Sun

NOVEMBER 16TH - NOVEMBER 23RD, 2013

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VOLUME 9 - No. 41

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COP FIGHT COVER-UP?

BY HAYDEN BOYCE PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

A

white Canadian police officer who provides bodyguard services to Governor Peter Beckingham, Premier Hon. Dr. Rufus Ewing, Deputy Premier Akeirra Misick and other dignitaries, was recently beaten unconscious after allegedly being involved in a fight with one or more fellow police officers.

However, several members of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force are claiming that there appears to be massive cover-up within their organisation, and, through the SUN, they are demanding to know why there has not yet been an investigation into the matter.

According to police and hospital sources, it was around midnight on October 4th, 2013, when a call was made to 911 Emergency Number that the Canada-born police officer, Jeffrey Ridgeway, was bloody and beaten outside a residence in the Discovery Bay area.

Reports indicate that the officer was on duty in a police vehicle on the night in question when the alleged beating occurred.

Police sources said that Ridgeway, who is allowed to carry a firearm, was allegedly involved in an altercation with another police officer and the incident reached the point where the loaded firearm had to be taken from the Canadian police officer.

It is understood that he was taken to his home by the police vehicle and residents of the Discovery Bay area found him on the ground and called 911, then took him to the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre.

The SUN was told that the Governor and Premier’s bodyguard was injured so badly that he had to be detained and

Speaker Hon. Robert Hall responds to PDM PAGE 6

A panoramic view of the Providenciales International Airport, currently undergoing a multimillion dollar expansion exercise, to improve the visitor experience. Work is expected to be completed in time for next year’s winter tourism season. The expansion exercise is funded solely by the Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority (TCIAA). Premier for the Turks and Caicos Islands Hon. Dr. Rufus Ewing, said during his post cabinet news briefing on Thursday (November 14) that construction is ahead of schedule. treated for some very serious injuries.

A report of the incident was lodged in the Police Incident Diary.

The officer who is attached the Tactical Unit, has since been released from hospital and is back on duty, driving and providing close protection to VIP officials.

An officer who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media said: “A lot of police officers are very upset about this, because it is over a month and nothing has been officially done about it. I mean, all sorts of questions are being asked. Officers want to know why there has not

been a full investigation into this matter. They are wondering if it because this particular officer is a Canadian that nothing is being done and if this is really a cover-up. These kind of things affect the morale of the police force, because it seems as though you have one set of rules for one set of people and another set of rules for others.”

The SUN emailed Commissioner of Police Colin Farquhar for an official response, but up to Press time there was no response.

In recent weeks, two Secret Service agents were removed from President Obama’s detail and are under investiga-

tion for alleged misconduct.

The latest allegations of misconduct by the Secret Service come as the agency is preparing for the release of an inspector general report into a prostitution scandal at last year’s Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia. 12 Secret Service agents were implicated in the scandal, nine of whom have since left the agency through resignation, dismissal or retirement.

In the wake of the incident, the Secret Service issued new rules regulating the consumption of alcohol by agents, including banning drinking 10 or fewer hours before reporting to work.

Rodney Adams charged

Cruise Passengers Harassed in GT

Changes to public holidays

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LOCAL NEWS

House speaker Robert Hall breaks silence on Opposition House walkout

Turks and Caicos Sun Suite # 5, Airport Plaza Providenciales Turks and Caicos Islands Tel: (649) 946-8542 Fax: (649) 941-3281 Email: sun@suntci.com

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That having taken place, I peaker of the House of Assemsaid that there was an impasse, bly Hon. Robert Hall has isand was not prepared to vote on sued a statement on the impasse the matter, as I relied on Section in the House of Assembly which 40, sub 2, which states, ‘the perled to an Opposition walk-out led son presiding shall not vote unby Leader Hon. Sharlene Cartless any question the votes are wright-Robinson. The followequally divided, when he shall ing is a statement by the House have and exercise casting vote’.

Speaker: A casting vote is exercisable As Speaker of the House of Asby the speaker only if he is an sembly, I find it necessary to reelected or appointed member. spond to statements made by the It is clear that I am not an electLeader of the Opposition. While I ed or appointed member hence do not intend to engage in a titunder the standing orders I was for-tat with her, I will at all time correct in not wanting to exerdefend the honour and dignity of cise a vote that I did not have. the House and that of the chair.

It was spotted out by the MinLet me say at the outset, I am ister for Border Control (Hon. not concerned about her politiDon-Hue Gardiner), that under cal theatrics, but I am concerned the Constitution whoever is in that her training and experience the chair does have that right. I should have assisted her in elimdid not rely on his advice, as in inated the issues. Her arguments the House, he is not my or our are seriously flawed and show a legal advisor. The legal advisor is basic lack of understanding of the Speaker of the House of the attorney general.

Constitution.

Assembly Hon. Robert Hall The section of the ConstituWith regards to the recent tion referred to is contained in meetings on Monday and Tuesday, as at all times, Section 9 of the standing orders Section 68 paragraph 2, and it reads: ‘the person sets out the order of business. One such order of presiding shall not vote unless on any question business is statements by ministers. A minister or the votes are equally divided in which case he or perhaps ministers made statements on Monday. But she shall have and exercise a casting vote’.

The Constitution is superior to the standing the premier chose to have his statements made at orders and for that reason I a bound to comply. the following sitting on Tuesday.

He begged leave of the House to move for an Note, it didn’t say I may, it says ‘I shall have’. It amendment suspension the relevant standing or- goes on to say ‘and exercise the casting vote’. That der. To permit him to make such a statement, I I did in favor of the motion.

I do not see how one can claim the rights of granted such leave. When the motion was made and the votes were cast there was a tie – 8 for the Op- the Opposition or the minority of being infringed, position, 8 for the governing side – two abstentions as ministerial statements are not subject to response or debate in the House. So whether it was from the governor’s nominated members.

Read us online at www.suntci.com Publisher & Editor-in-Chief: Hayden Boyce Senior Editor: Vivian Tyson Office Manager: Dominique Rigby Information Technology and Production Manager: Kelano Howell Design by Design2pro.com The Turks and Caicos SUN is a subsidiary of The SUN Media Group Ltd. We are committed to excellence in journalism, educating and informing our readers, serving and satisfying our advertisers and assisting in the overall development of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

done on Monday, Tuesday or next week, the same obtains.

And therefore, to suggest that I ought not to have exercise the right to vote, which the Constitution conferred upon me, would be a serious dereliction of duty. I will leave the rest for the public to be the judge.

But if the Leader of the Opposition insist, I would be prepared submit my ruling by leading speakers and lawyers in the Caribbean region if she is prepared to submit a statement for the same.

Turks and Caicos to abolish bearer shares transactions G

overnment is to enact laws to abolish bearer shares transactions in the Turks and Caicos Islands an attempt to stamp out money laundering and other monetary ills by unscrupulous individuals.

Premier Hon. Dr. Rufus Ewing made the announcement while addressing his bi-monthly post cabinet news briefing at the Premier’s Office on Providenciales, Thursday (November 14) Bearer share is classified as an equity security entirely owned by whoever holds that physical stock certificate. The issuing firm neither registers the owner of the stock, nor tracks ownership transfer. The company holding the account disperses dividends to bearer shares when a physical coupon is presented.

“Companies neither register person who

owns the certificate, neither do they monitor the transfer of the certificate from party to party,” the premier said.

The premier said that the move to enact laws to eliminate bearer shares demonstrates government’s dedication to transparency and ensuring that it’s the financial sector is of international standard. He said cabinet already advises His Excellency Governor Peter Beckingham regarding its abolishment.

The premier said that owners of those accounts will be given six months to upgrade those accounts.

“It is our commitment to ensuring that our financial centre remains transparent and operates in accordance with internationally accepted standards. Caabinet advises His Excellency the Governor that Bearer shares Bill

will be abolished in the Turks and Caicos Islands and to provide for a transitional period of six months to enable the holders of bearer shares to convert and register their shares as ordinary shares,” he said.

In the meantime, Finance Minister Hon. Washington Misick said that with bearer shares, anyone, including criminals, could be owners of those shares because possessors of the document are always anonymous.

“Basically, bearer share is exactly what it says it is – it’s a bearer’s share – so you can trade it anywhere, to whomever, and government has no way of knowing at any point in time who owns the shares. So it can be in the hands of some criminal interest,” he said.

Moreover, Minister Misick said that the world is moving away from such arrange-

GOVERNMENT WANTS TO SPEND CRIME MONEY

BY VIVIAN TYSON

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overnment is seeking the blessing of Governor Peter Beckingham to siphon just under $120,000 from the Proceeds of Crime Fund to offset several crime-fighting measures.

Among the items government wants the money to pay for are the purchasing of engines for the ailing police marine boat – the Sea Protector and the upgrade of the Financial Crimes Unit IT system.

Premier Hon. Rufus Ewing said that government made the request of the governor while holding its 24th cabinet meeting on Wednesday, November 13.

The Proceeds of Crime Fund was established as a funding mechanism to facilitate and support enforcement against money laundering and other financial crimes and is managed by a committee – the Money Laundering Reporting Authority, Premier Ewing to the bi-monthly cabinet press briefing held at the Premier’s Office at the Hilly A. Ewing Building on Providenciales.

“Cabinet advised His Excellency the Governor to approve the recommendations of the Money Laundering Reporting Authority, to authorize the following expenditure from the Proceeds of Crime Fund; $35,000 for annual subscription to the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force; $12,656 for the upgrade of the IT systems for the Financial Crimes and Intelligence Unit; $69,913 for the replacement of Sea Protector engines in the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force; and $4,556 for the annual contribution to the Edmond Fund,” Premier Ewing said.

Premier Ewing said that by using the funds in the areas for which government intended them is bound to strength crime-fighting measures in the Turks and Caicos Islands and along its borders.

These we see as important expenditure from the fund to not only strengthen our jurisdiction in terms of our ability to detect money laundering but also to help us fight persons from a marine police standpoint in terms of illegal drug trafficking, as well as human trafficking in our waters,” Premier Ewing said further.

ments and the Turks and Caicos should be no less. He said, too, that the Turks and Caicos Islands does not have many of those accounts, noting that there should be fewer than 100 here.

