The United National Congress (UNC) executive has named Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar as the new Opposition Leader, the first for a female in Trinidad and Tobago.

Former prime minister and UNC chairman Basdeo Panday spent the first night of his 41 years in public life as a convicted prisoner following his two year sentencing on corruption charges yesterday.

Guyana is calling on Canada to help investigate the vicious murders of the country's agricultural minister and two of his siblings -- all Canadian citizens who were gunned down this weekend in what Guyanese officials say was an attempt to destabilize the country before the impending election.

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday has said that yesterday's murder of Guyana's Agricultural Minister Satyadeo Sawh proves that violence has entered Caribbean politics. "I think the politics of the Caribbean is degenerating to the level of violence from which there will probably be no return," Panday told the Sunday Express.

The anger of Matthew's ('Matches') Lane residents and surrounding areas could not be tamed, as women, children, and even grown men, wept openly at the news that their area leader, Donald 'Zekes' Phipps, was found guilty of murder of Rodney Leroy Farquharson and Dayton Williams yesterday.

Trinidadian Shaun Toon who was found guilty last year on a count of manslaughter for shooting dead a 20-year-old man in Edmonton, Canada broke down in tears yesterday after he was sentenced to a total of 14 years in jail.

Dutch national, Adriana Kaya Teuben who tried to smuggle TT$1.4 million worth of cocaine in a hidden luggage compartment through the Piarco International Airport was sentenced to nine years in prison yesterday after a nine-member jury found her guilty.

Canada has deported four Trinidadians, two who this week completed a jail sentence for plotting terrorist attacks and two believed to be their ?close associates.?

Drivers who are suspected of being under the influence of alcohol and refuse to allow a breathalyser test could be jailed, Transport Minister Colm Imbert said yesterday.

The suggestion was made yesterday that billionaire businessman Lawrence Duprey, who chairs CL Financial Holdings Ltd, gave the "gift" of the ?119,183 ($1.2 million) to two daughters of Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday in 1997, for political advantage when Panday was the then prime minister.