SmallShop Caribbean News

  Beenie Man Popular Jamaican Dancehall entertainer, Moses “Beenie Man” Davis has asked immigration officials in Barbados to stop pressuring Jamaicans. This warning is the latest in an ongoing spat between the two Caribbean islands since the highly publicized sexual abuse case involving 20-year-old Shanique Myrie at a Barbados airport last month. Myrie said that she was subjected to an intense cavity search by a female immigration officer when arriving in Barbados on March 14. Davis, while performing a show at the Reggae Beach Party in Brandons Beach, St Michael in Barbados made his feelings known about the mistreatment of Jamaicans in the island. “Ease up Jamaican. Stop pressure Jamaican,” he pleaded. Continue reading on Examiner.com  http://www.examiner.com/jamaican-pop-culture-in-national/beenie-man-warns-barbadian-immigration-to-stop-harassing-jamaicanss#ixzz1KorTxNZb

The Jamaica Gleaner THE AGRICULTURE Workers Alliance in Canada has described the treatment of Jamaican migrant farm workers as "Canada's shameful secret" and "indentured servitude". Stan Raper, national coordinator of the alliance, spoke with The Gleaner on Tuesday, describing the relationship between many farm workers as a power imbalance. "Farm workers have little ability to complain and deal with issues affecting them," he said. The Canadian Medical Association Journal published two peer-reviewed articles last week, which show that a number of Jamaicans and other migrant workers, including Mexicans, experience harsh living and working conditions, resulting in chronic ailments, some of which are gastrointestinal in nature, or linked to long-term chemical exposure. Related articles Migrant farm workers' health often poor: study (ctv.ca)

The Dominican Marigot (TDN)-Villagers of Marigot today staged a protest action in what they say is an effort to have government reinstate magistrate Tiyani Behanzin. In March of this year, government refused to renew the contract of Behanzin who had served as a magistrate over the past three years. Behanzin who is the son of former prime minister Roosevelt Douglas has accused the ruling Dominica Labor Party of wrongful dismissal and is pursuing the matter in court. The villagers say that there is a dire need of a magistrate in their community and point to the great work that Behanzin did while he was on the bench. Related articles Dominica's prime minister awaits ruling in dual-citizenship case (news.smallshop.com)

Caribarena Antigua Antigua St John's - As LIAT continues on its route to downsizing, other airlines seem ready to pick up the slack, with the newest entrant to the regional aviation market, REDJet, about to being its budget fares next week. Coming out of Barbados, the airline is set make its inaugural flight in nine days, with prices as low as US$9.99. Caribarena.com contacted LIAT’s local office for a comment on the new rival, but got no response. Read more: http://www.caribarena.com/antigua/business/business-news/97213-liat-unprepared-to-discuss-competition.html#ixzz1KeC9lmvE

Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday WITH THE Central Bank under fire for its refusal to disclose key forensic reports on Clico to the Colman Commission of Inquiry, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan this month moved to take steps to intervene in the impasse which has raised the spectre of millions worth of forensic work being duplicated at taxpayers expense. In a two-page request issued to the Ministry of Finance this month, Ramlogan asked for a status update on all court matters involving the Central Bank given the Bank’s position that it cannot disclose taxpayer-funded reports to the Sir Anthony Colman-chaired enquiry because the reports were commissioned for use in court proceedings. Related articles Clico's ticking timebomb (news.smallshop.com) Central Bank blocking Clico inquiry (news.smallshop.com)

Cover of Spragga Benz Jamaica Gleaner DANCEHALL ARTISTE Carlton 'Spragga Benz' Grant is claiming to be a victim of a conspiracy to smear his reputation. Grant, who has been named by the police as a person of interest arising out of a triple murder in McIntyre Villa, east Kingston, last Saturday, said yesterday on his Twitter page that he was being set up. "All this slander and defamation and sensationalisation, even though they know I am not around and lawyers already contacted them ... . What a set up!" he told fans on the social-networking site.

