Westindian Times- News

ST THOMAS, USVI: On the day before the nation’s first caucus in Iowa, governor of the US Virgin Islands John deJongh Jr. announced his endorsement of the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama for president of the United States. DeJongh stated, “Each of the leading Democratic candidates have the skills and experience to lead the country, but Barack Obama is the best candidate for change when change is most needed in this world.” "Senator Obama’s entire political career has been focused building bridges between people. I have been impressed with his consistent focus on healing class and racial divides, and restoring America’s prestige in the world," DeJongh added. The Chief Executive met with Obama during a campaign stop on St Thomas this fall. The governor said they discussed a range of key issues facing the territory, including SCHIP and other Federal programs affecting families and children, Medicaid, drug interdiction, regional security, and the challenges of economic development. Following a fundraising event, Obama joined the Governor for an inspiring meeting with young USVI students. "Virgin Islanders were honored that he (Obama) brought his message directly to the Territory. Senator Obama’s impressive intellect, his knowledge of our problems, his commitment to change, openness to new ideas, and his commitment to supporting our economic development agenda, makes him the ideal choice to be the next President of the United States. I am confident that the Virgin Islands will have a stronger voice in an Obama White House. And I plan to work as hard as I can to support his candidacy and a Democratic victory next November,” deJongh said, while conducting the Territory’s business on the island of St Croix. US citizens residing in the US Virgin Islands are not permitted to vote for president of the United States.

NEW YORK, USA: Due to recent media coverage on the possible postponement of the passport requirement, The Jamaica Tourist Board has provided further information for American visitors traveling to Jamaica and the Caribbean. Recently, the United States Congress passed a Federal budget that delays the passport requirements for Americans on the borders of Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. If approved by President Bush, this means Americans re-entering the country by land will not need a passport until mid 2009. This possible postponement affects Americans re-entering the US by land only and not by sea or air; therefore not changing or delaying the requirements for Americans re-entering the country from Jamaica. Currently, all citizens of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda are required to present a valid passport when entering the United States at any airport. The State Department and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have also reminded American travelers that, as of January 31, 2008, all adult travelers will be required to present proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, and proof of identity, such as a driver's license, when entering the United States through land and seaports. For the most current information on the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, please visit http://www.dhs.gov/xtrvlsec/crossingborders/whtibasics.shtm

ROAD TOWN, BVI: The results of a post mortem to determine the cause of death of former police constable Patrice Grant in prison should be known this week. Grant, who was sentenced in 2005 for inflicting bullet wounds to former commissioner of police, Barry Webb, was found dead in prison. He was found hanging from the roof of his cell. A police source said investigations so far indicate there is no suspicious activity relative to his death but investigations will continue. In 2004, the former police constable held the commissioner and his staff officer, Bill Johnny, hostage for more than half an hour in the commissioner’s office. The commissioner received bullet wounds to his left leg, left hand and a more serious injury was a bullet wound to his neck which damaged his windpipe. One day before the shooting, Grant was suspended from duties in connection with charges relating to domestic violence and was placed on bail by the Magistrates Court. Since the incident, Commissioner Webb did not resume duties in the BVI – a decision which he said was taken in the best interest of the territory.

In Jamaica, angry residents, determined to save their goats from alleged thieves, killed the robbers in a rural district in Westmoreland on the night of Saturday, December 29th. The residents from the Fort Williams district who were fed up with their cattle being stolen chopped the three alleged goat thieves to death. According to the Whithorn police, thieves have always been stealing cattle from residents in the community, which largely depends on the farming of produce and rearing cattle mainly pigs, chickens, cows and goats for their livelihood. The dead have been identified as Kevin Nanco, 19, Albert McLeod, 48, both of Fort William, and Carlos Grant of Hartford district, all in Westmoreland. Police reports are that at 8:30 p.m., the three men were seen in Toyota motor car registered 6365 FB parked on a farm with a goat in the vehicle. An alarm was raised by residents who then set upon the men and beat and chopped them to death. The police were called and the crime scene processed and the bodies removed to the morgue. Unconfirmed reports are that the goat belonged to a farmer who had lost two cows to thieves last Thursday. The police say the larceny has not only been affecting residents of Fort Williams, but has also been affecting residents of the adjoining communities such as Hartford. However, the officers have taken steps to try and stem the robberies. They say they have been doing patrols in the area and have increased the number of patrols. They also say they have a good relationship with citizens who often communicate concerns to them.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad: The Trinidad and Tobago Central Statistical Office and the Ministry of Planning, Housing and the Environment, in a labor force bulletin for the third quarter of 2007, reported a further reduction in the unemployment rate in the country. According to data compiled by the government ministries and the CSO the overall downward trend in the unemployment rate continued into the third Quarter 2007, with the rate falling to 5.2% from the level of 6.0% recorded for the previous quarter. The report says this is the lowest rate recorded since the fourth quarter 2006 when the unemployment rate fell to 5.0%. The report also highlighted a slight increase in the Labor Force which registered 625,900 persons at the end of the third quarter 2007 - a growth of 9,200 persons or 1.5% when compared to the second quarter 2007. The survey also indicated a decline in the unemployment rate for males as well as females between the second and third quarters of 2007.

In Jamaica, two teenage students from a Corporate Area high school who physically abused another schoolmate, were ordered over the holidays by Resident Magistrate Glen Brown to go nowhere except church. Allegations are that a dispute began on December 4 over a hand-held video game, which the complainant said he was given to hold. The court was told that the two accused went to the complainant's home two days later where they kicked and boxed him. The boys are 17 and 18 years old and live in Harbour View and Rollington Town, respectively. While chiding the accused, RM Brown said, "You are not going to have a Merry Christmas because the only place you can go is church." The 17-year-old student said he did not attend church but RM Brown ordered him to quickly find one and he decided that he would go to a Seventh-day Adventist Church close by. The two pleaded guilty and were ordered to return to court on the second of January 2, with documents signed by a minister at the church as proof. The Judge warned the accused telling them about the severity of not producing the required documents.

In St. Lucia, the police are investigating the execution style killing of a former Senior Executive of the St. Lucia Air and Seaports. Fifty seven year old Michael Fedee, who recently retired as Deputy General Manager, was shot in the head outside his house in the northern end of the island on the morning of Sunday, December 30th. Neighbors report hearing explosions and seeing a vehicle speeding away from the scene. Mr. Fedee, who also worked briefly with the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat, died at hospital. Police have ruled out robbery as a motive for his killing as his firearm, cash and jewelry were not taken. His death brought the number of persons murdered in St. Lucia during 2007 to 23.

In Jamaica during the month of December a human skull and bones were found in the parish of Clarendon. They have now been identified as those of a reputed gang leader. The Clarendon police have reported that the skeletal remains are those of Seymour 'Lenky' Smith, gang boss of the One Blood gang which operates in the parish. The reputed gang leader's body was found in a burnt-out Toyota Camry, which was reported missing two weeks prior. Detectives from the division reportedly made the discovery after they were summoned to a canefield in Old Bowen. Mr. Smith was reportedly last seen alive in the Canaan Heights community about two days prior to the discovery.

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuba's ailing leader Fidel Castro has defended naming his brother Raul to stand in for him last year, saying no one in the communist country's national assembly saw it as nepotism. In a letter to the assembly Friday, December 28th, the 81-year-old strongman also again made an ambiguous suggestion that he could give up the presidency, saying that he had stopped clinging to power. "There was a stage when I thought I knew what had to be done and I wanted the power to do it," he admitted, saying it was due to "an excess of youthfulness and deficit of conscience." "What made me change? Life itself, tempered by the profound thought of (Jose) Marti and the classics of socialism," Castro said, in the letter read by assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon. In the letter Castro also referred to criticisms made by Washington that in choosing his brother Raul to steer the country he was being anti-democratic and reserving power to his family. "In the proclamation signed on July 31, 2006, none of you saw it at all as an act of nepotism nor as a usurping of the functions of the assembly," he told the body. The communist leader turned over his responsibilities to Defense Minister Raul Castro "temporarily" in July 2006 to recuperate from surgery. He has not been seen in public since, and there have been no clear reports on the state of his health. The letter was the second time in a month that Castro, who has led Cuba since 1959, made an opaque reference to giving up power. On December 17, Castro hinted in a letter read on television that he might step aside when he said that he would not cling to office or obstruct the rise of a new generation of leaders. Meanwhile, Cuba's January polls will choose the national assembly, with the number of candidates -- 614 -- equal to the number of seats to be filled. Once the new assembly has been constituted, the deputies will elect the ruling Council of State, with 31 members, which will then choose the president. Fidel Castro was re-nominated for the assembly on December 2, meaning he could resume the presidency. But experts saw his December 17 statement as a suggestion that he might decline the leadership this time.

In Jamaica, more than 125,000 weapons were destroyed in a smelting operation at the Caribbean Cement Company Ltd., as the Government intensified its efforts to rid the country of illegal weapons. The weapons, weighing half a ton, comprised an assortment of pistols, rifles and high-powered guns. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Jevene Bent, the weapons included those that have been in storage from as far back as the 1950s, illegal guns seized by the police and defective police firearms that cannot be repaired. Minister of National Security Derrick Smith said that the operation was the first of a series to be carried out. He said defective MP5 submachine guns were not among the lot that was burned. 70 guns were seized in March, 61 in August and 61 as of the 30th of December. In total, the police seized more than 630 guns in 2007.

(Photo: USVI Governor)

ST THOMAS, USVI: Government House has confirmed the resignation of US Virgin Islands Prisons Director Elwood York who took on the job at the Corrections Bureau in June. It was the same position York held approximately 10 years ago. Governor de Jongh has said that Mr. York wants to pursue some other opportunities outside the territory. The Governor has said that they will find another director to carry out the reform work needed at the territory’s prison system. The Governor said he does not view the resignation, which took effect on December 12, as a setback in adhering to the (protracted) American Civil Liberties Union case or to conditions of a consent decree that applies to the Golden Grove Adult Correctional Facility. York played a key role in developing the 1994 settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union, which among other findings; focused on the fact that mentally ill individuals were being imprisoned by the territory, without benefit of psychiatric treatment. The government of the US Virgin Islands has since been found to be in contempt of the decree on four separate occasions. De Jongh said the primary concern now is to “make certain that we get the right person at the helm of Corrections working along with the Attorney General to address the issues which confront the prison system in the Virgin Islands.” Since York’s resignation on December 12, the district wardens on St Thomas and St Croix have been running the day to day operations at the prisons.

In Jamaica, the body of a 14-year-old boy was found hanging by a length of electrical wire at his home in Cedar Valley district, Red Hills, St. Andrew. He has been identified as Alex Reid. Reports are that about 6:35 a.m., Reid's body was seen dangling from the tree. The police were called and the body was cut down. Early investigations by the Red Hills police revealed that the young boy left home for two weeks to spend time with relatives. He returned to find that his radio had been tampered with and was not working. He was reportedly very angry and threatened to kill himself. It is believed that he may have carried out his threat.