Jamaica to face Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay in Copa America
Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz have been drawn in a group of South American giants in their baptism to the CONMEBOL Copa America, the Holy Grail of South American football.
Jamaica, the first Caribbean team to be invited to the tournament, will go up against two of the continent’s most successful nations in the storied Copa America, which is the oldest continental tournament in football celebrating 98 years of rivalry.
The Jamaicans face Uruguay (15 titles), Argentina (14) and Paraguay (two) in Group B, it was determined at draw at Quinta Vergara in Vina del Mar, Chile, held Monday evening.
In Group A, hosts Chile, guest team Mexico, Ecuador and Bolivia will do battle, while six-time world champions Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela will cross swords in Group C.
JFF president Captain Horace Burrell, who attended the draw, said while the Reggae Boyz are against enormous odds in a group filled with teams of rich tradition and successes on the global stage, he remains upbeat at the prospects.
Burrell, who was the visionary behind Jamaica’s only qualification to a senior World Cup back in France 1998, said when he realised that Argentina were drawn with Jamaica, he saw a great opportunity for revenge.
“Argentina defeated us 5-0 in the World Cup, and though they were a great team then and perhaps a greater team now with the likes of (Lionel) Messi within their rank, we intend to as the first Caribbean team to play in the prestigious Copa America to give it the best shot at a payback,” said the veteran football boss.
The Copa America 2015, which will be hosted by eight Chilean cities, runs from June 11 to July 4.
The Boyz with their confirmed participation in Copa America 2015, the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa America Centenario 2016 seem to have hit a golden patch with these high-profile championships.
Jamaica are just coming off winning the CFU Caribbean Cup in Montego Bay where they defeated arch-rivals Trinidad and Tobago’s Soca Warriors 4-3 on penalties --- an achievement which is expected to reverse their poor standing of 113th in FIFA.
Contributor- Sean Williams
Source-Jamaica Observer
Gayle, Pollard fail in Ram Slam Twenty20 League
Big-hitting Chris Gayle failed as Lions crashed to a heavy 77-run defeat to Cape Cobras in the South Africa Ram Slam Twenty20 League here on Sunday.
Chasing 155 for victory at Newlands, Lions were bundled out for 77 off 15.3 overs, to plunge to only their second defeat of the tournament.
Gayle, who has been in good form in the tournament, made just three from eight balls before falling in the second over, bowled by fast bowler Dane Paterson who finished with three for nine.
Neil McKenzie top-scored with a run-a-ball 31, while Temba Bavuma hit a run-a-ball 20, in a 34-run, third-wicket stand. Once they were separated, however, Lions lost their last seven wickets for 22 runs.
West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard took two for 11 with his gentle medium pace.
Earlier, Pollard had also failed with the bat, making just six from 10 balls, as Cape Cobras rallied to 154 for seven off their 20 overs.
Dane Vilas hit 51 from 29 balls and Omphile Ramela, 46 off 38 balls, in a 54-run, third wicket stand.
In the other game at SuperSport Park, Darren Sammy's Titans played to a thrilling tie with Warriors, in a contest reduced to eight overs per side because of rain.
Sammy made 16 from 12 balls as Titans made 79 for five, but Warriors ended on the same total, with no provision because of time, for the decisive Super Over.
Source-CMC
More Cosby claims keep coming
TV legend Bill Cosby has denounced the sexual assault allegations against him as "innuendo," but the claims keep coming, amid talk of the fall of an icon.
"He's trying to go on with the show, but the damage may be irrevocable," said celebrity bible People magazine, in a cover story Monday on the 77-year-old long known as the nation's favourite dad.
"It is not like he will never work again. But this has seriously compromised his future in entertainment," Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University in New York state, told AFP.
People noted that Cosby survived a civil lawsuit brought by 13 women in 2005, but renewed claims by those alleged victims have been joined by fresh allegations from other women in the last few weeks.
"The accusations keep coming, one disturbingly similar allegation after another," said the magazine under the strapline, "The Fall of Bill Cosby."
There does indeed appear to be a pattern to the claims: since the first accuser Andrea Constand in 2004, they have involved the alleged victim being drugged and then forced into having sex with Cosby.
Although he has not been charged with any crime, in all some 20 women have now made on-the-record claims of sexual assault dating back to the 1960s, including when Cosby was at the height of his fame.
While most of the accusers have been women, they were joined Monday by a male former TV worker who claimed he arranged payments for eight women when Cosby was working on landmark TV series "The Cosby Show."
Frank Scotti, 90, was a facilities manager for the New York studio where the show was filmed, and said he organized payments of up to $2,000 at a time for the women on the show, which ran from 1984-1992.
Source-
Halle Berry Takes Gabriel Aubry to Court After He Straightened Nahla's Hair
Halle Berry and her ex Gabriel Aubry have just resolved an issue about their daughter's hair in court. According to TMZ, Berry said Aubry was trying to change their daughter's appearance so that she looks less like African American by straightening the 6-year-old girl's hair and applying some highlight when she was in his care.
The "X-Men: Days of Future Past" star's lawyer Steve Kolodny as well as Aubry's showed up in court on Monday, November 24 to talk about the issue. The judge eventually decided that neither Aubry nor Berry could change the state of the child's natural hair.
Berry and Aubry decided to end their relationship in 2010 after five years of dating. The split sparked nasty custody battle over their daughter. Berry previously also wanted Nahla to stay in France with her and now-husband Olivier Martinez, a plan which was fought by Aubry. They reached agreement in the custody battle earlier this year.
Berry married Martinez last year after a few years of dating. She gave birth to their first child together, a son named Maceo, in October 2013.
Vanessa Hudgens Wins Restraining Order Against African Man
Vanessa Hudgens has been granted restraining order against an obsessive fan. A man named Junior Kabongo who flew to Los Angeles from Africa to see the "Spring Breakers" actress in person and "marry" her, has been ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from Hudgens, her sister and boyfriend.
According to TMZ, Kabongo has been sending graphic emails to the 25-year-old actress. "Hello, I love you and want to marry you," he allegedly said in one email. "God gave me a penis to make you feel like you never did everytime when we'll make love."
He talked a bit about himself, writing, "I love you and wanna marry you. I WRITE SCREENPLAYS. I wanna become a movie star." He eventually said he booked a flight to L.A. to see her and was seen around her neighborhood on November 1 and 4.
Hudgens seemingly was in good mood on Monday. She shared a photo and wrote, "A fresh start to conquer the week. I love Mondays. Let get it this week boo boos."
Source-Ace.Showbiz
St Kitts-Nevis nationals needs visa to land in Canada
The St Kitts-Nevis government yesterday sought to downplay the decision by Canada to impose visa restrictions on nationals from the twin-island federation wanting to visit the North American country, noting that since the September 2011 terrorist attacks on the United States countries have been reviewing their immigration policies periodically.
"Countries review and change their policies routinely in order to protect their interests and their people and so do we," Foreign Affairs Minister Patrice Nisbett said in a broadcast. "Canada is an important ally, an ally of long-standing. Your government values the strong relations which over the years Canada and St Kitts-Nevis have built.
"Canada has important security concerns, the government recognises this and the government of St Kitts-Nevis will do all in its power to respect and accommodate the concerns of such an important ally," Nisbett said.
But Opposition Leader Mark Brantley said that Canada's position may have been influenced by an Iranian national holding a diplomatic passport issued by the St Kitts-Nevis government.
Brantley reminded nationals that the Iranian national told Canadian border agents that he was entering Canada for meetings with the Canadian Prime Minister on behalf of the government and people of St Kitts Nevis, and that "the claims by the Iranian national of a meeting with the Canadian prime minister were categorically false.
"This occurrence in Canada led to immediate concerns there as to the safety and security of that country's borders. As a consequence, the media reports confirmed that the Canadian authorities made urgent representations to the Government of St Kitts and Nevis raising serious concerns about not just this but other incidents involving St Kitts-Nevis passport holders entering or seeking to enter Canada using the visa free status currently granted by that country to nationals of St Kitts and Nevis," Brantley added.
Brantley said that, in November last year, Nisbett was "compelled under increasing pressure to make a statement to the National Parliament addressing this issue".
He said that "Nisbett identified the Iranian gentleman and confirmed that this Iranian national had been granted diplomatic status by the Cabinet.
"Minister Nisbett also confirmed that the Iranian national was made a special envoy for St Kitts and Nevis to Turkey and Azerbaijan," he said.
In a statement over the weekend, Ottawa said that the visa restriction would go into effect from November 22 and that citizens from the twin-island Federation joined those from "the vast majority of Caribbean nations and citizens of some 147 countries" where visas are needed to enter the North American country.
Ottawa said that the St Kitts and Nevis nationals in good standing travelling to Canada between "now and November 24, 2014 will be granted a temporary resident permit upon arrival in Canada, free of charge".
There has been speculation that Canada had imposed the new visa restrictions based on that island's Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) under which investors are provided with St Kitts-Nevis passports in return for making substantial investments in the country.
Nisbett, who met with a "government diplomat" last Friday, said "Canada wanted to determine for itself exactly who does and who doesn't enter its territory".
The statement by Canada on its official website stated that the country would continue to "welcome genuine visitors from St Kitts-Nevis and has a number of programmes including a multiple entry visa to make it easy for such legitimate visitors to travel to Canada".
Nisbett said the CIP has funded projects from agriculture to energy to health 'all of which expanded opportunities for the people of St Kitts-Nevis" and that the government is "committed to ensuring that the programme continues to work and that it continues to work well".
He said in order to ensure this, the government has always sought to revise "as necessary" the legislation in order "to properly meet the needs of the people of St Kitts-Nevis and in order to protect the constructive relations we have so carefully built with nations across the globe.
"And the government will always seek ways to strengthen the security features of the St Kitts and Nevis passport. This type of vigilance is important today and it will be equally important 20 years from
now," he added, outlining some of the "more recent measures the government has put in place where our passport is concerned".
He said that the key changes to the passports include having the place of birth printed in the passport and "new St Kitts and Nevis passports are being issued to replace any passports in existence which may not indicate the place of birth".
Nisbett said that the strong relationship that exists between Basseterre and countries around the world is evident of the collaborative undertaking "that has moved our country so steadily forward".
In his address to the nation, Brantley said that the twin- island federation "is still unaware whether this Iranian continues to enjoy not just St Kitts and Nevis citizenship but our diplomatic status as well".
"This scandal involving an Iranian having diplomatic status of our nation showing up in Canada was quickly followed by an advisory from the United States Government issued on 20th May, 2014 wherein the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network warned the world that the St Kitts-Nevis citizenship by investment programme was being abused by foreign nationals who wished to engage in illicit financial activity," he added.
Brantley said that the warnings "therefore were clear".
Source-CMC
Japanese lessons for Caribbean in waste management
The Ariake Incineration Plant will probably have no major role to play in the construction of the Olympic Village for the 2020 Summer Olympics to be held in Japan.
Chances are, however, it will have to deal with the waste that will be generated by the athletes during the Games of the XXXII Olympiad from July 24 to August 9.
The Olympic Village will be constructed not far from the plant which has acknowledged that its role is to reduce waste generation, reuse waste and to promote recycling waste as resources.
"We are not likely to have a major role in the construction of the Olympic Village but you never know the future," said plant manager Hisakazu Nikaido.
He told Caribbean journalists during a visit to the plant that almost 40 per cent of the waste at the facility is biomass and that the facility accepts at least 100,000 tonnes of waste annually.
Waste is burnt in the incineration plant and becomes ash of the volume of about one twentieth, with officials saying this process contributes to prolonging the limit of disposal sites.
It is also utilising the heat energy produced by the incinerators for generating electricity power, supplying steam and hot water to the waterfront area and neighbouring public facilities.
Nikaido said that the plant, with a price tag of 41.7 billion yen (One Japanese Yen =US$0.008 cents) when it was constructed in 1995, receives at least one million US dollars annually in selling electricity.
"So in a sense we are earning our money," said Nikaido, adding "we don't have any complaint about gas or waste water from citizens".
Nikaido would not say whether or not his plant could be a model for Caribbean countries, given the peculiarities of the regional states, but following the first ever Japan-Caricom summit held in Trinidad and Tobago in July, Caribbean leaders said they hope to make use of Japanese technologies in fields such as renewable energy, energy saving and disaster risk reduction.
President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Dr Akihiko Tanaka, said that Tokyo's aid would be guided by the requests from developing countries.
"The major purpose of our facility is to contribute to the betterment of our partners and the tangible results that we would like to see are the betterment of the living standards and social and economic conditions of our partner countries," he said of JICA, which promotes itself as "the world's largest bilateral development organisation, operating in some 150 countries".
He added: "Our approach has long been emphasising the ownership and self-help of our partners and our basic approach is what we call request principle. This is a principle to all countries of the world that we will not come forward and tell our partners this is what we are going to do in your country.
"What we would like to do is to ask you what you would want us to do and that is what we call the request principle, so I think with the Caribbean we are now in the process of having the request from the partner countries in the Caribbean, but that does not mean we are simply waiting."
The communiqué issued at the end of the one-day meeting between Caribbean Community (Caricom) foreign mnisters and their Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida on November 15, noted that "bearing in mind that stable energy supply and clean energy, as well as information communication technologies are key to economic development in Caricom member states, they welcomed investment and interest by Japanese enterprises in such fields.
"They also recognised that it is important to improve the business environment including infrastructure, capacity building, and affiliated industries in order to enhance trade and investment," the communiqué noted.
"We can learn so much from Japan," said Jamaica's Foreign Affairs Minister AJ Nicholson.
"You take the issue of energy; we do not in Jamaica have any oil and the like, so it means that to keep down our energy bill one of the things we have to do is conserve and I don't think we have the discipline to do that," he said, adding "and we asked them to help us inculcate that also into a way of going forward".
Last month, JICA brought to Tokyo several Caribbean experts for a first-hand view of several projects dealing with energy and disaster management.
The Caribbean experts would no doubt have been made aware of the Yokohama Smart City Project (YSCP), a social system demonstration project whose ultimate aim is the construction of Japanese-style smart grids and their spread in other countries.
"Yes, we are hoping to develop projects not only for Japan, but to the rest of the world, including the Caribbean," said Fumiki Natori of the Climate Change Policy Headquarters at the City of Yokohama.
Established in 2010, the YSCP's mission is the verification of technology, mechanisms and business models for smart cities in the overall "FutureCity" project.
Ryou Nakano, the assistant manager at the Climate Change, Policy Headquarters, said Japan also suffers from global warming and as a result "in various ways global warming has been affecting our lives".
He further warned that "if we do not take measures by 2030, we will see changes".
The YSCP has undertaken several projects that involve collaboration between the city and numerous private sector enterprises including Tokyo Gas, Toshiba, Nissan Motor, Panasonic and Accenture.
These YSCP projects include renewable and yet unused forms of energy; energy management in homes; office buildings and next generation transport systems.
Natori said the plan is to reduce carbon dioxide by five per cent and reduce the electricity bills for consumers by at least 30 million yen annually.
As part of the initiative under the YSCP, home energy management systems (HEMS) were installed in nearly 4,200 households in Yokohama over the past four years.
