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MPs discuss ordinance for Integrity Chamber on Mon

PHILIPSBURG--Members of Parliament (MP) will discuss the draft National Ordinance for the establishment of an Integrity Chamber in a public meeting of the Central Committee on Monday.

Minister of General Affairs Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs will be present at the session, which is set to start at 2:00pm.

Also on the agenda are the approval of the travel schedule for the Committee and Board of Directors’ meetings of the Latin American Parliament Parlatino for 2015 and approval of the composition of the delegation and provisions for General Assembly of Parlatino from May 15 to 16 Read more

Former MP arrested for threats, firearms found

PHILIPSBURG--Former Member of Parliament Romain Laville was arrested on Thursday morning, following allegations made against him in two unrelated cases.

The first case concerns gun threats made against Isidore York, better known as steel pan musician Mighty Dow, in an argument over local artistes not having been paid the same rate as foreign artistes during an event Read more

Torn-up sick notes show crash pilot should have been grounded

DUESSELDORF, Germany--German authorities said on Friday they had found torn-up sick notes showing that the pilot who crashed a plane into the French Alps was suffering from an illness that should have grounded him on the day of the tragedy.
  French prosecutors believe Andreas Lubitz, 27, locked himself alone in the cockpit of the Germanwings Airbus A320 on Tuesday and deliberately steered it into a mountain, killing all 150 people on board.
  "Documents with medical contents were confiscated that point towards an existing illness and corresponding treatment by doctors," said the prosecutors' office in Duesseldorf, where the co-pilot lived and where the doomed flight from Barcelona was heading.
  Torn-up doctor's notes found in his home would have excused Lubitz from work for medical reasons, for a period that included the day of the crash Read more

Social services taking Vrolijk case in hand

MARIGOT-- Vice-President Ramona Connor confirmed the Collectivité's social services has refocused attention on the case of the elderly man Placido Vrolijk to evaluate the situation of the family, following the alarm raised by concerned citizens and neighbours earlier this week.

Social workers of the Collectivité and also from the Dutch side have visited the house on Rue de Pic Paradis.

Vrolijk (83) was born in Aruba, has Dutch nationality and is currently in poor health, but receives a pension from the Dutch side Read more

Fire Department parade to celebrate Firemen’s Week

PHILIPSBURG--The St. Maarten Fire Department held its annual parade on Friday as part of Firemen's Week. For the first time all Fire Departments of the island – the St. Maarten Fire Department, the Princess Juliana International Airport SXM Fire Department and the French St. Martin Sapeurs Pompiers – were represented in the annual parade.

They were joined by the Volunteer Corps St. Maarten VKS and the parade was closed off by St. Maarten Red Cross vehicle.

Firemen's Week started with a service at the Philipsburg Methodist Church on Sunday, followed by a number of sports activities during the rest of the week.

On Monday there was an indoor soccer tournament at L.B Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- SMN News learnt that the Leader of the United Peoples Party Theodore Heyliger has given interim Minister of VROMI Marcel Gumbs the green light to sign off on the building permits for Taliesin Construction in order for the company to finalize the Fixed Based Operations (FBO) project at the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) Read more

>PHILIPSBURG: --- PHILIPSBURG: --- Former Member of Parliament Romain Laville was arrested on Thursday by the detectives of the Landsrecherche that are investigating the gun threats he made against former Member of Parliament Jules James and musician Isidore "Mighty Dow" York.

SMN News in its report early Friday morning stated that the former Member of Parliament was released Thursday night in order for him to go home and get his firearms  licence and report back to the Landsrecherche Friday morning Read more

Central Committee Meeting scheduled for Monday about Draft National Ordinance to Establish Integrity Chamber

>PHILIPSBURG:--- The Central Committee of Parliament will meet in public session on March 30. The Minister of General Affairs Hon. Marcel Gumbs will be present for the House session.

The public Central Committee meeting is set for Monday at 2.00pm in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelmina Straat #1 in Philipsburg.

The three point agenda is: the draft National Ordinance for the establishment of a Integrity Chamber; second agenda point is approval of the travel schedule for the year 2015 in connection with Committee and Board of Directors meetings of the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino); and the third agenda point is approval of the composition of the delegation and provisions for General Assembly of Parlatino from May 15-16.
Members of the public are invited to the House of Parliament to attend parliamentary deliberations.

