Kingston - An armed man has taken some 150 people aboard a plane on the Caribbean island of Jamaica hostage, media reports said Monday.

The hostage-taking is believed to be taking place on an aircraft that had been scheduled to fly from the Sangster International airport in Montego Bay, to Halifax in Canada, the news channel CNN reported.

According to the online edition of local newspaper The Gleaner, at 11pm on Sunday (0400 GMT Monday) the gunman boarded the plane using false identification documents, proceeded to rob passengers on the aircraft, and is currently holding them hostage.

Costa do Sauipe, Brazil - Raul Castro returned to the Latin American fold this week with a showering of hugs, back-slaps and vigorous handshakes. He could barely catch his breath.

At Tuesday and Wednesday's gathering of leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean at the northeastern Brazilian resort of Costa do Sauipe, the Cuban leader was greeted like no other at the event - "comrade," "friend," "brother."

With emotions echoing the Biblical return of the prodigal son, Cuba was accepted as an official member of the so-called Rio Group, which was holding the summit with three other regional blocs - Mercosur, Unasur and the Conference of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Costa do Sauipe, Brazil  - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday that the Latin American and Caribbean region "will not attend passively" the debates on the global crisis, but will instead seek to make its voice heard in the definition of a new international financial structure.

"We will play an important role in the construction of a new political and economic architecture that is international, multipolar and multilateral," he said.

Costa do Sauipe, Brazil  - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that the multiple Latin American and Caribbean summit taking place in Brazil was a message for US president-elect Barack Obama, that the region wants to talk "with its own voice."

"Now that a new president is coming in the United States, it is very opportune that we should meet, without protectorates, without hegemonies. That is enough of empire," Chavez said in the northeastern Brazilian resort of Costa do Sauipe.

Costa do Sauipe, Brazil  - Mexican President Felipe Calderon advocated Tuesday in Brazil the creation of a safer environment for investment in Latin America, as a way to fight the current global financial crisis.

Calderon was speaking at a large gathering of Latin American and Caribbean nations, which is set to include the summits of four blocs Tuesday and Wednesday in the northeastern Brazilian resort of Costa do Sauipe.

Havana/Miami - Hurricane Paloma hurled 195-kilometre-winds at the central Cuban province of Camaguey late Saturday, the third powerful hurricane this season to lash the Caribbean island.

The Cuban weather service said the storm had weakened slightly from the 230 kilometre-an-hour winds that had threatened. Cuban officials expect Paloma to leave Cuba Sunday morning for the Bahamas.

The National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida, said the storm had dropped from Category 4 - with winds of 230 kilometres an hour - to Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.