Cuba and Dominican Republic strengthen commercial bonds
New business opportunities to boost a greater commercial flow between Cuba and the Dominican Republic were analyzed on Monday in Havana by a group of entrepreneurs from the two nations.
Attending the meeting, organized by the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, were representatives of several Dominican Republic enterprises, headed by Eddy Martinez, general secretary and executive director of the Center for Exports and Foreign Investment.
Martinez told the press about his interest in significantly consolidating bonds in the fields of trade, cooperation and investment, “because in addition to fraternity, there’s still economic potential that has not been exploited between the two countries.”
He explained that this type of meeting represents new opportunities of development for Cuban and Dominican Republic enterprises, in order to generate more riches and jobs. He added that, at present, the commercial flow between the two parties is around $60 million a year, a figure still insufficient, when compared to what is obtained from their trade with the rest of the world.
That’s the reason why it is hoped, he said, that during the meeting between the two countries’ delegations, projects and joint work agreements, particularly in sectors like energy, food, health, mining, manufacture and services, are established — a priority for their economies.
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UN's Ban says Arab League mission to Syria may resume
UN chief Ban Ki-moon says the Arab League plans to revive its mission to Syria, and has sought help from the UN.
Mr Ban said the "disastrous" failure to agree a UN resolution on Syria had encouraged Damascus "to step up its war on its own people".
The international community is struggling to find a way forward in the crisis after Russia and China blocked the resolution last week.
Syrian forces are continuing to attack opposition strongholds in the country.
Hundreds of people have died in the central city of Homs after days of heavy bombardment.
Speaking at the UN, Mr Ban said: "I fear that the appalling brutality we are witnessing in Homs, with heavy weapons firing into civilian neighbourhoods, is a grim harbinger of worse to come."
He said Arab League chief Nabil el-Arabi had told him he intended to revive a monitoring mission in Syria, which collapsed last month amid escalating violence.
Mr Ban said Mr Arabi had asked for UN help with the project and proposed a joint UN-Arab League observer mission, including a joint special envoy.
"In the coming days we will further consult with the council before fleshing out details,'' Mr Ban said.
"We stand ready to assist in any way that will contribute toward improvement on the ground.''
Lost opportunity
Earlier, the US rejected Russian calls for talks between the Syrian government and the opposition.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Bashar al-Assad had missed the "opportunity" for dialogue.
"From the (earliest) days of this situation in Syria, there was an opportunity for the Assad regime to engage in dialogue with the opposition," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
"Rather than take that opportunity, Assad brutally cracked down on his own people. We don't think that that opportunity is available any more.
"It is clear that Assad has chosen a path and that choice has resulted in the deaths of many Syrians, including innocent children."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who visited Damascus on Tuesday, had said that President Assad was ready to talk with "all political forces" to end the violence.
But his comments were dismissed by opposition leaders and violence across Syria has continued unabated.
Mr Carney said the US planned to meet soon with its international partners to discuss ways to stop the violence in Syria and provide humanitarian aid.
In a day of intense diplomatic activity, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Wednesday that if the UN Security Council couldn't protect Syrian civilians, then like-minded countries should find ways to do so.
He is due in Washington for talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton early next week.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in a phone conversation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday, urged the West "to avoid hasty unilateral steps" in Syria, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Meanwhile, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 50 people were killed in Wednesday's shelling of Homs.
Witnesses in the Baba Amr neighbourhood reported intense shelling by tanks, mortars, artillery and heavy machine guns.
"The situation is dire. We are short of food, water and medical aid. Doctors have collapsed after treating the wounded without rest for five days," said activist Omar Shaker in Homs.
"We want Lavrov to come and spend a night in Homs to see what we have been passing through."
The Observatory also reported at least another eight civilians killed around the country on Wednesday.
Syria restricts access to foreign media and casualty figures cannot be independently verified.
The UN resolution backed an Arab League peace plan that would have seen President Assad hand power to a deputy to oversee a transition.
Russia, a strong ally of Syria, said that amounted to regime change.
The Syrian government blames the violence on foreign-backed groups and insists the Homs offensive will continue until "order" is restored in the city.
Wade Faces Protests on Campaign Trail
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade took his controversial campaign for another term on the road Wednesday, holding a rally in a town where opposition support is strong.
The president's convoy faced rock-throwing protesters as it drove the 70 kilometers from the capital to Thies. At the rally site, thousands of supporters wearing Mr. Wade's Democratic Party blue came to cheer him on. But the crowd was much smaller than those he once attracted as a longtime opposition leader.
