UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, says armed violence has reached “unimaginable and intolerable levels” in Haiti and that the surge in violence is being fueled by heavily armed gangs in Port-au-Prince.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley Thursday said he is hoping in the “not too distant future” CARICOM leaders will adopt a position on attending the Summit of the Americas in the United States, as the division continues as to whether the region should boycott the event if Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela are not officially invited.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping Tuesday said it is “deeply concerned” at the recommendations by a one man Commission of Inquiry that called for the British Virgin Islands  (BVI) government cease to exist in its current format for at least two years.

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti – With an increase in reports of daily kidnappings across the country, truck drivers from the neighboring Dominican Republic have decided not to enter Haiti deliver goods and produce.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders are pondering whether they will participate in the Ninth Summit of the Americas to be held in the United States next month, should Washington extend an invitation to Venezuelan Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó while also leaving of Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba.

SANTIAGO, Chile – The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says its Acting Executive Secretary Mario Cimoli and the European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, have underscored the importance of strengthening and deepening their ties of bi-regional cooperation in the complex global context caused by the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

HAVANA, Cuba – The National Institute of Social Security (INASS) is carrying out a centralized process of granting pensions, in a quick way, for all the affected workers and relatives of the victims of the accident at the Saratoga hotel, without distinction of pension rights.

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua –Prime Minister Gaston Browne says he hopes last week’s discussions between United States Vice President, Kamala Harris and several CARICOM leaders will not turn out to be another occasion of “diplomatic exercises”.

HAVANA, Cuba – Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit was awarded the Order of Jose Marti on Tuesday night, noting that the Cuban revolution is no longer one of guns but one of ideas, “which seeks to elevate the dominant principle of our world as the dignity of the human person”.

BELMOPAN, Belize – The construction phase of major improvement to the essential arterial route that links Belize City to the Mexican border has officially gotten off the ground.

WASHINGTON, D.C - Afro-Latinos are a growing part of the Black immigrant population in the US and now make up about 2 percent of the U.S. adult population.

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent – Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves says Venezuela has agreed to cancel St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ debt under PetroCaribe, its oil initiative with Latin American and Caribbean countries.