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Prime minister has pacemaker installed in cuba
Prime Minister Patrick Manning had the pacemaker installed in a 45-minute procedure and was able speak to top advisers several hours later, according to two senior officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. On official said Manning was in “good spirits.’’ The officials said Manning, who left for Cuba on Aug. 14, would return to Trinidad on Thursday. The government initially said Manning would stay in Cuba for four days. The officials re-fused to comment on the delay, and the government has refused to discuss the matter publicly. Manning, 57, had heart surgery in Cuba in 1998 to replace valves damaged because of rheumatic fever he had suffered. When he went for a medical checkup in Cuba on Aug. 4, doctors told him he should return to have the pacemaker installed.
bovell challenges advertising companies PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) – Trinidad and Tobago’s Olympic bronze medallist George Bovell has been explaining why he has warned advertisers not to use his picture without permission. Since he won the country’s first medal in the 200m swimming medley last week, business houses have been keen to be associated with his achievement and advertisements congratulating him were filling newspapers. “I don’t like people jumping on the bandwagon. There have been people in Trinidad who’ve wanted to do congratulatory ads, with the promotion of their product, like saying this company and this product wants to congratulate George Bovell. “I don’t appreciate that because where were you before when I needed the support, needed the help? And all of a sudden you use my name and image and my hardwork for free and for nothing. “I think that in Trinidad and Tobago you can’t do ambush marketing, it’s illegal, it’s not right. I hope that companies will take more interest in the sport of swimming and sponsor the national team,” Mr. Bovell said. Mr. Bovell has asked those who wish to congratulate him to match the costs of the ads in a trust fund set up in his name to aid present and future swimmers. Ken Attalle, CEO of Lonsdale Satchi and Satchi advertising agency in Tri-nidad told Associated Press that the business community was split over Bovell’s reaction to the situation. “I think that some people feel it was purely altruistic show of national pride to publicly congratulate George Bovell and his fantastic feat. “Others feel that it is not unreasonable perhaps his request to make a donation to his trust or a charitable institution and they think that’s fair and therefore it is very, very split in the country,” he said. Mr. Attalle said he thought Mr Bo-vell’s reaction was symbolic of a general trend - an awakening over image or intellectual property rights in Trin-idad and Tobago. He said that now the situation has come to prominence through Mr. Bo-vell’s calls, the situation would not be easily overlooked again. PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – A cruise marking the 200th anniversary of Haiti’s independence made only a brief visit to a remote beach Thursday after American organizers canceled other tours, citing concerns about the government that replaced ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The cruise, billed as “Cruising Into History,’’ arrived Thursday morning in the northern beach of Labadee, said Frandley Julien, who helped coordinate the visit. About 450 people were on board. The ship left in the afternoon to return to Florida. Organizer Ron Daniels, of the nonprofit Haiti Support Project, announced the cancellations in a recent statement, saying otherwise it “could be construed as endorsing or legitimizing the U.S.-installed government.’’ Organizers canceled visits to about 10 other sites in Haiti. Actor Danny Glover, one of the organizers, boycot-ted the trip altogether. The seven-day cruise was planned to commemorate Haiti’s 200th anni-versary of independence from France on Jan. 1. Other stops included the Ba-hamas, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Aristide accuses the United States of forcing him from office – a charge Washington denies. A U.S.-supplied jet flew him out of Haiti on Feb. 29 as rebels advanced on Port-au-Prince. The 15-member Caribbean Com-munity has called for an investigation, and the Organization of American States agreed to look into Aristide’s departure. He is now in temporary exile in South Africa. U.S.-based groups loyal to Aristide had condemned the cruise’s plans in a letter-writing campaign. Hundreds of tour guides, artisans and others spent months preparing, said Jean Lionel Pressoir, head of the Hait-ian Solidarity Development Organiza-tion, which aims to develop tourism in the impoverished country. He said he worked with about 2,000 Haitians to plan the visit and many were upset the visit was curtailed. KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) – About 180 Jamaican hotel workers in Florida will be sent home early this week be-cause of Hurricane Charley damage to two resorts, the government said. The workers have been housed in shelters since the storm slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast last week, forcing the closure of the Sundial Beach Resort on Sanibel Island and the South Seas Resort on Captiva Island, Labor Ministry spokeswoman Julie Dundas said. The workers, including housekeepers, cooks and gardeners, will begin arriving in Jamaica this weekend, Dundas said. Their 11-month contracts were set to expire in September. Dundas said it was unclear if the workers would be paid for the remaining period of their contract, but said they will be eligible to return to Flo-rida at a later date. In total, more than 700 Jamaicans work at hotels throughout Florida un-der Jamaica’s overseas employment pro-gram. The 270-room Sundial Beach Resort, which received minor structural damage, will be closed until early next month, while the harder hit South Seas Resort will reopen in phases by mid-December, said Melissa Thompson, a spokeswoman for the resorts’ management firm. Both resorts are owned by Arling-ton, Virginia-based MeriStar Hospitality. The company is still assessing the dam-age to the properties, Thompson said. All guests and employees were evacuated and there were no injuries. The storm and its aftermath killed 23 people in Florida. Prior to hitting Florida, Charley kill-ed four people in Cuba and one in Jamaica. ST. JOHN’S, Antigua (AP) – Anti-gua and Barbuda’s prime minister and American officials signed an agreement recently extending the lease of the U.S. Air Force base in the Carib-bean country until 2008. The Antigua Air Station helps track spacecraft that take off from Cape Ca-naveral, Fla., said base commander Maj. Brian Gaude. The new agreement, which takes effect in January, continues an arrangement between the U.S. military and the Antiguan government that began in the early 1960s. The U.S. government will continue to pay annual rent of $1.25 million to Antigua’s government under the deal. Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer and Mary Kramer, U.S. ambassador to the Eastern Caribbean, signed the agree-ment. Antigua and Barbuda is a former British colony of 70,000 residents. ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada (AP) – A French man was detained and questioned after he was seen videotaping parts of Grenada’s new cruise port terminal, police said. Police questioned the man for more than two hours and confiscated the videotape, then released him. However, after questioning the man, police said they believed he did not pose a security threat. It is illegal to take still or video shots of Grenada’s sea ports or airports without obtaining permission. Officials said the man apparently misled police stationed at the port in order to gain entrance to the facility. The new international security re-quirements for ships and cargo handling facilities took effect July 1. GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) _ The U.S. government has asked police in Guyana to help find a Saudi-born al-Qaida suspect who once lived in the South American country and who still has relatives here. FBI agents who were visiting to help train Guyana’s police on Tuesday night used the opportunity to ask for help locating Adnan Gulshair El Shu-krijumah, said Dennis Pierce, a legal attache at the FBI’s office in neighboring Venezuela. “We showed and distributed wanted posters and bulletins and asked them to be on the lookout just in case he doubles back here because we know he has been here about two to three years ago,’’ Pierce said. Authorities say they believe he also lived in Trinidad and South Florida. The U.S. Embassy in Guyana said earlier this year that an informant in December told authorities he saw a man who appeared to be El Shukri-jumah at a money exchange business in Georgetown, the capital. The FBI has asked law enforcement agencies in a number of countries to look for El Shukrijumah on the grounds he might be plotting terrorist attacks against the United States or its interests abroad.
u.s asks guyana to help track down terror suspect french man detain-ed after videotaping cruise port charley causes jamaican workers to be sent home haiti’s 200th independence cruise canceled antigua, u.s extend lease of military base until 2008
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