HAVANA – On the 60th anniversary of Cuba’s revolution, ruling Communist Party leader Raul Castro blasted the Trump administration for returning to an outdated path of confrontation with the island nation and of intervening in Latin America.

Castro and his late, elder brother Fidel Castro led the rebel band that in 1959 overthrew a U.S.-backed dictator and installed a Communist-run country on the doorstep of the United States, setting the scene for decades of Cold War hostility.

At the time, their revolution inspired leftist movements throughout Latin America, but the celebrations on Tuesday came as the region is shifting rightwards, coinciding with the inauguration of Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Some of Cuba’s closest allies, Venezuela and Nicaragua, are mired in political crises, and U.S. President Donald Trump has tightened the decades-old U.S. embargo on the island, after his predecessor, Barack Obama, had sought to normalize relations.“Once again, the North American government is taking on the path of confrontation with Cuba,” Castro said in the southeastern city of Santiago de Cuba where Fidel Castro proclaimed victory six decades ago.(Reuters)…[+]

Trinidad and Tobago has recorded four homicides in the first two days of 2019. On Wednesday night, a man was shot while reversing his station wagon along a street at Calvary Hill, Arima. His vehicle crashed after the shooting. The man was taken to hospital where he died.  The shooting happened at around 7.40p.m. Police were also called to Woodford Street, Curepe at around 9.56pm. on Wednesday to find the body of a man on the pavement. He was shot multiple times. Fisherman Samuel Sookdeo was shot and killed at his girlfriend’s house in Couva on Tuesday night. On Tuesday morning, homeless Daniel Mahabir, 55, was beaten to death with a rock at a scrap yard in Sealots, Port of Spain.(Trinidad Express)…[+]

Protests have broken out in the Indian state of Kerala, where groups of angry traditionalists waving black flags blocked traffic and staged demonstrations outside government offices to oppose the entry of two women into a Hindu temple.

Police used teargas and water cannon to disperse the protesters outside government buildings in the state capital of Thiruvanthapuram, according to local news channels. The police intervened after clashes between Bharatiya Janata party and Communist party workers. The BJP, which rules India, opposes the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple in the southern state. The Communists, who rule Kerala, support the right of women to pray at the temple.(theguardian)…[+]

JOHANNESBURG – Mozambique’s former finance minister, Manuel Chang, has been arrested in South Africa at the request of the United States, a police spokesman said on Monday. Chang, who was in charge of Mozambique’s finances when it guaranteed $2 billion in secret borrowing by state-owned firms in 2013 and 2014, was arrested on Saturday in Johannesburg. “He is wanted by the U.S.,” police spokesman Vish Naidoo said.

Mozambique’s state news agency said Chang, 63, was wanted on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and money laundering.

It said the charges had nothing to do with the undisclosed borrowing, which prompted foreign donors including the International Monetary Fund to cut off support, triggering a currency collapse and debt default. Two years on from the disclosure of the loans, Mozambique is still battling to reduce a suffocating debt burden and restructure some of the debt.(Reuters)…[+]

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports, Olivia Grange says she is happy to receive word that the Jamaican sculptor, Basil Watson, has been selected to create a monument in honour of the American civil rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr.

Grange said that Watson, who has created sculptures of Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce under contract with her ministry, was given the nod to design the tribute to Martin Luther King, which will be erected in Atlanta, Georgia. Grange said: “I am very proud that Basil Watson, an outstanding Jamaican artist, has been selected to develop a monument celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

“Basil has been one of our leading sculptors and this is recognition of the great work that he does and an endorsement of Jamaican talent. I look forward to his design, which I know will be awesome and inspiring.” The Martin Luther King monument is due for completion by the end of 2019. Watson is currently designing monuments in honour of Jamaican athletes Veronica Campbell Brown and Asafa Powell.(Jamaica Observer)…[+]

Israel’s centre-left opposition alliance has broken up in a dramatic realignment of the country’s political battleground just months from a general election. Avi Gabbay, the leader of a coalition of opposition parties, made the unexpected announcement live on television that he would no longer partner with veteran politician Tzipi Livni, even as she sat expressionless next to him. It was not clear if Livni had been told of the move.

