Barbados: ‘Dancing’ Daisy toasts to 100 years

Carib Comment:  This is the way to age...

ONE of the many things Barbados newest centenarian, Daisy Eleanora Mahon enjoys doing is dancing.

On Tuesday, when she celebrated her 100th birthday the jovial senior did a jig from side to side while her family and friends serenaded her in song. 

The resident of Holders Land, Brandons, St. Michael was visited by His Excellency the Governor General, Sir Elliot Belgrave who she warmly greeted and conversed with. She also received a visit and a floral bouquet from Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for St. Michael North West, Christopher Sinckler.

The mother of twelve children, who has only two children still alive, was described by her youngest daughter Angelia Mahon as someone who “likes to exercise” and someone who “did a lot of walking”. She also said her mother enjoyed a number of local cuisines.  Read more

Carib Comment P.S.:  This is one good and thankful tune to dance to at any age - Isaac Blackman - "To the Ceiling"

Also another good one for nanny to wine down low!!!:

Puerto Rico: "Latin American Ghetto"??? García Padilla: U.S. Annexation Could Destroy Puerto Rico's Economy

Carib Comment:  Latin American Ghetto? Not our words but the governor of Puerto Rico?  Could it happen?

Puerto Rican Gov. Alejandro García Padilla said Monday that being annexed by the United States would destroy the island's economy.

"There is not a single economic study that does not show that reality," said the governor after participating in a meeting with legislators from his party, the Popular Democratic Party, or PPD.

García Padilla's remarks came after an interview broadcast Monday by CNN en Español in the United States in which he said that if Puerto Rico were to become a full-fledged U.S. state it would be transformed into a "Latin American ghetto."

The governor said that the island - presently a U.S. commonwealth - would lose its ability to attract investment from multinational companies through incentives such as tax exemptions, which would cease to exist if the island became a U.S. state.  Read more

United States: Jamaican reggae artist, Capleton attacked on stage in California

Carib Comment:  So was the attacker just way too high to realize what he was doing?

Dancehall artiste Capleton was physically abused while performing at Reggae on the Hills at Calaveras County Fairgrounds Angels Camp in California last week.

A video, posted on YouTube, shows a longhaired male patron finding his way on stage twice during the artiste’s performance. 

In the second instance, the 46 year-old Rastafarian artiste was shoved by the patron who was quickly restrained and forcibly removed from the stage. The artiste continued his set.

It was unclear what motivated in the attack.

The Jamaica Observer Tuesday spoke with the deejay’s manager Claudette Kemp who dismissed any notion that the attack could be attributed to Capleton’s stance on gays.

“It was a musician who had access to the stage, he seemed to be totally out of it,” she said.  Read more

Carib Comment P.S. - Thankfully he is just fine.  Enjoy Capleton singing "Raggy Road"

Jamaica: Costa Ricans, Jamaicans held in St Elizabeth ganja bust

Carib Comment:  Narco drama alert folks!!  Looks like there was some "Tico" trouble in Jamaica with a big marijuana bust.  

Six men, including three Costa Ricans, were arrested in connection with the seizure of half a ton of ganja and more than 600 gallons of gasoline in Morningside district, St Elizabeth.

The Black River police say that between 4:00 am and 11:00 pm Monday, a team from the Area Three Transnational Crime and Narcotics Division (TCND) carried out a raid, during which the ganja and gasoline were found hidden on premises in the deep rural community. Read more

Dominican Republic: 2 men jailed in Dominican wedding fight return to Canada

Carib Comment: Ok so the destination wedding fiasco has finally come to an end.  This was crazy guys!

Nick Miele, 34, and cousin, Ben Constantini, 18, had been behind bars since May 28

Two Canadian men who were detained in the Dominican Republic for nearly three weeks after a post-wedding fight broke out at a resort have returned to Toronto, the latest step in a drama that the wife of one of the men said was "like a scene from the movies."

Nick Miele, 34, and his cousin, Ben Constantini, 18, were taken into custody on May 28 after a fight at the Bahia Principe Esmeralda resort in Punta Cana. The pair, from Stoney Creek, Ont., were in the Dominican for Miele's destination wedding to Stacey Vernon.

Vernon has previously said the two men were thrown in jail unjustly after a fight broke out at their resort between Canadian men they didn't know.

