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GEORGETOWN, Guyana - THE CRIME menace afflicting the Caribbean region as well as recurring air transportation woes are scheduled for special focus at the two-day 24th Inter-Sessional Meeting of Caribbean Community Heads of Government that gets underway today in Haiti.
Participating in the special session on crime and security with the CARIC0M leaders and their relevant cabinet colleagues will be the Attorney General of the United States of America, Eric Holder.

The IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest is funded by Inter American Development Bank, DFID, and is being jointly implemented by IDB and Global Village Energy Partners International (GVEP-I).The contest was first staged in 2009 in Latin America and the Caribbean and saw 3 winners from CARICOM Region.  For this the second staging greater emphasis is being placed on Caribbean Region.  A number of mini-launches is being done across the CARICOM countries in Haiti, St Lucia, Guyana and Suriname, for this second staging.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC - Guyana’s Aviation Minister Robeson Benn has called on the management of Fly Jamaica Airline to meet certain conditions before it begins flights out of the country. Benn has asked for the submission of corporate financial information as well as a bond from the airline. “The government of Guyana, like any responsible government and particularly for airlines which are coming to Guyana and we are having failures and withdrawal, has to be interested in whether there is viability and sustainability and financing for that operation,” he said.

SAN JUAN—The number of people traveling to the Caribbean is bouncing back to pre-recession levels, with visitors from Canada and the US giving a boost to a region struggling to recover from a global economic crisis, a top tourism official said. About 25 million tourists visited the Caribbean last year, a more than five per cent increase from 2011. It’s a growth rate that outpaced the rest of the world, which saw arrivals increase by 4 percent, said Beverly Nicholson-Doty, chairwoman of the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organisation.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Guardian -T&T is not in danger of a devaluation of its currency as just happened in Venezuela because the two foreign exchange regimes are different, a University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) economist and International Relations lecturer, who asked not to be named, told the T&T Guardian yesterday. The lecturer explained that Venezuela has a fixed exchange rate and Venezuelan Central Bank officials made the decision to increase revenues to fund the country’s popular social programmes.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Guardian - Beating Australia at any form of cricket is always a major triumph and West Indies’ women conquered that particular challenge wonderfully well in the International Cricket Council’s Women’s World Cup semifinal to earn a berth in Sunday’s final.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer- IT'S heavy — this $16 billion in new taxes being imposed on us by the Government. There is no doubt either that it will hurt most Jamaicans. After all, many of us, particularly PAYE workers, are already overtaxed. The fact, though, is that the Government has little choice, having participated in unrestrained borrowing and irresponsible fiscal policy of successive Administrations that have taken us to this sorry point in our history, with a debt of more than 140 per cent of gross domestic product.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - MINISTER of Agriculture and Fisheries Roger Clarke this week announced a $45-million crop production programme as part of the Government's drought-mitigation initiative for the sector. The programme, he said, will provide for the establishment of 645 hectares of select crops in 13 parishes to counter any shortfall in cash crops resulting from the severe dry conditions affecting the island.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - Visitor arrivals by air and sea hit a record 3.3 million in 2012, up 7.4 per cent year-on-year, according to newly released tourism data. Arrivals in 2011 amounted to 3.07 million. Tourist visits also hit the three million mark in 2006. The bulk of last year's increase came from cruise passenger growth, up 17 per cent, mainly due to the newest port in Trelawny, the Falmouth Cruise Pier, built over a year ago. Total visitors by sea amounted to 1.34 million.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - THE Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has chided the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for supporting what it described as the Government's 'scandalous raid' on the National Housing Trust (NHT) for $11 billion annually to fund the country's debt, as one of several new revenue measures announced in Parliament earlier this week. In the meantime, the Opposition said its legal team would be examining the legality of the decision to pull money from the NHT as well as that of some of the other recently announced tax measures.