(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Four Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) will come under focus later this month when two workshops are convened in Saint Lucia to address harmonized reporting by Caribbean countries, and the use of Integrated Environment Assessment (IEA) tools for mainstreaming those agreements into national policy development.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The CARICOM Electoral Observer Mission (CEOM) was invited by the Government of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis to observe the Nevis Island Assembly Elections held 22 January 2013.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — One of Hugo Chavez's brothers says the Venezuelan president is expected to return home from Cuba in the coming days as he continues to recover nearly six weeks after undergoing cancer surgery.
Argenis Chavez is one of the president's five brothers and the president of the National Electric Corporation.

KINGSTON, Jamaica - The world has not yet escaped the risk of a collapse in the global economy despite some renewed confidence heading into 2013, the founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF) told The Associated Press on Monday.
Swiss economist Klaus Schwab, speaking on the eve of the elite annual gathering in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos, called for the business and government leaders heading there to focus on "cautious realism" and a recovering public trust to avoid another major financial crisis.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar says she has “no quarrel” with the Integrity Commission after it wrote President George Maxwell Richards seeking its support following open criticism from the head of the coalition government in Trinidad and Tobago.
In a statement, the Commission made reference to remarks by Prime Minister Persad Bissessar that it had “an appearance of bias” as she campaigned on behalf of the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) during the just concluded Tobago House of assembly (THA) elections.

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony has cautioned public service unions here that if common ground cannot be met in on-going negotiations, his administration would have no option but to consider taking the matter to arbitration.
Two weeks after the parties returned to the negotiating table, they remain at odds over the wage increases for the period 2010-13, despite both sides indicating they wished to settle the matter as soon as possible.

BRADES, Montserrat, CMC – Officials from the Britain’s Department for International Development (DFOD) will on Thursday begin a review of Montserrat’s national budget, according to an official statement issued here.
It said that the review “will look at the projections for expenditure and revenue for the government in the coming financial year which begins in April” adding “it is also expected that the teams will review the variations in revenue and spending for the 2012/2013 against the budget estimated and the impact of external developments”.

NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – The Bahamas government says it has launched an investigation into an oil spill incident over the weekend even as Environment Minister Kenred Dorsett said that the spill had been contained.
Dorsett said that more than 200 gallons of fuel had been released into the sea at the Freeport Harbour due to an incident involving an overflow of light diesel from the bunker barge, “Smit Inesita” to the Mt “Butterfly”.

NEW YORK, CMC - Fitch Ratings has upgraded Jamaica’s economic outlook from negative to stable and also affirmed the island’s long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs).
“Jamaica's ratings balance the sovereign's structural strengths, such as relatively high income per capita and social indicators, policy consensus and relatively strong institutional capacity against continued growth underperformance, high vulnerability to external and confidence shocks, weak public finances and fiscal solvency indicators.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Minister of Tourism Stephen Cadiz is in the Bahamas for the Caribbean Travel Marketplace and to convene with the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) Aviation Committee and discuss opportunities for increase of airlift to the region.
The minister, upon landing at the Lyndon Pindling International Airport, headed directly to a meeting of the Council of Tourism Ministers and Commissioners of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort.