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Studying in the Caribbean

Minister Plenipotentiary Josianne Artsen and Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Rita Bourne-Gumbs visited Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science Jet Bussemaker at her ministry in The Hague. They discussed vocational and higher education, accreditation matters, studying in the Caribbean, supervision and inspectorate education, secondary education examination, cultural heritage, monument care, youth employment, Fort Amsterdam and student support services Read more

A400M probe focuses on accidental data wipe

PARIS-- A tiny piece of data needed to run the West's largest turboprop engines is at the centre of a complex chain of events under scrutiny following an Airbus A400M military plane crash last month, several people familiar with the matter said.
  The troop and cargo carrier crashed outside Seville, Spain, on May 9 after three of its huge turboprop engines froze just minutes into a routine, pre-delivery test flight, killing four of its six crew members.
  At the heart of the investigation are crucial computer files that tell Europe's new military carrier, developed at a cost of 20 billion euros ($22.50-billion), how to control its four engines, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
  Computers operating each engine cannot work if this data, which is unique to each of the turboprops, is missing.
  Investigations are at an early stage but the key scenario being examined is that the data -- known as "torque calibration parameters" -- was accidentally wiped on three engines as the engine software was being installed at Airbus facilities.
  An Airbus spokeswoman said the investigation was continuing and it was too early draw conclusions.
  "Safety is our first priority and we will do all that is necessary to get the full picture of what could have led to this tragic accident and take the necessary action," she said, declining comment on any of the points in this article.
  European NATO buyers have now been instructed not to use the Airbus computer system that was used to conduct the software installation on the A400M, people familiar with the order said.
  Investigators are poring over maintenance records to see how safety procedures failed to notice the erased parameters.
  But the combination of lost data and incomplete checks may also have exposed a vulnerability in the amount of information provided to the pilots as they prepared for the maiden flight of the plane, which had been sold to Turkey.
  Under the A400M's design, the first warning pilots would receive of the engine data problem would be when the plane was 400 feet (120 metres) in the air, according to a safety document seen by Reuters Read more

France beat England 1-0 in World Cup opener

CANADA- - Speedy forward Eugenie Le Sommer struck with a superb long-range goal in the first half to set up a 1-0 victory for France over England in their Group F Women's World Cup opener in Moncton on Tuesday.
  Le Sommer, the French League's top player, took advantage of a defensive mix-up by Katie Chapman and Laura Bassett and fired in a thunderous shot from the edge of the Read more

UPP, NA AND DP have to return extra monies to donors.

>PHILIPSBURG:--- The United Peoples Party (UPP), the National Alliance (NA) and the Democratic Party (DP) were informed by the Electoral Council last week that they have to return the excess monies they received from at least two donors for the 2014 Parliamentary Elections Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Trouble seems to be stirring up in the United People’s Party camp now that it is highly rumored that MP Tamara Leonard is working on forming her own political party which will be called the “Bush Tea Party.”
SMN News learnt that MP Leonard was called in by the UPP board to discuss any grievances the UPP Members of Parliament are having with the party and its leadership Read more

Parliament Authorizes Increases In Passport Fees

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The House of Parliament of St. Maarten met in a public plenary session on Monday, June 8th.

The reason for the meeting was discussing among other matters, the draft National Ordinance to change the Stamps Ordinance for an increase in Stamp fees regarding Passports.

Minister with the responsibility for General Affairs is the Honorable Read more

Former model wrestles personal demons to the mat in yoga book

NEW YORK--A former model uses tales of sex, drugs and rock and roll in a book hitting stores on Monday to introduce the healing power of yoga sequences and demonstrate how the ancient practice of breath and meditation can fortify the mind as well as the body.
  In "Yoga for Life: A Journey to Peace and Freedom," Colleen Saidman Yee, a former fashion model turned yoga teacher, recounts how yoga helped her battle a heroin habit, epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after she was injured in a car accident when she was 15 years old Read more

Editorial - Lesser of two evils

Members of the Permanent Committee for Kingdom Affairs and Inter-Parliamentary Relations are scheduled to meet this morning. Topics include a debriefing on the recent Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation IPKO in The Hague. Although not on the agenda, the protocol regarding an Integrity Chamber for St. Maarten signed around the same time between Justice Minister Dennis Richardson and Dutch Kingdom Relations Minister Ronald Plasterk is likely to come up. After all, several legislators have voiced their disapproval over this perceived “bypassing of Parliament” in no uncertain terms.

