News stories by Peter Richards, page 8

For the first time in years, none of the Caribbean leaders appearing at the Caribbean Community's end-of-summit news conference uttered the words, 'We had a very good meeting.'

Claiming it is the best answer to an escalating murder rate, the eight-month-old People's Partnership coalition has tabled legislation to amend Trinidad and Tobago's Constitution to resume executions.

Two years after Europe signed an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the Caribbean Forum countries, concerns are being raised in the region about the timeline for future negotiations in a number of areas.

When Caribbean leaders gather for their annual summit in July 2011, they expect to finally have a draft information and communication technology (ICT) for development strategy that technocrats have been putting together over the past three years.

Despite the gains associated with antiretroviral treatments (ART) over the last decade, HIV/AIDS remains the leading cause of death among young and middle-aged adults in the Caribbean, warns a new U.N. report.

The new government of Trinidad and Tobago wasted little time. In fact, Finance Minister Winston Dookeran took less than 30 seconds of a two-hour budget presentation to announce that the People's Partnership government, headed by the country's first female prime minister, Kamla Persad Bissessar, was scrapping the $66.6 million dollar smelter plant project involving investors from China and Brazil.

An inescapable fact of living in societies that are as small and highly personalised as those in the Caribbean is that information travels very quickly and not always very accurately.

Almost two years after the controversial and sweeping trade pact known as an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was signed between the European Union and the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) countries, a new study says the impact of the EPA has proved to be, as its proponents claimed, relatively mild.

Roosevelt King, the secretary general of the Barbados Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (BANCO), believes that Caribbean governments have dropped the ball when it comes to their commitment to support the initiatives of civil society.

At 35, Daniel James has his mind set on leaving Trinidad and Tobago 'for greener pastures'.