Miele and Constantini were released from detention on Monday, and they landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Tuesday evening.  Read more

Dominican Republic: Dominican merchants close Dajabón market over ban

Dominican merchants closed the largest frontier market (Dajabon) with Haiti to protest the Haitian government's refusal to lift the ban on poultry and egg imports from the Dominican Republic.

Parallel to the protest, the foreign ministers of Haiti, Pierre-Richard Casimir, and Dominican Republic, Carlos Morales Troncoso, on Monday in Santo Domingo led a meeting with representatives of the two countries which failed to reach any agreement.

As part of the protest of the traders, no products could be entered in the Dominican territory.  On Monday, Haitian and the local country market remained closed, confirmed in a statement the NGO Siksè Janó Border Network.

With the Haitian government's refusal, it is "leading to binational damage that affects the poor, Haitians and Dominicans", who depend on informal cross-border trade, said Freddy Morillo, president of the merchants of the city bordering Dajabón.

The Haitian Ministry of Commerce June 6th banned imports of Dominican poultry products due to the unproven possibility of the existence of bird flu.  Health and agricultural authorities of the Dominican Republic and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) have insisted that there is no case of bird flu in the country.

"We can not continue with this situation, with these losses for producers whenever the Haitian government wants to blackmail the Dominican Republic," he told reporters Senator Dajabón ruling by Sonia Matthew, supported manisfestar protest traders.

In 2008 the Haitian government had previously banned the purchase of Dominican chicken and eggs for the same reason and, although he never lifted the ban, trade in poultry products gradually restored in the 14 markets located along the border, characterized by informality and lack of regulations.

Dominican Agribusiness Board (JAD) estimates that the Dominican Republic sells  about 25 million eggs and eight million chicken per month to Haiti.

With about 2,000 vendors and about 25,000 buyers, 15,000 of them Haitian, Dajabón markets are open Monday to Friday and is the largest trade center on the border between the two countries, according to data from the Center for Export and Investment Dominican Republic. 

The government of Haitian President Michel Martelly has stressed the need for regulations at the border markets and has started for the first time, to collect tariff duties.

After the meeting of foreign ministers, the Dominican delegation insisted that "all you have to do is lift the ban and accept that there is no bird flu in Dominican Republic," said Ruben Silie, Dominican ambassador in Haiti. It found that the version of bird flu that had "damaged the country's image as a tourist destination."

The diplomat explained that Haitians will consult representatives in your country and hoped that ban will be lifted soon.

Outside the chancellery, where the meeting took place, chicken and egg producers have been protesting since Monday morning demanding that the Haitian government reopen imports of these foods.  Read the article in Spanish here

Trinidad and Tobago: Hiker tells of seven-day ordeal in forest: I survived on river water and prayers

Surviving only on river water and prayers, Princes Town mother of three Bissoondaye Geeta Seenath had almost given up hope as she wandered through the Matura forest for seven days encountering snakes and sleeping in complete darkness. Seenath, 47, was reported missing during an excursion to Salybia Beach on June 8. She was found alive in the Matura forest on Saturday. In the words of her husband Mohan, the 47-year-old woman’s prayers and sheer will to live brought a “sweet end to a sad story” as she was miraculously rescued on Saturday by Matura resident Jerod Nelson. He said his wife, from whom he is estranged, “drank river water” to survive because she could not find any fruit trees. Seenath, of Chappel Street, Manahambre, Princes Town, went missing last Saturday during a hike to Rio Seco waterfall, Matura. She was among 40 people who went on an excursion to Salybia Beach. Thirteen of the 40 people decided to hike from the beach to the waterfall, which was nearby and Seenath decided to go along.

