Zachary Anthony and Marena Martinez will headline this Sunday’s 2025 Subway Maracas Open Water Classic at Maracas Bay. Anthony, the reigning Men’s 5-kilometre champion and 2025 Carifta Open Water gold medallist, returns to defend his title, while Carifta gold medallist Martinez is among the favourites in the women’s 5km — and will also contest the 1 km and 3km events. Organised by the Aquatics Sports Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ASATT) in partnership with title sponsor Subway, the Classic begins at 7.30 a.m. and expects over 300 swimmers to tackle distances of 1km, 3km and 5km. Following the smoothly run Carifta Aquatics Championships over Easter, ASATT’s Open Water Committee remains focused on athlete safety and an incident-free competition. Neal Marcano of ASATT commented: “We’re dedicated to excellence and the well-being of all participants. After Carifta’s success, we look forward to another memorable day for competitors and spectators alike.” More than a race, the Classic celebrates community spirit, health and the natural splendour of Trinidad and Tobago. Families and supporters are encouraged to enjoy the shore-side activities and cheer on their favourite swimmers. Ace Trinidad and Tobago swimmer Dylan Carter continued his build-up to July’s World Aquatics Championships in Singapore with an eighth-place finish in the Men’s 50 metres freestyle final at the TYR Pro Series in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, on Saturday night. Carter, who earned silver in the Men’s 50m butterfly on Friday night, could not climb the podium a second time, touching the wall in 22.36 seconds in the “A” final, which was won by Andrej Barna in 21.83. Andre Russell smashed a boundary studded half century as the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) edged past Rajasthan Royals by one run in their Indian Premier League (IPL) contest that went down to the wire on Sunday. The powerful Jamaican justified KKR’s decision to bat first at Eden Gardens, slamming 57 from just 25 balls, inclusive of six sixes and four fours, to propel his team to a competitive 206 for four from their 20 overs. Dawnisha Hector and Qiana Joseph played valuable knocks as the Leeward Islands Women earned their first win in the Women’s T20 Blaze by defeating Barbados Women by six wickets here on Saturday. After sending Barbados in to bat at the Arnos Vale Playing Field, the Leeward Islands restricted their opponents to 95 for eight from their 20 overs. Clarke Road United were the only team to emerge with an outright victory in Round 7 of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board Premiership I two-day competition, wrapping up an eight-wicket win over Yorkshire Sports, yesterday. After dismissing Yorkshire for 125 on Day 1, Clarke Road responded with a strong 250 for six declared behind Vikash Mohan’s 79, Nicholas Sookdeosingh’s 58, and 50 from Mark Deyal. Trinidad and Tobago Legions sealed their spot in the next round of the West Indies Breakout T20 with a dominant six-wicket victory over the Windward Islands Infernos in their final group stage match at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, yesterday. Leg-spinner Navin Bidaisee was the star of the show for the home team, producing a match-winning all-round performance with bat and ball. He picked up two wickets for 18 runs to help restrict the Infernos to 162 for seven before returning to smash an unbeaten 56 off 37 balls to guide T&T to 164 for four in 18.1 overs. Jereem “The Dream” Richards hit the Grand Slam Track jackpot at the Ansin Sports Complex in … Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Sports is leading the way on diversity, equity and inclusion, but don’t expect to hear those words at the game. Plus: Everyone get ready for National Operational Security Awareness Month.  the characters that make Leonardo Santiesteban an artistThe comedian who has brought to life very popular characters and the reasons that led him to leave Cuba By There has been a breed of comedians in Cuba that is different and few remain—actors forged on stage who have emerged in a television world where there are no longer programs dedicated to humor and entertainment Our interviewee has had as many personalities as characters. He has been a child, Pepitín, intrepid and curious; then an older gentleman, Maraca to whom he owes a piece of advice… and that is that his native Holguín was “too small” for Leonardo Santiesteban a makeup artist by profession and flamboyant by conviction he fantastically imitates complicated characters and inarticulate former presidents and I really like that he cares little about what people say; I also appreciate that instead of crying he will not give us laughter but confessions and dressing up as a woman to grab others' attention I discovered the art of making people laugh and how long have you been in the United States I left Cuba for a thousand reasons that you know, that we all know I was a Cuban living there like any other Cuban It was after going to Mexico 83 times to buy clothes and other things to survive on the island that I decided to leave leaving my family and my beloved country behind I love my country and I hope that one day I can return there; to a country where we all feel good and can live as human beings I entered this great nation through Texas on November 23 Why do you say the phrase “I’ll let you go I’m in a hurry” in the series “The Sons of Putin,” regarding the character of Raúl Castro and especially with such characters are generally well received How do you manage to shift from one to another so easily The secret to making each character different lies in being an actor I don't believe that anyone who isn't can achieve it I try to make each one quite different for a better story I create them for a promotion or just a humorous sketch and I take care of them like a hen with her chicks The time had come for me to leave Cuba when I could no longer live off laughter when I had to buy picadillo to sell secretly from the police when I couldn't even give my little girl a candy go so you can send me things,” and you know what and I did so without physically saying goodbye to my family in Holguín what did it mean to leave your family behind there because comedians do not cry in front of others That's where it comes from: we are artists What do you think of the overall situation that the people of Cuba are living in today it has to be deep-rooted; and that requires many years because we've been stuck in bad habits and lies for a long time Those bad habits and lies are ingrained in us The generation from 40 years ago is nothing like the current one and the politics do not want to change nor do they allow change It’s a country where people dance with tearful eyes Do you think there is a cure for the ailment that affects the people of Cuba in stark contrast to those who actually work no longer have a comedy program on National Television On behalf of all the comedians and Cubans who left Cuba we ask for your forgiveness because I know you miss us but I need you to understand at the same time They will return if God and the politicians allow it although ideally it would be those who left — the leaders the ones with big bellies and rosy complexions; those who don’t struggle and whose lights never go out The Cuban comedian was overjoyed when last December he welcomed his daughter, now a teenager, in Miami This event was celebrated by many of his colleagues Graduated in Journalism from the University of Havana in 1977 and producer of more than 80 documentaries and special reports My most notable journalistic coverage includes 6 Olympic Games Home E-Paper Traffic Cameras Classifieds Police seized over $136M in marijuana in Maracasby Over $136 million in marijuana was seized by police in Maracas on Friday Po­lice have seized over $136 mil­lion worth of mar­i­jua­na in Mara­cas A state­ment by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) said that a spe­cial­ist unit of the TTPS part­nered with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guard (TTCG) and of­fi­cers of the North­ern Di­vi­sion to con­duct an in­tel­li­gence-led op­er­a­tion The drugs were dis­cov­ered along a se­clud­ed in­let on the Mara­cas coast Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Ju­nior Ben­jamin stat­ed “This sig­nif­i­cant drug seizure un­der­scores the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice’s un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing our na­tion from the threats posed by transna­tion­al crim­i­nal net­works We re­main vig­i­lant in our ef­forts to dis­rupt the il­le­gal drug trade and will con­tin­ue to lever­age in­tel­li­gence and work close­ly with our lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al law en­force­ment part­ners.” The op­er­a­tion was launched af­ter the spe­cial­ist unit re­ceived in­for­ma­tion ear­ly this morn­ing from a con­fi­den­tial source which in­di­cat­ed that a known Drug Traf­fick­ing Net­work (DTN) had re­cent­ly im­port­ed a sub­stan­tial con­sign­ment of nar­cotics from South Amer­i­ca The drugs were re­port­ed­ly stashed in a re­mote sea-ac­ces­si­ble lo­ca­tion in the Mara­cas area pend­ing fur­ther trans­ship­ment to oth­er re­gion­al ter­ri­to­ries The spe­cial­ist unit quick­ly ini­ti­at­ed an in­tel­li­gence de­vel­op­ment process to quick­ly pin­point the sus­pect­ed stash site the TTPS said that the TTCG skill­ful­ly nav­i­gat­ed ma­rine as­sets to the iso­lat­ed in­let where the joint team con­duct­ed a thor­ough search The search led to the dis­cov­ery of a large stash of nar­cotics con­cealed with­in dense for­est cov­er The team seized 45 bales con­tain­ing Colom­bian “Creepy” Cannabis con­sist­ing of 2250 pack­ets with a com­bined weight of 1242.9 kilo­grams and an es­ti­mat­ed street val­ue of TT$136,404,546 Each bale was iden­ti­cal­ly packed with 50 pack­ets The team se­cured the il­le­gal nar­cotics which was trans­port­ed to Staubles Bay “The suc­cess of this op­er­a­tion is a tes­ta­ment to the strength and ef­fec­tive­ness of the in­tel­li­gence-gath­er­ing sys­tems with­in the TTPS In­tel­li­gence-led polic­ing con­tin­ues to be a cor­ner­stone of our strate­gic ap­proach to tack­ling or­ga­nized crime and nar­cotics traf­fick­ing The TTPS re­mains com­mit­ted to re­fin­ing and ex­pand­ing our in­tel­li­gence ca­pa­bil­i­ties and to work­ing hand-in-hand with our re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al law en­force­ment part­ners to pro­tect the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go.” Curt Si­mon al­so com­ment­ed on the seizure stat­ing “This op­er­a­tion ex­em­pli­fies the pre­ci­sion in­tel­li­gence-dri­ven mis­sion ex­e­cut­ed with pro­fes­sion­al­ism and care and I com­mend all of­fi­cers in­volved for their un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to du­ty Op­er­a­tional suc­cess of this mag­ni­tude doesn’t hap­pen by chance it is the re­sult of metic­u­lous plan­ning and a deep com­mit­ment to the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.” Guardian Media is the premier provider of multimedia solutions and authoritative insight on news TBC Radio Network and The Big Board Company Send us an e-mail here or call us at +1-(868)-225-4465 / +1-(868)-235-5668 THE EDITOR: I comment Dr Fuad Khan for his recent letter on the parking problems at Maracas Bay This problem is not new but is accepted by most complacent Trinis who are willing to accept anything as a standard If only we had another beach to go to besides those on the North Coast I remember there was one once a beach called Chagville in Chaguaramas but that was “taken away” from citizens for a more lucrative purpose a top destination for locals and tourists alike experienced an unusually quiet Ash Wednesday this year Known for its lively crowds and festive atmosphere the beach typically draws large numbers seeking a cool down after the Carnival celebrations Team Six’s visit revealed a significantly smaller turnout than what is typically seen on this day those present took full advantage of the serene surroundings Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device Stream PBS SoCal and your favorite PBS programs to your TV and devices wherever Celebrate AAPI Month on PBS SoCal all May with exclusive programs Find full episodes and educational games from Curious George Support PBS SoCal and watch full seasons of your favorite shows Making maracas with your little one is a fun way to explore a new musical instrument and practice different math concepts Practice the early math concepts of number sense counting and making patterns with this maraca-making activity Use various fun colors to decorate the toilet paper rolls using colored markers or an acrylic paint kit like those found at dollar stores Start by creating a pattern for your child to copy This will help your child become comfortable creating a repeating sequence You can choose to create the pattern on a piece of paper or have your child copy your pattern from the first maraca to the second maraca Practice number sense with your little one by laying out the dried beans or rice with which you will fill the maracas Ask your child to find two sets that look the same See if they can do this without counting each bean You can also compare sets by pointing to two of them and asking which has more or less Transform the toilet paper rolls into maracas Fold one end of one roll and seal it with tape place a handful of beans or rice inside it In this interactive book that uses clapping kids can help Tala and her friends make music on Beat Street Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework PBS SoCal is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.Tax ID: 95-2211661 The element requested is either not valid or does not exist Maracas businessman killed during home invasion by who was mur­dered by ban­dits dur­ing a home in­va­sion at the fam­i­ly’s Mara­cas St Joseph prop­er­ty on Wednes­day morn­ing re­vealed yes­ter­day that he es­caped the at­tack af­ter climb­ing on­to the roof and hid­ing un­der an eave un­til po­lice ar­rived This was af­ter he bar­ri­cad­ed him­self in a bed­room in an at­tempt to avoid the armed men who were at­tempt­ing to break down the door was killed by the thieves af­ter they con­front­ed him dur­ing the break-in at 3.40 am yes­ter­day was de­scribed by neigh­bours as “re­al good” with every­one in the tight-knit com­mu­ni­ty easy-go­ing per­son who could al­ways be count­ed on for any­thing Ram­jag was well-known for op­er­at­ing the fam­i­ly-owned Guarat­ta Mi­ni Mart for more than 40 years and his killing left rel­a­tives and neigh­bours stunned Rel­a­tives were un­able to say ex­act­ly what was tak­en dur­ing the rob­bery ex­cept for an un­known quan­ti­ty of cash and jew­ellery They said the ban­dits broke in down­stairs and van­dalised the cash reg­is­ter and once in­side the mi­ni-mart would have had easy ac­cess to the liv­ing quar­ters up­stairs where Ram­jag and an­oth­er rel­a­tive were asleep They said Ram­jag had been very pro­tec­tive of his fam­i­ly and an­i­mals and would have fought to keep them safe Rel­a­tives added that he would laugh and joke with every­one as Peo­ple liv­ing near­by re­mained shocked yes­ter­day as they said Ram­jag had been in good spir­its up to the clos­ing time of 8 pm Part of the sec­ond floor of the fam­i­ly house is still un­der con­struc­tion and ac­cord­ing to per­sons liv­ing near­by “they were work­ing hard and build­ing lil bit by lil bit.” One of the last few peo­ple to have seen and spo­ken to Ram­jag on Tues­day said he was in good spir­its and noth­ing seemed out of the or­di­nary Pressed to say if Ram­jag had ever ex­pressed con­cerns about the crime sit­u­a­tion or fears of be­ing robbed The busi­ness re­mained closed yes­ter­day and rel­a­tives were un­cer­tain about what would hap­pen with it mov­ing for­ward “We are just very heart­bro­ken over this in­ci­dent He was hard work­ing and we are re­al­ly sad­dened.” A neigh­bour kept his eyes care­ful­ly on pass­ing ve­hi­cles He said he op­er­at­ed a small food cart close by and now he had to be ex­tra care­ful “When I hear that this morn­ing that shocked me and I not pleased about it at all “Every­body try­ing to build up...peo­ple work­ing hard for what they want and the gen­er­a­tion now doh want to do that they just rob­bing and killing to get what they want.” “The gen­er­a­tion out there now is the worst THE EDITOR: On March 31 I went to Maracas Bay and was caught up in a traffic jam that extended from the lookout to the actual beach area I continued on thinking it was a lot of people going to enjoy themselves at Maracas Beach I saw that the long exhausting traffic jam was the result of vehicles entering the car park and drivers paying the entry fee to workers taking their sweet slow time I could not believe that such incompetence