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Minister Connor Stresses Importance Of Tourism To Mac 3Rd Graders

St. Maarten – Minister of TEATT Claret Connor visited the Methodist Agogic Center (MAC), St. John’s Campus and spoke to the 3rd grade students of campus 1 & 2 about tourism and how it affects their lives.

The visit is in keeping with the Ministry’s vision to create greater awareness and understanding about the industry and the importance to the economy and by extension, the citizens of this country Read more

Na Mp Pantophlet Seeks Clarity On Internal Control Department

St. Maarten – Member of Parliament George Pantophlet disclosed yesterday that he will be submitting some questions to Minister of Finance Martin Hassink regarding the setting up of an internal control department. Pantophlet also plans to request a copy of an agreement signed between the SOAB and government. “This agreement apparently has in it that the SOAB would set up the internal control department within 2 years, write the internal control process and also train the employees Read more

Boy (16) assisted on road to rehabilitation

PHILIPSBURG--A sixteen-year-old boy showed some responsibility as he made a full admission to the five burglaries he stood trial for. The burglaries had been committed in the presence of, depending on which burglary, one or two older boys, who were already sentenced a few months ago and who had emphasised during their trial that it was the juvenile who was to blame and who had taken the lead.

That picture did not match the remorseful young man who came to court respectably dressed and who had already made clear steps to improve his behaviour, judging by a report of the Court of Guardianship.

The boy had committed burglaries in Diamond Estate Drive in July 2013, Venus Drive in August 2013, Sarsapilla Road in April 2014, Puma Road and Hamster Drive in June 2014 Read more

Halley asks PM for extension, still awaits any govt response

~ Kadaster: illegally filled at own risk ~

SIMPSON BAY--Simpson Bay business owner Marlon Halley reportedly has not heard back from any Government representatives concerning his appeal to stay on or be compensated for land that he filled and to investigate matters pertaining to the adjoining family land's transfer of rights. A second letter on the matter was submitted to Prime Minister/Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Minister Marcel Gumbs on March 16.

This had been preceded by other correspondence to Minister Gumbs and a petition to Parliament submitted on his behalf that calls for an investigation into what the community has dubbed "fishy business" surrounding the transfer of rights to the land (see March 4 article "Simpson Bay: Parliament must investigate land deal").

Questions posed to Parliament by The Daily Herald concerning its reaction to the petition, which was accompanied by two pages of signatures and listed some 14 attachments of supporting documents, have gone unanswered.

Halley had been instructed by VROMI to remove his belongings from the property or face "legal measures" by Wednesday, March 18 Read more

Rakitic on target as Barcelona sink City

BARCELONA-- A Lionel Messi-inspired Barcelona completely outclassed Manchester City as an Ivan Rakitic strike secured a 1-0 win on Wednesday that sent the Spanish giants into the Champions League quarter-finals 3-1 on aggregate.

Messi has been in blistering form for the Catalan side and he delighted the home fans in a packed Nou Camp as he relentlessly teased the City players with Read more

Public Transport Permits Under The Microscope

MP Wescot-Williams sends questions to Minister Connor

St. Maarten – The closed-door committee meeting of last Tuesday about bus and taxi permits ended prematurely, because Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication Minister Claret Connor asked committee members to submit their questions about this issue in writing.

Connor said that he has decided to keep the moratorium for public transportation permits in place Read more

Ava Airways Representatives Meet With St. Maarten Civil Aviation

GREATBAY –  “St. Maarten needs airlift. The island cannot be dependent upon North American traffic anymore…” This is according to Olivier Arrindell, Chairman of AVA Airways.

Recently  Arrindell and The President of AVA Airways Giovanni Atalita presented AVA Airways plans to the Ministry of Transportation, Civil Aviation and Economic Development, “One of our main objectives is to learn from the past and to propose a bold new direction for commercial aviation in St. Maarten Read more

England's Richard III set to be reburied 530 years after death

LONDON--King Richard III, the medieval English monarch whose remains were found under a car park three years ago, will be reburied next week nearly 530 years after he was slain in battle and dumped in an humble grave.

