A soldier from the Caribbean Commonwealth who served more than four years in the British Army, including two tours in Iraq, has been told he can't become a British citizen because he applied on the wrong date. Rogers Jean-Baptiste was born in St Lucia. He made his application this January, but was told by the Home Office that because on the same date five years earlier he was outside the UK he didn't qualify. At that time he was actually serving on a British base in Germany. Jean-Baptise joined the British army in 2002 and the following year was sent abroad. He completed a tour of Iraq and then volunteered to go back again.  He became a Lance Corporal, left the service in 2006 and became a police community support officer. Recently he was injured trying to detain a suspected robber. On January 17th this year, thinking he met relevant criteria, he applied to become a British citizen. He was turned down. He says he felt insulted and humiliated.  The Home Office said to qualify he had to have been present in the UK on the same date five years earlier. On 17 January 2003, he'd been in the army for more than six months, but on the same day he was posted to Germany. He was in British uniform but not on British soil. The British Home Office points out that he does have indefinite leave to remain, so can live and work in Britain until he's able to apply again in 2011. But Mr. Jean Baptiste says without a British passport he can't travel freely outside the UK.

In Jamaica, supporters of Member of Parliament Kern Spencer cheered as he left the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's court on Wednesday, March 26th. Spencer, along with co-accused Rodney Chin and Coleen Wright, was ordered to return to court on May 16 when the matter will be mentioned. Several supporters spoke with Spencer as he left the court with many offering words of encouragement and best wishes. In the court, Paula Llewellyn, director of public prosecutions, requested six weeks to complete the file and provide copies of it to the defense. However, defense lawyers argued that they are yet to receive any of the information the prosecution have on the matter, and that six weeks was far too long to wait. However, Resident Magistrate Glen Brown who heard the matter said it was a reasonable request and granted it, despite pleas from the attorneys for some information to be given to them. In addition, Valerie Neita-Robertson, who represents Chin, also made an application for the release of her client's travel documents, noting that he was a businessman and was required to travel between the United States and Jamaica almost weekly for business.  In response to the application, RM Brown said he would have the police turn over the documents to the clerk of courts. He also said Chin should provide a letter to the clerk when he needs the documents and return them when he comes back to the island. He added that he would have the clerk provide Chin with a letter indicating that he had the court's permission to travel. Spencer, 33, former state minister with responsibility for the Cuban light bulb program, Wright, 27, his former assistant, and Chin, 45, managing director of Universal Management Company and Caribbean Communication Media Network Ltd, are all facing various charges arising from the Cuban light bulb project. The charges range from conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act. Spencer is facing nine charges, Chin four and Wright six. Their bails have been extended until the next mention date.

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Cuba has lifted a rule that forced people to pick up prescription drugs from a pharmacy assigned by the state, adding to steps by President Raul Castro to cut excessive regulation in the Communist country. Public health sources said on Tuesday, March 25th that Cubans can now buy prescription drugs at any pharmacy. Until now, they had to fill prescriptions at a single pharmacy attached to hospitals or local clinics, a bureaucratic measure introduced during a severe crisis in the 1990s when resources were scarce due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Raul Castro took over as president on Feb. 24, ending 49 years of rule by his elder brother Fidel Castro, who has failed to fully recover from intestinal surgery that sidelined him in July 2006.  Next week, computers, DVD players and other electronic equipment will go on sale for the general public for the first time since the energy crisis of the 1990s. Until now, only companies could purchase them. Last week, the government began opening stores where farmers for the first time can buy some supplies without waiting for the state to assign them. And local sources say Cubans may soon be allowed to buy cell phones and stay in tourist hotels where they have been barred for decades.
 

CHARLESTOWN, Nevis: The president of a US-based production company Manifold Production Inc., Michael Park, and his wife Gina, spent one day on Nevis recently on a fact finding mission in preparation for a documentary on the early life of Alexander Hamilton, who was born in Nevis and spent his formative years on the island. In an interview with the Department of Information, Park explained that the 90-minute documentary would be filmed in 2009 and aired on Public Broadcast Service (PBS) in 2010.The Park's are in Nevis exploring the island, looking for scenes that would reveal what Hamilton’s life in Nevis was like.  The documentary follows a previous documentary by PBS host Richard Bukeiser, who also wrote a book on George Washington and another on Alexander Hamilton.  Park was of the view that Hamilton was an unappreciated and under celebrated founding father and the time had come to get information about him to a broad section of the American public.

