Bridgetown– The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is supporting Member States of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in their efforts to build capacity to develop robust climate change projects for financing.

Today, the Bank’s Board of Directors approved a grant from the German international development agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), in the amount of EUR249,860 for the initiative. CDB and the OECS Commission contributed EUR24,986 and EUR12,493, respectively to the venture. “The grant from GIZ will help our Borrowing Member Countries in the OECS tackle the effects of climate change and make the transition to resilient, low-carbon economies,” said Monica La Bennett, CDB Vice-President of Operations. Following the Paris Agreement, the historic international climate change deal made at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2015, the OECS countries outlined their intended climate actions after 2020 to meet their obligations under the Paris Agreement.

The grant aims to assist Eastern Caribbean countries in developing bankable, financially viable projects to tackle climate change. The venture will help Eastern Caribbean countries advance project ideas to the concept note stage so that they can be considered for funding by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Adaption Fund (AF) or CDB. It is planned that project concepts will be developed for four pilot countries – Dominica, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Thirty technical staff throughout the sub-Region will also be trained to use SOURCE, an online tool for project preparation and management. In addition, the OECS Commission will hold a workshop on priority investment projects. (CDB)…[+]

Armed police have sealed off a mosque in London after a man was fatally stabbed in a nearby street. The Metropolitan police said the victim was found with stab wounds in Elmton Court, Cunningham Place, near Regent’s Park, at about 6.15pm on Thursday. He was treated at the scene with help from London ambulance service paramedics but later died in hospital, the force said. The Met tweeted that the attack was not terror-related, and said officers continue to work at the scene.

Video from outside the mosque shared on social media showed armed police at the gates to the London Central mosque as a helicopter circled overhead. Bahir Moulana told the Press Association that, as he was walking towards the mosque, police were pushing people back before they closed the main gate. With a number of armed officers at the scene, the 39-year-old said it gave him the “jitters”, especially following the recent attack at two mosques in New Zealand.
“I saw all the blue lights and my heart was in my mouth,” Moulana said. With worshippers eventually let out of the building, he added: “There was one girl who said she saw two guys run in. Someone else told me the police were chasing them.”

Moulana said he saw two people being detained and put in handcuffs by the police at the mosque.(theguardian)…[+]

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó will be barred from holding further public office for 15 years, the maximum allowed by law, the state financial controller has announced. Comptroller Elvis Amoroso said Mr Guaidó’s personal financial statements contained inconsistencies.

Mr Guaidó, head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, declared himself interim president in January. He has the support of more than 50 countries, including the US. The BBC’s Will Grant in the Venezuelan capital Caracas says the decision to stop Mr Guaidó from holding office would come into force if he decided to put himself up for re-election at the end of his current term in the National Assembly. Mr Guaidó rejected Mr Amoroso’s announcement, saying that he was “not auditor general”. “The legitimate congress is the only one with power to designate an auditor general,” he said.(BBC)…[+]

Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith’s plans to restructure the Legal Department of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service involves contracting a team of prosecutors from the United Kingdom, who specialize in fraud and fraud-related matters. This team will assist the TTPS in investigating and prosecuting such matters and also in the area of training for the Legal Unit and police prosecutors.Additionally, the police said in a statement on Tuesday, there has been the implementation of a new Monitoring and Compliance Unit which will improve overall operational efficiency, in keeping with international professional standards.(Trinidad Express)…[+]

A series of unprovoked vigilante attacks on France’s Roma community have erupted after false reports spread online about child abductions. But police say the warnings of a “man in a white van” kidnapping children off the streets are “totally unfounded”.

Some 20 people were arrested on Monday night after attacking the Roma community with makeshift weapons. A police chief in one of the suburbs warned officers of “a psychosis that is starting to set in.” Claims of a man in a van abducting children and others – reportedly to fuel prostitution rings or the illegal organ trade – have been circulating online in recent weeks. Sometimes the van is red, or yellow, in a different region, or of Bulgarian or Romanian origin. The reports have spread rapidly on Whatsapp, Snapchat, and other social media networks. But there is no evidence of any of them.(BBC)…[+]

BEIRA, – About 1.85 million people have now been affected by Cyclone Idai and its aftermath in Mozambique alone, U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said on Tuesday, as aid workers raced to fathom the scale of the disaster and determine what help is most urgently needed. “Some will be in critical, life threatening situations. Some will sadly have lost their livelihoods, which whilst an appalling tragedy is not immediately life threatening,” OCHA coordinator Sebastian Rhodes Stampa said.