The remains of Richard - the last English king to die in battle when he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in central England in 1485 - were found in 2012. His body will be re-interred at Leicester Cathedral next week in an oak coffin designed by a descendant whose DNA helped identify the remains Read more

Top cyclists gathering for 3rd Nagico to Nagico Race

MARIGOT—The region's top cycling teams are set to contest this coming weekend's third edition of the Nagico to Nagico Cycling Race that starts Friday with a 2.5K time trial.

An overview of the race was provided Monday evening at a press conference convened by Velo Club de Grand Case (VCG) and attended by cycling fan Préfet Philippe Chopin, Vice-President Wendel Cocks, Territorial Councillor in charge of sports, Alain Gros-Desormeaux, as well as representatives from main sponsor Nagico.

Registration was not yet complete for the race but it was estimated some 60 riders would be competing from Guadeloupe, Martinique, Anguilla, French Guiana and St Read more

Skerrit: Grenada revolution holds lessons for Caribbean development

ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada--Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says the 1979 Grenada revolution that brought Maurice Bishop to power marked the most decisive fracture in the Anglophone Caribbean with the political and constitutional status quo.

"The greatest tragedy of that historical episode is that we have failed to learn the lessons of that experience and even more disturbingly, succeeding generations seem to have no knowledge of what is without question the most significant historical episode in the Caribbean in the 20th Century," Skerrit said as he delivered the inaugural March 13th "Lecturer" Monday night organised by the Grenada Revolution Memorial Foundation Inc Read more

Jump-up road closure and traffic diversions

PHILIPSBURG--In connection with the upcoming "Fete to Fitness Jump-up" which is scheduled for March 21, the Police Department is taking the following traffic measures on the date mentioned, a press release stated.

The jump-up will start at 8:00pm on Sucker Garden Road, in the vicinity of Monchi's Bar and will be taking the following route: Sucker Garden Road - Freedom Fighter's roundabout – Salt Picker's roundabout – Walter Nisbeth Road – Percy Labega Street – Long Wall Road – Front Street - Emma Plein – Welvaart Brug – W Read more

Proposal for islands’ Electoral Colleges ready before summer

THE HAGUE--A proposal to establish Electoral Colleges for Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba will be ready before the summer of 2015, Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk told the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Tuesday.

A vast majority in the Second Chamber is in favour of establishing the Electoral College(s) for the Caribbean Netherlands, which became clear during a debate of the Second Chamber's Permanent Committee for Home Affairs with Minister Plasterk Read more

Stepcc 2015 Heads to Sint Maartin, Hosted By Anguilla, Amidst Much Global Change

style="text-align: center;">Largest Offshore Financial Services Conference Urges Delegates To Consider "Global Dynamics, Regional Solutions"

TORONTO, ONT:--- Touted by organizers as the largest financial services conference in the region, STEP CC 2015 promises to tackle the tough issues facing trust professionals head on.
Under the theme "GLOBAL DYNAMICS, REGIONAL SOLUTIONS" this years' conference has a stellar line of speakers drawn from the financial services sector and trust sector from around the world Read more

Governor sent back two Advices --- more mistakes found in advices.

>PHILIPSBURG:--- At least two Chief Inspectors of Police that have been holding their positions for some years now have to wait much longer before their scales and salaries can be adjusted.
SMN News learnt that the Governor of St. Maarten returned the advices sent to him to adjust the scaling and salaries of Chief Inspector Ricardo Henson who have been heading the department of communications at KPSM for some six years now. While Henson is a department head his scale should now be at 12 which will give him a salary increase and an increase in his pension benefits Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- As of March 1st 2015 several services within the Judicial Department have strongly intensified their cooperation in the field of border controls and human trafficking/human smuggling.
Under leadership of the Police Force the three above named services will cooperate on border controls in the 'Back office' team at the airport. The new 'Human trafficking/Human Smuggling' team is housed in the police substation in Cole Bay/Cay Bay. Because of this cooperation investigating so called 'migration crime' will get a huge impulse Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- The Council of State of the Netherlands (Raad van Staten) of the Netherlands has rejected St. Maarten's candidate former chairlady of Parliament Gracita Arrindell. The current government had proposed Arrindell to take up the vacant seat in the Raad van Staten when the UP/ De Weever coalition was formed.
SMN News has been reliably informed that the decisions for rejecting Arrindell as a candidate is that she is under qualified and does not have the experience that is required to be on the council Read more

EXCLUSIVE: MP Leona Marlin seeking to appoint Aunt’s Husband as Minister of TEATT.

style="text-align: center;">Henry Lynch is expected to become Chief of Cabinet – Government in Shambles – Reliable Sources.