has been left to fester for such a long time I have always indicated that in order to have a smooth flow of traffic the fixed fee payment should be done on exit In doing so it would facilitate rapid movement along the North Coast Road and prevent the horrendous jams that take place every Sunday and on holidays Another factor was pedestrians taking their sweet time at the crosswalk and not giving a hoot that there were cars waiting to pass There should a police officer stationed there to prevent obstruction of traffic It would also be wise to create parking areas on the sandy part of the beach that is not being used as this will alleviate the car park problem This would mean an enjoyable experience for all concerned rather than the unnecessary traffic jams and general malaise that is now known in the tourist industry of TT May I add that there is a total absence of police officers on those busy days I am hoping for sense to be used by the management Michael Garcia and Ruqayya Abdul-Haqq are set to make their mark in the prestigious Portraits of Excellence 2025 Scholarship Pageant at the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) and innovation among the region's most promising young minds The USC is a Seventh-Day Adventist institution with campuses in Trinidad and Tobago As active members of the Trinbago Club and dedicated students Garcia and Abdul-Haqq have excelled in embodying the programme’s mission Central to their participation is their impactful project Eco-Friendly Green Waste Composting in Urban Agriculture which addresses waste management and sustainable agriculture in TT by turning green waste into compost and promoting urban farming for food security Michael Garcia helps students as he works on the project Their initiative seamlessly aligns with the programme’s emphasis on innovation and community impact reflecting a shared vision of sustainability and progress for TT This pageant not only celebrates their dedication to creating meaningful change but also provides an inspiring platform to showcase their vision and leadership Portraits of Excellence Scholarship Awards and Gala has returned equips participants with life-changing experiences that nurture their holistic growth Entrepreneurial Innovations: An Imperative for Sustainability in the Caribbean underscores the critical importance of sustainable development It aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) #8 (Decent Work & Economic Growth) and #9 (Industry reflecting USC’s commitment to fostering a brighter future for the region Participants undergo an eight-month-long programme including professional development workshops in speech dynamics they must complete at least 20 hours of community service tackling projects that echo the scholarship theme requiring students to demonstrate academic excellence (minimum GPA of 3.0) and a willingness to embody the ideals of USC’s mission Assessment segments include a written research project Michael Garcia is a delegate in the Portraits of Excellence 2025 Scholarship Pageant of the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) The journey ends on March 16 in a grand gala at the USC auditorium where participants will showcase their talents A panel of judges will determine the winners –Mr and Ms USC 2025– who will serve as ambassadors for the university representing its values on public and private platforms for one year his journey began in a rural community where academic excellence was uncommon His determination paid off as he became the top male student in southeast Trinidad in the SEA exams and went to Cowen Hamilton Secondary School He achieved outstanding results in both CSEC and CAPE exams and served as head boy at Mayaro Secondary School Ruqayya Abdul-Haqq is a delegate in the Portraits of Excellence 2025 Scholarship Pageant of the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) Garcia earned a scholarship from the energy company Touchstone has deepened his understanding of “leading by example” and fostered his commitment to growth draws her inspiration from her family’s legacy at the USC and her passion for her studies Currently pursuing a bachelor of arts in history with an emphasis in legal studies have been complemented by her role as an educator on her TikTok channel “USC holds a special place in my family’s history as both my mother and sister are proud alumni Their enriching experiences at USC inspired me deeply When I discovered that USC offered a programme that perfectly aligned with my passion for history and my career aspirations it felt natural to follow in their footsteps,” she said Ruqayya Abdul-Haqq assists pupils with watering pak choy at Maracas Presbyterian Primary School. Questioned on the vision behind their project Garcia described it as a way to “create a scalable economy that brings new awareness to the necessity of self-sustainable agricultural practices.” he noted that “it is to create a cyclic process of organic waste to fertile compost that would promote overall plant growth which would result entirely from the processing of the byproduct of the farming processes in which we already engage to reduce the need for inorganic and chemical-based fertilisers.” Abdul-Haqq emphasises its alignment with the programme’s theme of entrepreneurial innovation for sustainability “The entrepreneurial aspect (of the project) also demonstrates how sustainability can be integrated into profitable business models creating new economic opportunities and helping to drive innovation in the agricultural sector,” she said Delegate in the USC's Portrait of Excellence Community Project Michael Garcia at work.Michael Garcia collects waste to contribute to the community project Asked how they see urban agriculture benefiting from this project Abdul-Haqq explained that it can benefit by using compost made from green waste to improve soil quality making urban farming more productive and sustainable and community engagement by empowering people to grow their own food it fosters a closed-loop system that reduces waste and strengthens urban food sustainability.” Their efforts have been met with enthusiasm from the community Garcia recalled the positive reception from stakeholders and the excitement among youth participants “Our interactions with the youth were particularly impactful – many of them didn’t want to leave which speaks volumes about the project’s success This demonstrates the incredible results achieved from the project's initial implementation,” he said Abdul-Haqq cherished her interaction with pupils at Maracas Presbyterian Primary School “Once people understood the purpose of the project and how it would benefit them they were eager to contribute their green waste and get involved actively participating in the composting activity and excitedly sharing the information with their parents This enthusiasm and engagement from the community have been encouraging and it shows that there is a growing interest in sustainable practices and their potential to make a positive impact.” Garcia aspires to revolutionise the energy sector with a scalable renewable energy source while Abdul-Haqq envisions contributing to education and cultural preservation Both see their project as a steppingstone toward broader environmental and economic goals for TT Their messages to young people are inspiring "What you do should not be done with self-acclaim in mind; being of good service to your fellow man is the greatest form of leadership.” Abdul-Haqq encourages youth to embrace diversity and innovation reminding them that the Portraits of Excellence Scholarship Pageant exemplifies how initiatives can inspire innovation and encourage active engagement with global goals like the United Nations SDG A MARACAS Bay man has been acquitted of the 2009 murder of his 94-year-old grandmother a 12-member jury found Lester “Sea Blast” Diaz not guilty of the murder of Martina Roxborough He was on trial before Justice Sherene Murray-Bailey at the Hall of Justice It was alleged Roxborough was strangled to death sometime between July 11 and 14 One of her daughters found her body in a room at her Maracas Bay home it was believed she had died of natural causes but an autopsy the next day concluded she had been strangled TWO men who were teenagers when they killed another teen in Maracas Bay in 2013 have been released by a High Court judge who sentenced them earlier this week The two – Khalid Abdul Malik and Sherkeem