CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles challenged President Nicolas Maduro’s narrow election victory before the Supreme Court yesterday, prolonging what appears to be a futile effort to overturn last month’s vote. Capriles refused to accept the results of the April 14 vote for a successor to late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, and called on supporters to take the streets. That led to unruly demonstrations in which the government says nine people died.
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WASHINGTON, USA — Fewer Americans are losing their jobs. Employers are struggling to squeeze more work from their staffs. The US is producing so much oil that imports are plunging, narrowing the trade deficit. A string of data Thursday raised hopes for stronger hiring and US growth in coming months. More jobs would spur spending and help energize the economy, which has yet to regain full health nearly four years after the Great Recession officially ended.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - THE Canadian High Commission has apologised to the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) for a botched naval exercise in March, which saw live 50-calibre rounds being fired in Jamaican coastal waters by two of that country's naval vessels and the interference with a boat in which former Prime Minister Bruce Golding was travelling. The disclosure came on Tuesday as the JDF sought to clear the air on the incident, which the Canadian media said has caused that country much embarrassment.
CARACAS (Reuters) – Opposition and government supporters flooded Venezuelan streets in rival May Day marches yesterday as a continuing dispute over the results of last month’s presidential vote kept political tensions high in the OPEC nation. On Tuesday, opposition deputies were beaten in a fracas in Congress resulting from their refusal to recognise the presidency of Nicolas Maduro, who narrowly won the April 14 election triggered by the death of socialist leader Hugo Chavez.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Twenty of the world’s most troubled countries have made progress in efforts that range from reducing poverty to improving the education of girls and cutting down on the deaths of women in childbirth, the World Bank said yesterday. The improvement is a big shift from just a few years ago for the 20 fragile and conflict-hit states.
BOSTON – There is no right way to react to a terrorist attack. Oklahoma City rebuilt after Timothy McVeigh’s 1995 truck bomb attack on the federal government.
Atlanta moved on following anti-abortion activist Eric Rudolph’s 1996 bombing of the Olympics. New York displayed staggering resiliency after the September 11 attacks. Boston, though, may have set a new standard.
WASHINGTON, CMC - Caribbean nationals who have been deported from the United States are returning illegally to the country, according to a report released by an immigration think tank.
Immigration Policy Center (IPC) said that new figures show that the number of United States federal prosecution cases against previously deported immigrants from the Caribbean and other developing countries is increasing nationwide.
It said that criminal prosecutions for illegal re-entry to the US increased from 7,900 in fiscal year 2000 to 35,800 in fiscal year 2010.
BARCELONA, Spain, CMC - Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries Monday appealed for continued international financial assistance to deal with the HIV-AIDS epidemic.
In an addressing commemorating the 10th anniversary of the XIV AIDS Conference here, St. Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas, who has responsibility for health issues within the 15-member CARICOM grouping, said a decade after signing an accord with six pharmaceutical companies in Barcelona, “we can truly and optimistically pronounce the aspirational goal to achieve an AIDS-free generation”.
WASHINGTON, CMC - A new report released here says remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) showed a slight increase in 2012 compared to the previous year.
The report, titled “Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean in 2012_ Differing Behavior among Sub-regions,” was released by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). It said the region received a total of US$61.3 billion in remittances last year.
This amount represents a year-on-year increase of US$300 million, or 0.6 per cent increase from 2011.
It is to be hoped that the visit last week to Canada of Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, who in July will become the chair of Caricom, an association of 15 Caribbean nation-states, will help move forward Canada’s free-trade negotiations with Caricom. Canada’s merchandise trade with the Caricom countries is not huge, but the connections in banking, energy, immigration and culture are strong.