PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - THE West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is currently immersed in arrangements for its annual general meeting on March 27 at a time when the governing body of this region’s most popular game continues to reveal serious leadership weaknesses, and an alarming consistency for ignoring well-intentioned “time-for-change” recommendations.
Perhaps some of the best known major recommendations for structural changes, creative policies and programmes are located in the October 2007 “Report on Governance of West Indies Cricket”.
News
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The major issue preoccuping those interested in the Middle East is what to do about Syria, and whether the United States and Europe should provide military assistance to the opposition groups fighting to topple the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. It is topical given the current trip to the region by United States Secretary of State John Kerry, who has met with the head of the main political opposition group in Syria, the Syrian National Coalition. Kerry also announced US$60 million in non-military aid to help the Syrian opposition.
KINGSTON, Jamaica -There was a fair bit of chest-thumping by the Government recently over Reporters without Borders' ranking of Jamaica as the leading country for press freedom in the Western Hemisphere and 13th globally.
The Simpson Miller administration interpreted the rating as a vindication of its own commitment to freedom and democracy and currency in which it can trade.
HAVANA, Cuba, CMC – The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) says no Caribbean student had been killed in a vehicular accident here over the last weekend.
“The CARICOM Heads of Mission in Havana seeks to clarify that news reports which claim that five students had been killed in a vehicular accident in Cuba are misleading,” according to a statement issued by the grouping here on Tuesday.
“The Caucus further wishes to assure the parents of students on scholarship in Cuba that no Caribbean student died in the accident,” the release said.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme Achim Steiner would say yes. In a recent presentation he made in Basel, Switzerland, on the impact of the summit on international cooperation on the environment and sustainable development, Steiner mapped the genesis of the meeting and its achievements. "The outcomes of Rio+20 may signal a new determination by and cooperation between governments to implement sustainable development as the only option for peace, security and prosperity into the future," he said.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, CMC - The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says research in the Caribbean may result in better protection for depleted fish species. NOAA said the research is using the underwater sounds of reef fish, such as groupers, to identify areas where they gather to spawn “a behaviour that makes the fish easier to catch and susceptible to overfishing. “The research may lead to more precise measures to protect spawning locations and thereby allow a depleted fish population to rebuild,” it said in a statement issued here.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Jamaica government is moving to deal with the deficit in mathematics at the primary and secondary levels and Education Minister Rev. Ronald Thwaites says there will be an increase in allocation towards ensuring that sufficient mathematics specialists are placed in schools.
He said that only nine per cent of secondary school teachers are qualified to teach mathematics up to grade 11, while 31 per cent of primary teachers are not adequately qualified to teach the subject.
WASHINGTON, CMC - The United States Department of State says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Belize to protect the country’s cultural heritage. It said the MOU for five years “demonstrates a commitment by both governments to staunch the pillage and illicit trafficking of Belize’s archaeological heritage of African, indigenous Maya, Spanish, and British influences”.
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Less than a month after he was voted out of office, former prime minister Tillman Thomas remains at the helm of the now opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Party officials who met recently to discuss the outcome of the February 19 general election which saw the NDC trounced 15-nil by the New National Party (NNP), said that Thomas’s leadership was never part of
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell has held informal talks with the chairman of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Airlines (CAL) Rabindra Moonan on the role the airline could play on deepening relations between the two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries.
A statement issued here Tuesday said that Mitchell, whose New National Party (NNP) won the February 19 general elections, has “hinted” that CAL “may be granted flag carrier status by his government in the not too distant future”.