Chief Justice Sat Sharma expressed surprise yesterday when he learnt that the authorities could not find a juvenile prisoner who was incarcerated at the President’s pleasure for murder, and had appealed his conviction. 

The Court of Appeal learnt that only a few days ago the authorities eventually located Keston Adams, at the Youth Training Centre (YTC), but there was not sufficient time for him to retain a private or Legal Aid attorney. CJ Sharma said: “ In  this day and age it escapes me why they were not able to locate this boy in the prison. All it would have taken was a simple telephone call.”  He observed  that the authorities  was unseeingly unaware that Adams was sentenced as a juvenile and sent to the YTC. But while the Chief Justice had some praises for Director of Legal Aid and the Advisory Authority (LAAA) Israel B. Khan SC, he felt that Legal Aid could have been a little more pro- active in this case. The CJ acknowledged that legal aid has been setting some very high standards, and that Director Khan, “has been making every effort to enhance and streamline the system … making sure people are represented.”

The CJ also signalled to attorneys who will be in the matter,  that the Court would be needing their assistance on a certain issue. That issue, he said, was in relation with the recent Privy Council judgement in a Jamaican case in which the Law Lords held that a minor sentenced for murder was not to be kept at the President’s pleasure, but at the Court’s pleasure instead. He wondered aloud whether that meant that the Court would have to supervise and review the administrative arrangement concerning that prisoner. The Jamaican case seems to suggest that sentencing had nothing to do with the Executive, but rather with the Judiciary. The CJ said he would want a full exploration of that issue when the matter is called on a date to be fixed in June.

Although Adams was brought yesterday before CJ Sharma, Justice Roger Hamel-Smith and Justice Stanley John, he was not represented. Special prosecutor Joan Charles who was suffering from a throat problem was represented by Ryan Cameron.  Adams was 15 years old  when he shot and killed State witness Paula Edwards, at her Gonzales, Quarry Road home, on August 28, 1998. Three years later in 2001, at age 17, he was found guilty of Edwards’ murder and sentenced by Justice Paula Mae Weeks, to the YTC at the President’s pleasure. Edwards was the State’s main witness to the murder of her husband, Curtis Sebro.

TRINIDAD and Tobago’s detection rate in kidnapping for this year is 55 percent, more than six percent for the whole of last year, head of the Anti Kidnapping Squad (AKS) Sr Supt Gilbert Reyes said yesterday. This figure, Reyes said, represents a larger percentage than the two percent detection rate in the world. 

He was speaking to 15 retired officers who were on a tour of the newly-refurbished Port-of-Spain Criminal Investigations department (CID). For the year thus far, nine people have been snatched with ransom demands around $17 million.  Families of two of the kidnap victims paid $50,000 and $1 million respectively. At the end of March, the AKS said a total of 16 people had been arrested with six of them being charged.   By contrast, for the corresponding period last year, there were three kidnappings with a total ransom demand of TT$2,850,000 and US$40,000. At this same time last year, TT$300,000 and US$30,000 had been paid. Four people had been charged for the corresponding period.

At the end of last year, the total ransom demand figure rose to TT$41 million and US$2 million.  Six million in TT dollars and US$13,000 were paid by relatives and $127,000 was recovered by law enforcers. Speaking from the AKS office, Reyes said he wanted to praise members of his department, whom he said normally work throughout the duration of a kidnapping. Referring to the kidnapping of psychologist Dr Ronald John, Reyes said it was intelligence and technical assistance from sources that led law enforcers to his rescue.

Intelligence work was also used in the joint police/army rescue operation of eight-year-old Adriana Ramsingh, he said. He added that based on certain information received from another child kidnap victim, they were able to piece things together and rescue Ramsingh from an abandoned shack at Mount D’or. However, Reyes pointed out that there is room for improvement.  He said there is a great need for co-operation from the public. The AKS head said police often get basic information relative to the initial stages of a kidnapping, but that the pertinent information is usually not there.  More often than not, he said, they have to wait on the negotiating phone call before they can make a move. “If the information is gotten earlier, it would help us,” Reyes said. He also said that number plates of the kidnap vehicle are usually changed during a kidnapping.

Autopsies carried out on the bodies of Keith Barrow, 25, and Ria Blackman, 20, revealed that death was due to shock and haemorrhage consistent with head  injuries. Both victims were shot in the head.

