PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago will host a meeting of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Canadian public and private sector officials to share best practices, Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar has announced.

The Organization of American States (OAS) will organize, together with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), a Forum to Strengthen the Regulation of Political Parties and Political Financing in the Caribbean, May 8-9, in Bridgetown, Barbados.
The event will bring together 42 participants, representing electoral management bodies as well as governing and opposition parties from 14 Member States from the Caribbean, to discuss strengthening the regulation of political parties and political financing in the region.

A close ally of a charismatic but divisive politician killed by two assailants in Curacao said Monday he believes the lawmaker was slain in some sort of politically motivated attack on the Dutch Caribbean island off the coast of Venezuela.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, CMC - Prime Minister Mark Rutte Monday condemned the assassination of Helmin Wiels, the leader of the largest political party in Curacao's coalition government who was shot dead late Sunday in the Punda section of the Dutch island's capital.
Rutte spokesman Henk Brons said it is not yet clear whether the Netherlands will assist the police investigation, and if so how.

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao - The leader of the largest political party in Curacao's coalition government was shot dead late Sunday in the Punda section of the Dutch island's capital, media reports here said.
Helmin Wiels of the Pueblo Soberano Party (Sovereign People Party) was reportedly shot in a drive-by shooting around 5 pm (2200 GMT).
With his death, the coalition government, with a one-seat hold on power here, has been plunged into crisis.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Noted financial crime expert and money-laundering author Jeffrey Robinson said if Caribbean governments wait it out, the United States’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) will not be around in five years.
“FATCA worldwide is still born. FATCA will eventually die because there will be too many big jurisdictions who will simply refuse to comply,” he said.
“It won’t work because there will be non-compliance by the Caymans and there will be non-compliance by Switzerland … The Chinese are not going to report.”

WASHINGTON D.C., United States – A major United States publication says Antigua and Barbuda will be a “Caribbean headache” for President Barack Obama’s new nominee of chief trade negotiator - Michael Froman.
Bloomberg Businessweek says Michael Froman has “plenty of negotiating work ahead of him.
“With so many challenges ahead, you can forgive Froman if fixing a dispute with the tiny country of Antigua and Barbuda doesn’t rank high on his to-do list.”

KINGSTON, Jamaica - After a mere 20 months in the job, Mr Irwin LaRocque, the Caricom secretary general, must feel a bit dispirited.
For, based on the information provided by eminent Caribbean journalist Mr Rickey Singh, and published in this week's Sunday Observer, Caricom now faces the danger of disintegration, instead of deepened economic integration and functional co-operation.
According to Mr Singh, that is the likely outcome if the regional movement fails to put in place a new management system for effective governance of its affairs.

WASHINGTON, CMC – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Caribbean countries will experience economic growth of just over one per cent this year, even as Latin America and the Caribbean will record half a percent economic growth in 2013.
The IMF said that the growth will be supported by stronger external demand, favourable financing conditions and the effects of earlier policy easing in some countries.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Apparently now more disposed to striking a militant posture to influence decision-making processes at the Caribbean Community Secretariat, Secretary General Irwin LaRocque made a spirited intervention at last week’s ministerial meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED).