“Magic Nights is going to be intriguing with a bigger cast and grand illusions that were once performed by world-renowned magicians, such as David Copperfield and Jonathan Pendragon.

The show will keep spectators at the edge of their seats and they can also look out for a brand new illusion designed by me and the team, as well as a never before seen acts,” said Kess, who has come full circle, having performed as the opening act for international illusionist, Darcy Oake, at last year’s instalment of Decibel.

“What you will witness this year is nothing short of what you have seen on TV or at a Las Vegas stage, right here in your own country; Trinidad and Tobago.

Not only is it important to support local talent but it will also remind upcoming artistes that we can be as entertaining as any international act.” Speaking about its sponsorship and continued commitment to the three-day entertainment festival, Camille Campbell – vice president, Marketing, TSTT , stated, “We believe it is extremely important to encourage our youth to explore the many different sides of the creative industry and where better to do that than at Decibel, where the country’s top creative minds and budding artists unite on common ground.

DEF continues to be a huge success and we are always happy to lend our support to initiatives which shine the spotlight on youth, culture and education.” Magic Nights, which is carded for May 5 – 7 at Queen’s Hall at the RBL Decibel Entertainment Festival, will be opened by Trinidad- born, US based comedian, Jean Paul. Known for his unique style of wit and humour, Paul has been hailed by award winning film director and producer, Igal Hecht, as “one of the smartest and funniest comedians I’ve ever had the pleasure to see and hear.” He has appeared in several television shows and films, including Home Again and A Universal Language.

Justice Frank Seepersad was told in the San Fernando High Court that attorney Ryan Sebastien Sinanan’s wedding is today and that he had an appointment on Thursday at the Immigration office regarding his passport because he will be leaving the country on Monday for his honeymoon. This was given as the explanation for the attorney’s absence in court on Thursday,when he was due to testify in the trial. The case involves a lawsuit filed against housewife Gyatrie Sirju, 43, of Rambert Village, La Romaine, by her deceased husband’s nephew, Nicholas Sirju, over a parcel of land on which Gyatrie currently resides.

Gyatrie, in defending the claim which is being made against her, stated in documents filed in the High Court, that she married Kenneth Sirju, 41, whom she lived with for 14 years on the land located at No 56 Dumfries Road, Rambert Village, La Romaine. She stated her husband bought the land from his grandfather and in 1991, he took out a bank mortage on the land for $131,000. She and her husband used the monies to begin building a house.

Gyatrie, who is being represented by Senior Counsel Anand Ramlogan instructing attorney Alvin Pariagsingh, further stated her husband Kenneth, became blind and he made a will in which he bequeathed the house and land to her. She stated that she worked at a jewellery store in San Fernando to make a living . However, her husband also had a good relationship with his nephew Sirju whom he trusted.

Gyatrie stated that her husband never mentioned to her that he had given an attorney instructions to prepare a deed of gift for transfer of the land to Sirju.

She stated she held down two jobs and staged several barbecues sales to raise funds to pay for the eye surgery her husband needed.

However, he died on July 1, 2012.

Gyatrie then applied for her husband’s estate, which was granted to her and she continued to live at theie home.

However, two years ago, she was confronted with Sirju’s lawsuit in which he made a claim for the land on the basis that a Deed of gift was signed by the deceased Kenneth, transfering the land to him.

Gyatrie’s attorneys are contending that husband Kenneth did not meet nor give instructions to attorney Ryan Sebastien Sinanan or any attorney at law , to prepare any deed of gift for Sirju. Attorney Sinanan has since prepared a witness statement and attorney Pariagsingh was scheduled to cross-examine the attorney last Monday at the San Fernando High Court on that witness statement.

However, he was absent when the matter was called before Seepersad and the judge adjourned the matter for Thursday, but still there was no appearance of attorney Sinanan.

Attorney Pariagsingh told Seepersad that he would very much like to cross-examine Sinanan about the preparation of the so-called deed of gift, the purported signature of the deceased blind man, especially in the light of the evidence of handwriting expert and forensic scientific officer at the Forensic Science Centre, Glen Parmamsar.

Seepersad did not the attorney’s absence lightly and said attorneys have a responsibility to the court in conveyances matters to provide the instructions given to them in relation to property transactions.

“They cannot take money from citizens to prepare deeds and casually shirk their obligations to the court.” The judge then issued a witness summons to be served on Sinanan to attend court on May 24 which is the date the judge fixed for the next hearing. Seepersad added, “That type of behaviour will not be tolerated or confined by this court and so as to avoid any doubt, please advise Mr Sinanan and Hobsons, that this court has absolutely no diffficulty to have him brought here in an involuntary manner.” The witness summons will be served on Sinana by a marshall of the High Court.

He said this meant , “the products that were imported prior to the restrictions imposed on March 21, are allowed to be returned to the shelves for retail.” Rambharat also said as matter of routine, the Health Ministry, conducts surveillance on food products entering the country to ensure they are safe for public consumption.