However, she got separated from the group and wandered off the trail. She is now warded at the Sangre Grande District Hospital in stable condition. Speaking to the T&T Guardian from her hospital bed yesterday, Seenath said it is a “miracle” she is alive. After the hike, others in the group realised Seenath was missing and a search was launched. Members of the Defence Force and Police Service combed the area. They called off the search after four days. However, on Saturday, she was found by Matura resident Jerod Nelson, also called “Wire.” In all, she had survived in the forest for seven days by living off of river water. In an interview at the Sangre Grande District Hospital yesterday, Seenath seemed drowsy from her dramatic ordeal. Her hair was pulled back in one and she was covered with a thick pink blanket. Nurses and orderlies bustled around giving her medication and arranging to take her for an X-Ray. Seenath said she was unable to move on the bed and was in pain, even as she recalled the ordeal she lived through in the forest. “It was like a miracle, every step I made I prayed. At nights I heard gospel, Hindu songs and prayers. I hold on to the mountain and made my way. I walked and I walked,” she said.  Read more

Canada: Montreal's reggae scene - James Bond drops reggae riddims

 

COMPARED to Toronto, the Jamaican community in Montreal is a small one. But according to a top disc jockey in that city, Quebec's largest city has quietly made strides as a leading reggae market in Canada.

James Bond is host of On The Reggae Jam, a weekly show on the K103.7FM radio station. For three hours (9:00 to midnight), he plays the latest reggae hits as well as classics from the 1970s and old school dancehall of the 1980s.

Bond (given name James Kornecook) was in Jamaica recently and spoke to the Jamaica Observer about the current state of reggae in Montreal.

"There are several reggae scenes in Montreal. There is a French scene that Haitians and Quebecers attend and there is an English West Indian scene in another part of town," he said. "We also have communities from islands such as St Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad...all these cater specifically for these communities," he added. "There is a large African population that also loves reggae music." Read more

Carib Comment:  Let's take a reggae break with Luciano to get strength to make it through Monday.

Jamaica: Not our Veronica — VCB's dad say positive drug test hard to believe

Carib Comment:  This father doesn't want to believe the worst.  It would be nice if what he believes is actually the truth.

VERONICA Campbell Brown's father reacted with shock and dismay that his offspring had been fingered in a doping scandal that threatens to gnaw away at the gains of Jamaica's glittering athletic programme.

Cecil Campbell, a resident of this sugar cane-producing community, said that he had not communicated with his daughter in less than a week, but remained confident that things will work out for her. 

"I am really surprised. I heard about it this morning (Saturday), but I really don't know what to say right now," stated an apparently disappointed Cecil Campbell.

"It is possible that she could be drinking something and someone poured something in it," added the man of few words, while insisting that he has not spoken to his daughter since last week Wednesday.  Read more

Lebanon: Three Dominican women missing in Lebanon

Carib Comment: This is a very serious matter and we were a bit uncomfortable with some of the comments left. No matter what the case, the are far from home and may never get to return.  

Take a look when you read more. You be the judge.

The Foreign Ministry is making efforts to locate three Dominican women whose relatives reported they are in Lebanon but have not heard from them in a month.

The three women are Carmen J. Custodio Tejada, Awilda Felicita Tejada Cabral and Ana Mieses. 

According to their relatives, the three women went to Lebanon with an employment contract for three months. Two of them had previously traveled abroad for the same purposes.  Read more

Jamaica: Black women's natural hair not perceived as sexy for entertainers

Etana

There is a natural hair revolution going on among black women, and this time around, the revolution is being televised.

Kimala 'Lala' Bennett has directed a documentary titled Combing Through the Roots: The Politics of Black Hair in Jamaica, which explores the multiple perceptions of black people's hair and their manifestations. And last Sunday, Island Naturals, a newly formed support group for Jamaican women with natural hair - or who wish to go natural - hosted its first event, 'Au Naturale Night Out'.

There are some female Jamaican entertainers who have broken through with unprocessed hair. Among them are Cherine Anderson, Nadine Sutherland, and Etana, who debuted sporting natural hairstyles.

Still, Trudy-Ann Campbell of Island Naturals confirmed to The Sunday Gleaner that the music industry is not keen on women who sport a natural hair look. "They're not very receptive to artistes with natural hair, but they are more receptive to cultural artistes with locks. People are under the impression that natural hair is only associated with Christians and that it isn't a hot trend," Campbell said.  Read more

Brazil: Waging war on vicious drug cartels that rule the slums of Rio before 2016 FIFA World Cup and Olympic games

For the millions of people living in Rio de Janeiro's notoriously dangerous favelas, the Brazilian government's bold crackdown on drug traffickers and criminals before it hosts two major sporting events is a sign of hope.

With wooden shacks haphazardly built along labyrinthine stairways and passages, and filthy streets rife with drug dealers and gangsters, the boxy shantytowns have become an embarrassing eyesore for Brazil which will stage next year's FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.

