Caribbean Headline News.....

Printed Saturday, January 12th, 2008

In Jamaica, a reputed area leader was shot dead and five others including a child were wounded in a drive-by shooting on McKinley Crescent, in Olympic Gardens, Kingston on Friday afternoon.  The dead man has been identified as Keith Hibbert popularly known as "Barber Keith".   The injured include a 2-year-old girl, her 34-year-old father, a 17-year-old man, his aunt, and a 22-year-old woman.  Information is that another man who was on McKinley Crescent was also shot and injured.  A woman recounts the deadly incident which has left the community in West Central St. Andrew on edge.  "The big man that runs the area got shot up and dead. It was a drive by shooting with two silver Mitsubishi cars filled with men and all of them come out and shoot at 20 McKinley Crescent. Whole heap a gunshot fire all of us had to hide so we didn't see is who," said an alleged witness.  Member of Parliament for the area, the Jamaica Labour Party's Andrew Holness says the shooting comes at a time when the area has been enjoying relative calm.   He urged residents not to retaliate.
 

In Antigua, an opposition Member of Parliament is crying foul, following a police search of his home on Thursday, January 10th.  A team of special investigators searched Ascot Michael's home just on the outskirts of the capital, St. Johns for more than three hours and then carted away several documents.   "This is the third time police have come to my home in the past three years since Baldwin Spencer was Prime Minister of this country and the UPP have taken over the reigns of this country to harass me and harass my family without any basis, any evidence that I have done anything wrong," said Mr. Michael.  "They say they are looking for documents, the same documents they were looking for three years ago, the same documents they were looking for two years ago. My home is open I have absolutely nothing to hide," he continued.   The police have not commented on the matter.

With only a few days left to go before the general election in Barbados, the latest public opinion poll predicts a close race between the two main parties with the opposition being favored to win.  The poll published by the Barbados Nation newspaper shows the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) with just over a four per cent advantage over the incumbent Barbados Labour Party.  Pollster Peter Wickham sees the January 15 general election as a referendum on the Owen Arthur led administration.       "What this means is that if the government gets the 9.9 per cent swing in their favor then it means we are looking at 20 seats for the Opposition Democratic Labour Party and around 10 for the ruling Barbados Labour Party. The Barbados Labour Party have served three terms and have come to the end of the line and I think they are looking at Opposition but a respectable Opposition at this time," said Mr. Wickham.  Meanwhile, another poll set to be released this weekend, gives the advantage to the ruling BLP.   The second of two surveys conducted by University lecturer, Professor Ian Boxill, shows both parties head to head in political support but says the BLP has the edge.  Dean in the Faculty of Political Science at the UWI's Cave Hill campus, Dr. George Bell says the ruling party will have to keep a close eye on the seats it won narrowly in the 2003 general election.
 

In Jamaica, the two Western Union employees accused of defrauding Western Union customers were back in court Friday, January 11th.  Adrinne Cameron and Nordia Bennett are accused of conspiring with members of a criminal network to steal remittances sent through Western Union.  The women, who were employed to the Seaward Drive branch of Western Union, were arrested on Christmas Eve by the fraud squad.  They are now facing 28 counts of fraud involving some half-a-million dollars.  The fraud squad was called in after the scam was uncovered by GraceKennedy Limited, the agents for Western Union in Jamaica.  The company embarked on a probe after baffled customers who turned up at its Western Union outlets to collect money were informed that the funds had already been paid out.  Investigators later discovered that persons on the inside were providing sensitive information on the accounts of persons who were scheduled to collect money.   The investigations revealed that the crooks, prepared fictitious identification cards in the names of persons expecting remittances from abroad.    GraceKennedy had received complaints from customers in Manchester, Clarendon, Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Catherine and St. Thomas.  Ms Cameron and Ms Bennett are scheduled to return to court on February 25.

Trinidad and Tobago's Attorney General Brigid Anisette-George was rushed to a private hospital in Port of Spain on Friday morning after she collapsed while delivering an address to students.  Information Minister Neil Parsanial says the incident occurred mid-morning while the newly appointed Attorney General was giving the feature address at the prize-giving ceremony of the St. Joseph Convent, a prestigious Roman Catholic girls high school based in the capital.  The Attorney General, who is one of the many new faces in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Patrick Manning, is being put through a series of tests.  She took up the position of Attorney General following the November 5 general election last year.
 

In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves says he is prepared to walk away from the political arena if civil servants send him a clear message that they feel he has betrayed them.  The Prime Minister told reporters that he was hurt by a teacher's strike which closed some schools and seriously affected others for two straight days this week.  More than one thousand teachers remained off the job after the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers' Union failed to get the authorities to reverse some of the recommendations contained in a recent re-classification exercise.  The teachers returned to the classroom Friday.