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Read storyA woman was raped during an attack at a Prince Charles Drive home early Friday morning.
After a man got into the house through the front door, he robbed a 30-year-old woman inside and sexually assaulted her.
The police officer reporting the crime did not reveal the extent of the woman's injuries but said she was substantially traumatized.
According to The Tribune, another woman in the house escaped to a neighbor where she called police. The Guardian reported that neighbors heard commotion from the home and called.
Either way, police were able to make an arrest, although again there are different reports.
The Tribune stated that police are holding one man in connection with the crime while The Guardian said two 23-year-olds.
Both papers said the suspect(s) were expected to appear in court yesterday.
Full Story in The Nassau Guardian here
Full Story in The Tribune here (Page A01)
Read storyA 32-year-old man was attacked by two gunmen outside his house in the Cool Acres subdivision Friday evening.
The men went inside his home, took his shotgun and then shot the man in his left leg when they were leaving.
He was in stable condition on Sunday.
Around 10pm, a woman in her early 50s was robbed of about $2,000 at her home in Twynam Heights.
The woman, who was with her son, was also approached by two men with guns, who took cash and some personal items.
They tried to take her car but did not succeed.
Police Superintendant Elsworth Moss warned Bahamians to make sure homes are well-lit on the outside and that people inside know to expect you.
Full Story in The Nassau Guardian here
Full Story in The Tribune here
Read storyThat country may not have seen the worst of the financial crisis according to a survey of financial professionals in The Bahamas.
A survey of 40 financial service professionals, conducted by The Nassau Guardian and The Bahamas Financial Services Board, asked 13 questions about the state of the nation.
Not everyone answered every question but below are some of the points raised and the responses.
The worst has passed
29 said it hasn't
Government should focus more on financial services
30 said it should
Delayed/Cancelled projects will have a significant impact on the country's supply of foreign money
32 said they will
Difficulties facing Swiss banks will affect confidence in offshore banking
20 said yes, 16 said no
Everyone who responded to a question about local industry said the country would have to make major changes for the financial services sector - the nation's number two money-maker - to remain competitive.
Full Story in The Nassau Guardian here
Read storyGroup bookings at the Atlantis' Resort are way down and are probably going to stay that way.
George Markantonis, president and managing director of Kerzner Bahamas, told The Nassau Guardian that companies that would normally come to the resort for meetings and rewards programs are cutting out exotic trips.
Citigroup Inc.'s Primerica Financial Services recently canceled a trip for its salespeople. Markantonis said that would have a big impact on occupancy levels but said the hotel intends to collect cancellation fees.
Despite the loss of much of its most important business, the Atlantis executive told The Nassau Guardian that the resort is more or less on target. There are no plans for layoffs among the resorts' 8,000-plus workers.
Full Story in The Nassau Guardian here
Read storyGRAND BAHAMA: A family is upset that the man who killed their relative has been sentenced to only 15 years in prison.
Labion LaRoda stabbed his wife Tiffany at least 20 times, killing her. LaRoda pled guilty to the manslaughter.
Her sister, Shavonne Munnings, said: “I sat through the trial and the accused admitted and described in detail what he did as part of the plea bargain to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
"I do not agree with this plea bargaining thing and I also believe that the 15-year sentence was not sufficient because he took a mother away from her four children."
Ms Munnings said she believes LaRoda should have been sentenced to at least 35 years for his crime.
Rev Glenroy Bethel, founder of a group known as Families for Justice or FFJ, said the victim’s family would appeal the decision.
Full Story in The Tribune here
Read storyGRAND BAHAMA: After losing control of his Jeep Cherokee, a driver crashed through the wall of a home.
According to police, Ashley Moxey was speeding on the East Sunrise Highway at about 3am last week Friday.
Moxey lost control then hurtled across the median and the highway's other lane before crashing through the northern wall of Rowland Stuart's Home.
The crash did not hurt anyone in the home but Moxey was taken to Rand Memorial for treatment.
Full Story in The Tribune here
Read storyBahamians that burn rubbish or debris will be subject to the most severe sentences possible according to Fire Services administrator Bradley Knowles.
"It's a nuisance and we want the public to understand that this is a breach of the law - the only (legal) avenue you have for lighting fires in the neighborhood is for cooking purposes," Knowles said.
