PARAMARIBO – The U.S. Embassy, in collaboration with the Suriname America Alumni Association (SAAA), is hosting a series of training sessions tied to an opportunity to apply for small grants to fund alumni projects up to a maximum of US$3,000.

The SAAA membership is comprised of individuals who are alumni of various U.S. government funded exchange programs. The training sessions include the topics Alumni Association Management and Resources, Volunteerism and Fundraising, Networking and Mentorship, Entrepreneurial Spirit and Small Grants Writing (A “How-To” Guide). The purpose of the training sessions is to strengthen the SAAA, and to provide alumni with resources to address issues important to Suriname and which align with the Embassy’s goals and priorities. The workshops will also help create a new generation of alumni leaders who are civically engaged, appreciate and promote democratic values, and work actively towards a better Suriname. To reach as many alumni as possible, training will be offered on Saturdays in Paramaribo and Nickerie…[+]

Trinidad. In the case of Dean Boyce, British Caribbean Bank Ltd, and Lord Michael Ashcroft KCMG v the Judicial and Legal Services Commission, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) today issued a judgment stating a 2012 complaint against Mr. Justice Awich, now a Judge in the Court of Appeal, should be properly considered by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC). This paves the way to allow the JLSC to refer the complaint to the Belize Advisory Council which would then investigate whether the judge should be removed from office.

The matter arose from a dispute as to whether the conduct of Mr. Justice Awich during his tenure as a judge of the Supreme Court of Belize is relevant to his removal from office as a Justice of Appeal. Mr. Justice Awich was appointed as a Judge in the Court of Appeal on 24 April 2012 and was sworn in in May of that year.

In a joint letter dated 17 July 2012, Mr. Dean Boyce, British Caribbean Bank Ltd and Lord Michael Ashcroft KCMG made a request to the JLSC that Mr. Justice Awich should be investigated by the Belize Advisory Council. This request detailed allegations of lack of judicial ‘acumen’, delays in judgment writing and lack of timeliness in the delivery of judgments whilst Justice Awich was a Judge of the Supreme Court of Belize. The appellants, in that letter, suggested that it should be considered whether the Judge should be removed from office for inability and/or misbehaviour. Objections to his appointment had previously been raised by the Bar Association of Belize and the Leader of the Opposition…[+]

BRIDGETOWN – Sixteen men and women from around the Caribbean Region are now designated certified energy professionals, having participated in the Regional Certified Energy Manager (CEM) Training Programme and successfully passed the CEM examination.

The Programme took place in Barbados in May 2018 with assistance from the USAID Caribbean Clean Energy Program (CARCEP), and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) through the Canadian Support to the Energy Sector in the Caribbean Fund, in partnership with the Barbados Renewable Energy Association (BREA). The Jamaica Society of Energy Engineers delivered the Training Programme and administered the exam.

The successful participants represent seven countries:  Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. These countries will now benefit from an increase in the number of internationally certified energy practitioners towards   creating a sustainable energy future and meeting their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). NDCs are the targets that countries around the world are working to achieve, to address climate change through adaptation and mitigation. Executive Director of BREA, Ms. Meshia Clarke noted that she was pleased to have coordinated the programme with the support of CDB, the Government of Canada and USAID CARCEP…[+]

The EU’s declaration on the trade and security relationship with the UK after Brexit will be just five to 30 pages long, reflecting a lack of time to have an internal debate and scepticism that Theresa May will remain in Downing Street to deliver it, officials in Brussels have disclosed. While the UK is seeking a “precise and substantive” document, to match the recently published 100-page white paper, officials in Brussels say the EU’s political declaration on the “future framework” has diminishing importance for them.

Brussels is aware that the prime minister needs the document, due in the autumn, to be a “sweetener” to the main withdrawal agreement, which will commit the UK to pay a £39bn divorce bill and spell out whatever difficult deal is sealed on the issue of the Irish border. The declaration will not be legally binding on either party but is designed to offer major economic actors some reassurance through a vision of the future trading and security relationship, and it will form part of the package on which the UK parliament and MEPs will ultimately vote in the new year.(theguardian)…[+]

Gunmen have stormed a government building in Afghanistan’s eastern city of Jalalabad and taken hostages, after a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance gate. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, though Isis issued a statement denying involvement. One witness, a passerby named Obaidullah, said the attack began when a black car with three occupants pulled up at the entrance to a building used by the department of refugee affairs. A gunman emerged and began firing.

One attacker blew himself up at the gate and two gunmen entered the building, which is in an area close to shops and government offices. Minutes later, the car blew up, wounding people in the street, Obaidullah said. “We saw several people wounded and helped to carry them away,” he said.

