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Bajan Newscap 3/7/2017

Good Morning #realdreamchasers! Here is your daily news cap for Tuesday 7th March 2017. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Today (BT) or by purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).

CYBER WAR - The ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) is giving itself a pat on the back following last weekend’s mid-year conference at which Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and members of his Cabinet sought to present the ‘facts’ about Government’s performance over the past nine years. “The point must be made that the party is busy doing the research to determine the date and time such an event occurred under the last administration where ‘live’ unedited reports were delivered by Cabinet members,” said DLP General Secretary George Pilgrim in a press statement issued Monday following Saturday’s event held at Queen’s College. “This party has placed on record a live report to the people of Barbados and ensured that all presentations were uploaded for further dissemination,” he added. At the same time, Pilgrim accused the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) of waging a campaign of “fear and corrosion” and of using “paid operatives” to peddle “mistruths” about the country by way of social media. “The wedge of disunity that has become the political tool of the Opposition has reached an all point low in recent past. Barbadians should take note that despite [having] the unemployment figure below double digit in the recent past, the Barbados Labour Party released an unemployment figure online that the Government had sent home 33,500 people over their period in office,” Pilgrim said, while suggesting that “this kind of distortion has become the norm for the Opposition”. He also warned that the DLP was not about to lie down and play dead. “Barbadians can be rest assured that this party will not be idle as the paid mischief makers in Opposition earn a salary as they unmake the profile of Barbados. “The Democratic Labour Party will soon launch phase two of its movement to sensitize Barbadians to the facts of the nation’s progress over the last nine years. “The massive distortion online has the attention of the Democratic Labour Party’s Councils and we shall not let it gain currency. The idea of berating our country and laying claim to love of Barbados is a political paradox. The party very soon will communicate to Barbados on our FACT movement,” he added. (BT)

FED UP WITH DEM – With general elections about a year away, a retired Democratic Labour Party (DLP) politician and senior attorney said Barbadians are fed up with the party he once served in Parliament. At the same time, former Minister of Justice Keith Simmons, QC, suggested voters were caught between the devil and the deep blue sea based on the choices for prime minister, and this could result in widespread voter apathy come the next election. Simmons, who served as minister in several other capacities, including health, education, labour and youth, told Barbados TODAY while people have had enough of the Freundel Stuart-led DLP administration, the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) under the leadership of fellow attorney-at-law Mia Mottley has failed to inspire energy among disillusioned voters, which means a large percentage of them will stay away from the polls at the next election. “Mia Mottley is not getting any traction and the problem is disillusionment among the electorate. Unfortunately people are fed up with the DLP, so we have a serious problem . . . . I believe that the turnout at the next general election will be the lowest in the history of Barbados because people are fed up with politicians on both sides. From my experience of walking the road, a lot of people are not going to vote. If they get a turnout of 45 per cent they are lucky,” a frank-speaking Simmons said. There have been no recent opinion polls to measure the public’s mood; however, the last poll published in February 2016 found that 62 per cent of Barbadians wanted a change of Government. That poll, conducted by Systematic Marketing & Research Services, found only 20 per cent support for the Stuart administration and 40 per cent backing for the BLP, with 34 per cent refusing to divulge their party of choice. It also found that Mottley had a 21 per cent approval rating – down from 48 per cent approval in a public opinion poll published by CADRES in 2015 – four points better than Stuart’s 17 per cent approval rating. However, the DLP administration has since come in for widespread public criticism and ridicule over its handling of a number of issues, not least of which is the economy, which last Friday suffered its 18th downgrade since the party assumed power in 2008. In the wide ranging interview with Barbados TODAY, Simmons stopped just short of accusing parliamentarians from both sides of showing nothing but contempt for the Barbadian public, accusing the politicians of being concerned only about their pensions. It was for this reason, Simmons said, he was in favour of a system where voters could recall their parliamentary representatives if they were dissatisfied with the quality of representation they were receiving. “My view is that our politicians, not only now, but for a long time, have not been telling the people the truth . . . . As a matter of fact I feel politicians on both sides just laugh at people because when they win a seat they forget about the people. They get a good salary and after ten years they get a pension. That’s not good enough. There should be a recall system in place in Barbados.” (BT)

BLP PROMISES TO PLUG MONEY PRINTING LOOPHOLE - If the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) wins the next general election, the final decision on the printing of money will no longer be left solely at the discretion of either the Governor of the Central Bank or the Minister of Finance, but will have to be approved by Parliament. “We have determined as a political party, that the Barbados Labour Party, when elected, will end the arbitrary and discretionary power of either a minister of finance or a governor of the Central Bank to print money without first seeking the approval of Parliament,” BLP spokesman Kerrie Symmonds has revealed. His comments came on the heels of the recent firing of Central Bank Governor Dr DeLisle Worrell at the height of a public fallout with Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler over the printing of money and the need for major expenditure cuts. This led to a two-week legal battle, which ended in the Governor’s sacking and Government reaffirmation of its rights in the matter. However, addressing a BLP constituency meeting at his Hoyte’s Village office last night, Symmonds suggested that both Sinckler and Worrell were to blame for the current threats posed to the island’s monetary stability, as he accused them of “acting hand in glove with one another”. “That authority [the printing of money] must now be subjected to a rein in to make sure that Parliament now has oversight, that this can’t be a runaway way of financing Government expenditure,” the St James Central representative said. “It must come to an end. It must never happen again in Barbados,” he stressed in reference to the now widely criticized practice of printing money to pay salaries and other bills. In light of last Friday’s latest downgrade by the international credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s, Symmonds further charged that the Freundel Stuart Government has been “reckless” in terms of its management of the country’s affairs. He also warned that this would affect future generations, who stand to inherit a Barbados that is “deeply and profoundly crippled by debt”. Earlier during the meeting, Symmonds’ colleague Edmund Hinkson warned that S&P lowering of Barbados’ sovereign bonds from ‘B-’ to ‘CCC+��, was the 18th successive downgrade to occur under the present Democratic Labour Party administration, adding that it “has brought us to the same credit rating level as the Republic of Venezuela”. “Right now Barbados in the eyes of the international financial community is in terms of credit rating is at the same level of the Republic of Venezuela,” the St James North MP lamented, while pointing out that the Spanish-speaking country has been affected by food riots in recent times. (BT)

ARTHUR THINKS HE MAY NOT BE NEEDED – Owen Arthur may end up not being Government’s chief financial economic advisor after all. Days after confirming that he had been approached by Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler to be the new chairman of Government’s Council of Economic Advisors, Arthur has seemingly pulled the plug on any such move. His decision stems from a move by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart last Friday, during a meeting of the Full Social Partnership at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, to name a number of persons to two working groups set up to tackle the issues of the country’s declining foreign reserves and a skyrocketing fiscal deficit. Stuart named Roseanne Myers, president of the Barbados Hotel Tourism Association, and Donna Wellington, president of the Bankers’ Association, to the Foreign Reserves Working Group, while David Small and Charles Herbert, chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Agency, were named to serve on the Fiscal Deficit Working Group. (DN)

LIZ: GOOD MOVE BY OWEN – A former minister in an Owen Arthur administration is lauding the former Prime Minister’s decision to accept an offer from Government to chair the country’s next economic advisory committee. According to former Minister of Health Liz Thompson, Arthur has shown he is a true proponent of the politics of inclusion. “In 1994, when he became Prime Minister, Mr Arthur drew all sorts of talented and skilled people to assist in the recovery of the country without consideration to partisan politics. He called it the ‘politics of inclusion’. “It was his opinion that in a small country with limited human resources and skill pools, a government must draw on all its citizens and talent, irrespective of political affiliation. It served the BLP [Barbados Labour Party] and the country well,” Thompson told the DAILY NATION in a recent interview. (DN)

