One person has died and two were injured after the bodyguards of a Sri Lankan government minister opened fire on a crowd amid a deepening constitutional crisis in the island nation. Arjuna Ranatunga, the petroleum minister and a former Sri Lankan cricket captain, was trying to enter a government agency in the capital, Colombo, at about 3pm on Sunday when he was confronted by supporters of the president, Maithripala Sirisena.

Amid jostling, Ranatunga’s bodyguards opened fire, injuring three people, two of them critically, according to the police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera. One of the injured died later in a Colombo hospital. Ranatunga was rushed into the building in the aftermath of the shooting and had to be rescued by paramilitary police units. He was ushered out in a police uniform and wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet.

Sunday’s incident is the first outbreak of violence since Sirasena shocked the country on Friday night by announcing the dismissal of the prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, with whom Ranatunga was aligned. Wickremesinghe says his dismissal is unconstitutional and has refused to vacate Temple Trees, the prime ministerial residence that was surrounded by his supporters.

One of Ranatunga’s bodyguards was arrested and the area around the government office was tense on Sunday night with a heavy police presence and crowds protesting against the shooting. Police leave has been cancelled and soldiers were deployed in parts of Colombo in what was seen as a show of strength.(theguardian)…[+]

TRINIDAD-International rapper Nicki Minaj has requested to meet Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley. The rapper made the request via her Twitter page. Minaj tweeted, “My next step is to speak w/the Prime Minister or someone at a high level of gov’t so that I can help on an even larger scale. Please contact my mother or Fay Ann so that we can get on a call right away. We’re also trying to rearrange my calendar so that I can get out there soon.”This tweet came shortly after Minaj tweeted that her first monetary donation would be available today. She tweeted “Trinidad, my 1st monetary donation will be available tomorrow. In talking with w/@fayannlyons, I’m told we need cleaning supplies, water, clothes and much more. I will assess the situation after tomorrow and make another donation in the next few days. Please contact her for info/help.”(TRINIDAD NEWSDAY)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN – Just over a year after Hurricane Maria, Dominica is set to enhance post-disaster response, build more climate-resilient schools and empower communities across the country, with the help of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Government of Canada.

On Thursday, CDB’s Board of Directors approved grant funding to help the country recover from the impact of Hurricane Maria. This will include the rebuilding or rehabilitation of five primary schools in some of the hardest-hit areas of the island. The funding will also cover the Government’s premiums for parametric risk insurance for 2018 and 2019 under CCRIF SPC. The Government of Canada will provide CAD8.77 million from the Dominica Climate Resilience and Restoration Fund, which is being administered by CDB. The Bank and Government of Dominica will also provide the equivalent of CAD396,000 and CAD694,000 to the project respectively.

More than 1,300 students are expected to benefit from the project which will see the schools rebuilt to the highest Model Safe School Programme standards, in keeping with the Government of Dominica’s goal to “build back better.” The construction will also be subject to rigorous Climate Risk Vulnerability Assessments. The physical upgrade of the schools will be complemented by skills training for up to 150 contractors, suppliers and school maintenance staff in climate-resilient construction best practices and school maintenance planning. Eighty teachers and principals will also learn how to incorporate technology and lessons on climate resilience into their teaching…[+]

Homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said American soldiers have “no intention” of shooting migrants who try to cross into the US from Mexico – at least for the time being – but they will all be apprehended, as Donald Trump moves towards a plan to close the border. The Trump administration on Thursday announced it is planning to dispatch at least 800 active duty troops to the southern border, at the direction of a president who has sought to transform fears about immigration into electoral gains in the November midterms, as a caravan of thousands of migrants makes its way through Mexico.

The US defense secretary, Jim Mattis, is expected to sign an order sending the troops to the border, bolstering national guard forces already there. And on Thursday evening, in an interview with Fox News while visiting the border in Arizona, Nielsen said: “We do not have any intention right now to shoot at people, but they will be apprehended, however.” The government is weighing an order to deny even asylum applications at a fortified border, by asserting emergency powers that would almost certainly face challenges in the US courts, the Washington Post reported. Nielsen added: “But I also take my officer and agent, their own person safety, extraordinarily seriously. They do have the ability of force to defend themselves.”(theguardian)…[+]

TRINIDAD-Screams and cries res­onat­ed from the hills of Laven­tille on Thurs­day night, af­ter po­lice shot and killed five men who opened fire on them. The in­ci­dent is ex­pect­ed to trig­ger a blood war be­tween of­fi­cers and crim­i­nal gangs in the hotspot com­mu­ni­ty and po­lice are al­ready tak­ing pre­cau­tions to safe­guard their lives.

Two of the men killed were iden­ti­fied as Me­shack “Crash” Dou­glas and Kadeem Williams, while an­oth­er was iden­ti­fied on­ly as Shaquille. The killings took place around 10.21 pm at Trou Macaque, Laven­tille. Of­fi­cers of the In­ter-Agency Task Force Strike Team were on pa­trol in thre com­mu­ni­ty when the men al­leged­ly opened fire on them from a ve­hi­cle, hit­ting one of the po­lice of­fi­cer’s in the chest. His bul­let­proof vest saved him. His col­leagues re­turned fire at the men, killing them. Four died on the scene while a fifth was sent to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where he was pro­nounced dead on ar­rival.(TRINIDAD GUARDIAN)…[+]

Three Caribbean countries will benefit from disaster training workshops over the last quarter of this year. Between October and December 2018, a team of experts from the Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) subregional headquarters for the Caribbean, led by the Coordinator of the Sustainable Development and Disaster Unit, Dr. Omar Bello, will conduct Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA) trainings in Anguilla, the Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos islands.

