Archives for Monday, December 13, 2004:

Cubans riot at Bahamian detention centre

NASSAU, Bahamas (BIS): The Bahamian Minister of Labour and Immigration, Vincent Peet, declared Friday that the situation at the Detention Centre on Carmichael Road has returned to some degree of normalcy following Thursday's riot by Cuban detainees.  Minister Peet said the Detention Centre is under the control of the lawful authorities... read more...

Cubans demand freedom for political prisoners on International Human Rights Day

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): About 20 wives and mothers of Cuban political prisoners, who dress in white to draw attention to their protests, marked International Human Rights Day Friday demanding that their jailed loved ones be freed....  read more...

Rastafarians present marijuana petition to Antigua PM

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua: The Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Baldwin Spencer, last week accepted a petition of over 1500 signatures from members of the Rastafarian community calling for the decriminalisation of marijuana.  The document was presented to the country’s leader outside the Parliament building...  read more...

Guyana, Suriname join new 12-nation South American bloc

CUSCO, Peru: Guyana and Suriname were among 12 South American nations that last week launched an ambitious project to integrate the 361-million-people-strong continent into an economic and political bloc dubbed the South American Community of Nations...  read more...

Jamaica committed to regional integration process

MIAMI, USA: Jamaica's Prime Minister, Percival J. Patterson has said that his country is firmly committed to the regional integration process, and has demonstrated this by already having taken the necessary legislative and administrative steps to ensure that the country’s obligations under the CSME were complete and on time... read more...

Stolen cars turn up in Jamaica

MIAMI, USA (UPI): Authorities said they are investigating a ring that took stolen cars from south Florida and elsewhere in the United States and disposed of them in Jamaica... read more...

21,000 Jamaicans receive hurricane cheques

KINGSTON, Jamaica: The Jamaican Labour and Social Security Ministry is reporting that to date some 21,000 beneficiaries have received cheques under the government’s recovery programme for persons whose houses were damaged by Hurricane Ivan in September... read more...