“A bearer share is archaic; it is a thing of the past. And in this new sort of a dispensation, if you like, when everybody is so concerned about money laundering, all these types of terrorism, narco dollars, everybody is getting rid of it.

“It is one of the instruments that was used in the past as part of the whole package of privacy and secrecy. At that time it was pretty much the staple of the industry and so everybody is getting rid of it, and actually we don’t have that many over here; it is less than a hundred,” the finance minister said.

Explaining how the Proceeds of Crime Fund works, Premier Ewing said: “There is the National Forfeiture Fund, which exist. Any money that derives from that the proceeds of crime goes into that fund and there are criteria for how the money is spent from that fund. Any money that is left unspent in the region of about $2million is transferred to the Consolidated Fund at the end of the financial year.”

The premier would not be drawn into explaining some of the incidents that contributed to the funds’ accumulation, only said that the collection of the money was build up over time, especially from recent happenings.

Most of it would come from drug trafficking and other criminal activities. Persons would actually pay for while collar crimes. So they would come from those kinds of funds without naming individuals or incidents, but that’s the kind of activities that the funds would be derived from.

“It would accumulate over a period of time, but in recent times the activity has been higher than what it was in the past, and some of the funds thus far has been used for the procurement of police vehicles, and addition would be used for the things that I mentioned earlier, including engines for the police boat and other things for financial crimes strengthening,” the Premier said.

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LOCAL NEWS

Opposition People’s Democratic Movement explains why it walked out of House of Assembly O

n Tuesday, November 12, 2013 the Opposition walked out of Parliament in protest of an action taken by the Speaker.

It is the Opposition’s position that the Speaker erred and infringed on the rights of the minority by using a casting vote to allow the Premier to revisit an item on the Agenda passed yesterday. The Speaker in accordance with the Agenda, invited Ministers to make Ministerial Statements and only one responded. Today (last Tuesday) was a continuation of yesterday’s Meeting and it is the Opposition’s position and a fair one that the House of Assembly should not be subject to motions being suspended to allow the Premier to recover a missed opportunity yesterday for today.

Today is not a new Meeting and the Agenda ought to have continued on from yesterday where the House of Assembly had ended. It is wrong in principle and fact to allow the Agenda to be rearranged to include Items that were already passed in a continuing Meeting.

The Premier moved for the suspension of Standing Orders to allow for him to make a Ministerial Statement which was passed on the Agenda yesterday. The Opposition voted on the principle that Agendas must be certain and that the House must have some Order in its Agenda. The seven government members and its Appointed Member voted yes while the two Governor’s Members abstained. The Speaker announced that House was at an impasse.

The Deputy Leader of the Party, Hon Sean Astwood told the Speaker that it was not truly an impasse but that the Motion had failed. The Speaker maintained that the House was at an impasse and made his Ruling that he had no casting vote despite the advice of the Acting Attorney General that he could vote under the Standing Orders which specifically states that this applies only to a Speaker who is an elected member. Though he had made his Ruling, the Speaker allowed the Minister of Border Control to speak and he made reference to the Constitution which the Opposition agrees is supreme, an argument that we have been making over the past year and which gives the Speaker a casting vote.

A few months ago, the Hon Goldray Ewing cited the breaches of the Code of Conduct as it related to Ministerial Statements.

The Premier stated that the House of Assembly is operates only under the Standing Order and no other document. The Hon Clarence Selver rose to say that the Statement of Good Governance Principles, the Constitution and the Code under the Constitution were all documents that the

House must be governed by. The Speaker agreed with the Premier that the Standing Orders alone applies to the House of Assembly.

The Leader of the Opposition wrote to the Integrity Commission the same day following this incident on July 1, 2013 for guidance. The Integrity Commission referred the Opposition to the Attorney General who is adviser to the House. The Opposition in response declined to address it to the Attorney General as he was present in the House and offered no assistance. Yet the Meeting immediately following, the Attorney General sought to have the Speaker take action against the Leader of the Opposition and the Hon Vaden Williams under sections of the Code of Conduct and the Constitution because of their Statements regarding salary disparities between the contract Head of Department and the local Head of Department in the Civil Service. But he failed again to correct the record of the House following Statements made by the Premier and the Speaker dismissing the Code of Conduct which is in fact a creature of the Constitution, the supreme law of the land.

As it relates to the incident today, the Opposition has spoken publicly and the Leader of the Opposition included in her Address to the new Governor her concerns over the failure of the Speaker to appoint crucial Oversight Committees. This she cited in another House Meeting was because the new Constitution was not in line with the Standing Orders. The Speaker himself today in abandoning his earlier Ruling to not vote mentioned the pleas of the Opposition and committed to a meeting of the Standing Orders Committee to address the matter which the Opposition since November had asked him so to do. This is why the Opposition feels strongly that the Speaker should not have exercised his casting vote until he had fixed the problem that he chose to ignore. Whilst the Constitution said that he had a casting vote, he should not have exercised it knowing that he was at the core of the problem as Chairman of the Standing Orders.

The Speaker should not have voted as he was at fault for the position of the Standing Orders and the Constitution still being at odds nearly a year later and the Government in its becoming apparent style uses laws to its advantage when it wants to and do away with even provisions of the Constitution when it suits them.

Over the months the Opposition wrote and spoke to the Speaker, the Government, the AG’s Chambers and made state-

Deputy Police Commissioner Rodney Adams charged with corruption

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eputy Commissioner of Police Rodney Adams has been charged with several counts of corruption.

Adams was charged by fellow police officers at a police station on Monday November 11th and was granted police bail in the sum of $30,0000.

Adams is expected to appear in court on December 3rd, 2013.

The Deputy Commission of Police was arrested on suspicion of corruption on October 11th 2013 and questioned by the Integrity Commission regarding allegations of his involvement in the Kaziah Burke murder investigation.

A press release from Adams’ lawyer Jamal Misick of the lawfirm Misick and Stanbrook said Mr. Adams maintains that the allegations against him are entirely without merit, and that he questions the real reasons why these false allegations have been brought against him.

The press release said Adams looks forward to a speedy trial so that his

Rodney Adams innocence can be established, adding that no further statements will be made in relation to this matter.

Opposition Leader Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson ments in the House of Assembly more recently during the Budget Address and the Welcome Address to the new Governor regarding the need to address the Standing Orders and to bring them in line with the new Constitution and all efforts have failed and pleas to the Speaker has failed.

This failure was communicated to the former Governor Ric Todd and the new Governor H.E Peter Beckingham. Today we see how the inaction of the Speaker against the urging of the Opposition has caused an incident in the House of Assembly that could have been avoided.

We maintain that there must be a certainty of the Agenda of the House of Assembly and that Items passed should not be revisited unless it is of an urgent na-

ture. Persons who missed opportunities ought not to be allowed to manipulate a system and use the Constitution previously ignored to further personal agendas. The House is the Peoples’ House and though the Government is the Government of the day, the Speaker is to govern the House and to ensure that all members’ rights are protected. We reject the Speaker’s position that the Opposition’s rights were not infringed.

There must be some order in the House of Assembly and sadly the Opposition believes that this precedent set by the Speaker is an unfortunate one. The House of Assembly is an Institution and the Speaker and the Premier ought to not be changing the way business is done in the House of Assembly frivolously and for the furtherance of personal Agendas to capture missed opportunities.

The Opposition returned to the People’s House when the Speaker returned the House to the Committee of the Whole, the stage on the Agenda where we ought properly to resume this morning. All matters cannot be left to the House for a vote and requires a firm, unbiased and fair Ruling for the furtherance of order and the protection of the rights of the minority.

We will continue to urge the Speaker to abide by the Laws including the Constitution at all times and to do the right thing which is entirely within his powers as Chairman of the Standing Orders Committee to follow the advice of the Opposition and bring the Standing Orders in line with the Constitution.

WE ARE ALSO CALLING ON THE PREMIER AND THE SPEAKER TO RETRACT THE STATEMENTS MADE BY THEM BOTH DURING THE MEETING OF THE HOUSE OF THE ASSEMBLY ON JULY 1, 2013 WHERE THEY BOTH MADE REFERENCE TO THE INAPPLICABILITY OF THE CODE OF CONDUCT IN THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY.

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LOCAL NEWS

Harassment of cruise ship guests threaten tourism on Grand Turk

BY VIVIAN TYSON

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ggressive sellers of goods and events at the Carnival Cruise Center in Grand Turk are asked to adjust their sales pitch or risk being prosecuted by the authorities, according to Premier Hon. Dr. Rufus Ewing.

Speaking at government’s bi-monthly post cabinet news brieďŹ ng at the Premiers’ OfďŹ ce in Providenciales on Thursday (November 14), Premier Ewing said that the decision came about after cruise ship operators aligned to Carnival expressed concerns of harassment by vendors on the beach.

Last week while addressing the Providenciales Chamber of Commerce, Governor Peter Beckingham said that a Carnival ofďŹ cial related a list of concerns that the organisation would like ďŹ xed, during a meeting in Miami last month. He said also that the ofďŹ cial said that the cruise line could divert some of its ships to the Dominican Republic upon completion of a new port, currently being built in that neigbouring island.

But the premier told the news conference that the concern has to do with a small band of vendors selling events and items, who have become aggressive. “The problem is that, we do have persons who may range from persons who are undocumented – immigrants – persons who are Turks and Caicos Islanders who may or may not have licenses to go and sell on the beach; persons who encroach on Carnival’s property above the high water mark and try to sell items and events to individuals,� he said. “Some person may go a little bit more aggressive in trying to sell items

Governor Peter Beckingham

Premier Rufus Ewing

as opposed to kindly asking persons (to purchase items) or distributing advertising cards. Those kinds of activities, I am sure, are not rampant. But wherever they exist they must be controlled and must be addressed because they can result in bad guest experience.�

The premier said that the relevant authorities will be mobilized to tackle the problem. “We are working with DEMA (Department Environment and Maritime Affairs), the Immigration Department as well as the police department in looking at some of the activities on the beach that may result in bad customer experience. And at the same time try to ensure that our citizens can engage in entrepreneurial activities and make revenue from Carnival

ships coming here in Turks and Caicos,� the premier said.