The training courses are offered as a follow-up to the disaster assessment missions carried out last year to quantify the economic, social and environmental effects and impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in those countries.

Disaster preparedness and risk management have important implications for policy making, and impact in a variety of ways the decisions and choices made by people in their daily lives. It is in this context that the workshops carried out by ECLAC Caribbean aim to equip national officers in Anguilla, the Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos islands with the skills and resources necessary to support their governments’ future efforts to incorporate prevention, estimation and risk reduction in public investment plans and development programmes.

The workshops will focus on the methodology and tools necessary to assess the impacts of a disaster on the social, infrastructure and productive sectors. Moreover, the ability to carry out a sectoral estimation of the impacts of a disaster in terms of damage, losses and additional costs will enable countries to determine the resources needed to restore social and economic activities, as well as the investments required to ensure a resilient reconstruction process.

ECLAC Caribbean and CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) have joined forces to promote these DaLA trainings, as well as to promote financial protection mechanisms for disasters in the three countries. In the Bahamas, the workshop will be organized with the support of the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB)…[+]

Germany’s ruling parties are bracing for a second electoral disaster within a fortnight as polls for Sunday’s regional election in Hesse suggest that voters will punish Angela Merkel’s shaky coalition government.

Sunday’s vote could plunge Germany’s grand coalition into a fresh crisis, with polls showing a nosedive in support for both Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and coalition partner Social Democrats (SPD), reflecting a nationwide trend. Both parties are trying to play down the significance of the regional election, which comes just two weeks after a catastrophic poll in Bavaria widely blamed on the failings of the Berlin government.

Home to Germany’s financial centre, Frankfurt am Main, Hesse is a former swing state long seen as a bellwether for national politics. For the past 20 years it has been ruled by various CDU-led coalitions. But now polls have the CDU plummeting to 26%, a drop of 12 points since 2013.(theguardian)…[+]

Former cabinet minister Donville Inniss will stand trial on money-laundering charges in a Brooklyn federal court from June 24 next year. The date was decided on Tuesday afternoon by federal District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in consultation with Sylvia Shweder, an Assistant US Attorney, and Inniss’ defence attorney, Garnett Sullivan, after the court heard that plea bargain negotiations by the two sides had “stalled” or broken down.

Inniss is accused of accepting bribes from a Barbadian insurance company and then attempting to launder US$36 000 in illegal payment using the “US financial system”. He has pleaded not guilty. In yesterday’s preliminary hearing before Judge Matsumoto in a sixth-floor federal courtroom, Shweder said efforts to negotiate a plea had “stalled” and the government was now almost ready to bring Inniss to trial.

But Sullivan said the defence had not completed its examination of all of the evidence provided by federal prosecutors during the “discovery” period and      therefore needed much more time. After looking at various possible dates to begin the trial, all sides agreed on June 24 – when the selection of a jury would begin.(Barbados Nation)…[+]

Port of Spain- Breast cancer is the main cause of cancer deaths among Caribbean females, accounting for 14%-30% of cancer deaths. This disease has a significant impact on women’s health and is two times higher in the Caribbean compared to the USA1. “The large number of deaths from breast cancer is very alarming since they are mostly preventable. Breast cancer can be detected early and treated successfully. It can be prevented through education, screening, early detection, accurate diagnosis and treatment,” said Dr. Virginia Asin-Oostburg, Director, Surveillance Caribbean Public Health Agency, as the Agency observes Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Breast cancer is a malignant tumor that starts in the cells of the breast and can affect both men and women, but it’s far more common in women. It’s never too early to take personal responsibility and control of your health. Regular health exams and tests can help find problems before they start. Dr. Asin-Oostburg encourages women “to act now to lower your chance of getting cancer. Get tested. Detection of the disease is not a death sentence.” She further stated, “There’s a good chance of recovery if it’s detected in its early stages.” The exact causes of breast cancer aren’t fully understood. However, there are certain factors known to increase the risk of breast cancer. These include:

• age – the risk increases as you get older

• a family history of breast cancer

• a previous diagnosis of breast cancer

• being overweight or obese

• a previous benign breast lump

• excessive use of alcohol…[+]

NEW DELHI-The state-owned Indian Railways is planning to put fencing along all train tracks across the country in order to prevent people from illegally entering, officials said Wednesday.

“This has been suggested by railway police in the wake of the deaths of as many as 61 people who were hit by a train in the northern state of Punjab’s Amritsar city Friday while watching the celebrations of Hindu festival of Dussehra from railway tracks,” a senior official said. According to railways data, some 50,000 people died in India after being mowed down by trains while crossing tracks between 2015 and 2017.

“Anyone coming to train tracks is considered a trespasser by the Indian Railways. The railway police also imposes fines on such people. But fencing will once and for all put an end to deaths on railway tracks,” the official added. The Indian Railways is one of the world’s largest train networks, criss-crossing the country from north to south. It operates more than 9,000 passenger trains and carries nearly 23 million passengers every day.(Xinhua)…[+]