Free Republic

The presidential ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton have become ensnared in an obscure gold-mining project in Haiti, as the Democratic favorite for the presidency begins her second run for the White House. In a story that suggests cronyism, questionable ethics and a blurring of the lines between charity and profiteering, The Daily Mail reported on Sunday that Hillary Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, sat on the board of VCS Mining when the unlisted, Delaware-based junior was granted a permit to mine gold in Haiti following a massive earthquake on the impoverished island nation in 2010. The permit was the first to...

Trinidadian authorities have detained an Israeli national found living in a remote mountainous area east of the capital, police said, declining to state if he was being questioned in connection with a recent spate of bombings in the Caribbean island nation. A string of bombings, the latest one occuring last Thursday, have rocked the capital of Port-of-Spain. The bombings have injured 28 people. Authorities identified the detained man as Dahtang Mik Agarunov, 26. They said he was found living in a wooden shack in Arouca, about 10 miles east of Port-of-Spain. Agarunov was detained on Friday and questioned by Interpol,...

An envelope containing white powder in a Nassau post office has initially tested positive for anthrax. This is the first discovery of anthrax in the Caribbean, officials say. The letter was destined for a Bahamas address and had a local stamp, claims Police Commissioner Paul Farquharson. Investigators are naming the recipient or whether the envelope had a return address. Lab tests at a Nassau hospital indicate the presence of anthrax spores, says Chief Medical Officer Marceline Dahl-Regis. Officials are now waiting for the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to confirm it the bacterium. None of the 10 employees ...

Venezuela has cut in half its subsidized shipments of crude oil to Cuba and Petrocaribe member nations to 200,000 barrels per day, down from 400,000 shipped in 2012, a Barclays report says. Also, the British investment bank’s report considered it “ironic” that Venezuela would ship any oil at all, highlighting that while the country is going through extreme difficulties, it continues to subsidize oil sales to countries that have healthier economies. . . Because of the cuts in oil shipments to the Caribbean, the firm reduced its deficit forecast for Venezuela to $22.6 billion, down from more than $30 billion...

War On Terror: The head of U.S. Southern Command has warned lawmakers that IS is radicalizing converts and other Muslims in Latin America and could train and send them north via human traffickers. Gen. John Kelly issued his warning in a hearing Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee on defense appropriations for fiscal 2016. He's concerned that in addition to the Iranian terrorist puppet Hezbollah being active in Latin America, the Islamic State is promoting and recruiting for jihad against the United States in the region. "Last year, IS adherents posted discussions on social media calling for the infiltration...

A top US commander warns Caribbean and South American countries are unable to track 100 foreign fighters that could return from Syria. Americas The war in Syria has attracted roughly 100 foreign fighters from the Caribbean who could easily make their way to the United States, said the top U.S. military commander for the southern hemisphere. With little ability to track and monitor foreign fighters when they return, it would be relatively easy for those fighters to “walk” north to the U.S. border along the same networks used to traffic drugs and humans, according to Gen. John Kelly, commander of...

Russia agreed to provide military training for three leftist regimes in Latin America and increase military visits and exercises following a visit last week to the region by Moscow’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu, Pentagon officials said. Shoygu met with defense and military leaders in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua and signed several agreements on warship visits and military training during the visit, which ran from Feb. 11 to 14. It is not clear whether any new arms deals were completed during the visit. Defense officials said the Russian leader is seeking bases in the region for strategic bomber flights that Shoygu...

<p>KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - Police in Jamaica say authorities have seized 3,300 missile warheads and a machine to make missiles and bullets.</p> <p>Deputy Police Superintendent Steve Brown said Friday that custom officials discovered the weapons late Thursday aboard a ship at Kingston Wharf.</p>

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — A breed of giant, ravenous snails that first appeared in Barbados five years ago has thrived on the tropical island, destroying crops and prompting calls for the government to eliminate the slimy pests. A nocturnal "snail hunt" last weekend reported finding hundreds of thousands of giant African snails swarming the central parish of St. George, the country's agricultural heartland, where farmers had complained of damage to crops including sugar cane, bananas and papayas. "We saw snails riding on each other's backs and moving in clusters," said David Walrond, chairman of the local emergency response office, which organized...

A major Black group in the United States says it will host the next summit of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission early this year. The New York-based Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) said on Saturday that the summit will take place from April 9-12 in New York. The CARICOM Commission is chaired by Sir Hilary Beckles, vice-chancellor designate of the University of the West Indies. Inspired by the creation of the CARICOM Commission, a National African American Reparations Commission is being established as part of an effort to intensify the Reparations movement in the U.S., the...

