KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - THREE OF the country's leading private-sector groups have given Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell and the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) 30 days to lay out a clear road map to secure massive reductions in electricity rates. The Government was banking on the introduction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to reduce the cost of electricity by up to 40 per cent. However, the fate of the LNG project hangs in the balance following the withdrawal of the Government from the process.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Jamaica says it will continue to promote technical and economic co-operation with developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as with traditional partners Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and the European Union.

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, Observer - With a month to go before the second meeting of the OECS Assembly in Antigua, concerns are being raised about its format, in light of previous controversy. During the inaugural meeting here in August, the authorities removed the mace, Queen’s image, national flags and laws of Antigua & Barbuda from the building. The event was attended by legislators from the nine-member sub-regional grouping.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - Long admired for world-class academics moulding young minds, the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, could be depleted of such individuals in the next few years. Professor Hubert Devonish has estimated that some 300 academics are due to retire in the next five years, and replacements are hard to find because of comparatively low salaries. Devonish noted that UWI brought salaries down to regional levels decades ago, but the continuing slide of the Jamaican dollar has had a negative impact.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Stabroek News - Jamaica has been given the green light to train aviation professionals for the global markets, which will need 350,000 pilots and 480,000 mechanics by 2026. The country officially received its ‘Trainair Plus’ full membership from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) during a joint Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCCA) regional symposium at the Hilton Rose Hall, Montego Bay, on Monday. The ICAO is a United Nations specialised agency and the only global aviation standards setting body in the world.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - Whichever of the two main parties is eventually successful in forming the next governing administration on February 22, after the current ostensibly garish and noisy electoral campaign, will have a legacy of economic troubles left on its agenda for immediate treatment. One of these, we submit, is the substantial debt currently owed to the University of the West Indies (UWI) by the state. The conundrum, of course, is that “free” tertiary education has, by now, become one of the sacred cows of the national political dispensation.

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, CMC – Police have extended the bail of ex premier McKeeva Bush to late March this year after he presented himself to law enforcement officers on Tuesday in keeping with the terms of his original police bail following his arrest on suspicion of theft and corruption last December. The Cayman Islands police said the investigation into the 57-year-old former head of government in this British Overseas territory “is still very active and police are following several positive lines of enquiry.

BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – Police Wednesday charged junior minister Mark King with aggravated assault, use of threatening words and disorderly conduct, following a pre-dawn brawl at a casino in northern Belize over the weekend. King, 38, the junior minister of Human Development and Social Transformation, has been suspended without pay by Prime Minister Dean Barrow. He has also publicly apologised for his behaviour. The first time legislator, who will return to court on April 16, was one of two men who were thrown out of the casino after an altercation involving a member of his entourage.

WASHINGTON, CMC - The Organization of American States (OAS) has signed an agreement with the Grenada government to observe the February 19 general elections. The OAS said Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and Grenada’s the permanent representative to the hemispheric body Gillian Bristol signed the agreement on the privileges and immunities of observers, “which provides the conditions for the work of the electoral observation mission (EOM) to accompany the general elections in the country.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Portia Simpson Miller led administration has been forced to cut its spending this year by J$10 million (One Jamaica dollar = US$0.01 cents) as it grapples with lower than projected revenue inflows. The cuts were outlined in the revision that the government has made to its spending plans for the current fiscal year, which ends next month. The governments' spending plans had been under pressure this fiscal year, as it was getting less money than needed to carry out the spending. The cuts were tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday.