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THIS WEEK’S SUMMARY
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PREPARATIONS FOR ERNESTO—8/26/06
Tropical Storm Ernesto is projected to pass directly over Jamaica late Sunday morning. It is the fifth tropical storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. The public was warned to put in place family and business disaster plans even though the storm is not projected to develop into a hurricane. Fishermen were advised to evacuate to the mainland no later than 6 am this morning. The Office of Disaster Preparedness will begin mobilizing staff tonight and all parish disaster teams have been instructed to begin preparations. The disaster office has begun the process of allocating resources on a needs basis to hurricane shelters on the north and south coasts. Last year Jamaica was struck by hurricanes Dennis and Emily, both of which struck in July and causing $5.98 billion in damage.

TERROR PREACHER FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE—8/27/06
Convicted three years ago in Britain for inciting racial hatred through his doctrine, Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal faces deportation to Jamaica, the homeland he departed 26 years ago. The Jamaican government says they have not been contacted by British authorities about a possible deportation, but word is the expatriate will soon be forced to return to Jamaica. The local Islamic community says they may embrace him as a brother, but that is as far as they would go if the accusations against him are true. Local Muslim leaders want to hear el-Faisal’s side of the story since they have not heard his so called “terror speeches” firsthand. He was convicted on three counts of racial incitement and three of soliciting murder by a unanimous verdict from a jury. His recorded speeches urged death and destruction on nonbelievers. He is said to have influenced at least one terrorist attacker.

JAMAICA SPARED BY ERNESTO—8/28/06
Jamaica was spared the full impact of a hurricane as Ernesto shifted further away from the island but maintained a path that took it across Haiti and toward Cuba and then Florida. The storm was downgraded to tropical storm status yesterday. While forecasters maintained a storm warning and hurricane watch for the island, Ernesto chose to drift northeast Saturday night and saved Jamaica from the worst effects of the storm. By yesterday afternoon the mood on the streets was anticlimactic, with some vendors open. Uptown workers took down storm shutters despite the storm still posing a threat. Ernesto dumped rain on flood-prone Haiti and posed flood threats to Jamaica. The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management was preparing for flooding of some areas of the island.

CUBAN TEACHERS ARRIVE DESPITE ERNESTO—8/28/06
A group of nineteen Cuban teachers arrived in Jamaica yesterday, prior to the start of the academic year and despite the threat posed to both islands by Ernest, weakened but still present. The teachers came as part of the Jamaican/Cuba Cooperation Program. Since the program began in 1997, 39 Cuban teachers have arrived on the island. The group comprises experienced educators, mainly in the field of Spanish. They will be employed by the government for two years. Most of them will be placed in rural primary and secondary schools, mainly in the Region Six area, where the government is spending several million dollars to construct classroom spaces for this year’s high number of GSAT achievers.

FLYING INTO HISTORY—8/29/06
Barrington Irving, a 22-year-old Jamaican-born resident of the United States, is set to fly solo around the world starting September 1. While others have flown around the world solo before, but if all goes as planned, Irving would be the youngest to fly solo. He would also be the first of African descent to complete the trip. Irving will begin his flight from Jamaica and fly eastbound, making stops in the Azores, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Egypt, Dubai, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, China, Japan and Russia. Irving studied aeronautical science at Florida Memorial University. He was born in Kingston but lived in Friendship Meadows, Spanish Town, St. Catherine, before moving to the United States when he was six years old. If the trip goes as planned, Jamaica will make it into the record books again.

SCHOOL CRISIS PENDING—8/30/06
Yesterday the teachers’ union rejected the government’s latest wage offer, apparently placing in jeopardy next week’s start of the school year. Last night the government was struggling to save the negotiations, although they could not say whether any new offer would be forthcoming. The president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association says there is no guarantee of an orderly start to the school year in the absence of an offer his union found acceptable. A recently-established action committee will meet tomorrow to determine the group’s next steps in the negotiation process. Last week the teachers were offered a 14 percent to 16 percent increase in the first year for principals and vice-principals and a raise of 8 percent in the second year. For classroom teachers the proposed increase was 14 to 22 percent in the first year and five to eight percent in the second year. Additionally, the government offered a one-time book allowance of $7,500, which the teachers claimed was a reneging on a verbal offer of $30,000 made previously. The JTA gave the government a week to come up with a new offer, which was offered but declined.

