Grenada's Prime Minister Tillman Thomas

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada — An increasing number of members of Grenada’s ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is reported to be less optimistic about the chances of a reconciliation within the party.

Party “elders” and officials of the National Secretariat have been making repeated calls for discussions, especially after the NDC leader’s recent statement on television, declaring that that there is division in the party between “the forces of good and evil.”

However, sources say the efforts at reconciliation are being rebuffed in the pronouncements at what are known as “Solidarity Sunday Meetings.”

The latest meeting, held last Sunday in St Patrick West, where just over a week ago the NDC constituency branch endorsed MP Joseph Gilbert as the party’s candidate for the area in the upcoming general elections.

However, for Sunday’s meeting that was addressed by NDC leader and prime minister of Grenada, Tillman Thomas, deputy political leader Nazim Burke, and former party chairman Glen Noel, neither the constituency branch chairman nor MP Gilbert, was invited to attend.

According to reports, Sunday’s gathering followed the tone of previous meetings at which so-called “leftists” were attacked, and the issue of the selection of NDC candidates for the next general elections was again brought up.

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Guyana's Chief Justice Ian Chang

I strongly condemn the decision of Guyana’s chief justice Ian Chang which enjoined Guyana’s DPP from charging police commissioner Henry Green with rape.

The chief justice ruled that there was an insufficiency of evidence for the DPP to base her decision to prefer rape charges against Green.

From his ruling, one can reasonably presume that justice Chang  believes the constitution also invests him with the powers of the DPP or that he thought he was actually trying the case. Neither is true!

I have never seen such misguided, irresponsible judicial over reach anywhere in the Commonwealth Jurisprudence. This decision is gravely repugnant to the constitution and has far reaching, deleterious effects on the criminal justice system, as it effectively alters the constitution.

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Audrey Sewell

PERMANENT SECRETARY in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing, Audrey Sewell, yesterday admitted her office misled the public when it claimed Contractor General Greg Christie’s office had “taken” a confidential memorandum during an unannounced visit.

Sewell told The Gleaner yesterday evening that the “confidential” memorandum she sent to portfolio minister Dr Omar Davies was faxed by an officer in her ministry to the Office of the Contractor General (OCG).

Earlier yesterday, a release from the ministry stated that the information “improperly circulated in the press, arises from a memorandum to the Honourable Minister, taken from the permanent secretary’s office by the team from the OCG”.

This was in reference to the OCG team which made the unannounced visit to the ministry on Wednesday to “sequester” documents related to the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP).

Memo not ‘taken’

But in its own response, Christie’s office declared the memorandum was not “taken” from the permanent secretary’s office but, at its request, “was faxed by the permanent secretary herself directly to the OCG’s Mr Craig Beresford”.

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The Pope who is Head of the Catholic Church

Dutch boys and young men who accused priests of sex abuse in the 1950s were surgically castrated “to get rid of homosexuality” while in the care of the church, an investigative journalist has found.

Joep Dohmen of the NRC Handelsblad, a daily newspaper in the Netherlands, discovered evidence of at least 10 castrations by the Dutch Roman Catholic Church.

“These cases are anonymous and can no longer be traced,” Dohman told The Telegraph newspaper of London. “There will be many more. But the question is whether those boys, now old men, will want to tell their story.”

Dohman did discover the identity of one of the victims, a young man named Henk Heithuis, who was castrated at the age of 20 in 1956 after accusing clergymen of abusing him.

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International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 2012 – Guyana

A. Introduction

Guyana continues to be a transit country for cocaine destined for the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and West Africa. Cocaine originating in Colombia is smuggled to Venezuela and onward to Guyana by sea (fishing vessels, bulk cargo vessels and tug vessels) or air. Because of Guyana’s porous borders, smuggling is also conducted by land from Brazil and Suriname into Guyana. Once cocaine arrives in Guyana, it is often concealed in legitimate commodities and smuggled via commercial maritime vessels, air shipments, human couriers, or the postal services.

Guyana has seen its political and judicial infrastructure impacted by narco-influence, while its economy has become increasingly affected by narco-dollars. Drug trafficking organizations based in Guyana are beginning to use neighboring Suriname as a major distribution hub. The cocaine is smuggled into Guyana and then transported to Suriname for safekeeping and distribution. In these instances, Suriname is used as a stash location and distribution country for drugs entering Guyana. In other cases, drugs depart directly from Guyana.

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