PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - On the day after a weekend murder spree left eight dead, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, speaking in another country, put a dollar cost of crime to Trinidad and Tobago. It was an admission that her administration has not been able to get a handle on criminal activity. However, her solution proposed to the CARICOM 24th Intersessional Summit would have little impact on crime locally. Mrs Persad-Bissessar focused on tourism revenues, revealing that T&T loses more than $200 million a year because of crime.
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ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Supporters of the main opposition New National Party (NNP) took to the streets in celebration here on Tuesday night after the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) conceded defeat in the general election. The NNP, headed by former prime minister Dr. Keith Mitchell, appears heading for a clean sweep of all the 15 seats, a repeat of the 1999 performance. Prime Minister Tillman Thomas as well as his senior cabinet ministers were swept aside in the general election, four and a half years after their had won the polls by an 11-4 margin.
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – 65-year-old Keith Claudius Mitchell entered into the history of Caribbean politics when he led his New National Party (NNP) to a clean sweep of the 15 seats at stake in Tuesday’s general election, becoming the first political leader here to achieve the feat, having previously done so in 1999. Mitchell, whose NNP had been booted out of office in 2008 by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of outgoing prime minister Tillman Thomas, said, however, he hoped to leave a legacy of having united the people of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Caribbean leaders concluded a two-day summit in Haiti by deciding to progressively introduce French as a second language in their 15-member regional trade bloc and to hone in on the challenges facing their vulnerable economies.
KINGSTON, Jamaica -JAMAICA should step cautiously in its attempt to remove the Queen of England as head of state, as it could have adverse consequences, a special advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
Shaun Bailey, a budding, black politician who is of Jamaican heritage, told Jamaica Observer executives and journalists yesterday at the newspaper's weekly Monday Exchange, that it would not be in Jamaica's best interest for The Queen to be removed as this north Caribbean island's head of state.
PORT OF SAPIN, Trinidad - Next month, Dr Julian Hunte will be in a three-way fight to retain the presidency of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). He will be going after a fourth successive term, although he had previously hinted he might finally step down from the position he has held since July 2007.
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace has accused Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves of not telling the truth when he told the nation that two journalists from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had said he (Eustace) was the source of information that a foreign investor had left a briefcase with money at the office of the prime minister recently.
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has accused the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) of joining with foreigners to undermine economic development in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Gonsalves made the claims in a radio programme on Sunday after he told listeners of an encounter he had with two journalists from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) while aboard an aircraft in Barbados.
ROSEAU, Dominica, Feb 19, CMC – High Court judge Lionel Jones has reserved judgment on whether or not to uphold an application to strike out a challenge by the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) to the nomination of Eluid Williams as President of Dominica. Opposition Leader Hector John filed the lawsuit in October last year claiming that Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s nomination of Williams for election to the office of the President of the Commonwealth of Dominica was “unconstitutional, null and void”. Hector is also challenging the procedure and process of the election.
PARAMARIBO, SURINAME, CMC – A military court has denied a request to dismiss a case in which President Desi Bouterse and several others are implicated in the deaths of 15 prominent people who were opposed to the then military government in Suriname in 1982. The Military Court is reported to have delivered its verdict last week when it met behind closed doors, according to the Suriname based website, Devsur. Com It said that attorney Irwin Kanhai had submitted the request on behalf of three of the accused.