"We are trying to invite more households into the project," said Nakano, with officials indicating that the overall objective is to assure a stable supply of power and reduce the total amount of CO2 emissions.
Earlier this year, a test, the largest of its kind so far in Japan, was conducted using about 3,500 of the HEMS to assess the ability to save energy.
The City of Yokohama said that the results of the study will be used to determine how households could save energy without difficulty and to build an effective saving model for diverse urban lifestyles.
It will also contribute to the establishment of flexible power tariff schemes promoted by the Japanese government to "control power demands without lowering the levels of comfort in living and to assure a stable supply of power in the community".
Source-CMC
Violence Erupts in Ferguson Following Ruling
The Midwestern U.S. town of Ferguson saw its worst unrest in months, after a grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager.
Violent protests erupted late Monday after officials announced charges would not be filed against officer Darren Wilson for the August shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said at least a dozen buildings were set on fire, most of them destroyed. He said there were no reports of injuries. At least 29 people were arrested.
"Those are businesses that may never come back. So, frankly, I'm heartbroken about that," Belmar said.
"Now the good news is we have not fired a shot. As far as I know, we don't have any serious injuries to police officers, they got banged up a little bit with rocks, one lieutenant from the patrol got hit in the head with a glass bottle, but we don't have any serious injuries, and as far as I know we haven't caused any serious injuries tonight," he said.
Earlier in the night, police used smoke and tear gas to disperse the protesters, some of whom set police cars on fire and threw objects at police. Sporadic gunfire could be heard in the neighborhood.
Demonstrations were also held in cities across America. At Times Square in New York City, protesters held signs decrying "police tyranny" and chanted the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" slogan that has become popular at rallies against police violence.
In Oakland and Chicago, protesters flooded freeways, blocking cars with their hands held in the air. A small crowd of protesters also gathered outside the White House.
The August 9 shooting inflamed tensions in the predominantly black St. Louis suburb, which is patrolled by an overwhelmingly white police force.
The deadly shooting sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests and looting. Adding to the tension was the often heavy-handed response by police which used armored vehicles and tear gas.
Demonstrations have continued in Ferguson and in Clayton, where the grand jury began meeting in late August.
Brown's family, who have called for restraint, issued a statement saying they were "profoundly disappointed" at the ruling.
Lawyers for Wilson said in a statement that the grand jury's decision shows the officer "followed his training and followed the law" during the confrontation with Brown.
Source-VOA
Hong Kong Authorities Clear More Protest Sites
Hong Kong authorities have cleared street barricades at a protest site where pro-democracy demonstrators have camped for nearly two months.
Bailiffs backed by dozens of police removed the obstructions early Tuesday from Argyle Street, in the Mong Kok district.
The protesters did not initially resist, and instead stood nearby yelling at police. But some later obstructed the police, who arrested several people.
One demonstrator, 78-year-old Ng Boon-duk, said he is not afraid to be arrested.
"If I were arrested and sent to prison, the sacrifice I make will be much bigger than protesting on the streets. I would like to make bigger sacrifices," said Ng.
It is the second time in as many weeks that authorities have acted on a court order to clear parts of the protests.
Local media said officials are planning to clear a larger section of the Mong Kok demonstration site, near Nathan Road, on Wednesday.
The protests have shrunk in recent weeks, and organizers are struggling to find ways to reenergize the so-called Occupy Movement.
The three co-founders of the movement say they plan to surrender next month to authorities, who have declared the protests illegal.
Several recent public opinion polls suggest the protests are beginning to lose public support.
Source-VOA
Explosions Rock Nigeria's Maiduguri
Two explosions have rocked a crowded market in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, causing dozens of casualties.
Initial reports from the scene say two female suicide bombers set off blasts at the market in the Borno state capital on Tuesday morning.
Witnesses say at least 30 people were killed or wounded.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Militant group Boko Haram is active in Borno state and is blamed for scores of deadly bombings and other attacks over the past five years.