UN Secretary General wants the world's leaders to meet to discuss food shortages

United Nation Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wants immediate concerted action to help resolve the global food crisis.

He says steeply rising price of food has developed into a real global crisis, and that the United Nations is very concerned about the situation.

The UN chief has urged world leaders to sit down together on an urgent basis to discuss how to improve economic distribution systems and agricultural production.

In Haiti there have been violent protests against rising prices and food shortages, protests that have claimed lives and led to the Prime Minister being sacked.

A spokesman for the World Food Programme has said that the UN agency lacks crucially needed funds to help feed Haiti's poor.

WFP's Alejandro Lopez called on international donors to provide urgent and massive aid.

Haiti's food crisis has also caught the attention of OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza who led a high level delegation to Port au Prince on Thursday.

His deputy Albert Ramdin told BBC Caribbean there was an urgent need to address the food problems facing the Haitian people.

PM defends minister sacking

Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister, Patrick Manning has defended his decision to sack one of his most senior ministers - the trade and industry minister, Keith Rowley.

Mr Rowley says he believes he was fired for speaking out over what he views as questionable spending patterns at the Urban Development Company.

However, Mr Manning says the decision to sack the minister surrounds his "unacceptable behaviour" at a Finance and General Purpose meeting last week.

Aruba strike

The Aruba government and the public sector unions are said to be closer to agreement over a pay dispute which has been going on for almost two months.

The unions are pressing for higher pay which the government says it cannot afford.

However they are now said to be closer to a compromise.

The government says the strike, involving at least half a dozen unions is seriously damaging the country's economy.

Aruba experienced ten percent inflation last year and the unions say that, coupled with rapid food price rises, is driving workers towards the poverty line.

OECS economic public consultation begins

A public dialogue on a proposed OECS economic union kicked off in Roseau Wednesday, launching what is expected to be twelve months of consultation in the islands of the sub-region on closer integration.

The OECS member states already cooperate in a number of areas, one being joint diplomatic missions in some major capitals.

Now they want to add more as a cost saving measure.

That was just one of the reasons advanced by the OECS Director General Dr Len Ishmael for the consultation aimed at deepening OECS unity.

Speaking at Wednesday's launch, OECS Chairman, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica, urged citizens to "participate actively in the thrust to further strengthen the integration process."

‘Aye’ for dual nationality

Left up to St Lucia's Prime Minister Stephenson King, any St Lucian who has another nationality would not have to give that up if up he - or she - wishes to serve in the country's parliament.

The issue follows a Jamaica court ruling that a sitting MP in that country should not hold dual nationality.

The controversial matter is being followed closely by several Caribbean states where, in some cases, MPs have owned up to holding foreign passports.

In the case of St Lucia it's been alleged that at a least one MP in Mr King's United Workers Party has another nationality.

But the Prime Minister told BBC Caribbean if that's the case he has no problem with it.

Consider cassava …

... and yams and potatoes - that message from Jamaica's agriculture minister on how the country could cope with the global food price crisis has received the blessings of a top US agriculture organisation.

The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture says Jamaica should re- its taste for imported foodstuffs as global food prices continue to rise and eat more of what is - and can be grown locally.

	Jamaicans are urged to grow more of what they eat

The American agriculture organisation's call follows an appeal from the country's agriculture minister Dr Christopher Tufton for more emphasis to be placed on local foods production.

Yams, dasheens, potatoes and cassava are high on the list of local foods that Dr Tufton wants to see more of on Jamaican tables.

Election’s in the air

In what's seen as yet another hint of general elections, Grenada's Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell said he will be inviting a number of regional and international organisations to act as observers.

Addressing thousands of supporters at a youth rally on Sunday, Dr. Mitchell said the Organisation of American States - OAS and the CARICOM Secretariat are among organisations that he’s inviting to send observer missions for the election - when it's called.

And he said indicated that it was more to keep an eye on the opposition.

Dr Mitchell's New National Party (NNP) won the last elections in 2003 by a slim 8 to 7 majority over the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Parliamentary elections are due by in November this year.

Tournament to rival Indian Premier League

Antigua-based Texan billionaire, Sir Allen Stanford, has told the BBC he would be prepared to invest in a 20-over competition in England to rival the Indian Premier League.

