A coalition of Jamaican Rastafarian groups wants the UN to pressure European countries, especially Britain, to pay billions of pounds in slavery reparations to followers of the faith.

The latest hurricane to threaten the Caribbean has shifted course and is veering towards Trinidad and Tobago, says the US National Hurricane Center.

Nobel Prize winner author VS Naipaul has condemned terrorism and blamed Saudi Arabia for funding it. He has also attacked multiculturalism in Britain and said immigrants must integrate into their host country instead of demanding special privileges.

Barbados was placed under a hurricane warning as of 8 am yesterday, after Hurricane Ivan began taking a westerly path to the Windward Islands.

Four homes were torched in "Judgement Yard" - a section of August Town, Kingston, where dancehall artiste Sizzla and his family live.

A $2 million investment in a project linked to the brother of a Government Minister, off-the-floor share sales and breaches of legislation are some of the alleged incidents at FNCU-Venture Capital Company which are now under the microscope of the Venture Capital Incentive Programme (VCIP) and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).

A relationship has developed between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, himself a former coup-leader, and Jamaat al Muslimeen leader and 1990 insurrectionist Yasin Abu Bakr.

The image of an exploding BWIA passenger aircraft has turned up on a website linked to the Al Qaeda terror group. The Lockheed L-1011 Tri-Star is shown with its fuselage and wing on fire, next to figures of hooded women and the landing gear of a crashed plane.

ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) - Jamaican reggae artist Elephant Man will be among 15 performers at the eighth annual Creole Music Festival in Dominica next month, an organiser said yesterday.

Matthews Lane strongman Donald "Zeeks" Phipps may find himself in trouble with the law because of comments he made on a radio programme about using his guns on the side of the law.