World News

(Jamaica Gleaner): The Government has moved to clear the air about its position on the local media in the wake of growing unease following recent comments by Prime Minister Bruce Golding. On Sunday, Golding used a political platform to suggest that sections of the media, and in particular The Gleaner, were working with other groups in pushing a propaganda line while ignoring the facts about the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair. The comment attracted immediate criticisms with the Media Association Jamaica Ltd and the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) expressing concern about the implications for media workers. Yesterday, minister with responsibility for information, Daryl Vaz, was adamant that the comments did not represent an attack on the media.

(The Independent): Are you terrified of earthquakes, floods or tsunamis? Does the prospect of terrorist attack or nuclear holocaust fill you with dread? Or does it take that ancient Mayan stuff about 2012 to get your juices flowing? Whatever your paranoia, fear not: if the End Times really are coming, then a small financial investment is all it will take for you to survive it. That, at least, is what they're telling customers of the apocalypse industry, a small section of the American economy which, after years in abeyance following the end of the Cold War, has once more started growing again. Robert Vicino, the founder of Vivos, a Californian company building a "survival network" of upscale underground bunkers across the United States, will travel to London this week to announce the opening of his firm's first nuclear-bomb-and-asteroid-proof property in Europe.

(Huffington Post): A 603-pound (274-kilogram) woman believed to be the heaviest in Thailand left her apartment for the first time in three years Thursday with the help of Bangkok city hall and a forklift. Neighbors of 40-year-old Umnuayporn Tongprapai contacted the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority when they learned she needed medical attention to remove a tumor in her right leg. Bangkok's media-savvy governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra summoned camera crews to document the event, which involved engineers, demolition crews, rescue workers, doctors and nurses.

(CNS): While the Cayman Islands did not have a contestant in this year’s Miss Universe pageant, the country’s neighbouring island of Jamaica certainly did. Yendi Phillipps managed to place second, creating history in Las Vegas last night, as the highest ever finish by a Jamaican in the Miss Universe contest -- one of the world’s biggest beauty pageants. Beating early favourites Miss Puerto Rico and Miss Ireland to place in the top five, Phillipps came in as first runner up to the eventual winner, Miss Mexico Jimena Navarrete, which makes her essentially first reserve if for any reason Miss Mexico cannot continue her reign as Miss Universe 2010. The second runner-up was Miss Australia Jesinta Campbell and third runner-up was Miss Ukraine Anna Poslavska.

(The Royal Gazette): Construction workers say their industry no longer offers a lifeline to Bermudian men who can't read or write. They claim locals are being priced out of jobs by an influx of non-Bermudians prepared to live and work in extremely poor conditions, for very little pay. And according to Pembroke MP Ashfield DeVent, many people believe the unions should have done more to confront the issue and protect workers. One construction worker, who has been in the industry more than 20 years, told The Royal Gazette he has been unable to find work since April. The man said he used to earn $45 an hour as a self-employed worker, and an average worker would get around $30 an hour.

(CNN): Amiza Mai rushes through the hospital doors, tears streaming from her eyes and her two-month-old boy cradled in her arms. He is screaming. Her baby boy Kalsoon has severe diarrhea and has been vomiting. He is so dehydrated that he needs fluids pumped into him intravenously immediately. He and his entire family are living in harsh conditions after losing everything in a rush of water. They are victims of Pakistan's mighty flood that has tossed so many families into chaos. "I'm like a rolling stone, going here and there," says his mother, Amiza Mai. "My life is over. I have lost everything. And now I am at the mercy of others and the government."

(The Royal Gazette): Nine construction companies have been "red-carded" by the Department of Immigration for failing to hire Bermudians. And a "moratorium" was put on all applications for masons, carpenters, landscape gardeners and cleaners. Labour and Immigration Minister David Burch said his department had received a considerable number of complaints, particularly because of construction companies' "reluctance to hire Bermudians". "As one example, we have received information on a master mason who had applied to ten different construction companies and only one called him back. Happily, the firm who did, hired him and are quite happy with his craftsmanship."

