Senior ‘A’ Business House netball winners and defending champion, Scotiabank ‘A’ along with Senior ‘B’ winners Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) will be among sixteen Jamaican teams participating in this year’s Florida Netball Classic International Tournament, to be held tomorrow and Sunday at Coral Spring Gymnasium in Fort Lauderdale.Intermediate ‘A’ league winners National Commercial Bank (NBC) will also be making the trip this year. The two-day event has hosted up to 50 teams from countries such as Jamaica, Australia, New Zealand, England, Canada, Antigua, The Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago and Cayman Islands.Rollington Town All Stars, Caricom Netball Team Of Florida, JUTC and Appliance Traders Limited are expected to give defending champion Scotiabank a strong challenge this year.Rollington Town are the beaten 2014 finalist, consisting the Ffrench sisters – Nadine, Sade and Jodi-Ann Ffrench, who are all former Sunshine Girls plus Camille Henry. The Caricom team include ex-national players, Karla Williams Borrego and Measha Brown.Flow ( formerly Lime), the 2014 consolation winners, and ICD, the Mixed winners, will return to defend their respective titles. The star studded Scotiabank ‘A’ team will have former Sunshine girls, captain Naudia Brown, Marsha Murphy-Dawkins, Sateva Taylor-Barnes, Kameika Sherwood, Patricia McCalla and former captain Malysha Kelly in their line-up.

ARSENAL vs MANCHESTER CITY MANCHESTER, England (AP): They can’t keep a clean sheet. Their striker has stopped scoring. Their opponents have worked out how to stifle them. The Chelsea juggernaut might just be starting to slow, just when English football’s major trophies are about to be decided. Chelsea and Tottenham park their battle for the Premier League title for one weekend when they meet at Wembley Stadium tomorrow for the first of two blockbuster semi-finals in the FA Cup. There’s no doubt which of the two teams has the momentum. In the white corner, there’s Spurs, the form team in the country with eight straight wins in all competitions, during which they’ve scored 28 goals. They have the meanest defence around and arguably the hottest striker in Harry Kane. Chelsea, meanwhile, are still the Premier League leaders by four points over Tottenham and could yet finish the season with the domestic double. But cracks are starting to show. Antonio Conte’s side last kept a clean sheet in the league on January 22, 11 games ago. Top scorer Diego Costa hasn’t scored in his last six matches. Chelsea have lost two of their last four games, to Crystal Palace and Manchester United. In those games, Palace and United played two up front to pressurise Chelsea’s three-man backline. Tottenham did the same in beating Chelsea 2-0 at White Hart Lane in the league in January. Tottenham and United also played wing backs in those matches to negate the threat of Chelsea’s wide players. There looks to be a formula to stop Chelsea, provided opponents have the personnel to achieve it, and Spurs clearly do. “It won’t be easy,” Conte said, looking ahead to the semi-final, “because Tottenham now are the best team. They are in good form and they have a lot of enthusiasm. They are feeling the possibility to write the history.” Spurs last lifted the FA Cup in 1991 and haven’t won the league since 1961. The second semi-final looks just as compelling and features two more of England’s heavyweight teams whose managers want to win a trophy for different reasons. City manager Pep Guardiola is looking for something tangible to mark his first season in England, although an FA Cup title will not make up for his team’s last-16 exit in the Champions League and failing to mount a Premier League title challenge. As for Arsene Wenger, this could be his last season in charge of Arsenal, with his contract up in June. Winning the FA Cup in 2014, for his first trophy in nine years, might have persuaded him to stay on as manager and history could be repeated three years later.

In order to increase agricultural information to local farmers for improvement of food security in Liberia, the United States Agency for International Development Food and Enterprise Development (USAID FED) has entered into a partnership with four community radio stations.The community radio stations are Super Bongese in Bong, Radio Kergheamahn in Nimba, Radio Tamba Taylor in Lofa and Lacsa Radio in Grand Bassa Counties respectively.The occasion organized by the extension and communication department of USAID FED was held on Friday, May 23 at a local hotel in Monrovia. It was attended by stakeholders in the Agricultural sector, members of the media and local farmers.Several presentations were made at the program which include, MoA’s role in strengthening agriculture, with emphasis on the Liberian media, reporting on agricultural issues, farmers access to credit and among others.Speaking at the ceremony, the extension specialist of USAID FED, Doe Adovor, explained that his institution’s partnership with the four community radio stations is intended to enhance food security in Liberia, through the dissemination of information to farmers.He said that USAID FED has provided four laptops, finances and other items to the four stations to enhance their works.According to him, the partnership was important because it will strengthen relationship with local farmers where USAIDFED program is being implemented.He named Bong, Grand Bassa, Nimba, Lofa and Montserrado counties as places that his institution is supporting farmers in rice, cassava, and vegetable and livestock productions.In a power-point presentation, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Charles McClain explained that the mandate of his Ministry is to ensure that farmers in the country are given all necessary opportunities to engage in agriculture in order to boost the country’s economy.He said that it was important for the Liberian media to exert more effort in reporting on the sector to erase the notion by some Liberians that nothing is done by government and partners to improve the level of agricultural production in the country.“There is a whole lot happening in the sector but the information is not getting to the public. We want to encourage the press to reach out for information about the sector,” he said.He emphasized that this was important to help improve the level of food production in the country.“Food security is paramount to the Agenda for Transformation and as such the media plays a very important role in informing Liberians to get involved by investing in agriculture,” he stated.According to Dr. McClain, though the government lacks all the funding for revamping the sector, it is, however, indicated that the contributions of international partners like USAID FED and others are greatly helping to restore the sector.He said that the MoA has created its communication strategy to reach information to local farmers through radio programs.The MoA’s Deputy Minister disclosed plan to work with many community radio stations across the country to promote the massages to rural people.Speaking earlier, USAID FED communication specialist, Nicolas Parkinson urged the press to report on Agriculture in order to improve the lives of Liberian farmers.“There are so many opportunities unfolding in the country that could help change the lives of farmers positively. Therefore, journalists must communicate these opportunities to help the farmers,” he said.He mentioned that policies such as the lifting of tariff on agriculture products and the purchasing of produce locally by government are needed information that would help farmers, if they were informed.Meanwhile, Liberian journalists attending the program have vowed to exert every effort in reaching information about Agriculture to local farmers.They called on the government and its partners to build their capacities to reach farmers in the country.The Liberian journalists, who disclosed plans to form a network of agricultural reporters, said that the lack of logistics to travel from one place to another in the rural areas greatly limits their functions.They made the disclosure to the Daily Observer right after the end of the one-day stakeholders’ meeting.Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)