St Kitts and Nevis PM Urges Inclusion of Taiwan in United Nations Agencies
St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas’ recent speech to the United Nations General Assembly urged the inclusion of Taiwan in United Nations agencies.
Taiwan, or the Republic of China, is not a member of the United Nations, despite a number of applications.
The country does have diplomatic relations with several Caribbean countries, including Haiti and the Dominican Republic, while the majority of the region supports the People’s Republic of China. With diplomatic ties stretching back 30 years, it has long been a major benefactor of St Kitts and Nevis.
“Taiwan is one of the top 18 economies globally,” Douglas told the General assembly. “In addition, Taiwan has worked assiduously to advance the economic interests of countries such as ours.”
He said that Taiwan had adopted a “very pragmatic approach to its meaningful participation in UN specialized agencies and functional organizations,” pointing to Taiwan’s invitation to attend the World Health Organization’s World Health Assembly as an observer.
“Taiwan has a great deal to offer the international community in a vast number of areas,” he said. “Its prolonged exclusion from various United Nations agencies, therefore, serves neither the interests of Taiwan nor those of the global community.”
“In light of this,” he said, “in the interest of greater international understanding and collaboration, my delegation urges the admission of Taiwan to United Nations agencies without undue delay.”
Taiwan has been funding several major projects in the twin-island federation in recent years, including a solar farm at the Robert L Bradshaw International Airport and a number of other green energy projects.
Source-Caribbean Journal
Barbadian hits Super Lotto jackpot
Another Barbadian national has won the Super Lotto jackpot.
Supreme Ventures Ltd confirmed that the jackpot for Friday night's draw was won in the amount of Bd$3.56.
According to Supreme Ventures, the winning numbers for draw #420 were: 02, 16, 22, 30, 32 and Super Ball 1.
Friday night's live draw was held in the Dominican Republic and the delayed broadcast was shown in Jamaica at 9:30 pm.
Supreme Ventures started selling tickets on August 25, 2009 for the Super Lotto multi-jurisdictional game, which is the first game of its kind in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The participating territories are: the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Barbados, St Kitts & Nevis, Anguilla, Antigua, St Maarten, and the US Virgin Islands.
In addition to Barbados, the game has so far produced winners in Jamaica and St Maarten respectively.
Supreme Ventures said that it will provide further details on the winner as soon as they become available.
Stress from finger-rape in Barbados caused her to crash her car on toll road
Jamaican Shanique Myrie looked a composed woman as she sat on a stump near her home on Cassia Crescent, near Marl Road in West Central St Andrew, hours after a historic ruling was made in her favour by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on Friday.
If she was elated at the judgement, which will see her collecting $3.8 million, it did not show on her face.
Two years, six months and 20 days had passed since a woman immigration officer at the Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados ordered her to squat before inserting a gloved hand inside her vagina, probing violently and accusing her of going to the island to "steal men" and being a drug mule.
Myrie was then locked in a filthy cell, forced to sleep on a small board cot with another Jamaican woman who was also detained, before both were deported to Jamaica without being given a chance to shower.
The experience took a serious toll on Myrie, who had to seek the help of a psychiatric counsellor to get over the trauma of the ordeal.
"It was not easy. I was very stressed out. I was so stressed that I crashed my car with [my] sisters in it on the Portmore Toll Road one week after I came back. Thankfully, the counselling sessions worked, and I am not as traumatised as I was before. I still have flashbacks, but I have to be strong," she told the Sunday Observer.
Myrie showed remarkable strength of character by coming forward and exposing herself to public scrutiny by being open, in an interview with the Jamaica Observer, about the finger-raping ordeal that she was forced to go through.
During that interview, a few days after the March 14, 2011 incident, Myrie was shell-shocked and shattered by the experience.
But now, her bravery has paid off.
"I felt very depressed and ashamed, but I had to have strength because I could not hold that," she told the Sunday Observer on Friday. "What she did to me was very wrong, and I am proud now that I have come forward, as something as disgraceful as that will never happen to another woman in Barbados again. I am proud that I spoke out.
"When I came back and was at the airport, I almost fainted as I cried and cried and cried. Even my friend who picked me up started crying when I told him what had happened to me," she said.
As Myrie spoke, her mother Julene Virgo, sister Antoinette Dacosta, and husband Troy Pusey stood around and seemed pleased that their loved one had finally gained justice for what they described as a terrible act.
"The support from my family has been great. Everybody around here in this community has supported me from day one, and I would like to publicly thank them," Myrie said.
Before the ruling was handed down, negative comments were hurled at her by mischievous persons who questioned her reason for going to Barbados. They also jeered her about the ordeal.
"Those comments used to bother me a lot because people didn't know how hard it was for me," she said.
Myrie was drilled by attorney Roger Forde during the historic sitting of the CCJ in March at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston.
Forde took pot shots at her credibility and sought to paint her as a liar who concocted tales of an ordeal because she was denied entry.
She said that it took great restraint on her part not to get upset in court and remain composed as she was being cross-examined.