Sir Allen says he would work alongside the England and Wales Cricket Board to increase the profile of their competition.

His multi-million dollars Stanford 20/20 tournament in the Caribbean is by all indications a huge success.

India has its own version that's pulling in the players, the crowds and the money.

Now Sir Allen Stanford wants to go global with big-money 20-overs cricket - and he feels it could be as big and perhaps even bigger than football.

He said given the right guidance, the 20/20 format could make cricket a truly global sport.

Targeting Carifesta

Guyana's main opposition Peoples National Congress Reform (PNCR) is threatening to derail the country's hosting of this year's Caribbean Festival of Arts - Carifesta.

The PNCR says this is an attempt to force the government to address a number of problems they say the country is facing.

But Guyana's Culture Minister Dr Frank Anthony questions the opposition's targeting of the regional arts festival and calls their threat political opportunism.

Carifesta was officially launched this week but the festival will be held in August.

Oxfam still says ‘no’ to EPAs

Proposed trade deals between Europe and dozens of its former colonies would expose poor nations to cheap industrial imports and slash their customs revenues, British-based charity Oxfam said today.

In a report entitled "Partnership or Power Play?", Oxfam called on the 35 countries from the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group to renegotiate the draft deals.

It's not the first time that Oxfam has come out against the EPAs.

The EU wants the deals formally signed by July this year.

Caribbean countries rushed to meet an EU deadline of last December 31st to initial the document.

Migration could increase

There are concerns that the food crisis in Haiti could lead to an increase in the number of migrants trying to make it illegally to US shores.

Last weekend the US coast guard pulled the bodies of 20 men and women from the sea off the coast of the Bahamas, after the boat the migrants were travelling in capsized.

Most of the dead were from Haiti.

Now, with basic food items doubling in price and reports that some people are actually eating mud biscuits to survive, the number of Haitians risking their lives to leave is likely to rise.

BBC Caribbean's correspondent Joseph Guyler Delva said that in the last few days, a large number of Haitians have been trying to leave the country, as life becomes more difficult.

Jamaica wants CET waiver

The Jamaica government says it wants the Common External Tariff waived on rice imports, because it has been unable to get a commitment from Guyana on rice supplies.

Talks have been ongoing for sometime now on the issue between the governments in Kingston and Georgetown.

	Jamaica wants to remove a 25% Caricom duty on foreign rice

But in a statement on Monday, the Bruce Golding administration said it is applying for an immediate suspension of the CET on rice for the next six months.

This, it said, is in order to satisfy local demands at affordable prices.

The price of rice in Jamaica is reported to have increased by around 30 percent.

TT addresses food price rise issue

A massive increase in food production, a more alert consumer and a threat to take legal action against profiteering merchants - these were the main planks of a statement made Tuesday by the Minister for Consumer Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago to deal with increasing food prices.

Peter Taylor made the statement in parliament following an assertion by Prime Minister Patrick Manning that the government had the solution to the problems of high and rising food prices.

Mr Taylor told the senate that the government is bringing over 20,000 acres of land into agricultural production.

He said the vegetables and fruits from the farms will be available and affordable for local consumers.

The minister added that 5,000 other farmers will be given leases for the lands in June of this year.

Food prices in DR election campaign

The food price crisis has become one of the key election issues in the Dominican Republic.

The Spanish-speaking Caribbean nation is going to the polls on 16 May.

The latest opinion poll suggests that President Leonel Fernandez would win 51.7 percent of the vote.

His closest rival Miguel Vargas Maldonado of the social democratic Dominican Revolutionary Party would get just over 37 percent, according to the Gallup survey published on Monday.

BBC Caribbean reporter in Santo Domingo, Jean Michel Caroit, says the main issue dominating the election build up has been the soaring costs of food.

Tribute for 'Mother Booker'

Tributes will be paid this weekend in Miami and Jamaica to Cedella Marley Booker, the mother of reggae icon Bob Marley.

Mother Booker, as she was affectionately known, died on April 8 in Mimai.

She was 81 years old.

Her funeral will be held in Jamaica on Monday where she will be buried at Nine Miles next to her son Bob Marley's mausoleum.

In addition to charity work, Cedella Marley Booker had also recorded two albums and wrote two biographies on her famous son.