TEGUCIGALPA-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez on Saturday denied reports from a U.S. court filing linking him to drug trafficking, accusing criminals of seeking revenge against him.

“The drug traffickers are looking for revenge against the only president who’s done what he’s needed to do,” he told a news conference, detailing his efforts to curb illegal drug sales in the small Central American country where drug gangs have prominent strongholds. Hernandez specifically opposed a report from U.S.-based Spanish language broadcaster Univision in which he said he was described as implicated in a campaign finance conspiracy.

Univision had detailed a 44-page document related to the upcoming drug trafficking trial in New York of Hernandez’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, that contained testimony from someone who appeared to be a former official. “These are false accusations made by a drug trafficker,” Hernandez said, while acknowledging that such a document had been put before a U.S. judge.(Reuters)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN- The United States Government and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) are working together to improve opportunities for vulnerable youth in Castries, Saint Lucia. The two entities today formalised their commitment to this collaboration, signing a Letter of Agreement that reaffirms their joint partnership with the Government of Saint Lucia on comprehensive violence prevention projects being funded by both institutions. During a brief ceremony held at CDB’s Barbados-based headquarters, Acting Mission Director, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Eastern and Southern Caribbean, Julia Henn, signed the agreement on behalf of the United States Government, while CDB Vice-President (Operations), Monica La Bennett, did so on behalf of CDB.

The signing formalises ongoing collaboration on the implementation of complementary youth initiatives – USAID’s regional Youth Empowerment Services (YES) Project and CDB’s Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) – in Saint Lucia. The agreement follows the establishment of a National Advisory Board to ensure effective in-country coordination, and facilitates sharing of information and best practices, maximisation of opportunities for communication to joint stakeholders and reduction in duplication of efforts to maximise impact.

Addressing the signing ceremony, CDB Vice-President (Operations), Monica La Bennett said, “The [Youth Empowerment] Project is intended to enhance the capacity of the Government of Saint Lucia and its implementing and participating agencies to deliver results-based youth empowerment responses to build the resilience and improve the life chances of vulnerable children, youth and their families. In this regard, CDB is pleased to partner with USAID to support the Government of Saint Lucia in addressing the complex citizen security challenges facing the country. CDB welcomes this partnership as we recognise that Saint Lucia’s development can only be enhanced through collaboration with partners such as USAID.”…[+]

NEW DELHI– The apparent suicide of India’s coffee baron V.G. Siddhartha, under investigation by tax authorities, has inflamed anger towards the government among business leaders who feel it is going too far in its crackdown on fraud and tax evasion.

Drastic measures taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration include stringent action to enforce tax compliance, probes into bank lending practices and threatening auditors with five-year bans for alleged lapses in their work. In particular the push by tax collectors has been labelled ‘tax terrorism’ by T.V. Mohandas Pai, a former director of Indian IT giant Infosys Ltd, even before the Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd founder disappeared and his body was later found floating in a river in southern India on Wednesday.

In a letter circulating on social media since Tuesday and purportedly written by Siddhartha to the firm’s board and employees, he said he “gave up”, blaming tax authorities for “harassment” and decisions that caused a liquidity crunch as well as an unnamed private equity partner for pressuring him into a share buyback.(Reuters)…[+]

Un­der Gary Grif­fith’s tenure as Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er so far, an es­ti­mat­ed 485 peo­ple have been mur­dered. In this coun­try’s his­to­ry, the mur­der toll in a cal­en­dar year has on­ly ever crossed the 475 mark on four oc­ca­sions. And there are still more than two weeks left un­til Grif­fith cel­e­brates his first an­niver­sary as Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er.

With the cur­rent rate of blood­let­ting tak­ing place in the coun­try, it is not im­prob­a­ble that 500 mur­ders can be record­ed un­der Grif­fith’s first year in of­fice. Grif­fith took the oath of of­fice as this coun­try’s sub­stan­tive Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er on Au­gust 17 last year when the mur­der toll was around 345. Last year, even­tu­al­ly end­ed with 517 mur­ders, ac­cord­ing to sta­tis­tics from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vices’ Crime and Prob­lem Analy­sis (CA­PA) branch. It is this coun­try’s sec­ond-high­est mur­der toll ever. (Trinidad Guardian)…[+]