CASTRIES, St. Lucia CMC-Two years after Heads of Government of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), declared that people of the regional grouping can move freely, Chairman of the OECS Authority Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Baldwin Spencer says the free movement of nationals will continue to hold a pride of place in efforts to further develop one economic space among the OECS Member States.
ROSEAU, Dominica, Barbados Nation– Prominent regional jurist, Sir Brian Alleyne, says he is optimistic that Caribbean countries will come soon to the realisation that they all need to join the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
But Sir Brian, the former Acting Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, says it is also necessary for the regional countries to allow for much debate on the court that was established in 2001 to replace the London-based Privy Council as the regional final court.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has accused the government of reneging on a promise to pay outstanding gratuities to nurses, who on Wednesday began strike action in support of their demands. Chairman of the GPSU branch at the Linden Hospital Complex, Winston Luke, said that the negotiations on the timely payment for the nurses had broken down and that an estimated 75 workers should have been paid GUY$6 million (One Guyana dollar = US$0.01 cents) with their March salaries.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Guardian - Construction of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s prized $1.5 billion Couva Children’s Hospital is in jeopardy as seismic and structural experts have called for all work there to be aborted. This is because the hospital and multi-training facility is being built near the Central Range earthquake fault line, which experts say is in danger of being hit by a major earthquake of 7.5 magnitude or above.
WASHINGTON, CMC – The US Department of State says it has begun a new multiple-entry visa program for Cubans. “The Obama administration believes these measures, in addition to others, will increase people-to-people contact, support civil society in Cuba and enhance the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people,” said the State Department in a statement. The new program will make non-immigrant visas valid for five years instead of the current six months and valid for multiple entries.
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - An experimental malaria vaccine proved highly effective in a small, early-stage clinical trial in people, raising hope in the global effort to combat the deadly disease, U.S. researchers reported yesterday in the journal Science. “This was something that everybody said was not possible. And here it is,” Navy Captain Judith Epstein, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview.
WASHINGTON, CMC – The United States Department of Justice says a US citizen has been convicted for directing funds to an offshore account in Nevis. On Wednesday, the department said Jimmie Duane Ross of Lehi, Utah, and formerly of Sevierville, Tennessee, was convicted of five counts of tax evasion following a jury trial in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. According to the indictment and evidence produced at trial, Ross won a monetary award of about US$840,000 in 1999 after arbitration of an employment dispute with a former employer.
LONDON, CMC – The London-based human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, has called on Cuban authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release five men named as prisoners of conscience.
(Trinidad Express) Government is seeking legal advice on the possibility of postponing the local government elections, sources said yesterday.
If the government moves for a postponement this would be a complete reversal of the Prime Minister’s earlier pledges of her People’s Partnership Government to hold elections when they are constitutionally due by October 26.
The fundamental rethink has come in the wake of the debacle which befell the United National Congress (UNC) in the Chaguanas West by-election on July 29 in their heartland seat.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Aug 9, CMC – A meeting late Thursday between Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar and an environment group opposed to a section of the multi-billion dollar highway south of here, ended with both parties giving contrasting viewpoints on its outcome.
The Highway Re-route Movement (HRM), led by environmentalist Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh had requested the meeting in a bid to get the prime minister’s position on whether or not she would abide by the James Armstrong report.