Hernandez – were 15 when they The third man is still before the court on the murder charge Malik and Hernandez pleaded guilty to David’s murder after requesting a maximum sentence indication (MSI) from Justice Sherene Murray-Bailey The judge gave Malik 14 years and 12 to Hernandez The two accepted the MSI and pleaded guilty After deductions for their guilty plea and the time they had spent in prison so far while Hernandez had just under a year remaining to serve But the judge said there was no useful purpose in his further incarceration Murray-Bailey started with a sentence of 23 years for Hernandez and 21 for Malik She noted Hernandez’ role was “more egregious” than Malik’s She considered the aggravating factors of the offence use of gratuitous violence and the attempt to conceal the body The judge found as a mitigating factor that they were taking orders from another person while agreeing a term of life would not be appropriate David was last seen by his cousin on October 18 He later told her he was going to “handle a scene” and would “vibes her back later.” She went to the fishing village to lime and called David again She tried repeatedly throughout the night and the next day David’s decomposing body was found in a grave in a forested area off Barrow Road some days later He had been chopped repeatedly on the head and body and buried in a hole Malik was represented by Shane Patience and Michael Modeste of the Public Defenders Department Shervon Noreiga represented the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in both matters Mitchell: Maracas Beach ready for Carnival visitorsby Randall Mitchell speaks with Israel Mieres Maracas liaison officer and permanent secretary (Ag) in the Ministry of Tourism while conducting a site visit of the Maracas Beach facility yesterday It is es­ti­mat­ed that dur­ing the up­com­ing Car­ni­val long week­end the Mara­cas Beach Fa­cil­i­ty will at­tract ap­prox­i­mate­ly 15,000 vis­i­tors con­duct­ed a site vis­it to the Mara­cas Beach fa­cil­i­ty to as­sess its readi­ness for vis­i­tors over the 2025 Car­ni­val long week­end The min­istry said the site vis­it was a part of the Gov­ern­ment’s broad­er ef­forts to en­sure that var­i­ous sites and at­trac­tions are equipped and op­er­a­tional to pro­vide an ex­cep­tion­al tourism ex­pe­ri­ence dur­ing this sea­son Ac­com­pa­nied by rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion of T&T (UDe­COTT) Mitchell un­der­scored the Min­istry’s re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of gen­er­at­ing the best guest ex­pe­ri­ence while re­in­forc­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment the vis­it pro­vid­ed an op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­view the works un­der­tak­en via the Fa­cil­i­ties Man­age­ment Con­tract (FMC) be­tween the Min­istry and UDe­COTT a news re­lease from the Min­istry of Tourism The Mara­cas Beach Fa­cil­i­ty has been un­der­go­ing a num­ber of nec­es­sary up­grades with the Min­istry’s com­mit­ment to pro­vid­ing safe and mem­o­rable ex­pe­ri­ences The Min­istry has over­seen the es­tab­lish­ment of two tem­po­rary life­guard struc­tures in ad­di­tion to the ex­ist­ing fa­cil­i­ties These tem­po­rary struc­tures were strate­gi­cal­ly placed at key lo­ca­tions along the beach to pro­vide in­creased cov­er­age as well as to en­hance the over­all safe­ty of the area par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing peak vis­i­ta­tion times Fur­ther to the as­sess­ment of the fa­cil­i­ty the min­is­ter ob­served key main­te­nance and in­fra­struc­tur­al im­prove­ments aimed at ad­dress­ing long­stand­ing con­cerns Oth­er no­table im­prove­ments were those of ven­dor booths im­prove­ments to wash­rooms and chang­ing fa­cil­i­ties and en­hanced ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty for dif­fer­ent­ly abled per­sons Mitchell high­light­ed that the on­go­ing ef­forts at the Mara­cas Beach fa­cil­i­ty align with the min­istry’s ex­pand­ed per­spec­tive of en­sur­ing that T&T’s nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al at­trac­tions re­main glob­al­ly com­pet­i­tive “This year’s Car­ni­val sea­son has demon­strat­ed the grow­ing in­ter­na­tion­al ap­peal of our lo­cal cul­ture As we con­tin­ue to wel­come thou­sands of vis­i­tors to our shores it is vi­tal that one of our most icon­ic lo­ca­tions re­flects the best of what Trinidad and To­ba­go has to of­fer we are en­sur­ing that Mara­cas Beach re­mains a hall­mark of our tourism land­scape,” said Mitchell With con­tin­ued in­vest­ment in in­fra­struc­ture and the Arts said it re­mains ded­i­cat­ed in its ef­forts to en­sure that t coun­try’s sites and at­trac­tions are part of our in­com­pa­ra­ble tourism of­fer­ings Police seized $136 million worth of marijuana in a secluded inlet on the coast of Maracas on April 4 A release from the police on April 4 said a specialist unit and police from the Northern Division joined with the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard (TTCG) to conduct the operation "The specialist unit received information early this morning from a confidential source which indicated that a known drug trafficking network had recently imported a substantial consignment of narcotics from South America sea-accessible location in the Maracas area pending further transshipment to other regional territories." Forty-five bales containing Colombian "Creepy" cannabis consisting of 2,250 packets with a combined weight of 1242.9 kilogrammes The marijuana had an estimated street value of $136,404,546 Acting Commissioner of Police Junior Benjamin said the significant seizure underscores the commitment of the police to protect the country from transnational criminals "We remain vigilant in our efforts to disrupt the illegal drug trade and will continue to leverage intelligence and work closely with our local and international law enforcement partners." Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Intelligence and Investigations Suzette Martin said the operation's success showed the effectiveness of it's intelligence-gathering systems "Intelligence-led policing continues to be a cornerstone of our strategic approach to tackling organised crime and narcotics trafficking." Maracas St Joseph cops host fun fair to bring community togetherby In an ef­fort to bridge the gap be­tween law en­force­ment and the com­mu­ni­ty of­fi­cers from the Mara­cas St Joseph Po­lice Sta­tion came to­geth­er yes­ter­day to not on­ly com­bat crime but al­so nur­ture stronger re­la­tion­ships with res­i­dents Through a live­ly cook­out and com­mu­ni­ty re­la­tions event they pro­vid­ed a space for open di­a­logue and uni­ty which al­so dou­bled as a fundrais­er for a chil­dren’s sports day lat­er in the year and free med­ical check-ups from vis­it­ing doc­tors Al­so at­tend­ing the event were of­fi­cers from the po­lice Vic­tim and Wit­ness Sup­port Unit who en­cour­aged vic­tims of crimes to come for­ward and seek their sup­port if need­ed Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at the Mara­cas Sgt Sean Be­dase said the event was not on­ly in­tend­ed to con­nect res­i­dents with valu­able ser­vices but al­so build stronger re­la­tions be­tween the of­fi­cers and the com­mu­ni­ty they serve “We (the po­lice) want to be as present as pos­si­ble to get that to­geth­er­ness back with all the com­mu­ni­ties back in the val­ley I can def­i­nite­ly see the crime would go down and the trust would be re­gained be­tween the pub­lic and the po­lice.” Among the at­trac­tions at the fair were hors­es from the TTPS Mount­ed and Ca­nine Branch as well as drones from the po­lice Air Sup­port Unit Maracas boaters rescue men after fishing mishap by A group of Mara­cas Fish­er­men were able to res­cue three fel­low boaters when their boat over­turned on Wednes­day af­ter­noon Po­lice said the three men bor­rowed an 11 foot long pad­dle boat to go fish­ing at Dami­an Bay the men re­port­ed­ly caught a large fish they thought was an eel and be­gan to pan­ic Boaters near­by saw the com­mo­tion and brought them ashore how­ev­er the three fish­er­men said they did not need any med­ical at­ten­tion New emojis are coming to an iPhone near you Apple has included 21 new emojis in its latest IOS update That brings the total number available of emojis on Apple devices to more than 3,600 Share on FacebookShare on X (formerly Twitter)Share on PinterestShare on LinkedInLAREDO (KGNS) - A Laredo art teacher