'Illegal to be who I am' - Daley urges change in same-sex laws

Yahoo – AFP, Robert SMITH, April 13, 2018

Britain's Tom Daley has voiced his concerns about the treatment of homosexuals
 in large parts of the Commonwealth, whose athletes are gathered on Australia's
Gold Coast for the ongoing Games (AFP Photo/Anthony WALLACE)

Gold Coast (Australia) (AFP) - English world champion diver Tom Daley on Friday urged Commonwealth nations who outlaw homosexuality to relax their anti-gay stance.

Openly gay Daley, who is expecting a child with his partner through a surrogate, grasped the opportunity of his gold medal triumph in the 10m synchro event to push for change.

Daley, who won gold with team-mate Daniel Goodfellow, said sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex are criminalised in 37 Commonwealth countries.

Daley voiced his concerns about the treatment of homosexuals in large parts of the Commonwealth, whose athletes are gathered on Australia's Gold Coast for the ongoing Games.

"Hopefully, I know this might sound a bit political, but by the next Commonwealth Games (in Birmingham 2022), there are 37 countries in the Commonwealth where it's currently illegal to be who I am, so hopefully we can reduce that number between now and then," Daley told reporters.

"Coming to the Gold Coast and being able to live as an openly gay man is really important and to be able to feel comfortable in who you are when you are standing on that diving board.

"For 37 countries that are here participating that's very much not the case."

Daley said it was time for those Commonwealth countries to change their anti-gay laws.

"You just have to face those things and try and make change," he said.

"There are lots of things that are going to take a long time to change, but I feel with the Commonwealth I think we can really help push some of the other nations to relax their laws on anti-gay sex."

Commonwealth Games Federation CEO David Grevemberg said his organisation was proud of its record on inclusivity.

"At the time of Glasgow 2014, 43 Commonwealth countries criminalised same sex activity, but today, that number has been reduced to 37," Grevemberg said Friday.

"We hope that the Commonwealth sports movement is playing a meaningful role in the wider global conversation around tolerance, empowerment and legal recognition for all."

Daley's comments were backed by New Zealand boxer Alexis Pritchard, who wore rainbow socks in support of gay rights in her 57kg semi-final on Friday.

"I think it's particularly sad that people cannot love who they want to love," she told AFP.

"It's important that each and every individual has rights to receive love and give love to the people that they choose.

"I find it absolutely sad that we are not open to that in so many nations."

The penalties for private, consensual sexual conduct between same-sex adults remain harsh in a number of Commonwealth countries, including imprisonment, hard labour and in some cases flogging.

The Commonwealth countries that outlaw homosexuality include Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tonga.

Switzerland approves extradition to US of FIFA's Eduardo Li

Yahoo – AFP, 29 Sep 2015

The Swiss justice ministry approves the extradition to the United States of the
former head of the Costa Rican Football Federation Eduardo Li, pictured on
May 17, 2011 (AFP Photo/Rodrigo Arangua)

Geneva (AFP) - The Swiss justice ministry on Tuesday approved the extradition to the United States of Costa Rican national Eduardo Li, one the FIFA officials whose arrest in May ignited an unprecedented crisis in world football.

"The Federal Office of Justice (FoJ) has approved the extradition of Eduardo Li to the USA. The Costa-Rican citizen has 30 days in which to appeal to the Swiss Federal Criminal Court against the FOJ's ruling," a statement said.

Li, the former head of the Costa Rican Football Federation, was one of seven FIFA officials arrested in Zurich on May 27 following a US indictment on charges that he took bribes while selling football television rights.

"Li massively influenced the competitive situation and distorted the market for media rights in connection with the World Cup qualifying matches," said the FoJ statement.

"Other sports marketing companies were placed at a disadvantage. Furthermore, among other things the Costa Rican Football Federation was prevented from negotiating marketing agreements which might have been more favourable."

The FoJ said that "all of the conditions for extradition" had been fulfilled.

Swiss authorities had already approved the extradition to the US to face the same charges of others arrested in the corruption sting -- former Venezuelan Football Federation president Rafael Esquivel and Uruguayan former FIFA vice-president Eugenio Figueredo, while the former president of the Nicaraguan Football Federation Julio Rocha agreed last month to be extradited back to his home country.

Although not among the seven arrested, FIFA president Sepp Blatter is being investigated by Swiss prosecutors over the sale of World Cup television rights and a $2 million (1.8 million euros) payment to UEFA president Michel Platini.

Two other former FIFA officials, Jack Warner and American Chuck Blazer, have been banned from all football-related activities for life for their roles in the sale of television rights at grossly deflated values.

Warner is fighting extradition to the US from his home on Trinidad and Tobago while Blazer has turned whistleblower and is assisting US authorities.

US authorities have charged 14 people in relation to more than $150 million (134.5 million euros) in bribes given for television and marketing deals.

FIFA scandal engulfs Blatter and Platini

Yahoo – AFP, Benjamin Simon, 25 Sep 2015

FIFA President Sepp Blatter (L) shakes hands with UEFA president Michel 

Platini after being re-elected following a vote in Zurich on May 29, 2015 (AFP 

Photo/Michael Buholzer)

Zurich (AFP) - The FIFA scandal on Friday engulfed Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, the two most powerful figures in world football, with Swiss prosecutors investigating whether a two million dollar payment from Blatter to the French legend was illegal.

Swiss investigators opened criminal proceedings against FIFA president Blatter and searched his office as they also quizzed UEFA counterpart Platini.

"Swiss criminal proceedings against the President of FIFA, Mr. Joseph Blatter, have been opened on September 24, 2015 on suspicion of criminal mismanagement...and -– alternatively -– misappropriation," said a statement from Switzerland's attorney general's office (OAG).

Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner

 arrives at the Port-of-Spain Magistrates 

court for the extradition hearing against

 him, on September 25, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Alva Viarruel)

Blatter, 79, is standing down because of corruption scandals involving other top officials and Platini had been favourite to win an election to be held in February to succeed him.

The Swiss prosecutor said that "the defendant Joseph Blatter" had been questioned and "the office of the FIFA President has been searched and data seized".

Blatter was questioned as "a suspect". The statement added that Platini had been questioned "as a person called upon to give information".

Platini, 60, has been head of UEFA since January 2007 which made him an automatic FIFA vice-president.

Blatter's lawyer Richard Cullen said in a statement that the FIFA boss was cooperating with Swiss authorities and that a review of the evidence would show "no mismanagement occurred".

Blatter "is suspected of making a disloyal payment of 2.0 million Swiss francs ($2.04 million/1.8 million euros) to Michel Platini, president of Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), at the expense of FIFA," the OAG said.

The alleged payment was made in February 2011 "for work performed between January 1999 and June 2002."

Later Friday, Platini insisted the payment had been for "contractual" work he had carried out.

"Concerning the payment that was made to me, I wish to state that this amount relates to work which I carried out under a contract with FIFA," said the UEFA boss.

"I was pleased to have been able to clarify all matters relating to this with the authorities."

FIFA this month suspended Blatter's right-hand man Jerome Valcke after he 

was accused of involvement in an accord to sell tickets for the 2014 World Cup 

at inflated prices (AFP Photo/Sebastien Bozon)

He added: "I also made clear to the Swiss authorities that since I live in Switzerland I am available to speak with them any time to clarify any matters relating to the investigations."

Friday's dramatic turn of events came after a press conference, that Blatter was scheduled to give, was cancelled.

Platini is a former Blatter ally who turned against the veteran Swiss sports baron over the past 18 months as FIFA's troubles mounted.

The investigation is also into Blatter's links with Jack Warner, a former FIFA vice-president now at the centre of a US investigation.

The attorney general said Blatter was suspected of making a deal "unfavourable to FIFA" with the Caribbean Football Union, which Warner used as his power base.

'Properly prepared'

According to Blatter's lawyer Cullen, who is based in Virginia, that contract was "properly prepared and negotiated" by FIFA staff with responsibility for such matters.

