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Vol.4 #26

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RAHUL DRAVID ENDORSES DAY/ NIGHT TESTS

CARIBBEAN AIRLINES suspends pilots pending investigation into JetBlue near collision

Airport cops charged over cocaine-in-rum conspiracyTwo special constables were yes-terday charged with conspiracy to traffic cocaine that was intercepted in rum bottles at the John F Kenne-dy airport in New York.

DOC, NURSE HELP KILLERA DOCTOR and nurse had been doing house visits to attend to the man who murdered 19-year-old Salma Chadee in Caroni last Saturday evening. These visits took place in the very house where the man shot the young mother of one to death.

GUYANA ELECTION SET FOR MAY 11TH

ALBERT BALDEO A NO SHOW FOR NEW YORK SENTENCING ON OBSTRUCTION CHARGES

As Seen On Stabroek News, former Guyana magistrate Albert Baldeo was a no show in a New York court where he was sched-uled to be sentenced by Judge Paul A Crotty on seven counts of obstructing the course of justice.

CAMPAIGN BEGINSPrime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar literally kicked off the People’s Partnership’s 2015 election campaign on Tues-day evening, rallying her troops to understand that election time is upon them.

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Albert Baldeo a no show for New York sentencing on obstruction charges

As Seen On Stabroek News, for-mer Guyana magistrate Albert Baldeo was yesterday a no show

in a New York court where he was scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Paul A Crotty on seven counts of ob-structing the course of justice.

According to court filings seen by this newspaper Baldeo, who was found guilty since last August but has been fighting his conviction, did not appear for sentencing “due to medical rea-sons.” Daniel Richenthal appeared for

the government while Henry Mazurek appeared for Baldeo.

“The Court will await further infor-mation on Mr Baldeo’s health before rescheduling the sentencing,” the court filing stated.

Early last December Baldeo had filed another motion seeking to have his conviction reconsidered but on Tues-day the judge threw out that motion and said sentencing would have gone ahead yesterday at 3.30 pm as was scheduled.

In a victim impact letter, prosecution witness, Davindranauth Sookai stated that he had testified against Baldeo and that he had worked with the con-vict’s brother’s medical and real estate office, had bought money orders from funds given to him by the former mag-istrate and in turn lied to the FBI when asked about it. He said he lied at the request of Baldeo.

The man said he was recommend-ing maximum sentencing for Baldeo because he was a practising attorney

who used his knowledge of the law to “manipulate and put fear into my mind by telling me how I can get into serious trouble and be prosecuted if I tell the truth about what had happened.

“Mr Baldeo being an attorney I be-lieved what he was saying because he had knowledge of the law and at the time I myself had 2 very young kids and the thought that I would not be there for them I did what Mr Baldeo told me to do,” Sookai said in the letter.

He concluded that Baldeo broke the law for his own financial gain and should be punished “to the fullest ex-tent of the law.”

Baldeo, a former Queens, New York district leader, was found guilty in fed-eral court of tampering with witnesses during the investigation of his alleged campaign fraud by the US Federal Bu-reau of Investigation (FBI).

Baldeo, 55, was convicted on seven counts of obstruction of justice in a Manhattan federal court after a two-week trial before US District Judge Crotty. He was acquitted of three fraud-related counts relating to ap-proximately US$15,000 in claims for city matching funds. A release on Au-gust 11, 2014 on the conviction from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York said that according to the Complaint, Indictment and Superseding Indict-ment and evi-dence presented at trial, in the fall of 2010, Baldeo, then a Queens district leader of a political party and attorney, took part in a scheme to defraud New York City which involved the funnel-ling of multiple illegal campaign contri-butions to his eventually unsuccessful campaign for City Council. The release said that on various occasions, Baldeo, and in at least one instance one of his employees, gave money orders or cash to individuals to contribute to the cam-paign in their own names, even though Baldeo had supplied the funds and these individuals did not provide any of their own money or reimburse him for these donations.

The release said that as part of this scheme, Baldeo gave each such donor, a campaign contribution card in which he or she wrote their particulars and the amount of money they supposedly donated to the Baldeo campaign.

After learning that the FBI was in-vestigating the matter, the release said Baldeo obstructed the investigation by ordering some of the straw donors to provide false information to, or not co-operate with, the FBI agents.

In one case, the release said, after Baldeo learnt that one straw donor was going to refuse to lie, a threaten-ing letter was faxed from Baldeo’s of-fice to the office of this straw donor’s attorney. Further, a co-conspirator of Baldeo’s made false allegations to the New York City Administration for Chil-dren’s Services that this straw donor was abusing his grandchild.

Each of the counts Baldeo was con-victed on carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.


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CAMPAIGN BEGINSPrime Minister Kamla Persad-Bis-

sessar literally kicked off the Peo-ple’s Partnership’s 2015 election

campaign on Tuesday evening, rallying her troops to understand that election time is upon them.

“Let us understand the time that is upon us,” she told a large crowd of Unit-ed National Congress (UNC) supporters as she formally opened the party’s south regional administrative building in San Fernando which she dubbed the “com-mand centre.”

She added, “Whilst we are here in hap-piness, coming out of an already wonderful Christmas season, welcoming the New Year and going into the Carnival season, let us understand what time is upon us now, and that time, I say to you, the time has come for our re-election campaign to begin.”

Later in her address, she dispelled any notion of an early election as being called for by the Opposition, telling her audi-ence that the election would be called when it was constitutionally due and she would not be “jumbied” into setting the date.

“Nobody will jumbie me,” she said. “I am a child of God, and I put God in front, and I walk behind. So no jumbie holding me down. And that is why I will not take their basket, I will not let them jumbie me to call early election, I does work within the law and within the Constitution, I will call election within the time frame of the Constitution of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.” The election is constitu-tionally due by September.

The large crowd gathered for the oc-casion spilled onto the nearby Harris Street, causing police officers to close the roadway for the duration of the func-tion which was indeed a rally.

The building, which is painted in the party’s signature bright yellow colours and draped with yellow flags and stream-ers, is located at the corner of Harris and Sutton streets, San Fernando, which is a short distance from the San Fernando West constituency office of Congress of the People (COP) Member of Parliament, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan located on

the corner of Harris and Keate streets. Even so, COP political leader Prakash

Ramadhar attended the opening of the UNC office and stood with the Prime Minister as cut the ribbon.

Persad-Bissessar told the crowd they had to “understand the time” and “ride the wave” to an electoral victory in 2015.

“Now you must understand that an election is different from re-election,” she explained just before pointing to a platform backdrop which read, “Growing stronger, reaching higher.”

The Prime Minister added, “So whilst we were going into an election cam-paign in 2010, riding the wave, rising up, in a re-election campaign you have to continue to ride the wave but you have to continue to both strengthen and to reach higher.” She advised supporters to communicate to the electorate the gains which had been achieved by her Govern-ment over the past four and a half years.

She said the south regional command centre was “just the beginning of many other command centres” and revealed that the UNC would soon open its north-west regional command centre and northeast command centre which would be a hub for the neighbouring constitu-encies.

Persad-Bissessar added that contrary to reports, no candidate had been select-ed to represent the UNC in the election saying nominations had not yet been in-vited by the screening committee.

“The party has a screening pro-cess, nominations will be invited, we go

through the process and then we will de-clare candidates, so those persons who are very enthusiastic, I want to make it very clear, as political leader of the UNC, I have named no candidate, I have chosen no candidate.”

She then questioned the achievements of Opposition Leader, Dr Keith Rowley, saying he had not delivered any measur-able achievements during his years as a former Housing Minister.

“What is the history of our opponent, what is their track record?” she asked. “He (Rowley) has delivered nothing in the years he has been in Parliament. He built nothing in the HDC. Ask Dr (Roodal) Moonilal (Minister of Housing) how the houses we inherited (were from) when he was Minister of Housing.”

She said the Opposition party did not have any policies or programmes to man-age the economy except for a reduction on “transfers and subsidies” and she asked whether this meant a cut in old-age pensions and disabilities grants.

“The Opposition Leader has a duty to tell us,” she said. “Are you going to cut jobs, are you going to cut pensions, are you going to cut child care grants and baby grants? Tell us what you talking about cuts because you must have a plan and pro-gramme that will help you manage our economy in this time of low oil prices.”

Becoming more personal, the Prime Minister questioned the citizenship of PNM Mayaro candidate, Clarence Ram-bharat, who reportedly had stated that his family was resident in Canada while he was campaigning for the election.

“I would like to know whether he has citizenship of Canada,” she queried. “Can he be a candidate? So let him answer us because if he is living here and his family is living there, the law in Trinidad and To-bago is clear: you cannot have somebody else citizenship. I would like to make sure you have your citizenship of Trinidad and Tobago and you did not give it up to get a dual citizenship. Tell us, are you a squat-ter in Trinidad and Tobago or a true citi-zen of Trinidad and Tobago?” she asked.

The Prime Minister also knocked Op-position claims of discrimination in the allocation of projects, pointing out that several projects and schools had been

constructed in Oppo-sition-held constitu-encies including the Diego Martin High-way, the Chaguaramas boardwalk, the MIC centre in Diego Mar-tin west, the Nursing Academy in El Dorado and the Carenage fish-ing depot.

“We are not like the PNM when they de-clared Trinidad and Tobago to be PNM country,” she said “This is not PNM country. This must never again become PNM country, Trin-idad and Tobago is for all of the people of Trinidad and To-bago.”

US, UK, Canada welcome poll announcement, hope for improvements in elections

arrangements

The US, the UK and Canada this morn-ing issued a joint release welcoming President Donald Ramotar’s an-

nouncement of May 11, 2015 as the poll date and called for improvements to be made to the electoral process including equitable access by all parties to the media.

The joint release was a further sign of the continued deep interest of western countries in Guyana’s elections and fol-lows a flurry of direct statements from its diplomats here in recent weeks.

Abuse of the state media by the govern-ment had been one of the problems point-ed out in several observer reports from the 2011 general elections. Political parties have again raised this issue in recent days.

The release follows:Joint Press ReleaseDr. Nicole Giles, High Commissioner,

Canadian High CommissionAndrew Ayre, High Commissioner,

British High CommissionBryan Hunt, Charge d’Affaires, U.S.

EmbassyGeorgetown, Guyana

JOINT STATEMENT ON PRESIDENT RAMOTAR’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF NA-TIONAL AND REGIONAL ELECTIONS

GEORGETOWN- The United States of America, Canada, and the United Kingdom welcome President Ra-

motar’s announcement that national and regional elections will be held in Guyana on May 11, 2015. Elections are a criti-cal first-step towards the return of a fully functioning Parliament.

We note the great strides made by Guy-ana during the 2011 general and regional elections. The Organization of American States (OAS) Electoral Mission Final Re-port, which referenced the Mission with observers from 14 countries, applauded significant efforts made by the Guya-nese Electoral Commission (GECOM) to execute an overall inclusive and clean electoral process. The report mentioned the “high level of training and dedication exhibited by GECOM staff in the polling centers.” These views were also endorsed by the Commonwealth observation team. The report also noted areas of improve-ment to make subsequent elections more efficient and fair. We hope Guyana con-siders these recommendations, including: improving mechanisms that guarantee more equitable access to media and po-litical financing, adherence to timely and standardized procedures for the electoral process, improving communications with all stakeholders in particular GECOM, and strengthening the promotion of gen-der balanced participation throughout the electoral process.

We are hopeful that the upcoming electoral process will allow the Guyanese people to debate the important issues that are facing the country. We are com-mitted to working with GECOM, all polit-ical parties, and civil society to support free, fair and peaceful elections.


Calvary Assembly of God and Outpost 234 would like to congratulate Christopher Chan, Robert Lakhan, Joel Madray, Christopher Ramrup and Matthew Singh on achieving Royal Rangers highest award, the Gold Medal of Achievement. These Royal Rangers are some of our outstanding young men at Outpost 234. We are proud to be awarding them the Gold Medal of Achievement on Saturday January 31, 2015 at 10:00 am. These boys have exemplified in character and conduct what it means to “live by the Ranger’s Code”. Their achievements are of such that the entire com-munity can feel a part of. We encourage our youths to strive for excel-lence and to uphold morals that would benefit not only them but our soci-ety.

We would like to cordially invite you to join us in this special Gold Medal of Achievement Ceremony.

Royal Rangers is a Bible based mentoring program for future men. We provide Christlike character formation and servant leadership for boys grades K-12.

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Airport cops charged over cocaine-in-rum conspiracyTwo special constables

were yesterday charged with conspiracy to traffic

cocaine that was intercepted in rum bottles at the John F Kenne-dy airport in New York.

Jermain Bristol, 29, of Lot 2044 Stevedore Hous-ing Scheme, Georgetown and Mar-garet Jacobs, 53, of Prospect, East Bank Demeara, both spe-cial constables assigned to the Cheddi Jagan International Air-port, Timehri (CJIA), were re-fused bail when they appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.

It is alleged that on Novem-ber 17, 2014, at the CJIA, Bristol and Jacobs conspired with other persons unknown to traffic in narcotics.

They both pleaded not guilty to the charge read to them by Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry.

Bristol also faced a second conspiracy charge. It is being al-leged that between August 1 and October 31, 2014, he conspired with other persons unknown to traffic in narcotics. He also pleaded not guilty to the second charge.

Prosecutor Bharat Mangru

said that on November 17, 2014, an American citizen travelling with four bottles of rum was in-tercepted at the John F Kennedy airport, where it was discovered that two of the four bottles were laced with cocaine.

During investigations, Mang-ru noted, CCTV camera footage revealed that both Bristol and Jacobs were seen operating out-side their normal functions at the CJIA. They were contacted and asked to explain. He said Bristol admitted that he was paid by the individual to traffic the cocaine, while Jacobs also admitted that she was paid in order to assist in carrying out the act.

However, attorney Gordon Gilhuys, who represented Bris-

tol, said the man knew nothing about the charges against him. He added that Bristol was also beaten by the police and had to be rushed to the hospital on Friday.

While the court heard that Bristol was in custody since last Thursday and held without charge for more than 72 hours, he told the court that he was ar-rested on Wednesday. However, Mangru maintained that Bristol was arrested last Thursday and said yesterday’s was the earliest court date after the 72 hours elapsed.

Meanwhile, Jacobs’ attorney told the court she has been a constable for more than 20 years. The lawyer said she was

on duty yesterday when she re-ceived a called from the Crimi-nal Investigations Department (CID) informing her about the charge. The lawyer added that Jacobs also cooperated with the police and said she also lodged her passport since she has no intention of fleeing the jurisdic-tion and would return for her tri-al. An application for reasonable bail was made but it was later denied.

The court also heard that Ja-cobs was only recently promot-ed to corporal.

Mangru objected to bail since he said no special reason was provided to the court for bail to be granted. Both accused were remanded to prison and are ex-pected to make their next court appearance on January 26.

In November, Wilton Sinclair was charged with possession of cocaine in the US Eastern Dis-trict Court, after being found with 8.206 kilogrammes of co-caine hidden in bottles of rum at the John F Kennedy Airport.

According to court docu-ments, Sinclair was a passenger on Caribbean Airlines Flight 525, which departed Georgetown and travelled to Trinidad and Toba-

go. He then boarded another Caribbean Airline Flight 524 and flew to the United States.

But on arrival at JFK Airport, he was selected for passenger screening by the US Customs and Border Protection officers. Sinclair was carrying a shopping bag, which contained four 1.75 litre bottles of rum, which when inspected were found to contain a thick, syrup-like substance in-consistent with rum.

Further inspections revealed the presence of cocaine and Sin-clair was arrested.

Sinclair later waived his rights and told law enforcement agents that he was paid US$6,000 to take the four bottles contain-ing cocaine from Guyana to the United States.

The court documents said a preliminary hearing was waived and bail was set with surety sworn after Sinclair was advised of his bond obligations and con-ditions.

Another man, Raphael Arm-strong, was subsequently held in December at JFK with almost 3 kilogrammes of cocaine in bottles of cream liqueur, which were purportedly sourced from a CJIA duty-free shop.

Jermain Bristol Margaret Jacobs


Why & How to Meditate?Benefits & Techniques

By Nick Applebee

There are many motivations for meditating. For some it's to low-er one's blood pressure, for oth-ers to reduce stress... some want to gain knowledge, others wish to use it to give up compulsive ac-tions... and the list goes on. What happens if we are successful in acquiring what we strive for? Do we stop there? Are we satisfied?

Hopefully, we will be wise in our un-derstanding and choose a course that is progressive and does not

impose limitations on us.Meditation is a technique that is often

referred to as medicine. So a wise ques-tion would be 'what is our real problem'? Most of the responses from the spiritual community would be - we live in delusion, we are bound by darkness, our lives are spent in a state of ignorance.

Meditation teaches us many things, one is how to watch, when we refine this ability we are able to see things clearly. If our attitudes are healthy, and we are courageous, we can begin to see and un-derstand our ego in a new light. We are able to have glimpses of our awareness (pure mind) which is the essence of our inner self. If we see our problems in a re-alized sense of clarity, then we can start implementing solutions to changing and

becoming freer and by the same light, when we truly see our inner realities, we can merge with them and take refuge in our scared space.I hope we do not invest our time in secondary or superficial goals, but choose to put our sights on our true needs, which will bring us to a place of true nobility and the process of libera-tion. This path is endless and without boundaries. The only thing you have to do is give it everything.

So perhaps the question should be,"When will I meditate?"

If one wants to discover the truth of their own being and live in the experience of it, then this is a valid approach. There are many meditation techniques. It might be necessary for a person to try many before they find the right one. I think one should spend some time to learn one technique well; this will give one a foun-dation to compare other techniques


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DOC, NURSE HELP KILLERA DOCTOR and nurse had been doing

house visits to attend to the man who murdered 19-year-old Salma

Chadee in Caroni last Saturday evening. These visits took place in the very house where the man shot the young mother of one to death.

This is the information police are saying they now have as they continue their man-hunt for the suspect whom they have now dubbed the country’s most wanted. He has been nursing two broken legs which, it is said, he sustained in a vehicular accident last November.

The medical attention administered via the personal visits of the doctor and nurse to the Chadees’ residence was not restricted to his most recent refuge. Police are saying that following the accident last year the man was taken to the Eric Wil-liams Medical Sciences Complex (EWM-SC) in Mt Hope where he was informed his legs were broken.

He was transferred to St Clair Medical Centre in Port-of-Spain, but by the time police found out that he was at that insti-tution and went there, the suspect secretly discharged himself with the assistance of persons unknown and returned to Caro-ni where he was hiding out for the past few weeks. Head of the Northern Division Task Force Insp Roger Alexander went as

far yesterday as lambasting the murdered girl’s relatives who he alleged assisted her killer who was already wanted for the murder of another woman, Sherlene Mah-angoo-Charles, on May 8 last year and for which he was on the run from police.

Alexander was emphatic: “The blood of that girl is on the hands of the suspect, the person who took him upstairs their home at Chadee Street, Caroni; the person who housed him all this time, the person who fed him, the doctor and nurse who visit-ed him on location at Chadee Street, the man who threw him over the wall to get away, the driver of the getaway car and the neighbours of the dead woman at Chadee Street, who knew he was wanted for mur-der.”

The Inspector was also responding to claims by relatives of the murdered young woman that the police failed to respond to information that the wanted man was hid-ing in Caroni.

In fact, Alexander said persons who are making these allegations are simply not telling the truth and instead he turned the heat on all the persons who assisted and harboured the fugitive.

Alexander said the police have received information that the man stayed at Sal-ma’s home for the past three months and both the young woman and members of

her family knew he was hiding from the police.

According to Alexander the police also received information that a doctor and nurse would visit the suspect at Chadee’s home to administer medication and attend to his broken limbs regularly.

He also added that one of Salma’s rela-tives had even recommended to the sus-pect that he eat a lot of garlic. That relative also cooked “soft food” for the suspect, because he was unable to eat food which was hard to chew.

“The man loved tomato choka with hot sada roti with little salt and no pepper,” Alexander said, adding, the wanted man used to be dipping the roti in the choka and eating heartily. “Those persons knew they were housing and feeding a killer, yet they continued to do so and we also un-derstand they switched their surveillance camera at the house conveniently to con-ceal the faces of visitors to the man, I want to say, we have the information and are working towards finding the killer with or without their ssistance.”

Alexander revealed that on Saturday when Salma was shot and killed at about 9 pm, her relatives contacted EHS and not the police. He said there was hope that Salma would survive the shooting and ev-erything could be concealed. The Inspec-

tor said in their haste to do so, persons in the house forgot to conceal the surveil-lance camera which captured the killer crawling down the stairs and being assist-ed by a relative to escape in a waiting car.

Contacted for comment, Chief of Staff at the North Central Regional Health Au-thority (NCRHA) and chairman designate at this RHA Dr Andy Bhagwandass said all persons seeking medical assistance for gunshot and knife wounds at health insti-tutions must be reported to the police.

“If we are aware that it is a wanted per-son, obviously we will inform the police at that point. That is a well recognised pro-cedure.

If we suspect any sinister activity we are also duty bound to inform the police,” he said.

Regarding the police’s claim that a doctor and nurse visited and treated the wanted man at home, Dr Bhagwandass this would only be possible if the medics were doing private work for the killer.

Asked whether they could have known the man is wanted by the police, Bhag-wandass said, “Well, I didn’t know. He could give a story that he fell from a man-go tree and broke his two legs. We won’t expect a patient to lie about how or what has happened, unless of course we think he is hiding something,” he said.


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Guyana’s upstream oil and gas policy launched

THE Ministry of Natural Re-sources and the Environ-ment continues to work

towards creating a viable oil and gas sector, but to have a feasible sector, there must be policy that caters for its development. Yes-terday, the ministry launched its upstream oil and gas policy at a national stakeholders’ forum at the Herdmanston Lodge, George-town.Giving a comprehensive overview of the policy, Dr. Epken Omonbude, Economic Advis-er, Commonwealth Secretariat, pointed out that the draft of this policy was discussed on October 2013 and accepted by Cabinet around the same time in 2014.

He noted that it is to ensure a transparent and effective up-stream of oil and gas legislations and implementation in Guyana.

The strategy focuses on the broader picture of the upcoming sector, as this is the framework that provides the answers to what will and can be done, when and if oil is found in Guyana.

According to Minister of Nat-ural Resources and the Environ-ment, Robert Persaud, this is to prepare the country for the even-tuality of a significant amount of oil being found, more so, for com-

mercial purposes.He said that “in 2011, when the

ministry was established, (it) had a review of how …“we oversee, manage and plan for the even-tual development of an oil and gas sector. We recognised that we needed to be prepared for the eventuality, and I want to be an optimist, not a blind optimist … not an unreasonable optimist … but (I see) the eventuality of a significant commercial oil and gas discovery in our country.” This strategy is a step in preparing the

country for this eventuality.The minister added that when

they reviewed the existing frame-work and legislation, they tended to focus primarily on exploration and promotion of oil and did not efficiently deal with the issue of upstream.

He further noted that the rea-son for this is to prevent any con-sequences when this discovery is made, as a result of the country’s not being prepared for such a sec-tor. He also pointed out that the ministry is working with a number of bilateral partners in order to improve other areas of this sector in “looking at how we can have the right environment, the right

framework, the system, the right arrangement, that will do justice to the people of Guyana in terms of how we manage the sector go-ing forward.”

Much emphasis is also being placed on human resources; the mining school has offered and will continue to offer some training programmes in gearing and pre-paring Guyanese to work in the oil and gas sector.

The minister also acknowl-edged the fact that numerous em-ployees are currently overseas, pursuing advanced training, some with support from oil companies themselves. A lot of work has also been done on transparency.

Further, there are still some ar-eas to be addressed, such as man-aging resources, in terms of what would accrue from the eventual development of such a sector, and ensuring its contribution to lasting prosperity, the minister pointed out.

This is to ensure that the sector be not only a viable one, but sus-tainable financially, and that it will take into account environmental, as well as social obligations.

This is the reason for develop-ing a robust and forward-looking framework, such as this.

The minister also expressed gratitude to the Commonwealth Secretariat for aiding in this pro-cess.

Country Manager of Explora-tion and Production Guyana Ltd, Jeff Simon, was also given the opportunity to share some com-ments and suggestions on the policy, as the company Exxon Mobil will begin drilling for oil in March.

Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, Samuel Hinds, who was also at the ceremony, said that he was “very pleased that this day has come…. and by the end of this quarter, to have some deep drilling.” (GINA)

Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud delivering his remarks to the gathering at the event

Dr. Epken Omonbude, Economic Adviser, Commonwealth Secretariat, presenting an overview of the Oil & Gas policy to the stakeholders at the forum


THE FAMILY & FRIENDS ORGANIZATION Proudly invite the General Public to a fund-raising

Valentine DINNER & DANCE

On Saturday Feb14th 2015 From 7:30pm until???

At the Golden Palace 123-08 Jamaica Ave.

Music by Popular DJ

Special Artistes, Door Price, Raffle and much more Donation: $25 per person including Buffet, soft drink

Reasonable Cash Bar

All proceeds from this event go to The Children Orphanages of

ALBION & PORT MOURANT, Berbice, Guyana Please Support this Fund-Raising Event

For Information, Tickets, Assisting & Donations please call: 718-736-4124; 917-207-3562; 646-703-2253 or 917-703-0646

Cane harvester charged with murder of Edinburgh teenA Berbice cane harvester

accused of stabbing a teenaged girl to death

at Rosignol, West Berbice on Saturday after she reportedly ended a relationship with him, appeared in court yesterday charged with murder and was remanded to prison.

Shazam Kahlil, 22, of Lot 53 Shieldstown, West Bank Ber-bice, appeared before Magis-trate Rhondel Weaver at the Blairmont Magistrate’s court charged with the murder of 19-year-old Sheniza Mo-hamed. It is alleged that the in-

cident occurred on January 17, 2015. Kahlil was not required to plead to the capital offence and was remanded to prison. He will return to court on Feb-ruary 17th 2015.

An autopsy performed on Mohamed’s body on Tuesday by Dr. Vivekanand Bridgemo-han revealed that the teen, of Lot 53, Edinburgh, East Bank Berbice died from shock and haemorrhage due to multiple stab wounds.

Mohamed was fatally stabbed at Rosignol at around 7pm on Saturday after she re-

portedly ended a relationship with Khalil. In a statement, police said that investigations revealed that Mohamed was “involved in an argument with a man with whom she is re-ported to have ended a rela-tionship and during which she was stabbed about her body.” The teenager was rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital where she later succumbed. The suspect fled and was sub-sequently arrested.

An eyewitness Mitra Sukdeo, 18, had told Stabroek News that after Mohamed picked up a cel-

lular phone, he along with his sister and Mohamed ventured to the “Yang Zi” Chinese restau-rant where his sister purchased food. While she was eating in-side the restaurant, he and Mo-

hamed were chatting outside. A few moments later, his sister called him and he went into the restaurant.

Sukdeo had related that as he entered, he heard a scream and upon turning around to check, he saw Mohamed holding her stomach. The teen recalled that he rushed to Mohamed and after observing her bleed-ing profusely, caught a car and rushed her to the Fort Welling-ton Hospital. She was subse-quently transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital where she succumbed.

Sheniza Mohamed

Shazam Kahlil

New York-bound

"frequent flyer" arrested

with cocaine in food items

A Guyanese man, described as a “fre-quent flyer” was Tuesday after-noon arrested after a large quan-

tity of cocaine was allegedly found in his suitcase, a senior official of the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) said.

The identity of the 32-year old man from East Coast Demerara was not dis-closed.

Investigators said he was carrying 12.5 kilogrammes of cocaine concealed in flour and rice packets.

He was held at the Cheddi Jagan Inter-national Airport about 5 PM shortly be-fore boarding a Dynamic Airways flight to New York

A CANU agent said that the man gave addresses in Guyana and the United States (US).

Quite recently CANU and the Drug En-forcement Unit of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) intercepted more than 100 kilogrammes of cocaine aboard a Cyprus-registered ship that had come to take a consignment of bauxite from Lin-den, Upper Demerara River to Europe.


Come clean -GHRA urges Ramotar on ParliamentThe Guyana Human Rights Asso-

ciation yesterday called on Pres-ident Donald Ramotar to come

clean and dissolve Parliament, a point which was also raised by commenta-tors Christopher Ram and Alissa Trotz.

Without a proclamation being is-sued, the identification of May 11 as Elections Day by Ramotar has no le-gal effect, Ram and Trotz said yester-day and while Attorney-General Anil Nandlall said that a proclamation will be issued, he could not say when it will be done.

“The formal requirements of the an-nouncement will be complied with,” Nandlall said when contacted by Stabroek News on the concerns ex-pressed yesterday. “A date has been fixed, a proclamation will be issued to that effect.” He, however, said that he did not know when this would be done and it is within the prerogative of the president.

On Tuesday, Ramotar announced May 11th as the date for general and regional elections, ending two months of suspense after he prorogued the Parliament on November 10 last year.

However, Parliament remains sus-pended and sections of civil society including the GHRA have expressed concern that Ramotar’s announcement did not comply with the constitutional requirement for the naming of the date of elections. “It is of no constitutional validity,” attorney Ram told Stabroek News saying that the President has to do so by proclamation. “Until he fol-lows the Constitution, the situation remains uncertain and fluid,” he said.

In a statement, the GHRA said that Ramotar’s announcement that he in-tends to hold elections on May 11th does not preclude the possibility of his changing his mind. “Proclamation of elections in Guyana is linked constitu-tionally to either prorogation or disso-lution of Parliament, it is not decreed

unilaterally by the President,” the or-ganisation said.

The statement noted that Article 69 of Guyana’s Constitu-tion states that Parliament must assemble within six months of Parliament being prorogued or four months of it being dissolved. “In the case of dissolution, elections must follow within three months (Art. 61), allowing a month for allocations of seats, resolving disputed results and other administrative matters before the new Parliament is convened,” the statement said.

Ramotar’s date of May 11th “would seem to be premised on the six months following prorogation, but he has re-tained the option of re-calling Parlia-ment in the meantime,” the GHRA as-serted.

Meantime, Ram and Trotz, in a letter to Stabroek News expressed concern that Ramotar’s announcement did not address the status of the Tenth Parlia-ment which was prorogued on Novem-ber 10, 2014 “nor did it comply with the constitutional requirement” for the naming of the date of elections.

“It is our view that the life of the Tenth Parliament can only come to an end by dissolution and the naming of the date for elections done by way of a proclamation,” the duo said.

They pointed out that prorogation of the Parliament is done under Arti-cle 70 by proclamation and “while the Constitution does not expressly so state, it is our opinion that a proclama-tion is required either to re-convene or to dissolve the Parliament.” They also pointed out that in relation to the naming of the date for elections, Ar-ticle 61 of the Constitution explicitly requires a proclamation by the Presi-dent.

Trotz and Ram noted that for the 2011 general elections, there were four proclamations: one on September 27, 2011 to dissolve Parliament and

another on the same day dissolving the ten Regional Democratic Coun-cils (RDCs). On October 9, 2011 two other proclamations were issued: one setting November 28 as the date for parliamentary elections and the other setting November 28 as the date for election of members of RDCs.

“It is our opinion that until simi-lar proclamations are issued, the an-nouncement made by the President on Tuesday January 21, naming May 11 as the date for elections has no legal or constitutional effect. As citizens we find it totally unacceptable that the President in his rather extensive ad-dress did not discuss the issue of the Tenth Parliament, leaving the country in continuing uncertainty in respect of the Parliament and to his intention to comply with the requirements of the Constitution,” Trotz and Ram said. “The President needs to remove the uncertainty and take the logical steps which the Constitution requires,” they added.

CONFORMThe GHRA also called on Ramotar to

either dissolve Parliament at the earliest opportunity and adjust the election date to conform with the constitutional pro-vision of three months or explain to the nation why he considers re-call of Parlia-ment to be an option still available to him despite being in an electoral season.

“The manner in which the election date has been set, without reference to the life of Parliament, suggest it has been prompted by two considerations: damp-ening current pressure that the Govern-ment either return to Parliament or call new elections and secondly, the benefits which accrue to the ruling party from maintaining the Parliament in session,” the organisation said.

According to the GHRA, the electoral advantage of not dissolving Parliament derives from being able to continue to

enter into international agreements such as the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project or other vote-getting projects which offi-cial dissolution of Parliament would have precluded.

“The hints provided by Minister of Fi-nance, Ashni Singh, to the effect that the Government may re-call Parliament to present Budget Estimates seem a flim-sy attempt to rationalize not dissolving Parliament. In light of the relentless an-tagonism which characterized the life of the current Parliament, it is absurd to think that in the midst of electioneering, the Parliament is going to sit down and approve a budget,” the statement said. “Continuing the farce that prorogation can still bring the parties into unofficial dialogue during an election season is equally bizarre,” the GHRA added.

Nandlall yesterday said that there is no obligation on the president at the time when he fixes a date for the elections, to, at the same time, dissolve Parliament but acknowledged that “the act of dissolution and a date for elections must comply with the constitutional timeframe of within three months.”

The Attorney-General said that the formal requirements of the announce-ment will be complied with but when asked, said that he did not know when the proclamation will be issued. He said that it is within the absolute prerogative of the president to name a date for the elections and assuming that a proclama-tion is issued, it will not change the date for elections. He noted that theoretical-ly the Parliament can remain suspended until February 11.

Nandlall acknowledged that proclama-tions will have to be issued to dissolve Parliament and set the date for elections but when pressed on when these will be issued, he said that he would not be able to speak for the President on those matters. Those matters are within the prerogative of the president, the Attor-ney-General said.

Cruise ship returns in less than a month – seen as confidence in Destination Guyana

THE MS Hamburg Cruise Ship has returned to Guy-ana’s shores just short of

a month after its previous visit, with 300 passengers on board.Speaking briefly during a tour of the ship, Guyana Tourism Authority’s (GTA) Director, In-dranauth Haralsingh relayed greetings to Captain Vokoby-ov on behalf of the Minister of Tourism (ag)

Irfaan Ali. He thanked the cap-tain and crew for visiting Desti-nation Guyana again. “You were only here in December 2014 and have returned, and this we are very happy about since this is the shortest turn-around time for any vessel,” he said. Harals-ingh noted that he is happy that

the cruise line has this much confidence in Destination Guy-ana to make the recommenda-tion to revisit.

GTA’s Director, Indranauth Haralsingh presents Captain Vokobyov with a plaque

GTA’s Director, Indranauth Haralsingh presents Captain Vokobyov with a plaque

Captain Vokobyov explained that the ship had encountered some difficulties in Venezuela and could not have docked there

so they decided to visit Guyana. The captain said that the ship is carrying some 300 passen-gers and most of them disem-barked the ship for some tours of Georgetown, Kaieteur Falls and to do some craft-shopping. During a tour of the ship, media operatives were given the op-portunity to view the different sections.

