Trinidad

Once again Caribbean cuisine has come to the Indian Cultural Center on Mulberry Street. The Little Carib Cafe opened in June with such island delicacies as roti and jerk chicken wings.The new restaurant -- which is owned by Ann McNish and her brother Ken Coombs, both born in Trinidad -- has no relationship to the former restaurant at that site that served Jamaican and vegetarian food and closed nearly a year ago.But the feeling of being on vacation is the same. Steel band music plays in the background and paintings from Trinidad line the walls.

My 401(k) is sputtering. My neighborhood firehouse is threatened with cutbacks. Yet I feel flush. That is because I am awash in Angostura bitters. I had not one, not two, but three bottles of Angostura aromatic bitters, a concoction made from a secret combination of herbs, alcohol, gentian and vegetable flavorings. Invented as a stomach tonic by a German doctor in Angostura, Venezuela, in 1824, this brand of bitters has been touted as a remedy for everything from malaise to hiccups.

LAS VEGAS -- Felix Trinidad called Oscar De La Hoya a "chicken" before their fight last night, and for at least three of the last four rounds, De La Hoya ran like one.Trinidad added De La Hoya's World Boxing Council welterweight title to his International Boxing Federation belt with a majority decision in their unification bout before a sellout crowd of 12,000 at the Mandalay Bay Events CenterJudge Glen Hamada scored the fight, 114-114. Ben Logist scored it, 115-114, and Jerry Roth, 115-113, for Trinidad.

J. Fife Symington Jr., who helped bring international air flights to Baltimore through Pan American World Airways and was a former ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, died of old-age complications Sunday at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Glyndon resident was 97. Mr. Symington worked to establish early commercial aviation routes and was among the first employees to open the Pan Am terminal at what is now the Dundalk Marine Terminal in 1937. Born in Baltimore, he was attracted to flying through an uncle, John Hambleton, a World War I flying ace who was a Pan American founder.

LAS VEGAS -- Boxer Fernando Vargas' workouts have been open this week. Those of his opponent, Felix Trinidad, have not. Vargas, a young Mexican-American, is impetuous, bombastic and outspoken. Trinidad, five years older, is more subdued and soft-spoken. Tonight, at the Mandalay Bay, however, the 154-pound fighters will be speaking the same language as they try to knock each other out. Trinidad (38-0, 31 knockouts), a two-fisted puncher with a suspect chin, defends his World Boxing Association super welterweight title against Vargas (20-0, 18)

Vincent Pettway was supposed to get a shot at International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Felix Trinidad a month ago, but a hand injury forced the Baltimore fighter to withdraw. Pettway is healthy now, and next month he will get his shot at a second title.Mack Lewis, Pettway's trainer, said yesterday that his fighter will get in the ring with Trinidad on May 29 in Puerto Rico. The bout originally was scheduled for March 7 in Mexico City, but Pettway injured his right hand in a tuneup fight with Gerald Reed on Dec. 13.Details of the fight are being worked out, according to Lewis.

LAS VEGAS -- Unbeaten International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Felix Trinidad, of Puerto Rico, continued to dominate his division last night, stopping Ray Lovato, of Sacramento, Calif., at 1.57 of the sixth round.Trinidad (30-0, 26 KOs), who was making the 10th successful defense of his 147-pound crown and who has offered a challenge to junior-middleweight king Terry Norris, was appearing on the undercard of the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight championship match at the MGM Grand Garden.

A man charged with killing a Baltimore caterer was brought back to Maryland yesterday after he was deported from Trinidad, city police said.Robert Malcolm Jackson, 28, was arrested on the Caribbean island Jan. 1 on an unrelated charge, which wasn't specified yesterday. On Monday, authorities discovered that he was wanted in Baltimore.U.S. prosecutors had been preparing for an extradition hearing, but police said Trinidad authorities decided to deport Jackson without a court appearance.Two Baltimore City homicide detectives flew to Trinidad Wednesday and escorted the suspect to Maryland yesterday afternoon.

A change of heart by International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Felix Trinidad has given Baltimore's Vincent Pettway an opportunity to win a second world title in Mexico City on March 7.In the past year, the unbeaten Trinidad (32-0, 28 KOs) said he was having problems making the 147-pound limit and was considering challenging for the junior middleweight crown.The Puerto Rican native was ranked No. 1 by the World Boxing Council in the 154-pound class after stopping Troy Waters in the first round of a title qualifier at Madison Square Garden four months ago.This put Trinidad in position to challenge Keith Mullings, who scored a stunning knockout over WBC champion Terry Norris on Dec. 6. But last week in Florida, Trinidad advised his promoter, Don King, and IBF president Bob Lee that he would prefer to defend his welterweight crown for the 12th time since dethroning Maurice Blocker four years ago."