A Trinidad court on Friday announced that it would rule on December 2 on whether Warner should be extradited to the United States.

Warner is one of 14 soccer officials and business executives charged by US prosecutors of involvement in more than $150 million in bribes for football broadcasting and marketing deals.

Nearly all of the suspects are from central and South America. Until recent days, FIFA's top leadership had escaped accusations flying around the world body, which earns $5 billion from the World Cup.

Swiss officials arrested seven FIFA officials, who are among the US suspects, on May 27 in Zurich just ahead of the world body's congress.

Blatter was re-elected to a fifth term at the congress despite the storm but then announced on June 4 that he would stand down.

Since then FIFA has announced steps to make reforms but have been shaken by new corruption claims.

A TV crew prepares to film in front of 

the FIFA logo at the FIFA headquarters

 on September 25, 2015 in Zurich (AFP

Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)

FIFA this month suspended Blatter's right-hand man Jerome Valcke after he was accused of involvement in an accord to sell tickets for the 2014 World Cup at inflated prices.

Valcke strongly denied the allegations but FIFA handed over emails from the suspended secretary general that had been demanded by the Swiss attorney general.

He is also under suspicion over what he knew about a $10 million payment from the South African FA to an account controlled by Warner through FIFA in 2008.

US prosecutors believe it was a bribe intended to get Caribbean support for South Africa's bid for 2010 World Cup.

Swiss prosecutors are also looking into FIFA's award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively. Both have strongly denied any wrongdoing in their campaigns to secure the tournaments.

US attorney general Loretta Lynch made it clear this month that her department's inquiry was growing and more major charges could be expected.

From Blatter to Webb: Key players in the #FIFA scandal pic.twitter.com/uzwQ09Eeum

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) 25 september 2015

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Former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner arrested in FIFA bribery scandal

Former FIFA executive Jack Warner has surrendered to authorities in Trinidad and Tobago as a massive scandal charging top officials with bribery continues to unfold. Warner has denied any wrongdoing.

Deutsche Welle, 28 May 2015

Former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner was arrested late Wednesday in Trinidad and Tobago, the latest high-profile figure to be ensnared in a sweeping corruption scandal charging top soccer federation leaders took $150 million (137 million euros) in bribes and kickbacks over more than 20 years.

US prosecutors allege Warner accepted bribes during host selections for the 1998 and 2010 World Cups, held in France and South Africa respectively.

Prosecutors say Warner, in a scheme to fix the voting for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, directed a family member to fly to Paris to "accept a briefcase containing bundles of U.S. currency in $10,000 stacks in a hotel room from a high-ranking South African bid committee official."

The 72-year-old Warner initially protested his innocence on Facebook, but later turned himself in to authorities. He was granted $2.5 million bail and was expected to be held overnight Wednesday. Warner has denied any wrongdoing.

Warner's arrest follows the announcement Wednesday of racketeering and other charges against top FIFA executives, several of whom were arrested in a Zurich hotel. Six of those arrested are fighting extradition to the United States, according to the Swiss justice ministry.

The indicted "were expected to uphold the rules that keep soccer honest and to protect the integrity of the game," said US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who formally announced the charges.

"Instead, they corrupted the business of worldwide soccer to serve their interests and to enrich themselves," Lynch said.

AFC backs Blatter

FIFA chairman Sepp Blatter has resisted 

calls to step down amid the scandal

Meanwhile, FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who is facing a reelection vote this Friday, has not been targeted in the investigation.

"Let me be clear: such misconduct has no place in football and we will ensure that those who engage in it are put out of the game," Blatter said after the scandal broke.

UEFA, European soccer's governing body, has called for Friday's vote to be postponed, saying the FIFA congress and presidential election risked becoming "farce," the Asian Football Confederation, a key ally of Blatter, insisted Thursday that the FIFA congress and presidential election go ahead as initially planned.

