. . . foreign criminals offered up to £5000 if they agree to go home
DAILY MAIL/ JAMIACA OBSERVER – Thousands of foreign criminals are being offered credit cards preloaded with more than £450 of taxpayers’ cash if they agree to return home.

Rapists, muggers and burglars are being offered the astonishing perk as part of a package worth up to £5,000 designed to ‘bribe’ them to leave the UK.

The credit cards are loaded with money which the convicts can spend as soon as they leave British soil.

The remainder of the windfall is payable ‘in kind’ when they return home, and can include cash to set up a business.

Shadow Justice Secretary, Dominic Grieve said: “This is simply outrageous. It is bad enough that Gordon Brown lost control of our borders and has let thousands of foreign criminals into the country.

“Now we learn that foreign prisoners are being given cash cards loaded with hundreds of pounds of taxpayers’ money. The lesson is clear: under Labour, crime pays and the taxpayer foots the bill.”

Details of the preloaded cash card emerged in Parliamentary answers. It lays bare the Government’s desperation to hit a target set by Gordon Brown to remove thousands of foreign criminals every year.

The prisoners receive £46 in cash to spend in Britain. They are then given the card containing £454 to spend overseas. It builds upon the existing policy of bribes.

One in four of the foreign criminals who was deported last year only went home after being offered one of the special payments.

The card can be used as a chip-and-pin and could even be used to buy duty-free gifts on the way home.

Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said: “Our Facilitated Returns Scheme saves the taxpayer money because foreign criminals are removed directly from jail or immigration detention, often before their sentence ends.

“This means foreign lawbreakers cannot drag out the removal process for months with frivolous appeals which clog up the legal system.

“Every day that we can get these individuals out of the country early saves taxpayers over £100 a night in detention costs.

Last year we removed a record 5,400 foreign national prisoners.” The scheme began in October 2006 to encourage foreign criminals to return to their home country once they have passed the point in their sentence when they would be released if they were British.

Assistance is provided up to a maximum of £5,000 for serving foreign criminals who go home shortly before their jail term is complete, and £3,000 for those who have finished their sentence.

The maximum grant has repeatedly been increased since it was introduced

at £800 three years ago.

Officials argue it is cheaper than trying to force the convicts to go home.

There is no guarantee of success as foreign nationals who have lived in Britain for many years can claim to have established a ‘family life’ here.

This can prevent their deportation on the grounds of human rights laws.

In 2008, about 1,350 foreign criminals took advantage of the programme.

Those who received such a deal represent a quarter of the 5,400 foreign criminals that the Home Office boasted it had removed from Britain during the year.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive at the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “It’s a disgrace that we bribe foreign criminals to go home at all, they should be deported immediately.

“The fact that we also give them a hefty cash bonus to spend as they wish will rightly anger the law abiding taxpayers who are footing the bill for this hare-brained scheme.”

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$30m Tobago fire

TRINIDAD EXPRESS – A $30 million fire in Tobago has left 95 people jobless.

The inferno brought tears to many on Christmas morning, as two buildings belonging to the Phillips family, of Scarborough, were ablaze, shortly before 4 a.m. Friday.

There were no reports of any injuries. Firefighters took nine and a half hours to extinguish the blaze.

The fire at the mini-mall complex, comprising two buildings, which housed several businesses, spanned from Piggott Street to Castries Street, drew scores of curious people to the scene.

Preliminary investigations by fire officials suggest the fire started on the top floor and spread from south to north rapidly.

There was also reverse spread of the fire in a southerly direction, which caused the building owned by the Arnold family to suffer damage in the vicinity of $30,000, a senior fire officer told the Express.

The Unit Trust Corporation building suffered approximately $10,000 in damage, while a building occupied by David Maharaj, owned by the Alis, suffered minor damage to the roof and bash board, this was quickly extinguished.

High tension T&TEC wires and street lights were also damaged. The store owned by the Phillips family was not insured. However, the office belonging to attorney Anthony Arnold was insured, fire officials told the Express. Dale Phillips, owner of Phillips Legacy, said it was a big loss but he was thankful for life.

The Phillips store has been around for the past 61 years, and the building is approximately 35 years old, according to Dale Phillips. The building housed approximately 16 tenants, including Price is Right, J Puter Teck, Hercules Hardware, a bridal store, and a Chinese restaurant.

“From the time I heard the phone rang at that hour I say is something big, and you know with all my years experience, I know it ain’t no thief Christmas morning. We will bounce back, and as early as tomorrow morning I would be opening for business at Canaan,” Phillips said.

Phillips said it seems fire officials needed additional help, as at one point officials were calling for more water. “We see one or two firemen was on top this building, they were asking for water, they were asking for water. Two or three people reach me and say, why they ain’t bring water from the sea.”

