Crisis summit coming
It was announced at the weekend that Caricom leaders will hold a special summit in Trinidad later this month devoted to the international economic downturn.
It will be their first full meeting devoted solely to this financial crisis, which has damaged their economies.
Tourism, the economic lifeblood of several islands, has been particularly hard hit.
The decision for the May 24 summit was announced after a meeting of Caricom foreign ministers in Jamaica.
There will be a foreign policy dimension to the Trinidad meeting.
Antigua’s prime minister Baldwin Spencer said the Caricom leaders will finalise their positions ahead of next month’s United Nations summit on the financial crisis.
Mottley calls for benefits protocol
The opposition leader in Barbados, Mia Mottley, has called for the urgent conclusion of the Caricom protocol on contingent rights for migrants.
Such an accord would potentially give Caricom nationals access to social services, such as education and health, on the same terms as nationals of the territories to which they have migrated.
Ms Mottley said the absence of the protocol had to fears that migrants would “dilute the socio-economic benefits available to citizens” of host countries.
Claim of Stanford informer link
Probes into the financial dealings of Sir Allen Stanford were previously dropped because he may have been a US Government informant, an investigation suggests.
Sir Allen may have been given free rein to run his banking empire as he was working with the American Drug Enforcement Administration, a BBC report will claim.
The cricket entrepreneur has vowed to fight allegations he was involved in a multi-billion dollar fraud, claiming he is the victim of persecution.
Call for new Empire Day
School children in the UK should spend more time celebrating the successes of the British empire, says a London think tank Civitas.
It said doing so would help bind the society.
The Civitas report said one promising approach would be to teach about the role played by troops from the West Indies and other colonies in the defeat of Fascism during the Second World War.
