At the San Fernando ASJA mosque, Imam Mushtaq Sulaimani led the pray which he said is known as “salaatul kusuu’’ (prayer during the solar eclipse), and which was attended by about 55 men and women.

At the Nur Islam mosque in San Juan, a similar prayer session was held at 4 pm and at mosques in Caroni, Bamboo Village and Arima, similar congregations were held for the “salaatul kusuf” prayer. Sulamani told worshippers it was a practice of Prophet Muhammad to offer a congregational prayer to seek God’s guidance and help for his mercies during a solar eclipse.

Sulaimani said during such acts of natural phenomenon, people should offer prayers, preferably in the mosque.

A solar eclipse, the Imam said, was not a time for liming.

According to the imam, “There is always a reason for people in this country to justify why they should assemble in pubs, but a solar eclipise in which the moon passes between the sun and the earth and blocks the sun’s rays, must never be one such occasion.

“Man must not seem to understand each and everything about how the universe operates…

God has given us limited knowledge about the heavens and we penetrate not, except by his permission,” Sulaimani said. The “salaatul kusuu” prayer was also observed at the Highway masjid, Charlieville; Masjid Ahad in Princes Town, the Nazir Mohammed Seemab Memorial mosque and the Munroe Road mosque.

Ramadharsingh said yesterday the department contacted him and volunteered to assist affected families in times of disasters.

The decision to assist came in light of Thursday’s storm in Aripero and Rousillac where strong winds damaged the homes of 26 families leaving 110 people displaced.

Ramadharsingh congratulated members of the university for giving back to society and said, “I am grateful that the university, on which we spent so much money, can come back to these communities and give to the low-income areas.” Yesterday, Ramadharsingh, his mother Chanardaye Ramadharsingh, who is the councillor for the area, and representatives from the Disaster Management Unit distributed hampers to the affected families. They were accompanied by interns from Trinidad Generation Unlimited (TGU) of Vessigny Village, La Brea.

On Thursday the galvanised roofing on many houses were ripped away leaving residents distraught and seeking immediate assistance. Ramadharsingh said 75 per cent of the people were from Aripero.

He thanked TGU for providing hampers to those affected. TGU provided three to four hampers per family which consisted of pharmaceuticals and food items. He called on the authorities to make decisions with the “small man” in mind to prevent “double jeopardy” when disaster befalls them. He said such decisions should be made with integrity, accountability, and transparency so as to avoid questions being raised.

Single mother, Alana Mayers, 31, and her three-month-old baby, Annesha Francis, were severely affected. Their roof was blown off.

Mayers expressed thanks for the assistance provided by the corporation and businesses who helped in providing relief to affected residents .

“Right now, I am lost for words and I don’t know what would have happened if they did not assist us,” Mayers said.

She thanked members of the Unemployment Relief Programme for their rapid response at the time of the incident. She said within 20 minutes, officials from the corporation were on the scene making arrangements for accommodation and within 30 minutes of being notified, representatives from the Disaster Management Unit responded.

This is the view expressed by newly installed Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TT FA) technical director Anton Corneal.

Corneal said the Jamaicans will be a fitting test for the TT team.

He said, “I think ideally, this (against Jamaica) is the right type of game that we need now.” He noted that Jamaica are coming off exceptional performances at the recent Gold Cup in the United States where they reached the final only to be beaten 2-1 by the USA.

He believes the game will be very competitive because of the rivalry between the two countries.

While the Caribbean derby will be the focus this week, Corneal stressed that the real matches of importance would be Honduras on September 1 and Panama four days later.

“Of course it is important to get a result against Honduras as they will be pushing for a result here also which possibly means it will give us a chance to exploit them in areas that may be opened up. It is the first game of the two qualifiers and a result here will give us that chance to keep fighting heading into Panama,” Corneal added.

TT coach Dennis Lawrence is stepping up his preparations for the World Cup qualifiers and welcomed Cordell Cato into his squad at the weekend and he went straight into training yesterday.

Lawrence is expected to name his final squad today, following a training session at the Larry Gomes Stadium in Arima.

Corneal said it is of course important to get a result against the Hondurans.

Meanwhile the unsuccessful under-15 team under coach Russell Latapy returned home from the CONCACAF Championship in Florida, USA.

PC Smith, who works at the Police Administration Building, was driving a marked police car at about 3.15 pm yesterday when he received information that two men with guns were seen in the area. Smith saw the men in some bushes off the road. He confronted the men and an exchange of gunfire ensued.