Fire officials told the Express five fire tenders were used to fight the blaze: two from Crown Point and three from Scarborough. Officers who were also off duty as well as those on holidays also responded to assist their colleagues, a senior fire officer said

The cause for the blaze is yet to be determined.

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CDF gets Aus$1 M from Australian govt.

GEORGETOWN—The government of Australia is giving Aus$1 million (US$884 million) to the Caricom Development Fund (CDF).

The money which is to be transferred before year-end is slated for the CDF’s capital fund.

The commitment to the CDF comes in the wake of the signature of a four-year, Aus$60 million (US$ 53 million) Partnership Agreement signed between the Government of Australia and the Caribbean Community (Caricom) in T&T at the margins of the recent Commonwealth Heads of ?Government Meeting.

As part of the capital fund, the CDF will utilise the Aus$1 million (US$884 million) to make interventions in disadvantaged member states in keeping with the CDF mandate to reduce intra-regional CEO of?Ambassador Lorne McDonnough, chief executive of the?disparities. The CDF, expressed the appreciation of the CDF board and management for Australia’s contribution.

The CDF, launched in July 2008, seeks to provide technical or financial assistance to disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors within the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) .

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Jamaica: No guide lights when jet overshot runway

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Offshore lights that guide pilots into Jamaica’s main airport had been knocked out for more than a month when an American Airlines jet landed in driving rain and overshot the runway, injuring most of the 154 people on board, officials said Friday.

An underwater electrical fault in November disrupted the 1,300-foot (400-meter) stretch of white lights on a sandbar stretching into the Caribbean Sea, according to Norman Manley International Airport operations director Stanley Smith.

Pilots have been regularly advised about the outage, and the runway itself was fully lit, he said.

“The airport has been fully operational since (the outage) … so we wouldn’t presume that would be a cause. But clearly the investigation is still preliminary,” airport vice president Mark Williams told The Associated Press.

American Airlines Flight 331 skidded off the runway as it landed in heavy rain Tuesday night, arriving from Washington’s Reagan National Airport by way of Miami. The Boeing 737-800’s fuselage cracked open, the left main landing gear collapsed and the nose was crushed as the plane lurched to a halt at the ocean’s edge.

All 154 people aboard survived. Ninety-two were taken to hospitals, with no injuries considered life-threatening. The U.S. State Department said 76 of the passengers were Americans.

Jamaican and U.S. authorities are continuing their investigation, including whether the pilot could have avoided the accident by aborting the landing and circling for another attempt.

The Kingston airport has one runway with two designations, depending on the direction of a plane’s approach. Lights leading to the other end of the runway were functioning, but wind conditions made that approach less desirable, Smith said.

The approach lights are not expected to be operating again until next month. Large planes began arriving at Norman Manley again on Thursday after being diverted to Montego Bay for two days.

Smith said there have been no other incidents of landing problems since the approach lights went out in November.

American Airlines spokeswoman Martha Pantin declined to comment on runway conditions because the investigation is still being conducted. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board’s press office was closed for Christmas.

Jamaican officials expect the probe to be concluded by today, though Civil Aviation Authority director general Oscar Derby told Radio Jamaica he did not know when its conclusions would be released.

CAPTION( photo saved in Graphics as sift through debris )

Workers and officials sift through debris surrounding the fuselage of American Airlines flight AA331. (AP Photo/Lloyd Robinson) JAMAICA OUT

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Journalist killed in Mexico, 12th case in 2009

MEXICO CITY – A journalist was gunned down this week as he left a holiday party in the Mexican Caribbean resort town of Tulum, human rights officials and an international media group said Friday, bringing to 12 the number of reporters killed this year in the country.

Alberto Velazquez of the newspaper Expresiones de Tulum was killed on Tuesday.

Velazquez had written articles critical of local officials, and his paper had received threats, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In a statement, the group quoted colleagues as saying Velazquez was shot by a gunman on a motorcycle, and they believed it was related to his reporting.

Velazquez founded the paper in June and worked as a lawyer, according to the Civic Association of Journalists of the Riviera Maya, a local press group. It said that Velazquez, as he was dying, reportedly accused allies of the Mayor of Tulum of being responsible for his death.

No one answered phone numbers listed for the mayor or his top officials on Friday.

But the association quoted Mayor Marciano Dzul as condemning the killing and saying his government would not tolerate such acts.

Tulum, a beach town about 80 miles (129 kilometers) south of Cancun, draws many tourists from the popular resort city because of its coastal Mayan ruins.

The CPJ said at least 17 reporters have been murdered in Mexico since 1992 in direct reprisal for their work.

It did not specifically include Velazquez in that group, but urged a thorough investigation.

