SURINAME – About 400 squatters on Wednesday were spotted cutting down trees on a piece of land located along the Verlengde Nieuw Zorgweg at  Santodorp. The squatters made it clear that they plan on building houses at that location.

Regillio Bandison who also plans on building a house at the site told Times of Suriname that there have not been any activities on that piece of land for the past twenty years. He pointed out that he found out that the plot in question is a vacant piece of government land. Bandison plans on staying there until President Desi Bouterse and Abop chairman  Ronnie Brunswijk visit the location. He also pointed out that all of the people who plan on building houses are from Santodorp…[+]

SURINAME – Officers from the special police unit, Faya Blo, on Wednesday arrested GJ. GJ is the main suspect in a stabbing incident. The police officers reportedly received information which indicated that the suspect was on his way to the Brokopondo District. The officers eventually managed to locate the suspect and arrested him after they had stopped in front of his car. Reports indicate that the suspect stabbed a 27-year-old man in front of a store located at Latour…[+]

SURINAME – MP Arthur Tjin A Tsoi (NF/NPS) recently pointed out that members of the National Assembly must also participate in the pension plan and basic health insurance plan that are currently being formulated. Legislators currently do not have to pay anything but are entitled to a pension and health insurance package for the rest of their lives after their 5-year term. “We must not make a law for the people to take that risk while we are home and dry,” MP Tjin A Tsoi told Times of Suriname.(foto:DNA)…[+]

SURINAME – MP  Noreen Cheung (MC/NDP) on Tuesday  apologized for the signature incident that took place recently. The legislator reportedly scrapped her signature off Parliament’s  attendance list after she had had an exchange of words with the leader of her parliamentary party, Ricardo Panka. MP Cheung scrapped her signature out of anger and her actions almost resulted in a lack of quorum…[+]

SURINAME – Three senior citizens were robbed on separate occasions. A 76-year-old woman was robbed at her home at De Nieuwe Grond around 5:30 p.m. on Monday. The woman who lives alone was busy watering her plants when a young man appeared at her gate and asked her for some food. The woman told the young man that she was old and that she did not have any food for him. The young man then opened the gate and entered her house. After the woman had followed him into her house, she was slapped. The woman screamed for help but nobody could hear her. The perpetrator who was unarmed made off with SRD 25 and a ring…[+]

SURINAME – A 77-year-old man who lives alone at Latour was robbed around 9 p.m. on Sunday. A relative told Times of Suriname that the man who had bought a few things at a local store was about to enter his home when three men approached him. The three men instructed the victim to hand over everything that he was holding. They also took his documents and money. The relative pointed out that it was very sad that the man was robbed in front of his own home…[+]

SURINAME – Statistics from the Police Force Suriname (KPS) indicate that in the first six months of this year, 2,006 burglaries were reported. 305 burglaries were reported in July. 1,811 burglaries were reported in the first half of 2013.

Police Inspector Humphrey Naarden, head of the PR Office of the KPS, told Times of Suriname that investigators concluded that criminals focus on certain points in time before making their move. Most burglaries take place between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. when the kids are at school and when the adults are at work. Nobody is home which is why the burglars can take their time when ransacking the houses in search of valuables and money…[+]

SURINAME  – Within two weeks the number of  chikungunya cases jumped from 39 to 59. Officials from the Public Health Bureau (BOG) indicate that most cases were reported in the districts  Paramaribo, Commewijne and  Wanica. The virus has also spread to other districts because 2 cases have been confirmed in the Para District while 1 case has been confirmed in the Wanica District.

The General Director at the BOG, Lesly Resida,  pointed out that reports suggest that all of these cases were initially imported from Guyana before spreading further.The cases occur in the same region which suggest that the virus does not easily spread from one residential area to another. As soon as a few cases have been confirmed a team from the BOG heads to the area in question to spray malation…[+]

US – An adorable, basketball-loving 2-year-old fell five stories to his death after crawling out of a window at his family’s Bronx apartment Sunday.Naydven Santos was in the kitchen of the Gerard Ave. apartment at around 4:20 a.m. when he climbed onto a chair, reached the window and fell out, authorities said. “His parents went out last night and left him with the grandma,” said Jimmy Cruz, a neighbor and acquaintance of the family. “It was the middle of the night and she had put him to sleep. It’s so sad. He was a baby. He was a little angel.”…[+]

GUINEA – The worst outbreak of Ebola, which has killed 961 people and triggered an international public health emergency, may have started with a 2-year-old patient in a village in Guinea, according to a report. About nine months ago, the toddler, whom researchers believe may have been Patient Zero, suffered fever, black stool and vomiting. Just four days after showing the painful symptoms, the child died on December 6, 2013, according to a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine…[+]