A 50-year-old man was shot dead while a 58-year-old man remained warded in unsatisfactory condition up to late yesterday at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex after being shot in the face.

Neil “Big Neil” Lewis, 50, of La Pomp Extension, Trou Macaque, Laventille, and Arnold Payne, 58, of Acono Road, Maracas/St Joseph, were shot in separate incidents on Saturday night, police said. Lewis’ killing which pushed the murder toll to 41, has been described by the police as an execution in a suspected drug war, while a robbery motive is suspected in Payne’s shooting.

Police sources said Lewis, the alleged leader of a pickpocket gang, dyed his hair in different colours and wore lots of gold. He was in his white Nissan B13 Sentra vehicle at Nelson and Prince Streets around 10.45 pm Saturday when a lone gunman approached on the left side of the vehicle and fired several shots through the window. Lewis was found slumped behind the steering wheel. He was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Lewis was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital at 11.05 pm by Dr Derrick Holder. Officers under acting Insp Christopher Holder and including Cpls Williams and Jackson, acting Cpl Khan, and PCs Gregory Hood and Grant of the Port-of-Spain Division visited the scene and conducted interviews.

In the other shooting incident, police said Payne was driving his maxi taxi east along the Eastern Main Road near the Arouca Junction at around 10.20 pm. A man stopped the maxi taxi and another man approached from the opposite direction armed with a shotgun. The two ordered the four passengers in the maxi taxi to lie down and announced a hold-up. Payne tried to drive off but was shot in the face. The men escaped on foot along the Priority Bus Route (PBR).

Payne was taken to the Mount Hope Medical Sciences Complex, where he underwent emergency surgery. Acting Cpl Charles and PC Gangadeen of the Arouca CID visited the scene. No arrests had been made in either of the shootings up to late evening and investigations are continuing.

NORTH Eastern Division police are investigating the reported rape of a 23-year-old woman on Saturday in El Socorro.

Police said the woman was at her home with her two-year-old son when a man who is well known to the family came into the house, held down the woman and had sexual intercourse with her against her will.
Cpl Francis Vidale of the Barataria CID visited the scene and is continuing investigations.

THREE accident victims were left stranded for over one hour and a half on the Valencia stretch Sunday after the EHS Ambulance which was taking them to the Sangre Grande Hospital broke down.

The driver of the ambulance had to radio for assistance for another ambulance. The victims, three men from Curepe, were travelling east along the Valencia stretch when their car skidded off the road and crashed into a dwelling house. Nearby residents rendered  assistance and the police and EHS ambulance were summoned by passersby. They arrived on the scene quickly and  police and fire personnel assisted in removing the occupants from the crashed vehicle and putting them in the ambulance to be taken to the Sangre Grande Hospital. However, the vehicle failed to start. The injured men were later warded the Sangre Grande Hospital.

BAGHDAD, Iraq – President Saddam Hussein warned yesterday that if Iraq were attacked, it would take the war anywhere in the world “wherever there is sky, land or water.”

Saddam’s threat was made during a meeting with military commanders, and his remarks were carried by the official Iraqi News Agency. “When the enemy starts a large-scale battle, he must realise that the battle between us will be open wherever there is sky, land and water in the entire world,” Saddam told the commanders, according to the news agency.  Saddam also denied that Iraq has any weapons of mass destruction, as the United States and Britain claim. “Are weapons of mass destruction a needle that you can conceal in a head cover or in the scarf of an old woman that (UN weapons) inspectors cannot find?” Saddam asked. “There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” he added, joking: “Well, give us time and the necessary means and we will produce any weapon they want and then we will invite them to come and destroy them.”

BAGHDAD, Iraq: The United Nations flew most of its helicopters out of Iraq yesterday and Germany advised its citizens to leave the country immediately amid mounting fears of war with the United States.