NEW YORK - Bernard Hopkins said he would break the back of the boxing industry with a victory over Felix Trinidad last night at Madison Square Garden, promising to "seek and destroy" the unbeaten Puerto Rican fighter who stood between him and boxing history. And when it was over, Hopkins was true to his word. The end came in the 12th and final round when Hopkins, 36, landed a tremendous right to the head that sent Trinidad reeling backward and to the canvas. The 28-year-old fighter struggled up at about 9, and referee Steve Smoger looked at him. Trinidad's father, who is also his trainer, then climbed into the ring to signal that his son was beaten at the 1:22 mark.

Michelle M. Dean, an information technologist and co-owner of several restaurants, died June 6 of undetermined causes at Calvert Memorial Hospital in Prince Frederick. She was 38. The cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy, said her husband of six years, Timothy Dean, a chef and owner of the Timothy Dean Bistro in Fells Point. Michelle Mathura was born in Trinidad, and moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1981. She was a 1986 graduate and class valedictorian of Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.

It was love at first sound. About 25 years ago, Kevin Martin, then a guitar-happy high school freshman, walked into Ocean Pines Yacht Club with his parents and had what one might call an aural epiphany. A couple of steel drummers were playing Caribbean music, and he'd never heard anything so sweet; like church bells in a giddy mood, like diamonds raining on a tin roof. "The steel drum is a drum that plays melody. That's what's so weird about it," says Martin. "The closest thing to it is the talking drum from Africa."

Dr. Stanley Biber, 82, a small-town surgeon who became known for performing sex-change operations, died Monday in Trinidad, Colo. Dr. Biber, an Iowa native, moved to Trinidad in 1954 and became the only general surgeon in the town of 9,300 people near the Colorado-New Mexico border. He told the Associated Press in a 2000 interview that he performed his first sex-change operation in 1969,. Dr. Biber said a social worker he had met asked for the surgery, and he agreed after talking to a New York doctor who had done some sex reassignment operations and after getting sketches from the Johns Hopkins University.

Michelle Murphy Occupation Homemaker, former cosmetologist and mother of Army Spc. Kendell K. Frederick, 21, who was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb Oct. 19 while returning from a trip off base to be fingerprinted for his U.S. citizenship application. In the news Murphy has become an advocate for changing citizenship procedures for members of the military. Her son's death inspired legislation proposed Tuesday by U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings to streamline the process for those in the military seeking to become citizens.

November 4, 2005, EURIS L. Friends may call at the FAMILY OWNED MARCH FUNERAL HOME EAST, 1101 East North Avenue on Wednesday after 8 A.M. Funeral Services will be held in Trinidad. See www.marchfh.com

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad - Fifteen years ago, it was a must-win situation for the United States national team. Yesterday's match against Trinidad and Tobago didn't have that kind of pressure, but it still proved a perfect start to the final round of World Cup qualifying for the Americans. Facing a determined Trinidad team supported by a raucous crowd in wilting playing conditions, a composed U.S. squad rode a sparkling performance by goalkeeper Kasey Keller and opportunistic goals by Eddie Johnson and Eddie Lewis to emerge a 2-1 victor in the CONCACAF region game.

NEW YORK - Throughout most of his professional boxing career, Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins has had a reputation for his vocal and mental intimidation of opponents. Felix "Tito" Trinidad, his rival in tonight's middleweight unification bout at Madison Square Garden, has a reputation for maintaining a quiet poise and silencing talkative rivals with his two-fisted punching prowess. Has Hopkins, considered an old war horse at 36, run out of tricks, or will his durability and resourcefulness be enough to make boxing history?

LAS VEGAS - It was billed as a cultural clash of epic proportions, and it did not disappoint. World Boxing Association 154-pound champ Felix Trinidad of Puerto Rico, the soft-spoken, two-fisted patriot with ice in his veins, against International Boxing Federation 154-pound champ "Ferocious" Fernando Vargas, a bombastic Mexican-American with fire in his blood and a chip on his shoulder. Trinidad (39-0, 32 knockouts) may not have knocked the chip off Vargas' shoulders, but he did nearly knock his block off in lifting the 22-year-old's junior middleweight title with a 12th-round knockout before a screaming capacity crowd of 12,000 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad - Soccer came of age in the United States in 1989 when the national team qualified for its first World Cup finals in 40 years, thanks to a gritty victory on the road over Trinidad and Tobago. Since that time, the team has transformed itself from a plucky group of collegiate players to a regional power, now poised to join a few select countries that have qualified for five straight finals. The final round of qualifying for a spot in Germany in 2006 begins today in the heat, humidity and emotionally charged atmosphere of Carnival season in Trinidad (2:30 ET, ESPN2)