Two four-foot bronze pelican statues like the one shown in photo, each weighing about 100 pounds, were stolen recently from a property on Bryson Drive, Mount William Hill. Police spokesperson Inspector Ricardo Henson said in a police press release on Tuesday that a man M.M. had filed a report with the Detective Department on Saturday, stating that unknown persons had stolen the two pelican statues...
SIMPSON BAY--Shurendly Maduro returned to Curaçao on Saturday, May 10, after being exposed as pretending to be a Catholic priest. The young man had been seen wandering the airport a few days after being found out. He had only purchased a one-way ticket and had nowhere to go. Photojournalist Gromyko Wilson caught wind of the fact, although Maduro initially had lied about who he was. Wilson said airport...
~ Registration open ~ PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten has been selected as the destination to host the third joint meeting of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Network (CHART); Caribbean Cytometry and Analytical Society (CCAS); Caribbean Med Labs Foundation (CMLF) and the 11th CCAS HIV International Workshop. The conference/workshop will be held at the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort from August 24 to 28...
THE HAGUE--The Dutch Inspection of Education is generally positive about the improvements that have been made in primary education in Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, but is concerned about lack of progress in some areas. The Inspection stated in the report The State of Education over the years 2012/2013, which was published in April 2014, that there have been "visible improvements" in the educational...
CUL DE SAC--The St. Maarten Tzu Chi Foundation honoured mothers, highlighted their strengths and pampered them with love and care during a well-attended entertaining and informative triple celebration at the Foundation’s L.B. Scot Road office on Sunday. A touching part of the programme was the emotional testimony by one of Tzu Chi’s long-time recipients Mary Simon who, close to tears told the audience...
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados--An elderly woman died while on a Caribbean Airlines flight from Trinidad to Barbados early Saturday. A passenger on board BW456 told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the woman complained of chest pains, following which flight attendants made an appeal for a medical professional. However, the woman was pronounced dead by the doctor who was on board. According to the...
~ On Census issues ~ PHILIPSBURG--Government is seeking to liaise with representatives of the various nationalities in St. Maarten as it relates to the various issues non-nationals and naturalised Dutch citizens are encountering at the Department of Civil Registry (Census Office). Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams said in a press release issued by her cabinet on Sunday that the issues at the department,...
PHILIPSBURG--The Ministry of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Development and Infrastructure (VROMI), Department of Infrastructure Management was busy on Saturday night and Sunday clearing drains, waterways and roads of debris after a rainfall of more than 6 inches was experienced on Saturday evening, according to Department Head Claudius Buncamper. According to a press release by the Ministry,...
PHILIPSBURG--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pupils had a chance to become Members of Parliament (MPs) and Minister for a short while during a recent educational visit to Parliament with their teachers and a parent. The Cycle two, year four pupils were shown a brief video followed by an introduction about the structure of government and Parliament as one of the country's key institutions of democracy....
PHILIPSBURG--The Joint Court of Justice on Friday suspended the workings of the verdict handed down by the Court of First Instance instructing government to purchase Industry and Golden Rock Plantations, also known as Emilio Wilson Estate. On February 21, the Court of First Instance ordered government to sign the required documents leading to the sale of 37 hectares of the estate within two weeks....
AMSTERDAM--The 100 per cent control exercise of inbound passengers from the Dutch Caribbean and Suriname at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport hasn't resulted in an overall reduced import of cocaine into Europe. The smuggling route has merely moved to the Rotterdam harbour and drugs cartels are now using West Africa as transhipment route. This is the conclusion of 20 economists and politicians, including...
~Sarah says issue has her concern~ PHILIPSBURG--Members of Parliament (MPs) on Thursday expressed outrage over the revocation of Dutch passports from persons in St. Maarten who had the Dutch nationality for many years and are now being told that they would be stripped of their nationality due to, amongst other things, errors made by the authorities who accepted their application years ago. Prime Minister...
SIMPSON BAY--The St. Maarten Nature Foundation responded to reports of a significant oil spill in the Simpson Bay area in the vicinity of Gourmet Marché stretching towards the Simpson Bay Causeway on Friday. Foundation staff responded by taking a vessel out to investigate. Once on scene, the situation was assessed and the environmental impacts of the spill on the marine environment determined. Initial...
PHILIPSBURG--A driver is said to have broken an arm when his Geo Tracker flipped over while descending the Link One Phase Two around 1:00pm on Friday. Reports indicated that the driver was manoeuvring down the wet road in regular speed when he felt his vehicle slipping. He attempted to slow down even further and apparently lost control of the vehicle, which ran up on the shoulder of the road causing...
PHILIPSBURG--The Court of Appeals is to present its advice on the challenging request filed by Prosecutor Gonda van der Wulp against Judge Koos van de Ven today, Friday, at 9:00am. The request was foiled during the April 23 trial of four men suspected of membership in a criminal organisation involved in drugs, firearms and money laundering. The Prosecutor presented her case against the Judge at the...
MAHO--St. Maarten is currently hosting this year's United Nations Educational Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) meeting on Capacity Building and Heritage Conservation in the Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Regional and international participants are using the opportunity to strengthen professional capacities for the effective implementation of the 1972 World Heritage Convention in...
PHILIPSBURG--Government messenger D.F.H. (34) may be handed over to French judicial authorities in connection with involvement in the death of a person at a bar in French St. Martin on September 7, 2002. The Prosecutor's Office requested the man's extradition during Thursday's sitting of the Joint Court of Justice. Acting Solicitor-General Clarelli Hato-Willems said the Prosecutor's Office had filed...
~ Will hold another clinic this year ~ PHILIPSBURG--Scores of residents who turned up to get their eyes tested for free by a visiting volunteer eye specialist from the Dominican Republic were left disappointed on Wednesday, as the Public Health Inspectorate closed down the clinic. Sunshine Foundation representatives said they were informed by the inspectorate that the volunteer ophthalmologist required...
Elected officials commemorated the 69th anniversary of Fête de la Victoire when President Charles de Gaulle announced on May 8, 1945, that World War II had come to an end with France liberated from Nazi oppression. A ceremony was held in the garden of Hotel de la Collectivité on Thursday morning. Wreaths were laid at the war memorial by Préfet Philippe Chopin, President of the Territorial Council...
THE HAGUE--The Executive Council of St. Eustatius recently informed the Dutch Government that it is dead-set against taking away the voting rights of non-Dutch residents for the Island Council. In a letter to Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk, the public entity St. Eustatius formally protested against the law proposal that the Dutch Government sent to the Second Chamber...