In one case it actually concerns governing partner USP, which was given precisely the Justice portfolio when joining the UP-led coalition in January Read more

Passport fee increase passed retroactively

PHILIPSBURG--Fees for Dutch passports have been increased retroactively by Parliament. The fees are already charged to Dutch citizens applying for new passports or passport renewals since March 10, 2014. Monday’s approval of the amendments to the Stamp Ordinance was only a formality.

The amendments were unanimously passed in a Plenary Session of Parliament with very limited debate between Members of Parliament (MPs) and Prime Minister/General Affairs Minister Marcel Gumbs Read more

Bonaire wants time to hold referendum

THE HAGUE--Members of Bonaire’s Island Council on Monday officially presented a petition calling for a postponement of the amending of the Dutch Constitution to secure the island’s public entity status until after the referendum late 2015.

Island Council Members Robby Beukenboom of the Bonaire Democratic Party and James Kroon of the UPB Party handed over the petition to Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk at a reception on Monday, marking the start of the so-called Caribbean Netherlands Week in The Hague.

The petition, which was recently approved by a two-third majority of the Island Council, has also been sent to the First and Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament Read more

Préfète Anne Laubies begins first day of her new posting

MARIGOT--New Préfète Déléguée Anne Laubies, who succeeds Philippe Chopin, began her first day of work on Monday by laying a wreath in the garden of Hotel de la Collectivité, the traditional signalling of the changeover of Préfets, and was introduced to the Territorial Council and separately to the press.

Prior to arriving in St. Martin she had been Secretary-General of the Préfecture of Pas-de-Calais since 2013.

She told reporters she was happy to be nominated the Préfete for St Read more

Cuba Inc. open to foreign capitalists, but within limits

HAVANA--Communist Cuba's newfound interest in foreign capital has its limits, as Philippe Pouletty found out.
  A French doctor, venture capitalist and founder of biotech company Abivax, Pouletty is working with Cuba's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology to develop a therapeutic vaccine to treat chronic Hepatitis B that could be on the Asian market in two years and in Europe after that Read more

The dump’s smoke is killing us and no MP cares

Dear Editor,

The dump (aka Mount Garbage) caught fire on May 2nd, 2015, and since then it has been emitting toxic smoke every day. That is well over 1 month (!) ago. Like many persons living and working in the greater Philipsburg area, I have also been suffering from frequent headaches and sore throat since the big fire. Depending on the wind direction, it can affect the entire Philipsburg area. On bad days, the smoke can even be smelled as far away as Caribbean Cinemas in Cole Bay/Simpson Bay.

It's therefore mind-boggling (but very telling) that up to now, no MP has raised the issue in Parliament and earmarked it as priority number one, as the smoke is poisoning a large part of the St Read more

>GREAT BAY(DCOMM):--- Ten civil servants from the Government of Sint Maarten has completed five days of training in a Basic User and Database Administration workshop. The workshop started June 1st and concluded on June 5th.

Organized by the National Development Plan (NDP) team from the Department of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BAK), the implementing agency for NDP project, the 10 civil servants now have the knowledge to work with the country databases SintMaartenInfo and CensusInfo Sint Maarten.

A follow-up training will be the next step – training the trainers – that will enable the 10 civil servants to assists others in learning how to utilize the database system.

Representatives from the Department of Statistics will also in the near future travel to the United States (New York) for a more advanced training at a Learning Lab.

Representatives of the various ministries now know how to create and manage databases within their ministry and how to upload their processed data into SintMaartenInfo for all stakeholders inside and outside of government to use - search for data, produce objects like tables, graphs and maps for presentations and reporting purposes to regional and international entities.

The Secretary Generals of the seven ministries were given a presentation on Wednesday morning and they were pleasantly surprised by what SintMaarteninfo looked like and the amount of data that was already in the database.

The information included Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) data as well as population and housing census data Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---  United People’s (UP) party Member of Parliament (MP) Hon. Maurice Lake, visited grade 5 students at the Sister Magda Primary School last week Friday as a guest speaker.

Sister Magda Primary School Grade 5 students were given an educational tour of the Parliament Building Read more

Arts and crafts find home on Front Street

PHILIPSBURG--Our Creations St. Maarten Arts and Crafts Foundation has found itself a home on Front Street 121A. At this address, no fewer than sixteen artists and crafters are displaying and selling their pieces of art and creative products to residents and tourists. Our Creations Arts and Crafts Home, which is a welcome addition to Front Street's selection of stores, was officially opened by Minister of Economic Affairs, Tourism, Traffic and Communication Claret Connor late Saturday afternoon.

