Ganja found in yam, cheese at Norman Manley airport
The police say they seized approximately 156.4 pounds of ganja and a motor truck during routine checks at the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) in Kingston over a six-hour period on Monday.
The street value of the drug is estimated at J$782,000.
Seven people were taken into custody in relation to the seizures. However their identities are being withheld until they are charged, the police say.
Reports are that about 10:00 am, members of the Canine and Transnational Crimes and Narcotics Division (TCND) accosted and searched a man who was boarding a flight to Barbados.
His luggage was checked and a false compartment was discovered with ganja weighing approximately 5.9 pounds. The man and a female who accompanied him to the NMIA were taken into custody.
An hour later, the TCND team conducted a stop and search operation in the vicinity of the NMIA round-a-bout. The driver of a white Isuzu Elf truck was signalled to stop and five boxes of yam inside the vehicle were found to contain ganja weighing approximately 129 pounds.
Three men were taken into custody and the truck seized in that incident.
And about 12:20 pm, during routine security checks in the baggage area at the NMIA, officers assigned to the Canine Division searched the luggage of a man who had checked in to board a flight.
Ganja weighing 18.6 pounds was found and the passenger taken into custody.
Within hours of the third seizure, about 2:30 pm, the lawmen from the TCND searched the luggage of a another man, who was checking in on a flight to Curacao and found ganja weighing about 2.8 pounds concealed in a tin of cheese.
Source-Jamaica Observer
Canadian-based company to invest US$238 million in Guyana’s mining sector
The Canada-based Guyana Goldfields says it is investing US$238 million in the Aurora Gold Project as the government said it was looking forward to large scale gold production by the company during the first quarter of 2015.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, welcoming the second largest investment in the mining sector, said as a country, “we have to open to the world…we have to partner with the world,” particularly given the potential size of the multimillion-dollar investment.
Guyana Goldfields Inc. focuses on the exploration and development of gold deposits here and Hinds said that the experience, expertise and technologies which the investors were bringing into the country would have been difficult source locally.
“Our challenge is to develop partnerships with the world… we have to develop the ability to recognise who we could develop good partnerships with,” he said, acknowledging that while the investment was “somewhat risky” he was looking forward to its success.
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Robert Persaud, who also supported the investment, said it would bring tremendous benefits to the Guyana.
He assured all stakeholders that Guyana Gold Fields (GGF) had undertaken a comprehensive environmental sensitivity index (ESI) and the necessary permits to ensure compliance with local laws and international best practices.
He said government also recognised the move by the company to reduce the “carbon footprint” of the site’s mining plant from 2000 hectares to 1200 hectares and that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission’s Environmental Division would be upgrading their monitoring capability and enforcement capacity to manage and ensure compliance.
“It is an area in which we have commenced work, especially given that we are looking at a new type of mining technology that will be utilised, and to ensure that from an environmental standpoint we build that capacity.”
Guyana this year produced in excess of 452,000 ounces of gold surpassing the target of 451,000 ounces set and the 438,000 ounces declared in 2012.
Source-Caribbean Media Corporation
Brazilian ex-president was 'killed by military conspiracy'
An investigative commission in Brazil says it has found evidence that the ex-president Juscelino Kubitschek was murdered by the 1970s military regime.
The Sao Paulo truth commission, a group of councillors from the city's assembly, is due to present a full report into the case on Tuesday.
The proof of the alleged conspiracy was found after analysing more than 90 pieces of evidence, the group says.
At the time, the former president had just regained his political rights.
Mr Kubitschek, who famously relocated Brazil's capital from Rio de Janeiro to the especially designed Brasilia, died on 22 August 1976 following a car accident on a motorway between Rio and Sao Paulo.
For decades, there have been rumours that JK, as the Brazilian President from 1956 to 1961 was known, had been the victim of a murder conspiracy.
The 73-year-old centrist politician was a popular opposition leader.
The report of the Sao Paulo Truth Commission presents the findings of an investigation which allegedly uncovered fake records, procedural errors and contradictions.
"We have no doubt that Juscelino Kubitschek was a victim of a conspiracy, a plot and a political crime. There is documentary proof and important testimonies in the more than 29 pages of the report," Sao Paulo councillor Gilberto Natalini told the news website Terra.
Among the evidence is testimony from the driver of the bus that crashed into the former president's car.
He is said to have told the investigators he had been offered money in exchange for admitting guilt for the accident.
