ALP calls for amnesty
The opposition Antigua Labour Party has called on the government to declare a six-month amnesty for illegal immigrants.

In his weekly radio address on Sunday, opposition leader Lester Bird said the reprieve should be granted to undocumented Caricom and other nationals residing on the island for three years or more.

Bird’s call came one day before Barbados began its own amnesty for Caricom nationals living there illegally for the past eight years.

The undocumented migrants in Bridgetown have until 30 November to regularise their status or face deportation.

Swine flu reaches Jamaica
Jamaica’s health ministry has confirmed the country’s first two cases of swine flu.
Health officials said at the weekend that two citizens who returned home from the United States had tested positive for the deadly virus, but have since recovered.

Medical officials also took samples from household contacts of the infected people and they too have been declared in good health.

The Jamaican cases followed confirmation of the virus in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

New political party for Dominica
A new political party has been formed in Dominica.
This brings to five, the number of parties expected to contest the next general election, which is constitutionally due next year.

The latest organisation, called the Real Labour Party, is coordinated by Adenauer Douglas, the brother of the deceased prime minister Rosie Douglas.

He says the governing Dominica Labour Party has lost touch with the vision of the its founding members and his party will offer a credible alternative.

Aristide speaks
Haiti’s ousted former President Jean Bertrand Aristide has released a rare statement from exile about the death of his ally Reverend Gerard Jean-Juste.

Reverend Jean-Juste died from a stroke last Wednesday in Miami.
A poem titled “Triumph Over Death” has been posted on a website of Aristide’s Lavalas Family Party, accompanied by an apparent recording of Aristide reading it aloud.

Aristide rarely issues statements from his home in South Africa except on 1 January, Haiti’s independence day.