In the meantime, Premier Ewing has sought to clarify the redirecting of cruise ships from the Turks and Caicos Islands to the Dominican Republic. “With the issue of Carnival, statements might have been made to say that Carnival ships will not be coming and that is not the case. What Carnival stated was that there are ships that come under Carnival Corporation that call into the port of Grand Turk. And if visitors continue to have bad experience then what can happen is a risk that some ships that are not controlled

by Carnival may decide not to come. “And so, there is no decision to say that ships will not come because of bad experience. If anybody has bad experience in this country there is a risk of them not coming back; and so, that is the situation. But as a government we are working with Carnival,� she said.

In the meantime, Premier Ewing said that this year is shaping up to be the busiest cruise ship berthing for the Turks and Caicos Islands. “Looking at the shipping schedule this year is probably the busiest year for Carnival in terms of the number of ships expected to arrive. I am not of knowledge of any ships that will not meet their schedule. However, carnival did express some concerns with regards to the manner in which certain activities on the beach next to Carnival (cruise port) were taking place. “Most of those issues we are aware of. We had a meeting with Carnival. I recently held meeting with beach vendors, who are selling tours and other

things on the beach as well, and to listen to some of the concerns, and we will be addressing some of their concerns,� he said.

Meanwhile, Premier Ewing said that government will now move to embark on the construction of projects under the Carnival /TCIG Infrastructure Improvement Programme in Grand Turk.

The project, a joint account between TCIG and Carnival for the purpose of identifying infrastructure programmes, should identify and possibly start to lay the ground work for the construction of those projects before the end of the year. He said that the projects should bring much-needed employment to Grand Turk residents. “When implemented in Grand Turk would improve visual environment for the beneďŹ t of the community for residents and improve the visitor experience. Cabinet approves the proposed arrangements for the operation and management of the Carnival/TCIG Infrastructure Improvement Account,â€? the premier said.

He added: “The minister of ďŹ nance and the minister of government support services will work with the community of Grand Turk in identifying the various projects that qualify for funding from this joint account between Carnival and the Government. “A number of projects will be identiďŹ ed and these will be worked on shortly by the Ministry of Government Support Services hopefully within the month of December. And this with the need of bringing much needed work to the community of Grand Turk.â€?

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LOCAL NEWS

Government makes changes to public holidays

BY VIVIAN TYSON

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ome next year the Turks and Caicos will get rid of one public holiday and replace it with a new one that is reflective of our indigenous culture, while introducing a month of heritage observation.

Premier Hon. Dr. Rufus Ewing announced the changes while addressing his twice-a-month post cabinet news briefing at the Hilly A. Ewing Building, home of the Premier’s Office on Providenciales, on November 14.

He said that the new arrangements came against the background that there was a need to evaluate public holidays in the Turks and Caicos Islands and make the relevant ones reflect the heritage of these islands.

“We recognize that there is a need to review the public holidays to ensure that those dates and events deem most reflective of our history, religious and cultural heritage were included in these holidays,” he said.

He said that under the new arrangements, Columbus Day, which is normally celebrated on or

about October 14, will now be renamed National Heritage Day, and the month of October will now become National Heritage Month.

“This is an effort for us, as Turks and Caicos Islanders, to recognize from whence we came and to appreciate our heritage and promote our national heritage in the face of the various multiple diversity and ethnicity in the Turks and Caicos Islands,” the premier said.

The premier said that Human Rights Day, which is normally a holiday and celebrated in October, will now be shifted to December and will no longer observe as a public holiday.

“We also look at the Human Rights Day currently celebrated on October 18. This will continue to be observed but will no longer be a holiday, and will be moved to December 10. So there will be no longer a holiday for Human Rights Day, but will be observed on December 10, at which time it would recognize as International Human Rights Day internationally,” he said.

There will now be a new observance called Remembrance Day, which the premier pointed out,

would not be a public holiday.

“There will also be an observance on the second Monday in November named Remembrance Day. It will not be a public holiday. As you know, we normally hold Remembrance Day Service on Sunday, but sometime ago we used to recognize Remembrance Day. We are going to again observe Remembrance Day on the second Monday in November,” the premier said.

The new public holiday – National Day of Thanksgiving – to be celebrated in November, will be more of a religious appreciation day for people of faith in the country.

“This will be introduced on the last Friday of November. This is meant to be more of a religious holiday that will seek towards persons giving thanks to the Almighty God, and also to appreciate our religious beliefs during this time period,” the premier told the news briefing.

He said as is customary, the Governor’s Office will publish the full list of the public holidays when the time comes. The premier advised that the new holidays will take effective in 2014.

Police says rights of 15-year-old female alleged burglar will be protected

BY VIVIAN TYSON

C

ommissioner of Police Colin Farquar has assured the public that the rights of the 15 year-old female charged with burglary will not be violated.

The police commissioner was responding to social commentator and political activist Devon Williams, who, after learning of the arrest and charge, raised concerns on the matter in an open letter to the top cop.

Williams, in his letter, also feared that a great deal of ills could befall the teen if dragged through the adult penal system.

“In a press release issued by the Royal Turks and Caicos Police Force earlier this week, it was noted that officers of the law had laid serious criminal charges against a female juvenile and caused her to be arrested and detained in Her Majesty’s custody for an undisclosed amount of time,” Williams said.

He continued: “While I am in no position to say whether or not infractions of the law were committed, or whether or not the accused was part of or party to such infractions if committed, I can say that in my personal opinion, the strong hand of the law will do the country no justice by dragging this young lady through the court system at her tender age.”

But Farquar, in his response, said that the police, as well as children rights bodies are ensuring that juvenile’s rights are not being violated. In

Commissioner of Police Colin Farquar

Devon Williams

addition, the commissioner said that all the proper measures governing juvenile offenders’ detention have been followed and will be adhered to going forward.

Farquar said parents or guardians, along with representatives from the Social Welfare Department were present during the interview and charging process.

“Please be advised that the charges laid against the 15-year-old juvenile followed the proper procedure of having a parent/guardian present along with a representative from the Social Welfare Department during the interview and the charging process,” Commissioner Farquar said.

Commissioner Farquar pointed out in his email response that due consideration would also be paid to the female juvenile’s rights during the legal procedure.

“When taken before the Court, the juvenile will be considered as a juvenile and if found guilty, the punishment could be under the Juveniles

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Ordinance or under the Probation of Offenders Ordinance,” he said.

In the meantime, Williams pointed out to the police commissioner that imprisoned children could leave incarceration even worse than before they went in the system, also telling the commissioner that he has seen examples in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“Sir, children in adult prisons are five times as likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be beaten by staff, 50 percent more likely to be attacked with a weapon and eight times as likely to commit suicide as children in juvenile facilities,” Williams said.

In most Commonwealth Coun-

tries, names of juveniles and rape victims are not revealed to the public, and journalists in many of those countries have also taken a stand against reporting such cases.

Names of rape perpetrators are also not revealed in some countries to protect the victims. But it is however, long being argued by some parties that rape perpetrators’ names should be revealed before the end of trials, so that the public could follow the case and learn more about them.

But human rights groups maintained that by revealing the name of the alleged rapist could jeopardize the identity and safety of the victim.

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LOCAL NEWS

Digicel claims 55 percent of telecoms market share

BY VIVIAN TYSON

T

elecoms provider Digicel is excited over the realization that it now boasts majority market share among the three providers locally.

Digicel’s local CEO E. Jay Saunders, at the launch of its Christmas Promotion last Friday (November 8), held at its flagship store at Graceway House along the Leeward Highway in Providenciales, said that the Irishbased company now controls more than 55 percent of the market share and growing. He said also that customer base is about 25,000, about 5,000 more than its closest rival.

“We would love to say that we have more than 55 percent of the market share in the three-player market. We have been hovering around that mark for a year,” Saunders told reporters.

He said that Digicel recorded most growth in the corporate arena and government.

“Where we have seen the most of our growth is on the business side. So you may have one customer and that one customer on the business side may bring a tremendous amount of revenue versus a thousand new individual customers.

“If you want to look at our growth, look at Scotiabank, which is all on Digicel; look at government which is all on Digicel; look at more and more business customers and you will all see the growth. Our fixed

number range is 339 and 338, that’s like LIME’S 941 and 946. Look at how many of these numbers you see calling you, and that will tell you the growth,” Saunders said.

Saunders added: “In recent times we probably see about a thousand new customers, but what is important is that we are starting to see the big business customers coming over to us. The biggest impediment that we have right now is resources to pulling them out right now and get them all integrated.

Saunders credits constant upgrades in Digicel’s mobile and data speed to the strong gravitation to his services by both business and individual customers. He said Digicel will be even strong next year when it upgrades from 4G to LTE service.

“I think companies are now realizing that we are going from strength to strength. Last year this time, we had about two to three miles worth of fibre optic cable, today we have got over 50 miles worth of fibre optic cable. We have linked up a number of places with fibre optic, so they can see that we have gone from a very cheerful mobile company in 2006, to today, we are a full telecommunications provider,” he boasted.

He said that the LTE rollout should come on stream in the third quarter of Digicel’s business year, which begins in April.

“Our financial year starts in April, so you should see it round about the

Digicel TCI CEO E. Jay Saunders displays the Digicel DL700 phone, which is an upgrade from the DL600, which he said went off the shelves in quick time. The DL700 is one of the new offering that Digicel has for this holiday season. first quarter of the year up to the third quarter,” he said With Cable and Wireless, the parent company of major competitor

LIME, announcing that it intends to cut hundreds of jobs across the Caribbean, Saunders said that Digicel could become the biggest local telecommunications employer.

“If the rumours are true, if our competitors are downsizing, we will not only be the biggest in terms of customers, we will be the biggest in terms of staff. That will tell about the growth we have seen, the fact that we have gone from primarily mobile to being one of the largest in terms of business services and the largest in terms of customers and staff,” he said.

In the meantime, Saunders said that upgrading to LTE should cost Digicel $3million, which is far less expensive than what it would cost to upgrade from 2 ½G to HSPA plus. He said that the 4G network that Digicel rollout earlier in the year is compatible with LTE. “The technological jump between 2 ½ G to 3G/4G/HSPA plus is bigger than the jump from HSPA plus to LTE because the equipment now allows you to take the LTE cards. So we spent $8million going from 2 ½G to 4G, where we are at today.