and her group of starving artists are shaken up but for good reasons; after being featured in ‘Ripley’s Believe it or Not’ series United South Middle School Teacher Monika Sanchez has been known for creating massive paper-mache sculptures from giant conchas to Whataburger table tags Last year, during the midst of the pandemic, Sanchez got her students involved in creating super-sized sculptures. Sanchez and her students decided that they wanted to do something big for Cinco de Mayo which they did by creating two massive maracas the art club was invited to visit ‘Ripley’s Believe it or Not’ on Alamo Plaza in San Antonio Sanchez decided to reach out to Ripley’s and fill out the information to have the project featured in the books which they agreed to Sanchez believes this project speaks volumes on our culture here in Laredo “I think this is something that hasn’t happened yet and it’s amazing to be apart of that and be apart of the history and to really extend our culture not only nationwide but even far beyond and I think it’s amazing especially that it’s being demonstrated by arts because I believe art is very important and art gives us a lot of value and it puts a lot of value into our life” The 19th edition of ‘Ripley’s Believe it or Not’ book is in stores now For more headlines. click here A legal wrangle over the payment for land between the widow of a St Joseph property owner and his business partner has been determined in the latter’s favour Peter Rajkumar and Maria Wilson allowed Dave Nurse's appeal against a judge’s ruling in favour of Sylvie Ramroopsingh the widow of Meethoolal Ramroopsingh and administrator of his estate Sylvie sued Nurse after she was sued by three purchasers of plots of her late husband’s 2.4 hectares of land in Maracas Nurse was ordered to pay Sylvie the $502,000 he received from the sale Justice Devindra Rampersad also declared that Nurse breached an agency agreement with Meethoolal Nurse appealed the judge’s order to pay over the Appeal Court judges set aside Rampersad’s orders on Sylvie’s ancillary claim against Nurse and dismissed it They also ordered her to pay Nurse’s costs of the appeal and two-thirds of his costs in the High Court Sylvie denied knowing of the failure to convey the lots they bought to them since her late husband had excluded her from his financial and property dealings misconceived because she is joined as Methoolal’s personal representative and not in her personal capacity,” Bereaux said she alleged he fraudulently retained the money he received under the agency agreement and power of attorney She also contended that he was only authorised to receive money for the sale of the land specified in the agency agreement and develop the lots his business partner in a real-estate venture orally agreed to have the lots of land subdivided and sold at $70,000 each seven to the maintenance of the lands and three to Nurse Nurse said 11 lots were sold and Meethoolal “I consider that the judge was plainly wrong “He failed properly to analyse the evidence misconstrued where the burden of proof lay and failed to weigh in the balance the inherent probabilities which lent credibility to Nurse’s account while accepting Sylvie’s evidence without considering the improbabilities which undermined her evidence “He also failed to have proper regard to the documentary evidence which lent support to Nurse’s evidence as well as evidence which effectively corroborated Nurse’s contention that he handed over monies from the sales of the subdivided parcels to Meethoolal.” Bereaux also noted that an appellate court did not usually review the evidence in a case unless it could be shown the first-instance judge was plainly wrong after examining the evidence of the witnesses “The judge misconstrued the evidence and was plainly wrong He said because Rampersad took a “one-sided approach” to the evidence “and committed multiple errors,” the Appeal Court was entitled to look at the matter afresh and come to its own conclusions RULING SET ASIDE: Justice Devindra Rampersad - One of these conclusions was that Sylvie “failed to discharge her burden of proof” and was not entitled to judgment “The evidence of the appellant was far more credible Bereaux also held that Rampersad “approached the case from the wrong perspective.” “It was for Sylvie to prove that money had been received by Nurse that he did not pay them over and that this was a breach of contract or was fraudulent it would then fall to Nurse to show that the money was paid over “The judge’s approach to the evidence was disproportionate He approached the appellant’s evidence with some suspicion or scepticism but there was no similar approach in regard to Sylvie when similar suspicion or scepticism was required.” “Perhaps as a corollary of his misunderstanding of the burden of proof the trial judge fixated on what he perceived were shortcomings in the appellant’s case.” Bereaux also held that Rampersad’s assessment of the parties’ credibility was also flawed and that the judge misplaced his focus when assessing the evidence as Nurse’s defence was not included in the pleadings “The pleadings set up facts and issues that are in dispute which were then fleshed out in the witness statements by which fulsome evidence to support the facts is provided.” He also found Sylvie’s credibility was undermined by her claim she knew nothing of the land sales she contended she did not know about her late husband’s business affairs “This conflict reflects of one self-serving constant: Sylvie’s efforts to avoid liability Manuel Alejandro Rangel will join UK Wind Symphony to perform “Pataruco: Concerto for Venezuelan Maracas” by Ricardo Lorenz The program will also include “La Procession du Rocio” by Spanish composer Joaquin Turina “Danza de Los Duendes” by American composer Nancy Galbraith and “Duende” by contemporary Spanish composer Luis Serrano Alarcon The concert draws its name from el duende — the spirit of evocation It comes from inside as a physical/emotional response to art makes you smile or cry as a bodily reaction to an artistic performance that is particularly expressive tends to embody an authenticity that comes from a people whose culture is enriched by diaspora and hardship; vox populi Rangel is an internationally acclaimed maracas player from Venezuela he earned first place at the International Villavicencio Festival in Colombia and recently represented his home country in the Tatuí International Percussion Festival in Sao Paulo He contributed to the Latin Grammy-winning album "Tesoros de la Música Venezolana" and released his first solo album Touring throughout South America and internationally UK Wind Symphony is part of University of Kentucky Bands which represent over 400 student members from several different organizations including the Wildcat Marching Band and the UK Basketball and Volleyball Pep Bands Tickets for "Duende" are $12 for the general public and $5 for students. Free tickets are available for UK students in advance up to the day before the show when picked up at the Singletary Center box office. Tickets can be purchased through the Singletary Center ticket office by phone at 859-257-4929, online at www.scfatickets.com/ or in person UK Wind Symphony is part of the UK Bands program at the School of Music at UK College of Fine Arts. The school has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, music therapy, composition, and theory and music history. LoadingThis item will be sent to your system automatically after purchase. View DLCGet up and shake it with Amigo and friends It's time for an all- new Samba de Amigo: a music rhythm game that allows you to party around the world!It's time to shake it on center stage in this vibrant rhythm action game Amigo and his friends are back in Samba de Amigo: Party Central!Pick up your maracas and groove to 40 hit songs from the world's most popular genres with even more arriving as post-launch DLC!Groove with your friends and family with different party modes!Feeling confident in your skills challenges to help Amigo rise to fame.Strut that style by customizing your character with unique costumes and accessories.Take the party to a global level: hit the floor with 12 Amigos and up to 8 of your friends online in World Party Mode.Show the world what you've got by competing on the online leaderboards Software description provided by the publisher Game file sizeNintendo Switch: 1.9 GBNintendo Switch 2: 1.9 GBSupported play modesTV modeTabletop modeHandheld modeSoftware compatibility and play experience may differ on Nintendo Switch Lite Additional accessories may be required(sold separately) SystemNintendo SwitchWhich system(s) will play this game?Learn more consult a doctor before playing video games All users should read the Health and Safety Information available in the system settings before using this software Nintendo Switch Online membership (sold separately) and Nintendo Account required for online play. Not available in all countries. Internet access required for online features. Terms apply. nintendo.com/switch-online Online play requires an active Nintendo Switch Online membership Samba de Amigo and Samba de Amigo: Party Central are registered trademarks or trademarks of SEGA CORPORATION logos and copyrights are property of their respective owners and her mother Ornella Joseph is pleading with her daughter to come back to their Maracas home "I missing my child and I praying for her to come home Eyewitnesses told Joseph they saw her getting into a red and white maxi at the bottom of the hill near their home Her mother had no idea where she was heading or why she left I here trying to figure out what would make her want to leave." Her mother described her as "a person that keeps to herself Joseph said if she saw her daughter soon: "I would feel like my heart just open up and I'll hold her and hug her and never let her go." Annessa attends St Augustine Secondary School and will be going into form 4 when school restarts in September leader of the Hunters' Search and Rescue Team Vallence Rambharat said they did have some leads (WTVF) — A Nashville restaurant is paying almost $63,000 in back wages and damages to 56 employees as a result of an investigation by the U.S The Wages and Hour Division found that Las Maracas violated minimum wage and record keeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act The employer will also pay $20,232 in civil penalties for breaking child labor laws The Department of Labor said Las Maracas in Nashville and Madison paid employees a weekly flat amount regardless of number of hours worked Smith is accused of failing to maintain accurate records of hours employees worked and amounts of cash payments made to employees Some Las Maracas employees worked entirely in cash payments but the employer did not keep any records of it Las Maracas was cited for violating child labor laws by allowing a 15-year-old to work more than eight hours a day while school is in session The restaurant is also accused of allowing another minor to work 57 to 67 hours a week while school was in session surpassing the federal legal limit of 18 hours per work week ensures that employees are paid what they have legally earned and creates a level playing field for employers,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Nettie Lewis “This employer failed to come into compliance after a previous investigation We encourage all employers to review their employment obligations and to contact us for compliance assistance so they can avoid violations like those found in this case.” EVEN as the Water and Sewerage Authority Authority (WASA) assures the water quality in Maracas St Joseph meets the World Health Organization’s standards attorneys for one resident are threatening legal action attorneys for a Valley View resident called on WASA to provide the results of any tests done on the water in the valley be immediately disclosed to our client in the event that some form of specialised treatment is needed and to prevent possible fatal consequences Newsday understands other residents have since come forward and similar letters are expected to be sent in the coming days Sochan said their client and her pets fell ill suddenly The letter said neighbours and wider parts of the community have also had the same complaints WASA said in response to reports of possible water contamination lab personnel were directed to carry out water-quality sampling and testing and several locations along the distribution system and the two water treatment facilities in the area: L&N and Acono plants “It is important to note that the results of all the samples taken have confirmed that the water supply leaving both plants and along the distribution system meets WHO standards and is “The authority will continue to closely monitor and carry out further testing of the supply in the Maracas Valley area to ensure that these standards are consistently met.” The Health Ministry in a Facebook post on Saturday dismissed reports of “food poisoning” in Maracas St Joseph as “fake news.” The authority sent a follow-up statement on September 15 and said "notwithstanding the safe results obtained from internal tests on the water supply to the area an independent lab has also been engaged to conduct further tests in order to verify the quality of the supply being produced and distributed to Maracas Valley." The statement said tests now include bacterial tests which are negative if customers are of the view that their water supply may be contaminated in the interim and as a precautionary measure customers can boil water that is to be used for drinking purposes," the authority advised "The authority assures customers that it remains committed to providing the highest quality water supply in keeping with World Health Organization (WHO) standards." This story has been updated to include additional details Please see the original story with the headline 'Maracas St Joseph resident demands water report after falling ill' below “We also ask that WASA agree to urgently commission an independent expert to review these results and conduct independent testing,” attorney Rajiv Sochan said in a pre-action letter “Both humans and animals have been experiencing severe and identical symptoms.” The letter questioned whether a pathogen was present in the community Gonzales: No water contamination in Maracas-St Josephby Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales speaks at the launch of GOES 16 Satellite Receiving System in Piarco yesterday Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les is stand­ing be­hind an as­sur­ance from the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) that the wa­ter sup­ply in the Mara­cas-St Joseph com­mu­ni­ty is not con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed Of­fi­cials from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the South­ern Caribbean (USC) had ex­pe­ri­enced bouts of vom­it­ing and di­ar­rhoea through­out Fri­day and yes­ter­day the USC ad­vised the cam­pus com­mu­ni­ty that peo­ple who had ex­pe­ri­enced the de­bil­i­tat­ing episodes had been pro­vid­ed with med­ical as­sis­tance Of­fi­cials said af­fect­ed peo­ple were “re­ceiv­ing the nec­es­sary care and are be­ing close­ly mon­i­tored.” we have in­ten­si­fied sani­ti­sa­tion ef­forts across cam­pus and have im­ple­ment­ed ad­di­tion­al health and safe­ty mea­sures.” The cam­pus said all mem­bers and vis­i­tors to the fa­cil­i­ty would be en­cour­aged to in­crease their hand and face wash­ing at this time They urged peo­ple to re­main alert and re­port any symp­toms or health con­cerns to the uni­ver­si­ty clin­ic im­me­di­ate­ly There were al­so un­con­firmed re­ports that oth­er peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty were com­plain­ing of feel­ing un­well USC said it was ac­tive­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ing the cause of this in­ci­dent in col­lab­o­ra­tion with health pro­fes­sion­als and oth­er rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties as they were com­mit­ted to iden­ti­fy­ing the source and tak­ing all nec­es­sary mea­sures to ad­dress the sit­u­a­tion Gon­za­les said they too were con­tin­u­ing to con­duct ex­ten­sive in­ves­ti­ga­tions Ad­dress­ing con­cerns at the launch of the GOES 16 Satel­lite in Pi­ar­co yes­ter­day Gon­za­les said tests done on var­i­ous sam­ples tak­en from the Llu­en­go Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant “That there was ab­solute­ly no con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of the wa­ter.” “It re­mained con­sis­tent with WHO stan­dards.” Gon­za­les said fol­low­ing brief dis­cus­sions with Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh who had been ap­prised by of­fi­cials from the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex “They did not re­port any un­usu­al oc­cur­rence of per­sons com­ing in­to