ANTIGUA & BARBUDA: Caribbean to get help with criminal deportees. Regional police forces are reporting that international governments and law enforcement agencies have given them a commitment to help the region deal with criminal deportees. Full Article

BAHAMAS: Getting to the 'Root of Things'. In "Yinna Volume Two," the scholarly journal that artfully dissects Bahamian cultural life through research papers and creative works, the Bahamas Association for Cultural Studies (BACUS) continues the expedition it began back in 2000 with the publication of its first volume of the journal. Probing the cavernous question of who we are really, the newly launched second volume uses the theme "Going Away, Going Home: The Influence of Migration on Bahamian Culture."  Full article

BAHAMAS: Wow! World AIDS Day is here again! And, while HIV/AIDS is very much a problem the world over, it is highest in the black communities of Africa and the Caribbean, which geographically speaking, of course, includes The Bahamas. Full article

BAHAMAS: Pastors hope that becoming school chaplains will help to curb crime. More than 40 pastors throughout New Providence have recently promised to give their time and resources to crime fighting and to the youth of our nation, after realizing that the youth need their assistance. Full article

BERMUDA: Technical education boost for schools. Technical education is set to play a major role in Bermuda's public schools. Full article

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: 3 students inducted into honours society. Three students were formally inducted into the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College’s chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honours Society during a ceremony at the Paraquita Bay Campus on Tuesday, November 27. Full article

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: Students learn about BVI’s culture. 2 students of the St. George’s Primary School now have a better understanding of what the Callwood Rum Distillery does and the various artifacts on display at the Sugar Works Museum. Full article

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: BVI artistes lend voices to AIDS Benefit Concert. Local artistes Quida, DTM Boyz, Orregae Boyz, Crown Heights , Vietnam Boyz and CB4 Life will take center stage this evening in showing their support in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This is all part of the BVI HIV/AIDS Foundation AIDS Benefit Concert, which will be held at the Sir. Rupert Briercliffe Hall - beginning at 7 pm. Full article

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: Music, local food, and a donkey. Events in schools around the territory and a food fair on Virgin Gorda were held Friday, as Culture Week wrapped up. Full article

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: Hal Jackson to visit St. George's School. St. George’s Secondary School will this afternoon host two special guests. “Doctor’ Bob Lee of the Make the Grade Foundation and Hal Jackson, well known for his internationally-acclaimed “Talented Teens” show will take time out from a short vacation to interact with the school’s 103 students at 1:00 p.m. Full article

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: 'Afraid to be identified'. Almost no one outside a small circle of doctors and a support group knows who has HIV or AIDS in the territory. The reason is simple: "Stigma and discrimination is a major problem throughout the world but especially in small countries like the BVI," said Dr. Ronald McAnaney, the National Aids Programme director. Full article

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: Alternative Secondary Education programme graduates 27. Twenty-seven students who met the graduation requirements received their secondary school leaving certificates during the fifth graduation ceremony for the Alternative Secondary Education Programme (ASEP) held last Thursday at the Sir Rupert Briercliffe Hall. Full article

CAYMAN ISLANDS: Literary weekend offered. Camana Bay’s bookstore, Books & Books, is offering a weekend of literary entertainment, following its opening at 3pm today. Full article

CAYMAN ISLANDS: Cayman in brief. Adult volunteers are again being encouraged to volunteer as little as two hours each month in an initiative which has proven beneficial to local teenagers. Full article

CUBA: Cuba Stands Out on Millennium Education Goals. Cuba is the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean that will meet the UN Millennium Goal for universal education, states a United Nations report issued on Thursday. Full article

CUBA: Cuba Cooperates in Human Rights. Cuba announced its decision to strengthen cooperation with human rights in response to an end of the anti-Cuban UN Human Rights Commission and birth of the Human Rights Council. Full article

DOMINICA: Normalcy Returns to school following a series of bizaare occurences that left several students hospitalized. Principal of the Pierre Charles Secondary School in Grand Bay, Benedict Charles is reporting that classes are back to normal at the school. Full article

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Dominican Tortuga Bay hotel gets an environment-friendly practices prize. Tortuga Bay, the grand luxury hotel of the destination Punta Cana Resort  & Club, won the prize for excellence, awarded  by the Leading Hotels of the Word, for its environment-friendly practices. Full article

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Dominican government must provide more environmental education. Civic movement Tiempo Verde, which has no political party affiliations, is calling on the government to take urgent measures to raise awareness of the need to preserve the environment, across a number of sectors. Full article

JAMAICA: Prime Minister calls on young Jamaicans to strive for excellence. Prime Minister Bruce Golding has called on young Jamaicans to strive for excellence, and not to settle for medio-crity as, with hard work, great achievements can be made. Full article

JAMAICA: Students display culinary skills at int'l food fair. Parents and students of the Heinz Simonitsch School in Montego Bay recently displayed their culinary and decorative skills at the school's first International Food Fair, held last Friday. The result was an amalgamation of scrumptious dishes from 16 different nations. Full article

JAMAICA: Education minister reaches out to parents. WHAT are some words you have used to your children this week?" asked parent educator, Hyacinth Pinnock, to a packed room of parents in a classroom setting at the Exeter Outreach Skills Training Centre in Vere Plains, Clarendon on Friday. "Rude boy," replied one mother. Full article