The Bahama Journal "The grandmother of Desmond Key, who died as a result of an alleged police attack, says family and friends of the 28-year-old father of six are frustrated but says she will not give up until the men who were charged with the young man’s death are prosecuted. In a tearful interview with the Bahama Journal this recently, 70-year-old Veronica Bastian said coping with her grandson’s death stirs up all kinds of emotions from anger to grief to emptiness. Key had reportedly been arrested on a traffic violation and was in a holding cell at the Grove Police Station at the time of the alleged attack.

Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday : "HOURS after Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs boasted that serious crime, especially homicides, was down for the first-quarter of this year two murders — one in Laventille and the other in El Socorro — sent the year’s murder toll to 126. In the Morvant incident, a 15-year-old Form Two student of the Russell Latapy Secondary School in Morvant, was shot seven times by gunmen on Wednesday night in John John, Laventille."

Kaieteur News : "Twenty-three year-old Guyana Defence Force Lance Corporal, Curt Belgrave, appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court yesterday, to face a charge of manslaughter. The soldier allegedly shot and killed Venezuelan Jose Arturo Castilla Balcazar, called “Colombian” at Wenamu River in the vicinity of Eteringbang last Saturday. Belgrave, who was unrepresented, made his appearance before Her Worship Hazel Octive-Hamilton."

nationnews.com : "Tragedy has struck the home of a St George family, claiming two lives, including that of a three-month-old baby. The accident, which occurred along Lower Estate, St Michael, just after 7:30 last night, put a pall over yesterday’s Holy Thursday activities and cast a cloud of despair over today’s Good Friday commemoration."

Fidel Castro made a surprise appearance at Cuba's Communist Party Congress in Havana, receiving thunderous applause from the 1,000 delegates.... Related articles Fidel Castro makes appearance at Party Congress (sfgate.com) Cuba's Fidel Castro makes surprise appearance - BBC News (news.google.com)

The Royal Gazette Gun victim David Clarke was supposed to join his mother on a trip home to Barbados next Monday to celebrate his 27th birthday. But yesterday, instead of preparing for the vacation in their homeland, Angela Clarke, 54, was planning her son's funeral. She told The Royal Gazette his death makes her feel like returning to Barbados for ever. “I'm going to leave, I've had enough,” she said. “When they kill everybody, that's when it's going to stop. You hear of these things happening to families but you never think to hear it yourself. We moved to Bermuda for a better life. I can't say what I would like to say. But it's not better.” Mr Clarke was riding his bike back from the Mid Atlantic Boat Club when he was shot at the junction of Bandroom Lane and North Shore Road, Devonshire, around 10.30pm on Sunday. He died despite the efforts of an off-duty Emergency Medical Technician to save him.

The Dominican.net St Maarteen (TDN)-Three men from Dominica are in custody in St Maarten for a string of brutal murders, rapes and robberies that took place in that country earlier this year. St Maarten police gives details of the crimes at a press conference. In custody are Sherwin Roberts (20), Curtley Richards (31) and Julius Serrant (28) all natives of Dominica. They were arrested on Thursday, April 7, and were considered at the time to be the main suspects of two violent robberies and a rape. Two other people also were arrested, but were released later for lack of evidence.

Trinidad and Tobago Newsday Mystery surrounds the investment in two insurance policies valued in excess of $54 million in 2007 and 2008 in the name of Indian national Uthara Rao, former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Estate Management and Business Development Company Limited (EMBD), with Colonial Life Insurance Company (Clico). The policies were paid for by the EMBD. Four members of the EMBD board of directors, including chairman Kristendath Ramkissoon, and five management staff, among them acting chief executive officer Keith Gray, were unable to explain to the Public Accounts (Enterprises) Committee (PAEC) yesterday why the company took out the policies in Rao’s name and who sanctioned the investments. Related articles $33M for Clico investors (news.smallshop.com)

The Trnidad Guardian REDjet ’s plans to fly from T&T on May 8 are in trouble. Ramesh Lutchmedial, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of T&T (CATT), said yesterday he had ordered REDjet to immediately cease all advertising of its fares to the three destinations to which it had been marketing its $63 rate. The low-cost carrier, which a week ago launched its services at the Carlton Savannah, St Ann’s, said it planned to service the Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica and Guyana routes. Lutchmedial said CATT dispatched a letter, dated yesterday, to the low-cost carrier informing it to desist from advertising fares or the making of any bookings until it had received the required permission from the relevant authorities in T&T. Since the launch of REDjet, there have been concerns surrounding its acquisition of a licence to operate in T&T.

