Category: Regional

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has marked his 12th anniversary of coming to power by urging supporters to press ahead with his socialist revolution. Chavez asked Venezuelans to forgive any “mistakes” he had made in office. But he said his government had lived up to the hope his first election victory had inspired, and he highlighted achievements in education and poverty reduction. Chavez, 56, added that he was confident of winning another six-year term in elections in 2012. He said the electoral campaign had “already begun”, and was going to be…

The Assistant Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, says the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom) grouping has a moral obligation to assist in the further development of Haiti. “I believe that Caricom can play an enormously important role, and should take the lead in the debate and the direction in which the debate should go,” Ramdin said, when he met with Caricom Chairman, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas of Grenada on Monday, January 31st. Ramdin said the OAS is aware of the efforts of Caricom and the…

Rapturous applause and cries of “queen” greeted Mara Thompson on Tuesday as Barbados’ newest Member of Parliament arrived at the Parliament Buildings to take her seat in the House of Assembly. Early morning showers did not deter the large number of people who turned out – most of them St John residents – and they were more numerous than those who had assembled for the official opening of Parliament following the 2008 General Elections. Shortly before the bell sounded to signal the start of the House session at 10 a.m.,…

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has declared an all-out war on corruption, insisting the People’s Partnership government was “deadly serious” about the issue. “As prime minister, I will not tolerate (or) condone, nor will I defend a corrupt practice. I will not allow anyone to breach the sacred public trust,” she stressed on Friday, January 21st, while delivering an opening address at a day-long seminar for chairmen and directors of state boards at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) in Port-of-Spain. The event, which was attended…

A top United States immigration official says that a year after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the Obama administration has received more than 53,000 applications from Haitians seeking Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the U.S., disclosing that it has approved the vast majority. Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Alejandro Mayorkas, said the agency’s response to the disaster showed that it could handle a much larger immigrant legalization programme, like the proposal known as the Dream Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands…

“If anybody is going up for the post of political leader of the PNM, it ain’t me.” So said former prime minister Patrick Manning, during an interview with journalists at GTM Building, San Fernando, on Friday.   Manning, who resigned from the post of political leader in May last year, denied rumours that he was thinking of returning to his former post.  “There is absolutely no truth to that!” he said. “I made a statement in Parliament recently, and I repeated in Parliament what I had said to the PNM general…

Grenada’s Finance Minister Nazim Burke Grenada’s Finance Minister Nazim Burke on Thursday presented an EC$203.7 million capital budget. It is EC$44.7 million more than last year’s, or an increase of 35.6 per cent. Burke told Parliament that the government has increased the allocation for tourism, the lead earner of foreign exchange; increased the allocation to agriculture and fisheries; and extended tax relief to the construction and automobile industries.  He also announced that the Tillman Thomas administration will waive personal income tax on severance payment made to workers by employers upon…