Author: user user

Faced with a do or die situation of winning the second One Day International against Bangladesh to keep the series alive, West Indies spinner Khary Pierre has called on his teammates to quickly adapt to the spinner friendly wickets on the Asian sub-continent.

Bangladesh leads the three-match series 1-0 after romping to a comprehensive 74-run victory in the opening ODI on Saturday at the Shere Bangla National Stadium.

The West Indies were undone by leg spinner Rishad Hossain, who claimed his maiden five-wicket haul in international cricket and career-best figures of 6-35.

Speaking during a pre-match press conference on Monday, Pierre said it came as no surprise that the wickets in Bangladesh catered to spinners.

Khary Pierre speaking to members of the media during a pre-match press conference on Monday.

And with a similar pitch expected for Tuesday’s second ODI, he said the West Indies had to adjust to the challenging conditions.

‘Well, we see how the wicket is playing so it’s challenging, very spinner’s friendly.but having said that we as batsmen have to adapt and adapt quickly.

‘We have a lot of great batsmen in our team but it’s just about adapting. This is international cricket so it’s going to be tough, it’s going to be challenging, but we have to find a way,’ Pierre said.

‘.We have to play on any wicket that is provided for us, and we have to adapt most importantly. It doesn’t matter about the wicket anymore, it’s about playing the game and playing the game the right way, adapting to the conditions.

‘.We have to do whatever it takes. We already know the situation, and we have to try and win the next two games,’ he contended.

Pierre said it was important for the West Indies’ spinners to restrict the home side’s batters.

He said sticking to the game plan and being consistent was necessary, especially against a Bangladesh side that is difficult to beat at home.

‘Coming here and seeing the wicket, it is spinner’s friendly, so you want to put the balls in the right areas, but it’s a lot of pressure if you don’t do well on these types of surfaces, so I just try to keep it simple and stick to my plans.

‘I think once you put the balls in the right areas and do not go wicket hunting, I think it will be most suitable for the wicket. From the time you want to go wicket hunting then you can leak runs,’ Pierre said.

‘Bangladesh has won a lot of series here since 2011, so we have to come and adapt to the wicket as batsmen and as a team and try and win the game.’

Police are investigation the death of 24-year-old woman, who was shot on Sunday night as bandits chased her brother in an attempt to rob him.

Police said that Faynelle Brewster was gunned down in her yard in the West Ruimveldt community in Georgetown just after 11.00 pm (local time), after the gunman had followed her brother, who was out earlier.

Faynelle Brewster

But the young man managed to elude the bandit, who was riding a motorcycle by running into his huse. However, the bandit, according to eyewitnesses, fired gunshots into the yard, shooting Brewster to the chest and in one of her arms.

The woman collapsed in her yard and was rushed to the hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead.

The identity of the gunman is unknown, but investigators have been checking the area for CCTV Cameras that might have captured the incident.

Just over a month ago, local singer, Lolita Callendar aka Lola Doll, was shot multiple times in her car just after arriving in front of her West Ruimveldt home. S

Prime Minister Phillip Davis says diplomacy now more than ever is required to settle disputes, insisting that ‘patient cooperation can still create peace.

‘We live in an age when the world feels impatient with the slow work of diplomacy. When confrontation too often replaces conversation, and certainty takes the place of understanding. Many have come to believe that nations will only act out of self-interest and that multilateralism no longer holds meaning. Yet history reminds us that where diplomacy fails, instability thrive,’ Prime Minister Davis told the opening ceremony for Diplomatic week 2025.10.20

Prime Minister Phillip Davis

He told the audience that for The Bahamas, diplomacy has never been an ornament of state, saying ‘it is the foundation of our national survival.

‘We are a small island nation, but we live within a global system that moves with great speed. The tides that reach our shores carry the effects of global decisions made far beyond these islands.’

He said that the global system is not an abstract or distant concept, given that it moves through the local economy and even food supply

‘It determines the flow of tourists who visit our islands and the price of the goods that fill our stores. That is why for The Bahamas, diplomacy is the mechanism through which we negotiate advantage, manage risk, and protect our sovereignty.’

He said 50 years after the country established diplomatic relations with the European Union and with Japan as a ‘young, newly independent, and untested in global affairs,’ it had done so on the basis that relationships ‘were based on respect and reciprocity.

‘We learned early that friendship between nations, like friendship between people, requires consistency, humility, and good faith. Today, we celebrate the golden jubilee of those diplomatic relationships.

‘These relationships were not built in moments of ease alone. They were built through changing governments, shifting economies, and evolving global realities. But they have endured because they rest on shared principles.’

Prime Minister Davis said that diplomacy may appear distant to some, but its outcomes reach deep into communities.

‘When our negotiators secure new climate finance mechanisms, they are creating opportunities for Bahamian contractors to rebuild seawalls in Grand Bahama. They are providing the funding to reinforce schools in Abaco. They are ensuring that the people of Long Island and Exuma can live with greater protection from rising seas.

