PHILIPSBURG--Mark Mingo took the St. Maarten government and his former employer Port St. Maarten to court for wrongful termination, but the Court of First Instance ruled on Tuesday that it was the former chief executive officer (CEO) who acted unlawfully by not following proper payment procedures and allowing large-scale fraud at the government-owned company.

Deborah Fearon stands at her restaurant as she cleans up debris, after Hurricane Melissa made landfall, in Goshen in St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica.

PORT-AU-PRINCE/KINGSTON/HAVANA--Hurricane Melissa barreled through the northern Caribbean on Wednesday after thrashing Cuba's second-biggest city, isolating hundreds of rural communities, unleashing devastation in Jamaica and drenching Haiti, where at least 25 were killed.

An artist’s rendering of the proposed Dutch Village project. (File photo)

PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance has ordered former infrastructure minister and Member of Parliament (MP) Theo Heyliger to pay US $92.1 million for sabotaging a large real estate company’s development of a shopping and entertainment centre at the cruise port more than a decade ago.

People take their belongings to shelters ahead of Hurricane Melissa's landfall in Caleta Blanca, Cuba, October 28, 2025.

KINGSTON--Hurricane Melissa churned toward Cuba's second-largest city with the force of a powerful Category 4 storm on Tuesday, hours after making landfall in neighbouring Jamaica as the strongest-ever cyclone on record to hit that Caribbean island nation.

The Court of First Instance has ruled that landlords cannot terminate the 17-year lease of the apartment at Fan Coral Road 17-2, overturning a previous Rent Committee decision.

~ Judge rules landlords acted unlawfully in cutting utilities ~

PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance has overturned a Rent Committee decision that had authorised the eviction of attorney Eric Jansen from his Beacon Hill apartment. Landlords Dr. Hidde Pieter Deketh and Sharon Deketh-Banfield failed to provide sufficient legal grounds for termination and acted unlawfully in cutting off essential utilities.