Caribbean: Jamaican private- and public-sector security officials are quietly celebrating a reduction in murders, fatal shootings and other forms of serious crimes as they make a direct link between the dismantling of some entrenched gangs and the mid-year extradition of notorious gang leader Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke to the U.S. to face narcotics trafficking and related charges. Comment.

National: KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — A newly revealed U.S. cable portrays American diplomats in the Caribbean as being so concerned about bribery and money-laundering rumors related to Texas financier R. Allen Stanford that they warned embassy officers to steer clear of him as early as 2006. Comment.

Caribbean: St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, was sworn in last Wednesday for a third consecutive, five-year term in office after the incumbent United Labor Party (ULP) won the Dec. 13 general elections by a squeaker. Comment.

Caribbean: Several strikes this year including one last month that crippled production entirely have pushed the Caribbean Community’s largest sugar producer into threatening to derecognize a representative union in much the same way a Russian miner did in the bauxite sector a year ago following a bitter row over pay and working conditions. Comment.

Caribbean: The man who revolutionized Christmas lighting in St. Vincent and the Grenadines has died after a short illness. Comment.

Caribbean: The Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has warned that climate change could cause losses of about 1 percent of the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for regional countries between 2010 and 2100. Comment.

Caribbean: Human rights activists are pleased with the decision by Cuba’s Supreme Court to commute to 30 years in prison the death sentences of two Salvadoran men convicted of terrorism. But dissidents continue to call for complete abolition of the death penalty. Comment.

Caribbean: Governor of the St. Kitts-based Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Sir K. Dwight Venner has warned Caribbean countries that crime is having a negative impact on their economies. Comment.

Caribbean: Caribbean leaders, through retiring Secretary General Edwin Carrington, have again called for Britain to abandon direct rule in the Turks and Caicos Islands, saying its continued insistence on administering the daily affairs of its colony runs counter to the rules of good governance. Comment.

Caribbean: Caribbean leaders are to consider the names of several prominent professionals, several of them ambassadors from the region, to replace Edwin Carrington who is due to retire at the end of December as secretary general after 18 years, officials said Monday. Comment.

Caribbean: Caribbean leaders are to consider the names of several prominent professionals, several of them ambassadors from the region, to replace Edwin Carrington who is due to retire at the end of December as secretary general after 18 years, officials said Monday. Comment.

Caribbean: The North American relatives of a Barbadian businessman are offering a Bds $50,000 reward for evidence that will lead to the conviction in Barbados of the attackers, who severely beat George Clarke, robbed him, and left him close to death in a pig pen in St. Phillip in February. Comment.

New York: Gov. David Paterson on Dec. 6 pardoned four Caribbeans, among six, immigrants who faced deportation because of old criminal convictions. Comments (2).

Caribbean: Hundreds of Haitian protesters, including some presidential candidates, took to the streets of Port-au-Prince, the capital, on Sunday demanding the annulment of the recent presidential and legislative council elections. Comment.

Caribbean: Caribbean diplomats say the region faces “the end of history” if rich countries do not raise their ambition to hold temperatures well below two degrees Celcius. Comment.

Caribbean: Caribbean trade ministers have drawn up a list of 42 items the region will allow earthquake-ravaged Haiti to export to neighbors for the next three years without having to open its market in return officials have said. Comment.

Caribbean: The grouping of mostly small-island and low-lying coastal nations that make up the Caribbean trade bloc Monday said last weekend that they plan to hold developed nations to agreed temperature and emission targets at world climate talks in Mexico this week, contending that any significant diversion from these could spell doom for the region. Comment.

Caribbean: A powerful United States senator has warned that political uncertainty looming over earthquake-ravaged Haiti could cost the French-speaking Caribbean nation billions of dollars in reconstruction dollars if left unresolved. Comment.

Caribbean: An aviation dispute is looming between St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines over threats by St. Lucia to debar two Vincentian carriers from landing on the island if authorities in Kingstown continue to deny St. Lucia registered CARICOM Airways permission to fly to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Comment.

Caribbean: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has commended Guyana’s economy for exhibiting resilience and registering a fifth consecutive year of robust growth “despite external and domestic shock in 2010.” Comment.

National: Washington, D.C. – Approximately 1,000 Haitian orphans who left the earthquake-ravaged country for the United States before all of their administrative steps were finalized are now facing legal limbo and fewer legal protections. U.S. senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) last week announced final passage of legislation to clear the way for these adopted Haitian orphans who were granted humanitarian parole to the U.S. to become citizens. Comment.

Caribbean: In the midst of the most desperate humanitarian crisis in our hemisphere, Haiti’s authorities chose to hold an election characterized by fraud and marked by the disenfranchisement of Haitian voters instead of focusing on fighting cholera and addressing the horrific conditions of one and half million homeless earthquake survivors. Comment.

Caribbean: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitians entered election day hoping for the best. Within hours, ballot boxes were ripped to pieces, protesters were on the streets and nearly every presidential hopeful was united against the government. Comment.

Caribbean: Haiti’s elections, which were fraught with widespread irregularities and the arbitrary exclusion of political parties, should be rejected by the international community, Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research said today. Comment.

Caribbean: Guyanese police this week said they have arrested the prime suspect in a mid-2009 fire that flattened the health ministry and are blaming the same group for fire bomb attempts on several other state buildings, including a police stations and a school. Comment.

New York: Norman Henry (1935- 2010), the charming and beloved Guyanese-American entrepreneur, author, real estate developer and founder of the famed Henry House Catering and Banquet Hall in Brooklyn, died peacefully in his sleep at 6:00 a.m. at his Brooklyn residence from heart failure on Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010. He was 75. Comment.

Caribbean: Nov. 19 was, clearly, a special day in the lives of all Vincentians, at home and in the Diaspora, particularly for nationals residing in Philadelphia. Comment.

Caribbean: The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) has paid out a total of $12.8 million to the governments of Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines following the passage of Tropical Storm Tomas, which passed through the islands recently. Comment.

Caribbean: PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — The Caribbean region has an unprecedented opportunity to become a net producer of technology services and solutions, not just a technology consumer. Comment.

Caribbean: Two of Jamaica’s international landing ports are named in tribute to politicians who served the country after the nation attained independence in 1962. Comments (1).