MS Hamburg is a 15,000-ton, 420- passenger, luxury cruise ship owned by the Conti Group and is now operated by Plan-toursKreuzfahrten. The ship was built in 1997, in Wismar, Ger-many. The ship’s relative size allows her to transit the Great Lakes in North America, which she cruised seasonally between 1997 and 2011- one of the few modern cruise ships and the only German one able to do so.

However, she is flexible enough to cruise worldwide as well, for example travelling the Mediterranean for cultur-al cruises with Martin Randall Travel. Her crew complement consists of 170, and her top speed is 16 knots.

Staff preparing for dinner

MS Hamburg


ISLAM Peace / submission to the will of our creator.

Series - Special Edition

Guarding the Tongue “It is by shunning idle-talk that

intelligence is perfected. Keeping quiet is better than uttering false-hood. The worst of all people is the one who is biased in his speech, de-viated in his tongue and mischie-vous in his utterances”

Allah (s.w.t) says in Surah Qaf 49 v18: “Not a word does one ut-ter, except that there is an (angel) Watching, Ready to record it.”

Abu Huraira (ra) reported that the Prophet of Allah (pbuh) said: “Whosoever believes in Allah and the Last Day then let him speak good or remain silent.” (Bukhari & Muslim)

This hadith is a clear proof that one should not talk, unless one’s speech is good and beneficial to others. So if we have doubts as to whether or not our speech will be beneficial, then we should not speak. Imam Ash-Shafi (ra) said: “When one desires to talk, then it is upon him to think before he speaks. If there is good in what he will say, then he should speak. And if he has doubt about that, then he must not speak until he clears that doubt.”

Allah says in the beginning of Surah al-Muminoon 23:1-3, “In-deed successful are the Believ-ers, those who in their prayer have Khushoo (modesty, humility, awareness of Allah) and those who refrain from vain talk.”

Here Allah mentions that refrain-ing from vain talk is a sign of the successful believers. Allah also mentions refraining from vain talk after he mentions al-Khushoo. This is because too much talk makes the heart hard. It is not possible to reach the level of Khushoo (mod-esty, humility, awareness of Allah) unless one refrains from vain talk.

The Tongue Expresses what is in the Heart:

If a person is good, it reflects in their speech. Allah has made it

very easy for the tongue to move and it is not difficult to realize that a person’s tongue moves much more compared to the limbs. So if a person is not careful about what he says, even a single remark can invalidate his actions. Abu Saeed Al-Khudri (ra) reported that the Prophet (pbuh) said:

“When the Son of Adam wakes from his sleep, all of his body parts seek refuge from his tongue, say-ing: ‘Fear Allah with regard to us, for indeed we are part of you. So if you are correct, then we will be correct and if you are corrupt-ed, then we shall be corrupted.” (At-Tirmidhi)

And at the same time, the tongue is a great blessing from Allah. The gratitude that we should show for this great blessing should include, using it for the obedience to Allah, for reading the Qur’an, for seek-ing Knowledge, to enjoin good and forbidding evil. The prohibitions of the tongue are that you do not lie, abuse, use foul language, backbite and slander.

Abu Musa Al-Ashari (ra) said: “I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah Which of the Muslims is best?’ He (pbuh) said:

‘He whose tongue and hand the Muslims are safe from.”

(Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

Sahal Ibn Saad (ra) reported that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said:

“Whosoever can guarantee for me (that he will safeguard) what is between his jaws (tongue) and what is between his legs (private parts), I will guarantee for him Paradise.”

(Al-Bukhari)

Abu Huraira (ra) reported that he heard the Prophet (pbuh) say:

“Indeed, the servant will speak a word, while being unaware of (its consequences), and due to it, he will be cast into the Hellfire, far-ther than the distance between the east and the west.”

(Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

he meaning of “while being un-

aware” is that he does not stop to consider whether his speech is good or not.

Sufyaan Ibn ‘Abdullah (ra) re-ported that he asked: “O Messenger of Allah (pbuh), tell me of a matter that I may cling tightly onto.’ He (pbuh) said: ‘Say: I believe in Allah and then remain steadfast (upon that).’ I said: ‘O Messenger of Al-lah (pbuh, what is the most serious thing that I should fear for my-self?’ So he (pbuh) took a hold of his tongue and said: ‘This.’ (At-Tir-midhi & Ibn Majah).

Uqbah Ibn Aamir (ra) reported: “I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah (pbuh), how does one attain salvation?’ He (pbuh) said: ‘Restrain your tongue, remain in your home and weep over your sins.’ (At-Tirmidhi)

Al-Hasan Al-Basri (ra) said, “Whoever does not guard the slips of their tongue has not understood their Deen.”

Isa bin Uqbah (ra) said, that Ab-dullah Ibn Masood (ra) is reported to have said, ‘By Him Who alone is worthy of worship on earth, no sin deserves more severe and lengthi-er punishment than the sins com-mitted by the tongue’ (Ibn Kathir)

The earlier mentioned Qur’anic verses, ahadith of our noble Proph-et (pbuh) and advices by the schol-ars of Islam are a guide for those searching for salvation against vain talk. So before we talk, we should ask ourselves....

Will my words please Allah?Will my words bring me closer to

Allah?Are my words in accordance with

the obedience of Allah? If yes, then speak, otherwise one

should keep quiet. Suggested cure for this disease

of the tongue:One: We should know that it is

a major sin. In fact, a person may make a single statement – not pay-ing any heed to it – by which he may slip into Hellfire.

Two: We must talk about things that are necessary to carry out the worldly affairs within the limits of sharia.

Three: We should distance our-selves from those long useless gatherings where nothing is done for hours except laughing and chatting about silly and frivolous matters. Instead, we should gath-er to remember Allah and cultivate good speech.

Four: We must glorify Allah in our hearts. If Allah says do not make fun of one another, our reply

should be nothing more than.

“We hear and we obey.”Five: We should warn others of

the sin of insulting other people and making fun of them, telling lies, slandering. Let us not allow ourselves to be a ‘silent Shaitan’ listening to others being insulted. Let us speak up and say it clearly that this is not something loved by Allah and His Messenger. Proclaim that if Allah and His Messenger hate it, then so do you.

Six: If you feel the urge to insult someone, ask Allah to protect you from the Shaitan and this satanic act. As Allah swt says in surah

Al-Araaf 7:v200: “And if an evil suggestion comes to you from Shaitan, then seek refuge in Allah. Indeed, He is Hearing and Know-ing”.

Seven: And of course, if anyone of us should fall into this sin, we should be swift in turning back to Allah in repentance. Say, O Allah, I ask You to forgive me and I return to You.

Allah (swt) says in surah Al-Hu-jrat 49:v11:” And whoever does not repent – then it is those who are the wrongdoers”.

In conclusion, it is by shunning idle-talk that intelligence is perfected. Keeping quiet is bet-ter than uttering falsehood. The worst of all people is the one who is biased in his speech, deviated in his tongue and mischievous in his utterances.

The worst of all speech is that which goes against the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Mes-senger (pbuh). The worst speech is also that which is disgusting in na-ture and abhorrent to the ear.

The good word is rewarded and the evil word is punished. Al-lah lays example in surah Ibrahim 14:v24-26:

“See you not how Allah sets forth a parable? A goodly word as a goodly tree, whose root is firmly fixed, and its branches (reach) to the sky (i.e. very high). Giving its fruit at all times, by the Leave of its Lord, and Allah sets forth para-bles for mankind in order that they may remember. And the parable of an evil word is that of an evil tree uprooted from the surface of earth having no stability.”

Therefore, let us pray to Allah (s.w.t) to protect us against sins of our tongues, guide us to righteous speech and keep us all on the path of obedience. Ameen


Gas prices slashed at city GuyOil stationsGasoline prices were slashed at

Guyana Oil Company (GuyOil) gas stations around the city and along

the East Bank yesterday, while private-ly-owned operations either made small reductions or none at all, while citing the cost incurred for fuel in stock.

On Monday Finance Minister Dr. Ash-ni Singh had announced 30% reductions at all GuyOil-branded petrol dealers for gasoline, diesel and kerosene, to reflect the fall in world market prices for oil.

When Stabroek News visited GuyOil’s Sheriff Street gas station at 2:45pm, drivers were seen waiting in a long line to

take advantage of the notable reduction at the pumps.

GuyOil’s Diamond, East Bank Demerara station was also busy, as vehicles arrived by the dozens. While this newspaper was there, some drivers expressed shock at the reduced price and others simply threw their thumbs up and smiled as they drove up to the pumps.

According to a supervisor there, when she started her shift at 2pm, “the station got “busy.”

In contrast, most privately-owned gas stations reflected a small reduction, cit-ing the cost incurred for fuel from their

suppliers.While the per litre price for gasoline

at GuyOil stations was decreased by $66 to $152.9, the price for gasoline and die-sel was reduced only by $8 at the Rubis gas station on Vlissengen Road, effective from yesterday morning. An employee noted that the marginal reduction did not see an increase from the normal traffic at the gas station. The gas price was listed at $219.9 per litre and diesel $216.9 per litre.

At the Shell gas station on Vlissengen Road, the gas price listed up to 3pm yes-terday was $219.9 per litre and diesel

sold at $217 per litre. Manager of the gas station Robin Lowe told Stabroek News that the prices at the station had not been reduced owing to the fact that “SOL” had not directed that move. However, Lowe noted that that move is imminent.

N&A Service Station at Prospect dropped its price by $7 per litre on gaso-line and by $15 per litre on diesel. A su-pervisor there said the station was run-ning at a loss with the reduction, owing to the cost they paid for fuel. The price for gas was listed as $220 per litre while diesel was $200 per litre.

“We have dropped our prices as what we bought for,” said Ram Ross, the pro-prietor of Ross’ Gas Station at Ruimveldt, where prices were reduced by $9. He said the gas price at that station was listed at $219 and diesel was at $217 per litre. Ross said that the gas station was forced to close its door a few weeks back when it had run out of gas. He added that the re-duction would not trickle down to his gas station, because GuyOil does not always supply him.

However, Two Brothers gas station at Eccles, East Bank Demerara had not re-duced the price for gas or diesel. A su-pervisor there said that the price paid for fuel had not reduced and therefore that gas station could not reduce its prices. The gas price there was listed at $221 per litre and diesel was at $217 per litre.

At Monday’s press briefing, Singh not-ed that he could not make guarantees in relation to GuyOil’s abilities to fulfil de-mand. “It would be irresponsible of me to stand here and say to you that after Guy-Oil reduced they will not get a rush and they will not run out of fuel. I am not in a position to give that assurance,” Singh stated.

The reduced price on display at the Diamond, East Bank GuyOil gas station

Vehicles drove up by the dozens for gas at the Diamond, East Bank GuyOil gas station


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Ship in $800M cocaine bust, crew left after fine paid

The cargo ship on which a container with 192.4 kilos of cocaine was re-cently found recently left Guyana

with its crew after a fine was paid to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), accord-ing to James Singh, head of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU).

CANU, Guyana’s main drug fighting body was instrumental in the multi-million-dol-lar cocaine haul. CANU has confiscated the drugs. It is believed that Guyana was used as a transshipment point to get the drugs which were carefully concealed in a con-tainer aboard the MV Delta Dies, to either Spain, Holland or Belgium. After departing Guyana, the ship was expected to dock in these three countries.

There was insufficient evidence to link the crew to the drugs and as such no charges were laid against them. The cap-tain and two of his crew members had been held after the discovery of the narcotics and were confined to the ship.

James, when contacted yesterday, said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) recommended no charges. A file on the case was sent to the DPP’s Chambers last week. According to James, given the rec-ommendation the crew were released. He said the ship subsequently departed Guy-ana after paying a fine to GRA. He stressed that the releasing of the vessel and the

payment of the fine were decisions taken by the GRA. Despite numerous efforts, Sta-broek News could not ascertain when the vessel left or the sum of the fine. GRA head Khurshid Sattaur could not be contacted.

Sattaur had previously told this newspa-per that while there was a number of things outlined in the Act as it relates to seizure and forfeiture of a vessel on which drugs are found, there are also provisions for the paying of a fine. He had said that revenue of-ficials were in talks with the management of the vessel to reach a settlement, while not-ing that this decision was made after taking a number of things into consideration includ-ing the fact that the persons on the vessel had no knowledge that the drugs were there and the legal backlashes they might face.

Meanwhile, James indicated that the in-vestigation is still ongoing in collaboration

with CANU’s counterparts in neighbouring Suriname, which was the vessel’s last stop before travelling to Guyana.

The vessel arrived in Guyana during the first weekend of the New Year and sailed to Linden, where bauxite was loaded. Since its arrival it had been under surveillance by lo-cal authorities, who were tipped off by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC). The drugs which were worth an estimated $800 million were packed in 185 packages or bricks, which were concealed under the pallets of a contain-er aboard the vessel. The discovery was made by CANU investigators with assis-tance from GRA’s Law Enforcement and Investigation Division and the Drug Ex-amination Unit.

The police also provided some assis-tance.

State-of-the-art facility will cater for merging of Brickdam Secondary and

Central High

MINISTER of Education, Priya Manickchand last Friday clarified issues regarding the merging of

the Brickdam Secondary School and Cen-tral High School and the establishment of a state-of-the-art facility. During a recent press conference, Minister Manickchand stated that she was displeased with the recent issues being highlighted by the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU). She said further that since her time in office she has observed that the Ministry of Educa-tion (MOE), has over time, enjoyed a very good relationship with the GTU, in rela-tion to the welfare of its members.


My name is Shaw Ryan Khan. I am the son of Shaw M. Khan and Camille Zeena Khan and I

am the grandson of Haji Ali Akbar Khan and Azeezan Khan from Canegrove, Guyana ,as well as Harry Singh and Lil-lian Ganpati Singh from Industry, Guy-ana. My respect to my parents and my grandparents always.

Before I begin my topic, I must say, the things I write in my articles are sim-ply speaking from my experience as a member of the youths of today. I am a voice of the youth and I intend to have my voice heard.

Over the years, I have been taught that maturity, self-respect, dignity, honesty, and dedication would lead me to success. So far in my journey through life, I have been influenced to be the person I am today thanks to several individuals. And those several individ-uals have been there to help me and influence me so that I would make them all proud, and at the same time, make myself proud of my life whenever I look back at it. Because of their influence, I have been told that I am not my age. And, I don’t mean that I don’t physically look my age. Rather, I mean I have been told that I act and behave like someone in their 40s. In other words, I believe they are saying that I act on a maturi-ty level and mentality level of someone who has experienced life and learned that life is precious. I believe in being around people older than me rather than people my age. Why? Because, people who are older than you tend to have had much more experiences in life that they are willing to share, in hopes that you learn something in the pro-cess. Don’t believe me? The next time you are at an event, go sit and listen to older people talk to each other. Chanc-es are, some part of what you hear will be something new you have learned about life.

In my time, I have learned so much from individuals and I will share with you some of what I have learned. Spe-cifically, I will talk about what I have learned about love and faith.

Whatever the question, love is the answer. It is the most powerful force in the universe. To live a life you can look back at and have no regrets, you must keep love in mind, you must hold love in your heart, and you must add love to everything you make.

Do not get me wrong, I am not talking about romantic love. Rather, I am talking about loving God and your fellow human beings just as you love yourself. For ex-ample, as I look back in life, I realized that when I was 5 years of age, I already was in love with something. I loved and still love singing and giving lectures at very large crowds. Every part of the process excites me. I try to do my best because I feel that God is guiding me and helping me in any way I need in order to do what

I love best. Maybe this is why God put me on this planet. I measure my success with how many songs I sing and how many lectures I give. I just love what I do. Money comes and goes, but love…Love lives on.

Let us talk a bit about faith now. Hu-mans in every age and every part of the globe have been astonished of nature, of the miracle of birth, of the rotation of seasons and planets. If your foot slips, chances are, you sustain a fracture. And what if your tongue slips? Chances are, you fracture someone’s faith. There-fore, use your tongue with great care. After all, there is a reason God gave us two ears and one mouth. We should lis-ten twice as much as we talk.

God says, come to him with emp-ty hands and I shall fill them with gifts and grace. If your hands are full, what is he going to fill them with? Bring to him all the evil in you, and leave it there so that you can take from him what he has; Love.

If you think about it, faith helps you replace negatives with positives. I be-lieve the first evidence of faith occurs when you realize that there is goodness in this world. It later begins to manifest when you have confidence in yourself.

It is said that a heart without love is a cemetery. Love is the pure existence of the divine. It is the “2+2=4” for human unity. Only when selfishness and faith grows will you achieve this unity.

You might be saying, what does this 20 year old know about life? He has not even lived it yet! Well maybe if I tell you some guidelines I live by, you might reconsider. Life is full of beauty; we must take time to notice it. We must notice the butterfly, we must notice the small child, and notice their smil-ing faces. You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on the merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around and why his parents will always wave back. Think of this, we spend 1/3 of our life sleeping, we spend 1/3 of our life work-ing or studying, and we have 1/3 of our life unused. It is up to us to decide how to utilize that remaining third. After all, we cannot recycle wasted time. Picture this; you have a bank account that cred-its you for $86,400 every morning! It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deletes whatever bal-ance that you have failed to use. What would you do? I am pretty sure every-one would draw out every single penny! Well, each of us actually has this bank. It is called time. Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. We must use them wisely because the clock is tick-ing. So live life to your fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.

