribbean and other minority youths while heading a Brooklyn, New York police precinct.
“I set a standard that said do your job or suffer the consequences,” Deputy Chief Michael Marino admitted on the stand in Manhattan Federal District Court during a class-action lawsuit challenging the NYPD's controversial stop-and frisk tactics as racial profiling.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - UNITED STATES President Barack Obama scored a diplomatic coup last week on his whirlwind trip to the Middle East. At first there was much speculation that the tour would merely be a widow-dressing exercise, especially among the Palestinians.
However, there is now some scope for progress though somewhat tangentially. First there was the belated apology that came from Israel for the 2010 commando raid on an aid flotilla on a Turkish vessel carrying supplies to Palestine. This shows that diplomacy works but often requires patience.

HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC – The Bermuda parliament will “soon” debate a motion to decide whether or not to legalise the use of marijuana in this British Overseas Territory.
“We will bring to the House of Assembly a ‘take note’ motion so we can have a public debate on the issue. I don’t advocate one way or the other, but it’s something we should have a debate on,” Attorney General and Justice Minister, Mark Pettingill, told the Bermuda Sun newspaper.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa's first black president, has been admitted to a hospital with a recurring lung infection, South Africa said today.

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Leaders of five of the world's emerging economic powers agreed Wednesday to create a development bank to help fund their US$4.5-trillion infrastructure plans - a direct challenge to the World Bank that they accuse of Western bias.
But the rulers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — known as the BRICS group — were unable to agree on some basic issues. Foreign Minister Pravin Gordhan of South Africa told reporters that there were "different views" about how much capital such a bank would need.

The speed of change in today’s world has grown ever more astounding, but the tools of violence, and its underlying causes, remain essentially unaltered. With total arms deliveries in 2012 reaching over $50 billion, we face a threat of mass destruction more deadly than nuclear weapons. Firearms cause more than 300,000 deaths every year that are unrelated to armed conflicts.
And the world is doing little to nothing about it.

HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC -- Premier Craig Cannonier has fired back at an opposition party attack on its first 100 days in office, accusing it of "schoolyard fighting tactics".
"As the Premier, I find it amazing that the Progressive Labour Party is still resorting to schoolyard fighting tactics to provoke nonsensical dialogue, none of which will benefit Bermuda or Bermudians. While they continue to grasp at straws and propagate untruths, the world is passing Bermuda by.

The first U.S. brand — and Haiti’s second luxury hotel to open in three months — will welcome its first guests Thursday.
Designed for the business traveler, the Best Western Premier, a 106-room seven-story hotel in tony Petionville is finally making its debut. A soft-opening is planned for April 4, but guests will get their first glimpse before then.
“It feels amazing,” said Haiti-born Chris Handal, who had planned the hotel before the country’s monstrous Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. “It’s really gorgeous.”

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Federal investigators in the United States said yesterday they will not be sharing any information on an ongoing probe involving a senior government minister and his son. Sources said both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) were reluctant to share information with local law enforcement because they do not have confidence in the integrity of the local national security agencies.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar says she will not be rushed into making any public statement on international reports that her National Security Minister Austin “Jack” Warner may be implicated in a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe involving soccer’s global governing body. “I will not rely on published reports in the media, but will again seek to get official corroboration of the information now in the public domain before making any determination or pronouncement,” Persad Bissessar said in a statement late Wednesday. Opposition Leader Dr.