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OECD: Europe remains threat to world economy

PARIS—The recession in Europe risks threatening the world’s economic recovery, a leading international body warned yesterday. In its half-yearly update, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said that protracted economic weakness in Europe “could evolve into stagnation with negative implications for the global economy.” The OECD again slashed its forecast for the 17 European Union countries that use the euro, saying it will shrink by 0.6 per cent this year, after 0.5 per cent drop in 2012.

CARIBBEAN-RIGHTS-US claims several Caribbean countries discriminate against Rastafarians, Muslims

WASHINGTON, CMC - The United States says several Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Haiti and the Bahamas, are engaged in discriminatory practices against Rastafarians, voodoo practitioners and Muslims.
In its International Religious Freedom Report for 2012, the Department of State says while there were no reports of abuses of religious freedom in Haiti, some members of the voodoo and Muslim communities “complained they did not enjoy the same legal protections as Christians”.

Human rights group claims prosecution of Caribbean migrants hurting families

WASHINGTON, CMC – A major international human rights group says the skyrocketing criminal prosecutions of Caribbean and other migrants for illegally entering or reentering the United States carry huge human and financial costs. In a report released here on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said imprisoning migrants with minor or no criminal records before deporting them often affects people seeking to reunite with their families in the US or fleeing persecution. The 82-page report, “Turning Migrants into Criminals: The Harmful Impact of US Border Prosecutions,” documents the negative impact of ill

Three held in multi-million dollar cocaine bust in Caribbean Sea

MIAMI, United States (CMC) — United States federal prosecutors have indicted three foreigners in a US$27 million cocaine bust in the Caribbean Sea.
They said Beat Jegge of Switzerland and Daniel Velazquez and Julio Claro Alvarez of Colombia were arrested by US Coast Guard officers after their suspicious boat was interdicted somewhere off the Panama coast.
Authorities said the men appeared in US federal district court here, where they pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute 2,200 pounds of cocaine, which were "tightly wrapped in plastic bags".

UNITED STATES-IMMIGRATION-US Senate committee approves immigration measure

WASHINGTON, CMC - The United States Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws. The bipartisan vote sends the s most significant immigration policy changes in decades to the full Senate for further deliberation. Debate is anticipated to commence there next month. The 13-5 vote approved the measure authored by four Democrats and four Republicans, and includes an agreement between Republicans and Democrats on visas for high-skilled Caribbean and other foreign workers.

Bipartisan legislators reach preliminary immigration deal

WASHINGTON, CMC - A bipartisan group of legislators in the United States House of Representatives say they have reached a deal in principle in overhauling America’s immigration laws.
Aides said the bill in the House of Representatives is similar to one introduced in the US Senate that includes a path to the legalization of an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, including Caribbean nationals.
The House measure includes a 15-year path to citizenship, rather than the 13-year path offered in the Senate.

Crews Search for Survivors in Oklahoma

MOORE, Okla. — Emergency crews and volunteers continued to work through the early morning hours Tuesday in a frantic search for survivors of a huge tornado that ripped through parts of Oklahoma City and its suburbs, killing at least 91 people, 20 of them children, and flattening whatever was in its path, including a hospital and at least two schools. Much of the tornado damage appeared to be in the suburb of Moore, where rescue workers struggled to make their way through debris-clogged streets and around downed power lines to those who are feared trapped under mountains of rubble.

Two foreigners jailed for using Caribbean countries to smuggle humans into US

WASHINGTON, CMC – United States law enforcement officials say two foreign nationals had been jailed in Texas for smuggling human into the United States using the Caribbean. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Indian national Kaushik Jayantibhai Thakkar and Brazilian Fabiano Augusto Amorim were each sentenced to 36 months in jail for their roles in smuggling undocumented migrants to the United States for private financial gain. In addition to their prison terms, Thakkar 33, and Amorim 28, will serve two years of supervised release.

Major credit rating agency warns of more Caribbean debt restructurings

NEW YORK, CMC - A major international credit rating agency is warning of more Caribbean sovereign debt restructurings ahead of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) annual meetings in St. Lucia this week. The Wall Street-based Moody’s Investor Service said on Monday that it expects sovereign credit quality to “continue deteriorating in the region. “We see the defaults of Belize (Caa2 stable), Jamaica (Caa3 stable) and Grenada (unrated) over the past year as being part of a broader debt crisis in the Caribbean,” it said in a report.

Woman indicted for conspiracy in bringing Haitians to US

MIAMI, CMC – The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) says a federal judge has unsealed a three-count indictment returned by a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida charging an American woman for her role in bringing 143 Haitian nationals to the United States on fraudulently obtained guest worker visas. The DOJ said Jetta McPhee, 59, of Tamarac, Florida and her co-conspirator secured the visas “based on false representations that there were jobs awaiting those workers.” The indictment alleges that from April 2008 to July 2009, McPhee conspired with Haitian Marie Nicole Dorval to
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