KINGSTON, Jamaica - A LEADING economist says Jamaicans would be punished with higher prices if the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association (JMA) is able to successfully lobby the Government to increase import duties to protect local markets. "You have to realise that the JMA sector and ... consuming ...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Trinidad and Tobago government Thursday received parliamentary approval for a TT$2.8 billion (One TT dollar = US$0.16 cents) supplemental budget that Finance Minister Larry Howi said would be use mainly to meet outstanding payments to public workers. But opp...

WASHINGTON, CMC – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is condemning the death of Jean Robert Lors, a 31-year-old Haitian national, who reportedly died last month after being beaten by agents of the General Directorate of Migration and of the police in the Dominican Republic. ...

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The financially strapped regional airline, LIAT, Thursday announced it had taken possession of an ATR 72-600 aircraft as it upgrades its aging fleet. The airline said the French-manufactured ATR is being leased from the lessor GECAS (GE Capital Aviation Service...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - NOW THAT United States Vice-president Joseph Biden and China’s President Xi Linping have completed their respective missions to engage Caribbean Community (CARICOM) partner states – via separate meetings in Port of Spain, Trinidad – it is of relevance to rais...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - AS I write this Nelson Mandela is still with us. He may even still be living at the end of this year. But this is his fourth hospitalisation in six months, and the prognosis for 94-year-old men with persistent lung infections is not good. How will South Africa do without hi...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Many an insurance company fancies itself as being both an insurer (that is, a risk manager) and an investment manager of sorts. The main reason for this tendency is that they use the pre-paid portion of insurance premiums (both short-term and long-term) to invest. In some a...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Attorney General Anand Ramlogan has temporarily relinquished his responsibilities for the Central Authority, paving the way for the police investigating the e-mail matter to seek foreign assistance if they need it. Sources said yesterday that Ramlogan wrote to the head of t...

NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – Former Barbados prime minister Owen Arthur will speak on the “philosophy of nation building” as part of the activities by the College of the Bahamas marking the country’s 40th anniversary of political independence. Arthur, who served as prime minister f...

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The main opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) has criticised proposals by two prime ministers from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) that the aviation industry should be deemed an essential service. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Baldwin ...