The 85-year-old Mr. Wade has faced violent opposition to his bid for a third term, despite a two-term limit. Last month, a court agreed that the limit did not apply to him because it came into effect after he was first elected in 2000.
On Tuesday, the president summoned the U.S. ambassador to Senegal after local media published an interview in which he criticized President Wade's bid for a third term.
Ambassador Lewis Lukens told local journalists that President Wade has compromised the elections and threatened the security of the country by insisting on running for a third term in the February 26 presidential election.
The U.S. State Department also has urged Mr. Wade to allow power to pass “to the next generation,” prompting complaints of foreign intervention by Mr. Wade's government.
Thirteen candidates are competing against Mr. Wade, including his former allies, Macky Sall and Idrissa Seck. A run-off will be held if no one wins more than half of the total vote.
UN Condemns Tuareg Violence; New Town Under Rebel Control
Tuareg rebels in northern Mali have seized a strategic border town, and the United Nations has urged an end to the fighting.
Rebel fighters said Wednesday they seized the town of Tinzawaten, and government forces confirmed they made a “strategic” retreat. The government troops withdrew across the border into Algeria.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he is “deeply concerned” about the civilian casualties and large numbers of people displaced from the fighting. In a statement Wednesday, Mr. Ban called on the rebels to immediately end all attacks and to use talks with the government to resolve their grievances.
Tuareg rebels launched this new rebellion on January 17, clashing with government troops in several northern towns. The United Nations refugee agency says at least 22,000 people have fled the unrest in northern Mali.
Hundreds of ethnic Tuaregs recently returned to northern Mali from Libya, where they fought alongside troops loyal to ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi.
The government has been holding talks in recent months in an effort to defuse rising tensions in the north.
Tuareg rebels say they are seeking independence from the southern-based government, which they say has ignored Mali's impoverished northern desert region.
Tuareg nomads are present throughout the Sahel region of Africa. Both Mali and Niger have battled Tuareg uprisings in the last decade.
Pakistan, NATO Hold Border Talks Following Deadly Attack
Representatives of the Pakistani army, NATO and Afghan forces have met for talks in an effort to improve coordination along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The meeting Wednesday in Pakistan's border town of Torkham is a sign of easing of tensions between the United States and Pakistan after NATO airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last year.
Pakistan was outraged by the attack on two of its Afghan border posts in November and retaliated by closing its border to transit of NATO supplies for its troops in Afghanistan.
Last month, Pakistan's army rejected a U.S. military probe into the November 26 cross-border coalition attack. The army said it did not agree with U.S. findings that American forces acted in self-defense and with appropriate force after being fired on by Pakistani soldiers.
U.S. defense officials blamed inadequate coordination by both American and Pakistani forces.
But tensions seemed to have eased slightly, with Pakistani officials saying in recent days the government should reopen its border to NATO supplies as long as it can negotiate higher fees.
In Washington, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State department, Victoria Nuland, said Wednesday that the United States has made great efforts and invested a fair amount of U.S. taxpayers' money into education and microlending programs, flood relief and all kinds of economic opportunity programs for Pakistan because it believes that a strong Pakistan is in the interest of both sides.
Ties between the two countries were already strained following last May's U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden and repeated U.S. drone strikes targeting militants in Pakistan's northwest.
Pakistani officials say the latest drone attack, which took place in the North Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday, killed 10 people.
Officials say two missiles hit a compound suspected of belonging to militants. Security officials say the dead included foreigners and locals.
Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama publicly acknowledged for the first time that the United States uses drone strikes against militants in Pakistan.
Mr. Obama defended the operations, which have greatly increased during his administration, saying they are used for “very precise, precision strikes” in the fight against al-Qaida.
The Washington-based New America Foundation says drone strikes in Pakistan have killed between 1,700 and 2,700 people in the past eight years.
Pakistan rejects the attacks as a violation of its sovereignty.
Majority Supports Obama on Drone Strikes, Troop Drawdown
A new poll indicates that President Barack Obama has the overwhelming support of Americans for his use of drone strikes against terror suspects and his planned troop drawdown in Afghanistan.
According to the ABC News/Washington Post survey released Wednesday, 83 percent of those polled say they approve of the president's use of unmanned drone aircraft against the terror suspects. Two out of three respondents said they favor the use of the drones specifically against Americans in other countries who are terror suspects – potentially touchier legal territory.
Seventy percent said they approve of President Obama's decision to keep open the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention center. In 2009, Mr. Obama signed an order temporarily suspending military court proceedings at the base and promising its closure. But the U.S. Senate blocked funds needed for the transfer of prisoners from the facility. U.S. officials have since said prospects for closing the prison are small, given broad opposition in Congress to such a move.
