KINGSTON, Jamaica - Last week's death of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, happened as the Jamaican Government was advertising its appointment of Dr Wesley Hughes, the former financial secretary, as manager of its PetroCaribe Development Fund. This, for Dr Hughes, must have been an...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - BARBADOS IS MISSING out on housing, environmental and agricultural benefits by not signing on to the Petrocaribe oil agreement. So says Venezuela’s Ambassador to Barbados Jose Gomez Febres, who wants to see Barbados join the list of 17 Caribbean states which have signed ...

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Seventeen countries of the Caribbean face a heightened period of economic uncertainty now that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died. Twelve of the 17 Caribbean countries are members of the Caribbean Community (Caricom). They have become highly reliant on their oil supplies f...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - THE death of Hugo Chavez, who led Venezuela for the last 14 years, has brought to an end a type of politics that many would not have associated with a region on the doorsteps of the USA, were the global environment similar to what existed 40 or even 30 years ago. It gives ris...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Julian Hunte is unlikely to get the support of the Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control he once headed in elections later this month. In a peculiar set of circumstances for the March 27 poll in Barbados, the Windwards seconded J...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Prof John Arnott Spence, who died on Wednesday night at 83, will be remembered for his sterling service to T&T and the region as a scientist, academician and spokesman for agriculture. As a UWI lecturer, public servant and independent senator, even in his retirement yea...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Former academic and legislator, Professor John Spence has died. He was 83. Relatives said that he died of a heart attack late Wednesday. Spence was a Professor of Botany and also Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the St. Augustine campus of the University o...

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC - The United States-based rating agency, Moody’s Investor Services has cut Jamaica's sovereign foreign currency credit rating to Caa3 from B3, citing the recent domestic debt exchange as a distressed event that still leaves the country with a high debt burden. Last m...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Both houses of the Barbados Parliament have been constituted and the Throne Speech has been delivered as the new administration sits down to begin its business in what is going to be an interesting period of our parliamentary life. One aspect of being a responsible paper is th...

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – A regional expert on earthquakes said residents should not fear the natural happening, but rather, prepare for its inevitable arrival. Following the revelation that two minor earthquakes hit near to Antigua & Barbuda in the last two days, Director of the Seismic...