NEW YORK, CMC - The United States financial services watchdog agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it has charged a Bahamas-based broker-dealer among others in what it describes as “an international market manipulation scheme”.
The SEC said charges have been laid against  Gibraltar Global Securities, a Bahamas-based broker-dealer; two San Diego, California attorneys and other participants in an international “pump-and-dump” scheme involving two publicly traded US companies, Pacific Blue Energy Corporation and Tradeshow Marketing Company Ltd.

TEL AVIV – President Obama landed here on Wednesday to begin a highly symbolic two-day visit to Israel, the first of his presidency, offering reassurances to a wary Israeli public of the support of its American ally as Israel faces threats from Iran and uncertainty in its roiling neighborhood.
Stepping into a sparkling noonday sun at Ben-Gurion International Airport here, Mr. Obama embraced President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who waited for him at the bottom of the stairway, under the looming shadow of Air Force One.

NEW YORK, CMC – The St. George’s University in Grenada, regarded as one of the largest medical schools in the world, is up for sale, according to international media reports. The university, which came to prominence in 1983 when U.S. President Ronald Reagan sent in troops to evacuate American students following a military coup, is reportedly speaking to private equity firms about a deal and is hoping to fetch more than one billion US dollars.

NEW YORK, CMC – Police here say that at least 18 people were arrested as fights between them and angry youth erupted for the third consecutive night in the predominantly Caribbean district of East Flatbush in Brooklyn over police shooting death of a Caribbean youth. On Thursday police reported that they struggled to control an irate crowd that broke away from a planned peaceful vigil after attendees learned that 16-year-old Kimani “Kiki” Gray, the son of Guyanese and Jamaican parents, was shot in the back on Saturday night.

NEW YORK, CMC – The US-based Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has lowered its foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Grenada to 'SD' (selective default) from 'CCC+/C'. "The downgrade to 'SD' follows the government of Grenada's announcement that it will not pay the coupon due March 15, 2013, on its U.S. dollar and Eastern Caribbean dollar bonds due in 2025," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Joydeep Mukherji. The newly elected Grenada government recently announced that it does not expect to have the funds to pay the coupon during the relevant grace periods.