St Lucia: The legendary St. Lucian artiste and philanthropist Taj Weekes has been selected for the St. Lucia House Foundation’s Humanitarian Award for his selflessness and dedicated humanitarian efforts. Comment.

Guyana: Guyana’s government’s public pledge to dismantle the elected Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) because of alleged widespread corruption and take over the administration of cricket by installing its Interim Management Committee (IMC) took a new turn over the weekend when local police arrested board secretary Anand Sanasie on suspicion that he was part of an organized ring that sold visas to ordinary Guyanese by passing them off to Western embassies as bona fide cricketers. Comment.

Guyana: A High Court judge in Guyana has allowed the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) to resume control of the sport in the South American country. Comment.

Jamaica: The newly-elected government of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller in Jamaica has begun initial discussions on the country’s transition to republican status, a government statement issued in New York on Feb. 16 said. Comment.

People: Church Avenue will have five new colorful and vibrant additions to the neighborhood in Spring 2012. Comment.

Trinidad and Tobago: No one, including expatriate Trinidad and Tobago Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs seems to know exactly why a battery of police officers invaded the offices of Trinidad’s Newsday newspaper in Port of Spain last week, spent several hours searching computers, files and other company property before carting away computer hard drives and flash drives, as well as other material in a move that shocked all across the island’s political divide. Comment.

Grenada: The government of Grenada has assured its citizens and visitors to the island that the Maurice Bishop International Airport (MBIA) will remain in full and effective operation. Comment.

Trinidad and Tobago: After concluding Article IV consultation with government authorities and other officials in Trinidad and Tobago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says “there is concrete evidence” that the twin-island republic’s economy is “turning the corner.” Comment.

Jamaica: MIAMI (AP) — The U.S. government says plenty of evidence supports a federal jury’s conviction of Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton on cocaine conspiracy and trafficking charges. Comment.

Guyana: Facing a criminal charge of rape, embattled Police Chief Henry Greene has secured a temporary court order barring junior officers from charging him as he challenges the recommendation from the state prosecutor’s office to indict him on the felony charge, saying the evidence in the complaint is too weak to secure a conviction. Comment.

Trinidad and Tobago: A fast ferry service between the Eastern Caribbean islands is soon to start sailing. Comment.

Trinidad and Tobago: Despite the region spending millions of dollars to secure airlift to the Caribbean, ticket prices are still too high and remain insufficient to sustain the industry, according to Josef Forstmayr, president the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA). Comment.

Guyana: Chaos and disorder loomed large for the game of cricket in Guyana this week as government seemed determined to arbitrarily move aside the elected governing board, replace it with its own political appointees and take over operations generally but if the Antigua-based West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has its way, Guyanese won’t see an international match for months or years to come. Comment.

Caribbean: Embattled West Indies batsman Chris Gayle topped the list of 12 West Indies players who were signed to play in the inaugural Bangladesh Twenty20 Premier League (BPL) next month. Comment.

Music & Fashion: Phoenix Francisco realized her love for the performing arts at the tender age of six. Comment.

Grenada: Grenadians continue their milestone achievement this week and were acknowledged by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who dispatched this correspondence about their independence celebration this week. Comment.

Grenada: Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague says eliminating or modifying an airfare tax is not a priority even though his government understands its implications on the Caribbean’s tourism business. Comment.

Guyana: In what is a clear case of political spitefulness against its critics, members of Guyana’s ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration, used its majority on the University of Guyana’s board in the past week to publicly fire longstanding political science lecturer Freddie Kissoon, as sweet revenge for years of criticism and helping the opposition unearth startling facts pertaining to race relations and discrimination in Guyana and PPP governance of the country. Comment.

Venezuela: CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela repatriated a final shipment of gold from foreign banks Monday, saying the country has withdrawn a total of $9 billion in its gold reserves and moved it to the country’s Central Bank. Comment.

Haiti: By Nelson A. King Comment.

Jamaica: Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller announced in Parliament that Dudley Joseph Thompson, the island’s “dedicated politician and public servant” will be given an official send-off by the government. Comment.

Trinidad and Tobago: Police are investigating the discovery of four tons of stolen copper wire and air-conditioning parts in a container at the St. John’s Harbor bound for China. Comment.

Venezuela: CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez bowed out of Venezuela’s presidential race on Tuesday, saying he will support his leading rival as the opposition seeks to field a single candidate to challenge President Hugo Chavez. Comment.

Caribbean: Trinidad and Tobago captured the Caribbean Twenty20 2012 competition by defeating Jamaica by 63 runs at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. Comment.

Jamaica: South Africans will travel to Jamaica next month to attend an educational tour and to explore the island’s pioneering community tourism initiative. Comments (3).