“It doesn’t require that same type of commitment to get to LTE; it is about $2million to $3million investment. When we went to 4G, we did it knowing that we will be rolling out LTE, so we got the equipment that just put the cards in for LTE, so it is not the same type of investment as going from 2 ½ to 4G,” Saunders said.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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NOVEMBER 16TH - NOVEMBER 23RD, 2013

LOCAL NEWS

Government reels off achievements after a year in office

BY VIVIAN TYSON

T

he Dr. Rufus Ewing Administration said that it has made a number of achievements over the past 12 months, including job-creating opportunities for Turks and Caicos Islanders.

Delivering a national address in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, November 12, to mark his party’s first year in government, Premier Hon. Dr. Rufus Ewing, emphasized the administration’s commitment to improve the lives of Turks and Caicos Islanders.

He said that the job-creating measures embarked upon over the last 12 months include: • The improvement of salaries of civil servants through the 10 percent salary reinstatement, taken away during the Interim Administration; • The creation of new middle and senior management posts in addition to about 100 new posts created under the 2013-14 budget, which a number of persons, including immigration officers were employed and; • The budgeting for and implementation of capital projects, including rebuilding of Ona Glinton Primary School, Providenciales International Airport extension; The premier said also that government has been acting in get-

Premier Hon. Dr. Rufus Ewing

ting major projects that have been stalled back up and running. Those, he said, include Ambergris Cay, Dellis Cay, West Caicos and Shore Club. Shore Club and West Caicos are to commence early next year and should create a number of new jobs.

He said also that government has been busy encouraging Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through the development of a new investment policy and the reinstatement of a TCInvest-like agency, mandated to market and

promote the TCI as the best place to invest.

“To this end my government has facilitated and continues to facilitate the implementation of several new major projects such as the JW Marriott Dessarollos, Third Turtle Resort, East Bay Resort, Sail Rock Resort, White Sands Resort, North Creek Resort and Marina, just to name a few, many of which are expected to start and reach completion between 2014-16, thus bringing much needed employment opportunities and a boost to the economy,” he said.

He said also that government is planning the development of an infrastructure pipeline of major projects some of which will be developed as public private partnerships (PPP).

“To this end my government has established an infrastructure committee, which has been actively working, and the development of a PPP policy framework that would facilitate these project developments. My government has already begun marketing a number of these major projects, such as the East Caicos Port Facility, Caicos Causeway and Expansion of PIA (Providenciales International Airport),” he said.

The causeway development and Providenciales International Airport expansion were among

projects presented at two major international investment meetings in the United States recently.

The premier pointed government is serious about getting creating employment opportunities for Turks and Caicos Islanders, which is why it made amendments to the Employment and Immigration Ordinances, development of immigration protocols as annexes to development agreements, the strengthening of the Employment services unit of the Labour Department.

He said that government is in the process of developing an apprenticeship programme in collaboration with private sector partners so as to ensure training and employment of young adults into skilled jobs and top management professional jobs.

“It is our intention to expand this programme in both the private and public sector and as such we will also be working with the UK Government who has recently implemented such a programme.

“It is our intention to assess this very programme during our visit to London for the JMC later this month. This apprenticeship programme will also form a part of a vocational training programme that is now in the early stages of policy development,” the premier said.

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NOVEMBER 16TH - NOVEMBER 23RD, 2013

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

LOCAL NEWS

Maskanoo promises bigger, more exciting event

BY VIVIAN TYSON

all goes according to plan, this year’s MasIseefkanoo Parade on Providenciales should lots more groups taking part, which will no doubt make the event much more exciting.

Director of Culture David Bowen said that expectations are high for this year’s event since a number of groups have indicated their intent to participate.

“It is the Fourth Annual Maskanoo this year, and we are trying to build on our successes in the past. This year we have a number of groups; I think there will be a surprise this year that we will have much more groups involved in Maskanoo. I would like to appeal to my local people to participate, to come with groups. Don’t rely on me to supply everything for you,” he said.

Bowen added: “But I know that we have much more groups this year. Kitch Penn will be there, we have a Haitian group this year, possibly a Jamaican group, and we will also have a Phillipino group. A group from South Caicos is also expected to come as well. We also expect a number of hotel groups and some surprise groups.”

Bowen said that Members of Parliament have been asked to identify and recommend persons in their respective constituencies to represent those constituencies through cultural performances.

Participating groups stand a chance of taking homes trophies in the categories of biggest group, best green creative group and the best traditional group.

Bowen said that entertainment on stage is expected to be very good this year, head-

David Bowen

lined by Keno and Kazz and Kew Band Links, and also will include TCI Rip Saw Band and others. Bowen said that there will be a gospel element to this year’s event, and to feature Carl Lewis along with other gospel artistes.

Local celebrity cooking wizard – Chef Nik of Crackpot Kitchen – will also make an appearance.

Bowen said that there will also be live streaming, so that persons across the coun-

try and internationally will get the opportunity to view the event live.

“Also, all restaurants along the (Grace Bay) strip that have flat screen TVs or internet link can also have their guests sit down during a meal and watch the whole show from the confines of that particular restaurant, club or shop. We are excited about that,” he said.

Bowen added: “We hope to have a better food tent this year – a more inviting food tent. And I think that this year is going to be a more spectacular year. We are going to showcase our culture and at the same time we want to be inclusive of others who are now part of this multicultural TCI.” In the meantime, Bowen said that Maskanoo is now part of the community’s calendar and a buzz is already taking place.

“What we want to do is to create an event that is connected to Christmas – Christmas and Maskanoo,” Bowen said.

Bowen said also that he hopes to take Maskanoo to other islands in the next three years. At the same time, he is encouraging local traditional masquerade groups to be integral parts of the festivities in order to make the local culture be the centerpiece of the event.

Bowen is also urging the community groups to be independent instead of allowing outsiders to come in and do all the work for them.

To sign up to participate as a performer or vendor, Bowen is asking to call 941-8434 or send email at maskanoo.gmail.com.

“That is what we are lacking in this country. People expect someone else to do all the work, but then, all we do is complain when it is not done,” Bowen said.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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NOVEMBER 16TH - NOVEMBER 23RD, 2013

LOCAL NEWS

Government says Providenciales Post Office workers can relocate if they like

BY VIVIAN TYSON

P

rovidenciales Post Office workers are fuming that months after relating their sub-human working condition to government no known plans are in place to relocate them.

However, government said that they have reached out to the post office administration regard relocation so repairs could begin, but so far it has refused to accept the offer.

“The building is crumbling, there are termites all over, the roof has mold, the roof leaks whenever it rains, everywhere is filthy, and I want to know why we should work in that type of condition.

“Where I am working is detrimental to my health. If anything should happen to me on the job, they are not going to do anything for me. Sometimes I feel so embarrassed and afraid to go inside the building because it so unhealthy and filthy,” a seemingly frustrated employee said.

The employee said that morale among the seven staff members at the post office, in recent time, has plummeted and now it “is very low”.

“I can tell you that the morale of the staff here is very low because we feel sometimes that nobody cares,” the postal worker lamented.

The employee told The SUN that Government is well aware of their working condition after a media highlight in October, and promised to relocate them. But they have not seen any movement, and now their patience is waning.

“They told us that they are going to move us to some other place. It is now

Minister of Government Support Services Hon. George Lightbourne November; October is gone, and nobody came back and said anything to us. When we showed them the condition that we were living under the other day, they said they are looking for a place; it is impossible for them to be looking for a place all that time. And nobody is saying anything to us,” the postal worker said.

The worker said that the building, in recent time, has become a health hazard, which was ignored by successive governments.

“Nobody is concerned about our health or anything. Each day we have to contend with termites, a crumbling building, mold and lizards. The last time it rained a light fell from the ceiling. We reported it and nobody came to fix the light. We don’t know when they are going to come and fix it,” the mem-

ber of staff said.

The postal worker further noted that formation of the mold is compounded by leaky roof.

“The mold is in the roof because it is leaking, and the condition that we are working under is deplorable. And who cares? Once we come in a get the job done that’s it. I think this condition is inhumane for anybody to work under, anybody,” the worker lamented.

When contacted, Minister for Government Support Services Hon. George Lightbourne told The SUN that plans are in the making to refurbish the building, but is waiting on the final sign off.

He also said that when he first learned of the deplorable condition of the building he offered the post office administration the opportunity to temporarily relocate its staff, but was told that it was impossible to move without the post office boxes, and so they decided to stay.

Lightbourne said based on the feedback by the post office management, government would go ahead and repair the building with them in it.

“We will repair one half of the building first and then repair the other half when the first section is done. The building is big enough for that to happen. But we have offered the post office administration the opportunity to move, we just did not go public with it.

But they said they can’t move because they would be leaving the post office boxes behind. The post office boxes and made into the walls. The offer to remove them still stands. Once a building is located, they would be removed,” Lightbourne said.

DIGICEL STEPS IN TO ASSIST WITH PHILIPPINES FUND RAISING EFFORTS

T

elecommunications company, Digicel has made its services available to assist in the fund raising efforts to aid the victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan which ravaged the island nation of the Philippines, resulting in the loss of thousands lives and displacing thousands of persons in its aftermath.

The Filipino community of the TCI has been heartbroken to see the devastating images of their homeland on television screens and although far from home, they have been swift to rally to help.

With donation drives organized throughout the country, the association is pleading with persons to assist in the disaster relief efforts currently underway in their country.

Digicel through its texting platform has opened up the opportunity for persons to easily assist these efforts. By simply sending a text message of the word ‘HEART’ to 5151, Digicel customers are helping to bring relieve to someone who is desperately in need of food, water and shelter.

Each text costs $1 and all proceeds will go directly to the Filipino Association which will be passed on to the Philippines Red Cross. The donation text drive will run until November 22, 2013.

CEO of Digicel TCI, E Jay Saunders commented, “It was extremely heart breaking to see the destructive force that tore through the Philippines. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the Typhoon Haiyan and our support extends to our brothers and sisters who reside with us here in the TCI. We find it our duty to help in times of need and this is certainly no exception.”