JAMAICA: Councillor Blake empowering youths. The old saying goes that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to catch it you feed him for a life time. Full article

JAMAICA: Let's preserve Jamaica's beauty by fighting crime. As a young reporter and a Jamaican, one is hoping that the relevant authorities, which also includes every Jamaican citizen, will take a stand against crime or else the beauty of the island will eventually disintegrate into a canvas of sorrow and bloodshed. Full article

JAMAICA: Break the silence! Talk to authorities, citizens urged, Rival gangs brokering deals that keep residents from testifying. Today, The Sunday Gleaner begins a series of articles aimed at getting people to break their silence on criminal acts, and talk to the police. The culture of silence is one of the main problems faced by law enforcement personnel in their fight against crime. Full article

STA LUCIA: World AIDS Day: Putting a human face on the numbers. The recent announcement by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization that they may have overestimated the number of HIV positive people worldwide by as much as 20 percent has obscured the two most important issues that should be discussed this World AIDS Day. Full article

STA LUCIA: The challenge to HIV: A call for leadership. Leadership is the theme of this year’s World AIDS Day. Committed and decisive leadership holds the key to the successful challenge to an epidemic which has potentially devastating consequences for the Eastern Caribbean, both for individual countries and for the region as a whole.  Full article

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: TB keeps students home. Pleasantville Senior Comprehensive School students took no chances with their health as hundreds failed to show up for classes yesterday morning. Full article

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: HIV/AIDS ‘targets’ workforce. Trinidad and Tobago stands to lose about four percent of its annual national income in the next few years if HIV and AIDS continue to spread at the existing rate. Full article

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO:  TT needs Volunteer Centre. THE NETWORK of NGOs for the Advancement of Women in Trinidad and Tobago Chairperson, Hazel Brown, has renewed the call for a National Volunteer Centre to regularise the sector. Full article

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: Young Newsday readers rewarded. Newsday’s Kids Activity competition draws to a close. Next week’s winners will bring the curtain down on a very popular and entertaining competition as our young readers demonstrated their intelligence and artistic capabilities at a very high level. Full article

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: Girl beaten by Form One gang. NAZRA Mohammed, a Form Two pupil of the Marabella Senior Comprehensive School, was banged on a wall, cuffed and kicked about the body by a gang of Form One pupils. Full article

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: Senate overrides vetoes on education, rezoning and appropriation measures. The 27th Legislature banded together Thursday morning and all members present unanimously overrode Gov. John deJongh Jr.'s vetoes of legislation to establish several educational programs, to rezone more than 12 acres in St. Thomas for an upscale residential development project and appropriating funds for the Civil Rights Commission. Full article

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: Technical school approved; other bills also passed. With just a few naysayers, a bill sowing the seeds for a public-private partnership to bring a nationally known post-secondary technical school to the territory passed the full Senate on Thursday night. Full article

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: Gang rape of girl student reported at Educational Complex. Police are investigating the report of an on-campus rape of a high school girl by five boys. Full article

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: St. Croix Teacher Jailed on Charges of Sexually Assaulting Students.  A St. Croix school teacher is in jail with a $1.5 million bail on charges ranging from using his finger to vaginally penetrate an 11 year old to using sexually explicit language with minors, in incidents reportedly occurring at three St. Croix schools dating back to 2002. Full article

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: Poetry Out Loud Contest Concludes in Public Schools. Public schools on St. Thomas and St. John have culled through their respective bards, selecting six students to compete in the nationwide Poetry Out Loud contest, whose state competition is slated for March at the Reichhold Center for the Arts. Full article

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: Education Report Card Finds Gains, Problem Areas. Looking over the V.I. Department of Education's 2006-2007 territorial report card, a few things catch the eye: overall, student participation and attendance rates have improved over the past year, with more students hitting proficiency levels in reading and math. Full article

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: Senate Committee Looks at Boosting Vocational Facilities. A bill calling for the construction of a nationally recognized career and technical institute on St. Thomas spurred an in-depth discussion in the Senate Monday on the current state of vocational education in the territory, and how facilities in both districts can be expanded. Full article

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: Deadline Friday for UVI Students Hoping to Study on Mainland. University of the Virgin Islands students must apply by Friday to participate in the National Student Exchange program during the fall 2008 and spring 2009 semesters. Full article

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: AIDS Day March Promotes Caring and Openness. Compassion and speaking out were on the minds of marchers commemorating World AIDS Day Saturday in Christiansted. From the open windows at Lord God of Sabaoth Lutheran Church came the sounds of the hymn, "Bind Us Together." Nothing else could be heard during the silent march along four blocks of King Street. Full article

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: Students, Officials Mark End of Hassel Island Cleanup. Nearly 100 students, members of several local organizations and public officials flocked to the Crown Bay Marina early Saturday morning for the culmination of a month-long cleanup of Hassel Island in St. Thomas harbor. Full article

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: 23 young calypsonians to compete Sunday night. Don't let their cute faces fool you, but St. Croix's youngest calypsonians have spunk and talent and the best of the best will be crowned on Sunday at Island Center during the Junior Calypso Competition. Full article