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Chavez gone, but family still has clout in Venezuela

SABANETA, Venezuela, (Reuters) – Sitting under the shade of mango trees in the childhood backyard of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro kicked off his election campaign with a sentimental chat with members of the ex-president’s family.
Chavez’s five brothers regaled Maduro, the acting president, with stories of how they played marbles and ate mangoes as children on the grassy lawn. It was all part of Maduro’s efforts to highlight his ties to the symbolically important family ahead of the presidential election on Sunday.

Korea nukes

TOKYO, Japan (AP) — It's easy to write off North Korea's threats to strike the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile as bluster: it has never demonstrated the capability to deploy a missile that could reach the Pacific island of Guam, let alone the mainland US. But what about Japan?

Even in Death, Chávez Is a Powerful Presence

SAN FELIPE, Venezuela — Nicolás Maduro is certainly not the first political candidate to invoke the name and legacy of a dead leader to win votes. But he may be the first to say that his political mentor, President Hugo Chávez, visited him from beyond the grave in the form of a little bird. In what stands out as the most surreal moment of Venezuela’s presidential campaign — a race whose central personality is the deceased president — Mr. Maduro told the nation that Mr. Chávez’s spirit came to him as a tiny bird that flew into a chapel where he was praying.

Margaret Thatcher, formidable on many levels

She had the eyes of Caligula and the lips of Marilyn Monroe. So said Francois Mitterrand, the last serious socialist to lead a major European nation, speaking of Margaret Thatcher, who helped bury socialism as a doctrine of governance. She had the smooth, cold surface of a porcelain figurine, but her decisiveness made her the most formidable woman in 20th-century politics, and England’s most formidable woman since its greatest sovereign, Elizabeth I. The Argentine junta learned of her decisiveness when it seized the Falklands. The British, too, learned.

New data shows US immigration initiative pays off for illegal Caribbean immigrants

WASHINGTON, CMC - New United States federal data shows that President Barack Obama’s immigration initiative has paid off for 454,000 young Caribbean and other immigrants who were brought to the US illegally. Under the “deferred action” initiative that took effect late last year, 26,000 New York residents were granted immunity from prosecution for at least two years, the third-highest in the country. The data shows that California has the most residents who received waivers followed by Texas.

Brazil Opens Inquiry Into Claims of Wrongdoing by Ex-President

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s Public Ministry, a body of independent public prosecutors, has begun an investigation into a claim connecting former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to a vast vote-buying scheme that involved the channeling of funds to the governing Workers’ Party. The inquiry, which was announced in the capital, Brasília, on Friday and comes after several months of analyzing testimony, opens a new phase in what has arguably been Brazil’s largest corruption scandal, already involving the conviction of Mr.

Maduro and Capriles: tale of two Venezuelan presidential candidates

BOGOTA -- One is a former union organizer and foreign minister who skipped university to pursue politics. He rose to fame as the loyal soldier of late President Hugo Chávez. The other is a governor and lawyer who spent four months in jail. He prides himself on defeating every rival he has ever faced except one: Chávez. As Venezuela barrels toward snap elections Sunday, one of these two men — Nicolás Maduro and Henrique Capriles — will be the first to occupy the seat Chávez owned for 14 years.

Expert warns of consequences of opening up of Cuba

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Jeffrey Robinson, considered the world’s leading financial crime author, is warning the nation and all Caribbean countries that a “financial tsunami” will hit the region in a few years and the time to plan a response is now. “In the next three to five years, Fidel Castro will die and when he does Raul (Castro) will not be able to hang on,” he said. “The invasion of Cuba is now being planned and it will be massive. It will be something the likes of which no one has seen before.”

Private sector called on to help save the Caribbean Sea

WASHINGTON, CMC – As the World Ocean Council (WOC) gets ready to host the Save our Seas conference (SOS) 2013, the Washington-based Institute for Caribbean Studies (ICS) has issued a call for private sector leadership in securing the future of the Caribbean Sea.
“SOS 2013 is an unparalleled, world-class gathering of the diverse ocean business community. It sets the agenda for ensuring responsible industry operations,” said Dr. Claire Nelson, ICS’ Jamaican-born president. 

Margaret Thatcher, Iron Lady, dead at 87

LONDON -- Love her or loathe her, one thing's beyond dispute: Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain.
The Iron Lady who ruled for 11 remarkable years imposed her will on a fractious, rundown nation - breaking the unions, triumphing in a far-off war, and selling off state industries at a record pace. She left behind a leaner government and more prosperous nation by the time a mutiny ousted her from No. 10 Downing Street.
Thatcher's former spokesman, Tim Bell, said that the former prime minister had died Monday morning of a stroke. She was 87.

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