Wired868 concludes Chapter One of The Black Butterflies: A Trinidad crime novel My car was rammed from behind again, and this time I screamed out, more in frustration than fear. I could not lose these guys I thought as I took another corner. I had now lost count, as all …

Show up at their World Cup venue. Get mauled. Repeat. Costa Rica had its game plan drawn up by the rest of the world but, thankfully, “El Ticos” decided to go its own way; and the result has been spectacular. Apart from a Spanish title defence that was shorter than …

England was left tottering on the brink of elimination from Group D today after mad genius Luis Suarez bit twice to seal a 2-1 win for Uruguay. And if English fans are feeling sorry for themselves now, wait until they figure out that Suarez’s winner was probably offside. According to …

There were punching bags that fought back more bravely; and babies who held on to their candy longer. Even when Spain was a genuine global superpower and its conquistadores colonised most of South America, the Spaniards never managed to get Brazil under their thumb. So what chance did they have …

“Everybody out! Crawl back into whatever hole you came from!” Like a crabby parent who returned home too early, Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa spoiled the samba party yesterday with a defiant performance against the host nation as Mexico and Brazil played to a goalless draw at Fortaleza. Flip! On went …

The good news is that Portugal played like World Cup champions; the bad news is we mean the 2014 version of Spain and not the one that lifted the trophy, four years ago. After Spain’s 5-1 humbling to the Netherlands on Friday, there was more pain for fans in the …

The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) is set for a $4.8 million (US$750,000) cash injection from FIFA after the international football body approved the unprecedented payment to its member associations at last week’s Congress in Sao Paulo. The payment is believed to be due in two tranches and can …

Argentina was not exactly fluent, there were umpteen misplaced passes in the final third and its two star strikers, Sergio Agüero and Gonzalo Higuain, look like they should be hosed down with WD-40. It was a largely sloppy performance from the World Cup contenders. But there was one Messi moment …

“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” – 1984, George Orwell I was probably 15 years old when I first read George Orwell’s 1984. At the time I had only conceived of Winston Smith’s dilemma as doing the right thing because …

“How would you like it if I have Mario Balotelli kick in your back door, eh? Would you like that?” Italian “wise guys” are renowned for unanswerable questions and the England football team certainly could not find the right response yesterday as the “Azzurri” launched its 2014 World Cup campaign …

Chapter 2 Best of Friends: The Crime Boss and the Boss of World Football (By Carolina Mazzi) IT IS RIO’S WEDDING of the year. The father of the bride is Brazil’s biggest gangster, racketeer and, they say, murderer of 50 rivals. He stays out of jail by paying off the …

Spain football fans might one day log their 2014 World Cup adventure in a file titled: “How to lose a World Cup in five goals.” Defending World Cup champions have made losing starts before; France lost 1-0 to Senegal 10 years ago and, 12 years earlier, Argentina was stunned 1-0 …