"I felt filled with rage, but I realise that he was just doing his job," she said.
Myrie was required to go back to Barbados to point out the woman who defiled her and show officers of the court the nasty room where she was confined for hours without being given food or water.
"When I went back to Barbados I was also filled with rage, especially when I saw the woman who did that to me. I went along with it at the time because I know I was in their country and I never knew what they would do to me. I never wanted them to put any drugs on me so I just went along," she said.
Myrie, while appreciative of the cash she will collect, said that all along her primary objective was not money.
"It was never about money. I could not live with that, and no woman should even think about treating another female like that. I know that things will be better for Jamaicans who travel to that country now. I will never go back there," she said.
Myrie will now be known as the Jamaican woman whose bravery to speak up for her rights forced Barbadian border officials to revamp the way they treat Caricom visitors to their shores who have not broken any laws or will not be a burden on their state.
The executive summary of the CCJ's reserved judgement ordered the country to allow Caricom nationals who are denied entry on those grounds to contact a family member or a representative of their country, to acquire the services of an attorney and also to be informed of the reason for the denial, promptly and in writing.
"The Court held that this treatment constituted a very serious breach of Ms Myrie's right to entry and so she was entitled to be awarded damages," a section of the summary stated.
Source-Jamaican Observer
Warning for Caribbean countries
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries will have to change its modus operandi and the way it thinks about integration in order to deal with a changing global environment, CARICOM Secretary General Irwin La Rocque has said.
Delivering the “Distinguished Open Lecture CARICOM Lecture Series” at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) on Thursday night, La Rocque said that the region now finds itself at another juncture in the progression of its regional integration movement.
“Our capacity to respond to the various challenges and to exploit such opportunities as they may bring, depend in significant measure, on the extent to which our arrangements can be strengthened. It will require first of all consistent and positive engagement in the areas selected for priority action; secondly, effective decision-making machinery; and thirdly, the capacity to deliver.”
He told the audience, including former CARICOM Secretary general Sir Edwin Carrington, UWI Pro Vice Chancellor and Campus Principal Professor Clement Sankat as well as various European diplomats that instituting change is never easy and it is more difficult if it is attempted in the face of entrenched attitudes and structures.
“That notwithstanding, the Community is engaged in a three year reform process that encompasses every facet of its operations. In short we are changing the way we do business,” La Rocque said, noting that regional leaders last year had agreed it was necessary to re-examine the future direction of the regional integration movement and the arrangements for carrying this forward.
Speaking on the topic “The Status of the Regional Integration Process and His vision for the Future of CARICOM,” La Rocque said this would also include the role and function of the Guyana –based CARICOM Secretariat and the various institutions within CARICOM.
La Rocque who discussed the 40 year history of the integration movement, said that a change facilitation team has been recruited to assist him with this process of change.
The team is now undertaking consultations in member states on the first ever Strategic Plan for the Community.
“These country consultations provide an opportunity for nationals of each member state and associate member to influence the strategic direction of the Community, their Community, our Community. The five year Strategic Plan will set out a common vision and identify our priority areas of focus over the period.
“Critically, it will also address issues of implementability including the roles and responsibilities of all participants in the Community architecture: namely the Conference of Heads of Government; the Ministerial Councils; the bodies, such as the Committee of Central Bank Governors and the Budget Committee; the CARICOM Secretariat; and the Institutions; as well as issues of governance, institutional and operational arrangements and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.”
But he said that the consultations were not taking place in a vacuum with the consultants drawing on approved policies and programmes, including the 2007 Single Development Vision; the Strategic Plan for Regional Economic Development, the priorities articulated by regional leaders and approved policies and action plans in a range of areas, such as agriculture, energy, industry, security, health, youth, ICT and climate change.
Source-CMC
Grenada to hold referendum
The Grenada government says it intends to hold a national referendum for a new constitution next year.
Governor General Dame Cecile La Grenada, delivering the traditional Throne Speech at the start of a new session of Parliament, said Grenada, which obtained its political independence from Britain in 1974, would turn 40 next year.
“Forty years signify growing maturity and a coming of age. It is therefore right and proper that our nation considers the type of constitution that should guide our development for the next 40 years and beyond,” she told legislators.
“Accordingly, my Government, in our Nation’s 40th anniversary of Independence, will put to the people, a referendum on a new Constitution for Grenada. The matters for contemplation and decision will include the structure and composition of our Parliament, accession to the Caribbean Court of Justice as Grenada’s final Appellate Court and other relevant issues,” she said.
Source-CMC
US Commando Raid Targets Militant in Somalia
A United States Navy SEAL team has targeted a senior leader of the al-Qaida-linked militant group al- Shabab in a daring predawn raid in Barawe, Somalia, but authorities say no militant was captured in the raid.
It is also being reported that the SEAL team was forced to withdraw.
Sources told VOA a top al-Qaida militant working with al-Shabab was the target of the attack, but did not name him.