In addition, 78 percent of the poll's respondents said they support Mr. Obama's plans to draw down troops in Afghanistan. Among Democrats, 93 percent said they want to see the troops leave Afghanistan, compared to 64 percent of Republicans.
One thousand people were surveyed for the poll earlier this month. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Marley sculpture erected at UTech
THE University of Technology (UTech) yesterday unveiled a sculpture of late Reggae icon, Robert Nesta “Bob” Marley, at its Papine campus in St. Andrew.
The piece, which has been erected in the institution’s Caribbean Sculpture Park, was designed by Russian sculptor, Gregory Pototsky, and presented as a gift to the institution and, by extension, the government and people Jamaica.
The unveiling of the Bob Marley sculpture coincided with the 67th anniversary of the late Reggae exponent’s birth, and was one of two pieces formally presented to UTech. The second was a sculpture, dubbed: “People’s Organism”, designed by Jamaican artist and Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA) alumnus, Warren Buckle.
Youth and Culture Minister, Lisa Hanna, in welcoming the gesture by Pototsky, noted Bob Marley’s focus and commitment to uplifting the ordinary person, through Jamaica’s foremost cultural and musical art form, Reggae. She said the late musician had touched and inspired the lives of millions globally, including Pototsky, adding that “his legacy lives”.
Hanna said the sculpture would be as a lasting monument between the people and governments of Jamaica and Russia, noting that it “will stand as a lasting reminder of our friendship and cooperation”.
Threat of chutney soca court battle
Southex promoter George Singh is threatening legal action against the promoters of an alternative competition to his Chutney Soca Monarch competition—citing copyright infringement.
Singh has written to promoter of the rival competition, former San Fernando mayor Ian Atherly, stating he would take whatever action is necessary to protect his company's reputation and trade name.
Atherly recently launched a National Chutney Soca Monarch competition, produced by the National Chutney Foundation (NCFTT).
The NCFTT has countered Singh's claim, stating its name was incorporated through an Act in Parliament to which the name of Chutney Soca Monarch was developed and promoted since 1994.
The NCFTT stated it was prepared to be represented in any court proceedings to justify its claim.
Singh noted the similar competition names would create confusion in the minds of the public, making them believe the events were related.
The 2012 Chutney Soca Monarch Competition was relocated this year from its birthplace at Skinner Park, San Fernando, to the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain. It takes place on Saturday.
The move triggered Atherly to launch the new competition—The National Carnival Chutney Soca Monarch—to be held at Skinner Park on February 18.
Singh has stated the Chutney Soca Monarch was a registered name to the directors of Southex Event Management Company Ltd.
"Please desist from advertising this event under the name or banner immediately, as you are infringing our rights, and can do irreparable damage to the reputation of this event which was established 17 years ago and has now become a national event and one of the two most important events in Trinidad and Tobago Carnival," he stated.
Singh said the name—Chutney Soca Monarch—distinguishes his show from any other chutney soca competition "...and your use of the name 'National Chutney Soca Monarch' amounts to a passing off your show as ours and is an infringement of our registered trade name, and is deceptive, in the sense that it is capable of deceiving the public into believing that your show is ours, which it is not", the letter stated.
However, the NFCTT has said its 2012 National Carnival Chutney Soca Monarch was approved and all advertisements in relation to the promotion should continue without fear of any breach of related laws.
Bunji rocks bSquare
AN ELDERLY woman yesterday threw her hands in the air and completely surrendered to soca music at Woodford Square in Port-of-Spain as she took part in the Bmobile ‘Soca In bSquare’ free midday concert, which runs daily for this entire week.
The petite woman smiled heartily and pounded her chest and ‘ramajayed’ with gay abandon in the scorching heat as veteran Calypsonian Baron (Timothy Watkins) belted out his 1984 hit “Feeling It”.
Baron, who performed alongside Fay-Ann Lyons Alvarez and her husband Bunji Garlin (Ian Alvarez) with the Asylum band, were the first in the line-up of artistes who will perform at the Square this week. Bunji treated his fans to new favourites like “Runaway”, “So and So” and “Tun Up”, before going into a medley of old songs. He even delved into some free styling which hyped many of his fans.
His wife, Fay-Ann greeted her fans with past hits like “Start Wining”, “Heavy T Bumper” and “Call Meh”, before going into her collaboration with Baron “All Over” and then ending with “Miss Behave” .
Both the young and old took up virtually every inch of Woodford Square waving and swaying throughout the one-hour concert. Some who walked with their umbrellas to shield the sun found themselves swaying their umbrellas from side to side while others had their eyes fixed on the stage not wanting to miss out on any action.