Police believe that Barrow was robbed and then shot once in the head. Blackman who was seated in the front passenger seat of the car was shot twice. Investigators said yesterday that Barrow’s pants pockets were emptied by the killers. They added that based on information received, Barrow had a previous argument with a member of a Laventille gang. The man had threatened Barrow. The bodies of Barrow and Blackman were discovered in a car at Brisby Street, Gonzales around 12.45 am on Monday. Residents of the area reported that they heard a barrage of gunshots and on checking saw the bodies of Barrow and Blackman in the car. Investigators returned to the scene of the shooting deaths yesterday and interviewed several persons. Police have ruled out a drug link in the two murders. Relatives of the two victims called on the police to find the killer or killers and bring them to justice. WPC Jones is investigating.

A Colombian national who was held with US $244,200 (over TT$1.5 million) worth of heroin at a Port-of-Spain hotel, may be extradited to the United States to answer to separate narcotics charges.

Jorge Luis Prieto, 36, was charged with possession of 2.22 kilos of heroin for the purpose of trafficking at Port-of-Spain, on Monday night. Prieto appeared yesterday before Chief Mag-istrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Mag-istrates’ Court. The heroin was allegedly packaged in 11 plastic bags hidden under the lining of a black suitcase. Prieto was held after officers of the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit (OCNU) arrested him at a hotel.

United States authorities have requested that Prieto be extradited to the United States where he is wanted in connection with other unrelated narcotics matters. Dressed in a yellow T-shirt and blue jeans, Prieto said he did not speak English. State attorney David West informed the magistrate that an interpreter will be brought to the court today. Magistrate Mc Nicolls then remanded Prieto in custody to today. Prieto’s arrest follows that of two men including a Venezuelan national who were held last Wednesday with $70 million worth of heroin. They were arrested after OCNU officers intercepted a car along Western Main Road, Carenage, and found the heroin hidden in three suitcases.

NEAR KARBALA, Iraq: As an unidentified four-wheel-drive vehicle came barrelling toward an intersection held by troops of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, Capt Ronny Johnson grew increasingly alarmed. From his position at the intersection, he was heard radioing to one of his forward platoons of M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to alert it to what he described as a potential threat.

“Fire a warning shot,” he ordered as the vehicle kept coming. Then, with increasing urgency, he told the platoon to shoot a 7.62mm machine-gun round into its radiator. “Stop messing around!” Johnson yelled into the company radio network when he still saw no action being taken. Finally, he shouted at the top of his voice, “Stop him, Red 1, stop him!” That order was immediately followed by the loud reports of 25mm cannon fire from one or more of the platoon’s Bradleys. About half a dozen shots were heard in all. Cease fire!” Johnson yelled over the radio. Then, as he peered into his binoculars from the intersection on Highway 9, he roared at the platoon leader, “You just expletive killed a family because you didn’t fire a warning shot soon enough!” So it was that on a warm, hazy day in central Iraq, the fog of war descended on Bravo Company.

Fifteen Iraqi civilians were packed inside the Toyota, officers said, along with as many of their possessions as the jammed vehicle could hold. Ten of them, including five children who appeared to be under 5 years old, were killed on the spot when the high-explosive rounds slammed into their target, Johnson’s company reported. Of the five others, one man was so severely injured that medics said he was not expected to live. “It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen, and I hope I never see it again,” Sgt. Mario Manzano, 26, an Army medic with Bravo Company of the division’s 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, said later in an interview. He said one of the wounded women sat in the vehicle holding the mangled bodies of two of her children. “She didn’t want to get out of the car,” he said. The tragedy cast a pall over the company as it sat in positions it had occupied Sunday on this key stretch of Highway 9 at the intersection of a road leading to the town of Hilla, about 14 miles to the east, near the Euphrates River. The Toyota was coming from that direction when it was fired on.

Dealing with the gruesome scene was a new experience for many of the U.S. soldiers deployed here, and they debated how the tragedy could have been avoided. Several said they accepted the platoon leader’s explanation to Johnson on the military radio that he had, in fact, fired two warning shots, but that the driver failed to stop. And everybody was edgy, they realized, since four U.S. soldiers were blown up by a suicide bomber Saturday at a checkpoint much like theirs, only 20 miles to the south.  On a day of sporadic fighting on the roads and in the farms and wooded areas around the intersection, the soldiers of Bravo Company had their own reasons to be edgy. The Bradley of the 3rd Battalion’s operations officer, Maj. Roger Shuck, was fired on with a rocket-propelled grenade a couple of miles south of Karbala. No one in the vehicle was seriously injured, but Shuck had difficulty breathing afterward and had to be treated with oxygen, medics said.

