BASSETERRE, St. Kitts and Nevis – An energy-efficient street lighting project funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is projected to save St. Kitts and Nevis over USD2.2 million a year. Under the Street and Flood Light Retrofitting Project, which was launched last Wednesday at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort, 10,650 street lights throughout both St. Kitts and Nevis will be replaced with more energy efficient light-emitting diode (LED) lamps.

The Board of Directors of CDB approved USD5.8 million in financing for the project in December 2016. The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, the St Kitts Electricity Company (SKELEC) and the Nevis Electricity Company (NEVLEC) are expected to contribute approximately USD700,000 through supporting implementation and installation of the new street lights. Speaking at the launch, Alexander Augustine, Portfolio Manager, Economic Infrastructure Division, CDB, noted that St. Kitts and Nevis had higher-than-average electricity consumption and like many other Caribbean countries, high dependence on imported fossil fuels for electricity.

In light of this and with approximately 87 percent of the Federation’s energy supply being imported, electricity-related fuel imports are equivalent to approximately 8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Through the project, the Government will also be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the consumption of fossil fuels in electricity generation. The project also includes a grant for the completion of a climate risk screening study. The study will help both St. Kitts Electric Company (SKELEC) and Nevis Electricity Company (NEVLEC) examine their vulnerability to projected climate change impacts. Under the project plan, the new LED street lamps are scheduled for installation by the end of 2019. The project aligns to the Bank’s Strategic Plan 2015-2019 and its Energy Sector Policy and Strategy, which highlights energy efficiency and renewable energy as priority investment areas for CDB. (CDB)…[+]

A Māori Father Christmas who was subject to racist boos and jeers after appearing in a parade dressed in a traditional Korowai cloak has received a wave of public support in New Zealand and is to appear in a much larger Christmas parade in the country’s capital. Earlier this month, Robert Herewini appeared as Santa in the Nelson Christmas parade, swathed in a traditional Māori cloak of bright red feathers. Korowais – such as that worn by Jacinda Ardern when she met the queen earlier this year – are worn to convey status and prestige. Herewini was referred to as Hana Koko, or Māori Santa.

But his appearance upset many people, with some Nelson residents accusing parade organisers of “ruining Christmas” for their children, and said efforts to reflect New Zealand’s bicultural and multicultural makeup had gone overboard. “Santa is not, has never been and will never be a bloody Māori!” said one person on Facebook.

The Green MP Jan Logie said the backlash against Māori Santa displayed an “emboldened racism” in New Zealand. Herewini said his experience had started on a positive note but quickly turned sour as he realised he faced a hostile reception.

“As we were travelling down the street on the float, you could actually feel the shocked look on the faces of the people and a lot of those were Pākehā [European New Zealanders] people,” Herewini told the Marae television show. “People were giving me the thumbs down or booing me.”(theguardian)…[+]

WASHINGTON– President Donald Trump said yesterday he was not concerned that he could be impeached and that hush payments made ahead of the 2016 election by his former personal attorney Michael Cohen to two women did not violate campaign finance laws.

“It’s hard to impeach somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong and who’s created the greatest economy in the history of our country,” Trump told Reuters in an Oval Office interview. “I’m not concerned, no. I think that the people would revolt if that happened,” he said. Federal prosecutors in New York said last week that Trump directed Cohen to make six-figure payments to two women so they would not discuss their alleged affairs with the candidate ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

They said the payments violated laws that stipulate that campaign contributions, defined as things of value given to a campaign to influence an election, must be disclosed, and limited to $2,700 per person.(Reuters)…[+]

A man who was taken into custody on Sunday after he crashed a stolen taxi into the perimeter fence of a church on Lyndhurst Road, St Andrew is yet to be charged. Security officials told the Jamaica Observer that the man, purporting to be a passenger, boarded the white Probox motor car in downtown Kingston approximately 5:00 am.

It is reported that he stabbed the driver, relieved him of the motor car, and made an escape. But the car had the services of a KingAlarm tracker and an alarm was subsequently made, triggering KingAlarm’s armed response units. Working with updated locations of the motor car on their in-vehicle tablets, the security guards began tracking the car from Orange Street as it headed towards Cross Roads.

The police were also summoned and the vehicle reportedly stopped on Retirement Road when someone was seen exiting the car. On realising that the vehicle was being followed, the driver sped off.(Jamaica Observer)…[+]

Protests and road barricades at roundabouts and toll-booths across France have continued, as many gilets jaunes demonstrators said concessions made by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, were not enough to calm their anger and sense of social injustice. Anti-government demonstrators have called for further demonstrations in Paris on Saturday, after four weekends of protests saw rioting in the French capital and other cities and plunged France’s centrist president into his worst crisis in office.