Eight wounded were taken to city hospitals, officials said. With fighting still ongoing, the number of casualties was likely to climb. As security forces cordoned off the area, gunshots and what were thought to be grenade explosions could be heard and a cloud of black smoke drifted into the sky. Sohrab Qaderi, a member of the local provincial council, said about 40 people appeared to be caught inside the building, which caught fire early in the attack.(theguardian)…[+]

Geneva – The International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) have announced that they are scaling up their partnership to strengthen support for businesses across the Caribbean region. The announcement was made by CDB President, Dr. William Warren Smith and ITC Executive Director, Arancha González during a meeting at CDB’s headquarters in Bridgetown, Barbados on July 27.

During the meeting, Smith and González signed a partnership agreement, which confirms ITC as one of CDB’s key partners for the implementation of trade-led development projects in the Caribbean Region. While having collaborated on a number of projects for several years, it is the first time that the two organisations have formalised a partnership agreement.

“This agreement represents the ITC and CDB’s shared vision for sustainable economic development in the Bank’s Borrowing Member Countries. Through this framework, we look forward to working collaboratively with ITC to implement innovative projects that will boost competitiveness and productivity, especially for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises,” said Dr. Smith. ITC Executive Director, Arancha González said: “CDB has a track record of investing in projects that have an impact on people and businesses across the Caribbean. With this agreement ITC and CDB will be able to ensure that more micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are empowered to realise their potential and tap into regional and global value chains.”…[+]

Thousands more people have fled their homes after wildfires surged near a small lake town in northern California as crews, stretched to their limits across the state, fight flames that have claimed the lives of both firefighters and civilians.

Residents of the waterfront town of Lakeport fled on Sunday after a major flare-up of two fires that combined across Mendocino and Lake counties destroyed at least four homes. Lakeport, home to about 5,000, is around 120 miles (192km) north of San Francisco. More than 4,500 buildings were under threat, officials said. The two fires had blackened 47 sq miles (122 sq km), with minimal containment. About 100 miles north-east, officials near Redding struck a hopeful tone for the first time in days as a massive fire slowed after days of explosive growth.(theguardian)…[+]

About 4 million people who live in the Indian border state of Assam have been excluded from a draft list of citizens, as Bengali-speaking Muslims fear they will be sent to detention centres or deported.

The state government has put stringent security in place while the chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, has told Indian media that those finding themselves stateless overnight should not worry. Sonowal said they would be given a chance to prove their claim of citizenship, that none of the 4 million would be sent to a detention camp, and that “no one will be treated as a foreigner”. Sonowal told the Hindustan Times that “ample opportunity will be given to applicants to prove their eligibility”.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled to India during Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan in the early 1970s. Most of them settled in Assam, which has a near-165-mile (270km) border with Bangladesh.(theguardian)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is preparing to conduct an evaluation of the work it did in up to 11 of its Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) between 2005 and 2017. The countries make up the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and Overseas Dependent Territories (ODTs).

The Country Strategy and Programme Evaluation (CSPE) is scheduled for completion by mid-2019, and is a tool used by multilateral development banks to assess and interpret past performance, and provide forward-looking conclusions and recommendations. Through country strategies, often presented in Country Strategy Papers, CDB identifies where and how it can provide support in a results-oriented manner to achieve a country’s development objectives and poverty reduction goals. Strategies are developed in consultation with governments, development partners and other stakeholders.

“The Country Strategy and Programme Evaluation will assess performance with respect to the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the portfolio of loans and technical assistance provided to the countries that make up the OECS and the ODTs,” said James Melanson, Head of the Office of Independent Evaluation, CDB. The questions for which the CSPE is expected to provide answers include whether CDB’s strategies and operational programmes were relevant to the development challenges facing the BMC; whether the Bank’s assistance took particular account of the vulnerability of the OECS and ODTs, and the extent to which its assistance contributed to reducing vulnerability.

The lessons and recommendations from the Evaluation will be used to improve the Bank’s country strategies and programme performance in the targeted countries—Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Turks and Caicos Islands…[+]

The heatwave searing northern Europe was made more than twice as likely by climate change, according to a rapid assessment by scientists. The result is preliminary but they say the signal of climate change is “unambiguous”. Scientists have long predicted that global warming is ramping up the number and intensity of heatwaves, with events even worse than current one set to strike every other year by the 2040s.

“The logic that climate change will do this is inescapable – the world is becoming warmer, and so heatwaves like this are becoming more common,” said Friederike Otto, at the University of Oxford and part of the World Weather Attribution (WWA) consortium that did the work.

“What was once regarded as unusually warm weather will become commonplace, and in some cases, it already has,” she said. “So this is something that society can and should prepare for. But equally there is no doubt that we can and should constrain the increasing likelihood of all kinds of extreme weather events by restricting greenhouse gas emissions as sharply as possible.”(theguardian)…[+]