Brian Lara claimed another piece of history when he hit an unbeaten 313 to become only the second player to score two Test triple hundreds as the West Indies piled up 595 for five in their first innings in the fourth and final Test against England.

Whichever way you look at it, Sean Paul certainly has been getting busy lately. In between recording and producing artistes at his recording studio in Jamaica, meeting all the hip-hop and R&B greats who want to record with him and fulfilling his world tour obligations, Sean Paul has been blazing his way into his fans hearts around the world.

Sunday past saw the 2nd annual staging of the Greater Miami Mardi Gras festival in downtown Miami. The previous year, the turnout was estimated at 150,000 people and this year was even bigger. The city aimed for a more culturally diverse crowd than last year's collection of Haitians and enlisted the help of a number of people, including members of Hype Entertainment. The lineup of artists was sure to bring out all the Caribbean countries.

West Indies have dropped batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul from their squad for the fourth Test against England as they seek to avoid a series whitewash. Uncapped Antiguan Sylvester Joseph will replace Chanderpaul, who has scored 101 runs in six innings during the series.

Brian Lara has insisted he will not resign as West Indies captain despite their Test series defeat by England. Lara has come under renewed pressure as England raced to a 3-0 lead on the four-Test tour of the Caribbean.

Newspapers described West Indies' defeat by England as a crying shame and a horror story on Sunday after the visitors won their first series in the Caribbean for 36 years. Inspired by Matthew Hoggard's hat-trick, England's eight-wicket victory in the third test on Saturday gave them a 3-0 lead in the four-match series.

Livingston will make a formal complaint against the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association after Marvin Andrews returned from international duty exhausted for their 3-1 defeat against Hibernian.

A cocaine baron, Lincoln White, who ran a $170million international drugs empire was last night facing 25 years behind bars. The 39-year-old used a network of trusted contacts across the Caribbean and the Americas to bring in cocaine paste disguised as shampoo.

The biggest crack cocaine baron ever arrested in the United Kingdom was today facing up to 25 years in jail for heading a $170 million international drugs network. Lincoln White, 39, a Jamaican national who divided his time between Montego Bay and London but had contacts stretching across the Caribbean, South America, Europe and Africa, is believed by police to be the single largest importer, manufacturer and distributor of crack cocaine caught in Britain.

A Jamaica man already facing an aggravated sexual assault charge was arraigned for new charges of possessing child pornography, Monday in Windham District Court. Shawn Grover, 37, pleaded not guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography. On each count, Grover faces up to two years imprisonment and a $5,000 fine.

In what analysts are calling a "stunning" decision, the Federal Court has ruled against a motion that would have allowed the music industry to start suing individuals who make music available online. Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled today that the Canadian Recording Industry Association did not prove there was copyright infringement by 29 so-called music uploaders.

To millions she was the luckiest woman alive - married to Bob Marley, the international superstar of reggae, recognised the world over as a living icon. But for Rita Marley life with the "Negus" of reggae was far from a fairytale, as she watched the man she dearly loved disown and betray her at every turn.

Steve Harmison is pumped up to turn his mental stranglehold over the West Indies into another rich harvest of wickets. The Durham paceman, who had 16 victims in England’s triumphs in the first two Tests, has never felt stronger or more confident.

Starting tomorrow, WLIB will scrap its daytime Caribbean programming and become the New York home for Air America Radio, the new, liberal talk-radio network. Friday mornings always began the same for Yonkers resident Dennis Hammer, turning on his radio and tuning to 1190 AM to listen to the steel band calypso that would remind him of his home in Barbados. But this Friday, he'll have to search elsewhere to hear the rhythmic beats of the pings and pangs of the drums.

Local artistes yesterday described the closure of New York-based radio station WLIB (1190 AM) as a blow to the region’s music industry. Known as soca’s premier radio station in Brooklyn, New York, for about 30 years, the station informed its mostly West Indian staff last week that it would be halting the airing of Caribbean programming.

India has won the first one-day international against the West Indies, played at Dhanbad on Thursday February 26. The home side won the match by 105 runs. Sent into bat by West Indian captain Stephanie Powar, India amassed a huge total of 298 for 2 in their fifty overs.

Kenyan cricket captain Steve Tikolo and opener Kennedy Obuya have been invited to play for the West Indies Cricket Board Chancellors XI against England in Jamaica next week. "It's a big honour to have our two players going back to the West Indies," said Kenyan coach Andy Moles, who led the team back home after a seven-week tour of the Caribbean, where the East Africans competed in the Carib Beer Series.

The owner of a travel agency stabbed Friday in a robbery has died from his injuries. Paulson Chellakudam was pronounced dead around noon yesterday, three days after Suzette Augustin died in the same attack at Travel Media in the York Plaza on Wilson Ave. at Jane St.