The AFC "expresses its disappointment and sadness at Wednesday's events in Zurich whilst opposing any delay in the FIFA presidential elections," a statement from the AFC said.

"Furthermore, the AFC reiterates its decision taken at the AFC Congress in Sao Paulo in 2014, endorsed at subsequent congresses in Melbourne and Manama in 2015, to support FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter."

Despite not having UEFA's support, Blatter is expected to easily win re-election as he is supported by a wide majority of 209 national soccer federations that will cast ballots Friday.

bw/jil (AFP, AP, Reuters)

China's first lady shines on LatAm trip with Xi

France24 – AFP, 2 June 2013

Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan (R) is seen alongside Trinidad and Tobago PM
Kamla Persad-Bissessar (L) in Port-of-Spain, on June 1, 2013. Peng has
turned the trip into a media sensation

AFP - President Xi Jinping made history as the first Chinese leader to visit Trinidad and Tobago, but it is his glamorous wife Peng Liyuan who has turned the trip into a media sensation.

Peng is stealing the spotlight as she joins Xi on the visit to the dual island country off the coast of Venezuela, the first stop on a tour that will also take the couple to Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States.

Neither rain, the throngs jostling to see the visitors, nor the constant burst of camera flashes chronicling her public appearances flustered the impeccably dressed Chinese first lady, a former opera star fluent in English.

"She's a very beautiful person, very warm, and to chat with her in English was very wonderful," gushed Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar after meeting Peng.

Peng understands the celebrity life: before Xi's rise to power she was a well-known soprano who toured the world promoting Chinese opera and music. For 24 years she also starred in an annual Lunar New Year gala broadcast on Chinese state television.

Pictures of Peng are prominent in the official handouts distributed ahead of Xi's visit. In one photo, Peng appears in her army uniform singing to a crowd of People's Liberation Army soldiers.

"She began as an ordinary soldier, but with her vocal talent later performed during frontline tours to boost morale during the Sino-Vietnamese border conflicts" of the 1980s, according to her official biography. From that reportedly humble beginning, she rose through the ranks to become an army general.

Peng has been compared to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy's wife, pop singer Carla Bruni, but the best regional comparison is Angelica Rivera, the ex-soap star queen wife of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Both women were better known than their husbands before they rose to power, and both brought glamor to first lady positions that had long been relegated to background roles.

The wives of China's leaders kept low profiles since the 1970s downfall of Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's last wife and member of the Gang of Four, blamed for many of the Cultural Revolution excesses. Liu Yongqing, the wife of Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao, often accompanied the Chinese president on overseas trips but did non cultivate a public persona.

Peng, 50, met Xi through a mutual friend and married her in 1987, according to the official biography. Their only daughter, Xi Mingze, was born in 1992 and is reportedly a student at Harvard University.

China has been focusing on Latin America in recent years as the world's second biggest economy taps into the region's mineral and oil wealth to fuel growth.

China has enormous energy demands, and Trinidad and Tobago is rich in oil and natural gas, and on Saturday the Asian giant and the tiny Caribbean nation, with a population of 1.3 million, signed a agreements on economic cooperation and cultural exchanges.

It was the first visit by a Chinese head of state to Trinidad
and Tobago

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China leader Xi Jinping in Trinidad and Tobago

BBC News, 1 June 2013

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It was the first visit by a Chinese head of state
to Trinidad and Tobago

Chinese President Xi Jinping has held meetings with the leaders of Trinidad and Tobago.

Mr Xi is the first Chinese head of state to visit the Caribbean nation.

The leaders of the two countries said their talks had focused on improving co-operation in the energy sector. Trinidad and Tobago has large oil and natural gas resources, while China is the world's largest consumer of energy.

Mr Xi is also travelling to Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States.

'Key partner'

"We both agree to actively advance co-operation in key areas of energy, minerals and infrastructure development and also to advance our cooperation in new energy, telecommunications and agriculture," Mr Xi said after meeting Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Ms Persad-Bissessar said her country sees China "as a key business partner and potential new market for our energy products".

Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine said Trinidad was hoping to benefit from China's strategy "to move the country away from coal and towards natural gas".

Mr Xi also announced that China would loan Trinidad and Tobago $250m (£165m) to build a children's hospital.

Trade between the two countries has been growing, with figures from the International Monetary Fund suggesting it has gone up from $174m to $450m over the last six years.

On Sunday, Mr Xi will meet with Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla.

Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan (R) is seen alongside Trinidad and Tobago PM
Kamla Persad-Bissessar (L) in Port-of-Spain, on June 1, 2013. Peng has
turned the trip into a media sensation

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China's first lady shines on LatAm trip with Xi

Former FIFA Kingpin Allegedly Stole Australia Cash

Jakarta Globe, Agence France-Presse, April 23, 2013

Former FIFA vice president Warner resigned as Trinidad and Tobago\'s
national security minister on Sunday, two days after an investigation
 accused him of \"fraudulent\" management of the Concacaf soccer
confederation. (Reuters Photo/Andrea De Silva)

               

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Sydney. Football Federation Australia demanded answers on Tuesday after a $462,000 donation it made to a Caribbean soccer organization was allegedly stolen by disgraced former FIFA kingpin Jack Warner.

The incident was detailed in a damning integrity report by the Caribbean, North and Central American international football body, Concacaf, that accuses Warner of enriching himself through fraud.

The report compiled by several former judges into the financial management of Concacaf relates to when Warner, a former vice-president of FIFA who quit in 2011 after being accused of paying bribes, headed the organization.

It said FFA paid a check into a Caribbean bank account maintained by Concacaf in 2010 to help the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation improve a center of excellence.

The donation was part of Australia’s attempt to demonstrate its international football credentials during its failed bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

But the account was allegedly controlled by Warner who pocketed the money and never declared it to Concacaf, the report said.

“The committee concluded that Warner committed fraud and misappropriated funds that were sent by Football Federation Australia to Concacaf for development of the COE,” the integrity report said. “[He] breached his fiduciary duties to Concacaf through fraud and misappropriation of funds.”

Warner, who stepped down as Concacaf president in 2011, denies any wrongdoing but resigned as Trinidad and Tobago’s minister of security over the weekend.

Media in Australia said the donation raised questions about the FFA’s decision to give lucrative grants to football organizations headed by influential FIFA officials previously accused of corruption.

But an FFA spokesman told AFP the cash was donated with “complete transparency” and Australian football authorities only became aware it had allegedly been misused when the Concacaf report came out on Friday.

“FFA is currently considering the findings of the Concacaf Integrity Committee report,” said the FFA’s chief spokesman. “FFA has assisted Concacaf in this investigation and yesterday wrote to Concacaf regarding next steps.”

He said the funding “related to the mandatory FIFA World Cup bidding criteria.”

“FFA was required to demonstrate its credentials in the area of international development,” he said, adding that all funding was reported to the Australian government.

Despite a $45 million grant from the government and intense lobbying, Australia managed to secure just one vote when the FIFA executive committee decided the 2022 hosts.

Qatar was controversially awarded the hosting rights.

Agence France-Presse

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Gay Jamaicans launch legal action over island's homophobic laws

Landmark case seeks to abolish colonial-era 'buggery' laws and stop murders and violent attacks on Caribbean homosexuals

The Guardian, Owen Bowcott and Maya Wolfe-Robinson, Friday 26 October 2012

Jamaican prime minister Portia Simpson Miller has condemned discrimination
 but not yet attempted to repeal the homophobic laws. Photograph: Collin Reid/AP

Two gay Jamaicans have launched a legal challenge to colonial-era laws, which in effect criminalise homosexuality, on the grounds that they are unconstitutional and promote homophobia throughout the Caribbean.

The landmark action, supported by the UK-based Human Dignity Trust, is aimed at removing three clauses of the island's Offences Against Persons Act of 1864, commonly known as the "buggery" laws.