the hos­pi­tal fa­cil­i­ty suf­fer­ing from med­ical con­di­tions that sug­gest there may have been con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of the wa­ter.” While he is not dis­miss­ing pub­lic con­cerns and fears Gon­za­les said it was strange that it had been at­trib­uted to the qual­i­ty of the wa­ter In­di­cat­ing sev­er­al par­lia­men­tary col­leagues have con­tin­ued to pay close at­ten­tion to the sit­u­a­tion Gon­za­les said sam­ples had been tak­en from ten dif­fer­ent points and test­ed in­di­vid­u­al­ly but no traces of con­t­a­m­i­na­tion have so far been found Two men were gunned down in separate incidents in Maracas and Balandra just after 7 pm on September 21 In the first incident Shaquille "Frame" Trotman Police enquiries revealed around 5 pm on September 21 a silver Hyundai Ioniq was driving on Old Bay Road and two hours later emerged and drove towards Trotman Police said they were told about the shooting about 7.10 pm arrived around 7.30 pm and saw Trotman in the road covered with a white sheet The Special Evidence Recovery Unit (SERU) found 11 7.62 spent shell casings 27 9 mm spent shell casings and one projectile was gunned down in front of his home in Balandra Police said around 7.35 pm on September 27 Matura police were told there had been gunshots in Soodeen Trace They arrived at 7.50 pm and spoke to a relative The two men then ran off towards the Toco Main Road seven 9mm spent shell casings and nine S&W 40-calibre spent shell casings The mining operations at Maracás Menchen mine commenced in 2013 at the Gulçari A Deposit The Maracás Menchen mine is a high-grade vanadium mine located in the state of Bahia it is the only vanadium mine in Latin America The mine was commissioned in 2013, with initial mining operations commenced on the Gulçari A Deposit, which is now known as the Campbell Pit. The first vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) from the mine was produced in August 2014 Largo filed a technical report including an updated life of mine plan for the Campbell Pit and a pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the expansion of operations to include the Novo Amparo Norte (NAN) and Gulçari A Norte (GAN) deposits in December 2021 The report highlighted an extension of the mine life to 20 years with operations expected to commence in 2022 and last until 2041 The Maracás Menchen mine is located approximately 250km southwest of Salvador in the greater municipality of Maracás in Bahia State in eastern Brazil The deposits at the mine are hosted in the Rio Jacaré intrusion within the Archean São Francisco craton which comprises the Contendas-Mirante Complex and the Gavião and Jequié blocks The Rio Jacaré mafic-ultramafic intrusion is a linear sheet-like structure mainly comprising gabbro with an almost north-south strike with a length of 70km and an average width of 1.2km The mineralisation at the Maracás Menchen mine includes magnetite layers or magnetite pyroxenite layers formed as cyclic magmatic units The vanadium mineralisation is hosted within titaniferous magnetite which is the primary oxide phase within the Maracás Menchen deposits The titanium mineralisation is found in ilmenite The proven and probable mineral reserves of the Maracás Menchen mine were estimated at 60.36 million tonnes (Mt) grading 0.79% V2O5 and 8.24% titanium dioxide (TiO2) The mining fleet comprises four Volvo EC750 hydraulic excavators equipped with a bucket capacity of 2.5m³ and 24 Scania 8×4 36-tonne capacity trucks The drilling fleet includes six Sandvik Ranger DX800 rotary drill rigs The future mining operations will involve the use of conventional open-pit mining methods including drilling A contract mining fleet of hydraulic excavators and 36t haul trucks will be used to support the operation The open-pit mining will focus on extracting ore from the Campbell pit The mine plan is based on a dilution of 3% for Campbell with 100% recovery and a 5% dilution for GAN and NAN deposits with a recovery rate of 95% The mine production rate is estimated at 1.7 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) for the first ten years from the Campbell Pit followed by 5Mtpa from GAN and NAN deposits for the remainder of the mine life The mine development has been divided into four phases the phase one development will involve the construction of a 150,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) ilmenite concentration plant and a 30,000tpa TiO2 pigment processing plant The phase two development between 2024 and 2025 will expand the pigment processing plant and the vanadium trioxide (V2O3) plant The titanium pigment processing plant to be commissioned in phase two will produce TiO2 The process will involve drying and milling filtrated and dried before micronisation using high-pressure steam to produce the final TiO2 product will involve the expansion of the titanium pigment plant to 120,000tpa and the ilmenite concentration plant to 425,000tpa as well as site preparation for the commencement of mining at the GAN and NAN deposits The phase four development planned between 2029 and 2032 will involve and commencement of mining at GAN and NAN The first ten years of production from 2022 to 2031 will involve 100% plant feed from the Campbell Pit The vanadium plant will be fed with material from Campbell Pit The plant feed from 2033 to 2041 is expected to be a blend of approximately 45% from GAN and 55% from NAN Commissioned in 2014, the vanadium recovery plant at the project site achieved its nameplate capacity in 2018 An expansion project was implemented in 2019 which increased the processing capacity to 1.9Mtpa of run-of-mine (ROM) and the production capacity of V2O5 to 12,000tpa The current processing comprises three-stage crushing ammonium meta-vanadate (AMV) precipitation The final stage includes fusing V2O5 into flakes or screening it to produce powder as final product The ROM is processed by a three-stage crushing circuit comprising a primary jaw crusher two cone crushers and two vibrating sizing screens The crushed product is fed to a dry magnetic separator before being introduced to the milling circuit comprising two ball mills in series The milled material is transferred to a low-intensity magnetic separation (LIMS) circuit which comprises one rougher and two cleaner stages The final magnetic concentrate is filtered and stockpiled to be fed to the roasting section of the plant The non-magnetic concentrate is thickened and pumped to the non-magnetic tailings pond It will be fed to the ilmenite flotation plant after the proposed phase one expansion The flotation circuit produces an ilmenite concentrate which is filtered in a horizontal filter to produce a filtered concentrate with 10% moisture The ilmenite concentrate can be sold or used in the future TiO2 pigment plant to be built in Camacari The filtered magnetic concentrate from the LIMS circuit is afterwards roasted in a rotary kiln to produce a calcined material containing sodium vanadate The calcined material is ground in a ball mill and leached before being sent to a thickener The thickened product is filtered and washed using a vacuum belt filter to produce a filter cake containing 10% moisture which is stockpiled in a pond at the mine site known as dirty pregnant solution from the vacuum belt filter containing approximately 110g/l V2O5 is pumped to the chemical plant to undergo desilication to produce a pregnant leach solution (PLS) The PLS is sent to the precipitation circuit to produce an AMV precipitate which is filtered washed and dried before being calcined to produce V2O5 powder A crystallisation circuit is used to process the barren leach liquor containing ammonium sulphate sodium sulphate and small quantity of dissolved AMV and impurities The liquor is concentrated by evaporation and pumped to a cyclone where the underflow feeds a centrifuge The wet AMV containing 15% solids is dried and calcined to produce V2O5 which is melted and cast into flakes for sale The wet AMV from the precipitation belt filter will be separated into two flows while the second flow will be fed to the new V2O3 reaction plant which includes a flash dryer and a rotary kiln to transform the AMV into V2O3 A sales contract was executed with an undisclosed steel producer for the supply of 14,000t of iron ore from the Maracás Menchen mine The project is accessible via a 29km-long paved secondary highway which leads to a ranch where the project is