Lawyers for incarcerated former Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday will return before High Court Judge Anthony Carmona this morning to seek to convince him to release their client on bail pending the hearing of Panday's appeal.

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.

Jamaican performer Beenie Man, his Ruff Cut Band and Silver Cat, did not disappoint Tobagonians, as he treated them to one-and-a-half hours of dancehall selections on Saturday night.

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.

Trinidad and Tobago coach Leo Beenhakker has announced a provisional 24-man squad for this summer's World Cup finals.

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.

Through his conglomerate, CL Financial chairman Lawrence Duprey gave the daughters of Basdeo Panday a "scholarship" worth ?119,183 ($1.2 million) in 1997. And this is what, he contended, accounted for most of the "new money" entering the London bank account.