Jamaica PM Bruce Golding is stepping up the fight against crime

Prime Minister Bruce Golding has ordered additional police patrols and soldiers to curb violent crime in Jamaica's trouble spots.

Mr Golding met with top police commanders on Thursday.

The meeting follows a number of murders in the past week - eighteen at the weekend which have pushed the number of homicides in Jamaica to nearly 550 this year.

Most of the violence has taken place in the capital, Kingston, and the rural parishes St. Catherine and Clarendon.

The crime wave, blamed largely on drug gangs, has frustrated efforts to reduce bloodshed after a record-breaking 1,671 homicides in 2005 made Jamaica one of the most violent countries in the world.

Antigua guns

An Antigua government minister remains unapologetic over his call to arm citizens with guns to ward off would-be attacks.

Eleston "Namba" Adams who holds the culture portfolio, wants people given the option of owning a gun if they choose to.

His statement on the matter has sparked off a debate in a country trying to shake off growing tendencies towards violent crime.

Mr Adams has been accused of advocating the use of guns generally.

But the St Paul’s MP says with an increase of rapes and other crimes citizens should be able to defend themselves.

Burma cyclone

	UN is appealing for aid for the victims of the cyclone in Burma

Caricom officials have described cyclone-hit Burma as a tremendous humanitarian disaster and a shock to the entire region.

Foreign ministers meeting in the Antiguan capital St John's were expected to make a statement on the situation in that Asian country - hit last week by a cyclone that has claimed the lives of well over sixty thousand people.

Today the United Nations World Food Programme announced that it was suspending aid to Burma, accusing the authorities of seizing food it has flown in.

And British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the actions of the Burmese regime in refusing to allow aid agencies to distribute food and supplies were unacceptable.

More Jamaica-Guyana rice talks

Jamaica’s Commerce Minister Karl Samuda is to have another round of trade talks in Guyana this weekend.

He hopes to persuade his Guyanese counterparts to remove their objections to Jamaica’s plans to import rice from outside the region.

Guyana is a main supplier of rice to Jamaica but has been accused of failing to live up to its obligations.

Two weeks ago Mr Samuda announced that Jamaica would seek a waiver of the CET to import 30-thousand tons of rice to satisfy the local market.

But this has sparked outrage in Guyana which maintains that it can adequately meet Jamaica's demand for the commodity.
Mr. Samuda said that he will be seeking to justify Jamaica's decision to import rice from the US:

Earlier this week Guyana’s Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud dismissed Jamaica’s reasons for wanting to buy rice on the North American market.

Mr. Persaud insisted that Guyana has not had a difficulty supplying Jamaica with the staple.

Guyana is also particularly concerned that the rice Jamaica is seeking to import from outside the region is heavily subsidized and puts it at a competitive disadvantage.
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Guyana flour criticised

Another row over the quality of flour imported from Guyana has broken out in Antigua and Barbuda.

One of the country's leading bakers has labelled the product from Georgetown inferior to that imported from mills in St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada.

Antigua and Barbuda began importing cheaper flour from Guyana a week ago to cushion the effect of a proposed 36 percent hike by the mills in the OECS.

The government's trade coordinator had at the time defended the quality of the product from the National Milling Company of Guyana.

But Bertsfield Martin of Brownies Bakery, one of the largest producers and retailers of bread and other flour-based products in St John's, says the Guyana flour does not meet their expectation.

Call for foeign policy clarity

Caricom foreign ministers meeting in Antigua have acknowledged the difficulties involved in trying to harmonise their foreign policies.

Host prime minister Baldwin Spencer, called for a coordinated approach from Caricom on international issues such as China.

Mr Spencer said it was no secret that the region has been unable to arrive at foreign policy consensus on how to deal with the One-China policy.

He observed that while there are some Caricom member states that maintain relations with Taiwan, "two-thirds of the Caricom membership have relations with China".
Another issue has been Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, ALBA.

To date Dominica is the only Caricom country that has become a member of ALBA.

Haitian senate ratifies Pierre for PM

Inter-American Development Bank official Ericq Pierre has moved one step closer to becoming Haiti's new prime minister.

The country made progress towards installing a new government on Wednesday, when the Senate ratified Mr Pierre for prime minister.

The Senate approval came more than a month after violent protests over rising food prices that led to the ouster of the old government.

Ericq Pierre, if also approved by the Chamber of Deputies, would replace Jacques Edouard Alexis who was fired by the Senate on April 12 after a week of food riots that killed at least six people.

Moves to boost production

The Guyana government this week announced measures to boost food production, and salary increases to counter the impact of inflation on the country.

	The Guyana government has offered salary increases to alleviate rising food prices

President Bharrat Jagdeo said some 600 thousand packets of seeds, fertiliser and pesticides worth 100 thousand dollars would be distributed across the country in a drive to maximise food production.

He also disclosed that the price of wheat flour sold to bakeries would be subsidised to stabilise the cost of bread.

The measures announced to counter rising food prices include a five percent wage hike for public sector workers and a small tax break for some government employees.

Opposition demonstrates

But the government’s efforts have not impressed the opposition.

The People’s National Congress/Reform led hundreds of people on a march through the capital Georgetown to protest rising food prices.

There were clashes with the police over the route towards the parliament taken by the marchers.

The PNC accuses the government of mishandling the food crisis.

Dual citizenship debate continues

Debate over whether Caribbean nationals with foreign citizenship should be allowed to hold public office has resurfaced, following the resignation this week, of a top civil servant in Jamaica.

The island's director of elections Danville Walker, who holds US citizenship, resigned on Monday.

