UNITED NATIONS -- John William Ashe’s father lived to see him graduate with advanced degrees, but he left the career diplomat with sobering words. “He said to me, now that he has seen me graduate with a Ph.D., he can die,” Ashe remembers. Three months later, Arnold Ashe, a retired St. John’s police officer in Antigua and Barbuda, died of prostate cancer.
UNITED NATIONS, CMC - Antigua and Barbuda Wednesday called for a re-shaping of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) citing the challenges faced by developing countries, including the Caribbean, in meeting the commitments under the initiative.
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, addressing the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), said with a 15-year time span for its implementation, the MDG declaration was widely expected to inspire development and directly improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
PM UNITED NATIONS, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago says based on what the international community has witnessed since commitments were made at the Millennium Summit in 2007, progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been “uneven.”
In addressing the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Debate late Wednesday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said while the twin-island Republic has made “tremendous strides in achieving the goals, and in some cases has surpassed them,” a number of countries are “not on track to realize any of the targets.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to be here with all of you at the Closing Ceremony of the Eleventh Caribbean Festival of Arts and to deliver these brief remarks on behalf of the Secretary General of the Caribbean Community, H.E Mr. Irwin LaRocque. This has been a very vibrant and exciting ten days of sharing and showcasing the many dimensions of our rich Caribbean culture, and that of our many visiting contingents of artists from UNASUR and other friends from outside our region.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana - It is the attack by al-Shabab militants on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, which has been dominating the foreign news reports since Saturday. At the time of writing, President Uhuru Kenyatta had just announced that the siege was over and the security forces were ‘mopping-up.’ The full body count is still not known, because three floors of the mall had collapsed, and there may be dead among the debris. The Kenyan army and police killed five of the militants and captured 11 alive.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Terrorism has now become so pervasive that it is a global problem and even countries with large military might are finding it difficult to contain this ever rising menace to peace and stability.
There are many young disaffected people around the world who have no compunction about inflicting unspeakable harm on innocent unsuspecting people in order to make a point. It is all part of the dogma of a growing insidious and intolerant political culture.
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”.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - WE share United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's view that the Syrian crisis represents the "biggest challenge to peace and security in the world" today.
Anyone who doubts the veracity of that analysis need only examine what has happened in the two-and-a-half years since the Syrian people revolted against the repressive Bashar al-Assad regime on the wave of the Arab spring.
NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – The Bahamas government says legal proceedings against people involved in the abuse of Cuban detainees here will begin “imminently”.
National Security Minister Bernard J. Nottage said that the investigations into the allegations of abuse of the Cuban detainees at the Detention Center, conducted by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF), had been completed, “and that proceedings under the Defence Act against the persons implicated in the incident will commence imminently.
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC - Winston Frederick, the former deputy speaker of the Grenada parliament died at the General Hospital here on Tuesday night. The cause of death was not disclosed. He was in his late 70s.
Frederick, who served as a legislator from 1990-95, resigned from the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) which he said, was suffering “from a virus and as it is now the party can be considered dead”.