That happened after a column of M1 Abrams tanks headed north to Karbala in the early afternoon and returned a couple of hours later. Throughout the day, Iraqis lobbed periodic mortar volleys at the U.S. troops, and Iraqi militiamen and soldiers tried to penetrate the U.S. lines. Later, U.S. multiple-launcher vehicles fired rockets to try to take out the mortar batteries as AH-64 Apache helicopters swooped low over the arid terrain in search of other enemy gun emplacements. It was in the late afternoon, after this day defending their positions, that the men of Bravo Company saw the blue Toyota coming down the road and reacted. After the shooting, U.S. medics evacuated survivors to U.S. lines south of here. One woman escaped without a scratch. Another, who had superficial head wounds, was flown by helicopter to a field hospital when it was learned she was pregnant.

Johnson said afterward that he initially suspected the driver might have been a suicide bomber, because he did not behave like others who approached the intersection. “All the other vehicles stopped and turned around when they saw us,” he said. “But this one kept on coming.” Two days earlier, four 3rd Infantry Division soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives in his car at a checkpoint. Lt. Col. Stephen Twitty, the 3rd Battalion commander, gave permission for three of the survivors to return to the vehicle and recover the bodies of their loved ones. Medics gave the group 10 body bags. U.S. officials offered an unspecified amount of money to compensate them. “They wanted to bury them before the dogs got to them,” said Cpl. Brian Truenow, 28, of Townsend, Mass.

In Washington, the Pentagon issued a statement saying the vehicle was fired on after the driver ignored shouted orders and warning shots. The shooting, it said, is under investigation. According to the Pentagon account, the vehicle was a van carrying 13 women and children. Seven were killed, two were injured and four were unharmed, it said, without mentioning any men. To try to prevent a recurrence, Johnson ordered that signs be posted in Arabic to warn people to stop well short of the Bradleys guarding the eastern approach to the intersection. Before they could be erected, 10 people carrying white flags walked down the same road. They were seven children, an old man, a woman and a boy in his teens. “Tell them to go away,” Johnson ordered. But he reconsidered when told that the family said their house had been blown up and that they were trying to reach the home of relatives in a safer area. “They look like they pose no threat at this time,” one of the Bradley platoons radioed. Johnson, a former Army Ranger who parachuted into Panama in 1989, fought in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and rose through the ranks, relented. He ordered his troops to tell the old man that the group could walk around the Bradleys.

SEVERAL junior doctors continued to stay away from the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) yesterday, forcing the Accident and Emergency Department to continue to function on an “emergency only” mode which saw scores of patients being turned away by nurses.

Hospital authorities re-iterated yesterday that only critically ill patients would be seen by doctors, whose attendance had continuously dwindled over the past four days. Acting hospital medical chief of staff, Dr Anand Chatoorgoon, confirmed that several junior doctors continued to report ill yesterday. The doctors have declined to accept the new salary increases offered by the Cabinet-appointed joint negotiating team of the Regional Health Authorities.

FREEPORT resident Nandlal Sooknanan was yesterday found guilty of possession of 20 kgs of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, when he appeared before High Court Judge Pamela Elder in the Port-of-Spain Assizes. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on the charge.

The nine member jury deliberated for the maximum three hours. However when the members of the jury were summoned by the judge they informed her that they had not arrived at a unanimous verdict. She inquired if additional time would assist them in arriving at a verdict and they assured her that it would. They then took a further 30 minutes and returned the guilty verdict. When asked if he had anything to offer to the court before sentencing was passed, attorney Leon Gokool, who appeared for Sooknanan, asked the court for some time to prepare his plea in mitigation.

The judge then agreed to adjourn the matter until today, when Gokool will present his plea in mitigation before sentencing is handed down. Sooknanan was arrested and charged for the offence on April 13, 1999, after a crocus bag containing the cocaine was found in the front seat of his car, which was parked along the Solomon Hochoy Highway near the Chase Village Flyover. This is the second time that Sooknanan appeared before the court on the charges. In November last year a jury returned a hung verdict in the matter, which resulted in the case returning to trial. Attorney Kathy-Ann Waterman-Latchoo represented the state.

TWO more executive members of the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) have resigned their positions with immediate effect.

It was learnt that both Vice President (Human Resources) Ken Mahabir and Vice President (Legal) Dorril Ann Beckles-Lamont resigned because of “added pressures”. Both Mahabir and Beckles-Lamont handed in their resignation letters last Friday, effective immediately. The NWRHA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Lennox Jaggessar confirmed the resignations but said as far as he knows they resigned because of better jobs. Jaggessar told Newsday in a brief telephone interview that the Authority was in the process of getting someone to fill the Human Resources position. He added that they were sending out legal issues to one of their companies to see what they could do about the void left by Beckles-Lamont’s resignation.

