KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – A member of the British Royal family is due here on April 15 for a five-day visit, it has been officially announced. A government statement said that Prince Michael Of Kent, will attend a special luncheon hosted by Governor-General, Sir Patrick Allen on April 16 and also pay an official visit to the Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre and the Mona Geo-Informatics Institute, at the University of the West Indies. The following day he will call on Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Opposition Leader, Andrew Holness.
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ST JOHN’S, Antigua – LIAT staff told OBSERVER media on Monday that an ongoing industrial dispute between the airlines engineers and management did not affect the airlines flights from the VC Bird International Airport.
A senior LIAT employee confirmed that on Monday at least one aircraft was grounded in Grenada because of the dispute.
An engineer told OBSERVER media engineers are angry that management has responded to the pilots’ demands for allowances while ignoring theirs.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC –Destination stability and competitiveness in the current global environment, are some of the issues that will be addressed at the upcoming Sustainable Tourism Conference to be held here April 15-18.
The 14th annual conference of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) will feature Carlos Vogeler, the regional director for the Americas at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, CMC –The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says Caribbean countries have reaffirmed their commitment to achieving targets set out in a plan of action for the knowledge and information society in the region. ECLAC said the was made in the Montevideo Declaration, signed here at the close of the Fourth Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean. It said Caribbean countries also made a “clear determination to strengthen regional collaboration in this sphere”.
ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Dominica Monday launched an US$7.4 million water upgrade project that the authorities said would benefit thousands of residents and consumers in the north, east and south of the country. The Mero to Castle Comfort project dubbed “The Third Water Supply Project Water Area-1 (WA-1) Network Upgrade” the project and is being funded by a US $6.1 million loan from the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the Dominica government and the Dominica Water and Sewerage Company (DOWASCO).
WASHINGTON, CMC - New United States federal data shows that President Barack Obama’s immigration initiative has paid off for 454,000 young Caribbean and other immigrants who were brought to the US illegally. Under the “deferred action” initiative that took effect late last year, 26,000 New York residents were granted immunity from prosecution for at least two years, the third-highest in the country. The data shows that California has the most residents who received waivers followed by Texas.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC - The Environmental Management Authority (EMA) says it is unable to identify any environmental reasons why more than 100 black vultures (Coragyps atratus) died in West Trinidad on Monday. The EMA said it is also working on the theory that the birds may have been feeding on the carcass of an animal which had been poisoned. “We can’t identify an environmental cause as such that they were exposed to. There were 150 birds, we estimated. There was nothing else in the vicinity.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries are among several nations committed to a ministerial declaration and a three year action plan that aims, among other things, to create at least one biosphere reserve in each Caribbean Small Island Developing State.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Private-sector leaders say reports yesterday that Jamaica could have a new deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by month end will have some immediate positive impact, but warned that it cannot be business as usual. With the continued devaluation of the Jamaican dollar, the heads of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association (JMA), and the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) all agreed that stability in the foreign-exchange markets would be one of the immediate impacts of the pending IMF agreement.
KINGSTON, Jamaica- The Ministry of Finance and Planning has subdued its glee in reacting to the likelihood of an inked deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by month end, which could result in a cumulative drawdown of around US$2 billion from the Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the World Bank over the next four years. "We are looking very good. Technically, there is an agreement, but in reality, we don't have it as yet," stressed a senior official from the ministry.