Caribbean

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley — who led her island's drive to be a republic and has emerged as a Caribbean leader — has called an election for Jan. 19.

The latest on the omicron variant. Cruise ships are back to bringing tourists into Key West. And jazz and Trinidadian Christmas traditions.

The released members of Christian Aid Ministries are safe, the Ohio-based church organization said Sunday, after they were kidnapped by a Haitan gang in October.

Kidnappings for ransom have become tragically commonplace in Haiti as violent gangs take control of much of the country. On Saturday, one of those criminal groups abducted 17 foreigners who were in Haiti doing aid work for a Christian missionary organization.

Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the world, and rich countries have their fingerprints all over the nation's stunted development.

Haitian migrants are camped out on the beaches of this Colombian town, which is a stopover before the Darién Gap leading to Panama. They hope the United States will take them in.

The Department of Homeland Security insists there are no plans to transfer Haitian migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to Guantanamo. But the base has been used to house Haitian refugees before.

A month after a deadly earthquake devastated communities along Haiti’s southern peninsula, many of the urgent humanitarian needs continue to go unmet, with some people yet to receive any aid, the United Nations said Thursday.

School is scheduled to begin Monday, but with hundreds of schools damaged or destroyed Haitian officials are considering a postponement.

What should have been an ordinary Saturday at the emergency room instead became a day Dr. Antoine Titus cannot forget.

The tropics are likely to take a break most of this week after Tropical Storm Henri's landfall in New England Sunday afternoon. That break is expected to be short-lived.

The soccer stadium in the Haitian seaside town of Les Cayes is now a tent city of people whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the earthquake. Aid continues to arrive, but slowly.