There were also reports that Dr Roy Ragbir, manager Primary Health Care, had tendered his resignation.  But the CEO said Ragbir, now on vacation, simply wanted to give up some of his responsibilities. He said because of Dr Ragbir’s heavy workload, they have now assigned someone else to assist him. The resignations of Mahabir and Beckles-LaMont have now brought to five, the number of people who have resigned from the NWRHA executive for the year.

Last month, the NWRHA’s communications unit was effectively shut down following the resignations of its corporate communications manager, Lenore Joseph, public relations administrative assistant, Bridget Pamponette and communications specialist, Sookram Ali. Joseph and Pamponette handed in their letters on February 10, while Ali handed in his at the end of January. Sources had told Newsday then that three more executive managers were to resign over what they said is continued interference from people accused of “micro managing”. Both Joseph and Pamponette have taken up jobs with the National Housing Authority (NHA), while Ali is said to have gone on his own.

The National Trade Union Centre (NATUC) is once again rallying around star batsman Brian Lara, as for the second time in his cricketing career, he has been appointed the man to lead the West Indies cricket team.

Lara will lead the team  in the upcoming Cable and Wireless Test Series, which is set to take place later this month around the Caribbean region. NATUC President Robert Giuseppi expressed his confidence in Lara as “the man to restore West Indies cricket to its former glory.” Giuseppi added that Lara along with the additional responsibility of the captaincy “under his belt”, also had an obligation to his fans to perform well. “His ability to lead the West Indies will be under serious scrutiny especially when we face Australia. Lara will not disappoint his supporters,” claimed Giuseppi. Congratulations were also extended to Ramnaresh Sarwan on his appointment as Vice Captain, who Giuseppi said displayed “exceptional resilience” in the recently concluded World Cup series in South Africa.

Every hospital and workplace should have a room dedicated for breast-feeding, where women can extract and refrigerate breast milk until they take it home.

More than 50 percent of all infants born in TT are at risk for childhood illnesses. Re-search has found that infants breast-fed for at least six months can result in a healthier population. This suggestion was made yesterday by Dr Rai Ragbir, North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) Primary Care Physician II, at yesterday’s laun-ch of the NWRHA’s breast feeding campaign for Health Promotion Month at the Brian Lara Promenade. The theme for this programme is ‘Breast-feeding, the best start for a healthy life.’ Ragbir said because there were many women in the workforce, they needed to get back to work after pregnancy. “We need to encourage that they maintain the breast feeding practice for the first six months,” he said.

President of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association Gregory Aboud ex-pressed an interest in the idea of a room for breast-feeding and said it would be raised at the Committee level of DOMA. Aboud said breast-feeding will result in employees taking less time-off to care for children with illnesses. More than 50 percent of all infants born in TT are at risk for childhood illnesses. The NWHRA  said the morbidity and mortality rates associated with these illnesses can be reduced if the feeding practices of infants are changed.

Rosemary Anatol, President of The Informative Breast-feeding Service (TIBS) said human babies are meant to drink human milk. It met all the nutritional requirements for healthy growth and development. She said the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that if every baby is exclusively breast fed then 1.5 million lives would be saved and enhanced. “Breast milk is alive, it is a living fluid which protects babies from infection and no other milk can do this”. Anatol said manufactured products are expensive, inferior and often a “dangerous substitute”.

Breast milk contains antibodies that protect the baby from bacteria and viruses, and respiratory and ear infections. It also protected the baby from illnesses later on in life including asthma, diabetes, gastrointestinal illnesses and some types of cancer. Breast milk also prevents obesity. “It offers an opportunity to communicate love at the start of a child’s life. Breast-feeding lays the foundation for a caring and trusting relationship between a mother and child.” Anatol said the goal of achieving exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months (and continued feeding into the second year and beyond after complimentary foods are introduced) has not been achieved because women are unaware of its benefits and risks of artificial feeding.

Cultural and social factors also play a part in behaviour, as well as lack of emotional support and adverse working conditions. Anatol said support from the health sector, workplaces and community is important to building confidence in breast-feeding success. Fathers also had a role to play in supporting breast-feeding. Professor Moham-med Omer, of UWI”s Department of Child Health, said in his home country of Sudan there is a 98 percent breast-feeding rate among educated women while the figure was 100 percent in rural areas. He criticised bottles as a “crime against hu-manity” and said in TT the breast-feeding rate is “miserable, very low”.

Professor Omer attri-buted the high rates of breast-feeding in his country to the fact that babies are not separated from their mothers after birth. They are placed at the mother’s breast. The NWRHA said that the number of solely breast-fed infants for one month, two months and three months has declined.