PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC – Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said Monday that the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country would like to see itself as “an emerging mining country” within the next two decades. "Haiti would like to place itself as an emerging mining country in the next 20 years,” he said at the start of a two day-conference being organised by the World Bank and has attracted delegates from various countries including Brazil, Canada and Ghana. The World Bank is also helping the Haitian government update mining laws that have not been updated since 1976.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyana Monday signed the United Nations Global Arms Trade Treaty. The treaty calls on states to explicitly consider the risk that an arms transfer could facilitate serious acts of violence against women and children before allowing it to proceed, said Susan Bissell, UNICEF’s Chief of Child Protection. “This is critical given that weapons are now one of the leading causes of death of children and adolescents in many countries, including many that are not experiencing war,” she added.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - On June 4, 1940, Winston Churchill stood in the House of Commons and painted the picture of a country that would refuse to bow to the pressures of a German annihilator. In one of his three most celebrated speeches, “We Shall Fight on the Beaches”, the victories which he depicted were not from a standpoint of having the physical and numerical upper hand, but victories won on a sheer mental decision to reject defeat. Of young soldiers he said, “There never has been, I suppose, in all the world, in all the history of war, such an opportunity for youth.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, CMC – The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) says it will support Guyana in developing its trade in agricultural products. IICA Director General, Víctor M. Villalobos met with Guyana’s Agriculture Minister Leslie Ramsammy, who outlined the country’s priorities that included the development of an agrofuels unit, the establishment of programmes to combat and mitigate the effects of climate change, and compliance with international trade standards.

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua - Economics is sometimes referred to as The Dismal Science. It is not hard these days to be sympathetic to that definition, when we consider the mess that some of the supposedly smartest economists have led our world. Earlier in March, Wall Street’s Moody’s Investor Service painted a gloomy picture of the finances of the Eastern Caribbean countries. In a Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) report, the bond-rating agency pointed out that Grenada had defaulted on repayment of loans in 2004 and 2013 and that St Kitts/Nevis had done so in 2011.