The President of the Filipino Association, Rizaldy Gregorio, expressed his gratitude to Digicel saying, “The Filipino community of the TCI is overwhelmed with gratitude to Digicel for assisting us in this very difficult time. We are far from home and it’s not possible for us to be there on the ground to help but we can help from where we are by sending something home. Please help us to rebuild by sending your text messages from your Digicel phone.”

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NOVEMBER 16TH - NOVEMBER 23RD, 2013

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

WANTED Windsong Resort Turks 1 and Caicos Islands wins Top 2013 Travel Weekly Magellan Awards LABOURER

To work 6 days per week Mon-Sat

Salary $5.50 per hour Must be hardworking and reliable

Interested person should contact 946-4701

T

he Windsong Resort, Turks and Caicos, a Caribbean luxury oceanfront property on Providenciales, earned two of Travel Weekly’s recently announced 2013 Magellan Awards.

A member of Preferred Boutique Hotels, the Caribbean resort’s accommodations were chosen from entries across the U.S. and around the world, winning a gold award for its Penthouse Suite design, and a silver award for its private Villa.

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, October 1, 2013 – A top winner among Caribbean resorts, the Windsong Resort, earned two of Travel Weekly’s prestigious 2013 Magellan Awards. A member of Preferred Boutique Hotels, the Windsong Resort was chosen from entries across the U.S. and around the world, winning a gold award for its expansive Penthouse Suites, and a silver award for its private Villa.

A boutique property among larger Grace Bay, Turks and Caicos resorts, Windsong is in good company with select Magellan Award winners who represent the best in the travel industry.

“We are so honored to have been selected from among the thousands of luxury resorts and hotels representing countries all over the world,” said Anette Mullings, general manager of the Windsong Resort.

“To stand out as a boutique property in our Caribbean region is significant, but to have our luxury penthouse and villa accommodations win on such a competitive, world stage is truly a thrill. And, it shows that our product embodies a high standard of quality in the industry,” she added.

“Our entire team is motivated every day by the positive recognition we receive from our Windsong guests, but it is especially rewarding to receive accolades from leading travel industry experts,”

stated Jim Molter, Windsong’s managing partner. “We have always thought our penthouse designs with roof top spas, BBQ grills, sun loungers, dining facilities, and unspoiled panoramic ocean views through frameless glass, are refreshingly unique to travelers. It is gratifying to know that well-regarded, seasoned, travel professionals agree,” he added.

The Magellan awards is the premier awards program honoring a broad range of industry segments including Hotels and Resorts, Travel Destinations, Cruise Lines, Online Travel Services, Airlines and Airports, Travel Agents and Agencies, Tour Operators and Car Rental Companies. The awards are judged and overseen by a panel of top travel professionals representing the best names and most accomplished leaders from the industry.

“Once again, the bar was raised by Magellan entrants,” said Arnie Weissmann, editor-in-chief of Travel Weekly. “The creativity that travel industry marketers and designers display to inspire travel and enhance the travel experience continues to impress our expert judges and readers.

The winners are not just the most talented and creative people in the travel industry – they are among the most creative and talented of any industry.”

A boutique property among Caribbean resorts, Windsong is a luxury oceanfront resort in Turks and Caicos, with a stunning location on 435’ of world-famous Grace Bay and the island’s best coral reef.

Among the islands’ Caribbean resorts, Windsong is the only Preferred Boutique property on Providenciales. The Turks and Caicos hotel’s amenities include a heated oceanfront pool, intimate dining on the beach and dune, as well as at Jojo’s Café; a fitness center & full service spa; complimentary non-motorized watersports and bicycles, and scheduled entertainment.

Tourist Board Adds New Executive Administrative Assistant T

he Turks and Caicos Tourist Board has recently named Lorenzo Seymour their Executive Administrative Assistant. He is an experienced professional who has 13 years of experience in hospitality, with four of those years spent in Human Resources.

“We are pleased to have the capability and experiences of persons like Mr. Seymour join our organization,” said Tourist Board Director Ralph Higgs. “His appointment is consistent with our commitment to ensure the continued growth of our tourism industry and to guarantee the Tourist Board’s longevity.”

The South Caicos native holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources Management from Barry University. Seymour previously worked at the Beaches Turks and Caicos Resort starting as an intern, where he worked throughout all departments of

the resort, and climbed the ranks to an appointment as Assistant Human Resources Manager where he managed the resort’s recruitment efforts as well as their annual internship program.

“I am honored to join the Turks and Caicos Tourist Board and work with this exceptional team,” Seymour said. “The Tourist Board is the premiere marketing establishment for travel and trade in the country, with the greatest role in shaping landscape and perception of our Islands for decades.

I look forward to sharing my experiences and contributing to the future direction and growth of the organization and the destination.”

Seymour’s portfolio at the Tourist Board includes the coordination of human resources, employee relations, technical and office administrative duties.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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NOVEMBER 16TH - NOVEMBER 23RD, 2013

LOCAL NEWS

Local HIV/AIDS funding slashed

BY VIVIAN TYSON

W

ith two of its major external donors cutting off their fundings, the National HIV/AIDS Programme could be forced to drop some of its plans to tackle the spreading of the disease locally.

Coordinator for the National HIVE/AIDS Programme Aldora Robinson, made the revelation while giving an interview to the media during the 16th annual staging of the National Inter-High School Debate Competition, held at the Occasions Ballroom, Airport Hotel on November 7.

The two financiers – the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the European Union (EU) stopped dispersing funds to the local programme, Robinson said. With the pulling of the funding, Robinson said the local efforts to combat the fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS will be hampered greatly if alternative measures are not found quickly.

“It is going to become lacking because we lost DIFID last year, and af-

ter this year we won’t have any funding from the EU, we are going to have to look for other sources. But HIV funding is dwindling worldwide. So we have to look to ourselves to sustain our programme that was once assisted by external funding,” Robinson said.

She said that quick strategies need to be found urgently to cushion the effects of the funding gap, created by the stepping away of the two entities.

“It is going to hamper some of my prevention efforts. So that is why we have this debate and strategies and recommendations from our youth to assist us at the national level in developing other strategies that would probably less cost-consuming,” Robinson said.

With the two funding sources gone, Robinson is keeping her fingers cross that she would not be forced to make any cuts to the programme.

“I hope not to cut anything; I hope to find new sources. We are looking at new sources at the moment; right now we are looking at technical assistance from UNICEF for my youth pro-

ISLANDCOM TO HOST FOURTH ANNUAL DOMINO TOURNAMENT AT THIS YEAR’S CONCH FEST

T

he annual Islandcom Domino Tournament has become a staple of the local community. Men and women around the islands practice their domino skills year round to better their chances at winning the grand prize.

Each year the event takes place on four of the main islands; Providenciales, South Caicos, North Caicos, and Grand Turk. Its a competition of bragging rights for the best domino player in the Turks and Caicos Islands! Teams of two sign up to compete against one another in knock out rounds of domino playing. The team that wins the best out of six games advances to the next round to win the local pot and a spot in the finals. In the finals, the winning team from each island competes for the grand prize of bigger cash and phone service.

This year’s tournament is co-sponsored by the Wine Cellar. Islandcom has changed things up this year; the final games will take place at this year’s annual Conch Fest in Blue Hills, Providenciales. “The theme for this year is the Conch Fest Show Down. The games are always a wrestling match between different teams and spectators. So why not host the event on an actual wrestling pit?!” says Chandra Craigg, Islandcom Marketing.

This year’s event will feature a WWE style wrestling pit for the championship round. Those competing in the tournament will work towards the grand prize of $1,000, cellphone service for a year, and a custom made wrestling belt, courtesy of Islandcom and the Wine Cellar.

Winning teams from each island will win up to $500, cellphone service, and an all expense paid trip to Provo for the finals.

This year’s finals will be held at the 10th Annual Conch Fest in Blue Hills.

“This is our 3rd year as a sponsor for this event. We wanted to put a little bit more of the Islandcom flavor to the event so we decided to combine our Domino Tournament with our annual appearance at the Conch Fest,” says Lee Ingham, Islandcom Marketing. “This will surely be an awesome finale this year!”

The 2013 Domino Tournament will kick off Saturday November 23rd.

There will be a simultaneous qualifying match played in North Caicos, South Caicos, and Grand Turk. The Provo qualifying match will be played Friday November 29th at Three Queens- the site for the annual Conch Fest. Anyone interested in competing can register at any local Islandcom store. Registration fee is $20 per team.

The time and location for each island is as followed: North Caicos Tournament • Saturday, November 23rd • Location: Horse Stable Beach • Time: 6:00pm – 10:00pm South Caicos Tournament • Saturday, November 23rd • Location: Darryl’s Bar • Time: 6:00pm – 10:00pm Grand Turk Tournament • Saturday, November 23rd • Location: Governor’s Beach • Time: 2:00pm – 6:00pm Providenciales Tournament • Friday, November 29th • Location: Three Queens, Blue Hills • Time: 6:00pm – 10:00pm Championship Game • Saturday, November 30th • Location: Blue Hills Conch FestThree Queens • Time: 4:00 – 5:30p The game of dominoes is a time old tradition created by the Chinese. The goal of dominoes is to play all the cards in your hand before your opponents.

Each game consists of 4 opponents. They are given 7 cards to start the game. Each card must match the number of dots on either end of the game board when played. The game can become very intense as each player reads the board to decipher the next movements of his opponent. This is a game of concentration and strategizing; with a twist of skill in foretelling the next player’s moves.

In championship games of dominoes the rules are tougher and the penalties are harsher. Teammates and opponents aren’t allowed to talk while playing the game. Playing before your time can cause you points and signaling of any kind can get you disqualified. The Islandcom Domino Tournament will follow suit making sure that rules will be strictly adhered to by all players. In each game there will be a referee for each table. The refs will monitor the plays and behavior of each player to ensure that everyone is abiding by the rules. Disputes will be settled by the head referee on each island.

Last year’s Domino Tournament finals saw an astonishing upsetting win in the semi finals of North Caicos versus the ever so talented team of Provo’s The Undefeatables. The Undeafeatbles were two time Domino Champions but had their crown stolen from them by the North Caicos Team of Higgs and Higgs. Higgs and Higgs went on to win the Championship title over the South Caicos team of SPT. Who will be the champions of this year’s domino tournament? Will Higgs and Higgs defend their title or will you be the new winner?

