COMBATING criminality during the Christmas season has become a major objective of the Castries Constituency Council which has a focus on the city of Castries. And although the Royal St. Lucia Police Force has yet to reveal its strategies to combat crime islandwide during the season, THE VOICE has been reliably informed that just like previous years the Force has a strategy in place for this time of the year.
ST. LUCIA yesterday called for greater collaboration with the French Caribbean territories as they map out strategies for socio-economic development projects that are to be funded by the European Union. Addressing the final day of the INTERREG V Caribbean, a multi-million dollar EU funded programme aimed at boosting the economic competitiveness of regional countries, Prime Minister Allen Chastanet said that it was imperative for there to be closer collaboration among the French and English-speaking Caribbean countries given the changing global landscape.
CHILDREN of St. Lucia who require psychiatric care and treatment will no longer be housed in the same space as adults. This was a perennial problem which administrators and caregivers at the National Mental Wellness Centre faced over the years and decided to approach the Ministry of Health for support in addressing this situation.
THE Executive of the Saint Lucia Archaeological and Historical Society (SLAHS) feels more confident to implement plans for its upcoming Annual General Meeting, following a special gathering last week which saw members and the general public expressing their thoughts on the current status and future positioning of the organization.
THE fight against Zika and other mosquito borne diseases in St. Lucia continues. This was manifested on Monday when the world’s oldest public health agency, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) donated two foggers and a large quantity of bed nets to the Ministry of Health and Wellness.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Dec 14, CMC – The head of the Roman Catholic Church here, Archbishop Joseph Harris, is maintaining that the church is against the imposition of the death penalty, saying there could be no good reason for killing someone. Speaking on a radio station here after a Roman Catholic priest, Father Ian Taylor, had earlier this week advocated the need to impose the death penalty in a bid to stem the rising murder rate here, Archbishop Harris said “Pope Francis has said…it (death penalty) is an offence against human dignity and the values of life and therefore it is i
VENEZUELA’S foreign minister, Delcy Rodriguez, traveled to Argentina to attend yesterday’s meeting of foreign ministers of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur). Rodriguez said that despite the illegal manoeuvers promoted by the governments of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, to illegitimately exclude Venezuela from the regional bloc, the nation will exercise its full right to participate as a State Party to the international body.
UNIVERSITY Director of The University of the West Indies’ (The UWI) Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS), Professor Verene Shepherd will today address more than 500 parliamentarians at the inaugural Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s (CPA) Regional Hot Topics (RHT). The forum is carded for the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London from 2:00 p. m to 5:00 p.m. (UK time).
NEW YORK, Dec 14, CMC – Caribbean American Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke has taken the lead in calling on President Barack Obama to posthumously pardon Jamaica’s first national hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey. The 17 members of the United States House of Representatives including Gregory Meeks, Charles Rangel and Hakeem Jeffries, have sent a letter to Obama, noting that Garvey, who was born in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, had “inspired generations of leaders, from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to President Nelson Mandela.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, Dec 14, CMC – Police have released the former Antigua & Barbuda Defence Force (ABDF) captain, George Wehner, pending further investigation into a video circulated on the social media that Parliament agreed incites “the assassination” of legislators here. “As it relates to the video investigation, he has been released pending further investigation,” attorney Leon “Chaku” Symister said.
GOVERNOR General Dame PearletteLouisy has challenged the Saint Lucia National Trust to augment efforts to make its wide-ranging conservation work more visible in the public domain. Addressing the Trust’s annual general meeting recently, she congratulated the management, councilors and staff for the work they had undertaken over the past year, and for keeping its members engaged. However, Dame Pearlette who is also the SLNT’s Patron noted that more needs to be done to give the organization the visibility it deserves.
THERE is no doubt that the United Workers Party (UWP) propelled themselves into power by convincing a vast number of St Lucians that they knew exactly how to solve the myriad social and economic problems facing the country. And so, they presented an election slogan entitled “Five to Stay Alive”, and the rest was history.
THE Ministry of Health says it has sought “formal clarification and retraction” of a statement released by the UNAIDS earlier this month which claimed that St. Lucia was the only Eastern Caribbean country which had not eliminated mother to child transmission of HIV.
MEXICO City hosted the Junior Achievement 2016 Company of the Year competition (COY) sponsored by FedEx.. The three days of intense competition, capacity building, networking, conferences, trade fair and grand awards dinner was held last week at the Fiesta Americana Hotel in the Mexican capital.
THE Government of New Zealand and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) have formally confirmed their ongoing partnership in support of geothermal energy development in the Eastern Caribbean. New Zealand High Commissioner, Mrs Jan Henderson met with President of CDB, Dr William Warren Smith on Monday, to discuss progress on the implementation of the CDB GeoSMART Initiative, which has been receiving technical support from the Government of New Zealand.
NEW concerns about the impact of the Zika virus in St Lucia were raised yesterday in a statement from the Ministry of Health which announced “heightened surveillance” of pregnant women confirmed with the disease.
The Ministry said presently, it is monitoring 50 pregnant women who have tested positive for the Zika Virus Disease. All of the pregnant women confirmed so far have recovered from the illness. However, given the concerns regarding pregnancy outcomes in Zika positive pregnant women, they are being monitored closely through antenatal care services.
HOW would you like to eat a tasty dinner and save the environment at the same time? At Sandals Grande St. Lucian Spa and Beach Resort there is one delicacy on the menu that allows you to do just that! You won’t find it at your run-of-the-mill restaurant, but if you are a Sandals guest in Saint Lucia, then Lionfish is most certainly on the menu!
PHILIP Wells, the entrepreneur behind the mobile app startup Parent Teacher Advisor made the finals of the PitchIT 2016, which was held in Trinidad and Tobago last week. The entrepreneur was one of 25 finalists competing for more than US$75,000 in cash and prizes through the challenge organized by the Caribbean Mobile Innovation Project (CMIP). PitchIT is a competition to discover new startup and mobile app ideas from across the Caribbean. It is funded through EPIC, which is a World Bank Group and Government of Canada programme to stimulate entrepreneurship in the region.
ANOTHER champion hails from the south of the island. Last year, the Colgate National Dental Spelling Bee winner came from the Pierrot Combined School. This year, the champion is Mekella Popo, a petite Grade 3 student from the Micoud Primary School. “I feel elated today, happy and overwhelmed,” Mekella said after her recent success.
BIG things continue to happen as telecom leader FLOW partners with the biggest youth development programme in St. Lucia: the “Trevor Daniel Football Development Programme” (TDFDP). Last Saturday over 300 uniforms and balls were lined up awaiting eager little hands. The recipients were the enrolled active members of the FLOW-TDFDP, a wonderful indication of the corporate giant’s continued commitment to giving back to St. Lucia in a big way.