PHILIPSBURG: --- Member of Parliament Leona Marlin- Romeo is expected to appoint the husband of her aunt Ernest Sams, a pensioner from GEBE as Minister of TEATT. SMN News has been reliably informed that MP Marlin- Romeo contacted two other persons who declined the offer. Those persons are the former wife of MP Maurice Lake Marla Shemont who is currently working at the Tourist Office citing that her family does not agree for her to take up the position Read more

Road Closure And Traffic Diversions

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - In connection with upcoming "Fete to Fitness Jump-up" which is scheduled for March 21st 2015 the Police Department is taking the following traffic measures on the date mentioned.

The jump-up will start at 08.00 p.m. on the Sucker garden road in the vicinity of Monchi's Bar and will be taking the following route: Sucker garden road - Freedom Fighter round-about – Salt Picker's round-about – W.J.A Read more

Worse than the previous

Dear Editor,

Despite the efforts of this new parliament of trying to convince the public that it has raised the bar to a very high standard, this proclamation continues to be such an uneasy truth. On the contrary, it is by far, worse than the previous. What has become common practice for some parliamentarians is to have speech competitions and to see who can outfox and demean the other. But the public is not interested in such devious minds and childish behaviours.

Elevated representation of the people coincides with the ability to think independently and then proceed expeditiously and consciously to the demands of society and the success of this island Read more

Sarah: MPs still to work out coping with reduced budget

PHILIPSBURG--Parliament still has to readjust its finances to cope with an almost NAf. 2 million budget cut that came with its adoption of the 2015 Country Budget in January.

Parliament originally submitted a budget for its operational expenses totalling some NAf. 12.8 million, said Democratic Party (DP) leader Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams at a party press conference Monday in Parliament Building Read more

The Chuchubi Foundation in collaboration with the University of St. Martin presents the launching of a Book and Film on “Calypso in Aruba”.

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Mr. Gregory Richardson will be presenting his latest book titled "Calypso and Resistance in Aruba". Mr. Richardson explore the various perspectives in the field of Calypso in the Dutch Caribbean specifically Aruba.
Calypso is often associated with various themes such as "double entendre/double meaning; multi-lingualism; melee/gossip; humor; social/political commentary and self reflection Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---  Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Leona Marlin-Romeo says statistics continue to show that Sint Maarten is still considered and favoured as the duty free shopping hub of the Caribbean.

"The time has come for the establishment of a Consumer Protection Agency. Consumer protection laws are in existence; however, there are no bodies to execute the said laws.

"Millions are spent in purchases on this island and yet both local consumers and transitional consumers purchasing goods are still not privy to the support of a consumer protection agency.

"In addition, many locals are subjected to questionable acts of financial institutions but are left hopeless because of the lack of support from such an agency Read more

DP MP Concerned about Parliament’s 2015 Budget. 0.58% set aside for Legal Advice.

style="text-align: center;">Budget cut by almost Naf.2M, MPs Travelling continues.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament Sara Wescot Williams shared much concern on the parliament's budget for the year 2015 on Monday at a press conference. Wescot Williams and the party's advisor Emil Lee said that they are of the opinion that the Parliament of St Read more

Mostly New Comers Take Annual Culture Time (Act) Awards 2014

GREAT BAY, St. Martin – The awards season is not over yet, and St. Martin's longest, uninterrupted cultural awards – the Annual Culture Time (ACT) Awards – announced its winners for 2014 Sunday, March 15, 2015 during the radio magazine program, Culture Time.

According to hosts, Fabian Badejo and Rhoda Arrindell, "this year's winners are practically all new faces."

The dance award went to a young St Read more