Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer

Disgraced Texas financier R. Allen Stanford is being stripped of his knighthood in the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, the head of the government panel that approves the awards said Monday. The National Honors Committee voted unanimously to revoke Stanford's title for embarrassing the nation by running an alleged Ponzi scheme out of his Antigua-based offshore bank, Chairwoman Jacqui Quinn-Leandro said. Stanford, once a benefactor of the Antiguan government, is in jail in Texas awaiting charges for allegedly defrauding some 28,000 investors out of $7 billion by selling them what U.S. authorities say were bogus certificates of deposits. "It's not that we're saying ... Read Full Story

Disgraced Texas financier R. Allen Stanford is being stripped of his knighthood in the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, the head of the government panel that approves the awards said Monday. The National Honors Committee voted unanimously to revoke Stanford’s title for embarrassing the nation by running an alleged Ponzi scheme out of his Antigua-based offshore bank, Chairwoman Jacqui Quinn-Leandro said. Stanford, once a benefactor of the Antiguan government, is in jail in Texas awaiting charges for allegedly defrauding some 28,000 investors out of $7 billion by selling them what U.S. authorities say were bogus certificates of deposits. “It’s not that we’re saying ... Read Full Story

MIAMI (Reuters) - The tiny Caribbean state of Antigua and Barbuda, still reeling from the fraud scandal surrounding Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, on Thursday found a new foreign benefactor in Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer told the nation in a broadcast that the leftist Venezuelan leader was providing $50 million in urgent financial assistance to the twin-island state, which was at the heart of Stanford's far-reaching business empire that collapsed in February. "Today, I am pleased to advise the nation that at one o'clock this morning President Hugo Chavez signed the necessary paperwork to approve the immediate transfer of the full ... Read Full Story

First, riot police raided the slum with batons and pepper spray. Then authorities shut off the water and electricity. With an eviction order pending in the courts, police stand sentry outside the shacks belonging mostly to Dominican migrants. The Puerto Rican government says it's trying to clear a dangerous flood zone in Villas del Sol, a shantytown just west of the capital of San Juan. But residents say the show of force targets foreign laborers as Puerto Rico's unemployment rate tops 16 percent. As jobs vanish in the global financial crisis, Caribbean governments are cracking down on undocumented migrants seeking work. The increased enforcement ... Read Full Story

The highest peak on the Caribbean island of Antigua has a new name: Mount Obama. Antiguan Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer presided over a ceremony re-christening the peak on the American president's birthday. The mountain rises some 1,300 feet (395 meters) above the sea and had been known as Boggy Peak. Spencer said Tuesday that first black American president is a source of pride for the whole Caribbean. There were a few grumbles of criticism over the change, with the head of the opposition Antigua Labor Party calling it "silly." But Spencer didn't need parliament's approval and there was no formal campaign against the renaming. Read Full Story