Idai flattened homes and provoked widespread flooding when it made landfall near the Mozambique port city of Beira on March 14. It then ripped through neighbouring Zimbabwe and Malawi. At least 686 people have been killed by the storm and its aftermath across the three countries, a figure that could rise as relief workers prepare for what they say are inevitable outbreaks of diseases including malaria and cholera.(Reuters)…[+]

A sev­en-year-0ld boy play­ing with match­es ac­ci­den­tal­ly torched his fam­i­ly’s home, leav­ing 11 peo­ple home­less. With their home now de­stroyed, a Moru­ga fam­i­ly is now plan­ning a “sit down” with their chil­dren to dis­cuss fire safe­ty.

The fire that de­stroyed the Mc In­tyres’ four-apart­ment fam­i­ly home left six adults and five chil­dren with on­ly the clothes on their backs. Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, when in­ves­ti­ga­tors spoke to the child’s moth­er, she ad­mit­ted that her son was play­ing with match­es and ac­ci­den­tal­ly set the mat­tress on fire. Pat Mc In­tyre told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that most of the fam­i­ly was at home along Richard­son Street, Basse Terre on Mon­day. She was in her up­per apart­ment mak­ing a few calls and her daugh­ter, who at­tends the Uni­ver­si­ty of the South­ern Caribbean, was com­plet­ing her as­sign­ments when smoke start­ed ris­ing through the floor­boards.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

MPs have set out details of their plan to consider other Brexit options, as Theresa May was warned more ministers could quit unless she changes course. The Commons will begin voting on alternatives on Wednesday, in a process likely to continue into next week.

MPs will fill out a series of ballots testing support for different ideas. Ex-minister Alistair Burt said the PM must recognise a “different answer” was now needed but ex-Brexit secretary David Davis warned of impending chaos. As MPs seek to take the initiative from the government, there are signs that some Tory opponents of Mrs May’s deal could be steeling themselves to back it if it returns to the Commons for a third time later this week.

Prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg indicated that he could be persuaded, given it now appeared to be a choice between her deal and no Brexit at all. Ex-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told the BBC there was “no point” supporting Mrs May’s deal “without any sign the UK is going to change its approach in phase two” of the negotiations – otherwise he feared the country would be indefinitely tied to the EU’s rules.(BBC)…[+]

WASHINGTON – A fight brewed between Democrats and Republicans over the public release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, while President Donald Trump kept up attacks on his critics yesterday. As the Senate Judiciary Commit-tee’s Republican chairman called for an investigation into the origins of the probe of any Trump campaign links with Russians, the Senate leader blocked a second attempt by Democrats to pass a measure aimed at pushing the Justice Department into full disclosure of the report.

Six committee chairs in the Democratic-led House of Representatives called on U.S. Attorney General William Barr, in a letter seen by Reuters, to release the full Mueller report to Congress by April 2. Earlier this month, the House voted 420-0 in favor of making the report public, with no Republican opposition. Barr on Sunday released a four-page summary of conclusions of the investigation that detailed Russian interference but cleared the Republican president’s campaign team of conspiring with Moscow. (Reuters)…[+]

The three friends who were taken by men pretending to be police officers have been released. The men were found in Calcutta No 1, after contact was made to their relatives. Kazim Hosein said his son, Shazam Hosein, called him and the elder Hosein contacted the police. He said no ransom was paid. Shazam Hosein, 30 and brothers Sunil, 23 and Aaron Roopnarine,19, were taken by men claiming to be police officers while they were at a parlour near their Uquire Road, Freeport home around 4 p.m. on Saturday. The men demanded money.

Hosein said he saw his son after his release and he was badly beaten on his head and feet and also his had a broken hand. “They beat him real bad, Sunil (Roopnarine) get real licks too. They say he take licks for his brother (Aaron Roopnarine) too,” Kazim Hosein said.((Trinidad Express)…[+]