He added that sometimes his ministry is involved in this exercise.

In a letter to Newsday, Ramroop said a large number of people could lose their lives or limbs if emergency response is not appropriate. Dealing with the issue of whether the country is prepared to handle a stadium collapse, Ramroop said a lot of work dealing with such disasters and with events featuring large crowds had been done in the past with tournaments such as the Under 17 FIFA Soccer World Cup, the ICC World Cup Cricket and major events such as the Summit of the Americas and Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference (CHOGM). But, he said, a lot of the standard operating procedures developed for those events had not been practised and shared among the heads of the fire, police, military and ambulance services.

He said while any stadium is being built or renovated, mitigation procedures must be provided and especially in a country such as this with a high risk of earthquakes, structural mitigation should be embedded in the planning for any large event or function. Even in a building which cannot sustain a major earthquake, it is equally important, he said, for people to be able to evacuate the building quickly, and proper safety systems should be in place.

He said it was also important to have police and private security and fire officers on hand to ensure that safety and security protocols and laws are followed.

The arrangements should include a venue operating centre staffed by a senior commanding officer from the police, fire, ambulance, venue security and operations, event organiser and communications officers from the venue and the event.

This permits better exchange of information and decision- making and has been found to save more lives and limbs than even having 100 safety officers with no proper system of communication amongst themselves and between the different agencies controlled and co-ordinated by the members of the venue operating command centre.

He said large crowd events can present many hazards, among them poor security checks at entrances and infrequent monitoring, which could allow people with dangerous weapons to enter the venue and cause panic and even stampedes leading to building and stage collapses with deaths and serious injuries.

Whenever there is a large crowd event, he said, hospitals in the area must be prepared and have the capacity to accept an increased number of admissions, usually called a surge capacity, amounting to about 20 percent of their normal operating capacity.

The hospital’s emergency department should also have a field response team in place and ready to deal with any mass casualty event – usually defined as an event involving serious injury to more than 25 people.

If the event does materialise, Ramroop said, it is better to stabilise victims at a safe place near where the incident happened rather than at the hospital, because this prevents a large number of people with minor injuries from being sent there at the expense of the critically injured.

He said more lives and limbs are lost that way and where there are large numbers of victims, it is better for trained medical personnel to assess them at the scene and perform life-saving procedures there rather than transferring all the victims, which increased the possibility that some who could be saved might die en route.

The accused women, Anisa Pegus, 29, and Alyssa Rajkumar, 27, appeared before Magistrate Brahmanan Dubay who read the charges to the women that on April 26, they had in their possession 21.68 grammes of cocaine and 1.77 grammes of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking at Bonne Adventure Gasparillo. The women were arrested within 500 metres of a primary school in Gasparillo, the court heard. Pegus pleaded not guilty to both charges. Rajkumar pleaded not guilty to having in her possession for purpose of trafficking the cocaine, but she entered a guilty plea for the possession of marijuana for the possession of trafficking. Police court prosecutor Sgt Gordan Maharaj, told the court that about 10.30 pm, police were on mobile patrol along the Bonne Adventure Road when they had cause to stop a vehicle. The court heard that Rajkumar was the driver of the vehicle. The prosecutor said police searched the vehicle and found under the front passenger seat a pink cylindrical object containing marijuana.

With respect to the charge of cocaine trafficking, the prosecutor gave a description of the drug, saying it was found in an empty cellphone box in the vehicle.

Attorney Annalee Girwar, who represented the women, said Rajkumar was a business owner.

Girwar said her client was going through a break-up with her boyfriend and upon her arrest, she was at the time delivering items that belonged to him.

The attorney said that the breakup had also taken a toll on Rajkumar’s emotional state and to calm herself ,she resorted to marijuana.

On the charge of possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, the magistrate fined Rajkumar $1,000 or in default six months hard labour. She was given 30 days to pay the fine. On the charge of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, Rajkumar and Pegus were granted surety bail in the sum of $30,000. The matter was adjourned to May 26.

The medical centre has named attorney Khemraj Harrikissoon, his wife Hynia, and their law firm Harrikissoon and Company, as defendants in the lawsuit filed in the San Fernando High court. They are seeking a claim for monetary compensation for alleged breach of contract and professional negligence. Tesheira’s husband, Russell, 54, who was an insurance executive, died at the Gulf View Medical Centre in 2004 while undergoing a prostate operation and she sued the nursing home, urologist Dr Lester Goetz and anaesthetist Dr Crisen Jendra Roopchand.

In March 2015, Justice Vasheist Kokaram found that there was medical negligence and the million dollar award was made.

However, his ruling has since been appealed and is currently engaging the attention of Appellate judges Allan Mendonca, Prakash Moosai and Judith Jones.

In the lawsuit filed by attorney Alvin Pariagsing against the Harrikissoons, Gulf View Medical Centre’s director Dr David Ali swore to an affidavit in which he outlined a number of grounds for pleading professional negligence, one of which stated that the defendants consented, contrary to the nursing home’s interests and without instructions to do so, to setting aside the High Court ruling of July 2012 in favour of the nursing home striking out the claim from the estate of the deceased Tesheira.

It alleged that the effect of that was that the claim was restored against the nursing home to its detriment. Therefore, new life was given to Nunez-Tesheira’s claim which exposed the nursing home to a trial which resulted in Kokaram’s judgment of $18,034,722.33. plus interest and cost.

Junior advocate attorney in the action against the attorneys and their law firm is British-base attorney Anand Beharrylal and senior advocate is British Queens Counsel Mary O’Rouke.

Joseph had patrons in stitches with his jokes about everyday living in Trinidad and Tobago.

Calypsonian Brother Alpha (Alpha John) continued in the humourous vein with crafty songs, Wrong Funeral and Ah Jump.

Sexy Suzie (Natasha Nurse) followed with Headmaster and How to Keep Your Man, and she too had patrons rolling with laughter.

Kid Kalalloo (Julien Hunte) and Myron B (Myron Bruce) brought down the curtains on the first half of the show.

Hamidullah (Hamidullah Waheed) opened the second half of the show, and was followed by Brother Ebony (Fitzroy Joseph) and Johnny King (Johnson King).

Addressing a large crowd at the Macaulay Community Centre on the contentious property tax, Ramdeen called for the return of the previous means of paying land and building taxes which, he said, was used many years ago and raised approximately $200 million.

Ramdeen said given the 400,000 homes which Finance Minister Colm Imbert said exists, the government can raise approximately $400,000. He accused government of trying to instil fear in the minds of people by telling them if they do not pay the property tax, their homes would be seized.

“Well not as long as they have a strong opposition like the UNC.

Imbert is saying that if people do not fill out the forms he will get the information regarding properties from WASA, TTEC and TSTT. Imbert so desperate that he said he will get an aerial view of people’s property and deal with those who are not willing to pay property tax.” Saying there could be discrimination in assessing people’s properties, Ramdeen told the gathering it should be the concern of every owner of property, whether residents living in other parts of the country would not be evaluated as well. “Will they evaluate properties in Laventille and in the Beetham?” He said the people of Penal, Point-APierre and Chaguanas spent years developing their properties for generations, “And this government will come now to say pay tax or you will lose your property.”

Annisette-George’s rejection of Padarath’s request came after Sports Minister Daryl Smith reminded MPs that a report commissioned under the former People’s Partnership (PP) government, dismissed all of the concerns alleged by Padarath.

The Princes Town MP served as an aide in the Office of the Prime Minister under the PP.

In making his statement, Smith said the concern being raised by Padarath was, “his concern, not the public of TT.” He said in 2013, the Arun Buch report commissioned by the Urban Development Corporation of TT (Udecott) gave the stadium, “ a fit for purpose grading.” Smith said some minor work had to be done on the stadium because of the time it was left unattended under the PP.

He said this included seismic strengthening and minor works to the roof.

During debate on a private motion later in the sitting, Smith claimed millions of dollars worth of equipment went missing from the stadium during the PP’s tenure in office.

The stadium is scheduled to be opened on May 13 with a T20 match between a Brian Lara XI and a Sachin Tendulkar XI. Earlier this week, Padarath claimed that 15,000 lives could be at risk because of structural defects at the stadium.

Udecott chairman Noel Garcia said there is documented evidence which proves Padarath’s claims were reckless and irresponsible.

Today, the student-led production of the Emperor’s New Clothes plays at the Black Box, DCFA Agostini Street. The play by Judith Kase is based on the well-known folk tale where a very vain, self-centred ruler is forced to learn an important lesson through the trickery of two strangers to his kingdom.

This colourful and entertaining production is set in Japan. Show times are 10 am and 2 pm. The production is suitable for children six years and older, and limited seating will be reserved for children only.

Later in the day, music lovers can enjoy the More than Just Jazz Concert, beginning at 7 pm.

The UWI Arts Jazz Ensemble showcases its improvisational skills at a concert which takes place at the JFK Lecture Theatre.

Tickets are available at the door.

On Sunday, the UWI Arts Sinfonia Concert presents an evening of orchestral dance music conducted by Sameer Alladin.

This programme draws on popular dance inspired music, including Bizet’s energetic and light-hearted Farandole, Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz, and Mussorgsky’s menacing Night on Bald Mountain.

The centrepiece of this concert, Grieg’s Symphonic Dances, takes us on a journey to Norway with beautiful folk melodies.

The concert begins at 6 pm at the UWI Teaching and Learning Complex (TLC), Lecture Theatre E. Admission is free.