It is said (and I have experienced this myself), that when you ask for certain things from God, you receive not exact-ly what you want. We can ask strength,

but God will give us difficulties that will make us strong. We can ask for wisdom, but God will give us problems to solve. We can ask for prosperity, but God will give us brains and strength to work. We can ask for courage, but God will give us dangers that we must overcome. We can ask for patience, but God will place us in situations where we are forced to wait. We can ask for love, yet God will give us troubled people to help. We can ask for favors, but God will give us op-portunities. If you think about it, God did not really give has what we WANT-ED. Rather, he gives us what we needed. Therefore, isn’t our prayers answered?

I have heard that the wealthiest places on earth are not the oil fields in the Middle East, nor the gold and dia-mond fields in South Africa. Rather, the wealthiest places on earth are the cem-eteries because in those graves are all kinds of dreams and desires that nev-er will be fulfilled. Buried beneath the ground are books that will never be written, businesses that will never start.

Before you were born, God saw you and gifted you with talents and gifts uniquely designed for you. He gave you specific areas in which you excel. Yet, some people today feel unfulfilled in their lives. Why? They are not pursuing the dreams and desires God has place within their hearts. And I can’t think of anything more tragic than to come to the end of your life and realize…you have not really lived!

We all have gifts that no other person has. We did not show up on this earth by accident. Rather, we were all hand-picked by God. He saw you, formed you, and placed you here for a reason. It is up to us to discover that treasure of a reason and to not let it die without it be-ing discovered.

I have researched and found an in-teresting article whereby Neurologists have discovered that the average per-son uses less than 10 percent of his or her mind. That means that 90 percent of the minds capability lies dormant! It never gets tapped into! We have to remember this; God deposited a part of himself in each and every one of us. We were NEVER created to be average. Rather, we were created to excel but, it all starts in our hearts and minds. We have to have faith in the fact that we have a treasure of a gift inside of us.

Yet, too many people do not have the confidence and self-esteem they should have because they hide beneath negative thoughts about themselves. It is up to us to counter that. We must remind ourselves that we are creative, we are successful. God is always on our sides. We are a victor…not a victim.

Do you remember the story of Adam and Eve when they were in the Garden of Eden? Do you remember when they ate the forbidden fruit? After they did that, they sort of realized that they were

naked and decided to hide. When God came to them and asked them where they were. They replied that they are hiding because they are naked. I find the next part amusing in a good way. God said, Adam and Eve, who told you that you were naked. If you think about it, it is God’s way of saying, who told you that something was wrong with you? Who told you that you don’t have what it takes to succeed?

Guess what? God knew that you were not going to be perfect. He knew that you were going to have weaknesses, faults, and wrong desires. He knew all of that and yet he still loves you. So quit worrying, don’t look back in your life and be disappointed by the things you didn’t do. You still have time to do that. And remember, God is there for you. So as they say, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore…Dream…Discover.

Before I end my article, I just want to say this; may God continue to bless each and every one of you and I wish for you to achieve peace and serenity in your lives!

Lastly my readers, in your journey through life, I hope you heed my advice. I want nothing except peace and seren-ity. And remember this; “life isn’t about finding yourself; Life is about creating yourself...”

God bless you all and see you in two weeks!

(Be sure to check out bea-conofpeace.org to learn about my new non-profit organiza-tion and find out how to be-come a member)(Like my articles? Want to give me feedback? Do you have a topic suggestion for my next article? Let me know! Add me via Facebook @ Face-book.com/ryankhan0721 or give me a call @ 646-269-8227 or 718-849-1006)

Voice Of The Youth


PRAYER OPENS DIVINE OPPORTUNITIES When people pray and wait on God in fasting and praying, He responds in several ways. He wants to change our circumstances and pro-vide answers to our difficulties. However, more than sending blessings, He wants foremost to change us inwardly to make us more like His Son, Jesus Christ. He will also give us direc-tion regarding what He wants us to do for Him. We will only be satisfied and fulfilled when we discover that purpose and walk in it. I want to encourage readers to hear from God. Remem-ber, God has a special purpose for each of us.

PRAYER IS MOTIVATED BY LOVE FOR GOD.Prayer is all about communicating with God by faith.

We can talk to Him. When we read His Word, He talks back to us. We must not merely pray when we have needs. This should be a daily habit motivated by our love for our God. Prayer is a great spiritual exercise. It is needful and should be enjoyable if we love God. The Old Testament book of Nehemiah tells of the man Nehemiah who loved God and felt heartbroken over the destruc-tion of Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem meant the place of the Temple and God’s holy presence among the people. He felt hurt because the people were deprived of worship and were left desolate. His desire was for the presence of God to return and the people should be blessed. So Nehemiah prayed several prayers in the short book bearing his name. Neh. 1:3-4 “And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.”

The burden of prayer starts with a love for God. Why should we love God? Because He first loved us and gave His Son to redeem us unto Himself! The Bible says in John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” That display of divine love motivates us to communicate with Him in prayer. If you have been missing prayer time, start a new habit of spending time with Him so He knows you love Him.

PRAYER CAUSES THE BIRTH OF VISION.Nehemiah’s prayers caused his concern to grow into a

vision of what God can do for His people. This vision en-ergized a movement. This was not about any individual person; it was about God. God, in foresight and wisdom,

had set Nehemiah in the palace as the King’s cupbearer for this purpose. He has placed each one of us uniquely to act for His cause. Individuals who obey God will be outstanding. Daniel 11:32 says “the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” And, listen, if anyone of us fails, He will use someone else.

Nehemiah’s burden was the rebuilding of the city and temple. Our vision must be to take the message of Christ’s salvation to people who need to know His love. Can we say we love Jesus if we don’t tell people He loves them and gave His life to redeem them? Can we stand by and watch people suffering, hooked on destroying habits or hurting and not care enough to point them to the Savior? If we love Christ, our hearts will be broken for the things that break His heart, that is, people who need to return to God. Jesus demonstrated love by His sacrifice. His death on the Cross included all people, of all cultures, all races, and all languages. When we reach out to them and point them to Him, we demonstrate our love for Him.

PRAYER LEADS TO CLARITY.Nehemiah’s prayers revealed a clear plan. Neh. 2:4-5

“Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant

have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it.” This man of God did not request that the army or someone else go and do the work. He felt God called him to go and he would be obedient to the vision. In our time, we need people who would hear from God and help us in His work. There are families that need to hear the gospel. There are kids we must bring off the streets and expose them to the gospel. Our com-munity needs praying people and those who will obey God’s voice to reach the unchurched for Him.

PRAYER MAKES DIVINE OPPORTUNITIES BE-

COME AVAILABLE.The Bible speaks of people who became great for

God because they were praying people. Nehemiah was a man of prayer who made historic accomplishments for God. Daniel, a man of prayer, was outstanding over 70 years as a leader among his people. What can God use you to do for Him? I would encourage Christians to consult with their Pastors and make new commitments regarding something God may be asking you to do for Him. We can all increase our praying, Bible study and activities in ministry. May I say, Nehemiah left the palace job and went among the rubble in Jerusalem to rebuild it. Sometimes the call of God calls for sacrifice. If we invest ourselves and our resources for Christ, we will reap the rewards in due time according to His own promises.

NO TIME TO PRAYI knelt, but not for long; I had too much to doI had to hurry and get to work for bills would soon be due.So I knelt and said a hurried prayer and jumped off my kneesMy Christian duty was now done; my soul could rest at ease.All day long I had no time to spread a word of cheer.No time to speak of Christ to friends; they’d laugh at me I’d fear.No time, no time, too much to do; that was my constant cry.No time to give souls in need, but at last the time, the time to die.I went before the Lord; I came, I stood with downcast eyes.For in His hands God held a book; it was the Book of Life.God looked into His book and said, “Your name I cannot find.I was once going to write it down, but never found the time.”

Anonymous

Take your family to church this weekend.

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Cocaine in SSS tonic accused freedDeon Layne, the man charged over

the cocaine-laced SSS multi-vita-min tonic that claimed the lives of

four persons after they ingested it, is now free after a court found insufficient evi-dence to prove him guilty.

At yesterday’s ruling, the prosecution relied on its submissions presented last Friday that a prima facie case had been made out against Layne, 34, of HH Free-man Street, East La Penitence, who was charged with having 252 grammes of co-caine in his possession for the purpose of trafficking on May 2, 2014.

Prosecutor Vishnu Hunt contended that the evidence showed that Layne had pos-session, knowledge and control of the ille-

gal drug at the material time.Additionally, Hunt noted that the wit-

nesses were not discredited during the trial. Layne was well-known to those who testified against him, Hunt added, while noting that Candacy McGarrell positively identified him as the person who brought the cocaine-laced tonic to the East La Pen-itence residence where she was staying for her it to carry to his girlfriend in the United States.

However, in her ruling, Magistrate Judy Latchman emphasised that the court did not find enough evidence against Layne to prove him guilty of the charge.

The magistrate stated that McGarrell, in her testimony, observed that the bottle

containing the tonic was sealed. She fur-ther disputed the prosecution’s case that it proved that the defendant had knowl-edge and control of the item, since no evi-dence pointed clearly to him as the person responsible for putting the drugs in the bottle. Further, she noted that he did not return for the item after it was left at the East La Penitence residence, where the deceased would later consume it.

The magistrate also pointed out that there was no evidence in relation to the packaging of the items.

With the charge against him dismissed, Layne subsequently walked out the court a free man.

Former army officer Alex Blair, 40, his

reputed wife, hairdresser Simone Price, 36, their son, Jahaquel Blair, 6, a student of the St Pius Primary School and a fami-ly friend Natasha George, 36, who was an employee of John Fernandes Limited, died after drinking from the cocaine-laced ton-ic. Jamal Waterman, 12, who also ingested the tonic, survived.

Police had said Layne left the bottle of SSS Tonic with the dissolved cocaine at the house, along with casareep and chick-en foot, for McGarrell. However, McGar-rell, who was visiting from the United States, did not carry the items and the victims later consumed some of the tonic.

Layne was apprehended two months af-ter the deaths and he had maintained his innocence throughout the trial after he was charged last May.

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PPP is ready, confident and in elections mood – Rohee assures

THE announcement of May 11 as Elections Day prompted the governing People’s Progressive

Party (PPP) to reiterate its readiness to head to the polls and regain its ma-jority in the National Assembly.“The PPP welcomes the much anticipated announcement of Elections Day 2015…the Party is ready and steady for these elections,” said the PPP General Sec-retary, Mr. Clement Rohee, in a state-ment.

According to him, the Party’s ma-chinery is “well-oiled” and its mem-bers, supporters and well-wishers are in the “mood” for a return to the poll – an undertaking that is expected to end the current political impasse.

“They are about to be afflicted by elec-tions fever now that May 11th has been announced as ‘E’ Day. The Party will be going to these elections with a spirit of optimism and confidence,” he declared.

Rohee said the PPP will “exert every effort” to continue the long-standing Party tradition of achieving victory at the Polls as it did since 1957, save for the period from 1968 to 1992 when the Guyanese people’s democratic right to elect a Government of their choice was stolen from them by the People’s Na-tional Congress (PNC).

“The people won back that right in 1992 and Guyana was once again placed firmly on the path to social and

economic progress, coupled with the upholding of the political, civil and cul-tural rights of all Guyanese people,” Rohee said.

Consequently, the PPP General Sec-retary issued a call to all Guyanese to rally behind the winning symbol of the “Cup” to ensure that progress contin-ues and the gains made to date are con-solidated.

General-Secretary of the PPP Mr. Clement Rohee

Islander aircraft search called off …after 21 days of multiple sorties no sighting of aircraft with 2 on board

AFTER 21 days of multiple sorties by helicopters and fixed winged aircraft, complemented by seven

ground search parties totalling forty seven persons, all to no avail, the search for the missing Islander aircraft was yesterday for-mally called off.

Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn and officials of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) extended their sympa-thy to the immediate family, relatives and friends of the missing pilot Captain Nicky Persaud, and Cargo Loader David Bisnauth in their time of distress.

8R-GHE disappeared on a routine shut-tle operation from Mahdia to Karisparu on 28th December, 2014.

On board were Captain Nicky Persaud, 27, and cargo loader David Bisnauth, 51.

The location of their suspected crash site in the densely forested Siparuni/Potaro area and their remains have not been found and probably never will be.

A media release from the GCAA dis-closed that over the past three weeks the search for the missing aircraft 8R-GHE and its occupants had engaged a varied and substantial number of resources, including, personnel, aircraft and specialised equip-ment among others.

The Rescue Coordination Centre was established and supported by Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, Major Mike

Charles, Captain G. Gouveia, along with several agencies, including the GDF, Guy-ana Police Force, GGMC, CDC, Ministry of Health, Guyana Forestry Commission, Air Services Ltd, CJIAC, Civil Aviation Depart-ment – Suriname, CGX and the GCAA.

Over 230 hours were flown by the he-licopters and fixed winged aircraft over the Blackwater Creek basin, North Fork, Konawaruk River, Ebini, Eagle, Mowasi, Glendor mountains, Kurungiku mountain range, including Toucan Face, Twin Towers and Toucan Valley.

The helicopters conducted multiple sor-ties over the Blackwater Creek and North Fork areas, including locations where dam-aged trees and crows were observed.

Ground searches complemented the aerial searches after day three and inten-sified thereafter with seven ground search parties totalling forty seven persons from

the Guyana Forestry Commission, St. Cuth-bert’s Mission, villagers from Mahdia and Chenapau, twenty Special Forces Officers, family members of Captain Persaud and volunteers.

Approximately twenty insertions and extractions of ground search parties were done at nine landing areas to trek along the treacherous and densely forested terrain. Areas where potential images captured by the Canadian Twin Otter with capability of picking up large metallic objects were also combed.

Later in the search, several attempts to pursue an additional lead from a camp owner were made by the Rescue Coordina-tion Centre and the aircraft company; how-ever, after over one week, the person failed to take officers to the location from which he said the aircraft was seen.

Using this information, the GDF Special Forces Officers combed the mountainous area.

Over the last weekend, another team including, Captain Gouveia, continued the search efforts; however, once again there was no sighting of the aircraft.

But all leads, the GCAA said, have been exhausted without success.

As a result, the Minister of Public Works, in collaboration with the Rescue Coordina-tion Centre (RCC), took a decision yester-day to bring the search to an end.

Captain Nicky Persaud

Axe may fall on Petrotrin temps

THERE will be no job losses for perma-nent staff at State-owned Petrotrin Company, but the board of directors

is looking at the terms and conditions of contract and casual workers as it deals with falling energy prices on the global market. Asked by Point Fortin MP Paula Gopee-Scoon about reports that Petro-trin’s board has declared there will be no job losses during the crisis in which major global oil companies have begun cutting down on staff, Petrotrin chairman Lindsay Gillette said there will be no cuts for perma-nent staff. Petrotrin has a social responsi-bility, he said, to ensure that its employees were not left on the breadline. “As chair-man,” he said, “we shall see how we can dig ourselves out of this situation as it relates to the global crisis and the price of oil.”

Pressed further about what will be done to contract and casual workers, he said, “We are looking at those and how we can go forward. Some casual as well as contract workers can be hired as need-ed.” Meanwhile, he issued a call to the private sector to use local qualified skills in the context of the availability of intel-lectual capital. Petrotrin has used a lot of local talent in seismic engineering it has completed both offshore and onshore in recent years, he said, as well as in renego-tiations with Samsung on the completion of the Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel project.

“We have invested a lot of money in our intellectual capital by way of free educa-tion and there are a lot of educated peo-ple in our country,” he said.


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World News Highlights

CAIRO - An Egyptian court or-dered the release of the sons of Egypt’s ousted President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday pending retrial in a corruption case, their lawyer said.

KINSHASA - Democratic Re-public of Congo’s Senate has delayed until Friday a vote on changes to an election law as it faces pressure from Western powers to withdraw or alter a proposed bill that has led to days of violent protests.

UNITED NATIONS - Four lead-ing European foreign policy of-ficials on Thursday warned that new sanctions legislation against Iran could torpedo efforts to se-cure a long-term agreement with Tehran to curb its nuclear pro-gram.

SANAA - Yemen’s Houthi rebels welcomed on Thursday proposed concessions by the government on power-sharing but their gunmen still held po-sitions outside the residence of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who remains a virtual pris-oner there.

ATHENS - Greece’s anti-bail-out Syriza party has widened its lead over the ruling conserva-tives, two surveys showed on Thursday, days before a snap na-tional election.

BAGHDAD - In a government building in Mosul, a handful of Iraqi contractors gathered to compete for a tender last month.

LONDON - Iraqi Prime Min-ister Haider al-Abadi said on Thursday the drop in the global oil price was disastrous for his

country’s finances and could hurt its ability to fight Islamic State militants.

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka’s new government is to investigate “black money” transferred over-seas by powerful figures in the administration of former presi-dent Mahinda Rajapaksa, a cabi-net spokesman said on Thursday.

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The U.N. agency in charge of aiding Palestinians will run out of money by the end of January to repair homes in Gaza damaged in the 2014 war with Israel, worsening an already dire humanitarian situation, an agen-cy spokesman said on Thursday.

ARLINGTON, Va. - A suspect-ed al Qaeda bombmaker held at Guantanamo Bay military prison for almost 13 years on Thurs-day faced a U.S. national secu-

rity board weighing whether he should remain there.

