News stories by Peter Richards, page 4

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, Aug 13 (IPS) - The nine-member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is pushing harder for regional integration with the launch of a new parliamentary forum that it says will play a major role in its efforts to establish an economic union.

WASHINGTON, Jul 30 (IPS) - Ian McKnight, executive director of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVCC), used one word - “tokenistic” - to sum up his perspective on the 19th International AIDS Conference that ended here over the weekend.

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Jul 09 (IPS) - The Eurozone crisis and growing influence of countries like China and Brazil are leading the Caribbean to reassess its dependence on traditional trade and aid partners.

For yet another occasion, it was not the good news Caribbean leaders wanted to hear.

The Caribbean Community bloc (Caricom) is lobbying Mexico to use its influence as chair of the G20, which controls 90 percent of world trade, to promote the interests of the Caribbean and other small island developing states when it meets in June.

It is a widely recognised cliché that when the United States sneezes, the Caribbean catches cold.

By the time small island developing states (SIDS) arrive at the Rio+20 conference in Brazil in June, they will have worked hard to co-ordinate their message to the rest of the world about the importance of sustainable development for their countries.

It was a marriage designed to remove the ruling People's National Movement (PNM) from office in the May 24, 2010 general election.

The mandate will be very clear. Caribbean Community (CARICOM) delegates are going to Brazil in June for the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development determined to show that it will not be business as usual.