JUST hours before her murder on Sunday night, the usually brave Corporal Bevon Hutchinson-Anderson shared with the grandmother of her 12-year old son that she was scared. She had just days prior, told her lover Osbourne Whitton — a 58-year-old sergeant who opted for early retirement from the police force — that she wanted to end their affair. “She told him she wanted a break,” her neighbour Delroy Martin told the Observer from his Melrose Mews home in Mandeville, Manchester. Read more:  http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Murdered-cop-was-scared#ixzz1Jz0gky3h Related articles Retired Police kills three in Jamaica, then commits suicide (tceye.wordpress.com)

Cover of Buju Banton DESPITE languishing in the Pinellas County Jail in Florida almost two months after being convicted on drug charges, Reggae star Buju Banton is said to still be in high spirits and is keeping his fingers crossed that he will be able to walk free. The artiste was found guilty by a 12-member panel of jurors, during a second drug trial in Tampa, Florida in February, of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five or more kilogrammes of cocaine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking offence, and using the wires to facilitate a drug-trafficking offence. Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Buju-is-a-rock_8680223#ixzz1Jmj4xv3m Related articles Buju vs USA -'Not as easy road (news.smallshop.com) DEA agent again says no evidence artiste a drug dealer Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/A-good-day-for-Buju_8373371#ixzz1E2anGh2M (news.smallshop.com)

Image via Wikipedia Trinidad and Tobago Newsday FOUR-YEAR-OLD Ezekiel Renne Cambridge is now fighting for his life at the Intensive Care Unit of the San Fernando General Hospital after being mauled almost to death by two German Shepherd dogs near his home in Chrissie Street, Block 5, Palmiste, San Fernando on Tuesday night. According to reports, young Ezekiel was walking along Chrissie Street with his grandmother Yolanda Renne, something grandmother and grandson did regularly, when at about 9 pm, the two dogs ran out of the yard of its owner Vidya Emrith’s home at Cinnamon Court in Chrissie Street. As a helpless Yolanda screamed and screamed for help, both dogs ripped into Ezekiel and tossed him about like a doll gripping him in their jaws.

The island has recorded another homicide- this time at the hands of the police. A Marigot man- suspected to be involved in last Friday's shooting was shot and killed at his residence at around five in the morning. The family of the twenty two year old says he was killed innocently.

Tillman Thomas ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada – Unseasonable heavy rains have caused landslides on the Caribbean island of Grenada, where officials on Tuesday relocated families away from swollen rivers that flooded homes and destroyed small fishing boats. "We should be in the dry season, but we are experiencing so much rain," Grenada Prime Minister Tillman Thomas said while he toured the island's northwest region. Flooding turned the small coastal town of Gouyave into a jumble of mud, trees, sand and stones. More than 20 families were left without shelter. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/04/12/rains-pound-grenada-flooding-forces-evacuations/#ixzz1JOmvdr4r Related articles Rains pound Grenada, flooding forces evacuations (sfgate.com)

(Jamaica Observer) Stabroek News Yet another Jamaican woman has come forward with accusations of mistreatment by the authorities at the Grantley Adams International Airport in Bridgetown, Barbados. Although Donna Benjamin-McLean’s alleged case of abuse occurred in September 2004, she has decided to come public in solidarity with Shanique Myrie — a Jamaican woman who has bitterly complained of being strip searched, finger-raped, verbally abused and locked up before being shipped out of Barbados without a reasonable explanation. In an interview with the Observer on Saturday, Benjamin-McLean expressed her displeasure with reported denials by Barbadian authorities that Myrie’s account was lacking in veracity and that she was a victim of human trafficking. “I want Barbados to know that it is happening. They are behaving as if it never happened, as if it is a lie. I don’t believe I will ever revisit Barbados, because I fear them,” Benjamin-McLean said. Benjamin-McLean said she was plu...

