Fired has destroyed the historic Morant Bay Courthouse in the eastern parish of St. Thomas.

The blaze also destroyed historic documents housed at the court house, built in the 1860s. Fire officials said that the blaze may have been caused by an electrical short circuit.

Fired has destroyed the historic Morant Bay Courthouse in the eastern parish of St. Thomas.

The blaze also destroyed historic documents housed at the court house, built in the 1860s. Fire officials said that the blaze may have been caused by an electrical short circuit.

The building was featured in the Morant Bay rebellion in 1865 and in the ensuing violent confrontation the courthouse was burnt and National heroes Paul Bogle and George William Gordon executed.

Meanwhile, investigations are being carried out to determine the cause of a fire at a section of the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre in the central parish of St Catherine late Monday.

The blaze started in a block housing 200 inmates in the maximum security section and Commissioner of Corrections Major Richard Reece said there was no need to relocate the inmates and a report is being prepared by prison officials on the damage caused by the fire.

"There was some amount of smoke which engulfed the building but that has since cleared and no souls were lost, the fire brigade will conduct their investigations and we have contacted our contractors to carry out emergency repairs," he said.

Former Public Service Minister George Fung-on died Friday at his city residence. He was 85.

Fung-on was recently hospitalized for about two weeks; he was discharged but remained unwell.

Fung-on spent most of his life in the civil service and had worked with the government in the colonial period and also in the Burnham and Jagan eras. He was appointed as Minister of the Public Service in 1992 when Dr. Cheddi Jagan was elected President.

He will be best remembered for his numerous verbal contests with the umbrella Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) which eventually led to a 57-day strike by government workers and the subsequent arbitration award hiking salaries by some 26 percent.

Fung-on was an avid cricket enthusiast and played the game at the First Class level until he was about 50 years old.

In the midst of Black History Month celebrations among Caribbean Americans and their African American counterparts, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Chairman Dr Ralph Gonsalves has called on Caribbean countries to press Europe for a full apology and reparations for its role in the Atlantic Slave trade. The call is often echoed by African Americans who also think the reparations are necessary for the heinous crime that slavery was.

Speaking at the 18th CARICOM intersessional Heads of Government conference which started on Monday, the St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister said such an apology, accompanied by economic redress, must be the basis on which any future relationship with Europe is built.

Tragedy visited the South Florida Caribbean community when a Trinidadian and a Jamaican were killed in a two bus crash on the perimeter road of the Fort Lauderdale Airport last Sunday night.

Jameer Fyzool, 71, a Trinidadian, and an employee of Nathan’s Restaurant at the airport, was killed when the airport shuttle bus driven by Haitian-American, Jackson Aristide crossed over the dividing line and crashed head-on into a bus driven by 64 year-old, George Pitter, a Jamaican. Pitter was also killed in the accident.

The Trinidad and Tobago government will soon disclose how best it will honor the contractual obligations of an agreement reached with Jamaica under a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.

The agreement between Port of Spain and Kingston was reached nearly two years ago.

Under the Jamaica/Trinidad and Tobago LNG project, the twin island republic agreed to supply Jamaica with some 160 million cubic feet of LNG per day, over a prescribed period, which would be utilized mainly by the alumina industry.