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Villalobos re-elected at IICA Director General

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, CMC – Victor M. Villalobos was on Wednesday re-elected Director General of the Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA).
The Mexican national, who holds a doctorate from the University of Alberta in Canada, will serve from 2014 to 2018.
Caribbean agriculture ministers join their counterparts in re-electing Villalobos said the IABA had “acknowledged the work of a team drawn from all parts of the hemisphere and characterized by technical excellence and commitment”.

St. Kitts-Nevis called for end to aviation taxes that could cripple vital tourism sector

MONTREAL, Canada, CMC – St. Kitts-Nevis Wednesday urged the international community against imposing aviation taxes that would have a deleterious on the economy of the twin-island federation.
Addressing the Plenary Session of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) assembly here, Tourism and International Transport Minister Richard Skerrit said that in a search for environmental solutions,” we must be careful to ensure that the growing imposition of aviation taxes do not work against our best efforts to grow local economies and reduce poverty”.

PM makes case for reparations and SIDS at UN Assembly

NEW YORK- A request to have nations that engaged in the Trans-Atlantic Slave begin paying reparations was again issued by Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer during his address to the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Speaking on Wednesday Spencer made the case for Caribbean and other former disadvantaged colonies.

‘Get a boat!’ Venezuela flights booked full for months

CARACAS (Reuters) - If you live in Venezuela and want to fly abroad, get in line.
Flights are booked solid months in advance, not from a new interest in exotic destinations but because locals are profiting from a play on the nation's tightly controlled currency market.
The airline scramble has added to shortages, power cuts and runaway prices as another symbol of the Byzantine economic challenges facing the new government of President Nicolas Maduro in the South American OPEC nation.

Cuban nationals detained in Bahamian territorial waters

ASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – The Bahamas government Tuesday confirmed that 13 Cuban nationals had been detained by the Defence Force after they were picked up in territorial waters on Monday night.
Foreign Affairs Minister Frederick Mitchell in a brief statement said that the “illegal migrants are to be transported to Nassau for processing before their return to Cuba”.

Brazil’s president says cyberspace must not be used as a ‘weapon of war’

UNITED NATIONS -- Delivering a harsh indictment of U.S. cyber-surveillance, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday called on the United Nations to get involved with helping nations safeguard themselves from cyber-snooping by other countries. “Information and telecommunication technologies cannot be the new battlefield between states,” said Rousseff, who delivered the opening address at the 68th U.N. General Assembly.

Caribbean, Latin American leaders likely to discuss spying, development at U.N. meeting

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Last week, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff cancelled a U.S. state visit over allegations that the National Security Agency listened into her conversations and spied on state-run oil company Petrobras.
On Tuesday, as she kicks off the United Nations 68th General Assembly, she’s expected to vent those grievances to the globe by calling for more oversight and stricter rules to keep the U.S. from being a global peeping tom.

Fighting Said to Continue in Kenyan Mall

NAIROBI, Kenya — The bloody standoff at a Kenyan shopping mall entered its fourth, confused day on Tuesday as government forces said they were picking off the militants who stormed the upscale shopping center, while a group claiming to be connected to the attackers said militants inside the mall were still resisting the government assault.

Furor over controversy surrounding Venezuelan President’s right to travel over US airspace

MIAMI, CMC – Bolivian President Evo Morales has called for an emergency meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in the wake of a furor over the United States’ denial then reversal of permission for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to travel over US airspace in the Caribbean.
Calixto Ortega, the highest-ranking Venezuelan diplomat in the United States, said here on Friday the US State Department had denied Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro the right to travel through US airspace in Puerto Rico on his way to China before reversing the decision.

Caribbean lagging in wireless broadband use — UN report

UNITED NATIONS (CMC) — With nearly two out of every five people in the world expected to be online by the end of the year, more than two-thirds of those living in developing countries, including the Caribbean, will not have access to the Internet, says the United Nations in a global survey of broadband access.

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