The House of Parliament is located across from the Court House in Philipsburg.

The parliamentary session will be carried live on St Read more

St. Martin Tourism Office staff on strike

MARIGOT--St. Martin Tourism Office was closed on Thursday as staff staged a walk-out to protest what employees said was disrespect of a long standing Labour Collective Agreement on worker's rights established by the French Government (State).

Labour Collective Agreements were implemented by Government for various institutions, for example for all hotels, tourism offices, car rental companies, and others.

Thursday's strike was the second such protest action in about a month on the same subject.

"The first action was about our rights not being respected," explained Emile Louisy Read more

PM Gumbs signs sewage connections agreement

PHILIPSBURG--Interim Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI, Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs signed an agreement with Eric van Putten of Designer's Choice on Thursday, for sewage connections to the homes and properties directly along the main road in Middle Region.

The agreement is valued at NAf Read more

NA calls for a ‘unified approach’ from Govt.

PHILIPSBURG--The United People’s (UP)-led coalition has failed to show exactly what it is ready for, as its election campaign “We Ready” stated, said National Alliance (NA) Members of Parliament on Wednesday. They called on the governing coalition to present a “unified approach,” to table its long-overdue governing programme and appoint the two missing ministers.

NA leader MP William Marlin said at a press conference in Parliament House on Wednesday that UP members had proven only they were ready to take care of themselves and “to cut more deals and use the infrastructure” for their own personal enterprises.

In his estimation, UP is not ready “to bring much needed changes” to the country’s infrastructure and to tackle social ills Read more

EU, Cuba to speed up talks to normalise ties

HAVANA, Cuba--The European Union (EU) says it has agreed with Cuba to expedite the pace of normalising ties with the hope of reaching an accord by the end of the year.

Federica Mogherini, the highest ranking EU official ever to visit Cuba, said the fact that she travelled to Havana so soon after taking up the foreign policy chief job on November 1, 2014, showed how important the relationship was.

"We have decided to speed up the pace of our negotiations, with the hope of signing the framework of our dialogue" by the end of the year, Mogherini said at a press conference here.

The EU said it suspended its relations with Cuba in 2003 over a crackdown on journalists and activists.

But it began talks to restore them again in April 2014, aiming to persuade Havana to improve its human rights record, according to EU Business.

Europe is Cuba's top trade partner after Venezuela, with trade of US $3.6 billion in 2013 Read more

Co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing Germanwings airplane

PARIS/SEYNE-LES-ALPES--A young German co-pilot barricaded himself alone in the cockpit of Germanwings flight 9525 and apparently set it on course to crash into an Alpine mountain, killing all 150 people on board including himself, French prosecutors said on Thursday.

They offered no motive for why Andreas Lubitz, 27, would take the controls of the Airbus A320, lock the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately set it veering down from cruising altitude at 3,000 feet per minute. German police searched his home for evidence that might offer some explanation for what was behind Tuesday's crash in the French Alps.

The scenario stunned the aviation world Read more

Parliament Ad Hoc Integrity Committee meeting stalled

PHILIPSBURG--The second meeting of Parliament's Ad Hoc Committee for Integrity stalled on Thursday, when sufficient Members of Parliament (MPs) failed to show up for the session to have a quorum.

Ad Hoc Committee Chairman Member of Parliament (MP) Dr. Lloyd Richardson opened the meeting just to announce that three MPs were signed in and present in the General Assembly Hall of Parliament House Read more

Panama Canal sets sights on new $17 billion expansion project

COCOLI, Panama--As it enters the final stretch of a massive expansion, the Panama Canal Authority is setting its sights on an even more ambitious project worth up to $17 billion that would allow it to handle the world's biggest ships.
  Workers are now installing giant, 22-story lock gates to accommodate larger "Post-Panamax" ships through the Canal, one of the world's busiest maritime routes. The project involves building a third set of locks on the Canal. It is being headed by Italy's Salini Impregilo and Spain's Sacyr, and should open on April 1, 2016.
  But Jorge Quijano, who leads the Panama Canal Authority, is already looking beyond this project to a fourth set of locks which would serve a new generation of even bigger ships that can carry 20,000 containers Read more

Semeleer: Pegged currency system not broken, no need to fix with dollarization

PHILIPSBURG--“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This was the view of Aruba Central Bank President Jeanette Semeleer on discussions about the option of dollarization for St. Maarten. She was speaking at an Advisory Council symposium on the advantages and disadvantages of dollarization, held at University of St. Martin (USM) on Thursday evening.

