Caribbean Community (CARICOM) security officials were Wednesday investigating a bogus website which appeared to offer special CARICOM visas for the 2007 Cricket World Cup to be staged in the Caribbean.

The fake site's address is similar to the real site - www.caricomimpacs.org - which is operated by the region's national security coordinator, the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS).

The IMPACS site offers an online payment mechanism for foreign travelers to obtain CARICOM visas in addition to other information on the region's crime and security initiatives.

The fake site is on the World Wide Web at caricomimpacs.com and differs only from the authentic site by the commercial domain name.

Faster immigration lines at MIA

Miami-Dade County, in conjunction with Customs and Border Protection, has built 34 new passport control booths and Homeland Security has added 105 passport control officers, which have served to alleviate the length of the waiting time at the Miami International Airport. MIA has previously been famous for it’s long immigration lines extended processing time. However, an average of nine minutes have been shaved from the waiting time.  In the past it took MIA passport control officers up to an average of 45 minutes to process a planeload of arriving passengers.

A Govern Accountability Office report last year said average MIA wait times exceeded 45 minutes, which made the immigration lines at MIA the slowest among the nation’s 20 international airports.

U.S. population reaches 300 million

On Tuesday, at 7:46 am EDT the population of the United States officially hit 300 million, when the Census Bureau's population clock rolled over to that big number. Some experts, however, are of the opinion that the population could have reached 300 million months ago. Since the population consists of immigrants and people born in the U.S. It is difficult to ascertain the exact population of the country, or if the 300 millionth individual was because of birth or immigration.

Unlike 1967, when the U.S. population officially amounted to 200 million, there was no fanfare to commemorate the new population milestone. In that year, then president, Lyndon Johnson held a news conference at the Commerce Department to hail America’s past and to talk about the challenges ahead. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the Bush administration isn’t playing down the milestone, though he said he had no plans for Tuesday.

“I would hate to think that we are going to be low key about this,” said Gutierrez, whose department oversees the Census Bureau. “I would hope that we make a big deal about it.”

7-Eleven breaking affiliation with CITGO

The convenience-store chain, 7-Eleven announced recently that it was breaking its affiliation with CITGO as its gasoline supplier after 20 years. This, representatives for the chain said, was part of a previously announced plan by the convenience store operator to launch its own brand of fuel.

However, some people see the move by 7-Eleven as political, in light of comments made by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez against President George W. Bush in a recent speech at the United Nations. In fact, 7-Eleven officials admitted that the company’s decision was partly motivated by politics. The company is concerned that public reaction against Chavez could prompt motorists to fill up elsewhere because CITGO Petroleum Corp. is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in an impassioned speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations, did not hold back in criticizing US President George W. Bush, referring to him as “the devil” who came to the UN (the day before) “talking as if he was the owner of the world.” Although some see his speech as disrespectful to the US president on US soil, was Chavez really bent on disrespecting Bush, or was it a part of his campaign for ensuring that Venezuela wins a seat on the United Nations Security Council, when that country goes up against Guatemala for the vacant seat in next month’s election.? Chavez was speaking to an audience that included many Caribbean, Latin American, and other Third World countries that are believed to be in support of Venezuela’s bid. Showing that he is in no way intimidated by the U.S, or its president, Chavez may have been seeking to strengthen his claim for being elected.

As far as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is concerned, according to former United Nations Ambassador, and former St. Lucian Minister of External Affairs, Julian Hunte there are political benefits for the Caribbean’s support of Venezuela's bid to win a seat on the Security Council, which the Caribbean states at their last summit in St. Kitts in July seems willing to do.

Hunte said he expects the Caribbean to support Venezuela on the issue, and that the islands could benefit from the ongoing lobbying process.