LONDON – Prime Minister Theresa May said yesterday she would seek another Brexit delay to agree an EU divorce deal with the opposition Labour leader, a last-ditch gambit to break an impasse over Britain’s departure that enraged many in her party. Nearly three years since the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in a shock referendum result, it is still unclear how, when or if it will ever indeed quit the European club it first joined in 1973.

In a hastily arranged statement from her Downing Street office after spending seven hours chairing cabinet meetings on how to plot a way out of the Brexit maze, May said she was seeking another short extension to Brexit beyond April 12. Her move offers the prospect of keeping the United Kingdom in a much closer economic relationship with the EU after Brexit – though it could also rip her Conservative Party apart as half her lawmakers want a decisive split from the bloc.

“I am offering to sit down with the leader of the opposition and to try to agree a plan – that we would both stick to – to ensure that we leave the European Union and that we do so with a deal,” she said.(Reuters)…[+]

PRISONER Matthew Woods has been sentenced to three months’ hard labour after his failed escape attempt from custody on Monday morning at the Scarborough Port. Woods attempted to escape shortly before 6 a.m. while being escorted to the T&T Spirit inter-island vessel by prison officers, who were transferring him to prison in Trinidad.

Woods broke free and jumped into the sea, still handcuffed, but was quickly recaptured after the Spirit crew lowered a lifeboat and two prison ­officers got aboard and pulled Woods from the sea below the Scarborough jetty. He appeared before a Scarborough court later on Monday and pleaded guilty to the charge of escaping lawful custody. Following the incident, passengers were allowed to board the vessel, which later left the Scarborough Port, destined for Trinidad.((Trinidad Express)…[+]

Canada is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, a landmark government report has found, warning that drastic action is the only way to avoid catastrophic outcomes. “The science is clear – Canada’s climate is warming more rapidly than the global average, and this level of warming effectively cannot be changed,” Nancy Hamzawi, assistant deputy minister for science and technology at Environment and Climate Change Canada, told reporters on Monday.

The report, released late on Monday by Environment and Climate Change Canada, paints a grim picture of Canada’s future, in which deadly heatwaves and heavy rainstorms become a common occurrence. Forty-three government scientists and academics authored the peer-reviewed report. While global temperatures have increased 0.8C since 1948, Canada has seen an increase of 1.7C – more than double the global average.

And in the Arctic, the warming is happening at a much faster rate of 2.3C, the report says. While the increased warming in the Arctic is not yet fully understood, snow and ice play a critical role in reflecting the sun’s radiation and heat. But scientists say the retreat of glaciers and disappearing sea ice both contribute to a feedback loop of warming, which is one of the factors contributing to Canada’s disproportionate temperature increase. The report suggests the majority of warming felt in Canada and around the globe is the result of burning fossil fuels.(theguardian)…[+]

The ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is calling on the police to heighten their presence in the Halls Avenue/Free School area of Portland Eastern following a second shooting attack on one of the party’s supporters. According to a statement from the party, one of its supporters was seriously injured in a gun attack last night and remains in hospital receiving treatment. Two other people were reportedly injured in the incident.

The shooting follows last Thursday’s murder of a JLP supporter, Kevin McKenzie, on West Street in the constituency. The JLP said it notes comments made by McKenzie’s relative that he and several supporters of the JLP had received death threats a day before his killing because they had switched allegiance from the People’s National Party. The party is condemning all acts of criminality and said it rejects any attempt to use violence to intimidate people for political gain or any other purpose. The shootings come just days before the April 4 by-election in Portland Eastern.(Jamaica Observer)…[+]

Bridgetown– Jamaican farmers will be getting a £16.7 million boost to help them increase productivity and gain greater market access.

This has been made possible through a grant from the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) under the UK Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund (UKCIF) which is administered by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). At its meeting on Thursday, the Board of Directors of CDB agreed to the grant for the Southern Plains Agricultural Development Project (SPAD).

The project will target 795 hectares of government-owned lands which will be leased to farmers in the communities of Amity Hall in St. Catherine and Parnassus in Clarendon. It will provide essential agricultural production and market infrastructure and marketing systems for the farmers.

Small and medium sized farmers will make up the majority of the beneficiaries with 495 hectares allocated for them. Some 15 percent of the space – 124 hectares – will be reserved for women farmers and 70 hectares for young farmers. The planned infrastructure works, incorporating climate resilience measures, will include: improved irrigation, drainage and flood control systems; and farm roads expansion and rehabilitation.

Farmers will also benefit from marketing systems enhancement, including the construction of new pack houses and associated facilities in support of farmer compliance with the GLOBAL G.A.P standard. These structures will incorporate both renewable energy and energy efficiency measures. CDB Director of Projects Daniel Best said the project is aligned with the recently launched Essex Valley Agricultural Project in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica and once again demonstrated how strategic investments in agriculture could help transform the Region’s economies…[+]

A White House whistleblower has told Congress that dozens of rejected security clearance applications were overturned by the Trump administration. Tricia Newbold claimed applications that were denied for “serious disqualifying issues” were later reversed with little explanation.

The veteran White House security adviser testified to the Democratic-led House Oversight and Reform Committee. Democrats have long claimed that White House officials have abused clearances. Ms Newbold, who works as an adjudications manager in the White House Personnel Security Office, cited “grave” security risks arising from the intervention of her colleagues. The White House has not commented on the testimony.(BBC)…[+]

U.S. airlines were hit by system-wide computer outages today related to problems with the Aerodata planning weight and balance program, the Federal Aviation Administration said. After reporting problems along with several major peers, however, Southwest Airlines Co said on Twitter that it had received word that the problem had already been resolved and that systems would be back up soon.

Earlier, carriers had reported problems through their social media accounts, with United Airlines saying it was unable to create paperwork as a result. The No. 1 U.S. carrier American Airlines said the outage was affecting regional carriers nationwide. https://bit.ly/2YJHYWa. Canada’s Alaska Air Group Inc also said on its social media account that it was experiencing a system-wide outage.(Reuters)…[+]

From 2015 to March 2019, al­most 100 peo­ple and groups have been added to the state’s con­sol­i­dat­ed list of ter­ror­ists whose as­sets in lo­cal fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions were or­dered to be frozen. The list, which in­cludes 96 peo­ple and groups as of March 25, 2019, al­so or­ders lo­cal banks not to do any busi­ness with those peo­ple and en­ti­ties.

The lat­est ad­di­tion to the list was the Pak­istan-based Tariq Gi­dar Group by a High Court or­der on March 25. The first per­son was Trinida­di­an Imam Ka­reem Ibrahim, who was con­vict­ed in 2012 for con­spir­ing to com­mit a ter­ror­ist act at the John F. Kennedy In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port in New York in 2006 by ex­plod­ing fu­el tanks and the fu­el pipeline un­der the air­port. He was sen­tenced to life in prison by a US Dis­trict Judge in 2012. Ibrahim’s name was first added to the list, which is avail­able on the Fi­nan­cial In­tel­li­gence Unit’s web­site, in 2015.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

Victims of a tower block fire in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Thursday may have been trapped because emergency exits were locked, officials say. At least 25 people died and 70 others were injured in the blaze.

Six of the victims are believed to have fallen to their deaths when they jumped from the burning high-rise building. Shajahan Shikdar, from Dhaka’s fire department, told the BBC’s Bengali Service that there was also a shortage of fire safety equipment inside. It is not yet clear what caused the fire in the commercial district of Banani. The government has ordered an investigation.

The fire broke out at about 12:50 local time (06:50 GMT) on Thursday, quickly engulfing the high-rise property and trapping people inside. Many are believed to have been stuck on the upper floors of the building, above where the fire had started. “The fire safety system of this building was not satisfactory,” Mr Shikdar told BBC News. “There was only a narrow, two-feet-wide iron staircase available as a fire escape, but it was found locked on different floors. So the people in this building were not able to use it during the fire.”(BBC)…[+]

 St Vin­cent and the Grenadines Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gon­za­lves has hint­ed that Lee­ward Is­lands Air Trans­port (LI­AT) could drop Trinidad and To­ba­go from its sched­ule of routes as the air­line seeks to re­struc­ture amid fi­nan­cial bur­dens.

Gon­za­lves, who is al­so the Cari­com Lead among Heads of Gov­ern­ment for Trans­port (Mar­itime and Avi­a­tion), made the com­ment dur­ing an in­ter­view with WE FM in St Vin­cent and the Grenadines.

LI­AT is cur­rent­ly seek­ing an in­jec­tion of US$5.4 mil­lion to help keep the air­line in the sky and the mat­ter has been tak­en to Cari­com for as­sis­tance. But Gon­za­lves said so far on­ly Grena­da has re­spond­ed pos­i­tive­ly to a Min­i­mum Rev­enue Guar­an­tee (MRG) pro­pos­al. “The oth­er gov­ern­ments of the Caribbean….on­ly Grena­da has said they will come aboard to pro­vide some emer­gency fund­ing and no­body else. Every­body is say­ing they agree the­o­ret­i­cal­ly for a min­i­mum guar­an­tee for the routes but they have not re­spond­ed pos­i­tive­ly, on­ly Grena­da alone,” Gon­za­lves said.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]