Most of Rio's favelas or slums are controlled by vicious drug cartels such as Red Command who provide security and dispense 'justice' using their own private armies. Some, such as Vila Cruzeiro which is considered one of Rio's most dangerous favela, is owned by the church but overrun by drug warlords. 

But when a police helicopter was shot down by drug gang members in Morro de Macaco favela in 2009, the government went into action, sending 'Pacifying Police Units' or UPPs into the slums to stamp out gangsters and consolidate state control. 

So far, about 30 favelas - out of about 1000 - are occupied by the UPP, but the government aims to make it 40 by next year.  Read more

United States: Better Than Gold: Is Retirement In The Dominican Republic For You?

As we bobbed in the warm cerulean sea off the coast of the Dominican Republic, a stately row of palm trees on the beach our only companions, we couldn't help thinking about how misguided Christopher Columbus had been.

He literally came upon the island, which he named Hispaniola, more than 500 years ago on Christmas Eve in 1492, when his ship, the Santa Maria, ran aground and sank offshore. (The Dominican Republic is one of the two countries that comprise Hispaniola. The other is Haiti.)  Read more

United States: Tampa couple’s plan to visit Cuba dashed

Hoping to visit family they hadn’t seen in years, Modesta and Robert Balsa spent more than $3,000 with a local travel agency that specializes in flights to Cuba.

They paid for plane tickets, Cuban passports and visas through the Tampa travel agency, Flor Caribe, and eagerly awaited their June 30 departure date.

Then, last month, they learned in a phone call that Flor Caribe never bought the tickets. They’re out the money and the family reunion is off.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Modesta Balsa, 51. “It’s very painful to see our own people would do something like this.”

Theirs is one of two dozen sad stories about dreams of a visit to Cuba dashed because of Flor Caribe, a local travel agency that assists Cubans living in the United States and others who can legally visit Cuba.

It turns out the federal government, for reasons as full of complexity and intrigue as relations between the two nations themselves, suspended the travel agency’s license in March.  Read more

Jamaica: 'Haunted house' family faces more torment

The Junction Fire Department have confirmed that fire personnel from the station on Thursday responded to a fire at an unfinished house close to the so-called haunted house that was gutted on June 5.

A fireman told the Jamaica Observer by telephone that he and his colleagues responded to a fire call from Rose Hall, South East St Elizabeth about midday, Thursday. He said that on arrival the fire team found "smouldering" and "blackened" items, including the frame of a bed, bedding and sheets outside the house. He said he also saw evidence of a broken window.

The fireman said occupants of the house appeared to be among those who lived at the neighbouring house which was destroyed by fire last week.

A distraught family member who telephoned the Observer late Thursday said the latest fire followed the same pattern of others which had tormented her and her relatives since April, culminating in last week's destruction of their house.

She claimed they had moved into the unfinished house next door and occupied one room and a bathroom following last week's catastrophic fire. She claimed that close to midday, Thursday, occupants heard a window "break" and then saw fire consuming items including bedding and furniture.  Read More

Haiti: Colombia, U.S. help train Haitian women police

Juliana Jolissaint is no more than 5-feet-5 and 123 pounds, but she could easily instill fear in the heart of a criminal. Put a nightstick in her hand and she drops a comrade to the ground in seconds.

“I was very slow,” said Jolissaint, a 21-year-old cadet from Cap-Haïtien, Haiti. “Everything that I have to do [now], I do fast. This is an experience, a great opportunity.”

Since arriving at the Sumapaz academy near Bogotá four months ago, Jolissaint has learned to run everywhere she goes, march in formation, bark out orders and use her nightstick for self-defense. She and her nine companions were carefully selected from a field of 350 Haitian female police recruits for a scholarship to train with women from the Colombian National Police.  Read more

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/05/3435882/colombia-us-help-train-haitian.html#storylink=cpy

Jamaica: Jamaicans shocked, disappointed at VCB's test results

Carib Comment: Say it isn't so. What is going on these days.  Do athletes really think the can outsmart authorities and the public?

International Association of Athletics Federations is expected to make an announcement early next week. 

Campbell-Brown tested positive at the JamaicaInvitational Meet on May 4. 

Last night on The Gleaner's Twitter and Facebook pages, Jamaicans expressed shock and dismay at the development. 