Aldora Robinson grammes and also local stakeholders,” she said.

Since international and local organizations make a great deal of contribution, Robinson said that government is unable to say how much it spends each year on campaigns and drug treatment to those living with the disease.

“I won’t be able to put a definite cost on it. Right now on treatment and care, we are at $75,000 so far,” she said.

In the meantime, the National HIV/AIDS coordinator said that her department has seen significant sexual behavioral change among adults and teens, who are now opting to use condoms during their sexual liaisons.

She also said HIV/AIDS testing has in-

creased as people are now beginning to get more conscious of their status. She credits the change to the programme’s intense educational campaign.

“While the rest of the world feels that treatment has been more effective, here in the Turks and Caicos Islands, we have seen more of a behavior change, because we have more of our adults and young people using condoms, we have seen people coming more for testing, so that is behavioral, and we want to enhance that. We want people be more concerned about their health,” Robinson said.

She said that the National HIV/ AIDS Programme is planning a men’s seminar with the aim of developing a men’s health strategy geared to educate men to become more health conscious.

“Soon we will have a seminar for men, so that we could develop a men’s health strategy. Why? Because we know that men don’t have health-seeking behaviors, and we want to promote that (health-seeking behaviours), because we want all of the citizens of the Turks and Caicos Islands to live healthy lives. They have to develop that attitude that this is lifesaving, this is for the rest of my life, and I am going to take it.

“When you don’t take your medication you develop resistance, and there are not very many drugs that you can use after you become resistant to the drugs that you are on. The cost of treating becomes extremely high,” Robinson said.

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NOVEMBER 16TH - NOVEMBER 23RD, 2013

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

LOCAL NEWS

Local Philippines community raise funds for those affected by Typhoon Haiyan

BY VIVIAN TYSON

F

amily members of a number of Philippines nationals living in the Turks and Caicos Islands are registered among the missing and possibly dead in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan last week, an official of the local Philippino Community said.

Initial news reports are that more than $10,000 people were killed, but government has revised the figure to just fewer than 3,000. But the number is expected to rise.

Alfonso Palatino, secretary of the Philippino Community in the Turks and Caicos Islands said that some of his countrymen and women have reported that they have not been able to contact their loved ones, saying also that other family members back home have also been unsuccessful in their bid to contact them.

“Personally, my family is safe, but some Philippos who are working here, they have some families that are still missing right now,” Palatino said.

Palatino was speaking to The SUN at the Graceway IGA Supermarket located along the Leeward Highway, on Monday, November 11, where the group was staging a fund-raising event for the victims of that typhoon ravaged country.

Palatino said that the typhoon has left thousands of people suffering after their homes were destroyed. He said people now go without basic necessity such as clean drinking water.

“If you have seen the news on TV, you would just be moved, how people are suffering right now in our country. They don’t have food, they don’t have shelter,” he said.

He said that the country was just about recovering from a major earthquake a little over a month ago, when Typhoon Haiyan struck.

“One area in the country has been struck by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake last month. And now, they have seen the strongest typhoon ever recorded in

Rizaldy Gragorio (left standing), President of the Philippines Community and Alfonso Palatino (third from left standing), join other members at the Graceway IGA Supermarket foyer in a fund-raising drive for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, which almost decimated parts of the massive island chain, last week. world history,” Palatino said.

He told The SUN that the group was not looking to raise a particular target, just what they can.

“What we are doing as a small community in the Turks and Caicos Islands is to ensure that we get help from the community, from the tourists, from the locals – getting some funds and send it to the Philippines, where they need the help most very urgently,” he said.

Palatino added: “We have a donation drive here at IGA, we are looking for a donation drive at the Do It Centre, and we welcome people to be part of this crusade to help the Philippines.”

In the meantime, Rizaldy Gragorio, President of

the Community, said that so far the fund-raising efforts have been encouraging.

“The respond from the community has been very, very inspiring. Just yesterday (Sunday, November 10), we collected $3,617 - in just for one day. So we are so glad that the people of the TCI are very much helping.

Meanwhile, Palatino said that funds raised would be sent to the Philippines Red Cross for it to assist with the relief effort. “ We are partnering with the Philippines news media, but we are also looking at the Red Cross Philippines, so we can wire transfer these funds to them, “Palatino said.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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NOVEMBER 16TH - NOVEMBER 23RD, 2013

LOCAL NEWS

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NOVEMBER 16TH - NOVEMBER 23RD, 2013

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Our client, GraceKennedy Ltd. is seeking to recruit a Managing Director and a Business Development Manager for one of its subsidiaries, First Global Insurance Brokers (FGIB) located in Turks and Caicos.

MANAGING DIRECTOR The Managing Director will be responsible for the strategic leadership and growth of the company.

The Role

The Candidate

The Managing Director will be responsible for preparing the

The ideal candidate will have completed a post graduate degree in

company’s business plans and directing the operations to achieve budgeted goals and other key performance indicators.

The individual selected will be responsible for managing and

promoting the image of the company as the Broker of choice.

The successful candidate will develop and motivate a team of professionals who are committed to delivering high quality service.

Business Administration or related discipline and have the Insurance Qualification such as Advanced Diploma in Insurance (ACII).

The Managing Director must have a minimum of ten years’ experience in general insurance of which, at least seven must be at a senior management level.

The candidate must have knowledge of all classes of insurance and reinsurance as well as the Laws of Turks and Caicos Islands.

The Managing Director will maintain appropriate contacts and

The candidate must be able to demonstrate strong leadership skills

The successful candidate will focus on increasing the company’s

Sound decision making, analytical, forecasting and organisational

develop relationships with key stakeholders.

client portfolio through the acquisition and renewal of customer accounts.

The Managing Director will focus on the company’s risk management.

and ability to build and motivate teams to achieve results. skills are required for the post.

Proven, effective oral and written communication skills as well as strong negotiations skills are essential.

The ideal candidate must have advanced knowledge in the use of Microsoft Project and financial software applications.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Reporting to the Managing Director, the Business Development Manager will be responsible for increasing market share, through networking, relationship building and service delivery.

The Role

The Candidate

The Business Development Manager will define the company’s target

The ideal candidate must have completed the Advanced Diploma in

market and develop strategies to forge new relationships with potential clients.

Insurance (ACII) or its equivalent. A Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management or Marketing would be an asset but not required.

The individual selected will grow the client portfolio by researching,

The Business Development Manager will have a minimum of eight

The Business Development Manager will develop and lead the

The candidate must have knowledge of all classes of insurance and

sourcing and making contact through sales efforts and meeting with potential clients to close sales.

execution of the marketing plan including leading product development initiatives and strategies.

The successful candidate will collaborate with the marketing team on tradeshows, expositions and investment seminars to heighten awareness of the company and its products.

The individual selected will prepare the monthly and other

management reports and work to ensure the company’s targets are achieved.

years’ experience working in a general insurance environment, of which at least four years must be at management level. reinsurance both local and foreign including the London markets.

The ideal candidate must be able to demonstrate success in building trust and maintaining long term relationships.

Excellent analytical, interpersonal and organisational skills are required for the post.

Proven, effective oral and written communication skills as well as strong negotiations skills are essential.

All suitably qualified persons interested in either of these exciting opportunities should send their Curriculum Vitae with full details of their experience, achievements and qualifications together with the names and contact details of two business references to careerpath@caribbeancatalyst.com no later than November 29, 2013.

“Career

Path”, Caribbean Catalyst Inc., P.O.Box 152, Bridgetown, St. Michael, Barbados Tel: (246) 426-0821 Fax: (246) 426-3971 Email: careerpath@caribbeancatalyst.com Website: www.caribbeancatalyst.com

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Digicel rolls out Christmas goodies

BY VIVIAN TYSON

T

T

elecoms provider Digicel is off the mark early in its Christmas promotion, announcing a cavalcade of goodies that customers stand the chance of winning in time for the festive season.

The “Brighten Someone’s Christmas Promotion”, which was launched on Friday, November 8, at the Digicel flagship store at Graceway House, Providenciales, gives customers a chance to win their rent or mortgaged paid for one month, utility bill payment, gas vouchers, grocery vouchers, $500 cash, hotel weekend stay, airline voucher and also a chance to win the main prize which is a VESPA Scooter.

E.Jay Saunders, CEO for Digicel TCI said that customers qualify for winning the prizes when they purchase a smartphone, sign up for a 4G PLAN and topping up $15 or more. Prepaid customers also stand chances to win weekly prizes ranging from bonus credit, cool speakers and cash.

The occasion was also used to launch the Digicel handset – the DL700, an upgrade from the DL600 smartphone.

Sunders said that the DL600, which was launched earlier this year, was a hit with customers.

“Earlier this year we launched our Digicel phone - it is called the Digicel 600 - it became the number one sell quickly after it came out. When you look at our smart phone sales and you see the amount of people using Digicel 4G; most of them are using the Digicel DL600 phones,” he said.

He added: “The phone was so popular that we have decided to outdo ourselves and came up with the DL700 phone. So we launch the DL700 now – it is an upgrade to the popular DL600. The DL600 is free on postpaid $150 on prepaid.”

He said that the DL700 handset has a

CAN CAPTIVE INSURANCE GROW TURKS AND CAICOS GDP?

Digicel CEO E. Jay Saunders displays the main VESPA Scooter at Digicel’s flagship store at Graceway House, Leeward Highway in Providenciales. The VESPA Scooter is the main prize in Digicel’s Christmas promotion four inch display, a five mega pixel camera, and 1.3 gigahertz processor, can handle up to 21 mega pixels on our 5G network and has Android 4.2 platform.

Saunders said also that earlier this year the Roam-like-you-home promotion, which sees customers being charged local rates while in the United States, has been a hit with clients.

“We launched roam-like-you-home, where in the United States you can get the same rates you pay when you are home. But in addition to that, you can also get data rates, which is normally the most expensive, at the same rate you get at home,” he said.

Drawing of the grand prize is scheduled to take place on December 20.

he Deputy Governor challenged reinsurance experts gathered in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) to grow their unique industry sector on Friday, 15 November 2013.

The TCI is home to 5,800 registered captive insurance companies, of a global total of around 8,000. The sector is the Islands second largest contributor to GDP, at around 12% or after tourism. The Islands’ GDP is forecast to be worth $558.9 million in 2013.

Captive insurance is insurance, or reinsurance, provided by a company that is formed primarily to cover the assets and risks of its parent company. A captive insurance company, therefore, is an in house insurance company with a limited purpose to deals with the insurance matters of its parent company, and does not sell policies to anyone else.

This type of insurance is becoming a popular means through which companies can protect themselves financially while having more control over how they are insured.

Some 70 delegates will gather at the Regent Palms Resort and Spa, Providenciales. They will be addressed by TCI Deputy Governor, Anya Williams, and a range of industry experts.

The event is hosted by the Turks and Caicos Association of Insurance Managers (TCAIM), a

not-for-profit association whose objectives are to protect the interests of the domestic and offshore insurance industries in the TCI. This is the second annual Captive Insurance Conference.

Attendees are a mix of those already with established captive insurance businesses in TCI and those considering starting operations in the territory.

“The captive insurance market offers a tremendous growth opportunity for the Turks and Caicos Islands,” said Anya Williams. “We have a unique lead in the sector with the majority of the industry being based here.

The Turks and Caicos certainly has the right talent and regulatory environment to do this.”

Over the last twelve months, the TCI has worked to ensure it is at the forefront of the global movement towards greater financial transparency.

Working with the UK, TCI has implemented the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, produced an Action Plan for increasing the transparency of company beneficial ownership and laid the groundwork to introduce US and UK FATCA agreements early next year.

Captive insurance companies are regulated and supervised by the Financial Services Commission.

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Double Data is coming to town!

All LIME mobile data customers get 2X their data plan until Dec 31st, 2013 It’s our Christmas gift to you!

Top Up now at lime.com/topup Facebook

Twitter

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NOVEMBER 16TH - NOVEMBER 23RD, 2013

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“FALL” Whoa, ooh Well, let me tell you a story About a girl and a boy He fell in love with his best friend When she’s around, he feels nothing but joy But she was already broken, and it made her blind But she could never believe that love would ever treat her right

Don’t have to be scared at all, oh, my love But you can’t fly unless you let yourself, You can’t fly unless you let yourself fall

Did you know that I loved you or were you not aware?

You’re the smile on my face And ain’t going nowhere I’m here to make you happy, I’m here to see you smile I’ve been wanting to tell you this for a long while

But if you spread your wings You can fly away with me But you can’t fly unless you let your...

You can’t fly unless you let yourself fall

What’s gonna make you fall in love?

I know you got your wall wrapped all the way around your heart Don’t have to be scared at all, oh, my love But you can’t fly unless you let yourself, You can’t fly unless you let yourself fall Well, I can tell you’re afraid of what this might do Cause we got such an amazing friendship and that you don’t wanna lose Well, I don’t wanna lose it either I don’t think I can stay sitting around while you’re hurting babe, so take my hand Well, did you know you’re an angel who forgot how to fly?

Did you know that it breaks my heart every time to see you cry Cause I know that a piece of you’s gone Every time he done wrong I’m the shoulder you’re crying on And I hope by the time that I’m done with this song that I figure out What’s gonna make you fall in love?

I know you got your wall wrapped all the way around your heart

I will catch you if you fall I will catch you if you fall I will catch you if you fall

What’s gonna make you fall in love?

I know you got your wall wrapped all the way around your heart Don’t have to be scared at all, oh, my love But you can’t fly unless you let yourself, You can’t fly unless you let yourself fall, So fall in love (in love) I know you got your wall wrapped all the way around your heart Don’t have to be scared at all (don’t have to be scared, don’t have to be scared at all), oh, my love But you can’t fly unless you let yourself, You can’t fly unless you let yourself fall I will catch you if you fall I will catch you if you fall I will catch you if you fall If you spread your wings You can fly away with me But you can’t fly unless you let your... let yourself fall

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News

CARIBBEAN

FNM and PLP lock horns over introducing VAT in The Bahamas

T

he two major political parties are locking horns over the proposed Value Added Tax (VAT) system with the Opposition Leader painting a dismal picture of want would happen if the government proceeds with its plan.

According to the Bahamas Journal, Free National Movement (FNM) Leader, Dr. Hubert Minnis insists implementing the VAT will seriously impair the country’s already weak, uncompetitive, and struggling economy, while harming and diminishing the quality of life of every Bahamian.

In a press release yesterday, Dr. Minnis further lambasted the government for its “callous disregard” to “stuff VAT down the throats of the Bahamian people, whether the people agree or not.”

“The vast majority of Bahamians – the business community, foreign investors, rank and file FNM and PLP supporters, throughout our country – are confused and terrified by the PLP government’s sudden lurch towards the imposition of the new VAT taxation system,” Dr. Minnis said. “[It is] a regressive taxation system, which promises to subject the Bahamian people and economy to the immediate imposition of at least a 15 per cent levy across the board, and which has the almost certain potential to significantly and negatively increase the cost of living in every sphere upon the backs, particularly of the poorest Bahamians, and the long suffering and shrinking middle class.”

The FNM leader went further to urge the government to immediately “come clean” and explain what the circumstances are which have prompted this sudden “lurch” towards the imposition of VAT. He is also pushing the Christie administration to immediately disclose to the public the details of any eco-

FNM Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis

nomic studies and analyses either by domestic or international advisors or agencies, which have led the government to this proposed course of action.

“The government must also disclose to Bahamians whether they have explored all potential alternatives available in order to expand the tax revenue base, and disclose any such reports, which have detailed alternative tax solutions, other than a VAT system stating why the government decided to propose VAT instead of the many alternative systems which could have been proposed,” the FNM leader said.

“The Free National Movement also notes the danger of the perpetuation of the government’s reckless and un-disciplined tax, spend and waste approach to governance. We are disturbed that while threatening to force a new and disruptive across the board tax on struggling Bahamians, this tax, spend and waste government has not at the same time announced any new measures de-

ST. VINCENT PM WRITES DOMINICAN REPUBLIC LEADER AGAIN ON CONTROVERSIAL CONSTITUTIONAL COURT RULING

P

PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts

ORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad– St. Vin- strip Dominican citizenship from tens cent and the Grenadines Prime of thousands of people born in the DoMinister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has called minican Republic”.

CARICOM Secretary General Irwin for the suspension of the Dominican Republic from the Caribbean Forum La Rocque said the ruling “raises a se(CARIFORUM) as the fall out continues rious question about the status of the from the Constitutional Cou8rt ruling numerous… Dominican Republic nathat could render stateless, thousands tionals of Haitian extract” while St. Vincent and the Grenaof people of Haitian dines Prime Minister descent living in the Dr. Ralph Gonsalves Spanish-speaking in a letter to Presicountry. dent Danilo Medina In a November said the court’s deci11 letter to President sion was “unacceptDanilo Medina, the St. able in any civilized Vincent and the Grencommunity”. adines prime minister The international said he had also writhuman rights group, ten to Venezuela PresAmnesty Internaident Nicolas Maduro tional and the Orgarecommending that nization of Amerithe Dominican Recan States (OAS) have public be suspended St. Vincent Prime Minister also expressed confrom the Caracas-led Dr. Ralph Gonsalves cern over the ruling PetroCaribe initiative. and the US-based “As you are aware that the 1X Summit of Petrocaribe is The US-based Council on Hemispherschedule for Caracas on December ic Affairs (COHA) said the ruling had 16, 2013. If the situation for the citi- turned the Dominican Republic into a zens-by-birth of the Dominican Repub- “ticking time bomb.

In his letter, Gonsalves reminded lic of Haitian descent is not favourably altered, I intend to raise the matter President Medina that he had not yet forcefully at this Summit,” Gonsalves received a response to his October 11 letter in which he first raised the issue. wrote.

“As you are aware, since then St. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM, as well as the Washington-based Vincent and the Grenadines has led Inter-American Commission on Hu- the way, on behalf of CARICOM, at the man Rights (IACHR), have criticized Organization of American States (OAS) the ruling made on September 23, with in condemning the ruling of the Court, the IACHR saying that it “retroactive- and the reluctance of your government ly modifies legislation that was in ef- to effect an alteration of the Court’s fect from 1929 to 2010, and thus would jaundiced and unacceptable decision.

signed to limit the growth of public spending, eliminate the waste of public funds on non-productive field trips abroad, pet projects of politicians, bloated and obscure contracts for friends, lovers and political cronies, and the political employment of a host of aged, retired and unproductive consultants among other abuses of public finances by the PLP.” The FNM insists the government releases its draft legislation for the imposition of VAT immediately.

But according to Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman, Bradley Roberts, the government’s tax reform efforts are part of a larger plan to reinvigorate an economy that was “left staggering after five years of FNM mismanagement.”

“This government is bringing in new investment, creating jobs, conducting new training programmes, supporting small and medium businesses through a new agency, and building a new school to invest in and reinvent Bahamian agriculture and marine sciences,” Mr. Roberts said in a press statement on Wednesday.

“For many Bahamians, life is still hard, and we’re working hard to bring change sooner rather than later.

In this year’s budget alone, we made more than $160 million in spending cuts. Nonetheless, this government is left holding the bag for the previous government’s many mistakes including millions in cost overruns on just one airport in Abaco and numerous failures to represent The Bahamas effectively at the negotiating table.”

Mr. Roberts said nothing is more important than getting Bahamians back to work and making Bahamian communities safer.

“We’re going to address the fiscal crisis we inherited, but we’re not going to stop investing in Bahamians,” he said.

“My government and others have been very firm in their condemnation of the Court’s ruling and their profound disappointment at the equivocating stance of your government,” Gonsalves wrote, adding that civil society and prominent individuals in Latin America, the Caribbean and globally have condemned the ruling.

Gonsalves said he was urging Medina to “act swiftly in pursuing a path to correct the Court’s prejudiced denial of the human and citizenship rights of persons of Haitian descent born in your country”.

Gonsalves told Medina that “quiet diplomacy and muted behind the scenes dialogue are wholly insufficient” and that his government has taken a “robust stance” on this matter.

Gonsalves also reminded Medina that St, Vincent and the Grenadines would not support “in the current circumstances, any application by the Dominican Republic to join CARICOM. “So until your government addresses this issue properly, no progress can be made at all on your country’s bid to enter CARICOM,” Gonsalves wrote.