"We've been doing a lot of warning but the time has come where we're going to have to prosecute people before the courts."
Full Story in The Tribune here
Read storyThe government plans to be tougher on squatters in efforts to protect the approximately 15,000 acres of crown land left on New Providence.
Land and Surveys Director Tex Turnquest said persons who are trying to hold on to land without devloping it will be stopped.
Turnquest said the government is providing more resources to the department which will help them to deal with squatters more efficiently.
Land and Surveys is currently putting together a map of the crown land still available in The Bahamas, one island at a time.
The Nassau Guardian
Read storyPoliticians in Mexico have accused a developer in The Bahamas of exploiting 65 of its citizens.
Last week Thursday, lawmakers in Mexico requested various government agencies within Mexico to act on reports that the owners of a resort in The Bahamas have treated workers unfairly.
Mexican Senator Jose Zalvidea said that the company illegally took passports from Mexican employees.
The Senator said the resort threatened to turn workers over to Bahamian immigration authorities and that they could end up in jail.
Senator Zalvidea also suggested that workers were paid $80 a week instead of the $500 they were promised and were not allowed to leave the work area at lunchtime or after hours.
The Senate approved a request that Mexico should increase efforts to repatriate the workers.
The Tribune
Read a translated version of the story here
Read storyAt least four BEC executives have been let go in efforts to improve the corporation's efficiency.
Executive Chairman Fred Gottlieb said the Bahamas Electricity Corporation needed to be less "top-heavy as far as executives are concerned".
Gottlieb said this was something that could continue on lower levels within the company as BEC aims to be more efficient.
Minister of State for Public Utilities Phenton Neymour said the decision was made after recommendations from an independent auditor.
Former Minister of Works Bradley Roberts said the removal of the executives was a haphazard approach to BEC's financial problems.
Roberts said the corporation was in a poor financial state because it did not pass the cost of higher duty prices on oil to its customers.
The Nassau Guardian
The Tribune
Read storyGRAND BAHAMA: Police Officer Pierre Martin was found guilty of accepting a bribe by a unanimous jury decision.
Martin was released on $10,000 bail and required to surrender travel documents until his sentencing in April.
The officer was convicted of accepting a bribe from Garrick Lewis in Feburay of 2007.
Martin had arrested Lewis that month and charged him with obscene language, resisting arrest and threatening to kill him (Officer Martin).
See other CBN stories about this subject here
Full Story in The Tribune here (Page A05)
Read storySolomon's Mines employees are worried that they may lose their jobs as they wait for late salary cheques.
An employee who called The Tribune said her salary was supposed to be paid two weeks ago and is not sure when she will be.
She said the staff is all the more upset because managers were recently given blackberry phones despite the store continually being late with salaries.
Store President Mark Finlayson told The Tribune in a previous article that the store was struggling with the lack of tourism dollars.
More recently, Finlayson told the newspaper that the store had done well in the week leading up to Valentines.
See other CBN stories about this subject here
Full Story in The Tribune here (Page A03)
Read storyThe College of The Bahamas may have to wait as much as ten years before it will become a University.
Education Minister Carl Bethel said it would be up to Cabinet Ministers to decide how long it would be, and that "it could be two years or it could be ten".
Bethel said the matter has not yet come before the Cabinet but that he expected it would soon.
The Nassau Guardian
Read storyA man testified that police planted a gun on his friend after killing him and moving his body.
Trevon Stevens told the court that he and Lincoln Forbes were chased by police before stopping in front of a Garden Hills building.
He testified that once he stopped the car, Forbes got out and ran around the side of a building. It was then that he noticed for the first time that his friend had a gun, Stevens said.
A few seconds later, he heard a shot. After that, Stevens testified, police dragged Forbes to the front of the building, took a gun from a police car and threw it next to his body.
The witness said although he pleaded with officers, they were in no rush to call an ambulance for Forbes, who bled to death.
Lawyers for the police officer who has admitted to shooting Forbes said Stevens was lying. They also argued that there were inconsistencies in his story.
But on several points, Magistrate William Campbell said he did not agree that Stevens had contradicted himself.
The testimony was part of an ongoing Coroner's inquest into Forbes' death.