‘When we expand trade partnerships and attract new investment, diplomacy becomes the quiet architecture of opportunity. It opens doors for Bahamian exporters, for small businesses, and for tourism operators who depend on reliable air and sea links.

‘It allows for the exchange of technology, skills, and knowledge. The trade agreements and investment treaties we negotiate are the reason a young Bahamian can find work in a hotel, a resort, or a renewable energy project.’

He said when representative of the country speak in international forums for small island developing states, ‘we are standing on principle.

‘We are demanding fairness. We are reminding the world that our size does not diminish our right to influence decisions which affect our very existence. This is the work of diplomacy – the unseen effort that makes daily life in The Bahamas more secure, more prosperous, and more stable.

‘My government is committed to an active and strategic foreign policy that reflects the complexity of our times. We are building a professional and modern foreign service equipped to operate in a world defined by rapid change.

‘Our diplomats must now understand climate finance as well as international law, energy transition as well as economics, digital regulation as well as traditional trade,’ he said, adding that ‘we are also deepening our cooperation with regional partners through CARICOM, because we know that small states are strongest when they act collectively’.

Prime Minister Davis said that The Bahamas has long understood that isolation is not an option.

‘We sit at a strategic crossroads between North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. That position gives us reach, but it also gives us responsibility. We have a duty to act as a bridge – between the developed and developing world, between the large and the small, between the powerful and the vulnerable.’

He said in a time of global fragmentation, nations like his can demonstrate that cooperation is still possible.

‘As we begin Diplomatic Week 2025, I ask that we see this as a reminder that peace does not sustain itself. It must be cultivated through conversation, compromise, and courage. The world does not need more noise. It needs steadier voices – voices that can calm conflict, tolerate differences, and build coalitions for the common good.

‘Small nations like ours must continue to be those voices. We must continue to engage constructively, to listen carefully, and to act decisively,’ Prime Minister Davis told the ceremony.

Jamaica is marking National Heroes Day on Monday with the country’s two main political leaders paying tribute to those who have paved the way for the country to be recognised both at home and abroad.

In addition, the day provides an opportunity for 141 Jamaicans to receive national awards as the 2025 Ceremony of Investiture and Presentation of National Honours and Awards will be held on the lawns of King’s House, the official residence of the Governor-General, Sir Patrick Allen, who acting as chancellor of the orders, confers these honours on the advice of the prime minister.

Among the awardees announced for 2025 are three individuals who will be appointed to the Order of Jamaica (OJ), the fourth-highest honour in the land.

Group chief executive officer of JMMB Group and recently appointed Government Senator Keith Duncan has been recognised for his exceptional service in finance, business, and social development.

The long-serving Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Desmond McKenzie, is being honoured for more than four decades of public service, while Marlene Street Forrest, the former managing director of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), is being celebrated for her leadership in transforming the JSE into one of the world’s top-performing exchanges.

In his message Prime Minister Andrew Holness said National Heroes Day should serve as a reminder of ‘Jamaica’s ‘story written in courage and conviction’, describing the country’s heroes as the ’embodiment of courage, faith, intellect, sacrifice, and love of country.

‘Our heritage is not something locked away in the pages of history. It is a living call, a charge to each of us to carry forward the values of discipline, hard work, respect, and love for one another. Our forebears fought so that we could live purposefully, and we must guard our freedom with great vigilance and commitment.

‘If we are to honour the legacy of our heroes, we must return to the principles that made us who we are: respect for law, reverence for God, and pride in honest work,’ Holness said as he linked those values to national progress, acknowledging also that true nation-building rests in character and citizens

‘But the greatest work lies not in the infrastructure we build, but in our character. It lies in teaching our youth that patriotism is a lifestyle; that to love Jamaica is to serve her with excellence, to protect her from harm, and to lift her name with pride wherever we go.’

Holness also extended his definition of heroism beyond history’s great figures, saluting everyday Jamaicans who serve with integrity – from teachers and nurses to farmers and security personnel – calling them ‘the continuation of that proud and bold heritage’.

But as he has done in years gone by, Opposition Leader Mark Golding again called for cultural icons Robert Nesta ‘Bob’ Marley and Louise Bennett-Coverley (Miss Lou) to be recognised as National Heroes.

He said that their music, poetry, and advocacy for Jamaican identity had inspired generations both locally and abroad.

Golding, whose People’s National Party (PNP) lost the September 3 general election for a third consecutive time to the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), described the voters as ‘modern examples of heroism’, no doubt in reference to the party’s improved showing at the polls.

He said Jamaicans had exercised their right to vote ‘without indulging in the malignant influence of money or other corrupt influences.

‘In exercising your choice based on your belief and conscience, you embraced the very ideals that our national heroes fought to secure. Your honest participation demonstrated your commitment to shaping Jamaica’s future and reaffirmed that the spirit of our ancestors endures in our people,’ he said.

But Golding is worried over the recent rise in violence and suicides impacting the island.

‘In the face of these challenges, let us choose empathy over anger, unity over division, and hope over despair. Let us stand together as one people, united in purpose, bound together in our love for our country, and determined to build a Jamaica where peace, equality, and opportunity become realities for all,’ Golding said.

The Guyanese-American jurist, Justice Claudia Daniels-DePeyster, is seeking election to the Supreme Court Justice in Kings County (Brooklyn) in New York, after acting in the past for several years.

Justice Daniels-DePeyster was appointed by former New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio as a judge 10 years ago and was elevated to the position of Acting Supreme Court Justice, based on her work performance in Kings County Criminal Court, three years ago.

‘I decided to run for office to become an elected official because I wanted the community to know the work that I am doing on their behalf,’ Justice Daniels-DePeyster told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

‘I thought it was important to get out in the community, visit churches of different denominations, visit senior centers and let the public put a face to the name, as they vote for judges in Brooklyn,’ she added.

Justice Daniels-DePeyster, who is ‘proud’ of her Guyanese-Caribbean heritage, said ‘there is accountability to the community’ in the position of an elected Supreme Court Justice.

‘In addition, if I were to seek an appellate judge position in the future, I could only do so as an elected judge, not an appointed one,’ she said.

As an elected judge, Justice Daniels-DePeyster said she gets a 14-year-term and either a secretary or a junior court attorney to work alongside her.

‘This will assist me in doing my job, writing decisions and being as productive as possible on the bench,’ she said, stating that appointed judges fill the terms of judges who either retired or moved up.

‘They do the same work as elected judges in civil or criminal court,’ added Justice Daniels-DePeyster, disclosing that she had a two-year-term, then received a full 10-year-term as an appointed judge.

‘You can serve from six months to 10 years. The problem is: appointed judges can’t move up. They don’t get a secretary or an additional junior court attorney as elected judges do. Also, elected judges get a 14-year-term. Appointed judges can also be removed without notice or a hearing.’

In sentencing individuals, Justice Daniels-DePeyster said she usually writes them a letter.

‘It encourages them, and I have received feedback from defendants, attorneys and family that my words are inspirational,’ she said, disclosing that the letter has also ‘sparked the Office of Court Administration to host a therapeutic jurisprudence conference at Brooklyn Law School next month, where she will be one of the panelists.

‘It is my belief that all courts can be a place for treatment and therapy,’ she said, adding that she has ‘seen the law from all sides.’

Justice Daniels-DePeyster said she was born and raised in Brooklyn to ‘two proud Guyanese parents’ She is a graduate of Midwood High School in Brooklyn, and earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Buffalo in New York and her Juris Doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.

As a testament to her diverse and comprehensive legal background, Justice Daniels-DePeyster said she was appointed by Mavor De Blasio to serve as a Criminal Court Judge in April 2015.

Justice Daniels-DePeyster said ‘standing up for others’ as a litigator equipped her with ‘the crucial insight that can only be gained by seeing the law from both sides of the bench, from defending tenants facing eviction, to defending people accused of crimes,’ to immersing herself in family law work.

Justice Daniels-DePeyster said she learned early in her career ‘the tremendous gravity often connected to most cases heard by our courts.’

From 2001 through 2015, Justice Daniels-DePeyster said she worked in several capacities for the New York Police Department (NYPD)

Justice Daniels-DePeyster said she is currently a board member of the Judicial Friends Association, where she co-chairs the Community Service Committee. She is also a board member of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association and member of the National Bar Association-Judicial Council, where she chairs the Community Outreach Committee.

Her other affiliations include memberships in the National Association of Women Judges and the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY) Women Judges Committee.

The Caribbean Ombudsman Association (CAROA) began a four-day symposium here on Monday aimed at strengthening regional cooperation, professional development, and the long-term sustainability of Ombudsman institutions across the Caribbean

The event is being held under the theme ‘Building Sustainable Futures: Preparing the Path for the Strengthening of CAROA’ and is being held under the chairmanship of Dr. Nigel L. Taylor, SCM, JP, the Ombudsman of Barbados and the CAROA president.

CAROA president, Dr. Nigel L. Taylor.

According to the organisers among the key areas for discussion during the symposium will include institutional capacity building training and professional development, regular capacity-building initiatives for ombudsmen and staff focused on emerging human rights issues as well as conflict resolution, and principles of good governance.

Developing and disseminating harmonized operational frameworks to strengthen consistency among Ombudsman offices across the region as well as investing in modern case management systems and secure digital platforms to enhance efficiency and accessibility wll also be topics to be discussed.

The organisers said that advocating for stronger legislative frameworks that safeguard the independence and authority of Ombudsman institutions and supporting laws that encourage transparency and protecting those who expose wrongdoing will also be discussed during the symposium.

‘The Office of the Ombudsman stands as a pillar of transparency and accountability, serving as the voice of the marginalized and a vigilant watchdog in ensuring adherence to established policies, procedures, and guidelines. It remains steadfast in its advocacy for fairness, equity, and justice within the governance framework,’ according to a statement issued here.