 

Cuban-born jazz musician Israel "Cachao" Lopez, credited with inventing the mambo, has died in Miami at the age of 89.  The bassist and composer left Cuba for the US in the early 1960s and continued to perform until his final months.  The mambo emerged from his improvisational work with his late brother, multi-instrumentalist Orestes Lopez, in the late 1930s.   A family spokesman said Lopez died with his relatives around him.

 

He had fallen ill in the past week and died at Coral Gable Hospital, the spokesman added.  Cuban-American actor Andy Garcia, who made a 1993 documentary about the musician, praised him as the "musical father" of Cubans.  Lopez, a classically-trained bassist who began performing with Havana's symphony orchestra as a teenager, was a prolific composer of songs and pieces of music based on the Cuban music style of son.  In the 1930s, Lopez and his brother pioneered mambo after experimenting with Afro-Cuban music.   In a 2004 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, he said the origins of mambo "happened in 1937".   He and he brother were trying to add something new to their music and came up with a section that they called danzon mambo.  The new genre enjoyed popularity in the 1950s and, since then, has been a jazz staple.   After he emigrated in 1962, Lopez performed at New York's Palladium nightclub with the leading Latin bands of the day. He collaborated with Latin music stars including Tito Puente, Tito Rodrigues and Gloria Estefan.   But, after moving to Miami in the 1980s, he fell into relative obscurity.   In the 1990s, thanks partly to Garcia's documentary, Lopez came back to international attention and released several successful albums.  In 2003, he was honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.   He dedicated the award to Cuba, all of Latin America and the United States.  In 2004, he received a Grammy Award for his album Agora Si.  He was laid to rest on Wednesday, March 26th.

A former Jamaican policeman and his wife who were wanted by the United States government in a multi-million dollar mortgage racket were refused bail on Thursday.  Defense Attorney Andrew Campbell on Thursday applied for bail on behalf of 45-year-old Delroy Patterson and his wife Yvette Scott Patterson, a mortgage broker.  Mr. Campbell told the magistrate in the Half-Way-Tree Criminal Court that the Patterson's have been living and operating a business in Jamaica for sometime.  He further disclosed that Mrs. Patterson, a member of the People's National Party, contested the local government election for the Sydenham Division in St. Catherine in December.  But government prosecutors strongly opposed the bail application arguing that the Patterson's were a flight risk.  They argued that they fleeced millions of dollars from residents in the United States and later fled to Jamaica.  Mr. Patterson, who recently agreed to return to the US, on Thursday, March 27th changed his stance and said he will be fighting his extradition.  He told the court that when he recently waived his right, he did not have an attorney to guide him in his decision.  The extradition hearing against the two is scheduled for June 5.  Mrs. Scott Patterson is alleged to have submitted fraudulent mortgage applications and false documentation to lenders around the United States by using straw buyers and the fake ID's of innocent victims. 

Haiti's former rebel leader Guy Philippe has escaped the clutches of US Drug Enforcement Administration agents for the second time in eight months.   The DEA agents, who accuse Philippe of cocaine smuggling, stormed his rural Haitian home on Tuesday.   According to local officials and witnesses, about two dozen DEA, FBI and Haitian anti-drug agents searched for Philippe with helicopters, fast boats and vehicles in an early morning raid in the southern seaside town of Pestel.  The town's mayor Lavillet Trezil said that the members of that joint operation arrived in the middle of the night and terrorized the population with heavy detonations, while also storming people's homes.   Phillippe is accused by US justice officials of smuggling cocaine into the United States, but denies the charges.  The alleged drug smuggler escaped a similar raid last July on his residence in the village of Bergeau.

The Barbados government is considering decentralizing port operations away from the capital Bridgetown.  Prime Minister David Thompson said the government would like to have a new facility in the north of the island, to bring other communities into the mainstream of the island's economic activity.  Mr. Thompson also pointed to security issues for the country, which he said arose from having several cruise liners dock at the same location at the same time. Officials in Bridgetown have, in recent months, become concerned that the port is increasingly congested - an issue which Prime Minister Thompson says is negatively impacting on business.

Trinidad and Tobago's minister for national security, Martin Joseph says the authorities want to employ more sophisticated means of investigation to bring criminals to justice.   Dozens of cases are being dismissed by judges and magistrates as witnesses to killings and other serious crimes go missing.  Other witnesses end up having sudden lapses in memory and are unable to sustain the evidence they first gave.  Mr. Joseph says the criminal justice system has to adapt and use other methods to make convictions.