Thousands of Catholics have welcomed Pope Francis to Yangon, where has begun a three-day visit to Myanmar. The trip – fraught with sensitivity and trepidation over how he will deal with the plight of the Muslim Rohingya – could be the trickiest yet of his papacy. After touching down in the early afternoon, the pope was greeted by a large crowd at the airport, many waving yellow and white Vatican flags and dressed in T-shirts bearing the slogan of the trip, “Love and Peace”. As he drove past, they screamed and chanted “we love Papa”. The head of the Catholic church faces a difficult diplomatic balancing act on his first papal visit to Myanmar.(theguardian)…[+]

Prince Harry has said he is “thrilled” after announcing that he is to marry the American actor Meghan Markle next spring. Congratulations have flooded in for the couple, who appeared in public for a photoshoot at Kensington Palace on Monday afternoon, hours after making their engagement public.

Holding hands, the couple spoke briefly. Harry, wearing a navy blue suit and matching tie, said he was “thrilled, over the moon”. He declined to give details about the engagement, which happened this month in London, but joked: “Of course it was romantic.” Asked when he knew Markle was “the one”, he said: “The very first time we met.” Markle, wearing a white wrap coat, displayed her engagement ring and said she was “so very happy”, rubbing Harry’s arm affectionately as the couple smiled for the cameras.

The couple will move into a two-bedroom Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace after the wedding. The announcement of their engagement was made by Clarence House on behalf of Prince Charles earlier on Monday. Later, the Prince of Wales, speaking for himself and the Duchess of Cornwall, said: “We’re both thrilled. We hope they’ll be very happy indeed.”(theguardian)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN – The Caribbean could discover its very own Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, when 300 people from the tech industry, including power players like Jack Dorsey, CEO, Twitter, convene in Jamaica from November 30 to December 2, for the second biannual Tech Beach retreat.

A USD35,000 grant provided by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will make it possible for 16 young entrepreneurs and innovators from across the region to attend the event, through scholarships. The two-day retreat will focus on teaching participants how to build successful fintech, medtech and consumer tech companies, with special features on cybercrime and data security, robotics and automation, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

Scholarship awardees will present their business ideas to key participants and a select group of speakers at the retreat, and will receive constructive feedback and mentorship. This type of access to global partnerships and potential investment is vital to the region making its mark, said Tech Beach Co-founder and Director, Kirk-Anthony Hamilton. Following the inaugural retreat in 2016, a post-event survey confirmed that 56 percent of the participants had gone on to establish joint ventures through connections made at the event. Hamilton is himself an example of what regional entrepreneurs can achieve with adequate investment and support. He was named one of the 75 Emerging Global Entrepreneurs by the then President of the United States of America, Barrack Obama in 2015…[+]