OLORADO, CMC - Weather forecasters at Colorado State University (CSU) have lowered their prediction for the 2013 Atlantic Hurricane Season.

“We continue to anticipate an above-average season in 2013, although we have lowered our forecast slightly due to anomalous cooling in the eastern subtropical and tropical Atlantic,” said Philip J. Klotzbach and William M. Gray in their latest prediction. 

“We expect an above-average probability of United States and Caribbean major hurricane landfall.”

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States extended embassy closures by a week in the Middle East and Africa as a precaution yesterday after an al Qaeda threat that U.S. lawmakers said was the most serious in years.
The State Department said 19 U.S. embassies and consulates would be closed through Saturday “out of an abundance of caution” and that a number of them would have been closed anyway for most of the week due to the Eid celebration at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

SANTIAGO, Chile, CMC – The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will host the first meeting of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, in Montevideo, Uruguay.
The  August 12-15 conference will be opened in the presence of the Presidents of Uruguay and Ecuador, José Mujica and Rafael Correa, respectively, executive secretary of ECLAC, Alicia Bárcena, and executive director of UNFPA, Babatunde Osotimehin.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - BRITISH High Commissioner to Jamaica David Fitton has indicated that there is some level of interest from companies in Britain that want to set up shop in Jamaica, but says this will depend on a number of factors, including concerns about security. Speaking with the Jamaica Observer in an interview on Monday, Fitton — who took office in June — said that discussions have begun with the firms. However, he did not disclose their names.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)    Mr. Percival Marie, a national of the Commonwealth of Dominica, assumes office on August 1 as Director-General of the Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States (CARIFORUM) Directorate in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat. He replaces Mr. Ivan Ogando Lora.