KINGSTON, Jamaica - AT their Inter-Sessional summit last week in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, Caribbean leaders called on the United States to comply with the ruling by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to end the long-running dispute with Antigua on Internet gaming. They affirmed their "full support" for their Caricom colleague in its fight against our giant neighbour to the north.
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KINGSTON, Jamaica - The foreign minister of Suriname is reported in the press as stating that his Government will neither nominate nor support Mr. Albert Ramdin, a distinguished Surinamese, for the post of secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS). The minister is also reported to have said Suriname will support the Guyanese nominee for assistant secretary-general, the post which Mr. Ramdin now holds. This is a very strange position to state publicly since at this time there is no vacancy nor any formally announced candidates in either post.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana has nominated its Ambassador to Washington, Bayney Karran to become the next Assistant Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS), a top government official has confirmed. “Guyana has nominated the Guyanese Ambassador in Washington,” said Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon. Karran has been his country’s Ambassador to the United States since 2003 and Permanent Representative to the OAS for several years now.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Last week, St Lucia's Prime Minister, Kenny Anthony, issued a warning about Europe's future relationship with the Caribbean. Speaking in his capacity as outgoing chair of CARICOM, he suggested the possibility of a reassessment as a result of the EU's changing development policy towards middle-ranking economies. Speaking to CARICOM Heads of Government in Haiti, Dr. Anthony suggested that such changes may lead to Europe, as well as CARICOM, having to determine not just the diplomatic, but also the political value of the existing relationship.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Who is this special advisor from Britain, Shaun Bailey, and what is his real purpose here in Jamaica? Those of us who are of the pre-independence era, and who have emerged through the delivery of our country from colonialism to independence, must ask the above question with sadness.
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC - Magistrate Jean Joseph Lebrun Thursday ordered former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier to appear in court next week after rejecting an appeal filed by his defence team that sought to take his matter before the Supreme Court. Duvalier had earlier defied an order to attend a hearing to determine whether to reinstate charges of human rights abuses against him allegedly committed during nearly 15 years in office. The prosecutor said that as a result of the court ruling, Duvalier will now have to appear in court next Thursday.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Former prime minister Patrick Manning was rushed to hospital on Thursday after he collapsed at his constituency office. Manning, 66, who suffered a stroke in January last year, was “partly paralysed” from what his office said had been a “minor stroke”. He was flown to the United States for further medical treatment and has not been in Parliament since January 2012.
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, CMC – Following Tuesday’s general election in Grenada and victory at the polls by the New National Party (NNP), Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas, has congratulated Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell. “Tuesday’s election victory is evidence to support the people's confidence in your Party's ability under your competent direction, to steer your beloved "Spice Isle" through the current economic crisis into a challenging but more hopeful tomorrow could not have been more convincing,” Douglas said in a statement.
CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC-Public servants are gearing up for some form of industrial action on the eve of Friday's 34th anniversary of independence, as they move to express their disappointment over Government's failure to resolve a pay dispute. Teachers, civil servants, and nurses were meeting at separate locations on Thursday, to discuss their next move as they claimed that time had ran out for government to resolve the protracted 2010-2012 triennium agreement.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC - The new One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) government plans to introduce human rights regulations that will protect gays and lesbians from discrimination. Attorney General Mark Pettingill says Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory, is at present in violation of European laws that makes it an offence not to provide protection for gays and lesbians within its Human Rights Act. Pettingill told the Royal Gazette newspaper that government was moving quickly to amend the law and that changes would be put before parliament “within the next number of weeks”.