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ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell says his seven-week old government has been able to reverse a lack of confidence in the local economy, but warned Grenadians that “these are early days and there are obviously many challenges ahead.”

In his first radio and television broadcast since his New National Party (NNP) swept the February 19 general election, Mitchell was also critical of the policies adopted by the former Tillman Thomas administration prior to leaving office.

ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – The Dominica Electricity Company (DOMLEC) is hinting at the possibility of increasing fees to consumers blaming the ongoing drought that is hampering its ability to generate electricity at its hydro facility. DOMLEC general manager Collin Cower, speaking on the company’s radio programme “Power Talk” said late last year and early 2013, the island has experienced “the right type of rainfall” so as to allow for good production from its hydro electricity plant that helped to drive the cost of fuel surcharge down.

crime ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The Antigua and Barbuda government says it will extend by a further 90 days the operations of a special task force to deal with serious crimes, especially those that involved the use of firearms. National Security Minister Dr. Errol Cort said that notwithstanding the success of the force in recent days, “its task is still unfinished.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Central Bank of Barbados Tuesday said that the local economy contracted by 0.4 per cent in the first three months of 2013 and urged the authorities to put “back on track” the fiscal consolidation strategy as well as a new medium term adjustment strategy to turn around the island’s economic fortunes.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate -The European Union (EU) is funding programmes and providing resources to ensure that young creative minds are given more opportunities to develop their craft.

Working with the government, the hope is to further enhance the resources within the Fine Arts Division at the Barbados Community College while calling on teachers to explore multiple intelligences and varied teaching styles to accommodate the diverse learning styles of students.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development Donville Inniss says the Caribbean has to keep up with technological changes in order to take full advantage of doing business in a global village.

“I sense that the days of credit cards with magnetic strips may be going the way of the pay phone or the snail mail. We cannot afford to be left behind,” he stated.

BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – The main opposition People’s United Party (PUP) has rejected the latest move by Guatemala showing Belize to be part of the Central American country.
Guatemala plans to distribute four million new passports with the map showing the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country as part of its territory over the next decade.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will give its ruling in the matter of Shanique Myrie against the Government of Barbados at a later date, which is yet to be announced.

The matter came to a close yesterday at the CCJ’s Headquarters in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, with President of the CCJ Dennis Byron adjourning the matter so the seven-judge panel can deliberate on the evidence provided in the case.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, CMC – Caribbean countries are to benefit from a regional initiative that is aimed at providing first-hand information and generating up-to-date statistics on the degree status of human resources as well as the structure, size, and level of investment in research and development (R&D) in Central America and the Caribbean.

The Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) said that the information would be used to update the data available for the Caribbean dating back t0 1996 and in the case of Central America, 2006.

TOKYO, Japan (AP) — It's easy to write off North Korea's threats to strike the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile as bluster_ it has never demonstrated the capability to deploy a missile that could reach the Pacific island of Guam, let alone the mainland US. But what about Japan?