Some readers refused to accept that Campbell-Brown ingested a banned substance. 

Campbell-Brown's A sample revealed the presence of a diuretic, which acts as a masking agent and is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.  Read more

Puerto Rico: Migrants in Puerto Rico Await Driver's Licenses

The government of Puerto Rico is poised to approve a bill that would allow immigrants living in the U.S. territory illegally to obtain a temporary driver's license.

The island's House of Representatives approved the bill 29-18 this week, and the Senate and governor are expected to approve the measure in upcoming weeks. The law would go into effect one year after it is approved.

Rep. Javier Aponte Dalmau, who voted in favor of the bill, said in a phone interview Friday that it would provide more opportunities to those living here illegally.

"Their participation is important to our economic development," he said. "Closing borders and restricting entry goes against democratic principles, as well as economic ones."  Read more

Antigua and Barbuda: Antigua and Barbuda elected Ambassador President of the UN General Assembly

The General Assembly on Friday elected Ambassador John William Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda President of its 68th session which starts in September this year.

Ambassador Ashe, who holds a Ph.D in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, was elected by acclamation.

Addressing the General Assembly following his election, Ambassador Ashe said the United Nations must reflect on the new and emerging development challenges with attention to two main goals.

He identified the goals as overcoming poverty and insecurity and ensuring sustainable development.  Read More

Jamaica: Gunmen raid animal farm Steal sheep, goats valuing $2m

Carib Comment: More on the story about gunmen robbing farmers.

TEN masked gunmen on Wednesday night invaded an animal farm in Nightingale Grove, St Catherine, slaughtering 32 sheep and 18 goats before making off with the carcasses, leaving only the intestines behind.

The elderly caretaker of the farm was returning from a nearby shop during a power outage when he was attacked by the gunmen, beaten, gagged, dragged to bushes a half-mile away and left for dead.

 Police said the men then went to the farm where they slaughtered the animals — several of which were heavily pregnant and not fit for consumption.

Yesterday, owner of the farm, Wadeton Reinolds, put his losses at approximately $2 million.  Read more

 

Dominican Republic: Today marks 54 years of defiance of the dictatorship - liberation from Trujillo

Carib Comment:  This is a lengthy post because we wanted to make sure to capture the story in English. We hope we did it justice as it tells the honorable story of the will to overcome the brutal Dominican dictator - Trujillo. 

You can read the full Spanish article in the link below. June 14th

"They took me to the torture center to a room in the jail for the recruits. There, I see a lot of blood, it was the blood of my comrades who had been tortured and shot, "said Vargas Mayobanez, the only Dominican still living since the June 1959 expedition against the dictator Rafael Trujillo, 54 years ago today.

Vargas joined the group of 54 men who landed by plane in Constanza  led by Enrique Jiménez Moya Dominican and Cuban Delio Gomez Ochoa.

It was a Sunday around 6:20 pm when the expedition, arrived from Cuba, where they had been supported by revolucion leader Fidel Castro for training in Mil Cumbres, Pinar del Rio province.

The guerrilla group arrived on a plane camouflaged with the colors of the Dominican military aviation, at a shy surprised airport security in Constanza   but after gun battles, succeeded into the mountains.

The plane, piloted by Venezuelan Julio Cesar Rodriguez, with Oreste Cuban Acosta as copilot under fire managed to return to Cuba, where he arrived with several holes machine gun fire from the roof of the fortress. On June 20, six days later, the two boats with guerillas reached by Maimon and Estero Hondo, in Puerto Plata, after overcoming sabotage, lack of fuel, food and water to drift.

These boats were out on June 13, a day before the plane, with the intent of the arrival to coincide with the arrival of the plane to attack the Trujillo regime on several fronts.

The boat Carmen Elsa,  landed in  Maimon with 96 fighters, led by José Horacio Rodríguez, and later led by José Messon.  Meanwhile, the other boat, Tinina, landed in Estero Hondo  with 48 fighters was led by José Antonio Campos Navarro.

They were expected and bombed by the military forces of Trujillo, both aviation and the navy. Those arrested were taken to the San Isidro Air Base, where Ramfis Trujillo, the dictator's son, and his group, had devastatingly tortured them,  executed them and then cast them into a mass grave.