The battle over the legislation – blamed by critics for perpetuating a popular culture of hatred for "batty boys", as gay men are derided in some dancehall music – has also drawn a British lawyer into the debate, who said that Jamaica should not follow the legislative example of the UK.

The legal challenge is being taken to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is modelled on the European Court of Human Rights. Jamaica is not a full member and any ruling would only be advisory and not binding; it would, nonetheless, send out a strong signal of international disapproval.

When the Jamaican prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, was elected last December, she said she would hire a gay person to serve in her cabinet and condemned discrimination. Despite early sympathetic signals, her government has not attempted to repeal the laws.

The Offences Against Persons Act does not formally ban homosexuality but clause 76 provides for up to 10 years' imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for anyone convicted of the "abominable crime of buggery committed either with mankind or any animal". Two further clauses outlaw attempted buggery and gross indecency between two men.

Jamaica has one of the highest murder rates in the world. Murders of gay men are increasing, according to Dane Lewis, executive director of the Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-Flag), who is one of those petitioning the commission.

"This year alone there have been nine [murders]," he said. "The violence in Jamaica is having a spillover effect on other parts of the Caribbean: St Lucia now has a murder or so every year."

One prominent victim was John Terry, the British honorary consul in Montego Bay, who was found dead in 2009 having been beaten and strangled. A note left on his body read: "This is what will happen to all gays."

Many gay Jamaicans have fled abroad, some to the UK. In 2002, two gay Jamaican men were granted asylum in the UK because their lives were in danger from "severe homophobia" in the Caribbean.

Senior Jamaican police officers have in the past dismissed killings as the result of gay-on-gay "crimes of passion" – an interpretation disputed by civil rights groups.

In a House of Lords debate this week on the treatment of homosexual men and women in the developing world, the Conservative Lord Lexden said a "wave of persecution and violence has been suffered by gay people connected with [J-Flag]". Intolerance of homosexuality, he noted, was a legacy of the British empire: "Today, 42 of the 54 nations of the Commonwealth criminalise same-sex relations."

Jonathan Cooper, a London barrister who is the chief executive of the Human Dignity Trust, said: "We want to ensure that Jamaica satisfies its international human rights treaty obligations. We are supporting J-Flag in this case.

"These, and two accompanying cases supported by Aids-Free World, are the first cases before the Inter-American Commission but the issue is clear in international human rights law."

The UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Jamaica is a signatory, protects private adult, consensual sexual activity.

J-Flag has also received free pro-bono advice from the UK City law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in drawing up their legal challenge.

One of the main bodies arguing to preserve the Offences Against Person Act is the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship in Jamaica (which has no connection to the UK Lawyers' Christian Fellowship).

Paul Diamond, a British barrister and Evangelical Christian who specialises in religious discrimination cases, took part in a debate on Jamaica's laws at the University of the West Indies last December.

"[Jamaicans] feel they are being pressurised by the UK and US governments in terms of visas and aid grants to modify their position [on homosexuality], which they say is morally based," Diamond told the Guardian. "I told them that England has totally failed in finding any balance between religious [and civil] freedoms."

The prime minister's office in Jamaica did not respond to enquiries.

Anti-gay laws in the Caribbean

While Jamaica holds the crown for being the worst place in the Americas to be gay, the rest of the English-speaking Caribbean has a long history of homophobia. The British colonial administration entrenched "buggery laws" in its colonies, many of which remain in some form.

The Bahamas criminalises same-sex activity between adults in public, although not in private. Jamaican, Guyanese and Grenadian laws do not mention lesbianism, but Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Antigua and St Lucia prohibit all acts of homosexuality.

Trinidad and Tobago's state-sponsored homophobia extends further through immigration laws prohibiting "prostitutes, homosexuals or persons living on the earnings of prostitutes or homosexuals, or persons reasonably suspected as coming to Trinidad and Tobago for these or any other immoral purposes" from entering the country.

Although the law is not enforced, there were attempts from Christian groups to prevent Elton John headlining the Tobago Jazz Festival in 2007. Church leaders were worried about the singer's potential influence on the "impressionable minds" of the island's young people.

Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos islands were forced to repeal their sodomy laws in 2000, when Britain issued an order to its overseas territories, which it had to do to meet international treaty obligations.

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Trinidad and Tobago murder statistics banned

BBC News, 10 October 2012

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Jack Warner, a former Fifa
 vice-president, is a well-known
figure in the Caribbean

Police in Trinidad and Tobago have been ordered to stop releasing murder statistics.

National Security Minister Jack Warner said reports of violence encouraged people to commit more crime.

He accused the opposition PNM party of using official police information to encourage mayhem in the Caribbean country.

Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams said that he would ignore the order.

Mr Williams said the police would continue to fulfil their legal obligation of disseminating information on murders and other crime on the islands.

Mr Warner's comments have led to angry reactions in Trinidad and Tobago, particularly among members of the PNM party.

'Domino effect'

Jack Warner is a well-known, albeit controversial, figure in the Caribbean.

He was appointed as national security minister in his native Trinidad and Tobago in June, a year after resigning as vice-president of the world's football body, Fifa.

He had been accused of paying bribes to Caribbean football associations. Mr Warner denies any wrongdoing.

His comments on crime in Trinidad and Tobago came after the murder of a young man in a violent area of the country.

The order was meant as a temporary measure to tackle crime, Mr Warner said.

"The intent of this measure is to seek to ensure that crime statistics are not sensationalised, thereby acting as a domino effect in certain hot spot areas," he said in a statement.

"The issue is not about withholding the statistics. It is about the management of the sensitive information that has the potential to inflame additional crime - particularly when treating the issue of gangs."

Drug-related violence is a major problem in Trinidad and Tobago, which has become a shipment point for cocaine coming from South America.

Bahamas celebrate Relay gold

The Bahamas stormed to gold in the men's 4 x 400m Relay final at the Olympic Stadium tonight.

London2012.com, 10 August 2012

Bahamas celebrate gold success. Chris Brown, Demetrius Pinder, Michael
Mathieu and Ramon Miller celebrate winning gold in the men's 4 x 400m
Relay final on Day 14 at London 2012.

The quartet of Chris Brown, Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller clocked a winning time of 2:56.72.

The USA finished second to claim silver, with Trinidad and Tobago in third.

Miller said afterwards: 'The US guys know we've been just behind them or thereabouts for a long time, but it's amazing we are finally taking home the gold.

'This is for everyone back home. We can't wait to celebrate.'

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New spy agency soon in Trinidad & Tobago

Newsday, By NALINEE SEELAL Thursday, February 3 2011

AN IMPLEMENTATION committee to facilitate the merger of the Special Anti-Crime Unit (SAUTT), the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA) and the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) into one legal corporate body known as the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) will be put in place at the end of March.

Government sources revealed yesterday that the committee will comprise senior persons from the three units, as well as a foreign consultant. According to well placed sources, the committee will be responsible for disbanding the three units, choosing staff needed for the NIA and pooling together all machinery to have the NIA up and running.

When the committee completes this exercise, the recommendations will be taken to Parliament for the NIA to become the legal corporate body. However, in order to facilitate the formation of the NIA, Parliament should abolish the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) and the Act that created this agency should be repealed and replaced by the National Intelligence Agency Act, a Government source said yesterday. This body should be in place by September.

This means hundreds of persons employed at the three agencies could be out of jobs because of the duplication taking place. According to the Government source, at the end of March 31, police and Defence Force officers who were seconded to SAUTT will be required to return to the service which they came from, while the foreign police officers’ contracts at SAUTT will be terminated.

Retired officers who work on contract at SAUTT will report to the implementation committee, pending the merger of the three units. Newsday understands the headquarters for the NIA will be Riverside Plaza in Port-of-Spain, which now houses the SAUTT.

Yesterday operatives at the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) told Newsday while they have no problem with change, because change is inevitable, they feel that some of them may be victimised for various reasons, and they are eager to find out if they will be absorbed into the NIA or be given an excellent compensation package.