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Wednesday 30 November 2011

Vybz Kartel remanded again





AMIDST rumours that he had escaped custody, embattled Deejay Vybz Kartel, was remanded in custody when he appeared in the Gun Court Division of the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court this morning.
He will return to court on December 21 when documents involving the murder of Barrington 'Bossie' Bryan will be served on the defence. Kartel was also ordered to return to court on February 3 when a preliminary enquiry pertaining to Bryan's murder is expected to be handed over to his defense team.
He is facing two murder charges, conspiracy to murder, illegal possession of a firearm and possession of ganja.

BUJU MOVED AGAIN - Deejay relocated to Miami from Oklahoma


 
Deejay Buju Banton heads back to Florida to serve some of his 10-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution Miami.
This is one of many moves for the incarcerated reggae star who has been sentenced to 10 years on federal drug charges. According to browardpalmbeach.com, the singer went from Florida to Oklahoma to Texas, back to Oklahoma, and now to Miami, according to David Oscar Markus, Banton's attorney.
The website elaborated that plans to place Banton in a Mississippi prison fell through when authorities discovered that a co-defendant in the case had already been assigned to the facility. Authorities then stowed Banton in a Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City before moving him to a correctional institution in Groesbeck, Texas.
According to Buju's lawyer, David Markus, Buju endured several hardships during two-month stay in the Texas facility; describing the environment as one of a violent and unhealthy nature that made the singjay rather uncomfortable. "He was at one of the worst places you can imagine — a county facility that had been converted to house federal inmates," Markus was quoted as saying. "The place was used for short-stay Mexican nationals who were going to be deported. It was filled with Mexican gangs. Buju was one of very few black men in there. It was really violent."
Markus expressed pleasure with the judge in Buju's trial, James Moody and the Jamaican consulate, who pleaded with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to move the artiste from the Texas prison as soon as possible. Markus plans to appeal Buju's ten-year sentence; filing a brief with Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta later next month.
A benefit concert paying tribute to Buju Banton will take place this Saturday from the Supa D Tropical Bar & Grill in Tampa, Florida. All proceeds from the event will go towards Buju's appeal; with the hope for raising US$50,000 for the cause. Reggae artistes scheduled to perform include Delly Ranx, Nadine Sutherland, Gramps Morgan among several others.
Buju Banton was convicted in February of conspiring to organise a drug deal within a police-controlled warehouse, along with two other charges in relation to the December 2009 incident.

Bob Marley's granddaughter charged for ganja

She is 26-year-old Donisha Prendergast who has been charged with possession of ganja.
On the day, Prendergast did not appear but her lawyer asked that a warrant be issued and execution stayed until December 13, as Prendergast is currently overseas.
The crown is alleging that on Monday November 21, about 3:17 p.m., officers were conducting search duties along Water Lane in downtown Kingston when a red BMW X5 being driven by the accused was signalled to stop.
It is alleged that when the vehicle was searched, three clear plastic bags containing vegetable matter resembling ganja was found.
Further allegations are that a white cigar item resembling a ganja spliff burnt at one end was also found.

No escape for Vybz Kartel


POLICE have thrown cold water on claims that embattled Deejay Vybz Kartel has escaped from the New Horizon Adult Remand Centre early this morning.
Reports have gone viral on the internet and on social networks that the Deejay and seven other inmates held guards hostage at gunpoint minutes after 1:00 am and stole uniforms and a vehicle belonging to the Correctional Services Department before escaping.

The police have also dispelled rumours that a guard died from a heart attack and 12 others were injured.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green told the Observer early this morning that he had no knowledge of the reported jail break.
"I know nothing about that. If that had taken place I would would certainly have known," Green said.
Police at Denham Town Police station, the closest police station to the remand centre were also unaware of the reports as was the Constabulary Communication Network who also claimed ignorance of any jail break.
"It may be an attempt by his cronies to keep him in the news but they don't need to spread rumours to do that because he will be in the news for quite some time," one cop told the Observer.
Vybz Kartel, whose real name is Adijah Palmer, is facing two murder charges, conspiracy to murder, illegal possession of a firearm and possession of ganja charges.
He was arrested on October 1 and has repeatedly been denied bail when he appeared in court.


Tuesday 29 November 2011

American Airlines files for bankruptcy


American-Airlines

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines and its parent company are filing for bankruptcy protection as they seek to cut costs and unload massive debt built up by years of high jet fuel prices and labor struggles.
The third-largest US airline also said today that CEO Gerard Arpey had stepped down and was replaced by company president Thomas W. Horton.
AMR Corp has continued to lose money while other US airlines returned to profitability in the last two years.
Horton said the board of directors unanimously decided to file for bankruptcy after meeting Monday in New York and again by conference call on Monday night.
American said it would operate normally while it reorganises in bankruptcy. The airline said it would continue to operate flights, honor tickets and take reservations. It said the AAdvantage frequent-flier programme would not be affected.