Meanwhile, in Constanza the  product of the shooting after landing, the group split into two, one led by Jimenez Moya, with 34 men, and the other by Gómez Ochoa, with 20 men.

The group of Moya Jimenez was completely eliminated, and Gomez Ochoa, who for nearly a month in the mountains, until July 11, accidentally divided amid attacks from Trujillo's military power survived; other survivors included Cuban Pablito Mirabal and Dominicans Gonzalo Almonte Pacheco, Mayobanex Vargas, Francisco Medardo Germán y Poncio Pou Saleta. Historians and also historian Franco Franklin considered that one of the factors that affected the invasion on June 14 was infiltration. "Trujillo was informed and prepared.

For example, the landings that occurred on June 19 on the beach of Maimon and Estero Hondo were practically expected by Trujillo naval forces, and that accusation had an unfortunate result in the annihilation of the expeditionary forces, "he said.

"If the invasion had not happened , Trujillo could have lasted a few more years because there was no generalized process for opposition.  This event  unleashed a process of widespread opposition. The invasion galvanized opponents and planning against Trujillo, there was a general anti-Trujillo drive, about the urgency and to end this monster, "said Roberto Cassá.

(+) DELIO GÓMEZ OCHOA Y MAYOBANEX VARGAS
 The only two living fighters, Cuban, Dominican nationalized Delio Gomez Ochoa, and Dominican Mayobanez Vargas, relate various aspects of the feat. Both are national heroes.

"We have the right to live with freedom, but we also have a duty to know to achieve freedom and freedom sometimes costs us our lives, but sometimes it is preferable to life," Gomez said Ochoa.

He added: "When it died not only win freedom made the way there, but win freedom and having honored the sacrifice of so many who had fallen during the Trujillo Era".

While Vargas, asked that the massacred fighters be given their place in history as they deserve, after highlighting that they knew that they came to die for freedom, and that did not stop.  Read the article in Spanish here

Dominican Republic: Field dedication (Boca Chica) highlights trip to Dominican D-backs unveil youth facility in Tanquecito during goodwill tour

BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic -- Under normal circumstances, a typical Caribbean thunderstorm might put a halt to a game of baseball, but not even a sustained downpour could dampen the spirits of the nearly 100 youngsters and 30 D-backs front-office members when they dedicated a new youth baseball field during their goodwill trip to the Dominican Republic.

It was, after all, the reason the contingent of employees had traveled to the island nation as the winners and MVPs of the D-backs Give Back League, a first-of-its-kind program within the front office to determine which group of employees could have the biggest impact on the local Arizona community.

"I'm speechless," said D-backs senior manager of ticket operations Luis Calderon as he watched his colleagues playing joyfully on the field in the middle of a rainstorm Wednesday morning with kids who spoke no English but clearly shared his love for the game of baseball. "This is honestly the coolest thing I think I've ever seen."

The rains and wet field conditions had moved the dedication from the actual field that the D-backs have renovated in Tanquecito, near their academy in Boca Chica, to one of the back fields of the team's complex. But that just meant that for many of the kids, they would be playing on the most well-manicured grounds they had ever seen in person.  Read more

Trinidad and Tobago: Three Shot at Port of Spain General Hospital

Carib Comment:  This one is straight out of a movie.

Police scrambled to the Port of Spain General Hospital Thursday afternoon after three persons, among them a nurse, were shot.

Initial reports are that at around 2 p.m, the nurse was walking past the
food court located on the hospital compound, when she was grabbed
by a man who used her as a human shield against a gunman who
was pointing a gun.

Nurse Alexis Bhagan, 30, was shot along with the man who was hiding behind her. A second woman, said to be a janitor at a secondary school in east Trinidad, was also shot. Bhagan was shot in the face and transferred to the St Clair Medical Centre for a CT scan to be performed to determine the extent of her head injuries. Read more

United States: Miami judgment hits Dominican Republic for $50M

Carib Comment:  How could a Dominican government agency let this happen?

Two South Florida companies have won a $50 million foreign judgment against a government agency of the Dominican Republic over a canceled contract to build an irrigation system.

U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga signed the judgment on Monday in Miami federal court. The rare foreign judgment was registered in default after the DR agency failed to respond to formal notice of the lawsuit, according to Altonaga’s order.