Trinidad and Tobago Newsday TWO months of intense investigations which included an unprecedented three autopsies being done and extensive use of DNA testing, investigations into the murder of eight-year-old Daniel Guerra climaxed yesterday when Police Constable Darwin Ghuralal appeared before a San Fernando magistrate charged with the boy’s murder. But unlike most persons charged with murder and other serious offences, Ghuralal was afforded special treatment by his police colleagues in that rather than being escorted on foot from the San Fernando Police Station to the nearby courthouse, he was instead driven in a heavily tinted Mitsubishi Lancer motorcar to the underground car park of the court compound, to protect him from the glare and cameras of reporters assembled outside. Related articles Daniel Was Strangled (news.smallshop.com)

The Press Association David Cameron is embroiled in a furious row with Oxford University after he launched a blistering attack on its "disgraceful" record for admitting black students. The university accused the Prime Minister of using "highly misleading" figures after he stated that only one black undergraduate went to the university last year. While Mr Cameron's aides accepted he should have said one black Caribbean undergraduate, they accused Oxford of "missing the point", saying that the total number of black undergraduates admitted was just 27. Mr Cameron made his comments about his old university during a question and answer session in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. He told the audience: "I saw figures the other day that showed that only one black person went to Oxford last year. I think that is disgraceful, we have got to do better than that."

Kaieteur News There are reports of people from small Caribbean islands being held as virtual slaves in homes in Trinidad, said Foreign Affairs Minister Surujrattan Rambachan. The Trinidad Express reported Rambachan as making the remark on Friday during debate on the Human Trafficking bill at the Red House, Port of Spain.\ “From time to time, you hear in this country, up to this day, about people who are virtually slaves in homes of people in this country. Who have been brought from Guyana… (or) other small islands and working as supposedly maidservants in homes, their passports taken away and they cannot get out of their homes and begging people to get out of the country,” The Trinidad Express reported Rambachan as saying. He said in a United States 2010 trafficking report, Trinidad and Tobago was described as a destination for forced prostitution of women and children and forced labour for men. Rambachan said in 2007, 71 women and children in Marabella were held by authorities,...

According to Annalise's distressed father, Gary Authurs, his daughter eventually succeeded in killing herself on Tuesday after trying to take her life three times in the last two years. He said that a couple of years ago, while Annalise was a student at Howard Cooke Primary, she attempted to jump from an upstairs balcony at the school after the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) results were announced and students she perceived to be of an inferior academic standard were placed in traditional high schools, while she was placed at St James High. "She was so disappointed and took it seriously and attempted to jump off the building. It took the students and teachers to stop her," the bereaved father told the Observer last Thursday. In January, according to the distraught father, his daughter again tried to end her life as a result of a problematic love affair with a male student. Read more:  http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Failed-romance-drove-14-year-old-over-the-edge...

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Mikeisha Simpson covers her body in greasy white cream and bundles up in a track suit to avoid the fierce sun of her native Jamaica, but she's not worried about skin cancer. The 23-year-old resident of a Kingston ghetto hopes to transform her dark complexion to a cafe-au-lait-colour common among Jamaica's elite and favoured by many men in her neighborhood. She believes a fairer skin could be her ticket to a better life. So she spends her meager savings on cheap black-market concoctions that promise to lighten her pigment. Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/AP--Skin-bleaching-a-growing-problem-in-Jamaica#ixzz1JEs0AFzB Related articles Jamaica health officials say rampant skin bleaching in slums becoming a pathology (repeatingislands.com) Skin Bleaching (crimiology.wordpress.com)

The Dominican "BVI (TDN)-A judge in the British Virgin Island (BVI) has sentenced 54 year old Camillus ‘Jim’ Parris of Dominica to a prison term of eleven years and three months after he was found guilty of rape and indecent assault charges. Parris was arrested and charged in April 2010 for the rape and indecent assault of seven and nine year old sisters. The court was told that when Parris arrived in the BVI from Dominica in 2007 he was staying at the home of the father of the two sisters.

JamaicaObserver.com : "The complainant in the matter said Denny let two policemen inside the cell she occupied at the Central Police station in Bridgetown, Barbados after she was held with marijuana in her luggage at the Grantley Adams International Airport in late February. She said Barrow forced her to perform oral sex on him while she claims the other male cop who has not yet been identified, raped her.. Barrow and Denny were pointed out during separate identification parades last week. The complainant is currently serving a 15-month sentence at the Dodds penal facility in St Phillip.

Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday "ACTIONS of the Central Bank Governor are blocking the progress of the Clico Commission of Inquiry, inquiry chairman Sir Anthony Coleman indicated yesterday as he issued what virtually amounted to a plea to Governor Ewart Williams to release crucial forensic reports on Clico to the inquiry. Coleman yesterday broke his silence over a month-old impasse between lawyers for the commission and lawyers for the Central Bank over the disclosure of a forensic report prepared by Canada-based firm KPMG Forensics as well as other reports prepared by Ernst and Young.

Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday "A DOUBLE murder in Barataria on Wednesday night has pushed the homicide figure up to 116 for the year. Investigators said that at about 10.45 pm, relatives of 19-year-old Jevon Clarke reported hearing several loud explosions while at home on Ninth Street, Barataria. Aware that her son had been liming outside with two friends, Clarke’s mother reportedly went out to find the three men lying in a pool of blood in front of the gate leading to their home. The two men with Clarke were identified as Enrique O’Brien, 27 and Errol Granger, 19. O’Brien and Clarke were rushed to the Port-of- Spain General Hospital and died a short time later while undergoing emergency surgery . Meantime, Granger was treated and remains warded in a critical condition.

JamaicaObserver.com : "BARBADOS has agreed to allow Shanique Myrie to visit the island to identify the immigration officer who allegedly finger-raped her and later kicked her out of the Caribbean island last month. Myrie, a Jamaican, complained bitterly to the Observer last month that when she attempted to enter Barbados on March 14, 2011, she was subjected to two demeaning cavity searches by a female immigration officer who continuously spewed venom about Jamaicans. It was her first trip out of the island.

Image by OEA - OAS via Flickr Caribarena Antigua : "Jamaicans aren’t the only Black Caribbean citizens being mistreated in Barbados. I read many blogs on the internet of other Caribbean nationals who complained that they were treated similarly to the way Jamaican Shanique Myrie, and the three Jamaican young men, allege they were treated. Most of those Caribbean nationals alleging mistreatment at the airport in Barbados said that upon arrival, they were treated brusquely, if not coarsely, by immigration officers, while persons with American and European passports were welcomed with utmost courtesy. We don’t have to depend only on their stories. Barbados’ Parliamentarian Mia Mottley reportedly said in the Jamaican newspaper, the Observer, 'As Barbadians we can no longer bury our heads in the sand to the perception that others have of us that Barbados does not treat its Caribbean brothers and sisters and people of African descent fairly and with respect.”

Image via Wikipedia The Jamaica Gleaner Detective Corporal Wayne Llewellyn, who murdered four members of his family before killing himself, appeared to have had marital problems, according to postings on his Facebook page. Facebook postings, days leading up to yesterday morning's multiple murder-suicide, suggest Llewellyn was facing struggles in his relationship. On March 26, Llewellyn posted a picture with the phrase 'Heart Closed Until Further Notice'. On March 28, he changed his relationship status on Facebook from 'married' to in a 'complicated relationship'. One friend commented "imagine that", while another asked, "What complicate your relationship now, married man?" Related articles Cop kills wife's family, commits suicide (news.smallshop.com) Facebook caution: Cops chatting too much on social network (news.smallshop.com)

The Bermuda Journal "Jean Jacques - the country’s 35th homicide victim - are able to at least get some type of closure for the murder of the young mother, after her alleged killers were arraigned in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday afternoon. 37-year-old Charles Pandy, a resident of Winders Terrace and 27-year-old Winston Z. Whylly of Deliverance Way, were arraigned before Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez, in connection with last week’s shooting death of the Haitian national.

Antigua Observer Newspaper "Police have arrested and charged a third man with the murder of Rondel George, the Guyanese butcher who was gunned down on August 21, 2010. Eighteen-year-old Chester Joseph of South Street now joins co-accused Jevorny Richards, 31, of Bendals and Lasana Anthony Riley, 25, of Hatton who are on remand at Her Majesty’s Prison to await the date for committal, set for Wednesday. The teenager went before Magistrate Joan Fung yesterday for his first court appearance since he was charged for the capital offence for which the maximum sentence is the death penalty.

