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British Soprano Serenades Nevis – St. Kitts

Basseterre, St. Kitts (June 18, 2007)

Locals are in for a special treat as renowned British Soprano Alison Buchanan headlines an evening of opera and entertainment on June 29.

According to artistworld.org, Buchanan is respected throughout Europe and the United States, and she has built a strong career with a full repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary styles.

The Sir Cecil Jacobs Auditorium of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) will be the venue for the event which will also feature the New York-based West Village Quartet. The show will be held under the distinguished patronage of His Excellency the Governor General as part of the fundraising efforts of the Special Olympics ““ “On the Road to Shanghai, China” campaign. This initiative seeks to facilitate the participation of local Special Olympians in the World Games slated for October.

A graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia Buchanan is the winner of the Maggie Teyte Competition giving a winner’s concert recital at the Royal Opera House. She has also won The Pavarotti Competition and the Kathleen Ferrier Competition, the Washington International Competition and she was a finalist in the Belvedere Competition in 1997.

Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur, and United States Commerce Secretary, Carlos Gutierrez will deliver keynote addresses at the opening ceremony of the Conference on the Caribbean, which begins in Washington, D.C., tomorrow. The three-day major event will be held under the theme ‘Conference on the Caribbean: A 2020 Vision’.

Its highpoint will be the CARICOM-U.S. summit when CARICOM heads of state and U.S. President George W. Bush hold talks. The plenary session tomorrow will be held under the theme ‘CARICOM Development in the 21st Century: Economic Growth with Social Equity’.

The session will also examine the role greater integration might play in promoting growth and competitiveness in the region; how might free-trade arrangements, economic partnership agreements, the outcomes of the Doha round of negotiations, the role of preferences, and new trading arrangements with the United States might impact on CARICOM’s integration into the global economy, among other things.

Janet Silvera, Senior Tourism Writer

Tourism interests want the United States to further relax requirement for visas to enter countries.

Reeling from a marked decrease in United States visitors to the region, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) wants an extension to the temporary relaxation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) announced by the American government last week.

Representing 32 Caribbean countries, the organisation, headed mainly by tourism ministers, is urging a full waiver of these requirements until July 2009, when the rules are scheduled to come into effect for cruise passengers travelling into the region.

At the close of the week-long Caribbean Week celebrations in New York City on Friday, the CTO ministers called on their heads of governments to broach the proposal at the CARICOM 20/20 Vision meeting with President George Bush in Washington, D.C., this Wednesday.

MIAMI (AP):

An ageing United States weather satellite crucial to accurate predictions on the intensity and path of hurricanes could fail at any moment, and plans to launch a replacement have been pushed back seven years to 2016.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) chief said the failure of the QuikScat satellite could bring more uncertainty to forecasts and widen the areas that are placed under hurricane watches and warnings.

If the satellite faltered, experts estimate that the accuracy of two-day forecasts could suffer by 10 per cent and three-day forecasts by 16 per cent, which could translate into miles of coastline and the difference between a city being evacuated or not. The satellite covers about 90 per cent of the globe’s oceans, experts say.

“We would go blind. It would be significantly hazardous,” said Wayne Sallade, emergency manager in Florida’s Charlotte County, which was hit hard by Hurricane Charley in 2004.

In the letter to a Florida congressman, NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher blamed the delays on technical and budget problems. Scientists said if QuikScat failed, they may have to rely on less accurate satellites.
Bill Proenza, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said authorities “may have to err on the side of caution” in future forecasts.

Basseterre,St.Kitts (June 13th 2007) Popular DJ and Radio personality Leslie “Sugar Bowl” Morton is the latest entertainer to be added to the SOCA MADNESS artiste line-up. Sugar Bowl was signed on today and is expected to compliment the already packed …

British Soprano Serenades Nevis – St. Kitts

Caribbean Conference To Begin In Washington

Waive Visa Regulations Longer, Says Caribbean Tourism Group

Caribbean Region Could Be Blind To Hurricanes

“Sugar Bowl” To Be Part Of Soca Madness 2007