The suit, filed in February, alleged that a team of Miami architects and developers were owed millions because of the canceled contract.

The plaintiffs are Coral Gables-based Architectural Ingenieria Siglo (AIS) and Pembroke Pines-based Sun Land & RGITC LLC.  Read more

Dominican Republic: Newlywed Canadian trapped in 'hellhole' Dominican jail

Carib Comment: This is far from a picture perfect destination wedding...

A newlywed Ontario bride is frantically trying to free her husband and his cousin from a Dominican Republic jail "hellhole"— and she says she's left doing it with next to no help from the Canadian government.

“I was with Nick maybe eight hours before they took him from me,” Stacey Vernon, 31, told CBC News in Hamilton. “It's awful. We saved every penny to make this a wonderful experience and now we can't even look at our wedding photos.”

Nick Miele, 34, and his 18-year-old cousin Ben Constantini, both of Stoney Creek, Ont., have been behind bars since the early morning hours of May 28 — just hours after Miele and Vernon said “I do” at the Bahia Principe Esmeralda resort in Punta Cana.

Miele is facing months in jail after a fight erupted on his wedding night that his bride says he had no part in. Read more

Puerto Rico: Puerto Rican Soldier Talks About Receiving A Purple Heart

Carib Comment:  This is what you call ORGULLO (PRIDE)!!!

Even though soldiers don’t necessarily go into war with hopes of coming out with a Purple Heart, Spc. Arael Lopez-Lopez was happy that in his case the award meant he could come home and reunite with his family.

The 33-year-old Puerto Rican veteran received the honor Monday for the injuries he received fighting in Afghanistan on his own birthday 10 months ago. He is still under medical treatment for shrapnel remains in his head and back, as well as an injury that caused nerve damage to his left hand.

“I’m just one of the lucky ones that was able to survive,” Lopez-Lopez said. “I do appreciate [the Purple Heart] and I’m honored to receive it, but to me, the people who commit the ultimate sacrifice should be recognized more than us.”  Read more

Jamaica: Robbers attack farmer, slaughter 38 animals

Police have launched an investigation into reports that a farmer was robbed of than 20 sheep and 18 goats in Nightingale Grove, St Catherine early Thursday.

At about 3:00am the farmer who was keeping watch over his farm left to go to nearby premises. It was then that the thieves made their move. Read more

United States: Take the A Train to Little Guyana

On an old building at 12 St. Marks Place, hovering above the sushi counters and tattoo parlors, is an inscription chiseled in the stone facade: Deutsch-Amerikanische Schützen Gesellschaft. It marks the location of the German-American Shooting Society clubhouse, long defunct, and is a rare vestige of the German immigrant community that dominated the East Village and the Lower East Side for much of the 19th century.

Known as Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany, the community had German saloons and social clubs, German theaters and churches, German stores and workshops, and, of course, tens of thousands of German residents.

Little Germany is long gone — the clubhouse now houses a Yoga to the People studio — and other European enclaves that once defined immigrant life in New York City have also faded or disappeared altogether.

But in their place, a welter of immigrant neighborhoods have formed, populated by newcomers from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. This shift was triggered by the passage of immigration reform legislation in 1965, which opened the door to greater numbers of non-Europeans and changed the ethnic composition of the United States.  Read more

Haiti: 1,100 Haitians detained in the NW, advocacy group: 3,434 this year alone

Dominican authorities arrested 1,100 Haitians who crossed the country illegally through Dajabón province (northwest), military sources revealed Wednesday.

Quoted by diariolibre.com, Border Security (Cesfront) officials said the illegal immigrants who’ll be repatriated to Haiti in the coming hours, spent the night on streets and highways in various parts of the Northwest.  Read more

United States: Dominican-American actress snares her father’s murderer on the Web

Aspiring Dominican-American actress Joselyn Martinez resorted to the Web and media to help police locate the suspect in her father’s murder, occurred in 1986 in New York, AP reports.

In recent years she periodically sought information on the man who witnesses say shot and killed her father outside his restaurant on November 22, 1986, when she was just nine.

Since 2006 Martinez surfed MySpace and Facebook for information and in 2011 wrote to "America's Most Wanted" and paid 69.99 dollars out of her own pocket to several search programs that reveal potential Web addresses and phone numbers of any person.  Read more