The now-defunct Zionist Union alliance, composed of Gabbay’s Labour and Livni’s Hatnuah parties, finished with the second highest number of seats in the last election in 2015. With support from the more affluent districts around Tel Aviv and from liberal voters, the partnering had focused on unseating Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud, but failed. It has since tumbled in opinion polls and Gabbay, who took over as leader in 2017, has had an uneasy relationship with Livni, a former foreign minister.(theguardian)…[+]

WASHINGTON– U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a liberal firebrand who has taken on Wall Street and traded barbs with Donald Trump, on Monday became the most prominent Democrat to announce a challenge to the Republican president in 2020. Warren said she had formed an exploratory committee, which will allow her to begin raising money to compete in what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary field before the November 2020 presidential election. She said on Twitter she would announce her decision on whether to run early in 2019.

Warren, 69, a senator from Massachusetts since 2013, became one of Trump’s fiercest critics during the 2016 presidential race and they have continued to exchange biting insults during his presidency. Trump mockingly refers to her as “Pocahontas” because of her claim to Native American ancestry. Warren has denounced Trump as an “insecure money grubber” with a platform of “racism, sexism and xenophobia,” while Trump has described the former Harvard Law School professor as “goofy” and a “lowlife” with “a nasty mouth.”(Reuters)…[+]

A WOMAN who stole money from a bar patron’s wallet, denied that she had taken $1,500. Michelle Paul told the court she actually stole $300. However, San Fernando senior magistrate Cherril-Anne Antoine entered a not guilty plea on Paul’s behalf on Monday.  The magistrate had read the charge to Paul that on December 21 at the bar at Mucurapo Street, San Fernando, she stole $1,500 from Jason Flemming. But Paul, 34 of Tarodale said, “It was $300 he had in his wallet.” She said she took the wallet from the victim’s pocket. Investigating officer constable Coker of the San Fernando Criminal Investigations Department said the cash was not recovered.

Paul, a mother of two, said she had been unemployed for the past six months. Her criminal record showed she had one conviction over the last ten years. It was for fighting. Antoine placed her on $10,000 own bail with the condition that she reports to the Ste Madeleine police station three times a week. Paul who is expected to seek representation through the Legal Aid Authority, will return to court on March 19.(Trinidad Express)…[+]

Syria’s military has arrived at the frontline of the flashpoint town of Manbij, after Kurdish fighters appealed to Damascus for help against the threat of attack by Turkey in the face of the withdrawal of US troops from the area. It was not immediately clear whether US personnel, who are based in the town and have been patrolling Manbij and the tense frontline between it and adjacent towns where Turkey-backed fighters are based, were still present. The US-led coalition against Isis did not respond to a request for comment. “We invite the Syrian government forces … to assert control over the areas our forces have withdrawn from, in particularly Manbij, and to protect these areas against a Turkish invasion,” a statement from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) said.(Theguardian)…[+]

HIVARGAON/MUJAHIDPUR– A spike in the price of onions has led to the ouster of governments in Indian elections in the past. Now, prices of the staple have collapsed, and many impoverished farmers are saying they will make Prime Minister Narendra Modi pay in next year’s general election. Steep drops in recent weeks in the prices of onions and potatoes, both staple foods for India’s 1.3 billion people, have badly hit the rural economy in large states. In interviews with dozens of farmers last week, Reuters reporters found resentment welling against Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not helping support incomes in the countryside, where a majority of the population lives.

“Whatever they do in the coming months, I will vote against the BJP. I won’t repeat the 2014 mistake,” said Madhukar Nagare, an onion grower from Nashik in Maharashtra state, referring to his backing the BJP at the last general election. In the 1998 state elections, a sharp spike in onion prices led to the fall of the BJP government in the capital New Delhi.(Reuters)…[+]