Kaieteur News : "Suspected drug trafficker Brian Chung was executed shortly after 20:00 hrs last night in the yard of his Da Silva Street, Newtown residence by two masked gunmen who fled the scene on a CG motorcycle. Reports are that Chung, whose age was given as 40, was shot at close range in the forehead. He was already dead when police took him to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. Police were last night said to be questioning a woman who is said to have witnessed the execution.

Amandala Online : "When the Belizean Chinese businesspeople in the city learned of the murders of two of their own, two women killed in separate shootings, hours apart on Saturday, April 2, they took to the city’s streets in anger, and with two coffins to represent the slain women, demonstrated around the Supreme Court and Magistrate’s Court, both on Regent Street West. The demonstration, without the necessary permit from police, started from Regent Street, and went across the Swing Bridge. They then made their way unto Queen Street, New Road, Douglas Jones Street, Bel China Bridge, Youth for the Future Drive, Woods Street, Cemetery Road, Orange Street and back unto Treasury Lane

JamaicaObserver.com : "THREE HILLS, St Mary — Shock, anger, grief, and disbelief gripped the usually quiet community of Three Hills in Western St Mary yesterday after a policeman shot dead four members of his wife's family before turning the gun on himself. Corporal Wayne Llewellyn reportedly killed his stepdaughter, mother-in-law, father-in-law, and his brother-in-law before he ended his own life outside his sister-in-law's house metres away.

nationnews.com : "The lawyer representing Jamaican Shanique Myrie says the conclusion of his government’s official report into her claims of abuse by officials at the Grantley Adams International Airport, shows there is “considerable merit” in what she said. Attorney Andrew Hylton said he was privy to the official report of the Jamaican delegation and they concluded that her claims of a cavity search did take place at the hands of Barbadian officials. “This finding was accepted by the Jamaican government,” Hylton told the WEEKENED NATION yesterday. Related articles J'can woman IDs Barbadian policeman in alleged rape case (news.smallshop.com)

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JamaicaObserver.com : "A 27-year-old Jamaican woman who alleges that she was brutally raped and sexually assaulted by two policemen, aided and abetted by a female officer — all of the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) — has identified one of her alleged attackers, credible sources say. The man was picked out of a police identification parade yesterday, almost a month to the date when the woman claimed the rape and assault took place. Repeated efforts over two days to contact the investigating officer, Assistant Superintendent Curvan Harvey of the Royal Barbados Police, were unsuccessful. Related articles Cops questioned in rape case (news.smallshop.com)

Kaieteur News : "An 11-year-old boy from the village of Paradise, on the East Coast of Demerara, was arrested by police yesterday while pilfering from a Dazzell Housing Scheme house while the owners were at work. The lad, who was described as a habitual housebreaker, was caught hiding in the living room of the property after it was surrounded by irate residents. Residents of the Paradise area had been lamenting the wanton break-ins of their properties and they had enough reason to suspect that they were committed by a gang of young thieves. Related articles Sophia schoolboy among two shot in botched Mahaica burglary (news.smallshop.com)

NationNews Barbados "Political activist Eric “Fly” Sealy passed away tonight at the Geriatric Hospital, Beckles Road, St Michael where he was living for the past couple years. Sealy was in his 80s. He was the leader of the People’s Pressure Group. He was also one of Barbados’ leading boxing promoters.

Antigua Observer Newspaper "A 43-year-old woman of Bethesda was up to late yesterday still in police custody, suspected of beating her teenage son so severely that she broke his right arm. The mother is also said to have inflicted damage to the 13-year-old’s left hand, while whacking him about the body with a stick. The injuries necessitated his being hospitalized at the Mount St John’s Medical Centre, following the incident, which reportedly occurred around 6am on Thursday.

Bermuda Sun... "A man was today charged with the attempted murder of two people outside Southside Cinema in November 2009. Jahmel Blakeney, 29, appeared at Magistrates’ Court amid a heavy police presence. He is accused of shooting at Shaki Minors and Rene Kuchler on November 13, 2009, outside the Southside Cinema. Mr Blakeney was arrested after the attack but fled the island after being released on police bail. He was found in June in a house in Brooklyn, New York. Mr Blakeney waived extradition because he has dual citizenship but police announced last month he would be sent back to the island.

