Oprah Winfrey has toured an encampment for Haitians displaced by a massive earthquake.

The US talk show queen, escorted by security guards, walked among the tents with actor Sean Penn, who helped create an aid group that provides support to people who live in the encampment.

“This is part of the next chapter, going around the world to see interesting and fascinating cases of profound examples of what can be done to make a difference in the world,” Oprah told reporters at the encampment.

She said Penn’s efforts will be featured in an upcoming programme on her Oprah Winfrey Network.

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THE Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), through its Crime and Problem Analysis (CAPA) branch, has yet to gather all the data surrounding the arrest rate during the State of Emergency.

This, according to the TTPS public information officer Sgt Wayne Mystar, who was speaking during the daily press briefing yesterday at the Police Administration Building, Sackville Street, Port of Spain.

Mystar was at the time responding to claims the SoE crime statistics provided by the Government are inconsistent with those provided by the TTPS via CAPA.

CAPA is responsible for collecting and analysing all of the crime data from across the country.

Mystar said CAPA is currently “in the process of collating all the information” so that the media will have “the big picture”. Following the compilation of the information, a release will be issued and the media will be fully informed of the result, he said.

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Atlantis Dubai

Five years after resort operator Kerzner International Holdings Ltd. was taken private in a $4 billion buyout by a group of big-name investors—including Goldman Sachs GroupInc.’s Whitehall funds and Colony Capital LLC—the deal has turned into a bad bet.

Kerzner’s buyers, which also included Dubai World investment arm Istithmar World and members of Chairman Sol Kerzner’s family, contributed roughly $1.5 billion of equity in the 2006 deal.

But the value of that stake has greatly eroded as the company has struggled with the weak global economy and the hefty $2.5 billion in debt it took on to finance the buyout.

Kerzner last week disclosed it will forfeit its flagship Atlantis resort in the Bahamas and two smaller resorts to lender Brookfield Asset Management Inc. after failing to refinance or extend that $2.5 billion of debt, which came due Sept. 9. Kerzner will continue to manage the resorts.

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JLP leader and Prime Minister Andrew Holness greets supporters with the party’s victory salute after he was nominated yesterday. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

THE Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) will today indicate whether the final count of candidates for the upcoming General Election who were appointed during yesterday’s Nomination Day exercise remains at the 150 announced initially.

Shortly after the close of Nomination Day activities yesterday, the EOJ signalled that a total 150 candidates were nominated to contest the General Election scheduled for December 29. But speaking with the Observer yesterday, Director of Elections Orette Fisher said a final count would be done today.

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Rawletta Onika Greaves

BLURB: A 50-year-old father of Princetown, Corriverton has been taken into police custody for killing his 32-year-old daughter after he inflicted several lashes to her head with a nailed-filled piece of wood around midday yesterday.

Rawletta Onika Greaves of Scotsburg, Corriverton was on one of her usual visits to the home of her great-aunt, 83-year-old Doreen Ferdinand, where the man, Charles Albert, resides, when she met her demise.

From: http://bit.ly/v1zIyh

The bulletproof vehicle which will be used by Cuban President Raul Castro during his current visit to T&T.

The Government was forced to shift the venue for tomorrow’s Caricom-Cuba summit from the Hilton Trinidad Conference Centre to the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), following issues concerning the US embargo on Cuba. The US-owned Hilton in T&T was unable to obtain a licence from the US Government in order to host the Caricom-Cuba summit, a Hilton statement indicated yesterday. Cuban President Raul Castro arrives in T&T at 10.30 am today for the one-day summit which will also be attended by 12 of the 14 Caricom leaders.

The summit brings together regional heads with the leader of Cuba. It will be Castro’s first visit to T&T since he assumed the presidency in 2008, succeeding his brother, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The summit has been held in Caricom over the last decade as regional territories have deepened ties with Cuba and seek to further enhance co-operation with that country. At the last summit in 2008, then-Cuban President Fidel Castro was presented with Caricom’s highest award—the order of Caricom. T&T had later been designated as the location for the next summit.

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Holness, the former Minister of Education, was sworn in as prime minister in late October following the resignation of veteran politician Bruce Golding.

Jamaicans will elect a new government on December 29 a little more than two months after Andrew Holness was appointed as the country’s ninth and youngest prime minister.

Holness, 39, ended months of speculation last night when he announced the December poll at a massive political meeting of his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in Central Manchester.

Nomination Day is December 12.

“I want you to have a happy Christmas, a merry Christmas. So we break for the Christmas period, but by the 28th you back on the road, and by the 29th you put your vote in the box, happy New Year, government in place, back on track, ready for work, ready for progress, ready for development, ready for a positive future,” Holness told JLP supporters.

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Ashmeed Mohammed

Sixteen suspects detained in an alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and three senior government ministers are set for freedom today unless the State makes a last-ditch effort to slap them with charges. And the window of opportunity is precariously closing in as the State only has mere hours to lay charges against the 16 detainees. Investigators are said to be considering charges under the Anti-Terrorism Act or charges of conspiracy to commit treason. The T&T Guardian, however, was reliably informed that all of the detainees had maintained their innocence throughout their interrogation by police, with some also denying knowledge of having previous dealings with their fellow detainees.

President Donald Ramotar said he intends to retain some government ministers who served in the Bharrat Jagdeo administratio

Cabinet ministers were sworn in yesterday afternoon, two days after Donald Ramotar, 61, took the oath of office as President.
Ramotar said he would retain the services of some former government ministers, while quashing speculation that he intends to appoint opposition party members to boost his People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) parliamentary minority.

The November 28 General and Regional Elections left the ruling party controlling 32 of the 65 National Assembly seats.

The opposition coalition group, A Partnership for National Unity controls 26, while the Alliance for Change has seven.

“This new arrangement in our Parliament would no doubt test our maturity as political leaders. It will demand that pettiness be put aside and our nation’s well being should always be our most important guiding influence,” Ramotar said during his swearing in ceremony on Saturday.

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Five nationals of the Dominican Republic have been nabbed with around US$6.3 million dollar in drugs near Puerto Rico.

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the Dominicans were arrested after the vessel on which they were transporting the 661.37 (300 kilos) pounds of cocaine was intercepted about 50 miles north of the coast of Aguadilla Saturday afternoon.

The CBP said the twin-engine fiberglass vessel was spotted by one of its Maritime Surveillance Aircraft heading on a southeasterly course at approximately 10 knots.

“Two CBP marine interceptors, with Puerto Rico Police FURA agents on board, were launched to intercept the vessel along with a CBP medium lift helicopter that provided coverage for the marine units during the intercept,” it said in a statement.

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