Caribbean: The United Kingdom-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Forum concluded in Grenada on Sunday with both sides agreeing to establish a new strategic partnership. Comment.

Haiti: In a country where authorities who abuse their power are almost never held accountable, a judge in the southern Haitian city of Les Cayes on Jan. 19 found guilty seven of 13 Haitian police officials who stood trial for a prison massacre that occurred a week after the massive 2010 earthquake. Comment.

Trinidad and Tobago: Barbados-based low cost carrier REDjet has canceled more than 50 flights until March amid reports of financial problems. Comment.

Brooklyn: Kings County Hospital Center (KCHC) held its annual tribute to Dr. King on Friday, Jan. 13 featuring the world-renowned Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., minister emeritus of Riverside Church and president of the Healing of the Nations Foundation as then keynotye speaker. Comment.

Cuba: United States authorities said on Jan. 16 that 26 Cubans came ashore near Newfound Harbor in the Florida Keys in what authorities described as a possible migrant-smuggling operation. Comment.

Guyana: Opposition parties, civic groups and other government critics had warned against the company from the very beginning so when Transport Minister Robeson Benn announced at the weekend that government had pulled the plug on a Florida firm’s $15.4 million jungle road construction contract, virtually no one in the country but the firm’s management was surprised. Comment.

Movies: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A publicist says $5 million was raised in Los Angeles for actor Sean Penn’s humanitarian group based in Haiti. Comment.

Music & Fashion: Steel pan was the focus at the recent Tropicalfete Countdown of the top-100 international Caribbean songs for 2011. Comments (1).

Trinidad and Tobago: Antigua and Barbuda will try to buy two parcels of land from a development company owned by jailed Texas financier Allen Stanford, said Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer. Comment.

Haiti: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitians are marking the second anniversary of the devastating 2010 earthquake with church services throughout the deeply religious country. Comment.

Immigration: The Obama Administration has proposed a fix to a Catch-22 in the nation’s immigration law that could spare hundreds of thousands of Caribbean and other citizens from prolonged separations from their spouses and children. Comment.

Guyana: Unable anymore to deny that there was no racial motive behind nearly all of Guyana’s overseas-based diplomats being of East Indian ancestry, Guyana’s Indo-dominated government has bowed to stinging criticism from opposition parties and rights groups and has named two Blacks to senior ambassadorial positions and a third to head up a consulate in Barbados. Comment.

Haiti: BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — University of Colorado engineers are heading to Haiti to set up renewable energy projects to cope with power outages. Comment.

Jamaica: Newly-installed Jamaica Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, the first ever woman to head a government in the largest of the English-speaking Caribbean islands, said she wants to get rid of the British monarch as head-of-state, replacing her with a republican form of government. Comments (4).

Haiti: MIAMI (AP) — Some members of Florida’s congressional delegation are asking federal officials to help more Haitians get visas to live and work in the U.S. Comment.

Venezuela: An analysis by the Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has shown that economic growth has slowed throughout the Caribbean region, with decreased private sector activity creating an environment for meager growth in output, employment and income despite eased monetary policy by central banks. Service-based economies like the Bahamas, St. Lucia and Jamaica are performing worse than goods-producing economies like Belize, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. In a recent presentation at ECLAC’s offices in Port of Spain, Trinidad, entitled “The Caribbean in the World Economy-Context and Insights,” recently, Professor Dillo Alleyne, of ECLAC’s sub-regional headquarters for the Caribbean, said the issues faced by Caribbean economies were only emphasized by the current global economic crisis and will persist even when the crisis is over unless fiscal policies are put in place to deal with them. He said there were two important phenomena impacting the Caribbean even if the world economy were to right itself; an emerging fiscal crisis due to rising debt, deficit and reduced capacity by governments to undertake countercyclical policy and provide social protection and intense reliance on primary commodities and intense reliance on primary commodities, with all the fluctuations for demand and volatility of prices. Comment.

Jamaica: The swearing-in yesterday of Portia Simpson-Miller as Jamaica’s new prime minister was expected to usher in a new era of politics on the Caribbean island. Comment.

Jamaica: Newly-elected Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller has urged nationals to put aside their political difference and join her People’s National Party (PNP) in a building a new Jamaica. Comment.

Grenada: Two Grenadian police officers have been detained in the death of a Toronto man, while the government turns down his family’s call for an outside official to investigate the case. Comment.

People: A U.S. Coast Guard unit that uses armed helicopters to go after maritime drug runners in the Caribbean said on Dec. 29 that, working with other federal partners, it has intercepted more than US$10 billion in illegal drugs and related assets since it was commissioned in 1998. Comment.

Jamaica: KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — On Jamaica’s rutted streets, the complaints have been chronic — home ownership is out of reach for most wage earners, the cost of electricity has skyrocketed, water service regularly fizzles out and decent jobs are scarce. Comment.