Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has de­clared T&T’s full sup­port for the Unit­ed States as Amer­i­can war­ships en­ter the Caribbean to tar­get Latin Amer­i­can drug car­tels.

The end of an ex­emp­tion on tar­iff du­ties for low-val­ue pack­ages com­ing in­to the Unit­ed States is caus­ing mul­ti­ple in­ter­na­tion­al postal ser­vices to pause ship­ping as they await more clar­i­ty on the rule.

Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley says re­gion­al lead­ers must en­sure the Caribbean re­mains a zone of peace, and has an­nounced plans to es­tab­lish a Caribbean In­sti­tute for Democ­ra­cy and Po­lit­i­cal Gov­er­nance at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, Cave Hill, say­ing it is crit­i­cal to safe­guard the re­gion’s val­ues.

The body of a man, iden­ti­fied by po­lice as a known drug user, was dis­cov­ered with mul­ti­ple stab wounds late on Fri­day at the aban­doned Clifton Hill Beach Fa­cil­i­ty in Point Fortin.

Deputy Di­rec­tor of Re­search at the In­sti­tute of Ma­rine Af­fairs (IMA), Dr Ra­han­na Ju­man, has con­firmed that sam­ples from the pol­lut­ed South Oropouche Riv­er have been col­lect­ed for test­ing.

Two Amer­i­can cit­i­zens want­ed on drug traf­fick­ing charges in the Unit­ed States were de­port­ed yes­ter­day fol­low­ing a joint op­er­a­tion in the South­ern Di­vi­sion.

A po­lice of­fi­cer was tak­en in­to cus­tody on Fri­day un­der the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions.

Po­lice have ar­rest­ed a sus­pect in con­nec­tion with a fa­tal stab­bing in San Fer­nan­do ear­ly on Sat­ur­day morn­ing.

Homi­cide de­tec­tives say they are still piec­ing to­geth­er the mo­tive be­hind the shoot­ing death of Mt Hope busi­ness­woman, Make­da Swift.

The spir­it of pa­tri­o­tism re­mains alive and well at Silk Cot­ton Dri­ve, Home­land Gar­dens, Cunu­pia, de­spite the can­cel­la­tion of this year’s In­de­pen­dence Day Pa­rade.

For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers says this coun­try will be stay­ing out of the cur­rent im­passe be­tween the Unit­ed States and Venezuela, and he is urg­ing the pop­u­la­tion to put aside any fear amid the on­go­ing ten­sions.

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has warned that the im­pend­ing ar­rival of US mil­i­tary as­sets in the Caribbean will test the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to de­fend­ing the re­gion as a zone of peace.