Sunday 27 November 2011

E-shoppers go mobile on Thanksgiving, Black Friday


Apple's iPhone and iPad helped make mobile devices a key driver of Thanksgiving and Black Friday e-commerce this year, according to a report from IBM Coremetrics.
Online Thanksgiving shopping grew by 39.3 percent year over year, creating momentum that continued into Black Friday, where online sales grew by 24.3 percent compared with the same period last year, said the report(PDF).
And Black Friday witnessed the arrival of the mobile deal seeker, who embraced his or her mobile device as a research tool for in-store and online bargains. Mobile traffic came close to tripling year over year, to 14.3 percent on Black Friday 2011 from 5.6 percent last year.
The iPhone and the iPad accounted for 10.2 percent of all Black Friday online traffic. The iPhone and the iPad ranked first and second for mobile device retail traffic (5.4 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively). Android-based devices came in third at 4.1 percent.
But it's not all about mobile browsing. The value of individual orders also increased, while the number of items purchased decreased. Home goods, for example, saw an average order-value increase of nearly 16 percent, while the number of items per order dropped by more than 6 percent.
Here's a rundown of the report's other key findings:
  • Sales on mobile devices surged year over year, to 9.8 percent from 3.2 percent.
  • Shoppers using the iPad accounted for more actual purchases per visit than shoppers using other mobile devices, with conversion rates reaching 4.6 percent for the Apple device versus 2.8 percent for overall mobile devices.
  • Mobile shoppers demonstrated a laser focus that surpassed that of other online shoppers, with a 41.3 percent bounce rate on mobile devices versus a rate of 33.1 percent for shoppers on other computing gadgets. The bounce rate records how often people jump from one site to another looking for the best deal on a particular item, rather than browsing around through various items in a more leisurely fashion.
  • Shoppers referred from social networks generated 0.53 percent of all online sales on Black Friday. Facebook led the pack, accounting for 75 percent of all traffic from social networks.
The gains in online shopping come amid a push from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to offer better online experiences.
And while stores like Macys offered "doorbuster" sales to bring more customers into its brick-and-mortar locations (and ostensibly spend more money in them), a greater number of people appear to be splitting their purchasing between online and retail.
The National Retail Federation estimates that as many as 152 million Americans are expected to shop this weekend, up from last year's 138 million.
Update, 5:10 p.m. PT:
In a blog post today, Stephen Baker, vice president of the NPD Group's Industry Analysis unit, reported preliminary results from NPD's Anatomy of Black Friday study. Among the findings:
  • Almost 65 percent of tech shoppers actually ponied up for a product because they found it on sale, and 28 percent took advantage of big sales at a specific retailer they had targeted. Totals in both those categories were about 50 percent higher than the corresponding totals for shoppers overall, and both the tech totals reflected a 10 percent increase year over year.
  • Electronics continued to be the second most popular category, after clothing, with more than 23 percent of Black Friday shoppers buying some type of electronic gadget--15 percent more than last year and 50 percent higher than the third most popular category, toys.
  • TVs saw their popularity leap 30 percent from last year, overtaking computers as the most popular electronics product (excluding purchases of video games from the computers category).
  • Big-screen TVs seemed to be preferred to their smaller-screen brethren, with 26 percent of Black Friday tech shoppers saying they plan to spend more than $1,000 during the holidays. That's 10 percent more than last year and compares with 19 percent of overall shoppers who said they planned to spend that much.
  • Electronics retailers did nicely, with Best Buy coming in as the fourth most visited retailer behind Wal-Mart, Target, and Amazon--all sellers that offer a much wider range of products. And Best Buy saw its total number of shoppers fall less sharply than did other retailers, as numbers dipped across the board. Plus, 58 percent of Best Buy shoppers actually shelled out for merchandise, versus 38 percent last year, the biggest such bump among the top four retail outlets.

Wales football manager Gary Speed has died at the age of 42.



Wales manager Gary Speed shouts out instuctions during the 4-1 friendly win over Norway
The Football Association of Wales (FAW) has told the BBC it appears Speed, the national manager for nearly a year, killed himself.
Cheshire Police confirmed he was found dead at 07:08 GMT at his home in Huntington, Chester. They said there were no suspicious circumstances.
Former Wales team mate Ryan Giggs said: "Words cannot begin to describe how sad I feel at hearing this awful news."

so much x”r

He said: "Our thoughts are with his family at what must be a very difficult time for them.
The FAW said: "We extend our sympathies and condolences to the family.
"We ask that everyone respects the family's privacy at this very sad time."
The FAW added: "That this tragedy should have overtaken someone so young and talented is a huge loss not only for his family and friends but a nation as a whole."
Speed, who was awarded the MBE in the 2010 Birthday Honours, leaves a wife and two children.
Phil Pritchard, FAW president, said they would do "whatever we can" to help Speed's family.