(Jamaica Gleaner): The Public Sector Transformation Unit (PSTU) says it has uncovered several discrepancies in the public sector, including salary payments to dead workers on the Government's payroll. PSTU Chairman Peter Moses (left) made the revelation while speaking at yesterday's sitting of Parliament's Public Administration and Appropriations Committee, which is reviewing the PSTU's recommendations for modernising the public sector. "There are too many people employed, too many people being paid, people who are being paid who are not alive anymore - we have unearthed a lot," Moses told the committee. (Photo by Philip Hamilton, Gleaner Writer)

(Sky-news): Wheel clampers will be banned from operating on private land following concerns about the bullying tactics of rogue operators. The UK government has announced plans for a new law which would instead allow landowners to fine people if they breach clearly advertised restrictions. Home Office minister Lynne Featherstone told Sky News: "The coalition government has an agreement and a commitment to tackle rogue wheel clampers on private land and that's what we're doing. The decision is to ban them." Claiming that clamping is a big issue due to the amount of complaints MPs receive over rogue activity, she said government had been thinking about starting an appeal court for motorists, but at a cost of £2m, it was decided an outright ban was best. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)

(Jamaican Gleaner): A bid to allow women to become ordained bishops in one of Jamaica's most populous Christian denominations has failed, reinforcing a tradition that has stimulated vigorous debate within church circles. The New Testament Church of God, which has allowed women to be licensed ministers but barred them from the roundtable of bishops who administer the denomination, blocked the bid at its general assembly in Florida last month. Bishop Barrington Brown, who leads the New Testament Church of God in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, believes that it will take some time to convince both laity and clergy that women should have equal footing with men.

(Reuters): State governments eager for paydays in hard times are doubling down on gambling even though America's casino industry is still sliding from a peak reached three years ago. Desperate for revenue to ease budget shortfalls totalling an expected $127 billion or more this fiscal year alone, lawmakers and governors are championing casino deals and looking past flashing signs of distress. Atlantic City, which once had the only casinos on America's densely populated East Coast, is losing so much business to rivals that New Jersey's governor is pressing a plan for the state government to take over the faded seaside resort's gambling area.

(BBC): The UN has launched an appeal for $459m (£290m) to help victims of Pakistan's flood disaster, which has affected at least 14 million people. UN humanitarian chief John Holmes made the announcement at the organisation's headquarters in New York, saying the aid would cover the next 90 days. The disaster was "one of the most challenging that any country has faced in recent years", Mr Holmes said. So far, about 1,600 people have been killed by the monsoon floods. Mr Holmes said the funds would be used for food, clean water, shelter and medical supplies. The "emergency response plan" would be revised after 30 days as more information came in, he added.

(WSJ): Two elderly pensioners in Comfort Castle joined hundreds of Jamaicans with a grisly fate: expatriates who spent their working lives abroad, then moved home only to be killed. Neighbors say they heard 84-year-old George Passley, a retired bus conductor from the UK, screaming last November as his home burned but couldn't rescue him. Eight days later, Mavis White, an 80-year-old widow who also returned from Britain, died in a house fire a mile from Passley's. Authorities are investigating both cases as arson. "Returned Residents" like Passley and White dreamed of retiring in their homeland, only to discover it wasn't the Jamaica of their youth. The country they left behind was poor, but relatively safe. It is still poor, but shockingly violent.

(The Daily Mail): Frontline legal services could be axed following massive cuts in Ministry of Justice funding outlined in a secret Government memo. The document, by the MoJ's finance department, reveals it will slash £102million from the Court Service budget over the next three years. The memo also details a £193million cut in legal aid and a £39million drop in the Tribunals Service budget by 2011 following this year's Comprehensive Spending Review. Critics warn the move would inevitably hit public access to justice and could create delays in criminal prosecutions and a wide range of civil disputes. And sources claim MoJ officials are already discussing where the cuts will fall. It is understood that up to 150 courts and tribunals, in five regions, could be forced to merge or close. Gary Slapper, professor of law at the Open University, said: "This will significantly compromise people's ability to receive justice."

(Jamaica Gleaner): One hundred and forty-nine rogue cops have been removed from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) in the first seven months of this year, an indication that the police anti-corruption arm has stepped up efforts to weed out bad apples. Assistant Commissioner of Police Justin Felice (left), who is in charge of the Anti-Corruption Branch, said this was an increase over the number recorded for the corresponding period last year. A breakdown of police statistics released yesterday shows that 105 cops were barred from re-enlisting at the end of their old contracts, 26 were retired in the public interest, while 18 were dismissed for corruption-related matters.