The raid was in response to an attack on a shopping mall two weeks ago in neighboring Kenya. Al-Shabab, a militant Islamist group, has claimed responsibility for the action, which killed at least 67 people.
The mission, first reported by The New York Times, marks the boldest strike on Somali soil since U.S. commandos killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an al-Qaida mastermind, near the same town four years ago.
Al-Shabab has vowed to carry out other acts of violence against Kenya, unless Kenya withdraws its forces from Somalia.
Kenyan forces entered Somalia two years ago to help battle the militant group, which has been fighting to turn Somalia into a strict Islamic state.
US Forces Capture Key Al-Qaida Leader in Libya
U.S. officials say American forces have captured an al-Qaida leader facing federal charges for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Officials say the suspect, known as Abu Anas el-Liby, was captured alive Saturday near Tripoli in a joint operation by a U.S. military force and intelligence operatives.
The accounts of U.S. involvement came a short while after relatives of Abu Anas said the 49-year-old suspect had been kidnapped in the Libyan capital.
The Associated Press quoted the suspect's brother as saying Abu Anas was abducted while parking his car outside his house early Saturday after dawn prayers. He said three cars encircled the suspect, smashed his car window and disarmed him before fleeing with him.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation had offered a $5 million bounty for information leading to Abu Anas' capture, after a federal court in New York indicted him in 2000 for planning the embassy attacks.
More than 250 people were killed and thousands wounded in the Nairobi and Dar es Salaam blasts on August 7, 1998.
Separatist Rebels to Return to Mali Peace Talks
Tuareg separatists said on Saturday they were rejoining the peace process in northern Mali, just over a week after they pulled out and accused Bamako of not respecting the terms of a truce signed in June.
The three separatist groups, including the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, or MNLA, rebels, made the announcement after Malian authorities released 23 insurgents last week to comply with the terms of the ceasefire signed in Ouagadougou.
"We announce the end of the suspension of our participation," said the statement, also signed by the High Council for the Unity of Azawad, or HCUA, and the Arab Movement of Azawad, or MAA.
Azawad is the name the separatists give to northern Mali.
The three groups said they would return to participation in a committee monitoring the implementation of the June agreement, including the disarmament and return of combatants to barracks and the release of prisoners.
MNLA Vice President Mahamadou Djeri Maiga, called, however, for the postponement of legislative elections due on Nov. 24 because much of the population of northern Mali was still displaced in the wake of the conflict.
The Tuareg uprising in 2012 led to a military coup in Bamako and the occupation of the northern half of Mali by Islamist militants during the subsequent chaos.
A French-led ground and air offensive drove out the Islamists, allowing the Tuareg separatists to recapture their traditional northern stronghold of Kidal.
The desert region has produced four rebellions since independence from France in 1960. Its light-skinned Tuareg people say successive black African governments in the capital have excluded them from power.
The separatists' suspension of participation in the peace process on Sept. 26 was quickly followed by a grenade attack that wounded two soldiers in Kidal and two days of clashes between the military and MNLA rebels in the town.
June's ceasefire enabled national elections to take place in July and August. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a former prime minister, was elected by a landslide with a pledge to reunify the country and restore its pride.
The separatist movements, which met on Friday with the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission to Mali, Bert Koenders, welcomed in their statement Keita's recent efforts to ensure implementation of the Ouagadougou accords.
More than 60 Killed in String of Attacks in Iraq
Scores of people have died in a string of attacks across Iraq.
In Baghdad Saturday, a suicide bomber killed nearly 50 Shi'ite pilgrims who were on their way to a prominent Shi'ite shrine.
Earlier in the day, 12 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a cafe in Balad, 80 kilometers north of the capital. An almost identical bombing killed at least 16 people at the same cafe seven weeks ago.
Separately, security sources say unidentified gunmen killed two Iraqi journalists as they were filming in the northern city of Mosul. The journalists worked for the Iraqi television channel al-Sharqiya news.
Militants have stepped up attacks on cafes and other public gathering places, including mosques, funerals and busy market places, in recent months.
Deadly violence has climbed to its highest level since 2008, with analysts repeatedly voicing fears the country is sliding back into Sunni-Shi'ite civil war.
Scores Killed in String of Attacks in Iraq
Scores of people have died in a string of attacks across Iraq.
In Baghdad Saturday, a suicide bomber killed nearly 50 Shi'ite pilgrims who were on their way to a prominent Shi'ite shrine.
Earlier in the day, 12 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a cafe in Balad, 80 kilometers north of the capital. An almost identical bombing killed at least 16 people at the same cafe seven weeks ago.
Separately, security sources say unidentified gunmen killed two Iraqi journalists as they were filming in the northern city of Mosul. The journalists worked for the Iraqi television channel al-Sharqiya news.
Militants have stepped up attacks on cafes and other public gathering places, including mosques, funerals and busy market places, in recent months.
Deadly violence has climbed to its highest level since 2008, with analysts repeatedly voicing fears the country is sliding back into Sunni-Shi'ite civil war.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.