It is the aim of Our Creations to promote and assist local entrepreneurs in St Read more

Request for Parliament meeting on protocol submitted by Govt

PHILIPSBURG--The Marcel Gumbs Cabinet has submitted its request to Parliament for a meeting to discuss the protocol on the establishment of the integrity chamber for the country signed by Justice Minister Dennis Richardson with Dutch Home Affairs Minister Ronald Plasterk two weeks ago in The Hague. No date has yet been set by Parliament for the meeting.

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs and Richardson met with the press in A.C Read more

Kurdish party thwarts Erdogan's ambitions with election advance

ANKARA--Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's hopes of assuming greater powers suffered a major setback on Sunday when the ruling AK Party he founded failed to win an outright majority in a parliamentary election for the first time.

Erdogan, Turkey's most popular modern leader but also its most divisive, had hoped a crushing victory for the AKP would allow it to change the constitution and create a more powerful U.S.-style presidency. To do that, it would have needed to win two-thirds of the seats in parliament.

Instead, it has been left unable to govern alone for the first time since it came to power almost 13 years ago Read more

Response to Mr. Ferrier on ‘What a democracy we live in’

Dear Editor,

Upon reading the newspaper this past Friday, June 5, I came across an interesting article submitted by Mr. Michael J. Ferrier. The article was titled "What a democracy we live in"

What is a Democracy?

Democracy is defined as the following:

a) A form of government in which the people choose leaders by voting.

b) An organisation or situation in which everyone is treated equally and has equal rights.

Now that we all understand the meaning of the word, let's move on to the subject matter at hand:

*MP Frans G Read more

Editorial - Think big, start small

That emotions reportedly ran high during Thursday night’s meeting with local bus and taxi drivers may have had something to do with the recent special controls on public transportation operators (see Saturday paper). The Control Unit checked 14 buses and had two towed, while fines were issued for driving without a permit and even for being improperly dressed, among other things.

Legitimate operators actually should be happy with these actions. After all, there have been many complaints about illegal competition from so-called “gypsy drivers.”

Better regulating the industry and enforcing the rules also was a topic during the consultation with stakeholders by Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Minister Claret Connor and his team Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---- Interpol St. Maarten as part of the St Maarten Police Force, in cooperation with the St. Maarten office of the Attorney General Mr. Taco Stein, made 2 arrests on Friday June 5th 2015 around 03.50 p.m. in the area of Cole Bay.
On request of the Department of Justice in Miami USA, two British citizens were arrested in a case of involuntary manslaughter and false official statements, committed in the period of 2011/2012.
The arrested suspects are a 50 year old man with initials C.J and a 47 year old woman with the initials A.G Read more

style="text-align: center;"> Academy Sweeps Young King Awards!

Philipsburg, Sint Maarten:--- The third SXM Weekend of POWER was exactly that, powerful! The team of GIFTED and the artistes on the Caribbean Gospel Music Tour held entertaining motivational talks in seventeen schools in two days. These were followed by two free concerts in the Belvedere community –Daughters of Zion, and the Sons of Thunder concerts. The finale, ‘A Betta Tomorrow SXM’ Concert and Young King Awards was held at Port de Plaisance on Sunday Read more

style="text-align: center;">PJIAH has to send letter of Apology to COM in order for them to continue processing the file.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs who is the acting Minister of VROMI said that he was accused of holding up the building permits the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) submitted for the Food Based Operations and fire station building Read more

EXCLUSIVE:-- MP's wants Government to extend garbage contracts and not put them on bidding – Efforts being made by MPs to remove Buncamper.

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Several Members of Parliament that have family members that have garbage collection contracts with government met sometime last week to discuss how they will by-pass the bidding process this year for the collection of garbage, a source close to the MPs told SMN News.
SMN News learnt some Members of Parliament wants to remove Claudius Buncamper from his post because he is the one that has to put the collection of garbage on bid, which Buncamper intends to do because that is what the law dictates.
However, certain MPs that are related to the persons who hold garbage collection contracts do not want to go through the bidding process but simply extend the contracts that were issued in May 2011, those contracts will expire in May 2016 Read more