The Nassau Guardian : "Two men are in police custody in connection with the brutal stabbing death of an unidentified man in Abaco on Saturday. Police said officers received reports of a “disturbance” at Surf Side Park, in Dundas Town, Abaco around 3:35 a.m. However, when officers responded to the scene, it was clearly more than just a disturbance. “Police at Abaco discovered an unresponsive male with multiple stab wounds to the body,” reported police press liaison officer Sergeant Chrislyn Skippings. “It is reported that the victim got into an altercation with two males known to him and was subsequently stabbed multiple times. The victim was taken to the local clinic where he was pronounced dead.” The victim is said to be in his early 20s.

nationnews.com : "THREE POLICE OFFICERS were being questioned last night in connection with the alleged rape of a Jamaican woman in February. Sources told the DAILY NATION yesterday the three, including a female constable, were being investigated for allegedly committing the offence while the woman was in police custody in the holding cells of Central Police Station sometime between the night of February 28 and the next morning. Related articles Another woman has come out alongside Shanique Myrie and is accusing authorities of assault.... (news.smallshop.com)

The Canadian Press: "ROSEAU, Dominica — A judge on the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica says she will issue a ruling soon on a complaint that the prime minister and a Cabinet member broke the law by allegedly running for office while holding dual citizenship. Opposition leaders claim that both Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and Education Minister Petter Saint Jean held French and Dominican citizenship while running in the 2009 elections. Related articles Dominica Will Not Break Ties with Libya (repeatingislands.com) Dominica PM praised for taking a position against whaling (greenantilles.com) Editorial: PM Skerritt makes Dominica 'Egypt' of Caribbean (dominicatimes.wordpress.com) "I will shoot your ass" - Dominica Director of Audit says to politician (dominicatimes.wordpress.com)

Barbados Free Press : "Then recently we heard Verla Depeiza was about to be named as a Director at the Barbados Tourism Authority. We were pleased because we thought she would push for more transparency and accountability. And integrity. Now we see one Verla Depeiza charged with four counts of failing to file income tax returns. First off, we don’t know if it’s the same Verla Depeiza, but it’s not like the name is “Walcott” if ya know what I mean. Related articles Barbados immigration denies finger rape of Jamaican woman (news.smallshop.com) In Barbados, the cutter is the perfect on-the-go snack (flybarbados.com) Hilary Heath attacked by serial rapist in Barbados says police 'concerned with image' (dailymail.co.uk)

Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday "THE single stab wound that 14-year-old Micah Savary, a Gasparillo Composite Secondary School student sustained after being stabbed by another student not only penetrated his chest but the blade from the knife, his father said, pierced almost three inches into his heart. The Form Two student of Seepersad Avenue, Claxton Bay is still listed in a critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the San Fernando General Hospital, and his father Jethron Savary, 40, is hoping and praying for the best. Related articles A Medical Tragedy (news.smallshop.com) 'Very gruesome' (news.smallshop.com)

Mail Online : "A British former actress savagely attacked in her Barbados home by a serial rapist claims the island's police failed to warn the public about the string of attacks - and were 'apparently only concerned with the image of Barbados tourism'. Hilary Heath, who appeared in films including Wuthering Heights and television series The Avengers, has formally complained alongside two other British victims about the police investigation. They other women, in their twenties, were attacked by the same man after Mrs Heath's ordeal. She says she had to beg for DNA swabs to be taken when she went to hospital, officers failed to seize vital evidence such as her bed sheets and items handled by the rapist for forensic clues, and a statement taken from her was 'barely literate'. Related articles British actress attacked by serial rapist in Barbados says island's police were 'only concerned with image for tourists' (dailymail.co.uk)

This film was produced to commemorate the 8th anniversary of The 'Black Spring' Crackdown in Cuba. It features interviews with two former Prisoners of Conscience now living in Spain and also includes Amnesty International's Caribbean researcher Gerardo Ducos. Related articles Cuba frees final two dissidents (bbc.co.uk) You: Cuba to release last two prisoners of its 'Black Spring' - Summary (earthtimes.org)