Jamaica (West Indies), Feb. 3 : England all rounder Andrew Flintoff has known for several years of Andrew Strauss' burning ambition to become England captain.

Freddie believes that it is now vital that the calm and calculated Strauss builds a strong rapport with the team and win the series against the Windies.

Jamaica (West Indies), Feb. 2 : England fast bowler Steve Harmison has said that he will try his level best to make the grade for the first England-West Indies Test to be played here from Wednesday.

The Sabina Park is where Harmison skittled the Windies for just 47 with an astonishing second-innings blitz of 7-12 five years ago.

That performance helped propel him to the position of world's No1 ranked bowler later in 2004 - but he has trod a rocky path since then.

He admitted: "I can't put my finger on why some days it clicks and others it doesn't. I'd be a rich man if I could tell you.

Jamaica (West Indies), Jan. 31 : West Indies skipper Chris Gayle is generally regarded as cricket's coolest dude, but is a seriously dangerous customer on the field.

Gayle, 29, puts his success down to having in-depth conversations with himself.

Washington/Kingston  - After heated debate, the Jamaican Parliament Tuesday voted to keep the death penalty for particularly violent crimes, according to the Jamaican Gleaner newspaper online.

Monte Carlo - Jamaican supersprinter Usain Bolt and Russian pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva are among the six finalists for the World Athlete of the Year award.

The governing body IAAF said in a statement on Monday that the Bolt, who won 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold at the Beijing Olympics in world record times, double long-distance gold medallist Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia and 110m hurdles Olympic champion Dayron Robles of Cuba were the final three men.

Isinbayeva won pole vault gold with a world record. She is joined by 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia and Kenyan 800m sensation Pamela Jelimo, who also ran to gold in Beijing in August, in the women's list.

Port-au-Prince/Jamaica - The number of victims of tropical storm Gustav climbed Thursday, as the storm moved from Haiti and Cuba south to Jamaica.

In Haiti, the death toll rose to 59, the country's civil defence authorities said Thursday evening.

Then hurricane-strength Gustav hit the island near the city Jacqmel two days ago with wind speeds topping 150 kilometres per hour. Regions in the affected south-west were cut off from the rest of the country by mudslides and floods.

Eight people were killed in neighbouring Dominican Republic, authorities said.