NEW POLITICAL PARTIES BUILDING THEIR TEAM – Teams for the two new political parties seeking to unseat the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) are starting to take shape. The United Progressive Party (UPP) is putting its group together and soon the public will know more about its candidates. Party leader and former minister in an Owen Arthur Barbados Labour Party administration, Lynette Eastmond, told the DAILY NATION that on Saturday, the UPP released the name of its first candidate – Craig Harewood. An investment manager by profession, he will be battling incumbent MP Dwight Sutherland in St George South. Meanwhile, Grenville Phillips II, of Solutions Barbados, said his party had secured 16 candidates who were in place to contest the next general election, which is constitutionally due by early next year. (DN)

VIRTUALLY UNKNOWN DLP HOPEFUL FACES GRILLING - A battle may be brewing within the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) for a candidate to challenge Kerrie Symmonds of the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) in St James Central. Symmonds unseated the DLP’s George Hutson in the 2013 election, winning by 2,211 votes to 1,990 by Hutson, avenging his defeat to Hutson in 2008. However, signs are beginning to emerge that the DLP St James Central branch is looking beyond Hutson and is considering the little-known George Connolly. A decision is to be made in two weeks’ time, but when DLP stalwart and former Cabinet minister Keith Simmons shouted from the floor during a branch meeting last night at the Good Shepherd Primary School in Fitts Village, St James, that he did not want Hutson to be the candidate in the general election due in about a year from now, there was little to no protest. However, Simmons, a former Member of Parliament for St James South, did not allow Connolly a free pass, demanding information on the prospective candidate’s background. Little was revealed, except Connolly’s educational achievements – he was educated at the Christ Church Foundation School, the Barbados Community College, studied in Canada and the United Kingdom, and is the holder of an MBA in International Business – and that he was married and was the father of a nine-year-old boy. Connolly faced relentless grilling from party faithful – one person wanted to know if he could handle criticism, to which he replied it was part of life – with those in attendance seemingly unfamiliar with the man who had offered to be their representative in Parliament. However, it was general council member Dr Kevin Kellman who pressed hardest, demanding to know why Connolly wanted to be involved in politics and whether the candidate-in-waiting loved people. “My question to you is, do you love people? The reason why I am asking you that is because I as a doctor am in a profession where that is essential. I believe that in order for you to be effective as a doctor you must have a genuine love for people. “It will show in how you deal with patients and they will speak about it. This is analogous to a politician,” Dr Kellman said, advising Connolly that when voters enter the booth on election day, they vote for candidates to whom they feel connected, not necessarily for policies. In his continued attempt to get to know Connolly, Dr Kellman continued to pose a number of other questions, ranging from the DLP hopeful’s commitment to the constituency to his vision for the people. “Are you prepared to sacrifice your interests and put it on the altar to make sure that your constituents get what they want? Are you prepared to go out there come hell or high water and do the hard work that is necessary? Are you prepared to listen to criticism and not take it personally? Are you prepared to go on the block and engage those fellows on the block? Are you prepared to go into the bars and engage the people in there? Are you prepared to give to the people your vision for them, the constituency and by extension the country at large?” Connolly simply sat and listened while the questions were being fired at him, giving Dr Kellman the last say. “If you are not prepared to do that, be done with it,” the general council member warned, stressing he needed answers in order to give Connolly his full support. (BT)

CITY SPACES PLANS WOULD AFFECT TAXIS – Taxi operators on Lower Broad Street, The City, are earmarked for relocation under proposed changes for Bridgetown, making way for expanded public spaces in the capital. This is one of the recommendations of the Bridgetown Community Plan presented to residents Friday night at Queen’s Park Steel Shed, in the ongoing series of town hall meetings on the amendment to the Physical Development Plan of Barbados. “What we would be proposing here is building on the open space investments such as Jubilee Gardens and Heroes Square, and extending that to new spaces to, for example, the taxi standing area on Broad Street outside of the insurance building,” said Tyler Baker, an associate at consulting firm Urban Strategies Inc. (DN)

DAD DIES SAVING SON – Anderson Dacosta Joseph, who lived to protect his only child, died doing so. The 49-year-old died on the spot after he was involved in a collison with a car on Westmoreland Road, St James, along the Ronald Mapp Highway while crossing the road with his five-year-old son Nazaria Joseph. In a final desperate act on Sunday night, he pushed the infant out of the way and bore the brunt of the impact from the car driven by 19-year-old Nicholii Greene, of Carlton, St James. The former truck driver had just left his regular liming spot, RK’s Catering, with his son in tow. The little boy was transported to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to be treated for a fractured skull and a left leg, which was broken in two places. (DN)

OPPOSITION BLAMES GOVERNMENT FOR DEADLY ROAD CONDITIONS - The Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) says Government needs to shoulder some of the blame for the recent upsurge in deadly road accidents. So far this year, 12 fatalities have been recorded – two more than the ten that occurred for all of last year. While extending condolences to the family of 48-year old Anderson Joseph, who was struck and killed at Westmoreland, St James Sunday night to become the island’s latest road fatality, the BLP’s Shadow Minister of Transport Trevor Prescod said it was clear that the conditions on Barbados’ roads were becoming increasingly treacherous. “To be specific, the poor lighting on our highways, our potholed roads and highways, non-functioning traffic lights, the broken edges of roadways, overhanging bush, and unpainted and lit road crossings among other things,” Prescod said. “Those who travel on our roads and highways on a daily basis can attest to these problems, especially the lack of street lights in too many districts which make driving at night somewhat hazardous,” the BLP representative for St Michael East added. He appealed for urgent action to stop the carnage on our streets, while warning that “one road death is too much, far less 12 in the first ten weeks for this year”. “Will it take someone from a brand name family to die for this Government to be moved to action on this important issue? Does an average Barbadian life no longer matter? “We know we will be accused of being political, but we’re not. The fact is, the breakdown of our road infrastructure has a human dimension. Just ask the loved ones of those horribly snatched away from them. “These are not abstract matters to be treated as temporary inconveniences,” Prescod emphasized, in an apparent jab at Prime Minister Freundel Stuart who had earlier suggested that potholes were just that – temporary inconveniences. While commending the Barbados Road Safety Association for its efforts to educate Barbadians on proper road habits, the BLP spokesman urged Barbadians – whether pedestrians, cyclists or drivers – to be extremely careful in their use of our roads and highways. (BT)

ON THE STREETS – There has been a sudden jump in the number of pregnant women and women with young children joining the ranks of the homeless on the streets of Barbados. Kemar Saffrey, founder and president of the Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society (BVHS), has linked the occurrence to the island’s economic woes, including the tight fiscal constraints of welfare organisations. “There is a drastic increase in women sleeping on the streets between last year and this year,” he told the DAILY NATION. “I won’t even say that it is an increase. It is a sudden thing to us because we are now getting a high level of women and children coming on the streets. So that is not an increase; it just happened,” he revealed. (DN)

BRIDGE CLOSING IN TWO WEEKS – After more than a century years of use, the Joe’s River Bridge in St Joseph is about to be taken out of commission. It will remain that way until about $2.5 million is granted to the Ministry of Transport and Works (MTW) to build a new bridge. Chief Technical Officer at the MTW, Philip Tudor, told the DAILY NATION yesterday the ageing road and bridge were set to be closed in two weeks when an alternative road would be completed. He said the temporary two-lane road would be built at a cost of $75 000 and connect Joe’s River Road and Joy Road. (DN)

NEW WATER COURSE – The chairman of the state-owned Barbados Water Authority (BWA) Monday warned of more streamlining to come, following the appointment of a new general manager on February 15. Barbadian Keith-Roy Halliday officially took over the BWA’s reins last month from former acting general manager Dr John Mwansa, who is now serving in the position of advisor on water augmentation, which includes the use of desalinated water and combatting issues brought on by drought. Brathwaite also revealed that Charles Leslie had been appointed director of engineering and Wayne Richards as the director of projects, as part of the restructured BWA management team headed by Halliday, a former manager at CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank, who has been mandated to take forward the BWA’s strategic reform. He also made reference to the BWA’s five-year strategic plan which is down for discussion between Halliday and other senior BWA staff by the end of this month, saying the new general manager had been asked to pay particular attention to the authority’s financial position, with a number of major investments currently in the works. In terms of its operational costs, Brathwaite said the BWA’s high electricity bill was particularly worrying and must be reduced, while suggesting that the use of photovoltaic technology and other renewable energy options would have to be considered. As for the recent chronic water outages that have affected mainly residents in the north and east of the island, the BWU top official said the situation was being brought under control. He said overall the water transmission system had improved due to various measures that had been introduced, including the purchase of new trucks and the installation of community tanks. (BT)

