GEORGETOWN, Guyana - The announcement of a changing of the guard in Havana – albeit not for another five years – has been somewhat overshadowed by all the fuss over the death of President Hugo Chávez and the election of Pope Francis. But the identification of a successor to Fidel and Raúl Castro in Cuba, although relatively lacking in drama, is still momentous news.

WASHINGTON, CMC – The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency says agents have taken 28 Caribbean and other immigrants back into custody after they were recently released from detention centers and jails around the country.
ICE said the immigrants were re-taken “after either violating the terms of their supervision or after the agency discovered information not available during an initial review of their case.”

NEW YORK, CMC - The United States financial services watchdog agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it has charged a Bahamas-based broker-dealer among others in what it describes as “an international market manipulation scheme”.
The SEC said charges have been laid against  Gibraltar Global Securities, a Bahamas-based broker-dealer; two San Diego, California attorneys and other participants in an international “pump-and-dump” scheme involving two publicly traded US companies, Pacific Blue Energy Corporation and Tradeshow Marketing Company Ltd.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Sports Minister Anil Roberts says he will take legal action against several journalists and media houses as well as the chair person of his Congress of the People (COP) political party amid allegations that he was being investigated by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) in relation to a complaint of alleged misappropriation of funds at the Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Board of Control.

ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada, CMC - Three former ministers of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NCD) will be appointed to the Senate to fill the three opposition seats in the Upper House of Parliament.
According to media reports, former Finance Minister Nazim Burke, former Education Minister Franka Bernardine and former Tourism Minister, Dr. George Vincent are set to receive their instruments of appointment from Governor General Sir Carlyle Glean.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Throughout the ages, man has held water as the most precious natural resource on earth; and rightfully so, since water is the source of all life on this planet and, coincidentally, it is only on earth that one can find this liquid. For such a simple chemical structure, water has led to many complicated challenges with regard to its accessibility. There have been many a battle, conquests and political and social manoeuvrings in an effort to obtain water and ensure its continued availability.

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC - Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony says the Windward Islands Banana Production and Marketing Company (WINFRESH) has a “moral” obligation to ensure the survival of the banana industry in the St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Addressing the opening session of the Windward Islands Agriculture and Bananas Technical Management Symposium, Prime Minister Anthony said WINFRESH has “a moral as well as practical duty to play its part in efforts to resuscitate banana production in the four islands.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - THE Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) is charting the way forward in establishing and maintaining a well co-ordinated system of Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSAs) in the Caribbean.
The objective of the TSAs is to help strengthen the capacities of the governments to assess the impact of tourism on the Caribbean economies through accurate and timely provision of information, revealed Marisko Russell, Team Leader of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).

ST.GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC - A senior Government Minister has announced that the Keith Mitchell administration secured a suspension of funds lifted by a major funding agency in Grenada.
Works Minister Gregory Bowen on Thursday announced that the Kuwait Fund has agreed to lift a suspension imposed on Grenada since February 2012 after the country failed to make payment on outstanding loan agreements.
Bowen said on coming into office, his first order of business was to get an update on the status of the negotiations with the agency.