BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - UNITED STATES President Barack Obama scored a diplomatic coup last week on his whirlwind trip to the Middle East. At first there was much speculation that the tour would merely be a widow-dressing exercise, especially among the Palestinians.
However, there is now some scope for progress though somewhat tangentially. First there was the belated apology that came from Israel for the 2010 commando raid on an aid flotilla on a Turkish vessel carrying supplies to Palestine. This shows that diplomacy works but often requires patience.
Member
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Leaders of five of the world's emerging economic powers agreed Wednesday to create a development bank to help fund their US$4.5-trillion infrastructure plans - a direct challenge to the World Bank that they accuse of Western bias.
But the rulers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — known as the BRICS group — were unable to agree on some basic issues. Foreign Minister Pravin Gordhan of South Africa told reporters that there were "different views" about how much capital such a bank would need.
The first U.S. brand — and Haiti’s second luxury hotel to open in three months — will welcome its first guests Thursday.
Designed for the business traveler, the Best Western Premier, a 106-room seven-story hotel in tony Petionville is finally making its debut. A soft-opening is planned for April 4, but guests will get their first glimpse before then.
“It feels amazing,” said Haiti-born Chris Handal, who had planned the hotel before the country’s monstrous Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. “It’s really gorgeous.”
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Federal investigators in the United States said yesterday they will not be sharing any information on an ongoing probe involving a senior government minister and his son. Sources said both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) were reluctant to share information with local law enforcement because they do not have confidence in the integrity of the local national security agencies.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar says she will not be rushed into making any public statement on international reports that her National Security Minister Austin “Jack” Warner may be implicated in a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe involving soccer’s global governing body. “I will not rely on published reports in the media, but will again seek to get official corroboration of the information now in the public domain before making any determination or pronouncement,” Persad Bissessar said in a statement late Wednesday. Opposition Leader Dr.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – A one-day meeting of the Regional Security Council (RSS) of Ministers began here Wednesday amid concerns that some member territories were defaulting on the financial contributions to the regional security grouping.
Canada’s High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Richard Hanley, did not name the defaulting countries, nor the amount in arrears.
St. John’s Antigua- The Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) is offering two scholarships for Citizens of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and CCRIF member countries.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - A FORMER head of the country's utilities regulation body has warned that Jamaica's energy problem now requires the same urgency as the lottery scam and has proposed a draft of measures he says can help to address the issue.
With stakeholders divided between the use of coal as against liquified natural gas (LNG), J. Paul Morgan, the man who led the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) until five years ago, says it is time the Government steps forward and present a very clear energy policy.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - ONE WEEK after Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips disclosed that contingent talks between the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank were holding up the approval of an extended fund facility (EFF), he now says the country is being negatively impacted by the delay.
Phillips, who yesterday announced at a Jamaica House press briefing that Jamaica would not meet its deadline to secure an IMF agreement by month end, said the issues being discussed relate to funding support for Jamaica's programme.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - The People's National Party (PNP) socialists of the 1970s may have been dismal at managing the economy, but they knew how to rally people to their cause. The PNP of the current era, in so far as we can tell, has lost the art of mobilisation. So, the Cabinet has just emerged from a three-day special session to discuss the economy and to advance the Government's so-called growth agenda. Very few would argue if we conclude that it was a damp squib.