A 16-year-old boy and sev­en oth­ers, who were ar­rest­ed dur­ing a po­lice raid at a mosque in Co­corite are ex­pect­ed to be placed on sev­er­al iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pa­rades. Po­lice sources said ac­cord­ing to in­tel­li­gence re­ceived the eight are sus­pect­ed to be in­volved in gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties in­clud­ing shoot­ings and mur­ders.

Po­lice al­so said they are be­lieved to be mem­bers of a gang that op­er­ate out of the Wa­ter­hole and Pow­der Mag­a­zine Phase 1 ar­eas. Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­port, at about 8 pm on Tues­day, a team of po­lice of­fi­cers from the West­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force and St James CID act­ed on in­tel­li­gence and went to a mosque where they con­duct­ed a search.

The of­fi­cers found al­leged­ly hid­den in the ceil­ing of the mosque, sev­er­al masks & ski masks that the of­fi­cers sus­pect were used dur­ing dif­fer­ent shoot­ing in­ci­dents in the said area over the past two weeks. The ex­er­cise was co­or­di­nat­ed by Act­ing Su­per­in­ten­dent Thomp­son and In­spec­tor Vin­cent and in­clud­ed Act­ing Sgt. Samuel, P.C’s Mur­ray, Gilkes, Mc Clean, Gen­ty, Bart, Roberts, Joseph, and sev­er­al oth­er of­fi­cers.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

The captain of a cruise ship involved in a fatal crash in Budapest last week was behind a similar collision in the Netherlands in April, prosecutors said. The Viking Sigyn crashed into a tourist boat, the Mermaid, on the Danube, on 29 May. The Mermaid then sank, killing 28.

The captain, a 64-year-old Ukrainian national named as Yuriy C, was later arrested. He denies any wrongdoing. Prosecutors said he was the captain of a cruise ship involved in a non-fatal crash in April in the Netherlands. Yuriy C was also accused of deleting data from his phone following the fatal crash in the Hungarian capital. Prosecutors said it was unclear whether the deleted data was related to the incident.

According to prosecutors, Yuriy C was the captain of a cruise ship that had collided with a cargo vessel while sailing from Antwerp to Ghent on 1 April. Prosecutors said that Eurojust – an EU law enforcement network – confirmed that he captained the ship that crashed in the Netherlands, but did not give further details.(BBC)…[+]

LOS ANGELES – The head of a Mexican-based church, which claims over 1 million followers worldwide, was ordered held on $50 million bail in a Los Angeles court yesterday on charges that included human trafficking, child pornography and rape of a minor. La Luz Del Mundo (Light of the World) church leader Naason Joaquin Garcia, 50, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday, prosecutors said.

Garcia and two of his co-defendants, Alondra Ocampo and Susana Medina Oaxaca, did not enter pleas, pending a formal arraignment on June 10. Judge Francis Bennett ordered the defendants to remain in custody until then. A warrant has been issued for a fourth defendant Rangel Melendez, officials said. All the accused are affiliated with La Luz Del Mundo, prosecutors said.

Defense lawyer Dmitry Gorin called Garcia’s $50 million bail “outrageous and unreasonable”. Garcia’s wife and three children were in the courtroom. The church, which considers Garcia to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, called the accusations unfounded.(Reuters)…[+]

It appears that Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte is not in support of the Government’s consideration to legalise obeah in Jamaica. Obeah is a cultural ritual carried out by some people deemed to have extraordinary powers to influence certain outcomes. In Parliament on Tuesday, just as lawmakers were getting ready to push the maximum fine from $100 to $1 million for anyone found guilty of practising obeah, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck signalled that the quasi-religious ritual could soon become legal.

He said already he has instructed the Law Reform Department to craft another submission for him to take to Cabinet to have the 1898 Obeah Act repealed. Malahoo Forte later took to Twitter “confessing” how awkwardly and uncomfortably she felt in the House of Parliament when she heard some of the utterances about the practice of obeah.  “Let’s be honest: here in Jamaica obeah has always been known to a tool of the darkest form of evil that does nothing but harm to others,” she tweeted.(Jamaica Gleaner)…[+]

For more than a century, the practice of obeah has been illegal under Jamaican law.

But just as lawmakers were getting ready to push the maximum fine to $1 million for anyone found guilty of practising obeah, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck signalled that the quasi-religious ritual could soon become legal.

Chuck disclosed that already he has instructed the Law Reform Department to craft another submission for him to take to Cabinet to have the 1898 Obeah Act repealed.

“I would like to bring, for us to debate here in his House, a bill for repeal of the obeah law. It will be put in a broader concept in terms of scamming and other things,” Chuck announced in the House of Representatives yesterday. “There is no reason, Mr Speaker, why the Obeah Act should still remain on the statute book, and we hope to remove it in due course,” he insisted.Church leaders immediately signalled that there would be pushback against a move they argued was leading the nation away from God.(Jamaica Gleaner)…[+]

President Donald Trump has said he believes climate change “goes both ways” following a 90-minute discussion with environmentalist Prince Charles. “I believe that there’s a change in weather and I think it changes both ways,” Mr Trump told Piers Morgan in an interview that aired on Wednesday. Mr Trump said he shared the prince’s desire for a “good climate” but blamed other nations for increasing pollution.

