Guyana


Spanish firm drilling for oil, gas
GEORGETOWN — The Spanish-based oil company Repsol YPF has started drilling its first well in the Guyana-Suriname Basin.

The 21,000-foot well targets an area that experts say could hold up to 15 billion barrels of oil and 42 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Repsol YPF is partnering with Canada-based CGX Energy Inc. for the $55 million drilling endeavor that officials say will take about six months.

CGX expects to drill a separate well starting this week near Guyana’s southeastern border with Suriname.


Puerto Rico


DEA agents claim discrimination
SAN JUAN — Ten Puerto Rican agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration have filed suit against their employer claiming they receive less pay and more dangerous assignments than agents hired in the U.S. and sent to the island.

Agents who are hired in the U.S. and agree to work in Puerto Rico can receive bonuses equal to 25 percent of their pay because it’s considered a high-intensity drug trafficking area, , their attorney Bamily Lopez Ortiz. She said some of the Puerto Rican agents may be owed more than $100,000 in lost pay and damages.


U.S. Virgin Islands

Police slaying case solved
The mysterious disappearance 11 years ago of a veteran U.S. Virgin Islands police officer that long vexed detectives has been solved, authorities said.

Four men and one woman are charged with first-degree murder in connection with the kidnapping, torture and killing of police Cpl. Wendell Williams, said St. Croix Police Chief Christopher Howell.

“They had counted on the notion that we had given up,” he said.

More than 60 police officers raided the homes of three of the suspects on St. Croix before dawn on Friday, while a fourth suspect turned himself in as authorities announced they had cracked the case, Howell said. The FBI and other federal agents arrested a fifth suspect in Georgia, who will be extradited, he said.

These news capsules were compiled from Associated Press reports.