Semeleer told the audience, which included public and private sector representatives: “Islands [Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten] have done well under the pegged-currency regime” and dollarization is “not one-size-fit-all” option for countries.

A country, such as St Read more

England's warrior king is finally reburied

LEICESTER, England--Richard III, the last English king to die in battle whose remains were found under a car park three years ago, was reburied on Thursday in a ceremony the current queen said was of "great international significance".

Depicted by Shakespeare as a sadistic, crafty hunchback, Richard was re-interred at Leicester Cathedral in central England some 530 years after he was slain at the Battle of Bosworth Field on Aug. 22, 1485. Following the battle, his naked body was thrown on the back of a horse, taken to nearby Leicester and buried in a humble grave.

At a sombre ceremony on Thursday, he was reburied with the honour his modern-day supporters say his conqueror in battle Henry Tudor, later Henry VII, denied him.

"The reinterment of King Richard III is an event of great national and international significance," Queen Elizabeth said in a message Read more

Govt approves ‘function book’ for police, prison

PHILIPSBURG--Over four years of lobbying by general police union NAPB seems to have reaped fruit on Thursday when Justice Minister Dennis Richardson made a surprise announcement that government has approved the function book for the police and prison.

Richardson made the announcement during the first of the two-day NAPB National Congress at Divi Little Bay Beach Resort Read more

Editorial - Essential step

Today's news that government finally has approved the so-called "function book" for the police and prison (see related story) is most welcome. It took 4½ years since achieving country status on 10-10-10, but soon the officers and guards should have clarity on their legal position and the organisational structure in which they must work.

The local board of police union NAPB that was installed in June last year had been worried the issue might suffer more delay due to the looming elections and talk of a change in the Police Force command Read more

EXCLUSIVE: Rainforest Adventure got steal of a deal in Long Least at Emilio Wilson Estate.

style="text-align: center;">Government stand to lose Naf1.6M per year --- Reliable Sources.

PHILIPSBURG: --- Rainforest Adventures allegedly got what one could describe as a steal of a deal from the interim Minister of VROMI Marcel Gumbs and Leader of the United Peoples Party Theodore Heyliger.
In an advice it is stated that Rainforest Adventures will get 375,000 square meters land in long lease at the Emilio Wilson Estate that the Government of St Read more

EXCLUSIVE: Maurice Lake Jumps back in order to take up VROMI Minister seat --- Where would this leave Minister Claret Conner? – Reliable Sources.

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament Maurice Lake seems to have gotten exactly what he wanted from the leader of the United Peoples Party in order for him to remain a member of the United Peoples Party and to keep the shaky coalition in-tact.
SMN News learnt that MP Maurice Lake wanted to remain in his position as the Minister of VROMI when the UPP/De Weever coalition was formed but his party leader Theodore Heyliger allegedly denied him his request stating that he did not do what he "Heyliger" wanted him to do while he was a Minister Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Interim Minister of VROMI, Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs on Thursday signed the agreement with Mr. Eric van Putten of Designer's Choice N.V. for the sewage connections to the homes and properties directly along the main road in Middle Region.

The agreement is valued at Naf Read more

Tzu Chi gives 60 foot massages, served 250 at Lion’s Fair

>PHILIPSBURG:--- A total of 250 persons were served by Tzu Chi Foundation and some 60 received free Thai reflexology foot massages as well as back massages from the foundation at the Lion Rudy Hoeve Health and Wellness Fair last Saturday.

The massages were popular amongst attendees with people lining up to wait for a massage even before the fair officially began. For some, it was the first time they received a massage.

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs was amongst those who enjoyed the massage Read more

Prime Minister Gumbs Signs For Middle Region Sewage Connections

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Interim Minister of VROMI, Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs on Thursday signed the agreement with Mr. Eric van Putten of Designer's Choice N.V. for the sewage connections to the homes and properties directly along the main road in Middle Region.

The agreement is valued at Naf Read more