NORTH KOREA’S MISSILE PROGRAMME EVOLVING - Quicker. Smarter. More dangerous. North Korea’s missile program is evolving, experts say, as the country develops and produces missiles at a faster rate, and deploys them in ways which potentially help evade new and existing defenses. “They did a launch a month ago, they’re now launching [more] in 30 days, that’s a third of the time they used to need,” Carl Schuster, Hawaii Pacific University professor and former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center told CNN. On Monday, North Korea launched four intermediate-range missiles into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, three of which landed within 200 nautical miles of Japan’s coastline and the country’s Japan’s exclusive economic zone. It came less than a month after North Korea launched the Pukguksong-2, a new type of missile which uses solid rocket fuel which allows for faster fueling before launch. Just over five months earlier, they fired three missiles more than 1,000 kilometers [620 miles] into Japan’s air defense zone. “There’s two ways to look at it — one, they’re quicker at doing the [launch] set up [and] they’re quicker at making the missiles and transporting them,” Schuster said. Most experts said North Korea’s missile launch on Monday was in retaliation for the start of South Korea’s annual military drills with the United States on March 1, also known as Foal Eagle. Jeffrey Lewis, adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, told CNN these launches were, in fact, North Korea’s way of signaling that they’re not testing missiles anymore. Lewis said North Korea was demonstrating that any US or South Korean invasion would be met with nuclear force. “The fact that they programmed against the US exercises is a message that now that they have nuclear weapons, on the first day of (a) war, they’re not going to sit. They’re going to use them,” he said. (BT)

SHORTER DETENTION FOR GIRLS AT GIS - Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs Adriel Brathwaite said that changes were coming to the Government Industrial School (GIS) to allow for greater consideration to the individual needs of young women in detention there. Reporting to the Democratic Labour Party conference at the weekend on the work done by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Brathwaite said new legislation would be introduced to reduce the detention time and to provide a halfway home for those who complete their stay, but were not ready to return home. The school houses and seeks to rehabilitate girls under 16 years old who are sent there by the law courts. The minister conceded during Saturday’s event at the Queen’s College auditorium that “all is not perfect at the Girls Industrial School. There are some issues there that I need to address”. He reported that he had requested help from Minister of Housing Denis Kellman to “assist me with developing a type of a half-way facility so that we can transition some of these young people”. The Attorney General explained that some of the released youngsters were “not quite ready to go home”, and a halfway house would ensure Government did not “have to send them back to the same environment they were running away from to begin with”. He added that such a facility “would enable us to spend a bit more time with them and work with them so that when they have to go back home that they are better able to look after themselves”. (BT)

BEHAVE OR ELSE – A 28-year-old man has been ordered to keep the peace and be on his best behaviour for the next three months. If Shane Oneal Thompson does not comply with that order handed down by Magistrate Douglas Frederick, he will have to pay the District ‘A’ Criminal Court $750 forthwith or spend a month in prison. The Hinds Hill, Cave Hill, St Michael resident was sentenced Monday after he admitted to having six grammes of cannabis with an estimated street value of $30, on March 6. Police found the illicit drug in a bird cage in Thompson’s yard, when they executed a search warrant at his home. He admitted that it was his. (BT)