He has rolled back many US climate laws despite warnings from his own agencies. Mr Trump said his meeting with Prince Charles was meant to last only 15 minutes. “He did most of the talking, and he was really into climate change and I think that’s great,” Mr Trump said of Prince Charles on the ITV programme Good Morning Britain.

“He wants to make sure future generations have climate that is good climate as opposed to a disaster and I agree.” But Mr Trump once again placed the blame on other countries, namely China, India and Russia, for worsening air and water quality while claiming the US has one of “the cleanest climates there are”.(BBC)…[+]

PORT OF SPAIN/ BRIDGETOWN– The Board of Directors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) approved yesterday a loan to connect the island of Caye Caulker, Belize, to the national power grid by submarine cable. “The submarine cable will provide cleaner, more secure, and reliable electricity to Caye Caulker,” said Daniel Best, CDB Director of the Projects Department.

It is estimated that energy consumption in Caye Caulker, a renowned tourist destination north of Belize City with a population of around 1,700 people, will double by 2037. Diesel generators are currently producing all electricity in the island. By connecting Caye Caulker to the national grid from neighbouring Ambergris Caye with a 10.4 km submarine cable, the island’s energy consumption will effectively switch to 50% renewable energy. This will replace 730,000 gallons of imported diesel and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4,000 tons yearly. The average costs of generated power used in the island will be more than halved from USD0.26 per Kwh to USD0.11 per Kwh. The connection by submarine cable is also operationally more reliable and more resilient to storm-surge and hurricane winds than the current diesel generators. “CDB’s loan will boost renewable energy usage, reduce drastically the cost of energy, and make gains for the environment in the island,” said Best…[+]

Sudanese security forces have attacked a pro-democracy protest outside the military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, activists say. Gunfire has been heard, and medical sources saying at least eight people were killed. Sudan has been governed by a Transitional Military Council (TMC) since President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in a coup in April.

The council later denied using force to break up the main protest site. “Sudanese forces did not disperse the sit-in outside the army headquarters by force, but rather targeted a nearby area which has become a threat to the safety of citizens,” TMC spokesman Lt Gen Shams al-Din Kabbashi told UAE-based Sky News Arabia TV channel. Protesters have been demanding that a civilian government take over the running of the country. The security services moved on the main protest site early on Monday, activists say. A source inside one of the main hospitals in Khartoum told the BBC they had received at least eight bodies and many others injured. The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors put the death toll at nine.(BBC)…[+]

BLAJ, Romania– Pope Francis yesterday asked forgiveness in the name of the Catholic Church for the mistreatment of the Roma people, a move likely to increase tensions with Italy’s anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. Francis made the comment during a meeting with Roma people at the last event of his three day trip to Romania, saying his heart was made “heavy” by the meeting.

“It is weighed down by the many experiences of discrimination, segregation and mistreatment experienced by your communities. History tells us that Christians too, including Catholics, are not strangers to such evil,” he said. With an estimated population of 10-12 million, approximately six million of whom live in the European Union, Roma people are the biggest ethnic minority in Europe and rights groups say they are often the victims of prejudice and social exclusion.

Salvini, who has clashed with the pope repeatedly on migration issues, reacted angrily last month when Francis received a group of Roma at the Vatican last month. Salvini, head of the far-right Lega party and a deputy prime minister, responded by repeating his promise to close all Roma camps in Italy.(Reuters)…[+]

A Diego Mar­tin fa­ther of three is striv­ing to en­ter the 2020 Guin­ness Book of World Records as he works to build the world’s longest and high­est high-rid­er bi­cy­cle. Jahzeel Joseph, 34, said, “That is my aim. I have al­ready writ­ten to them and re­ceived the guide­lines.” Joseph is in the process of build­ing the bi­cy­cle which will be 12 feet long and stand ap­prox­i­mate­ly 28 feet, five inch­es in height. He said he was hav­ing a great time us­ing his skills as a cer­ti­fied welder to cre­ate his mas­ter­piece.

Rid­ing along the Care­nage Main Road re­cent­ly as he head­ed for the beach, Joseph’s high-rid­er cre­at­ed quite a stir as passers­by toot­ed their horns, with some even snap­ping pic­tures on their cam­era phones as they drove along. Dis­mount­ing from the bi­cy­cle—11 feet 6 inch­es in length and 6 feet 9 inch­es in height—Joseph said he got the idea to cre­ate the high-rid­er af­ter he saw two peo­ple us­ing a tan­dem bike in Diego Mar­tin. He said, “I want­ed to make one that you could ride from the back or front…and this one can be con­trolled from the top or the low­er lev­el. It on­ly took me one week to build it.”(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]