LONDON - Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conserva-tive party became favorites to win the most seats at a nation-al election in May for the first time in three years on Thursday, according to bookmaker Lad-brokes, overtaking its nearest rival Labour.

LUSAKA - Zambia’s ruling party presidential candidate Ed-gar Lungu took a slim lead over his rival Hakainde Hichilema af-ter votes from more than half of constituencies were counted, the electoral commission said on Thursday.

MOGADISHU - A suicide car bomb exploded at the gate of a Mogadishu hotel where Turk-ish delegates were meeting on Thursday, a day before a visit by

President Tayyip Erdogan to the Somali capital.

KIEV - An artillery shell or mortar struck a public transport stop in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least eight ci-vilians in an incident both sides blamed on the other.

BRUSSELS - NATO has de-tected signs of heightened Rus-sian involvement in fighting in parts of eastern Ukraine, the al-liance’s top military commander said on Thursday.

NAIROBI - Madagascar’s op-position is to challenge the ap-pointment of Prime Minister Jean Ravelonarivo in the consti-tutional court after the admin-istrative court said it would not hear the case, extending uncer-tainty in a country struggling to repair its economy.

President announces… Elections Day May 11AN end to the current polit-

ical impasse that gripped Guyana for the last three

years is finally in sight, follow-ing President Donald Ramotar’s much anticipated announcement yesterday of a date for General and Regional elections – more than a year earlier than it was due.

The date set by the President is Monday May 11th , 2015.

During an address to the na-tion, televised on the Nation-al Communications Network (NCN) and broadcasted on ra-dio, the Guyanese Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces disclosed that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has assured that it will be in a state of readiness for the return to the polls.

“I am advised that GECOM would be in a state of readiness for these polls on that date… meetings were held with the Guyana Elections Commission to emphasise the need for their readiness for holding free, fair, transparent and efficient elec-tions,” the President said.

“I hereby announce that Gen-eral and Regional Elections shall be held on Monday, 11th May, 2015” – Presi dent Don-ald Ramotar.President Ramotar assured

that international observers will

be invited to be a part of the elec-toral process.

“I intent to invite international observers to be part of the elec-tions process…you will recall that in December 2014, I had alerted international observers to the possibility of elections in 2015,” he said.

PROTECT DEMOCRATIC GAINS

The President also appealed for stability, both during and af-ter elections – all in the interest of protecting and consolidating the democratic gains Guyana has made to date.

“As usual, and I will expect the political parties, the security ser-vices and the people of Guyana to conduct themselves in a man-ner that would ensure continued peace and stability before, during and after the elections,” Presi-

dent Ramotar said.“As usual, and I will expect the political parties, the secu-rity services and the people of Guyana to conduct them-selves in a manner that would ensure continued peace and stability before, during and after the elections. We have a collective obligation to ensure the protection of the demo-cratic gains we have made and for which we have endured so much as a nation to secure” – President Ramotar“We have a collective obliga-

tion to ensure the protection of the democratic gains we have made and for which we have en-dured so much as a nation to se-cure,” the President also urged.

Additionally, despite the crit-icisms levelled against his Gov-ernment, the President made it clear that the current Adminis-

tration paid strict adherence to the Constitution in administering the welfare of the nation.

“At all times I have acted in ac-cordance with the Constitution of Guyana,” he said.

ALWAYS OPEN TO DIA-LOGUE

President Ramotar stressed too that prior to the November 10 prorogation and even after the fact, he has been open to di-alogue with the political Opposi-tion.

“It is a door that I did not nor do not intend to shut, now or ever. In light of the Opposition’s sustained refusal to engage my Government in the dialogue we anticipated and in light of the commitment I made to you, the people of Guyana, I now move towards general elections,” he said.

“My commitment to preserv-ing and strengthening our democracy is unquestionable” – PresidentThe Head of State bemoaned

the fact that the opportunities that prorogation provided for continued dialogue and engage-ments with the Parliamentary Opposition parties did not mate-rialised.

He said, “The Parliamentary Opposition adopted an inflex-ible position that they will not

engage with me until Parliament is reconvened. I had hoped that they would have reconsidered this unproductive posture and meet with me so that we can discuss our differences and find solutions to advance the devel-opment of Guyana.

“…in doing so (proroguing Par-liament), I indicated that I was opting to preserve rather than end the life of the 10th Parlia-ment. I was also attempting to avoid further political conflict and seek avenues of political ac-commodation between my gov-ernment and the parliamentary Opposition parties. I had hoped that the period of prorogation would have allowed for extant tensions to ease and for all of the parliamentary parties to con-structively engage the Govern-ment.”

The Head of State also referred to the fact that there were regular interactions with national and in-ternational stakeholders to keep them abreast with developments and his Administration’s efforts to reach some level of political consensus.

“My commitment to preserv-ing and strengthening our de-mocracy is unquestionable,” the President declared.

The last General and Regional Elections were held in November 2011.


38 4 5

1 2 8 74 9 1 3

3 49 6

3 6 7 97 1

6 2

Fill in the blanks so that each row, each column, and each of the nine 3x3 grids contain one instance of each of the num-bers 1 through 9

PUZZLE!1 2 5 3 6 4 7 9 83 8 9 2 5 7 4 6 16 7 4 9 8 1 3 5 27 6 8 4 1 5 2 3 94 5 3 6 2 9 8 1 72 9 1 7 3 8 6 4 59 4 6 5 7 2 1 8 35 1 2 8 4 3 9 7 68 3 7 1 9 6 5 2 4

Laughter, The Best MedicineJai Sita Ram, my name is Calvin Persaud and I am a

blessed member of the Naujavaan Mandalee youth group of the Shaanti Bhavan Mandir. We have all

heard the saying “laughter is the best medicine,” but medicine for what? That would be medicine for your whole body. Medicine is something used to help treat or prevent diseases and what’s better for treating or pre-venting diseases other than to improve your mental and physical health. Here are some benefits of laughter for your health and even for your social life.

Laughing improves your mental health in many ways. Laughing helps you get rid of any distressing emotions such as, sadness, angriness and/or anx-iousness. As you’re laughing you really release all of your worriedness which then lowers your stress, increases your enthusiasm and enables you to get more things done. Also if you’re able to see the hu-mor in more situations, in a less threatening light, you won’t get so worked up and overwhelmed by things which would also reduce stress. Laughing puts you in a great mood to handle life.

Laughing also improves your physical health in many ways. A good long laugh can help lower physical tension throughout your body and can relax your muscles for up to 45 minutes after the laugh. If you laugh hard enough you can actually work your abs out. After a few laughing sessions you could attain some tone abs, hell, you’ll proba-bly have a six pack by the end of a Russell Peters marathon. Laughter also boosts your immune sys-

tem. Laughter increases immune cells and antibod-ies in your system which helps you resist diseases. Another thing laughter does is that it triggers the release of endorphins, which is a natural chemical in your body that makes you feel good. This helps you get in a good mood and it can also temporarily relieve pain. Laughing is basically like taking pain killers.

There are some social benefits to laughter as

well. When you are giving a speech, you can dif-fuse the tension in the room by cracking a joke. When you laugh with your friend of family it cre-ates a positive bond between you and them which triumphs any disagreement or ill feeling you had towards them. People are attracted to people who are always laughing and you can take advantage of that. Laughter can be used to strengthen new and old relationships.

Laughter does really hold a lot of power. Laughter improves physical health by boosting your immune system, relieving pain and giving you rock hard abs. Laughter increases your mental health by reducing stress, increasing your energy and helps you see the lighter side of things. The few social benefits of laughing would be that it helps you in public speaking, helps you fortify your relationships and helps you make new friends. You just have to sim-ply laugh.

Here’s your first abdominal workout:Teacher (Pandit Manoj J): “Kids, what does the

chicken give you?”Student: “Meat!”Teacher: “Very good! Now what does the pig give

you?”Student: “Bacon!”Teacher: “Great! And what does the fat cow give

you?”Student: “Homework!”

UG staff inch closer to strikeSaying that Vice-Chancellor (VC) Jacob

Opadeyi’s response to their demands is “woefully inadequate,” University

of Guyana (UG) staff yesterday threatened that if their demands are not met by 4pm to-day, industrial action will be taken to delay the start of the new semester.

The university is scheduled to open for the new semester on Monday. “The execu-tives of the Unions wish to advise the pub-lic and the UG staff and students that the VC’s formal response received on January 20, 2015 to our demands submitted on January 19, 2015 is woefully inadequate, takes matters no closer to a solution and has therefore been rejected,” the Univer-sity of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) and the University of Guyana Workers’ Union (UGWU) said in a joint statement yesterday.

The unions’ main demand is a 60% salary increase.

“Despite the VC’s stated optimism that his response will prevent industrial action, members agreed that failing a positive re-sponse to our demands and return imme-diately to the bargaining table with both the UGSSA and the UGWU, the staff must take some form of industrial action to regis-ter our dissatisfaction and frustration,” the statement yesterday said.

“Staff, students and the general public are therefore advised that barring further com-munication from the Vice-Chancellor to ac-cede to our demands by 4pm on Thursday January 22nd, 2015, industrial action will be taken to delay the start of the new semes-ter,” it declared.

According to the unions, contrary to statements attributed to the vice-chancel-lor via online news outlet Demerara Waves,

the VC has offered no concrete salary and benefits proposal to any category of worker in response to the demand for a 60% salary increase from March 2015. The VC has also not made any offer of duty-free concessions or increased allowances to UG workers.

“There has been no withdrawal of the UG Administration’s workload policy from Council although a consultation sched-ule was proposed, which we accept, under the condition that the policy would not be approved by the University Council prior to the conclusion of consultations and the revision of the document,” the unions said. “We intend to ensure that the process is not a perfunctory and meaningless one,” the unions said.

The statement said that in his letter, Dr Opadeyi made “absolutely no offer of any percentage” of salary increase but merely stated that negations must wait “until the University Administration has completed its work on how the increase will be funded.”

As such, the unions said, for the VC to create an impression in his interview with Demerara Waves that an increase was im-minent is “a deliberate attempt to deceive. We repeat: the VC has made no offer to pay any increase to UG workers. There is abso-lutely no mention of these issues in the VC’s written reply.”

The unions said that these and other statements by the VC only widen the gulf of distrust between university staff and the VC.

“The UGSSA and UGWU remain united in our approach to salaries and benefits’ ne-gotiations and reject the efforts by the Ad-ministration to divide workers by offering to negotiate separately with the UGWU but not the UGSSA,” the statement said.


(March 21-April 19)Whoa! You have your eye on the prize as the week begins, but there’s more to life than this

one particular goal. Slow down, look around and consider the full spectrum of priorities. Around Wednesday, the give and take of life is richly rewarding, whether it’s at work, with friends or in a relationship. Lend a hand, and get some sup-port yourself – it’ll feel great. Taking it easy isn’t always easy for you, but give it a try on Friday or Saturday; quiet time clears your head. On Sunday, you’ve got just the idea for some fun.

ARIES(April 20-May 20)You’re starting the week off on the right foot as the week begins, if the Universe has its say. Get grounded

– with exercise, meditation, those who make you feel most wonderful – and you can reach for the stars. Around Wednesday, though, the world may feel like it’s pushing you. Will you push back, or go with the flow and see where it takes you? Your personal con-nections and community both figure prominently on Friday and Saturday. Let your network work for you, and give back, too. On Sunday, a leisurely brunch with a loved one is exactly the thing that makes you happy.

TAURUS(May 21-June 20)A significant other, a friend or someone you’re partnering with at work at the beginning of the week

may need handling with care. Listen carefully to what they’re saying, and urge them to verbalize the between-the-lines stuff. Around Wednesday, are you being fickle or are you truly considering new ideas and points of view? Make sure things are legit before incorporating. Creative activities and pur-suits suit you on Friday and Saturday, and getting creative about communication helps, too. On Sun-day, someone’s got some words of wisdom for you.

GEMINI

(June 21-July 22)Retreating into your shell (just a bit!) might not be a bad idea as the

week begins. Do check in with loved ones, though, and let your boss know exactly what you’re working on prior to clamping on the headphones. Around Wednes-day, you may still be feeling sensitive, but exercise your emotional intelligence, too; you’ll see different aspects of situations around you. You’ve got a knack for con-necting with others – and proceeding to a deeper level – on Friday and Saturday. Inquire about their personal philosophies, and enjoy the discussion. On Sunday, practice patience with a friend or relative.

CANCER(July 23-Aug. 22)A random or not-so-random act of kindness gets the week off to a

positive start – and that’s you performing one, not waiting for it to come to you! Around Wednesday, you’ll want to take your outlook, turn it upside-down and shake well for best results. A terrific solution to a certain situation requires only a little stretch of the old noggin. Then let both intellect and instinct weigh in on Friday and Saturday, especially when it comes to others. Look and listen more than you talk. Then, on Sunday, someone may throw you for a loop – in the best possible way.

LEO(Aug. 23-Sept. 22)You’ve got your head on straight and a definite twinkle in your eye

as the week begins – a stellar combination for both work and love. Around Wednesday, kick a precon-ception, an expectation or a well-worn favorite way of doing something to the curb, then try several ways of replacing it. Feels risky? Good. Then – gosh! – oth-ers are so slow on Friday and Saturday. But acting impatient won’t hurry things along. Go at your own pace, and let them do the same. You may be ready to take issue with someone on Sunday, but if it’s an older relative, choose your battle carefully.

VIRGO

LIBRA(Sept. 23-Oct. 22)Expect some emotional ups and downs as the week begins. Be ready

to breathe, meditate or maybe run screaming through it, and have someone who under-stands ready on speed-dial. Around Wednesday, it’s the upside that’s emphasized, and the chance of romance is high! A new sweetie – or renewed fun with a dear old one – awaits. Get ready, get set, go! Big agenda items and projects may be hard to cross off your list on Friday and Saturday, but smaller stuff can be surprisingly satisfying. On Sunday, a certain relationship can flourish under your care.

(Oct. 23-Nov. 21)Look at you, biding your time and making brilliant plans as the week begins. You’ve got patience with a pur-

pose, and calm, cool and collected suits you. Things may be rockier around Wednesday; are you contributing to the drama or just in the audience? It’s easier to find it amusing (and stay nice and neutral) as an onlooker, so consider your role carefully. On Friday and Saturday, let the good times roll – and let your love show. You’re much admired now, so enjoy the attention. Keep the love energy going on Sunday rather than getting entan-gled in an argument.

SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS(Nov. 22-Dec. 21)It’s not like you to be less than gener-ous, but tightening the purse strings and taking an overall conservative

approach may be best as the week begins. Around Wednesday, you’re making connections that complete-ly crackle, both in your mind and with others. You’re electric, and you just might do something shockingly brilliant. If you’re fuzzier on Friday and Saturday, well ... everyone needs downtime, and you’re probably processing something important. Do something to recharge. Sunday’s a fun day – play a game, see family and friends, just enjoy.

PISCES(Dec. 22-Jan. 19)Your famous persistence pays off at the beginning of the week. Check

up on a situation or connection you’ve been cultivating, and you’ll likely see great results. Around Wednesday, approaching a different idea (or the person who has it) with caution makes sense, but don’t dismiss it (or them) outright. Expanding your repertoire is a possibility now, and something outlandish could be the starting point. You’re awfully impressive on Friday and Saturday, what with your rock-steady heart and open mind. Dare to show you care, and watch what happens. Family’s in the forefront on Sunday.

(Jan. 20-Feb. 18)Get a little help with managing your time and setting your priorities from

a mentor or friend as the week begins. Otherwise, the first couple of days this week will be a time-suck. Around Wednesday, though, you’re on top of the world and reaching for the stars, if the Universe has its way. Big stuff at work, in romance, related to personal growth – it’s all possible now. Then it’s time to get more practical on Friday and Saturday. How will you keep on track? What will you do to stay motivated? When do you take the next steps? Take an objective look. Then, on Sunday, you may have a breakthrough.

AQUARIUS(Feb. 19-March 20) Do a little planning as the week begins – for work, your social life, your personal projects. You’ll be that

much more impressive as the days progress. Around Wednesday, an interesting vision may come your way. Surrounding yourself with what inspires you helps cue it, as does getting grounded and opening your heart and mind. Then, you’re downright inspiring on Friday and Saturday. Affection with friends, hot stuff with a certain someone and fun all over the place is favored – not to mention transformation. Sunday finds you dreaming all day.

CAPRICORN

The weekly horoscopes are updated on every week to gives you an in-depth insight into your family, your love life, any career opportunities, friends and money issues.WEEKLY HOROSCOPE

Darkness cannot Drive out Darkness; only light can Do that. hate cannot Drive out hate; only love can Do that.

— Martin luther king, Jr.


Entertainment NewsDolly Ki Doli music sets the mood

for the film’s premiere

Abhishek Dogra's Dolly Ki Doli is a light-hearted comedy that re-volves around a conniving bride

Sonam Kapoor and her three fairly gullible grooms —Rajkummar Rao, Pul-kit Samrat and Varun Sharma — who she cons on the wedding night.

The soundtrack of the film, composed by the duo Sajid Wajid, has gained popu-larity, especially amongst the younger lot. Sonam's moves in Phatte Tak Nachna are infectious. And of course, Malaika Arora Khan's item number Fashion Khatam Mu-jhpe, that sees her shaking a leg with Raj-kummar, is a hit this wedding season. An-other track that has struck a chord with youngsters is Babaji Ka Thullu.