Over the years, bmobile has donated to various charity events at the week long concerts. In what is the sixth year for this concert, bmobile will try a new approach and treat children from various institutions to VIP treatment and photo opportunities with their favourite soca star. Yesterday Chinapoo Police Youth Club and Kids In Need of Direction (KIND) were the first schools to be treated. Today’s offering will be Raymond Ramnarine and Dil E Nadan, Rikki Jai and K Rich.
Reggae sensation Beres Hammond headlines regatta closing party
Beres Hammond who is the biggest name in contemporary Reggae will be the headline act for the Sunday night close out party of the 2012 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta on Kimsha Beach.
Hammond, (born Hugh Beresford Hammond, 28 August 1955, Annotto Bay, Saint Mary, Jamaica) is a world-renown reggae singer who is best known for his romantic lovers’ rock and soulful voice. While his career began in the 1970s, he reached his greatest success in the 1990s and continues to thrill audiences today.
Don’t be deceived by his cool profile because his playful smile, unassuming demeanor, the beard and the cap and the spectacles as these might lull you into forgetting that you’re in the presence of an awesome musical talent, Jamaica’s greatest practicing singer/songwriter. Beres remains cool, though he knows that he’s one of a handful of people responsible for maintaining a mighty legacy of soulful reggae music—a select group of artists like Toots and Gregory, like Dennis and Bob. “Father bless me with a song,” he pleads on the last cut of his latest album, Music Is Life, “to make the whole world sing along. Regardless of the race, regardless of the taste.” For Beres the blessings just keep coming, and the world is just starting to catch on.
Over the course of a 30-year career, Beres has poured his smoky-sweet voice — an instrument of subtlety and power reminiscent of an Otis Redding or a Teddy Pendergrass — over every kind of riddim track, from the funked-up reggae jams of the fusion band Zap Pow to the lush instrumentation of his album Soul Reggae to the spare digital beat of his 1985 dancehall breakthrough “What One Dance Can Do.”
Hammond left his fame in Jamaica for New York in 1987, after being tied up as thieves ransacked his house during a home invasion. There he recorded the Have a Nice Weekend album and the duet single “How Can We Ease the Pain” with Maxi Priest – the 2010 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta headliner.
Hammond returned to Jamaica briefly to record Putting Up Resistance, which was significantly harder than his typical ballads, produced by Tappa Zukie, which spawned the hits “Putting Up Resistance” and “Strange”. He signed with Penthouse Records in 1990 and returned to Jamaica permanently to record the dancehall smash “Tempted to Touch”, with producer Donovan Germain. This is perhaps his best known song in the United States and United Kingdom.
Beres started building his home studio in the early ’90s, setting the trend among successful reggae artists to take over their own production duties. But his spontaneous method of composing, and his unwillingness to compromise, made a home studio the natural choice. Beres’s home studio attracts a steady stream of Jamaica’s most talented musicians.
The ’90s proved to be Hammond’s decade, during which he blazed a trail of modern classics for a variety of producers, from the strugglers’ anthem “Putting Up Resistance” (Tappa) to lovers’ laments like “Come Back Home” (Star Trail) and “Double Trouble” (Steely & Clevie). Now garnering interest from major studios such as Elektra Records, Hammond recorded five more albums in the 1990s as well as several compilations, establishing himself as one of the top lovers rock artists. His first album of the new millennium was 2001′s Music Is Life, which featured an appearance by Wyclef Jean – the 2011 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta headliner, and contributions from Earl “Chinna” Smith andFlourgon. The album spawned several hits, including “They Gonna Talk”, “Rockaway” and “Ain’t It Good To Know”. The 2004 release Love Has No Boundaries, had guest spots by Buju Banton and Big Youth.
In 2007 he returned to Jamaica to perform at the Opening Ceremony for the Cricket World Cup. He released yet another album in 2008, A Moment in Time, on VP Records, which featured the single “I Feel Good” and the album “Just a Man” in 2010.
One thing is for sure, even if you have never heard of Beres Hammond, you can be confident his live show will ignite the “SERIOUS FUN” vibe that has made the St Maarten Heineken Regatta World-Famous.
Join us in St. Maarten March 1 – 4, 2012 for the 32nd edition of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta and experience Beres Hammond live in concert Sunday March 4. All the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta parties are free and open to the public. Food and drinks are available each night. Secure Safe Parking is available March 4 at Kim Sha Beach and Port de Plaisance.
For full information on the 2012 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, including entry information, the Notice of Race, photos, videos, party and band information, and much, much more, visit www.heinekenregatta.com.