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St Vincent Pm Warns Caricom Of Plot Against Venezuela

KINGSTON, St. Vincent – Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has cautioned the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to refrain from allowing a small group of powerful nations to dilute the “collective strength” of the 15 member regional grouping.

Gonsalves, in a three-page letter to CARICOM leaders, warned that a wedge is being driven through CARICOM over a plan for “regime change” in Venezuela and the group of powerful nations with the Organisation of America States (OAS) has an “agenda of naked self-interest”.

He said the group has “strategically invited select CARICOM countries to their meetings and ignored the others Read more

Dr Hubert Minnis Sworn In As Prime Minister

NASSAU, Bahamas – Dr Hubert Minnis was on Thursday sworn in as the fourth Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas since the country gained political independence from Britain in 1973.

Minnis, a medical doctor and former minister of health was sworn into office at Government House by Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling.

In his first speech as Prime Minister, he paid tribute to the electoral system saying “our democracy is the envy of many countries around the world”.

The Prime Minister noted that the general election was peaceful and free from violence and “now we are witnessing another orderly transfer of power”.

He also thanked his colleagues for reposing their confidence in him as Prime Minister Read more

Polls Closed, Counting Begins In Bahamas General Elections

NASSAU, Bahamas – The polls have closed and Bahamians are now awaiting the results of the 2017 General Elections.

Prime Minister Perry G. Christie is trying to lead his Progressive Liberal Party to a second consecutive five-year term in office.

Voters today choose between Christie’s governing PLP or reviving the main opposition,

the Free National Movement (FNM), which had been in power before Christie’s government took over in 2012.

A third party, the Democratic Read more

Caribbean Airlines Plagued By Management Problems

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – A lack of oversight and a questionable tendering process were some of the revelations made at Monday’s sitting of the Joint Select Committee on State Enterprises, as the questioned representatives of Caribbean Airlines Limited.

It was revealed that the airline spent US$700 million to purchase five ATR aircraft, while the purchase of four planes was cancelled at a cost of more than $6 million.

“So, what you’re telling this committee and telling the population of Trinidad and Tobago is that $700 million of taxpayers’ money was spent and there is zero documentation that you can find or exist within the company now to show that some proper process was followed,” Committee Chairman David Small said to the CAL reps including Colville Carrington, VP Maintenance and Engineering; and Dionne Ligoure, Head of Corporate Communications.

Carrington’s reponse was: “Chair we have documentation on the process that was used for acquiring the ATR aircraft.”

Added to the revelations of financial mismanagement was a $2 million report which was commissioned but was swept under the rug for two years.

The report, which was compiled to serve as a guide for the overall management and structural framework of the company was never implemented Read more

Brother Of Dudus Coke Shot

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Police have tightened security in sections of West Kingston following Sunday’s shooting of Leighton “Livity” Coke, the brother of jailed West Kingston drug lord Christopher “Dudus’ Coke.

The police said that Livity and a female companion were shot by a gunman early Sunday as they walked along a road in the central parish of St Read more

Caribbean Rolls Out Plans To Reduce Climate Change Hazards

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Climate change remains inextricably linked to the challenges of disaster risk reduction (DRR). And according to the head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Robert Glasser, the reduction of greenhouse gases is “the single most urgent global disaster risk treatment”.

Glasser was addressing the Fifth Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the Americas Read more

Opposition Critical Of Newly Formed Political Party

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – The leader of the main opposition United progressive Party (UPP), Harold Lovell, has criticised the newly formed Democratic National Alliance (DNA) saying it has no plans for the future socio-economic development of the country.

Speaking at a rally here on Thursday night, Lovell, said the DNA, headed by expelled UPP legislator Joanne Massiah, had been able to attract some disgruntled UPP executive members because they were not selected as possible candidates for the next general election.

“Hell has no fury like a woman scorned,” Lovell said, adding that at least one former UPP official had just a few weeks ago been praising the party as the best alternative to the ruling administration.

“Four months ago, he wanted to be our caretaker in St John’s Rural North Read more

New Generation Rallies To Climate Cause In Trinidad

PORT OF SPAIN – As two environmental activist groups in Trinidad and Tobago powered by young volunteers prepare to ramp up their climate change and sustainability activism, they are also contemplating their own sustainability and how they can become viable over the long-term.

IAMovement and New Fire Festival both began their environmental activism in earnest less than three years ago.

IAMovement captured the Trinidadian public’s imagination with its climate change march in 2014 and the iconic heart shape formed by 150 marchers who joined them, an emblem reprised by the 450 who joined IAMovement in 2015 in the country’s capital city of Port-of-Spain for the march that coincided with COP21 in Paris.

For the group’s first event in 2014, timed to coincide with the rallies being held worldwide during UN climate talks in New York, “people came, interested, but not sure what to expect Read more