This is part II of a multipart series about our adventures aboard S.V. Namaste, our 46 foot (length on deck) cutter rigged sloop. Couples aboard a boat are often referred to by their boat's name. Hence, we became "the Namastes." Soon after our arrival in Norfolk, Virginia, Jeanie and I, plus Fiester and Fritz who joined us there, departed soon after a large collection of other cruisers for Road Town on the island of Tortola in the British Virgins. This is an account of our trip. Caribbean 1500 members inspected their own and each others' boats to find any probable glitches. The principal Namaste glitch was that our single side...

This is part I of a multipart series about our adventures aboard S.V. Namaste, our 46 foot (length on deck) cutter rigged sloop. My wife Jeanie, her brother Fiester, our friend Fitz and I left Annapolis, Maryland in October of 1996 aboard Namaste bound for the Caribbean. The others returned home soon after we arrived. Jeanie's and my adventures in the Caribbean continued until mid 2001, when we arrived in the Republic of Panamá. We now live there in a very rural area up in the mountains.PreparationsIn 1995, Jeanie and I agreed that in June of 1996 I would retire from the practice of law on my fifty-fifth birthday....

It’s dreary outside and you find yourself dreaming of an escape to the Caribbean. You long for turquoise water and sugar-sand beaches, with plenty of activities to take your mind off work. Cruises offer the perfect smorgasbord of beaches, shopping, scenery, and fun things that you can’t do at home, all served up with a fruity, umbrella-topped beverage. But not every port lives up to the image in your dreams. To help you choose your next cruise itinerary — or rather, figure out which places to avoid — Yahoo Travel did some digging around and found the Caribbean ports with...

Ebola panic has spread all the way to the United States, even though the possibility of it actually spreading across American shores is dismally low. People might be better off preparing for the chikungunya virus, which has been reported several times throughout the southern United States — including a third case recently reported in the Dallas area, according to CBS. Chikungunya virus has hit the hardest in the Central American and Caribbean countries of El Salvador and the Dominican Republican. Although exact number are unavailable for the Dominican, El Salvadorian officials are reporting that there are currently 30,000 cases...

HOUSTON, Texas -- Several unaccompanied minors who entered the U.S. illegally have been relocated to and released where many U.S. citizens cannot afford to bring their own families on vacation: the Virgin Islands. SNIP a Health and Human Services (HHS) document shows that four were set free in the U.S. Virgin Islands. A spokesman from HHS verified this fact to Breitbart Texas. The picturesque Virgin Islands, located in the Caribbean, are a thriving destination for well-to-do tourists. Many could find irony in the fact that most U.S. taxpayers, who are footing the bill to ship illegal immigrants to the tropical...

A British tourist had the tops of two of his fingers sliced off while riding on the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disney World in Florida. The victim lost the tip of his ring and little finger after apparently dangling them outside the log fume ride which inspired the Johnny Depp movies. Disney officials in Orlando, Florida, immediately shut down the ride in the Magic Kingdom park following the incident.

Caribbean immigrants who arrive to the United States are often shell-shocked by the palpable presence of racism. What is all the more surprising is that these tensions are more so perpetuated by African-Americans. Before an immigrant can experience the strife and joys of the States, they are frequently discouraged, or should I say, warned. Warned that success will most certainly be harder for them. Warned that things are different ‘here’ and that the color of your skin has in more ways that one already set them up for failure. Living in the United States as a person of color immediately...

Ratings company Moody's on Tuesday slashed Puerto Rico's debt rating by three notches into even deeper junk status after the US territory passed a debt-restructuring law. Moody's Investors Service cut the rating to "B2" from "Ba2" and said the outlook was negative, indicating further downgrades were possible. Now dubbed the "Greece of the Caribbean," the archipelago is, like Greece, reeling under massive debt. Over the past decade, the commonwealth's debt has doubled to nearly $70 billion and investors are growing increasingly worried the government is running out of cash. In a bid for debt relief, the Puerto Rican authorities recently...

Outbreaks of the virus have long made people miserable in Africa and Asia. But it is new to the Caribbean, with the first locally transmitted case documented in December in French St. Martin, likely brought in by an infected air traveler. Health officials are now working feverishly to educate the public about the illness, knock down the mosquito population, and deal with an onslaught of cases.

One of the leopard moray eels at the Blue Planet Aquarium Intrepid divers have taken to the water to hand-feed a shoal of moray eels at Blue Planet Aquarium, Cheshire Oaks. The aquarium is looking after a group of eight leopard moray eels, each measuring close to a metre in length. At the moment, the eels are in a special holding tank which adjoins the giant Caribbean Reef display and divers are training the tropical eels to feed from their hands. Blue Planet Aquarium’s dive officer Matt Martin said: “We need the morays to get used to the experience of...