located The Campbell Pit is accessed via a 2.5km-long sand and gravel trail The power required for the operations is sourced via an 85km-long 138kV transmission line from Brazilian electric utility Coelba’s Ibicoara regional substation The electrical infrastructure at the project site includes a 13.8kV step-down substation and two 13.8kV 15/15 MVA power transformers Raw water is supplied from Rio de Contas River and a lake formed by the Pedra Dam through a 35km-long pipeline to two 1,000m3 concrete tanks on the Maracás site The 2021 PFS for the project was prepared by GE21 Consultoria Mineral (GE21) an independent mineral consulting firm based in Brazil Largo has an ongoing mining fleet contract with Minax The contractual scope also includes the operation of Campbell Pit Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network Beryl forces couple to abandon dream wedding at Maracasby Santa Cruz resident Daniel Lawrence hugs his five-year-old mixed breed pompek named Snow at Maracas Bay yesterday after the weather forced the cancellation of his beach wedding He still tied the knot with his fiancée at a nearby church When the San­ta Cruz cou­ple en­vi­sioned their dream wed­ding on Mara­cas Bay it is doubt­ful they had thoughts of heavy rain­fall and the North Coast Road lit­tered with fall­en tree branch­es The pop­u­lar gaze­bo lo­cat­ed along the jet­ty near the fish­ing vil­lage in Mara­cas where the two would have stood with their of­fi­ci­at­ing pas­tor was in­stead left emp­ty and bat­tered with in­ter­mit­tent rain­fall While this may have been enough to move oth­ers to tears and de­spair a smil­ing Daniel Lawrence ac­cept­ed that while they could not con­trol the weath­er they could still choose to be locked in mat­ri­mo­ny on that day Clad in a white vest and shorts in­stead of his tuxe­do Lawrence told Guardian Me­dia their first red flag came when the pas­tor can­celled on them yes­ter­day morn­ing and the pas­tor called and said he could not make it be­cause of the news and every­thing that he heard He said we have to put it off for an­oth­er day But we couldn’t do that,” Lawrence ex­plained he said they were de­ter­mined to make it hap­pen we will look for some­where else to do it; this has to go on some­where or the oth­er,” he added That ‘some­where else’ turned out to be the house of God “The weath­er threw us off bad­ly; we could not do any­thing not even the tent rental com­pa­ny could come we changed the venue; things must go on still but that’s how life is and things must go on,” Lawrence said Lawrence’s bride-to-be was al­so in good spir­its She waved and smiled bril­liant­ly at the Guardian Me­dia team as she held their two dogs in her lap it didn’t make sense.” Asked how they still man­aged to make the best of the mo­ment giv­en how pres­sured some cou­ples are on their wed­ding day you know ob­sta­cles come in the way for good things not to hap­pen so to­day we’re show­ing that noth­ing must stop good things that you are go­ing to do The cou­ple has been to­geth­er for around 13 years but he seemed to have trou­ble re­mem­ber­ing the age of his fi­ancée Guardian Me­dia ad­vised that now would be a poor time for him to ask her Lawrence joked that he thought the most the bad weath­er would have done was re­duce the size of the wed­ding’s guest list and But there would not have even been on­look­ers had the cer­e­mo­ny tak­en place Heed­ing the warn­ing about stay­ing away from beach­es A co­conut ven­dor walked de­ject­ed­ly past a hand­ful of beach lounge chairs left on the sand None of the food ven­dors were open for busi­ness There were al­so no sea bathers at the Las Cuevas fa­cil­i­ty An of­fi­cial there said a per­son came for a swim ear­li­er in the day but was dis­suad­ed from do­ing so by the fa­cil­i­ty’s se­cu­ri­ty guard “The Gov­ern­ment should have of­fi­cial­ly closed the beach so we could stop peo­ple from com­ing at all,” he posit­ed Heavy winds blew large tree branch­es on­to the road­way at var­i­ous points cre­at­ing haz­ards along the me­an­der­ing path Work­ers from the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port were on hand equipped with a chain saw to clear the ob­sta­cles WASA conducting independent tests on supply to Maracas Valleyby The Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty has con­firmed that in­de­pen­dent test­ing is be­ing car­ried out to de­ter­mine the qual­i­ty and safe­ty of the wa­ter be­ing sup­plied to the Mara­cas Val­ley area WASA re­leased a state­ment ear­li­er to­day in­di­cat­ing that oth­er tests have shown neg­a­tive for some con­t­a­m­i­nants but fur­ther test­ing is be­ing car­ried out by an in­de­pen­dent lab “The Au­thor­i­ty ad­vis­es cus­tomers in the Mara­cas Val­ley area that notwith­stand­ing the safe re­sults ob­tained from in­ter­nal tests on the wa­ter sup­ply to the area an in­de­pen­dent lab has al­so been en­gaged to con­duct fur­ther tests in or­der to ver­i­fy the qual­i­ty of the sup­ply be­ing pro­duced and dis­trib­uted to Mara­cas Val­ley,” WASA said in its re­lease WASA is ad­vis­ing cus­tomers to take ex­tra pre­cau­tions for peace of mind: if cus­tomers are of the view that their wa­ter sup­ply may be con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed in the in­ter­im—and as a pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure—cus­tomers can boil wa­ter that is to be used for drink­ing pur­pos­es.” WASA’s as­sur­ances come on the heels of those made by Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les The Min­is­ter was moved to calm fears over the qual­i­ty of Mara­cas Val­ley’s wa­ter sup­ply fol­low­ing a health-re­lat­ed in­ci­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the South­ern Caribbean (USC) USC had is­sued a state­ment claim­ing that sev­er­al stu­dents had ex­pe­ri­enced bouts of vom­it­ing and di­ar­rhoea through­out Fri­day and Sat­ur­day Min­is­ter Gon­za­les had said tests done on var­i­ous sam­ples tak­en from the Llu­en­go Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant “That there was ab­solute­ly no con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of the wa­ter … It re­mained con­sis­tent with WHO stan­dards.” X Can we help you find what you’re looking for Texas –  Venezuelan percussionist Alirio José Torrealba will perform at 6 p.m in Cole Concert Hall on the campus of Stephen F Austin State University. His recital will feature performances of “Entrevero” for Maracas and Tape by Guasaka4; “Pajarillo Flamenco” by Juan Carlos Contreras; and “Temazcal” (maracas and tape) by Javier Alvarez He will also conduct a maracas master class for SFA’s percussion studio. Torrealba studied at the Simon Bolivar Conservatory of Venezuela and the Latin American Academy of Percussion His passion for Venezuelan folk music led him to author “The Art of the Maracas” and establish the iPlayMaracas Academy “The Art of the Maracas” is an introductory book designed to inform percussionists how to play “cross-stick maracas.” He has presented master classes in Amsterdam Bogota and other parts of the world. Admission to the concert is free contact the SFA School of Music at (936) 468-4602 936.468.3401Email Us1936 North St. Nacogdoches, Texas LIFEGUARDS had to use their personal vehicles to save the life of a San Fernando man who was almost drowned in the waters of Tyrico Bay on July 7 Lifeguards told Newsday that at about 12.35 pm on July 7 went into the water and began experiencing difficulty Christian Thomas and Jason Rhondon – all stationed at Maracas Bay Lifeguards have no towers at Tyrico Bay and no vehicles for transport to and from the bay so Joseph used her personal vehicle to get closer to where Tubal was drowning The lifeguards took him out of the water and began resuscitation They also alerted emergency health services (EHS) He was still taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital for observation and treatment Maracas man murdered after killers wait two hours for him in parked car by A 31-year-old Mara­cas man was killed on Sat­ur­day evening Po­lice said Shaquille “Frame” Trot­man of Hamil­ton Trace Mara­cas was killed around 7 pm while lim­ing with friends a sil­ver Hyundai Ion­iq was seen dri­ving east in­to Old Bay Road The gun­men stood over him and con­tin­ued shoot­ing The men then got back in the car and es­caped Po­lice said they re­cov­ered over 20 spent shells at the scene in­clud­ing 12 one live 9mm round and 27 9mm spent shell cas­ings