Baghdad residents lined up for gasoline, and snapped up canned food and bottled water. People mobbed pharmacies to buy antibiotics and tranquilizers. Ruling Baath party officials supervised workers sandbagging fighting positions outside government buildings, including the city’s main post office. Saddam Hussein made his own preparations, sidestepping the military chain of command to place one of his sons and three other trusted aides in charge of the defence of the nation. The decree issued late Saturday placed Iraq on a war footing.

Yesterday, UN weapons inspectors flew five of their eight helicopters to Syria and then on to Cyprus after an insurance company suspended its coverage. Germany issued a new travel warning, urging its citizens to leave Iraq “immediately”. Other European diplomats, including those from Switzerland and Greece, were due to leave today, part of an expected exodus from the country’s estimated 60 missions, diplomatic sources said yesterday.

The war preparations came as US President George W Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar met in the Azores to determine their next moves after US-led diplomacy failed to secure enough support for a UN Security Council resolution authorising war. “There’s no question but what we’re close to the end, if you will, of the diplomatic efforts,” US Vice President Dick Cheney said. French President Jacques Chirac, whose country frustrated the US efforts with a threatened veto, said yesterday he was willing to accept a 30-day deadline for Iraq to disarm, provided the move was endorsed by weapons inspectors. Speaking hours before the mid-Atlantic summit, Chirac said the inspectors will be telling the Security Council next week that they believe it is possible to disarm Saddam peacefully. Saddam, meanwhile, reorganized his country to fight a war, dividing it into four regions and placing his son Qusai and three political aides in charge of them.

The decree by the Revolution-ary Command Council — Iraq’s highest executive body — signalled the Iraqi leader was choosing loyalty above professional military skill. The move will make it more difficult for generals to defect and take their units with them since command rests in political hands. The Council’s decree placed Qusai in charge of the regime’s heartland — Baghdad and the president’s hometown of Tikrit. Qusai has for years been in charge of the elite Republican Guard Corps and his father’s own personal security. That has led many to speculate that he could be his father’s successor.

Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid was put in charge of the key southern sector facing US and British troops massed in Kuwait. Al-Majid — known by his opponents as Chemical Ali — led the 1988 campaign against rebellious Kurds in northern Iraq in which thousands of Kurds died, many in chemical attacks. Saddam’s deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, was placed in command of the strategic northern region. An area that includes the Shiite Muslim holy sites of Karbala, and Najaf was placed under Mazban Khader Hadi, a member of the ruling Council. Saddam himself retained sole authority to order the use of surface-to-surface missiles and aviation resources, the decree said.

With nearly 300,000 US and British troops in the Gulf ready to strike, Iraq had been emboldened by stiff opposition to war at the Security Council, where France and other nations have insisted inspectors should be given more time. An Iraqi newspaper, Al-Jumhuriya, yesterday gloated over the opposition to US plans, saying the “arrogance of force” shown by Bush and Blair would not achieve any goals because “Iraq is more prepared than ever to confront and defeat any aggression.” Even as it braced for conflict, the government destroyed two more of its banned Al Samoud missiles, bringing the number destroyed to 70 since Iraq met a March 1 deadline to destroy the rockets after they were found to exceed the 150-kilometre (93-mile) range set by the United Nations. Iraq also handed over videotapes of mobile biological weapons laboratories to inspectors. Iraq says the videos show the laboratories do not violate UN resolutions.

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said presidential adviser Amer al-Saadi sent an 82-page report to chief weapons inspector Hans Blix containing results from soil samples taken from an area where Baghdad claims to have unilaterally destroyed its stocks of the chemical agent VX in 1991. The results back up Iraq’s claim, the ministry said. Al Saadi, Iraq’s point man on disarmament, on Saturday invited Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN atomic agency, to visit Baghdad as soon as possible to settle outstanding issues. The two have yet to say whether they accepted the invitation. Also Sunday, inspectors visited a technology college in the town of Karbala south of Baghdad, according to the Information Ministry. “It’s still business as usual,” said Hiro Ueki, the UN inspectors’ spokesman in Baghdad.

