Accredited Third States

BOGOTA -- One is a former union organizer and foreign minister who skipped university to pursue politics. He rose to fame as the loyal soldier of late President Hugo Chávez. The other is a governor and lawyer who spent four months in jail. He prides himself on defeating every rival he has ever faced except one_ Chávez. As Venezuela barrels toward snap elections Sunday, one of these two men — Nicolás Maduro and Henrique Capriles — will be the first to occupy the seat Chávez owned for 14 years.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Jeffrey Robinson, considered the world’s leading financial crime author, is warning the nation and all Caribbean countries that a “financial tsunami” will hit the region in a few years and the time to plan a response is now. “In the next three to five years, Fidel Castro will die and when he does Raul (Castro) will not be able to hang on,” he said. “The invasion of Cuba is now being planned and it will be massive. It will be something the likes of which no one has seen before.”

WASHINGTON, CMC – As the World Ocean Council (WOC) gets ready to host the Save our Seas conference (SOS) 2013, the Washington-based Institute for Caribbean Studies (ICS) has issued a call for private sector leadership in securing the future of the Caribbean Sea.
“SOS 2013 is an unparalleled, world-class gathering of the diverse ocean business community. It sets the agenda for ensuring responsible industry operations,” said Dr. Claire Nelson, ICS’ Jamaican-born president. 

LONDON -- Love her or loathe her, one thing's beyond dispute_ Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain.
The Iron Lady who ruled for 11 remarkable years imposed her will on a fractious, rundown nation - breaking the unions, triumphing in a far-off war, and selling off state industries at a record pace. She left behind a leaner government and more prosperous nation by the time a mutiny ousted her from No. 10 Downing Street.
Thatcher's former spokesman, Tim Bell, said that the former prime minister had died Monday morning of a stroke. She was 87.

MUMBAI, India -- A residential building being constructed illegally on forest land in a suburb of India's financial capital collapsed into a mound of steel and concrete, killing at least 45 people and injuring more than 50 others, authorities said Friday. The eight-story building in the Mumbai suburb of Thane caved in Thursday evening, police said. Rescue workers with sledgehammers, gasoline-powered saws and hydraulic jacks struggled Friday to break through the tower of rubble in their search for possible survivors. Six bulldozers were brought to the scene.

In the Dominican Republic, discounts on Venezuelan oil imports keep the lights on. In Jamaica, they are helping a limping economy stay afloat, and in Haiti, a young and inexperienced leadership is using them to achieve quick results.
But despite financial benefits of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s Petrocaribe oil agreement with cash-strapped Caribbean countries, analysts and critics say inadequate oversight has contributed to a lack of transparency in many of the 17 beneficiary nations.

WASHINGTON (CMC) - The Trinidad and Tobago-owned Caribbean Airlines, (CAL) has been fined US$100,000 for violating United States federal rules after it prevented passengers from disembarking from one of its planes delayed on the tarmac at the John F Kennedy International Airport last August. The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) said the plane was delayed for more than four hours and that CAL “failed to provide customers with food and water until almost four hours after the plane left the gate during the tarmac delay”.

WASHINGTON, CMC –The United States says it will review cases in which Caribbean and other detainees are being held in solitary confinement in detention centers and jails around the country. Homeland Security Department Secretary Janet Napolitano has asked US federal immigration officials to provide her with more information about immigrants being held in solitary confinement at federal facilities.

NEW YORK, USA — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it is now "looking to finalise a few pending issues", before submitting Jamaica's request for support under the Extended Fund Facility to its executive board.
The submission is to be done as soon as possible, according to a spokesperson for the Fund who was responding to enquiries from the Jamaica Observer on how quickly the country's application will go before the board.

WASHINGTON, CMC - The World Bank has outlined a “bold agenda” for ending poverty in the developing world, including the Caribbean.
“We are at an auspicious moment in history when the successes of past decades and an increasingly favorable economic outlook combine to give developing countries a chance - for the first time ever - to end extreme poverty within a generation,” said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.