GUYANESE ADMIT TO TRAFFICKING – High Court judge Madam Justice Jacqueline Cornelius has ordered pre-sentencing reports into the lives of two non-nationals who Monday pleaded guilty to several drug charges. Coco Profitt and Paul Fraser, both Guyanese nationals, admitted to possession, trafficking and importation of 14.5 kilogrammes of cocaine and 2.0 kilogrammes of cannabis. Attorney-at-law Samuel Legay represented the men while Principal Crown Counsel Anthony Blackman was the prosecutor on the case. In the facts presented to the court, Blackman revealed that police acting on information boarded the Lady Sandra boat at the Bridgetown Port on September 10, 2015, and conducted a search of the vessel after speaking with the captain. Ten packages with a white substance suspected to be cocaine, along with four packages containing vegetable matter suspected to be cannabis were found at various points on the boat. The captain and the two men who were on the vessel were taken to the Oistins Police Station for questioning. After the substances found were confirmed to be cocaine and cannabis, lawmen asked Profitt to account for it. “I tek a risk and try to bring in weed and cocaine. I was trying to get some money. I am in some financial problems and I owe a lot of people money,” Profitt reportedly told lawmen at the time. Fraser, meanwhile, simply said: “I was trying to make some money.” Their lawyer, Legay, told the judge he would mitigate on his client’s behalf following the delivery of the presentencing report which is expected on April 24. (BT)

BROWNE PLEADS GUILTY TO FIVE-YEAR-OLD DRUGS CHARGES - Dave Ricardo Browne, of Golden Rock, The Pine, St Michael, Monday pleaded guilty to several counts of drug possession. Browne, who has been on remand for 1,688 days, admitted before Madam Justice Jacqueline Cornelius to possession, trafficking and importation of 374.2 kilogrammes of cannabis. The illicit drugs were discovered within the territorial waters of Barbados on July 19, 2012. Members of the Royal Barbados Police Force and the Coast Guard conducted an operation on that day, about five nautical miles off Carlisle Bay. According to Principal Crown Counsel Anthony Blackman, the officers received instructions that saw them following a particular course and they encountered the vessel X67 shortly after. However, the vessel tried a series of manoeuvres in an effort to avoid being intercepted. Lawmen pursued it and it came to a halt about nine nautical miles off Needham’s Point, St Michael. Police secured X67 to their vessel and a search was conducted in the presence of Browne and other persons, and 14 bulky packages were discovered under a tarpaulin. Blackman told the No. 5 Supreme Court that Browne also sustained an injury to his ankle and had to be taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for treatment. While at hospital on July 21, he was interviewed by police and told about their suspicion of what was in the packages. He allegedly said: “I don’t want no lawyer. Give dem other men a brek; dem is mine.” Browne was discharged from hospital that same day and taken to the Oistins Police Station where he was arrested and charged. However, he refused to give a written statement. The sentencing hearing for Browne, who represented himself, continues on April 24. A pre-sentencing report has also been ordered by the judge. (BT)

NO BACK UP – An accused woman who was forced to appear in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court Monday is now on remand at HMP Dodds. Kathy-Ann Browne of Phillips Road, St Stephens Hill, St Michael is charged along with four other women with causing a disturbance in her neighbourhood on May 22 last year. The hairdresser and three others, including a man, are also accused of unlawfully and maliciously wounding Jasmine Neptune. When she made her first appearance back on May 23, 2016, Browne denied the charges and was granted $8,000 bail and given a subsequent court date. However, while her co accused put in appearances before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant, Browne, who is in her 20s, reportedly never showed up. Today, her surety told the magistrate that he had informed Browne that her court date was scheduled for today but she allegedly told him she was “not coming”. When Cuffy-Sargeant informed the surety that he would have to forfeit the bail money, he asked for time to get the accused woman in the dock. He returned sometime later with Browne in tow, and withdrew as her surety. That meant that the accused woman needed to find another person to post her bail, but no suitable surety was presented. She was remanded to jail until April 3. Meantime, in another case, a teenager facing a rape charge was released on bail when he appeared before Cuffy-Sargeant. Ahmal Gregory Elias, of Ventnor Land, Rockley, Christ Church, is accused of the indictable offence of having sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent on November 18, last year. When the 18-year-old, who had been on remand at the St Philip penal institution since December 2016, reappeared in the No.2 Criminal Court today, police prosecutor Sergeant Janice Ifill did not renew her arguments for Elias to be denied bail. As such, the accused was granted $5,000 bail with one surety. However it came with conditions. He has been warned to stay away from the complainant and her residence. Elias must also report to the Worthing Police Station every Thursday before noon with valid identification. The accused returns to court on March 27. (BT)

