BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - THE report that LIAT has acquired the first ATR 72-600 aircraft as part of a programme to upgrade its fleet is good news for the island-hopping airline. But as the Caribbean air carrier embarks on this project, which is costly but necessary, now is the time for other islands w...

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...

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...

KINGSTON, Jamaica - After a couple of highly successful debt-swap programmes in the last three years, two economists have warned that Jamaica should not even contemplate a similar move for its foreign obligations. Such a move, warned Dr Damien King, head of the Department of Economics at the Univers...

BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – Prime Minister Dean Barrow is defending the decision of his government to take over the International Business Companies Registry and the International Merchant Marine Registry of Belize even as the Belize International Services Limited (BISL), the private company manag...

GEORGETOWN, Guyana - What began on May 28 as a protest against the planned redevelopment of a park in Istanbul, to accommodate the construction of a replica Ottoman-era barracks and a mosque, has snowballed into a national political crisis for Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar Thursday announced July 29 as the date for the by-election in Chaguanas West, almost two months after her embattled national security minister Austin “Jack” Warner resigned on April 26. Warner, who had also submit...

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – The St. Lucia government says several policy changes taking place in Cuba will severely affect Havana’s contribution to the health sector of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries. Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony, who recently ended a week long official visit...

KINGSTON, Jamaica - DR GENE LEON, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) senior resident representative to Jamaica, has branded as illusionary, the view that an inflow of hard currency from the multinationals will bring stability to the country's foreign exchange market. Leon, who was a guest at ...

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 ...