PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has expressed concerns that handing over her electronic devices to the police investigators may jeopardise national security and has since directed that the investigation only take place in her presence.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) says it still wants the name and reputation of its former parliamentarian, Joseph Hibbert, cleared even though he died of a massive heart attack over the weekend.
Hibbert, 65, an engineer, died at hospital. In 2009 he resigned as junior transport and works minister, less than a week after the British firm, Mabey and Johnson, pleaded guilty to bribing officials in Jamaica and other countries to win bridge-building contracts in the 1990s, while he was chief technical director at the ministry.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – A United states information technology expert says the emails purporting to show that members of the Trinidad and Tobago government, including Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, were engaged in efforts to undermine the judiciary, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the media, are false.
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Thirty years after establishing diplomatic relations, Antigua & Barbuda and Venezuela on Saturday took their already cordial affairs in a new direction.
The two independent nations launched the Antigua-Venezuela Friendship Association – a level of co-operation that officials said would help cement the unbreakable bonds between the peoples of the two countries.
Venezuelan ambassador to Antigua & Barbuda Carlos Perez Silva hailed the launch as “a movement of solidarity with Venezuela and its Bolivarian revolution.”
KINGSTON, Jamaica - It now seems that our money is going to be controlled once more by external governments and their regulations. There will be instituted in our banking regulations a requirement for some additional information on clients' funds, and their source of funds, especially if they happen to be citizens of the USA, or simply green card holders. This is different to what is being required by the Jamaican central bank under the Prevention of Crimes Act (POCA), and will be instituted under FATCA, meaning the Foreign Exchange Tax Compliance Act.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua - There was a time, before global warming and the advent of modern transportation systems, when strict controls of agricultural and animal products imported into Antigua & Barbuda were rigorously enforced. These efforts seemed to work in keeping our local plants and livestock free from invasive attack.
We have recollections where visitors, arriving by air from a neighbouring territory with an outbreak of mad cow disease, were obliged to sterilise their shoes by stepping on a disinfectant mat as they stepped off the airplane.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The Antigua and Barbuda government says it will re-launch an initiative aimed at stimulating the economy and providing nationals with an opportunity to own their own homes.
The Baldwin Spencer government says is in collaboration with the Antigua and Barbuda Investment Authority (ABIA), it will re-launch the Construct Antigua and Barbuda Initiative (CAB-I) 2013, on Monday.
Dajabón, Dominican Republic.- Dajabón merchants kept Haitians from crossing into the Dominican side on Sunday, the day before the market held Mondays and Fridays, as part of the called shutdown on Monday organized by the Merchants Association, to protest the ban on eggs and poultry enacted by Haiti’s government.
Also turned back were trucks from other towns full of merchandise headed to the market held two days a week, and those trying to enter from Haiti as well.
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Antigua & Barbuda’s ambassador to the United Nations, John William Ashe, was elected president of the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday. The one-year presidency of UNGA rotates among regions, with the 68th session being the turn of the Latin American and Caribbean regional group, and Ashe the unanimous choice. The president-elect will assume office at the start of the 68th Session in September.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - THE report that LIAT has acquired the first ATR 72-600 aircraft as part of a programme to upgrade its fleet is good news for the island-hopping airline. But as the Caribbean air carrier embarks on this project, which is costly but necessary, now is the time for other islands which are not part of the LIAT shareholding, to come on board and strengthen the airline.