“Mexico has become a high-risk country for journalistic work,” the country’s National Human Rights Commission wrote, noting that in all, 57 reporters have been killed since 2000 and another eight are missing.

Attacks on journalists — including killings, explosives tossed at newspaper offices, beatings and other forms of harassment — have risen over the course of the decade, according to the commission, from 13 in 2000 to 78 this year.

The rights commission, which can only issue nonbinding recommendations, demanded that authorities in the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo investigate Velazquez’s killing.

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Don’t forget ‘poor Haiti’

Activist protests outside PM’s residence

TRINIDAD EXPRESS – Human rights activist Ishmael Samad yesterday staged a dawn-to-dusk vigil outside the Prime Minister’s St Ann’s residence as he called on the Government to remember the plight of Haiti whose citizens are forced to eat mud pies because they cannot afford ham and turkey.

Samad, who gave up spending time with his own family, said that the nation must not forget the Haitians who are ’sinking deeper and deeper’ into poverty with each day that goes by.

’We must think of our Haitian brothers and sisters during this season of good-will. We in Trinidad, we have oil and so many resources, we can afford to help the Haitians. Haiti is energy poor, 99 per cent of their trees are gone and they are using charcoal to cook. The people are so poor they cannot even afford kerosene.’

Samad said that one way the Government of this country can help Haiti is to donate kerosene stoves to the people because they need an alternative to charcoal.

Samad said kerosene stoves are commonly used by people in Indonesia and throughout the Asian sub-continent. He said a kerosene stove costs only US$50.

’We have the money and the resources, we are in a position where we can help. The Government is spending millions of dollars to construct all these buildings and to change the sky-line of Port of Spain, so it will cost us nothing much if we were to purchase some of these stoves and donate them to the Haitian people.’

Samad said that he has written a number of letters to the Prime Minister on this issue and ’his Permanent Secretary responded and said that this country was trying to help through CARICOM, but that is not enough. We need to do more to help our Haitian brothers and sisters,’ he added.

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REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

* * * SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Rather than shutting Guantanamo, the U.S. military is gearing up for the war-crimes trial of a former child soldier at the navy base on southeastern Cuba this summer.

The case of detainee Omar Khadr highlights how President Barack Obama has struggled to carry out a pledge he made immediately after taking office to close the globally unpopular military prison, which he called a recruiting tool for terrorists.

But if some trials are to proceed without delay, there is no other viable location, thanks to congressional opposition to moving terror detainees to U.S. soil, plus the time required to buy and renovate an Illinois prison — the one place where they would be welcome.

* * * TRINIDAD EXPRESS – Three police officers were injured in a crash Friday as they were responding to a report to intercept a vehicle transporting firearms in the Diego Martin area.

According to police reports, around 3.30 p.m. Cpl Roger Khan, WPC Phillip and PC Johnson of the Focus Team, a unit out of the West End Police Station, were on patrol when a report was broadcasted on the wireless system to be on the look out for a particular vehicle suspected of transporting guns.

Cpl Khan, the driver, of the Ford Everest SUV, PCL 9737, was listed in a critical but stable condition at the Port of Spain General Hospital while the two other officers were also taken for treatment.

* * * BBC ( Caribbean) – Montserrat has said that it will not sign the treaty establishing an economic union of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean states on Tuesday.

That’s because the “internal approval process has not yet been completed”, a statement by the government of the British territory said.

The formal signing ceremony will be held in St Kitts.

The economic union, when fully functioning, allows the free movement of capital, labour, and all goods and services, and involves common social, fiscal, and monetary policies.

* * * JAMAICA OBSERVER – The Jamaican Government wants to ensure that any takeover of its national airline will keep tourist-filled planes coming to its sunny shores. A possible acquisition of Air Jamaica by Trinidadian company Caribbean Airlines also includes lengthy negotiations about Air Jamaica employee contracts, flight schedules, and even route details, said sources close to the Trinidad & Tobago Government.

Details and a timeline for the negotiations have not been finalised.

Apparently in preliminary talks, Jamaica’s team was bargaining to keep routes and to keep planes coming to Jamaica as frequently as they do now, as a reduction in the number of flights to the island would affect Jamaica’s tourism industry.

* * * TRINIDAD NEWSDAY – Seven police officers who rescued a two-year-old girl hours after she was snatched from her Maraval home last Sunday played Santa Claus and took the girl gifts and other goodies.

The officers, who are all attached to the recently formed Police 250 initiative and are all based in the Central Division, together with the Maraval police, took time off from their busy crime-fighting schedule and played Santa Claus to two-year-old Teja Pierre, who almost never left the safe arms of her mother at the Maraval home, yesterday.

Teja who celebrated her second birthday on December 8, was snatched at gunpoint by a man who demanded cash from her mother Mary Pierre.