Barbados–  The Board of Directors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved a USD5.79 million Street Lighting Retrofitting Project for St. Kitts and Nevis. The intervention is expected to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from street lighting by 53 percent per year, and reduce the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis’ street and flood lighting electricity bill by 44 percent, by 2019.

The intervention will replace and retrofit approximately 10,650 high pressure sodium and mercury vapour street lamps with high efficiency light-emitting diode (LED) lamps across the dual-island nation. The Project aims to install 5,550 LED lamps in St. Kitts and 5,100 in Nevis by December 31, 2018.

In addition to financing from CDB, the initiative will be supported by a contribution of USD617,000 from the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, the St. Kitts Electricity Company Limited and Nevis Electricity Company Limited. In addition to reducing energy consumption and the emission of greenhouse gases, the project aims to reduce the country’s oil imports by 305,000 imperial gallons.(CDB)…[+]

A man who stormed into a Zurich mosque and opened fire on praying worshipers on Monday was found dead near the crime scene, Swiss police said.

The suspected gunman seriously wounded three Somali men, ages 30, 35 and 56, with a spray of bullets fired shortly after 5:30 p.m. local time near the main train station in Switzerland’s financial capital, according to congregants and authorities.

Investigators on Tuesday said there was no evidence to link the assailant to a terrorist group. They declined to comment on the potential motive. The attack happened as authorities in Germany investigated a terrorist attack that killed 12 people at a Christmas market in Berlin. In Turkey, an Ankara policeman assassinated a Russian ambassador.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

A group of good Samaritans stopped a homeless man with a history of public lewdness arrests from raping a drunken clubgoer near Union Square over the weekend, police sources said. The 23-year-old woman, her clothing half off, was screaming “No!” with the alleged attacker, Nelis Calix, 39, on top of her, when two women came on the scene at Park Ave. and E. 17th St. at about 1 a.m. Sunday, police sources said.

The women walked into the nearby W Hotel and told an employee, who went outside and saw Calix naked from the waist down, sources said. The woman was underneath a blanket with her pants and underwear on one leg, sources said.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

Barbados – Antigua and Barbuda is the first country to access major funding from the United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund (UKCIF). The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved a grant of GBP13.9 million to assist the country with the rehabilitation of two major roads, the Sir George Walter Highway and Friars Hill Road.

Approximately 75 percent of people living in Antigua use the Sir George Walter Highway and Friars Hill Road on a daily basis. The roads connect the capital of St. John’s, prime tourism areas, heavily populated areas and the V.C. Bird International Airport. The project will upgrade the roads to improve safety and capacity, and renovate their drainage infrastructure.

“We’ve chosen two very important roads which will lead into the airport and improve transportation within the country. The benefits to be derived therefrom are endless…We are using this project as a stepping stone to develop the entire country’s network as far as roads are concerned and, with this grant, with this assistance from the CDB, we shall be on our way to a complete road programme in the country of Antigua and Barbuda,” said Steadroy Benjamin, Acting Prime Minister and Attorney General of Antigua and Barbuda.

In July 2016, CDB funded a technical assistance study, “Road Infrastructure Rehabilitation – Antigua and Barbuda”, which informed the development of preliminary engineering designs, cost estimates, and specifications for this project, along with six other key sections of the road network. The recommended improvements were based on current and projected road usage.(CDB)…[+]

Surprise surprise: China’s state-run newspapers are not in love with Donald Trump.

An editorial Monday in the Community Party-controlled Global Times blasted the President-elect of the United States as a man with “no sense of how to lead a superpower.” The scathing piece arrived after Trump’s series of shakeups with American-Chinese relations — including a typo-tinged tweet from the weekend. “Trump is not behaving as a president who will become master of the White House in a month,” the editorial said.“He bears no sense of how to lead a superpower…One thing for sure is that Trump has no leverages to maneuver the world, nor can he reshape China-U.S. relations and the way the two major powers interact.”

The piece said the next President had thus far been treating relations between the economic superpowers as “child’s play.” Trump consistently chastised China on the campaign trail, and said Americans are letting it “rape our country” on trade deals. He has kept rattling relations with China since the first days after his upset White House win.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

A gunman wanted for fatally blasting a homeless man during a violent Bryant Park squabble lingered near the Manhattan crime scene after the Saturday morning attack, according to police. The suspect was captured in surveillance footage wandering into a deli two blocks south of the Midtown park along Sixth Ave. near W. 38th St. around 3:15 a.m. — nearly an hour after witnesses said he pummeled another homeless man with punches and bullets.The man was pictured again lumbering through what appears to be a subway corridor, according to footage released by cops.

