Archives for Tuesday, August 9, 2005:

Bomb threat disrupts first Caribbean Court of Justice sitting

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad:  A bomb threat on Monday threatened to shut down legal proceedings on the first day's sitting of the newly-inaugurated Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in Port of Spain, Trinidad... read more...

Trinidad & Tobago PM may call early elections

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad: Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister, Patrick Manning, has hinted at calling early general elections.  The Manning administration is less than two years away from its constitutionally due date for going to the polls. This means that elections could be called early next year following the reading of the national budget... read more...

Tourist pleads guilty to assault on St Lucia hotel employee

CASTRIES, St Lucia: In something of a departure from the recent news of tourist-related crime in the Caribbean, this time a British man vacationing in St Lucia has been ordered to pay EC$1,000 by a local magistrate, for assaulting a hotel employee... read more...

Two women shot dead at their home in Trinidad

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad:  A long standing domestic dispute is believed to have led to the shooting deaths of two women last Friday at their home in Diamond Vale West Trinidad... read more...

LIAT employee charged in Dominica with obstruction of justice

ROSEAU, Dominica: Police charged one LIAT employee on Monday for obstruction of justice and is seeking another worker who they claim did not comply with their request to board Haitian deportees on LIAT flight 500 destined for Antigua on July 31... read more...

British police officer convicted of Guyana death in 1982

LONDON, England (AFP): A police constable from Suffolk, in the east of England, was found guilty in a London court on Monday of the manslaughter of a suspected sex attacker in Guyana 23 years ago... read more...

Antigua-Barbuda government embarks on modernization of St John's

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua: Calling it a "first step" in the transformation of the city of St. John's, the government of Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer on Thursday opened "Vendors Square" located in the city's downtown.  Spencer pointed out that his administration is keen to see that the historical city receives a much-needed facelift... read more...

Successful emergency communications training held in Grenada

ST. GEORGE’S Grenada: Public information officers of national disaster offices ended two days of training in emergency communications in Grenada at the weekend.  The course was hosted by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)... read more...

Grenada PM meets with ARD Directors

ST. GEORGE’S Grenada: The housing challenges Grenada faces in this post Emily period and the Reconstruction and Development Fund were among the issues addressed during the weekly meeting with Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell and the Executive Directors of the Agency for Reconstruction and Development Inc. (ARD)... read more...

COMMENTARY

UN Reform: Sticks, Carrots and Development

US President George W Bush has controversially appointed John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) at a time when governments around the word are concerned about “reform” of the organisation.  “Reform” means different things to different governments, and the reforms that the US government wants are very different... read more...

Law and Politics: Our priorities are upside-down

By the time you are reading this, the so-called "Carnival-Celebrations" in our Spice Isles would have ended, and I sincerely hope, peacefully.  But the question that must be left hanging is, did the happenings ease the stress, and tension, and frustration of our people, in these times of greatest need?... read more...

A Wired Caribbean: Steve Harvey and others draw attention to education crisis in Jamaica

Politicians sometimes pose with poor children. It’s good press. Business people who do charity work and want others to know about it put on a show, too. That’s because such human-interest story grabs our attention. I, however, bore easily at these contrived press conferences with scheduled photo opportunities... read more...

CARICOM losing credibility over Haiti

Once again, the leadership of CARICOM missed another opportunity to give tangible and realistic support to the people of Haiti, a CARICOM member since the 2nd of July 2002.  The communiqué issued by the recently held meeting by the Heads of Government in St. Lucia, noted with great concern the continuing deterioration of the situation... read more...

Washington’s short-sighted policy toward the Caribbean

The erosion of laudable democratic processes and the pervasiveness of corruption in the Caribbean do not only affect their governments and people.  Washington would be wise to realize that instability in its neighborhood translates into a poisoned environment for trade negotiations and muddied efforts at various forms of political cooperation... read more...

CPMUC response to the deportation of Guyanese citizens by Barbados

The Caribbean People Masses Unity Committee believes that the rejection of another CARICOM citizen in another CARICOM State brings full reality to the Free Movement of Persons in the CSME and reason why the CSME is in need of some form of a Political Union... read more...

SPORTS NEWS

Silver for Campbell in women's 100m, Sturrup fourth

HELSINKI, Finland (AFP): Lauryn Williams of the United States won the women's 100 metres title at the world athletics championships here on Monday.  In pouring rain, the 21-year-old Olympic silver medallist timed 10.93 seconds to beat the Olympic bronze medallist Veronica Campbell of Jamaica running 10.95sec, a personal season's best... read more...

Haynes calls on WIPA president to step aside

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: As the conflict over the contract row between the WICB and the WIPA continues, former West Indies opener Desmond Haynes is calling on WIPA president to step aside from direct involvement in the negotiations... read more...

USA replaced by Cayman Islands in Intercontinental Cup

DUBAI, UAE (AFP): Political infighting behind the scenes over who controls United States cricket has led the International Cricket Council (ICC) to withdraw the country's invitation to the Intercontinental Cup... read more...