The colloquial phrase, made popu-lar by funnyman Kapil Sharma, is now gaining more popularity because of this song. And of course, the icing on the cake is the love song sung by the Sufi prince Rahat Fateh Ali Khan called Mere Naina Kafir Hogaye. This track is the soul of the album. And in what seems like a real coup, Rahat will join

the DKD team in Dubai, when the lead cast and the producers head there for the film's premiere. Dolly Ki Doli, pro-duced by Arbaaz Khan Productions, re-leases January 23.

Sonam Kapoor with Pulkit Samrat, Rajkummar Rao and Varun Sharma in Dolly Ki Doli.

Ansel Elgort back with girlfriend

'The Fault In Our Stars' actor Ansel Elgort has reportedly rekindled his romance with high school girl-

friend Violetta Komyshan.he couple is back together after briefly

splitting, reported Us magazine. The cou-ple was spotted together at Reagan Na-tional Airport on Saturday, January 17, in Washington, D C. The 20-year-old actor had split with his dancer girlfriend back in August as he was busy promoting the hit drama.

"They just missed each other. He thought his schedule was too much to have a girlfriend during, he's been touring nonstop for movies and working on mu-sic, but they talked throughout. He didn't

really see anyone else seriously while they were split," a source told the mag-azine. The pair first met at New York's LaGuardia High School and attended Par-is Menswear Fashion Week back in June together.

Its Over! Elizabeth Olsen, Boyd Holbrook call off 3-year-old engagement

Elizabeth Olsen and fiance Boyd Hol-brook have split after 3 years of togetherness, and broken off their

engagement.The news broke after the 25-year-old

actress was spotted at a farmer's market in Studio City, California, without the en-gagement ring on her finger, Us magazine reported. An insider also claimed that Holbrook was alone at the Pre-Golden Globes Party at the Soho House in West Hollywood and was even flirting with a blonde woman who resembled the 'Godzilla' star. The pair had started dating after they met on the sets of 'Very Good Girls,' and had gotten engaged last March.

Months after her engagement, the

'Avengers: Age of Ultron' actress had told Marie Claire UK that she loved being in a relationship, and was excited and plan-ning ideas as it was fun. Olsen had also said that she planned to have kids with Holbrook.

Jennifer Lawrence keen to film more «Hunger Games` movies

Jennifer Lawrence has confessed that she is not happy about spending so much time away from her best pal

Liam Hemsworth as he's in Australia. The 24-year-old actress said that she

would totally do more 'Hunger Games' movies and now Hemsworth doing a movie in Australia for two months and it is the longest that the three of them have ever spent apart, the Mirror re-ported.

Talking about her relationship with her co-stars Hemsworth and Josh Hutcher-son, the American actress said that if all

she had was this friendship with both of them and if that’s all she ever got this ‘The Hunger Games’ then she would consider it a blessing.

George Clooneys' new 10M pounds mansion perfect for 'ghost' view

Newlyweds George and Amal Cloo-ney's stunning 10 million English mansion has a countryside loca-

tion, private gym, secluded gardens, and a perfect spot to view a ghost from.

According to a neighbour, Uri Geller, who's a spoon bender and paranormal "expert," the A-list couple's 9 bedroom house on the River Thames in Sonning is the perfect place to see the ghost of a little girl who roams the village, the Daily Express reported.

Geller, 68, claims that the Berkshire village is the site of some unusual activ-ity, particularly near its historic bridge, and he had seen some strange things on it, including the ghost of a little girl who crosses it.

The 53-year-old actor had bought the home following his wedding to Brit-ish-based lawyer Amal Alamuddin, 36, in September, however, it's is unknown if he knew about the spooky story.

Geller, who also owns a 9 bedroom

house on the river in the village, and lives one minute walk away from Clooney's home with his wife Hanna, said that he had posted Clooney 3 of his books, in-cluding the one he hopes to be made into a film.

Geller had also claimed back in 2013, that the child ghost was responsible for putting up a postbox which mysteriously appeared in the middle of Sonning bridge.

Despite all this, Clooney and his wife seem to have adjusted well and the pair has been making friends with the locals in the village's pub, The Bull Inn.

'Mortal Kombat' star Darren Shahlavi passes away due to possible overdose

Actor Darren Shahla-vi has passed away due to apparent

overdose. He was 42.According to law en-

forcement sources Shahla-vi, who had appeared in TV shows including 'Mor-tal Kombat: Legacy' and 'Arrow,' was found dead on January 14 at his L.A. home, and it looked like he had taken overdose of his prescription meds, TMZ.com reported.

The L.A. County Coroner is now conducting tests to determine the exact cause of death. Meanwhile, 'Arrow' star Stephen Amell, who had fought Shahlavi on the show's first episode, paid respect to the star writing that he was "great dude and a patient, thoughtful partner, RIP Darren Shahlavi."

Shahlavi reportedly had a his-tory of drug and alcohol abuse. He had practiced stunt career in Hong Kong in the '90s, and had come the U.S. to begin his acting career.


Akshay Kumar: I want Prime Minister Modi to see Baby as he is always concerned about terrorism

A 9am interview is 'late' for Akshay Kumar.

The actor, speaking to us in what we thought was an 'early' meeting, ex-pressed great surprise at people's reactions to his 4am mornings. "I sometimes don't un-derstand why people here get so shocked," he said, after mentioning that he'd sched-uled shoots and meetings at 4:30am! But the discipline and rigour of his physical schedule shows in films like his forthcom-ing Baby, which he spoke to us about.

An early interview like this is first-hand experience of your famously early morn-ings. We've heard you call meetings even at 6am.

4:30 — I've called meetings at 4:30am.

And people turn up for those? Of course, sab aate hain. I have done

photo shoots etc at 4 or 4:30am. I some-times don't understand why people here get so shocked. I have never understood this idea. Agar aap dekho, abroad, people have woken up and at 6:30 in the morning, there are cars zooming on the roads, that means they have woken up at 5. Humare yahan 6am, ekdum khali sunsaan rehta hai sab, 9 baje traffic shuru hota hai. Why do we say, 'Oh my God, 4 baje? 4:30 baje? 5 baje?' Humare toh shastron mein likha hai ki 4 baje uthna chahiye. Humko toh so jaa-na chahiye jaldi. As boring as I might sound, but that's what it is, the reality of life.

It's just that everybody's lives, and not just in your industry, are inevitably about

late mornings. I fail to understand... people say, 4:30 kya

karenge yaar hum log, 4:30 toh hum sone jaate hain. I know a lot of people, 9:30-10 baje uthte hain. Kitni baar hota hai ki main subah (kaam pe) jaa raha hota hoon, and many actors wave at me on their way back (home). Woh tab sone jaa rahe hote hain.

From Neeraj Pandey, the director of A Wednesday, people usually expect some-thing different or some twist in his films. What is the unique thing about Baby?

He is referring to something nobody has ever referred to before. You must have seen films on Armymen, Navy and Air

Force before, the police, BSF and when they do something commendable, they are given medals, money, certificates, hon-ours like Paramvir Chakras — they are all recognised. But have you ever thought of spies? They are not allowed to say that they are working for the government.So, if they are ever caught, they can never reveal their identity, the country will never call them its own. These are the people who operate outside the country, because the base of terrorism is outside. These spies bahar jaake unko unke ghar pe maarte hain ya khud marr jaate hain. This film is about those unknown heroes. The news of their death can't be mentioned in the papers either. They are completely selfless, the only thing they care about is their coun-try. I was thinking, why has nobody made a film on such people? That's the USP of Baby — it's about those unknown people whom nobody cares about. I have some scenes which show the relationship I have with my wife, where I always tell her, 'Main conference mein hoon.' She knows that his job is not what he says it is, so she says, 'Jo bhi kar rahe ho, bas marna mat.' That is my favourite line from the film, and it is some-thing that the wife of such an operative had actually told her husband in real life.

You'd hardly expect a film like this to be called Baby.

This group of 24 people, in the film, was constituted on a trial basis. They don't re-port to anybody, only the high command knows about them. Lekin agar pakde gaye, toh woh (high command) na inko jaante hain, na yeh unko. Iss group ka naam tha Baby, because it was newly formed on a tri-al basis, it was like a baby.

You did Special 26 with Neeraj Pandey, and now, this film. Is the director another reason you said yes to the film?

That is also one of the reasons why I agreed to do the film. I am very comfort-able working with him and he is a great director. Film ke andar aapko ek bhi scene copied nahin milega, ki humne yeh kisi DVD mein kahin dekha tha. Uska kaam hi yeh hai ki woh subah uthke 3:30 ghante newspaper padhta hai, aur usmein se cheezein nikaalta hai. I asked him one day, and he said scripts

akhbaron mein hoti hain. So, all the inci-dents that you are going to watch in the film have actually happened somewhere.

Terrorism wasn't so common a word earlier, maybe at a time when people of your age were growing up. Do you re-member growing up in an atmosphere when a violent terrorist event was a daily occurrence?

We didn't. We probably were introduced to it (terrorism) after the Punjab riots of 1984.

Tell us more about a spy's life — what excited you about playing a spy?

Uska koi darja hi nahi hota hai, he is no-where. He cannot own anything. This spy is not the kind who only gets information, he has to act also. They behave like normal people, but they cannot reveal their real identity, even to their family. If you go into their minds, you don't know what might be there.

How did you, a well-known actor whose public identity is so overwhelming, ap-proach this character, a man who has no claim to any identity?

I just follow the director. This is very hard for me (otherwise) to follow. He (Neeraj) won't own up to it, but I think he has met a real spy, somebody retired, maybe.

Is there a person you would like to show the film to, for sure?

The person I would like to show this film to, and a person who keeps talking about terrorism, would be our Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi. He is the right person to see it. Aap pichhle 14 dino ka newspaper mangwa lo, half of the front page news is only about terrorism. Blasts, people dying, yeh ISIS ka pakda gaya, etc. The biggest problem in the world is terrorism, besides poverty, and baaki sab, jo hai hi. Mr Modi talks about it a lot, Barack Obama, who is coming here, talks about it. When the two meet, they are going to talk about terrorism the most — that is going to be the biggest mudda.

Have you met Mr Modi?Yes, I have. He is a great man. He is a

man with a vision, a man who does a lot and does it quickly. I have heard so many things. Paresh Rawal (an MP from Gujarat) is a dear friend of mine, and he is very close to Modi sahab. He tells me stories about him, like how everybody has to get up at 6am and start working. Here is a man who tells everybody to get up and start working. He calls up people and says, today we are going to finish certain things. There is work happening. I think by 2019, you'll see a lot of changes in India. I meet a lot of people who know him and many other ministers. At the moment, things are going at a prop-er speed. They have to put everything on track.

Would you ever like to join politics? If I ever do, it would be related to only

sports and health, because I don't know anything else.


American SniperMovie Review

TRIVIA1 It took Bradley Cooper eight months

and exercising of four hours a day to gain 40-plus pounds for this role.

2 Sienna Miller initially found Cooper chubby, when they chatted on skype while preparing for the film as Cooper had to be bulked up for the role. “We did Skype and I did see him grow. He went through a chubby phase before he got really strong," says Miller, who is based in London.

3 In the beginning of the movie director Clint Eastwood makes his "Hitchcock" appearance as an extra entering the church.

4 Bradley Cooper only spoke to Chris Kyle one time on the phone, just a cou-ple of weeks before Chris Kyle's tragic death. It was a two minute conversa-tion according to Bradley Cooper.

5 David O. Russell considered directing this project but it didn't work out.

6 Chris Kyle's father personally told Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper that he would "unleash Hell" if his son's mem-ory was disrespected in the film. How-ever, he also stated that Eastwood and Cooper were trustworthy men.

7 David O. Russell considered directing the film at one point but a deal with Warner Brothers did not work out. Ste-ven Spielberg also showed interest but the film ultimately went to Clint East-wood.

8 Bradley Cooper and Clint Eastwood teamed up for the first time for a film.

9 It is the second Clint Eastwood film with the word 'American' in the title, the first one being American Hustle re-leased in 2013.

10 The real Chris Kyle was murdered on February 2nd 2013 at a shooting range while trying to help a veteran who had severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

GOOFS1Kyle’s depictionThere is a difference of

opinion as per as Kyle’s depiction in the film is concerned. While many be-lieve in the memoir, he bragged about the number of Iraqis he killed, the film stays morally ambiguous and down-plays his hatred for fanatic Muslims.

2 Bradley too handsome for the role? The real Chris Kyle wasn't ‘good-look-ing’ so many believed the casting for a major goof-up. He apparently declared that Cooper would need to mess up his face to look right. However in his de-fense, Bradley stated, “I never sort of suffered that "Oh, he's too handsome" (problem) ever.'

3 What happened to Kyle’s brother?The film almost forgets about Kyle’s young-er brother, who’s hesitant to serve his country as a marine. A scene shows Chris’ wife Taya telling him that ‘his brother has been deployed’. Chris who is overly protective of his brother is not shown inquiring about his brother at all post that.

Montano leaves fans wondering

Will reigning Power Soca Monarch Machel Montano defend his ti-tle on Fantastic Friday? Monta-

no left fans wondering after his perfor-mance at the Soaka fete on Sunday at the 02 Park, Chaguaramas. Montano was the star attraction at the cooler fete which drew thousands of patrons. When he was performing his Road March contender Like Ah Boss, he said: “I’m winning the Soca Monarch and the Road March!”

However, nothing official has come from Montano's camp about this. Last week, the Caribbean Prestige Foundation for the Performing Arts, which stages the International Soca Monarch, announced a rule-change that gave reigning Groovy

and Power Soca winners the option not to defend their titles. The 2014 Groovy Soca Monarch, Kerwin Dubois has since said he won’t defend his title and this has also prompted questions about Monta-no’s intentions.

He announced that a new collabora-tion with DJ collective Major Lazer and award-winning American pop star Ari-ana Grande titled All My Love will be in rotation on radio stations starting today. Montano has used past performances at past Soaka fetes as the backdrop for vid-eos, most notably for his 2013 hit, The Fog. He also filmed sequences from his performance on Sunday for the All My Love video.


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Caribbean Airlines suspends pilots pending investigation into JetBlue near collision

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Tuesday January 20, 2015, CMC - Safety inspectors

from the Trinidad and Tobago Civ-il Aviation Authority (TTCAA) are due to hold discussions with Fed-eral Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control (ATC) officials on Tuesday following the near colli-sion involving the Trinidad-based Caribbean Airlines (CAL) and a ful-ly loaded Jetblue plane at the John

F. Kennedy (JFK) International Air-port.

TTCAA director Ramesh Lutch-medial also confirmed that the two CAL pilots had been taken off fly-ing duties, pending the outcome of the investigation.

“Caribbean Airlines Ltd is fully co-operating with the investiga-tors,” Lutchmedial said in a state-ment.

On Monday, CAL said it was “working with industry authorities” into the incident that occurred last Saturday.

The United States Federal Avi-ation Authority (FAA) has started its own probe and in a statement posted on its website, CAL said it is committed to the safety and secu-rity of all passengers.

“We are concerned to hear of an

alleged incident highlighted on in-ternet news sites regarding JetBlue 1295, and BW flight 526 on Sat-urday night (17th January) at JFK airport, New York.

“Caribbean Airlines takes alle-gations of this type very seriously, and is committed to working with the industry authorities to inves-tigate all the facts. We are in the process of investigating and com-piling the facts surrounding this allegation in cooperation with all Regulator agencies.”

CAL said in the interim, it is “complying with all incident man-agement procedures included within its Safety Management Sys-tem and adjunct regulations”.

The FAA said the planes nev-er came within 2,800 feet of each other.

Four killed, including two children, in fiery St Lucia

highway accident

THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED ALONG THE BEXON HIGHWAY, SOUTHEAST OF CASTRIES, ST LUCIA.

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Thursday January 15, 2015, CMC - Four people, including two young brothers, were killed when a truck in which they were travel-

ling struck a utility pole, overturned and burst into flames on Wednesday, police said.

Local media reports said the driver, whose name was given only as Arthur, his girlfriend, Sarah Antoine and her grandson, David Agard, were trapped in the wreckage and burned to death.

The accident occurred along the Bexon Highway, south-east of Castries.

According to a report from the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force and the St Lucia News Online web site, Benjamin Antoine, another of Antoine’s grandchildren, succumbed to his injuries and died in the hospital. He was initially rescued from the burning truck suffering from burns and injuries sustained in the accident.

SARAH ANTOINE (RIGHT) WITH ARTHUR, WHO WAS THE DRIVER, AND ANTOINE’S GRANDSON, DAVID EDGAR (INSET).

A relative of Antoine told St. Lucia News Online that the couple had planned to buy some gasoline (in a fuel bottle) after picking up the children. Accodring to the St. Lucia News Online report, “the relative believed that the gas container – if it was bought – may have helped fuel the explosion after the truck crashed.”

Media reports said that Antoine, who operates a bakery in Sarrot, was returning to her home after picking up the children from the L’Abayee SDA Primary School.

One eyewitness said that Arthur and Antoine “were alive when the guys took out the child…but they were stuck, so they burned to death.

“The emergency people took a while because we were waiting for a while for them to come, I tried calling them but the line said busy” the eyewitness added.

The horrific accident comes only two days after the tragic bus crash in Rock Gutter, St Vincent that claimed the lives of five people including several children. Two others are still missing and presumed dead after the mini-bus overtuned and crashed into the ocean.

