The aid group Doctors Without Borders said last Tuesday that the cholera crisis in Haiti was getting worse, for the most unnecessary and appalling of reasons_ a lack of money and basic medical supplies.
United States of America
NEW YORK, CMC – Police here say that at least 18 people were arrested as fights between them and angry youth erupted for the third consecutive night in the predominantly Caribbean district of East Flatbush in Brooklyn over police shooting death of a Caribbean youth. On Thursday police reported that they struggled to control an irate crowd that broke away from a planned peaceful vigil after attendees learned that 16-year-old Kimani “Kiki” Gray, the son of Guyanese and Jamaican parents, was shot in the back on Saturday night.
WASHINGTON, CMC – The United Nations expert on torture has called on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to investigate the practise of solitary confinement and its harmful effects in the Americas, including the Caribbean. Juan E. Méndez, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture, also called for stronger regulation on solitary confinement. “I am concerned about the general lack of official information and statistics on the use of solitary confinement,” Méndez told the Commission at its first-ever briefing on solitary confinement in the Americas.
NEW YORK, CMC – The US-based Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has lowered its foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Grenada to 'SD' (selective default) from 'CCC+/C'. "The downgrade to 'SD' follows the government of Grenada's announcement that it will not pay the coupon due March 15, 2013, on its U.S. dollar and Eastern Caribbean dollar bonds due in 2025," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Joydeep Mukherji. The newly elected Grenada government recently announced that it does not expect to have the funds to pay the coupon during the relevant grace periods.
NEW YORK, CMC – Even as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was laid to rest on Friday a major human rights group in the United States claims that his presidency (1999-2013) was characterized by a “dramatic concentration of power and open disregard for basic human rights guarantees."
FORT LAUDERDALE, CMC – A major cruise line here says more than 100 passengers aboard an 11-day cruise to the Caribbean fell ill with a bad gastrointestinal virus.
On Saturday, Royal Caribbean announced that at least 105 of the 2,000 guests as well as three crew members, fell victim to what was believed to be a norovirus, a common but potent virus that is typically transmitted by fecal contamination in food or water.
NEW YORK, CMC – Newly-elected Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell has called for all hands on deck and unity in re-building the tri-island nation.
During a town hall meeting at Brooklyn College, late Saturday,Mitchell, whose New National Party (NNP) swept the polls in the historic February 19 general elections, urged all nationals to come on board in addressing the country’s dire economic plight.
WASHINGTON, CMC - With the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, a major think tank here is querying the future of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and the Petrocaribe oil agreement with Caribbean countries.
Chávez died last week after a long struggle with cancer.
The Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) noted that the ALBA bloc is made up of a number of Caribbean and Latin American states, whose leaders were “friendly to Chávez, such as Ecuador’s Rafael Correa and Bolivia’s Evo Morales.
NEW YORK, CMC – Secretary of the United States’ Homeland Security Department, Janet Napolitano, has warned passengers at John F. Kennedy International Airport to schedule extra hours for travel as the department faces a 5 percent cut in the US federal budget battle.
Napolitano told reporters that while passengers at New York’s airports are yet feel the impact of spending cuts that went into effect on Friday, security lines at airports in other cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago, were already twice as long .
WASHINGTON, CMC – The United States on Wednesday joined the global community in expressing sadness over the passing of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
Chávez, the firebrand socialist and avowed enemy of the United States who transformed politics in his native country, died Tuesday at 58. He had struggled with cancer for almost two years.