JEF UNDER FIRE FOR AIDS TESTING STANCE—8/31/06
The Jamaica Employers’ Federation stance on testing for HIV/AIDS in the workplace has come under fire from the government body mandated to tackle the disease. Yesterday the Government’s National AIDS Committee said the JEF’s claim that employers reserved the right to test for AIDS would set back the national fight against the virus for many years to come. A National AIDS Committee advocacy officer commented that the government should ban mandatory testing because of concerns that it could be used to screen potential employees. Currently there is no recourse for people who are fired or evicted because of their HIV status, although a team of attorneys has committed themselves to providing free legal services via the Ministry of Health.

MURDER IN PORTMORE—9/1/06
A shooting Wednesday night took the life of a 17-year-old boy and saw four others injured in Portmore, St. Catherine. Police are investigating the murder of Dwayne Pearson and the injury of the other four. According to reports the five victims were standing at the corner of Augusta Drive near Independence City and Westchester at around 10:30 pm, when six men came from nearby bushes and proceeded to fire shots, hitting them all. Pearson was hit several times all over the body and died on the spot. The other four were treated at the Spanish Town hospital and released. Police yesterday linked the shooting to an ongoing feud between men from Rat Town and men in the Augusta Drive area. In recent weeks, there have been a number of shootings and robberies in the St. Catherine South division and to date, police have recovered more than 42 illegal guns in the area.

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SPORTS
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POWELL STAYS IN CONTENTION—8/26/06
Jamaican sprint world leaders Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson took wins in the 100-meter races at the Van Damme Memorial Golden League track and field meeting yesterday. Powell stayed in contention for the US $1 million prize by winning the men’s 100 meters in 9.99 seconds despite a bad start, and Simpson clocked 10.95 seconds to land the women’s 100 meters. Powell was slow out of the blocks but shoed his ability by powering down the stretch to win ahead of American Marcus Brunson, who ran a somewhat close 10.06 seconds. Powell was disappointed in his time, as he had been eyeing the world record, but the win gave him his fifth consecutive in this series and guaranteed him a share of the US $500,000 jackpot allotted to winners of five races in the series. Simpson logged her fourth sub-11 clocking in a month when she outran American Me’Lisa Barber to take first place in the women’s 100 meters for her third Golden League win in a row.

REGGAE BOYZ STILL FINALIZING TEAM—8/28/06
The Reggae Boyz are due to play their first match in eight days, after their last match found them creamed in a 6-0 romp against England in the pre-World Cup friendly. The Jamaica Football Federation is still finalizing the squad. The Reggae Boyz meet Canada in the first of a home and away friendly series on September 4, and according to the interim coach Carl Brown, it has been a difficult process getting the squad together. Players in the English Premiership and the Championship will not have any games on the weekends, but teams in lower leagues will not have that luxury. Those who play in England will have a game on September 2, making it difficult for them to fly to Jamaica that day and to Canada the next. United States players are challenging to recruit as well, as are Jamaicans based in Sweden.

BROWN MOVING TO JAMAICA—8/29/06
Trinidad and Tobago’s 2003 World Championships 100 meters silver medalist Darrel Brown is set to join the world 100 meter record holder Asafa Powell at the MVP Track Club at the start of the new season. Brown is scheduled to arrive on the island in October to start training with Stephen Francis at the University of Technology-based camp, which houses Powell and the 2005 World Championships 100 meter silver medalist Michael Frater as well as Commonwealth Games sprint relay gold medalist Ainsley Waugh. Brown’s former coach believes the 21-year-old sprinter made the right decision.

GLEN JOHNSON PURSUING WOODS—8/30/06
Jamaica’s one-time world light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson is very upset by recent comments by Clinton Woods and predicts a big win when they meet for the Briton’s International Boxing Federation title on Saturday. The bout will take place at the Reebok Centre in Lancashire, England and Johnson says he now has an added motivation to win after comments by Woods that he will beat the Miami-based Jamaican by knockout. The two have met twice with the first bout ending in a draw in November 2003 and the second, three months later, in a clear points win for Johnson.

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CREDITS/SOURCES
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The weekly news is compilation of new articles from top Caribbean and Jamaican news sources.