BDFSP BLANK RENDEZVOUS - The Barbados Defence Force Sports Programme (BDFSP) maintained their relentless pace at the top of the Digicel Premier League with another emphatic win at the Wildey AstroTurf on Sunday. BDFSP resoundingly thumped Rendezvous 5-0, thanks to a brace from Rashad Jules, coupled with strikes from Raheim Sargeant and Shaquille Boyce, plus a Roy Richards own goal. In the earlier game, Ellerton took advantage of some profligate Paradise finishing to claim their second win of the season. Goals from their main threat Shakille Belle in the 55th and 72nd minutes, were enough to guarantee three precious points for the St George side despite Ackeel Applewaite pulling a goal back for Paradise in the 89th. (DN)

PINELANDS SHUT OUT SONICS – What super team? The champs are still the ones in power. Jeremy Gill scored 26 points, including a back-breaking trey in the final minute, as reigning Co-operators General Insurance Basketball Premier League kings Orange 3 Pinelands held on for Sunday’s 70-66 win over Urban Vybz St John’s Sonics. It served as a huge statement win at the Barbados Community College for the champs, who were starting to be discounted as favourites following Sonics’ huge offseason makeover. But the Pine sent a message to the would-be contenders, and the rest of the league, having led from start to finish after putting down each of St John’s rallies. (DN)

“LIL MAN” BIG IN SILVER HILL – Antonio “LIL MAN” Daniel is now the big man of Silver Hill. The surreal attacker claimed his first Silver Hill Road Tennis Championship title in front of a massive crowd on Sunday night at the Silver Hill court by dismissing three-time champion Mark “Venom” Griffith 21-18, 23-21. Daniel had returned to the tennis arena in the 2014 Silver Hill competition with the sole mission of beating the highly dangerous Griffith. The heavy set entertainer did just that but lost the finals to the evergreen Julian “Michael Jackson” White. Reaching the finals in 2015, Daniel was whipped by Griffith, who claimed his third title. (DN)

VALERY NETBALL QUEENS – Before they were officially announced as the winners of the inaugural Burger King/Sky Mall Community Netball Festival, Valery supporters began celebrating. For their efforts they were presented with the winners’ trophy and the grand prize of $3 000 after edging Newbury All Stars Ballers 26-23 in an exciting final at the Sky Mall court on Sunday night. Despite the inclement weather, and the hard spills some of the women took in an effort to secure their team’s victory, the Brittons Hill side, which featured Barbados centre-court player Sabreena Smith, her daughter Jada Smith and sisters Latonia and Nadia Blackman, netted the majority of acolades. In addition to the grand prize, in the seniors division, Valery’s Jada Smith captured the prize for most disciplined player, while her mother Sabreena earned the most valuable player award. (DN)

PORTMAN GIVES BIRTH TO 2ND CHILD – Actress Natalie Portman had a great reason for missing last Sunday’s Oscar ceremony. She gave birth to her second child last week but kept the new arrival quiet in the days leading up to the Academy Awards show. Portman, 35, gave birth to daughter Amalia on February 22, her publicist said in a statement issued to People magazine on Friday. Portman, who keeps a low public profile, had said through her publicist a week ago that because of her pregnancy, she would not be attending the February 26 Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles, where she was nominated in the lead actress category for her performance in Jackie. “Natalie Portman and her husband Benjamin Millepied welcomed a baby girl, Amalia Millepied, on February 22,” Friday’s statement said. “Mother and baby are happy and healthy.” Portman and French choreographer Millepied have a five-year-old son, Aleph. They were married in California in 2012. Portman had been an early Oscar favourite for her performance as former U.S. first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie but the best actress Oscar went instead to La La Land star Emma Stone. (DN)

That’s all for today folks. There are 297 days left in the year Shalom! #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #bajannewscaps #newscapsbystephaniefchase

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