An MP of the ruling party in Jamaica this week gave up his US passport after a court ruled that he had violated the Jamaica constitution.

MPs in Grenada, St Kitts, Jamaica Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago have also been caught up in the dual citizenship row.

New residency rules in Antigua

The Antigua and Barbuda government on Tuesday reopened its Temporary Residence Division of the Immigration Department.

That division was closed for more than two weeks to facilitate a probe into its operation.

The authorities say the investigation became necessary after it was discovered that a group of non-nationals were granted temporary residency for five years, four times more than what is lawfully required.

The government in St John's says the Immigration Department's Temporary Residence Division will now operate under new guidelines.

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer who holds the immigration portfolio, said only new applicants who satisfy the legally required three year residential qualification will be considered

Suriname strike

Striking teachers in Suriname say they will not return to work until outstanding issues with the government are resolved.

The teachers have been off the job for the past two weeks, protesting the implementation of a controversial salary scheme for the public sector.

They are also demanding a pay hike and better working conditions.

This is the second strike by teachers for the 2007 - 2008 academic year.

Classes were disrupted last November, when teachers staged a month-long strikd over a pay dispute.

The government has already said it will not proceed with talks until the teachers return to work.

Food crisis - Haiti

The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has met Haitian President Rene Preval for talks on food prices.

Jacques Diouf said the main problem for the Haitian government was "the need to be able to do something to lower the prices of basic food products".

The food crisis poses a serious risk to the country's already precarious political stability.

At least seven people were killed this month in food riots that cost Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis his job.

During his visit, Mr Diouf also met farmers who are receiving funds from the European Union and told them that "the world is now realising, more and more everyday, that there is no life without agriculture".

Globally, food prices have risen 40 per cent since mid-2007.

Haiti is particularly affected because it imports nearly all of its food, including more than 80 percent of its rice.

Unions split on strike call

A senior Trinidad and Tobago trade unionist has warned of the possibility of a nationwide strike over the high cost of living in the country.

First Vice-President of the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU), Ancil Roget, says the country is experiencing what he called “a collapse of governance” with increasing food prices and almost double-digit inflation.

The trade union official the government had failed to act causing workers to suffer.

Mr Ancil threatened that if it takes a national shutdown to get the government's attention, then his union - the Oilfield Workers Trade Union - is prepared to do so.

But his approach is not supported by some other unions.

President of the National Trade Union Centre of Trinidad and Tobago (NATUC), Michael Annisette, said all available avenues to address the situation have not yet been exhausted.

He said that there was still time to talk to the government and employers with a view to addressing workers' concerns.

The Trinidad government has ruled out subsidies saying that would only lead to corruption.

It has said that it's looking into importing cheaper foodstuff from Latin America and is making more land available for agriculture.

The government has also warned merchants against profiteering.

Air Jamaica for sale

Jamaica is getting funding from the United States to help with the sale of Air Jamaica.

Washington is providing a 59 million dollar grant to assist the government in divesting the loss-making airline.

	Air Jamaica for sale

An agreement to that effect was signed this week.

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding says the Government will try to sell the airline by the end of the current fiscal year.

Jamaica to grow rice

The government of Jamaica says it is setting aside almost 5 thousand acres of public land to grow rice for local consumption.

The agriculture minister, Christopher Tufton, said he expected the private sector to help cultivate the land.

The minister said he hoped the measure would help offset rising food prices and grain supply problems in Jamaica.

Other countries in the Caribbean region, such as Guyana and Trinidad, have taken similar policies to encourage local food production, to help deal with rising commodity prices.

US says DR is main drugs route

US officials claim the Dominican Republic has become the main Caribbean transit route for drugs smuggled into the United States.

The US Joint Interagency Task Force says the Dominican Republic has lost control of its airspace and cocaine laden flights from Venezuela in particular are soaring.

A recent State Department report said the Dominican Republic and Haiti saw a 38 percent increase in drug smuggling flights last year.

Tourism challenges

Tourism experts meeting in Trinidad and Tobago say it's going to be very challenging for the Caribbean tourism industry for at least another year.

That's because they don't expect the US economy's downward slide into recession to end in the short term.

Chief economist and senior vice president of Scotia Bank in Canada Warren Jestin says that coupled with high oil prices, will make things difficult for Caribbean tourism.

The advice from the experts is for Caribbean hoteliers to consider reaching out to European travellers whose currency will go a far longer way in the Caribbean as the US dollar slides.

Britain restructures Caribbean services

The British government is scaling down its diplomatic services in the Eastern Caribbean.

Officials at the British High Commission in Antigua have announced that the commission is in the process of winding down its operations in that OECS country.

June 30 has been given as the date that the High Commission office in St John's will cease its operations on the island - but its final day of business will be earlier on June 6.

An Embassy statement said the Gordon Brown administration in London was carrying out a restructuring of its diplomatic presence in the Eastern Caribbean.

Officials say Antiguan inquiries will be handled by the British High Commission in Barbados.

Bush criticises Cuba reform

	Raul Castro took over from brother Fidel in February

US President George Bush has again rejected calls for easing US trade restrictions in Cuba, saying that new president Raul Castro has made only empty gestures at reform.

Mr Bush was addressing the Council of the Americas, a business group that advocates for democracy and open markets in the Western Hemisphere.

The White House also said that President Bush told Cuban democratic activists that there's been no change at all in Cuba, since Raul Castro took over as president in February.

Mr Castro has announced reforms in agriculture, giving farmers more control of the industry.

He has also allowed Cubans to own mobile phones.