Friday, June 13th, 2008  |  NO COMMENTS

BBC Caribbean News in Brief

Haitian lawmakers reject PM nominee, Antigua urges climate change action — and other stories.

	Food riots led to the dismissal of the prime minister

Lawmakers reject nominee

Members of parliament in Haiti have again rejected the man nominated by President Rene Preval as prime minister, one month after voting against his first nominee.

Lawmakers declared Robert Manuel, a friend and advisor of the president, as unsuitable, arguing that he did not own property in Haiti and was not registered to vote.

Haiti has been without a prime-minister for two months.

The previous prime minister, Jacques-Edouard Alexis, was dismissed by the Senate in April, following riots over the rising cost of food, which left at least six people dead.

Antigua wants climate action

Antigua and Barbuda has told a United Nations conference that there is little urgency in responding globally to climate change.

Antigua delivered the message to the Bonn conference on behalf of the Group of 77, which it chairs.

Delegates urged governments to come up with clearer ideas for a new treaty to slow global warming after criticism from delegates that progress was too slow.

The June 2-13 talks are the second this year in a series meant to end in Copenhagen in December 2009 with a new climate treaty.

Drug money for Caribbean

The US House of Representatives has approved a three-year plan to tackle drug trafficking from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

The bill authorises spending of $1.6 billion dollars to support anti-drug programmes – much of it to be used in Mexico.

Under the aid plan, US funds would be used to help train and equip security forces and strengthen justice systems in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

In an appearance before a House sub-committee last week, an administration official said that in the last two years, Hispaniola had become the principal transit point in the Caribbean for drugs headed to the US and Europe.

David Johnson, the Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics, said Washington would continue to look for ways to improve security cooperation in the Caribbean.

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