A TOBAGO man was found not guilty of attempted murder and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm by a nine member jury when he appeared before Justice Paula Mae-Weekes in the Tobago Assizes.

State attorney George Busby called three witnesses to testify for the State, while defence attorney Larry Williams called on his client Temple Charles to testify in his own defence. The court heard that Curtis Thomas, of Plymouth, Tobago, loaned Charles $20. On August 6 Thomas saw Charles, of Anos Vale, and asked him for the money.  Thomas claims the next thing he knew was that he felt a pain to the right side of his forehead and water being thrown on him. He said he later learnt that Charles had cuffed him down. He was taken to the hospital and treated.

On August 10, 1999, Thomas claimed he was at home fixing a nylon to go fishing when he saw Charles on the steps of a nearby house sharpening a cutlass.  He heard a neighbour scream out and realised Charles was in front of him with the cutlass raised. He claimed Charles chopped him to the left side of his jaw and hand. The chop to his hand severed the fourth finger on the right hand and caused a deep laceration to the third finger of that hand. Charles dropped the cutlass and ran. Thomas went out to the main road and stopped a passing police vehicle and was taken to the hospital where he was warded for two days. Thomas’ mother, Veta Duncan, handed over the cutlass to investigating officer, PC Olton. Charles was arrested and charged on August 11.

Charles said that on August 6, 1999, he was playing “wappie” with some friends when they saw a flashing light coming towards them. He said they ran believing it was the police and since everybody had left their money he decided to grab the money. Charles said when they realised the vehicle was an ambulance they all returned and started to demand their money from him. He said he told them to wait, but Thomas seemed impatient and started to push him.  Charles said Thomas pushed him twice, and then “cuffed him down”. On August 10, Charles said he had just come from the garden when Thomas’ cousin Anthony called him a “maccomere man”. He said he went to complain about Anthony’s behaviour and while on his way, Thomas came at him with a cutlass. Charles said he ran into a house owned by a man called “Sadist”, but “Sadist” pushed him back outside and Thomas threw a big stone at him. He explained that this happened three times.

He said on the third occasion, Thomas approached him with a raised cutlass, so he fired a chop at Thomas with his cutlass and he got injured. Charles said he dropped the cutlass and ran into “Sadist’s” house where he asked for glass of water. Charles said he made a report at the Old Grainge Police Station and PC Olton accompanied him to the scene of the incident. He was later arrested and charged.

THE Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport Project is expected to pick up pace this week following two uneventful sittings last week at which no evidence was taken.

The probe its 105th sitting today and former Airports Authority Chairman Tyrone Gopee is expected to reappear. Gopee has to question witnesses who have implicated him in the project. He is represented by attorney Nyree Alfonso. Last week Gopee was in the process of hiring another attorney, Fyard Hosein. On Tuesday former Transport Minister Jearlean John is listed to return to be cross examined by attorneys for Peter Cateau, the Ministry of Works and Transport client representative on the project. He is represented by attorney Keith Scotland leading Dawn Mohan.  Also to reappear on that day is Dennis John, former Security Manager at the Airports Authority. He is represented by attorney Sean Cazabon who is to question at least three persons who implicated John.

On Wednesday, former Finance Minister Brian Kuei Tung is expected to appear with his attorney Reginald Armour. Kuei Tung failed to show up last Wednesday when he was summoned and was scolded by Commission Chairman Clinton Bernard. On that occasion Armour sought an adjournment saying he did not have time to read the transcripts and to receive instructions from Kuei Tung. Also expected to appear this week is Edward Bayley, the former Chairman of NIPDEC. He is represented by attorney Sonny Maharaj, SC leading Stewart Young. Attorneys for the Commission are Theodore Guerra, SC, Margaret Rose and Clive and Justin Phelps. The other Commissioners are Victor Hart, Marie Ange Knights, Keith Sirju and Peter Bynoe.