Macron gave a prerecorded televised speech on Monday watched by more than 23 million people in which he announced major steps to address concerns that people in France could not make ends meet. The minimum wage will increase by €100 a month from January, he said, and a planned tax on pensions under €2,000 a month would be cancelled.

But crucially, the president did not announce a U-turn on his pro-business policies. He stood firm by his decision to slash France’s wealth tax for the very rich. Many protesters had wanted a full wealth tax to be reintroduced.(theguardian)…[+]

MUMBAI- The Governor of India’s central bank, Urjit Patel, resigned abruptly yesterday after a months-long tussle over policy with the government that has raised concerns about the bank’s independence as a national election nears.

Government officials have been pressuring the Reserve Bank of India to allow some bad-debt-laden public sector banks to lend more easily, and pushed for it to hand over some of its surplus reserves to help fund the fiscal deficit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which must call national polls by May, faces anger in rural communities because of slumping farm incomes, and broader concerns about a lack of jobs growth in small businesses that are finding it hard to get banks to lend them money. Getting control of the reserves would give the government more flexibility in spending on welfare policies and farm support schemes. Patel cited “personal reasons” for his decision to immediately step down.(Reuters)…[+]

Se­cu­ri­ty Guard Jodie Awai was mer­ci­less­ly beat­en to death dur­ing a rob­bery at his work­place at Mac­foods Meat Proces­sors Lim­it­ed in Laven­tille Sun­day night. Awai lived at Bel­mont and was a fa­ther of eight chil­dren. Awai’s rel­a­tives, al­though very dis­traught over his killing yester­day, salut­ed him for his hero­ic act.

Awai’s broth­er, Mark, said he is proud of his broth­er for be­liev­ing in his du­ty as a se­cu­ri­ty guard in pro­tect­ing the peo­ple he worked for. Mark said se­cu­ri­ty work was his broth­er’s pas­sion and de­scribed him as a very ded­i­cat­ed per­son. The in­ci­dent oc­curred at about 11.30 pm when three men en­tered the Old St Joseph Road, Laven­tille fac­to­ry and an­nounced a hold-up. Awai at­tempt­ed to stop the men but was beat­en to death dur­ing a strug­gle. One of his oth­er col­leagues was al­so at­tacked. Po­lice said the men es­caped with sev­er­al items from the fac­to­ry, in­clud­ing cash.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

A court in Siberia has convicted a former police officer of raping and killing a further 56 women, making him Russia’s worst serial killer in the last century. Mikhail Popkov, 54, terrorised his home city of Angarsk in the Irkutsk region for nearly two decades, luring women into his car late at night and then assaulting them with tools such as axes and shovels.

In 2015, he was sentenced to life for 22 murders. All the killings were committed between 1992 and 2010. Aleksandr Shkinev, a regional prosecutor, said: “There is no doubt that Popkov committed these murders. He clearly showed the places where the bodies were buried, and, by an earring, tattoo or some other feature, described the murders and victims in detail.” Investigators finally linked Popkov to the crimes in 2012 using DNA evidence and descriptions of his car.

Called the “Angarsk maniac” by the Russian media and interviewed on national television, Popkov dumped the bodies on roadsides or in woods near the eastern Siberian city. When the bodies were discovered, he sometimes returned to the scene of the crime as a police officer. Shkinev said 14 of the victims remained unidentified.(theguardian)…[+]

WASHINGTON- U.S. President Donald Trump could face impeachment and jail time if hush money payments reported by his former lawyer are proven to be campaign finance violations, Democratic lawmakers said yesterday.

Court filings on Friday in cases that stemmed from a federal probe into Russian activities during the 2016 presidential election pointed to potential problem areas for Trump, including whether he instructed six-figure payments to two women during the campaign to keep quiet about affairs. Federal prosecutors sought prison time for longtime Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen for paying off an adult film star and a former Playboy model at Trump’s behest, evading taxes and lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Organization building in Moscow.

If the payments are proven to be felony campaign finance violations, Democratic U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler told CNN those would be grounds for impeachment.

“Well, they would be impeachable offenses. Whether they are important enough to justify an impeachment is a different question,” said Nadler, who will lead the Judiciary Committee when Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in January.(REUTERS)…[+]

Commissioner of Police (CoP) Gary Griffith is bringing in foreign officers and other experts to help in the war on crime. It’s been just over 100 days since Griffith took up duties as top cop on August 17. Even though he and the Police Service he’s in charge of have made a number of drug busts and rescued several kidnap victims, the country’s murder toll continues to climb and is nearing 500 as 2018 winds down.But Griffith says it could have been worse and has promised to drastically reduce the murder toll in 2019 and also bring closure to a number of cold cases.(stabroeknews)…[+]