Canadian banks say Caribbean operations stand to benefit from cheaper oil

TORONTO, Canada, Tuesday January 20, 2015, CMC – Ca-nadian banks with operations

in the Caribbean say a combination of lower oil prices and cost-cutting is poised to help improve their op-erations.

While the banks brace for loan losses and lower revenues in West-ern Canada due to the plunge in oil prices, the big Canadian banks say the Caribbean is set to benefit from the decline.

“They’re one of the biggest ben-eficiaries of cheaper oil, so there are some positives finally starting to creep in to the economic out-look of the region from that per-spective,” said Royal Bank of Can-ada (RBC) chief executive David McKay.

“We’re operating in a very chal-lenging economy but, with that cost takeout, we feel strongly that we will have a strong rebound in the Caribbean performance in fis-cal 2015,” said McKay, who noted that RBC has trimmed its staff in the region from more than 6,500 to under 5,000 in the past two years.

“We’ve done the hard work necessary to turn that franchise around and I am confident that in 2015 you’ll see the fruits of all that work,” he told a banking confer-ence here.

Caribbean economies have been in a slump since the global finan-cial crisis caused a slowdown in the region’s vital tourism industry.

RBC announced last year it is exiting its Caribbean wealth man-

agement business, after selling its Jamaican operations at a loss. At the same time, another Canadian bank, CIBC, took a CAN$420 mil-lion (One Canadian dollar =US$) charge on its Caribbean operations in the second quarter of last year, plus an additional CAN$123 mil-lion in loan losses.

The Bank of Nova Scotia, which has also been operating in the Caribbean for more than a centu-ry, plans to close some of its 370 branches in order “to be congruent with the economic reality,” Scotia-bank’s chief executive Brian Porter told the banking conference.

But with oil prices declining, Porter said Scotiabank’s Caribbe-an operations are about to turn a corner.


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Trinidad central bank seeks to deal with foreign exchange shortage

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Monday January 19, 2015, CMC – The Cen-tral Bank of Trinidad and Tobago

says it has sold US$200 million to autho-rized dealers in its first foreign exchange intervention for 2015.

“This sale was conducted to ease some of the outstanding demands for foreign exchange especially those coming from the business community,” the Central Bank said in a statement, noting also that “this s first sale was timed to bring relief to the market as January typically sees

lower conversions of foreign exchange by energy companies”.

Last week, following a meeting be-tween Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar and business representatives, Finance Minister Larry Howai; Minister of Planning and Development Dr Bhoe Tewarie and Minister of Trade, Industry, Investment and Communications Vas-ant Bharath, had been mandated to seek a meeting with Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran, “over the widespread feeling that the continuing stresses with

availability of foreign exchange present-ed too many uncertainties for business”.

The Central Bank said it will release its Monetary Policy Announcement (MPA) on January 30 “at which time we will pro-vide details on the impact of falling en-ergy prices on the country’s balance of payments and the domestic foreign ex-change market”.

BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

LAST NOVEMBER in an interview with Newsday, a male relative of the man wanted for the May 8 murder of his es-

tranged common-law wife Sherlene Mah-angoo-Charles, 37, slammed police for not going after her killer.

The relative claimed police knew of her killer’s whereabouts as they had been in-formed that he only recently begun living with a woman in Caroni. On the weekend, mother of one Salma Chadee, 19, was mur-dered a similar fashion. A manhunt has been launched once again for the suspect who is believed to be the same man who killed Ma-hangoo-Charles.

Mahangoo-Charles was shot and killed inside her home at Stony Hill, Tarodale, San Fernando — her 15-year-old daughter was also shot but survived. The couple’s seven-year-old son escaped injury.

In an article printed in Newsday on No-vember, 2014 and headlined “Killer still at large”, the relative stated: “They (police) don’t really want to hold him because he liv-ing right in Caroni with a woman.”

On Saturday night at her Chadee Road, Caroni home, teenager Salma Chadee was shot and killed during an altercation with a man whom she recently began a relation-ship. Despite being confined to a wheelchair because of an accident in which both his legs were broken, the man shot and killed Chadee. Police reported that after hitting her several times about the body, he point-ed the gun at Chadee’s brother Fareed who came to her rescue and ordered him to take him outside to a waiting vehicle, which he got into and sped off.

Yesterday the concerned relative spoke with Newsday. “The blood of that girl is on the hands of the police, they were never re-ally interested in holding him as he was al-lowed to move around freely although they knew of his whereabouts.”

He warned that the suspect will kill again. “I think the police are afraid to challenge him because he has no fear and wants to kill a policeman as revenge. He went to central Trinidad because he is looking for the po-liceman who he believes was responsible for breaking up his relationship with Mah-angoo-Charles.”

Since Mahangoo-Charles’s murder, Newsday was told the suspect who hails from Macaulay, Claxon Bay, was seen sev-eral times in the area visiting relatives and friends. His son lives with relatives in Clax-ton Bay.

“We does see him, we does talk to him...he came home for Eid,” Newsday was told. “I tell you police don’t want to lock him up.” The relative further stated that Chadee accom-panied the suspect on several occasions to Claxton Bay when he came to visit relatives.

Speaking of an accident in which the sus-pect was involved, the relative said he was baffled as to how the man managed to re-ceive medical attention without being de-tected. “That again shows police didn’t want him,” he said. “They could have stopped him when he got his two feet broken in the ac-cident and went to hospital for treatment. He was in the hospital. They know he is on a mission to kill and he is shooting to kill.”

Meanwhile, Mahangoo-Charles’ relatives said they are once again forced to relive their nightmare of eight months ago and are now living in fear. A female relative told Newsday, ‘It just isn’t right what happened and we are watching our backs right now. Police prom-ised to pass and check us out.”

“Imagine this man in a wheelchair and still got away...this is ridiculous. Everybody help-ing him which is real nonsense. We are wor-ried he might strike a third time.” Up to yes-terday a nationwide hunt continued for the suspect. Two men, from the Vistabella area, were detained on Sunday in connection with harbouring a fugitive.


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Disclaimer: Caribbean Star Newspaper Inc. & Advertisers are not responsible for typographical errors on the published Ads. We accept articles, artwork, and photography which are in accordance with our Mission. We reserve the right to accept, reject, or edit any material we receive but do our best to honor the integrity of the author/artist. We do not endorse any particular writer or advertiser. We simply offer our readers information

on various subject matters. It is expected that all material is submitted in “Good Faith” with no intent to mislead or harm others. It is the readers responsibility to make intuitive decisions that are right for themselves.

Manager appears on $50 million fraud charge

MANAGER of Trinidad Cement Limited’s Employees Credit Union has been denied bail af-

ter he appeared before a Port-of-Spain Magistrate charged with fraudulently transferring $50 million from the credit union’s Unit Trust Corporation account to a Republic Bank account.

Darren Singh, 35, of Claxton Bay, ap-peared before Port-of-Spain Magistrate Adrian Darmanie yesterday.

It is alleged that Singh, with intent to defraud, caused the transfer of $50 mil-lion from the credit union UTC’s account to a Republic Bank account at Tropical Plaza, Pointe-a-Pierre in the name of TCL Credit Union on January 18, 2013, using a forged UTC wire transfer.

Prosecutor Sgt Callister Charles ob-jected to bail being granted on the basis

of the nature and seriousness of the of-fence as well as allegations that threats had been made to witnesses in the case.

Singh’s attorney Candice Lopez coun-tered that her client was a married man with five children and was the sole bread-winner of the family.

She also said Singh was the manager of the TCL Credit Union, had no previous convictions, and was prepared to abide by any condition laid down by the court.

His family, the attorney added, were willing to ensure that he does not ab-scond if bail is granted to him. She also said there were no evidence of alleged threats to witnesses.

Darmanie denied bail pending tracing and advised Singh of his right to apply to a Judge in Chambers.

He will return to court tomorrow.

Ex-UWI student on $150,000 bail for ganja trafficking charge

MATTHEW SOO CHAN was yes-terday granted $150,000 bail after appearing in the Tunapuna

Magistrates’ Court charged with posses-sion of marijuana for the purpose of traf-ficking and cultivation of marijuana.

On Thursday last, officers of St Joseph Police station raided a Bedasie Street apartment and found the 94 pots each containing a marijuana plant. Soo Chan was charged with having marijuana 500 metres away from the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine. The charges were laid indictably and Soo Chan was not called upon to plead.

Soo Chan of San Diego park, Diego Martin appeared before Tunapuna Mag-istrate Gillian David Scotland and was represented by attorneys Larry Williams

and Sade Lee Duprey. Williams told the court his client was

only aware he was charged with posses-sion of marijuana for the purpose of traf-ficking, when he arrived at court.

He said his client informed him he only received charge papers for cultivation of marijuana. Williams also told the court his client had no pending matters and no previous convictions. He said Soo Chan is a former student of UWI but stopped attending after he got accepted into a programme at the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute to pur-sue his “true passion” which was cook-ing. The magistrate granted the accused $150,000 bail to cover both charges and Soo Chan was ordered to return to court on February 13.

Haiti President Martelly presents new “consensus” government

Haiti President Michel Martelly

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – President Michel Martelly has sworn in a new “consensus” gov-

ernment one week after he began ruling this Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country by decree.

"This government we install today is the fruit of dialogue between the sons and daughters of the country," Martelly said as 18 new ministers and 16 secre-taries late Monday took the oath of office during a ceremony at the site of the for-mer national palace in the capital.

Martelly, who used the social network Facebook to announce the new Cabinet

on Sunday, named several of his former ministers to the new Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Evans Paul, who replaced Laurent Lamothe, who resigned in De-cember.

Martelly began ruling by decree last week while trying to steer the French-speaking CARICOM country to-wards long-delayed legislative and mu-nicipal elections.

However critics have accused him of stalling the elections even as he had been meeting with several social and political groups in a bid to pave the way for the holding of the long-delayed election to renew two-thirds of the 30-member Sen-ate, the entire Lower Chamber and hun-dreds of local government bodies

Last week a US-brokered deal to ex-tend the life of parliament and call new elections failed when parts of the opposi-tion refused to approve it.

But Fanmi Lavalas, the party that was once led by former president Jean Ber-trand Aristide and which has been at the forefront of anti-government protests, said it was not part of the agreement.

It has promised to intensify street pro-tests to try and pressure Martelly, from office ahead of the constitutional date when he is due to step down next year.


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Schoolgirl fished from St Thomas river identified

ST THOMAS, Jamaica — The school-girl who reportedly drowned Tues-day in the Morant River in St Thom-

as, has been identified. She is 14-year-old Nadrieka Dacosta, a student at the Sea-forth High School.

OBSERVER ONLINE reported late Tuesday that Nadrieka’s body was fished from the river close to the Bustamante Bridge, after she had reportedly encoun-tered difficulties while swimming.

Reports are that Nadrieka went for a swim with four of her schoolmates about 5:00 pm when the incident occurred.

Former Barbados prime minister speaks on Caribbean integration challenges

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Tuesday January 20, 2015, CMC – Former Barbados prime minister Owen

Arthur says while the decision in 1989 to transform Caribbean economies into a into a single market and economy was one of the most momentous decisions in the history of the Caribbean “it was a transformation that was never going to be easily achieved”.

Delivering the guest lecture at the In-stitute of International Relations at the St. Augustine campus of the Universi-ty of the West Indies (UWI) on Monday, Arthur, said the transformation was therefore going to be more taxing if not attended by clarity of purpose, and the determination to hold to a steady course come what may.

Speaking on the topic “Caribbean Re-gionalism in the Context of Economic Challenges,” Arthur, who at one time had responsibility for the Caribbean Com-munity (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy (CSME) portfolio within the quasi CARICOM cabinet, said the cre-ation of the CSME was intended both to be an agency by which the region created indigenous opportunities for its develop-ment and at the same time serve as the principal vehicle by which the regional economy would be integrated into the evolving and dynamic global economy.

“In agreeing to reconstitute itself as a Single Market and Economy the region, for the first time, sought to rest its own development and its relationship with the rest of the world on the embrace of the economic ideology of liberalization.

“In this regard, the creation of a Single Market was to take the form of removal of all of the constraints on the movement

within the region of goods, services, la-bour, capital and the creation of enter-prises over centuries,” said Arthur, a three-time prime minister who lost office in 2008.

He told his audience that this process was however intended to be undertaken in accordance with particular principles and design features.

“To be precise, in reconstituting itself as a single market, the instruments of in-tegration were to be designed to facilitate deeper, broader and faster liberalisation between individual economies in the

Caribbean than the region would agree to in its bilateral or multilateral agree-ments and relationships,” Arthur said, noting that it also meant that the region had to be prepared to venture into areas for which there was no provision in its previous attempts at integration such as labour mobility.

But he noted that in order to be rel-evant, the region had to embrace and incorporate into its own programme of integration protocols pertaining to eco-nomic disciplines for which they are no multilateral agreements such as Invest-ment.

Arthur said it was also clearly under-stood that the CSME, which allows for the free movement of goods, skills, la-bour across the 15-member grouping,

would or could never appear at any one time as a finite nor finished entity.

“It would have to be made to evolve to give effect to its intended purpose as an indigenous model for economies liberal-ization, and to ensure that the region’s treatment of its own constituent units are always more favourable that its commit-ments to liberalise under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) or through its bilateral trade and economic agreements.

“More pertinently, it was intended that the creation of a Single Market was not an end in itself. It was intended largely to create the foundations on which a virtual Single Economy would be erected.”

Arthur said that the Single Economy was intended to have as some of its key elements the provision for production integration, the harmonization of eco-nomic policies in critical areas, and the bringing about the convergence of the macro-economic policies of the individu-al economies such as would facilitate the adoption of more advanced forms of in-tegration such as monetary union.

Arthur said the architects of the Single Market had recognized that while CAR-ICOM was initially designed to give effect to economic integration, functional co-operation and the coordination of foreign policy as separate and distinct pillars,” the move to create a CSME required that a new and advanced harmony should be established between the various forms of regional integration”.

He said it was for this reason that at the CARICOM summit in 2007 regional lead-ers endorsed the Girvan Plan as the road-map to the Single Economy, a decision was made to constitute a Regional Task

Force on Functional Cooperation to link that subject more closely to the efforts to build the CSME.

“The Task Force reported, but its report is still at large, awaiting implementation,” Arthur said, adding that “at every step of the way, it appears that the enterprise to create the CSME is being confounded by doubts over what is being achieved, and even greater doubts as to how progress attained can and should be used to estab-lish beach heads for even further prog-ress”.

He said to begin with the scope of achievement involved in moving the re-gion from the declaration to create a Sin-gle Market in 1989 to its incorporation into a Revised Treaty by 2006 is not un-derstood nor appreciated in many quar-ters in the region.

“That exercise entailed the identifica-tion of over 400 existing restrictions on market activity across the region and the development of nine protocols to amend the original Treaty to make provision for the removal of those restrictions to be in-corporated into domestic law in Caribbe-an jurisdictions,” Arthur said in his wide ranging speech examining challenges to Caribbean economies.

He said that it took Europe 35 years to move from the Treaty of Rome in 1957 to the creation of its own Single Market in 1992, while it has taken the Caribbean 17 years”.

“It is critical that the move to create the CSME should never to be confounded be-cause progress in an area of fundamental importance to the region’s development is judged, without the merit of empirical validation, to be inimical to the orderly functioning of the constituent units.


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Rahul Dravid endorses day/night Tests

Former India captain Rahul Drav-id has endorsed the idea of playing day/night Tests as a counter step to

curb the ever shrinking spectator count in the longest form of the game.

“I am all for the experiment. I am defi-nitely all for the experiment. Specially dwindling crowds in Test cricket is a wor-ry. I know there are some challenges of playing cricket at night. The ball is one of them. The white ball gets discolored. The pink ball could be an option,” Dravid said on the sidelines of a sports lecture here on Tuesday.

“I think in this day and age, it’s impos-sible to have people leaving work and coming to the ground on all five days. Therefore, I don’t mind day/night Tests if it can bring back crowds and also have TV viewership.”

The batting legend said he didn’t have any problem in facing the pink ball on the only occasion he played it.

“The pink ball and the dew factor are things that need to be sorted out. Per-sonally, I never had a problem in the only match with the pink ball. I scored

a hundred in the second innings for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against the English county champions,” he said.

The pink ball is reportedly set to make its debut when Australia host New Zea-land in a Test series later this year.

“I am all for the experiment. I am definitely all for the experiment. Specially dwindling crowds in Test cricket is a worry.”

2015 - Jeff Gordon’s last full-time season

Four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup cham-pion Jeff Gordon announced Thurs-day that the 2015 season will be his

last as a full-time driver.“As a race car driver, much of what I’ve

done throughout my life has been based on following my instincts and trying to make good decisions,” Gordon said in a release. “I thought long and hard about my future this past year and during the offseason, and I’ve decided 2015 will be the last time I compete for a champion-ship.

“I won’t use the ‘R-word,’ because I plan to stay extremely busy in the years ahead, and there’s always the possibility I’ll compete in selected events, although I currently have no plans to do that.”

Gordon told The Associated Press that he decided midway through 2014 that this upcoming season would be his

last. He delayed the announcement un-til Thursday, when he first told his two young children at home in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Gordon says that’s when his decision became a reality, and he broke down in tears. He said he continued sobbing the entire 30-minute drive to Hendrick Mo-torsports, and again lost his composure as he informed his team and longtime employees.

Gordon has 92 career Sprint Cup wins – third all-time behind Hall of Fame driv-ers Richard Petty (200) and David Pear-son (105). – and championships in 1995, 1997, 1998 and 2001. He has spent his entire 23-year career in the No. 24 car with Hendrick Motorsports.

