Police have not yet closed the book on the death of a 41-year-old Warwick man, who was found dead in a house on Lorraine Drive, Warwick, at 7.15 a.m., yesterday. The body was discovered by a member of the public.

No further information will be given until the next of kin have been notified, a Police spokesman said, adding “foul play is not suspected, however we will await the result of an autopsy to officially categorise this death”.

Street death

A 62-year-old man collapsed and died yesterday morning outside of Hamilton MarketPlace. A Police spokesman said the incident happened just after 7 a.m. on Church Street. Police and emergency medical technicians tried to revive him, but to no avail.

The Pembroke man was pronounced dead at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Referendum gets vote

Six out of ten respondents to a Royal Gazette online poll say a referendum is the best way to decide the question of Independence.

The unscientific poll, which ended last Friday, asked how Bermuda should decide on Independence.

Of the 741 people who responded, 62.3 percent said they wanted a referendum while 31.2 percent preferred a General Election.

Just 2.4 percent said MPs should vote on the issue, 3.5 percent said they did not know and 0.5 percent said they preferred another, unspecified way.

Since Premier Alex Scott called for a national debate on Independence, there has been controversy over the best mechanism for deciding whether Bermuda should seek sovereignty or remain as a British Overseas Territory.

While Mr. Scott has said that the debate on a mechanism is premature, the governing Progressive Labour Party has traditionally preferred a General Election to decide the issue and said in a submission to Government House on constitutional change that it would not rule out a vote in the House of Assembly to decide the issue.

The Opposition United Bermuda Party supports a referendum, as does long-time Independence advocate Walton Brown.

Green caught red handed

A Devonshire man was jailed on Friday after admitting breaking into a home.

In Magistrates' Court, Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves was told that Robert Levon Green, 25, of Loyal Hill, Devonshire, was seen breaking into a property on Harlem Heights Road on January 7, and was caught red handed by the occupier as he climbed through a bedroom window.

After a short chase, Green was detained by the homeowner but managed to escape on the complainant's motorbike before Police arrived on the scene.

Green was subsequently arrested on February 19 on an unrelated charge, when he admitted to the January break-in.

Crown counsel Shade Subair told the court that Green had a record of break-ins and had last appeared before Mr. Greaves in February, 2003 for similar offences when he was sentenced to 12 months in custody.