He was shot in the upper left arm and called for backup as the men escaped. Police responded and took Smith to the Port of Spain General Hospital where he remains in a stable condition.

Vidawatee Ramballacksingh, 49, of Malgretoute Village, Princes Town, appeared with 48-yearold Brent Bruce, of Princes Town, who was charged with maliciously wounding her at Library Corner, San Fernando on Saturday.

Prosecutor PC Cleyon Seedan told Magistrate Alicia Chankar that the incident occurred at about 1 am.

Seedan told Chankar, Ramballacksingh and Bruce were arguing and things got heated. Bruce picked up a beer bottle and struck Ramballacksingh on the head.

Bruce’s attorney, Chantal Paul told the magistrate, however, that Bruce was dancing with another woman at the Las Vegas Recreation Club when Ramballacksingh approached him and began hitting him. “Your worship, my instructions are that everything started there. The argument continued onto the road by La Pique Plaza and the defendant (Bruce) was struck. In those circumstances he picked up a bottle.

Clearly, this relationship going nowhere.” “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” quipped Chankar.

Asked what led to the animosity between them, Ramballacksingh told Chankar she had been going through untold pains at the hands of Bruce, though she spent nights with him. “I’m trying very hard for this relationship, but he doing all kinds of things,” Ramballacksingh said.

Chankar ordered Bruce to pay a fine of $2,000 or serve two months in prison with hard labour. He was also ordered to pay Ramballacksingh $500 in compensation or serve six weeks simple imprisonment. Bruce was ordered to pay the fine immediately and he was granted one week to pay the compensation.

Next to appear was Seema Seenath, 28, of Diamond Village, San Fernando and Marcus Ramdhan, 27 who was also charged with malicious wounding. He first pleaded guilty and Seedan told the magistrate how Ramdhan struck the woman just above the right eye.

However, after Ramdhan explained how the incident happened on Sunday, the magistrate recorded a not guilty plea on his behalf.

He was granted bail in the sum of $10,000 and ordered to reappear on September 18.

WPC Praveen Rajkumar laid the charge.

Nestlé hosted 13 camps for children aged six to12 years during the July and August holidays at the Nestlé Sports Club in Valsayn.

The camp programme was packed with fun and excitement, with an emphasis on keeping the children physically active and engaged, complemented by educational sessions on nutrition and recycling.

A favourite item on the agenda was Recycling and Me which introduced the children to Nestlé’s Tetra recycling project and showed them how to get creative by recycling Tetra Pak packs into arts and craft items.

“Wherever we are in the world, Nestlé has one simple purpose — enhancing the quality of life and contributing to a healthier future,” Denise d’Abadie, corporate communications manager, Nestlé, said in a media release.

“Our Kids Fest Summer Camp is a highlight of the company’s annual calendar and it lines up perfectly with our purpose. It allows us to teach children how to enjoy a balanced lifestyle with nutrition, why physical activity is important and how to protect the environment.” All of Nestlé’s star brands get involved in Kids Fest. The day starts with a complementary breakfast featuring Nesquik cereal and Klim UHT and children learn all about the nutritional importance of breakfast from Nestlé’s nutritionist.

Maggi sponsors a lunch break with Orchard juices and later in the day there’s the Milo Fun Circuit featuring hop scotch, football and dancing.

The Trinidad and Tobago Astro Club hosted the public to its solar eclipse viewing session at the Hill from 2 pm to 5 pm yesterday.

President of the club, Khyle Ramnath said, “We had a huge turnout, there was much more people than we expected, a lot of Astro events are held up North so, we decided to bring this event to south Trinidad, this eclipse is a spectacular event to witness.” Park officials estimated the crowd to be over 1,200 strong and many were unable to find parking and had to walk up the hill through the scorching sun just to be a part of this event.

According to NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) website, sometimes when the moon orbits Earth, it moves between the sun and Earth. When this happens, the moon blocks the light of the sun from reaching Earth and this causes an eclipse of the sun, or solar eclipse. During a solar eclipse the actually moon casts two shadows on Earth. The first shadow is called the umbra. This shadow gets smaller as it reaches Earth. It is the dark centre of the moon’s shadow.

The second shadow is called the penumbra. The penumbra gets larger as it reaches Earth. People standing in the penumbra will see a partial eclipse. People standing in the umbra will see a total eclipse.

Trinidad and Tobago is located in the penumbra so only 62 per cent coverage of the moon was seen.

On the Hill, spectators gave their take on what the eclipse meant to them. Allison Shepard, lecturer at University of West Indies (UWI) said, “I am fascinated with astronomy, I did an astronomy course at UWI so I could not miss this.” Dennis Karamath a physics teacher said, “I came for the experience.

The last time I saw a solar eclipse was in the 90s when I was marking CXC papers.” Cherry Ann Felix, a medical doctor said, “It is a shared experience across the globe, we can all come together and take part in this.” Gerry Barrow, founder of the Trinidad and Tobago Astro club said “This is a relatively rare event that stirred some sort of interest. I am totally overwhelmed ”. He also said, “there is alot of nonsense about omens and darkness concerning an eclipse and this foolishness has to stop.” Popular psychic, Yesenia Gonzalez on her Facebook page stated the eclipse was an ominous sign, “the diamond ring effect, a negative effect is a bad sign, bad time , there is a big warning something big will happen after the solar eclipse.” Meanwhile, the Caribbean Institute of Astronomy’s (CARINA) viewing event hosted yesterday at the Queen’s Park Savannah to observe the partial solar eclipse was marked with disappointing cloud coverage.

The event gave the public the opportunity to witness the solar eclipse, a phenomenon that owing to the small path of eclipses, will not be viewed from Trinidad and Tobago until 2045. However, clouds blocked the eclipse from view for long periods at a time and onlookers could only manage brief glimpses through protective glasses provided free of charge by CARINA.

The public, however, came out in their numbers, with many expressing their eagerness to see the eclipse.

President of CARINA, Graham Rostant said the turnout was more than they anticipated and because of this there were not enough filtered glasses for everyone. This did not stop people from viewing the eclipse though as many resorted to taking turns sharing pairs and some even used their creativity to fashion pinhole cameras out of cardboard and cereal boxes in an attempt to see the solar eclipse.

This committees is one of several regular JSCs of the Parliament and is chaired by Independent Senator Stephen Creese.

Other members include Energy Minister Franklin Khan, Sports Minister Daryl Smith, Opposition Senator Wade Mark and Mayaro MP Rushton Paray. Given the complexity of the issues surrounding the procurement of these vessels, sources told Newsday yesterday that one hearing with the various stakeholders may not be sufficient to provide the committee with all the information it needs to submit a report on this issue to Parliament.

Sources said this determination will be made “by the collective” which is all members of the JSC. The committee’s secretariat has advised its members that Creese has set September 4 as the date for the hearing.

Correspondence to various stakeholders requesting their attendance at that hearing are in the process of being sent out. Anyone who fails to appear pursuant to a summons from the committee could be reported to the Attorney General who could take the matter to court and possible resulting in the person being fined $1000 or face imprisonment for one year. Once the committee’s report is tabled in Parliament, its contents could be debated if the relevant motion is approved.

Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan will be given 60 days to act on the committee’s recommendations. He could either reject or accept the recommendations within that period.

Police identified the deceased as Ryan Crawford, 18, of Maracas Gardens in St Joseph.

His friend and survivor Nikhil Gopaul, 16, of Westmoorings, remained at the San Fernando General Hospital up to last evening.

Police said, shortly before 10 pm on Sunday, Crawford was driving a white Mercedes Benz on the south-bound lane of the highway.

Gopaul was a front-seat passenger and upon reaching Gandhi Village, Crawford attempted to switch lanes.

He lost control of the car and crashed into a utility pole.

Crawford died on the scene.

Lynly was diagnosed with the mental illness more than 20 years ago after the tragic death of his girlfriend and Patrong, who is a pensioner, has had the responsibility of caring for her son all by herself. Lynly has been an outpatient of the St Ann’s Medical Hospital for many years.

Patrong previously had her son in a home because she believed he would be able to receive the proper care and attention that he required.

After some time, the owner and caregiver of the home told the woman she would no longer be able care for Lynly because the disability cheques she was collecting from Government for him were not enough and Patrong had to take her son home and care for him.

Lynly was a patient at the hospital up two weeks but, according to his mother, one morning she returned home from an errand and found her son liming on the corner of their street with some men known to him.

She said Lynly told her a hospital’s van dropped him off with discharge papers stating the need for the prescribed medication dogmatil. She later went to the hospital and asked a medical officer if she would be able to get the prescription so she would be able to get it at a clinic.

The doctor told her he could not give her one but instead gave her a day’s worth of tablets. Patrong said that without his medication, her son is very difficult to deal with.

Patrong is now asking for help in any way possible but, most importantly, she would like to be able to access his medication.