Teammate Jimmie Johnson and other NASCAR drivers took to Twitter to ex-press their appreciation of Gordon.

A-Rod gets tips from Barry Bonds

Alex Rodriguez met with Barry Bonds multiple times to get hitting tips as he prepares for his return

to the major leagues, spokesman Ron Berkowitz confirmed Wednesday.

The meetings with Bonds was present-ed by Berkowitz as part of a number of consultations with former standout hit-ters in an effort for Rodriguez to be fully ready for his return to the New York Yan-kees after missing last season because of his steroid suspension.

Berkowitz said Rodriguez also worked with former Seattle Mariners teammate-Edgar Martinez in Miami last week.

The meetings with Bonds seem like an odd choice because of the steroids link between the two. The San Francisco Chronicle earlier reported the story and that the meetings took place at the Future Prospects facility in San Rafael, Califor-nia.

Shortly after New Year’s, A-Rod post-ed a picture to his Instagram account that is said to be from the facility. Bonds was neither pictured nor mentioned in the de-

scription.Rodriguez, who will turn 40 in July, is

said to be in tremendous shape, a com-mon refrain for all players prior to spring training.

He will arrive at the Yankees facility in Tampa as a marginalized player as the club signed Chase Headley to a four-year, $52 million deal to be the team’s third baseman.

General manager Brian Cashman has repeatedly said he doesn’t know what the Yankees will have in Rodriguez this season. At this moment, the team seems to view Rodriguez as mostly an option at designated hitter.

Rodriguez, who has three years left on his contract and is owed $61 million, needs just six more home runs to tie Wil-lie Mays for fourth on the all-time list, which would allow him to rake it another $6 million performance bonus.

Bonds, who owns the most homers in MLB history, was a special instructor with the San Francisco Giants during spring training in 2014.

Alex Rodriguez has met with Barry Bonds and Edgar Martinez to get hitting tips, his spokesman said.


IPL 8 on track but franchises remain edgyIPL ready to induct two news teams if the situation demands, after Supreme Court’s wide-ranging order has put a question mark over the future of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals.

The IPL was ready to induct two new teams if the situ-ation demanded, (Cricin-

fo) IPL Chairman Ranjib Biswal said in response to Supreme Court’s wide-ranging order that has put a question mark over the future of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals.

But the ripples were felt by the IPL franchises, who were worried about losing commer-cial partners if there was a de-lay to the auction. The auction for the eighth season is likely to be held from February 6 to 9, in Bangalore.

“We can have new teams. Absolutely, no problem. If they give out a punishment to bar them or something then we will have to look for an option,” Biswal said.

But Biswal pointed out the

BCCI would await the judgment of the three-member commit-tee set up by the court to pro-nounce the punishment against the franchises as well as the pair of Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra, who were found guilty of betting. The new committee, headed by for-mer Chief Justice of India RM Lodha, would endeavor to de-cide on relevant punishments at the earliest possible date, the court said.

According to Biswal, vari-ous issues including the auc-tion dates for the IPL, which is scheduled to begin on April 8, will need to be discussed in a soon-to-be-called working committee meeting.

Despite his assurances, fran-chises remained on the edge. The auction, franchises were

informed earlier, was likely to be held in the second week of February. “The only fear is what the three-man committee de-cides. What if the committee says the franchises should be terminated?,” a franchises chief executive said. “How long will the auction be delayed based on that verdict. We are all waiting.”

The official pointed out that franchises faced a big challenge

if the auction date was delayed any further than mid-February. “The more flux is in the market, the more it scares our commer-cial partners to associate with us. Who loses? It is the fran-chises if everything is (pushed to) last minute.”

Another relevant issue for franchises was what happens to the players from Super Kings and Royals in case their teams

are terminated. “Would the IPL decide to bring back all the players into the auction fold like they did when Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers were ter-minated. Or would they follow the route of Hyderabad where Sunrisers Hyderabad took over the franchise once the original owner Deccan Chargers was abandoned,” an official from a separate franchise asked.

CSK and RR: Teams in distress

Michael Jordan wins business awardCHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A humbled and emotional Michael Jordan fought back tears, feeling vindicated after years of criticism, after being named the Charlotte Business Journal’s Business Person of the Year.

The Charlotte Hornets owner said during a nine-minute acceptance speech Tuesday night posted on

the organization’s website that while he’s received many awards as a player, this one was different.

“I’ve been criticized in a lot of different areas from a business standpoint, but I take pride in the ideas and concepts and views that come out of this organization to build the type of basketball program ... that the city of Charlotte can be proud of,” Jordan said as he began tearing up.

Jordan won six NBA titles as a player, but his front-office leadership abilities had been questioned -- including his de-cision to take Kwame Brown with the No. 1 pick of the 2001 NBA draft while an ex-ecutive with the Washington Wizards.

But Jordan has repeatedly said he is committed to turning the Hornets

around, and members of his team echoed his sentiments on Wednesday.

Charlotte president and COO Fred Whitfield said Wednesday that Jordan was “genuinely honored and humbled by the award.”

Whitfield said Jordan has listened to fans, including changing the team’s name back to the Hornets upon their request. The franchise had been known as the Bobcats.

“He is so proud to be building some-thing in his home state,” Whitfield said. “So to be recognized with such a presti-gious award for his business accomplish-ments was really, really special to him.”

Jordan’s longtime business manager Estee Portnoy attended the ceremony and called the speech “genuine and beau-tiful” in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Hornets owner Michael Jordan was presented with a Business Person of the Year award on Tuesday night.


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Sangakkara signs two-year Surrey dealKumar Sangakkara, the world’s No.

1 Test batsman, has agreed a two-year deal with Surrey although

how much he plays in 2015 will not be confirmed until Sangakkara makes a de-cision over his Test future.

Sangakkara will end his ODI career after the World Cup and he has previ-ously hinted strongly that it will mark the conclusion of his international days, although there remains a chance of a fi-nal spell in Test cricket later this year.

His arrival at Surrey will see him back working with Graham Ford, the former Sri Lanka coach, who is now in charge at The Oval.

“We’re delighted that Kumar has agreed to join us. He is the number one Test batsman in the world but it’s the special character that he has which is as important to us,” Alec Stewart, the Surrey director of cricket, said.

“He is a five-star player and five-star person and that is important because he will be working with our young homegrown players as they become serious cricketers at this level. He has worked a lot with our coach Graham Ford, when he was in charge of Sri Lan-ka, and we are both very happy to reach this stage.”

Sangakkara enjoyed a prolific 2014, setting a new record for the most in-ternational runs scored in a year with 2868 runs across all formats. He has started 2015 in similar manner, too, with a double hundred against New Zealand in Wellington.

A signing of a player of Sangakkara’s standing will also cast further doubt over Kevin Pietersen’s future at The Oval as there are salary cap restrictions in place for county squads. Exactly when Kumar Sangakkara will end his international career is still to be confirmed © Getty Images

South Africa take series against feeble West Indies

South Africa 124 for 1 (Amla 61*, du Plessis 51*) beat West Indies 122 (Tahir 4-28, Philander 3-27) by nine wickets

With every day they remain in South Africa, West Indies’ chances of pulling together a respectable World Cup challenge falters

before our eyes. They made only 122 at Buffalo Park in the third ODI, a spiritless and, at times, irrespon-sible display full of ghastly, ill-judged shots and glum expressions. A nine-wicket defeat later revealed it-self much as expected.

Three days earlier, the crowd in Johannesburg had feasted on an AB de Villiers world record; in what was only Buffalo Park’s third ODI in nine years, the townsfolk of East London had to suffer a mismatch, concluded in spots of drizzle. Truly, the big cities get all the fun.

East London took their pleasure in Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis, lording it over the West In-dies attack for unbeaten half centuries as the match was wrapped up with more than 41 overs unused, not so long after some had come in from work.

At 2-0 down in the series with three matches re-

maining, West Indies needed to win to keep the series alive, but Buffalo Park’s slow, low surface demanded discipline - a challenge far removed from the joyous batting surface at the Wanderers on which de Vil-liers had struck the fastest ODI hundred in history - and West Indies did not show enough of it.

With turmoil and ill will rife in West Indies crick-et, Jason Holder, a new, young captain needing to imprint his style, must feel the job is a lonely one. Rarely has this affiliation of nations looked less uni-fied; rarely has mistrust between the generations been so apparent; rarely has the talent base looked so shallow. To some extent, it was an experimental XI; it was a rum time for experimentation, one best witnessed by West Indies fans through a large glass of Mount Gay.

As for South Africa, far from wallowing in the sat-isfaction of a won series - 3-0 up with two to play - they will have a sneaking feeling that West Indies are not putting them under the sort of pressure they would relish ahead of the World Cup. They are likely to respond by giving game time to back-up players. The lengthy group phase of the World Cup gives them time to get their big guns firing.

Williamson century leads NZ to win

New Zealand 280 for 6 (Williamson 103, Anderson 47, Ronchi 32*) beat Sri Lanka 276 (Jayawardene 94, Sangakkara 76, South-ee 3-59) by four wickets

Sri Lanka’s tour of New Zealand has been de-fined by the hosts’

refusal to give in, and again in Nelson, New Zealand clawed back from difficult situations, with ball and bat, to claim a tense four-wick-et victory in the fourth ODI. Kane Williamson’s ef-fortless fifth hundred will headline the victory, but fine performances from the lower middle order, and the death bowlers, effective-ly sealed it. New Zealand eclipsed Sri Lanka’s 276 all out, in the 48th over.

The match was decid-

ed in the over before that. Thisara Perera had sum-moned a decent string of yorkers late in the innings, to dismiss Williamson for 103, and to leave New Zea-land needing 25 runs off the last 18 balls, but his eighth over was substan-tially worse than the seven that had come before it.

He missed his length first ball, and was clattered over mid-off by Luke Ronchi. When Perera overpitched again next ball, Ronchi hit it even better, sending it into the sightscreen. Two more straight sixes would follow in the over, and New Zea-land needed only one run from the final two overs after that. Daniel Vetto-ri smote one through the covers to finish the match.


Belichick: Pats cooperating with NFL

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New En-gland Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Thursday he was “shocked”

when informed of the allegations that his team used balls that were deflated after they were inspected by officials before Sunday’s AFC title game.

Belichick’s 11-minute news conference was devoted completely to the contro-versy. He said the Patriots are fully co-operating with the NFL’s investigation, and his remarks now shift the attention to quarterback Tom Brady’s role in the matter.

NBC News reported that Brady ad-dressed the issue with his teammates Thursday, saying in a closed-door meet-ing that he likes footballs “a certain way” and that they should stay focused on the Super Bowl.

Belichick said Brady, who is scheduled to talk to the media at approximately 4:15 p.m. ET Thursday, can detail more about how he prefers his footballs.

“I was shocked to learn of the footballs

on Monday. I had no knowledge until Monday morning,” Belichick said. “I’d say I’ve learned a lot more about this process in the last three days than I knew, or had talked about it, in the last 40 years that I’ve coached in this league.”

The NFL found that 11 of the Patriots’ 12 game balls were inflated significant-ly below the NFL’s requirements, league sources involved and familiar with the in-vestigation of Sunday’s game told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen.

Answering questions from reporters after an opening statement that lasted about eight minutes, Belichick repeated multiple times, “I have no explanation for what happened” and “I’ve told you every-thing I know.”

“In my entire coaching career, I have never talked to any player or staff mem-ber about football air pressure,” he said. “The footballs are approved by the league and officials pregame, and we play with what’s out there. That’s the only way that I have ever thought about that.”

De Villiers sets breathtaking new century record

South Africa 439 for 2 (Amla 153*, de Villiers 149, Rossouw 128) beat West Indies 291 for 7 (Smith 64, Ramdin 57) by 148 runs

AB de Villiers ripped up the record books with the fastest century in ODIs, off just 31 balls to beat the

previous quickest set by Corey Anderson off 36 balls little more than a year ago, as South Africa beat their own record at the Wanderers and racked up 439, four shy of the world record total of 443.

De Villiers’ was the third hundred in a towering South African total - the first time three had been scored in an ODI innings - which also saw Rilee Ros-souw register his maiden century and-Hashim Amla his 18th, a career-best 153 not out, in the highest opening stand South Africa have ever posted of 247.

In less than an hour, de Villiers took an innings which was building well and turned it into a skyscraper. He clobbered 16 sixes, the most by a South African and the joint-highest number of sixes overall in an ODI innings, and dominat-ed a 192-run second-wicket stand with Amla which lasted just 67 deliveries and in which runs were scored at 17.12 to the over. Amla only faced 30 balls and contributed 33. Such was de Villiers’ dominance.

None of the West Indian bowlers were spared as de Villiers put on his full

range of strokes. There was the pull, the scoop, the lofted drive and the good old slog and Jason Holder, given the tough-est of examinations as a young captain, was hardest hit. De Villiers plundered 45 runs off the nine balls he faced from him, including six of his sixes.

By the time Holder could even consid-er launching a counter-attack of his own, West Indies’ challenge was over. Al-though they may have had hopes of pull-ing off something similar to what they did on the same surface last week, when they successfully chased the highest T20 score of 232, West Indies lost Chris Gayle in the fifth over and even though Dwayne Smith and Denesh Ramdin both scored half-centuries, the South African attack were much more difficult to get away than the West Indian one.

Jerome Taylor had the most expensive return for a West Indian bowler in ODIs when his 10 overs cost 95 and Holder was not far behind. His nine overs went for 91. Dwayne Smith also took punish-ment and finished with an economy of 17 after one of his overs went for 30. Con-trastingly, Dale Steyn’s 10 overs went for just 29 runs and Morne Morkel’s for 43 as the pair demonstrated how to operate on a batsmen-friendly surface. They used the short well sparingly and bowled at good pace but ultimately West Indies did not have the same structure to their innings as South Africa did.

Eoin Morgan victim of blackmail plot

Being England cricket captain throws up its fair share of chal-lenges, but blackmail plots are

not usually among them. However, Eoin Morgan has been embroiled in a bizarre case of an Australian man demanding £35,000 from the ECB otherwise he threatened to release “embarrassing” information about a relationship Mor-gan had with an Australian woman five years ago. Both were single at the time.

The plot came to light in the build-up to the one-day international against Australia in Hobart following an inves-tigation by the Metropolitan Police and ECB staff with the squad in Australia. The man at the centre of the incident has been identified, and is the current partner of the woman Morgan dated, but no charges will be brought.

An ECB statement said: “In the last few days, the ECB received an email from an Australian man demanding a five figure sum to prevent a story about our one-day captain Eoin Morgan ap-pearing in the national newspapers in the UK and Australia.

“The allegations related to a brief re-lationship Eoin had with a woman from

Australia five years ago. Following liai-son with the Metropolitan Police, our support team on the ground in Austra-lia investigated the blackmail.

“This involved approaching the man in question who, when confronted, ad-mitted and apologized for his actions, blaming jealousy (he is presently in a relationship with the woman con-cerned).

“The ECB will not allow anyone to disrupt our team’s performance on the field of play. We are wholly focused on winning cricket matches. This matter has now been brought to a conclusion and we will not be seeking further ac-tion against the individual at this stage.”

Paul Downton, the managing di-rector of England cricket, added: “We will not allow anyone to disrupt our team’s preparation or performance in the tri-series and as we build up to the World Cup. I am pleased that this issue has now been brought to a swift con-clusion.

“At this point we’d like to thank the Metropolitan Police for their advice, which assisted us in dealing with this in the swiftest possible manner.”

Muralitharan named Sunrisers bowling coach

Former Sri Lanka offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan has been named Sun-risers Hyderabad’s bowling coach

and team mentor for the Indian Premier League 2015 season.

Muralitharan, 42, played 66 IPL games across seven seasons for Chennai Super Kings, Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Royal Challengers Bangalore, taking 63 wickets at an average of 26.92. During his time with Super Kings, from 2008 to 2010, he claimed 52 scalps from 46 matches, help-ing the team win the IPL as well as the Champions League Twenty20 in 2010.

In 2011, Muralitharan called time on an illustrious international career which yielded a record 1347 wickets across all three formats. He continued playing franchise cricket for a number of teams across the world including Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League, and Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Pre-mier League. After a disappointing season with Royal Challengers in 2014 in which he played only five matches, Muralitha-ran decided to end his playing career. In

June last year, Muralitharan joined Aus-tralia as a coaching consultant ahead of the team’s series against Pakistan in the UAE. Sunrisers finished sixth last year and missed out on the playoffs, having lost eight of their 14 games.

Muttiah Muralitharan played 66 matches in the IPL, claiming 63 wickets

Hooper named Guyana Amazon Warriors coach

Carl Hooper, the former West Indies captain, has been appointed coach of Guy-ana Amazon Warriors for the 2015 edition of the Caribbean Premier League.

Hooper has previously been assistant coach for Antigua Hawksbills in 2014, and coach at the West Indies Cricket Board’s High Performance Centre in Barbados. Amazon Warriors went down in the final to Barbados Tridents last CPL season, while Hawksbills lost eight out of nine games to finish last.

“I look forward to working with the immensely talented group of cricketers in this team and I also want to assist with the overall development of the young Guyana crick-eters who will also be part of the squad,” the Guyana-born Hooper said.

“Carl brings a wealth of experience and skills to our team and I am confident that he will be a great motivator and will use all of his expertise to bring the best out of all the players,” said Omar Khan, the Amazon Warriors team operations manager.

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