San Juan, Oct 24 (EFE).- Jamaica’s Ministry of Agriculture, Labor and Social Security on Friday asked sugarcane farmers to increase production as a way to make the industry more competitive internationally. In a press release on Friday, Minister Luther Buchanan said the Cane Expansion Fund will increase the amount of loans available to growers. “Let me remind you that the sugarcane ...

The Programme Director- Statistics at the Caricom Headquarters has called on statisticians from across the Caribbean to ensure the independence and confidentiality of data. Addressing the opening of the 39th meeting of the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians, Dr. Philomena Harrison stressed that statistics should not be tinkered with… Dr. Harrison also called on government to provide adequate investments in ...

By Eduardo DavisBrasilia, Oct 27 (EFE).- Brazilians gave President Dilma Rousseff a second four-year term, but female officeholders remain a small minority in a country where women are 52 percent of the electorate.Rousseff, who took office in January 2011, defeated Sen. Aecio Neves by 51.6 percent to 48.3 percent in Sunday’s presidential runoff.The incumbent and Neves emerged from the Oct. ...

Havana, Oct 27 (EFE).- One of the Cuban volunteers who went to Guinea as part of the medical brigade sent to that African country to fight the Ebola epidemic died on Sunday of “malaria with cerebral complications,” officials in Havana said Monday.He was Jorge Juan Guerra Rodriguez, 60, a graduate in economics who arrived in Guinea last Oct. 6, a ...

Haitian police have dispersed an opposition-led demonstration in the capital following an official announcement delaying long-planned legislative and municipal elections. The demonstration began hours after President Michel Martelly announced a decree to defer the elections, originally scheduled for Sunday. He also declared that the government would continue consultations with various state agencies to ensure that the vote is held as ...

Brasilia, Oct 26 (EFE).- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff won reelection in the presidential runoff held Sunday, garnering 51.45 percent of the votes, compared with 48.55 percent for Social Democratic challenger Aecio Neves, and with 98 percent of the votes counted, according to the Superior Electoral Tribunal.Some 142.8 million voters were eligible to cast ballots for the next president and 14 ...

The Officer-in-Charge of the Lethem Police Station was early Saturday morning shot and injured during a brawl at a disco in the southern Guyanese township near the border with Brazil, police confirmed. Assistant Superintendent Deo Rooplall was shot to one of his legs and was rushed to the Lethem Hospital. He was treated and sent away. The incident occurred about ...

Guyanese health authorities are monitoring a sick woman for Ebola after she was referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) because she told a private doctor that she had recently returned from a West African country that is not affected by the deadly virus. Sources said the Guyanese woman recently visited the Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire). The  Ministry of ...

Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar was Friday afternoon meeting with stakeholders in the hope of arriving at a broad-based national consensus on warding off  and tackling the Ebola Virus should it arrive. The talks came just hours after the main opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) had flayed government for not doing enough to deal with the virus. His meeting ...

The decision by the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF), not to blacklist Guyana for failing to amend its financial crimes law has pulled one of the reasons that President Donald Ramotar might have used to call early general elections. The opposition has blocked the passage of amendments to the Anti Money Laundering and Countering of Financing Terrorism Act, saying ...