Another witness reportedly told the commission he briefly saw a bullet hole in the head of Mr Kubitschek's driver during an exhumation procedure in 1996.
A national Truth Commission of the Brazilian Congress is also looking into the death of Mr Kubitschek and a number of other human rights abuses that allegedly took place during Brazil's military rule.
The remains of Mr Kubitschek's successor, Joao Goulart, another opposition leader, were recently exhumed as part of the investigations into whether he was murdered.
Their findings are not expected before May 2014.
Uruguay marijuana move 'illegal' - UN drugs watchdog
Uruguay's decision to legalise the production, sale and consumption of marijuana violates international law, the UN drugs watchdog says.
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) warned that the move would endanger young people and "contribute to the earlier onset of addiction".
The new law will allow registered Uruguayans over 18 to buy up to 40g (1.4oz) of the drug a month.
The government hopes it will help tackle drug cartels.
INCB chief Raymond Yans said he was "surprised" that the government in Montevideo had "knowingly decided to break the universally agreed and internationally endorsed treaty".
In a statement, Mr Yans said claims the law would help reduce crime relied on "rather precarious and unsubstantiated assumptions".
The INCB is an independent body of experts established by the United Nations to monitor countries' compliance with international drug treaties.
After nearly 12 hours of debate on Tuesday, senators gave the government-sponsored bill their final approval, making Uruguay the first country in the world to legalise the production and sale of marijuana.
Dozens of supporters of the bill proposed by the left-wing President Jose Mujica gathered outside the Congress in Montevideo to follow the vote.
Presenting the bill to fellow senators, Roberto Conde said it was an unavoidable response to reality, given that the "war" against drugs had failed.
"We have the duty as the state to give a specific answer to an open territory, small and non-producing," Mr Conde said, adding that Uruguay's borders were used by cartels to smuggle drugs into neighbouring countries.
But many senators also spoke out against the bill, before it was passed by 16 votes to 13.
Opposition lawmaker Alfredo Solari said Uruguay should not "experiment" on its people.
White House says Obama-Castro handshake 'not planned'
President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro's handshake at Nelson Mandela's memorial service was unplanned, the White House has said.
White House aide Ben Rhodes told reporters the two exchanged nothing more substantive than a greeting.
The Cuban government said the gesture may show the "beginning of the end of the US aggressions".
The US broke off diplomatic ties with Cuba in 1961 as Fidel Castro aligned with the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
And on Tuesday after the handshake, a White House official said the Obama administration still had grave concerns about human rights violations in Cuba, Reuters reported.
Republicans on Capitol Hill were quick to condemn the gesture, with one Republican congresswoman chiding the move during an unrelated hearing on Tuesday.
The last time a US president shook a Cuban leader's hand was in 2000, when President Bill Clinton greeted President Fidel Castro, Raul's brother and predecessor, at a UN General Assembly meeting.
Under President Obama, the US has eased restrictions on Cuban-Americans travelling to the island and on remittances between family members across the two countries.
But the gradual thaw has been disrupted by the detention in Cuba of a US contractor.
Alan Gross, 64, was arrested four years ago while on a project to provide internet access to Cuba's small Jewish community.
On the fourth anniversary of his arrest, he wrote to Mr Obama to say he feared the US government had "abandoned" him, and asked the US president to intervene personally to help win his release.
North Korean leader's uncle 'executed over corruption'
The once-powerful uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been executed after being purged for corruption, state news agency KCNA reports.
Chang Song-thaek was dramatically removed from a Communist Party session by armed guards earlier this week.
He was accused of forming factions against the state, corruption and "depraved" acts such as womanising and drug abuse.
It was the biggest upheaval since Mr Kim succeeded his father two years ago.
KCNA said Mr Chang had been executed immediately after a military trial on Thursday, calling him a "traitor" and accusing him of seeking to overthrow the state.
He had already been stripped of all his official titles and expelled from the party.
Mr Chang was seen as a major power broker in North Korea, and had mentored Mr Kim as he took over the leadership of the secretive, tightly controlled country.
Analysts say his fall from grace could be seen as the latest in a series of carefully calibrated moves to demonstrate Kim Jong-un's authority and an assertion of his independence.
As news of his purge emerged, South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned the North was "carrying out a reign of terror" to reinforce Mr Kim's position.
She said the volatile relationship between the two countries was likely to become "more unstable" as a result.
Mexico's Congress approves measure to open oil resources
Mexico's Congress has approved a measure to open the state-run oil fields to foreign investment for the first time in 75 years, following a vote by the Senate earlier this week.