See other CBN stories about this subject here
Full Story in The Tribune here (Page A01)
Read storyA 33-year-old man was found dead with a handful of money on Wednesday night.
Police say Edvard Ficien was stabbed four times in a brutal attack. Ficien, a Haitian, died next to the Happy Hour Bar on Wulff Road.
Police Superintendent Elsworth Moss said while robbery could have been a motive for the attack, the fact that the the money was left behind suggests otherwise.
Ficien is The Bahamas' 12th murder for the year.
Full Story in The Nassau Guardian here
Full Story in The Tribune here (Page A01)
Read storyA witness said the man accused of murdering Keith Carey dropped her to Police Headquarters on the day of the shooting.
The witness (whose name was withheld by court order) testified that Jamal Glinton, who is charged with killing Keith Carey in February of 2006, dropped her to her job at the Urban Renewal Project at the East Street Police station.
Her testimony matches another witness that says she was in a car with Glinton on the day of the shooting.
Prosecutors are hoping her testimony will establish a link between the car he used to drop her and the car they believe was used to leave the scene of the crime.
Glinton, along with Sean Brown and Dwight Knowles, is accused of shooting Carey at the Bank of the Bahamas on Harrold Road.
Knowles' cousin, Mickey Wright, testified that Knowles told him about a "situation" with a white Maxima and asked him to take it for repairs.
Wright said that he had been held by police for four days and pressured to tell them "what they wanted to hear".
The trial resumes Monday.
See other CBN stories about this subject here
The Nassau Guardian
Full Story in The Tribune here (Page A03)
Read storyThe country's top judge said Bahamians should not be satisfied with the current state of the legal system.
Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall told the Rotary Club of West Nassau that without public interest the judicial system cannot function as it should.
Sir Burton said public support might encourage people with the power to improve the state of the nation's judicial system to do so.
He also pointed out that The Bahamas' legal support staff are made up of civil servants that administrators have limited powers to hire, fire or discipline.
Sir Burton also said that while criticism of judges and their decisions is part of a working democracy, personal attacks and self-serving accusations serve no-one.
The Nassau Guardian
Read storyBahamians need to be less careless when it comes to fire, an official said after reporting the ninth fire in a week.
Fire Services Administrator Bradley Knowles said most fires are caused by carelessness.
A ten-year-old boy was taken to hospital after helping his mother put out a fire in their home on Wednesday afternoon.
It was the ninth structural fire reported in a week and the tenth call that unit of firefighters responded to that day, police reported.
Knowles said smoke detectors are essential for better fire prevention and advised placing them in a hallway near bedrooms.
In the kitchen and outside the bathroom are not good spots, he said, since smoke from cooking and steamy showers could lead to false alarms.
The Nassau Guardian
Full Story in The Tribune here (Page A01)
Read storyA six-year-old girl was taken to the hospital after an attack at a government primary school.
Police are investigating claims that the girl was sexually assaulted by a group of secondary school boys.
The attack is said to have happened shortly after 3pm on January 23.
Education Minister Carl Bethel said the matter was kept private due to the nature of the incident and the fact that the police investigation has not yet concluded.
Police Superintendant Elsworth Moss said there is an investigation ongoing and that the attack involved at least two perpetrators. He did not describe the nature of the attack.
Moss said he expected to conclude the investigation in a few days.
The Tribune
Read storyThe police complaints and corruption unit is reviewing two cases of alleged extortion by its officers.
In one case, an Arawak Cay stall owner said a policeman took $200 from one of his staff members.
He said the officer told him that people had complained about his stall but that he would "have him straight".
The stall owner said the next week the policeman came back and said he wanted $500 every week to "keep everbody off ya back".
In the other matter, 20-year-old Travis Brown said police told him there was a warrant out for his arrest.
Brown said three officers handcuffed him and drove him around for while before offering him a choice: spend a few days in a holding cell or pay a $100 "fine".
After Brown told them he didn't have the money, an officer reached into his pocket, took $50 and gave half to a policeman in the front seat.
Later, the officers were forced to stop at the Quackoo Street Police station when they realized they had no keys for the handcuffs, he said.
Brown said they later dropped him off on East Street.
Acting Commissioner Reginald Ferguson said all such activities must be stopped and encouraged citizens to report them to the Police Complaint Unit.
The Tribune