The 6-foot-tall suspect is accused of slaying 27-year-old Terrance Walker, of Georgia. He was last seen wearing a puffy winter coat, beanie and dangling dark scarf in both videos.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

Barbados -The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will assist the Government of Belize in strengthening an institution that is a key partner and important vehicle for providing services to poor and vulnerable communities in that country.

CDB’s Board of Directors, on Thursday, December 8, approved a loan of USD10 million (mn) to Belize. It will be used to expand the services of the Belize Social Investment Fund (BSIF). BSIF, which was established in 1996, is responsible for promoting, appraising, financing and supervising the implementation of small and medium-sized sub-projects designed to benefit underserved communities.

“CDB is pleased to support BSIF in scaling up its very important work, which increases access to basic social infrastructure and services to underserved women, men, boys and girls in Belize,” said Daniel Best, Director, Projects, CDB.

The loan from CDB will be used mainly for financing social and economic infrastructure, social services and organizational strengthening sub-projects in poor rural communities. The project is estimated to cost USD12.518 mn. The Government of Belize will provide USD2.518 mn in counterpart funding towards the project.

The loan aims to support the achievement key outcomes: increased gender-equitable, inclusive access to climate-resilient infrastructure and quality basic social services in poor and vulnerable communities. This will be achieved through investments in education, health, and water and sanitation, social sector and organizational-strengthening subprojects, which include human resource development for enhancing employability.

In March 2002, the Government of Belize gave BSIF a mandate to manage the country’s Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) Programme. BNTF is CDB’s flagship poverty reduction initiative with a community-based approach. While the institution has grown to become a key facilitator of the Government of Belize’s poverty reduction efforts, it faces a number of challenges, which the loan will help BSIF address as it seeks to remain relevant, efficient and effective in transforming poor communities.

The project aligns to CDB’s strategic objective of supporting inclusive and sustainable growth and development. It also complements the Bank’s Climate Resilience Strategy 2012-2017 and Gender Equality Policy and Operational Strategy. (CDB)…[+]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A 3-year-old boy being taken on a shopping trip by his grandmother was killed in a road rage shooting on Saturday when a driver opened fire on the grandmother’s car because he thought she “wasn’t moving fast enough at a stop sign,” police said.

The boy and his grandmother were at the stop sign in southwest Little Rock on Saturday evening when a driver apparently angry about the delay stepped out of his car and opened fire, police said. The boy was struck by gunfire at least once, they said.

The grandmother, who wasn’t struck, drove away and called police from a shopping center. Police arrived at the shopping center and found the boy in the car outside a JCPenney department store. The boy was taken to a hospital, where he died shortly after, becoming the second young child shot dead in a road rage incident in the city in the last few weeks.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

An unopposed candidate for the Louisiana legislature sees no problem with a Facebook post he wrote last year dismissing Islam as a “false” religion, and calling for a boycott of local Islamic businesses.

Michael (Duke) Lowrie, the lone candidate for Louisiana House of Representatives District 8, fired off a Facebook status in November 2015 responding to a “kill” list of American cities circulated online by ISIS. “Many of you may or may not know but Shreveport — Bossier was one of the cities on the Islamist kill lists,” Lowrie wrote. “Perhaps they despise our hospitality here or our over the top support for our military. Regardless the fact is the Islamist seek to kill us and make us submit to their false religion and god (sic).”(nydailynews.com)…[+]

December 12, 2016, BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Antigua and Barbuda is the first country to access major funding from the United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund (UKCIF). The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved a grant of GBP13.9 million to assist the country with the rehabilitation of two major roads, the Sir George Walter Highway and Friars Hill Road.

Approximately 75 percent of people living in Antigua use the Sir George Walter Highway and Friars Hill Road on a daily basis. The roads connect the capital of St. John’s, prime tourism areas, heavily populated areas and the V.C. Bird International Airport. The project will upgrade the roads to improve safety and capacity, and renovate their drainage infrastructure.

“We’ve chosen two very important roads which will lead into the airport and improve transportation within the country. The benefits to be derived therefrom are endless…We are using this project as a stepping stone to develop the entire country’s network as far as roads are concerned and, with this grant, with this assistance from the CDB, we shall be on our way to a complete road programme in the country of Antigua and Barbuda,” said Steadroy Benjamin, Acting Prime Minister and Attorney General of Antigua and Barbuda.

In July 2016, CDB funded a technical assistance study, “Road Infrastructure Rehabilitation – Antigua and Barbuda”, which informed the development of preliminary engineering designs, cost estimates, and specifications for this project, along with six other key sections of the road network. The recommended improvements were based on current and projected road usage.(CDB)…[+]