The programme would let private firms explore and extract oil and gas with state-run firm Pemex, and take a share of the profits.
The measure must now be approved by 17 of the country's 32 federal entities.
Mexico nationalised its energy industry in 1938.
Thursday's vote to approve the measure lasted hours and was reported to be heated.
Mexico's President President Enrique Pena Nieto has said the move is necessary to modernise Mexico's energy sector and increase oil production, which has dropped from 3.4 million barrels per day in 2004 to the current rate of 2.5 million barrels per day.
Most observers expected that the signature reform of Mr Pena Nieto's presidency would pass.
However, the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party said it was a submission to US oil companies, and protest camps were set up outside the Senate.
They said the move strikes at the heart of Mexico's identity.
In 1938, then-president Lazaro Cardenas nationalised the oil industry, which had been operated by foreigners up to that point, asserting that Mexico had a right to its mineral wealth.
Japan's Cabinet Approves $53 Billion Stimulus
Japan's Cabinet has approved a $53 billion stimulus package to help offset the effects of an upcoming national sales tax hike.
The stimulus spending measure passed Thursday is part of a supplementary budget for Japan's current fiscal year.
The package, which must be approved by parliament, is intended to create 250,000 jobs. It includes steps to boost construction spending and help low income households.
In April, Japan will raise its consumer sales tax from 5 percent to 8 percent to help pay for rising social security costs and deal with one of the industrial world's largest national debts.
But while the controversial tax increase will raise an estimated $81 billion a year, some fear the plan will hurt consumer demand and damage Japan's fragile economic growth.
Massive stimulus spending is a key part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic plan, known as Abenomics. Abe's plan also involves aggressive efforts to increase the amount of money circulating in Japan's economy to help fight lowering consumer prices, and other reforms to the country's economic system.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
Iceland jails former Kaupthing bank bosses
Four former bosses from the Icelandic bank Kaupthing have been sentenced to between three and five years in prison.
They are the former chief executive, the chairman of the board, one of the majority owners and the chief executive of the Luxembourg branch.
They were accused of hiding the fact that a Qatari investor bought a stake in the firm with money lent - illegally - by the bank itself.
Kaupthing collapsed in 2008 under the weight of huge debts.
For years, Kaupthing and other Icelandic banks had aggressively pursued overseas expansion plans, but when they went into administration, they brought the country's economy to its knees.
Just a few weeks before the collapse, Kaupthing announced that Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Bin Hamad al-Thani had bought a 5.1% stake during the financial crisis in 2008.
The move was seen as a confidence boost for the bank.
Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson, the former chief executive, received five and a half years, while Sigurdur Einarsson, former chairman of the board, was sentenced to five years in jail.
These are the heaviest sentences for financial fraud in Iceland's history.
The court gave Olafur Olafsson, one of the majority owners three years and Magnus Gudmundsson the former chief executive of the Luxembourg branch, three and a half years.
None of them were in court for the decision but it is expected that they will appeal.
The four were also made to pay their own legal costs for the case, which amount to millions of pounds.
Source-BBC
S Africa investigates 'fake signer' security checks
South Africa's deputy disability minister says the government is investigating how a man who faked sign language at the Mandela memorial was given security clearance.
Thamsanqa Jantjie, who stood alongside world leaders at the event, has denied being a fraud, and said he panicked when he began hallucinating.
He said he had schizophrenia, which had in the past made him act violently.
The agency that employed him, SA Interpreters, has reportedly vanished.
The African National Congress (ANC) said it had used Mr Jantjie as an interpreter several times before, and "had not been aware of any of complaints regarding the quality of services, qualifications or reported illnesses" of the interpreter.
But it said Tuesday's memorial at a stadium in Johannesburg was organised by the state, not the ANC, so the ruling party could not comment on security arrangements.
The South African Translators' Institute said earlier there had been complaints over Mr Jantjie's work before, but that the ANC had taken no action.
The ANC said it would "follow up the reported correspondence that has supposedly been sent to us in this regard and where necessary act on it".
Mr Mandela died last week at the age of 95, and will be buried on Sunday.
His body is currently lying in state in Pretoria, with thousands queuing to pay their respects.
During the memorial, Mr Jantjie (also spelt Dyantyi) stood on the stage next to key speakers including US President Barack Obama, South African President Jacob Zuma and Mr Mandela's grandchildren, translating their eulogies.