Last week, hundreds of people took to the streets in the capital of the Dominican Republic support of the Constitutional Court ruling.

The demonstrators carried banners rejecting the presence of Haitians in the country and even suggesting the erection of a wall to ensure the division of Hispaniola that is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The demonstrators said the “Patriotic Meeting” was aimed at lending support to the ruling of the Constitutional Court that children born in the country of undocumented foreign parents do not have Dominican nationality.

US AUTHORITIES SEIZE MILLIONS IN ILLEGAL DRUGS SHIPMENT

S

AN JUAN, Puerto Rico- The United States law enforcement authorities said they had seized 54 bales of cocaine in the Caribbean Sea with an estimated street value of more than US$38 million.

The Coast Guard said that it had collaborated with the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the operations.

“The commitment and resolve of federal and local law enforcement authorities working under the Caribbean Border Interagency Group is delivering strong and continuous successful outcomes interdicting major drug shipments at sea as far from shore as possible,” said Coast Guard Capt. Drew Pearson.

“We stand watch 24-7 to protect the safety and security of the citizens of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands from the threats delivered by the sea,” he added.

Pearson said that while on routine patrol, the crew of a CBP maritime patrol aircraft detected three men aboard a suspicious Panga-type vessel, operating with no navigational lights, about 73 nautical miles south of Naguabo.

“The crew of the CBP maritime patrol aircraft observed the men onboard the suspect vessel jettison their cargo overboard as they fled the area at a high rate of speed following a pursuit by Coast Guard and CBP authorities in the area,” the Coast Guard said, adding that law enforcement official retrieved the cargo from the water.

“This seizure should send a clear message to unscrupulous drug smugglers that HSI and its Caribbean Border Interagency Group partners will remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent the importation of narcotics to Puerto Rico,” said Angel Melendez, special agent in charge of HSI San Juan.

“We will continue with this investigation and will not rest until we bring to justice those responsible for this attempt to import this huge amount of cocaine to our jurisdiction,” he added.

Since September 2012, the US Coast Guard said law enforcement agencies have seized 27,650 kilograms of cocaine in partnership with regional law enforcement authorities in the Caribbean.

The Coast Guard said the wholesale value for these seizures is worth more than US$829 million.

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CARIBBEAN NEWS

IRS to probe US taxpayer records with Caribbean Offshore Bank accounts N

EW YORK- A United States district court has authorised the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to issue summons for US taxpayers records with Offshore Bank accounts in the Caribbean.

The US Justice Department said that US District Judge Richard M. Berman of the Southern District of New York has authorized the IRS to issue summonses requiring Mellon, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA (JPMorgan), HSBC Bank USA NA (HSBC), and Bank of America NA (Bank of America) to “produce information about US taxpayers who may be evading or have evaded US federal taxes by holding interests in undisclosed accounts”.

The Justice Department said these accounts are at The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited and its affiliates (collectively, Butterfield) in the Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Malta, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

“In these actions, the Court granted the IRS permission to serve what are known as ‘John Doe’ summons on Mellon, Citibank, JPMorgan, HSBC, and Bank of America,” the statement said, noting that these summons would be used to obtain informa-

tion about possible tax fraud by individuals whose identities are unknown.

The Justice Department said the ‘John Doe’ summons direct the five banks to produce records identifying US taxpayers with accounts.

“These cases once again demonstrate the department’s resolve to uncover and identify taxpayers who tried to hide money overseas as a way to avoid federal taxes,” said Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Keneally.

“These ‘John Doe’ summons will provide information about individuals using financial institutions from Switzerland to the Cayman Islands to Hong Kong to avoid their US tax obligations,” she said, adding that “US taxpayers still holding accounts who have not come clean should come forward and do the right thing before it’s too late”.

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said the latest action “shows that the use of foreign banks for tax evasion remains a high investigative priority of this office,” adding that US citizens “should understand that loud and clear.

“By issuing these ‘John Doe’ summons, we continue our joint efforts with the IRS to identify and

hold accountable those who try to evade their legal responsibility to pay taxes,” he said.

Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Danny Werfel said international issues remain a major focus for the IRS and that his agency was continuing efforts to fight tax evaders who use offshore accounts to skirt the law.

“These John Doe summonses for correspondent account records show our determination to pursue evaders using offshore accounts, even if the person hiding money overseas chooses a bank that has no offices on US soil,” Werfel said.

The Justice Department said the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure programmes and initiatives enable US taxpayers to resolve their tax liabilities and minimize their chances of criminal prosecution by voluntarily disclosing previously undisclosed foreign accounts and income.

It said federal tax law requires US taxpayers to pay taxes on all income earned worldwide.

“Willful failure to report a foreign account can result in a fine of up to 50 per cent of the amount in the account at the time of the violation,” the Department warned.

Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal reserves judgment in case involving former President R

OSEAU, Dominica– The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal has reserved judgment in a case involving the election of Eluid Williams as President of Dominica.

Williams, a former senior public servant, was sworn in as Dominica’s seventh head of state on September 7 last year after Dr Nicholas Liverpool demitted office a year earlier due to ill-health.

Williams, who received 21 votes during the voting in the Dominica parliament, was the nominee of the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP) government.

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and the Speaker of the House of Assembly Alix Body Knights filed an appeal challenging the decision of Justice Lionel Jones to dismiss an application to strike out a challenge by Opposition Leader Hector John of the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) to the nomination Williams.

Justice Jones also ruled that the case should proceed to trial.

John had filed a claim in the High Court alleging that the manner in which Williams had been nominated was in breach of the Constitution.

He claimed there was no formal letter of resignation from the former president.

But Senior Counsel Alick Lawrence, who represented Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in the matter, had filed an application calling on the court to strike out John’s challenge.

He argued that the challenge “discloses no reasonable cause of action, is frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the process of the Court; and or is barred by virtue of the provisions of Section 22 and in particular 22 (5) and Section 103 (1) of the Constitution and or the privileges and immunities of the Parliament”.

But attorney, Gildon Richards, who represented John when the matter came up for hearing before the Coirt

JAMAICA TOURISM MINISTER REFUTES CLAIM OF LACK OF EVIDENCE ON IMPACT OF APD

K

INGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Dr Wykeham McNeil, has dismissed suggestions that the Caribbean has not presented sufficient evidence that the Air Passenger Duty (APD) is hurting regional tourist arrivals.

McNeil was responding to British Undersecretary, Mark Simmonds,who told journalists here that he has not seen the negative impact of the APD on tourism arrivals.

But according to McNeil other Caribbean tourism ministers presented evidence in the form of two reports to the British Treasury which stated that the APD is hurting both the UK and Caribbean economies.

“Most of the islands, some of which have been most severely affected over the past

of Appeal, questioned the validity and the authenticity of the certificate submitted by the Speaker in which she claimed that she followed the law of the Constitution for the election of former President Williams.

Richards argued that certain provisions of the Constitution were violated and that the Speaker did not have the certificate in her possession when the Opposition filed the matter in court.

“You know I never pre-empt the decision of any court. I can only hope that I gave a good account of myself this morning and that I convinced the court that it must do the right thing and I hope the right thing is what I presented this morning,” Richards said.

But Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan who is leading the defence team of Prime Minister Skerrit and the House said that the process to elect Williams had been duly followed.

ly high for long-haul travel, has been criticised as an additional financial burden for travelers and a disincentive to make the trip to the Caribbean.

Tourism interests in the rethree to four years would have been Antigua, Barbados , Grena- gion have been lobbying for the da and I think anyone of them duty to be reduced.

The APD is an excise duty is between 15 and 20%, Jamaica is also in that bracket. So what for persons travelling on any you have had over a period of airplane that has more than 20 time is a decrease in arrivals seats for passengers or exceedfrom a high that we had some- ing an official take-off weight of time ago and it coincides also more than ten tonnes from an airport anywhere in the United with the period of the APD.” He said the region will con- Kingdom.

It has been a major source tinue in the fight to get what is deemed a “fairer treatment” in of contention, particularly within the Caribbean where it is bethe administration of the tax.

Simmonds, during his first lieved that the tax has been unvisit to Jamaica last week said if fairly applied and tax bands there is a direct correlation be- should be revised.

Last month, during a partween the APD and a reduction of tourist travelers to the region liamentary debate Labour MPs – “I will feed straight into Her Diane Abbott and David LamMajesty’s Treasury and they will my expressed concerns that the then feed it into their policy de- travel tax was preventing citivelopment and review process.” zens of Caribbean heritage from The APD, which is particular- returning home to visit family.

“Our case has always been that once the certificate is issued, the law of the Commonwealth is what that put an end to the matter and there’s a good public policy position for it, one to protect the integrity of the office and ensure responsible behavior on the part of all parties to expedite the matter as quickly as you can”.

Astaphan said he was confident that the judgment would be in his clients favour and that he is “very happy” that members of the media were there to witness and listen to the exchange of questions between the judge and the Opposition Leader’s attorney.

“It is really going to depend on what the judges actually say but I think the lesson out of that is that if you are going to be confronted by a certificate of the Speaker then you have an obligation to act promptly and to ensure that things are being done,” Astaphan added.

AMERICAN PASTOR FINED FOR NOT DECLARING MONEY TO BELIZEAN AUTHORITIES

B

ELMOPAN, Belize– An American pastor and his wife, who came to Belize with the intention of starting a new church, has been fined a total of six thousand US dollars for failing to declare an estimated US$28, 000 to Customs when they arrived.

Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser fined Evelyn Patnaude-West, 67, a retired nurse, BDZ$5, 000 (One Belize dollar = US$0.50 cents) and her husband Pastor Gary West 68, one thousand dollars to be paid immediately. They both pleaded guilty to the charge.

The court was told that the couple from Minne-

sota failed to declare the money when they arrived at the the Philip Goldson International Airport last Friday.

They told the Customs they had nothing to declare but a search of their luggage turned up the cash.

Attorney Ellis Arnold in a mitigation plea told the court that his clients were first time offenders and had pleaded guilty to the offence and not wasted the court’s time.

The authorities say they are reminding travelers authorities that they ought to declare monies amounting to over five thousand U.S. dollars or BDZ$10,000.

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CARIBBEAN NEWS

Former Prime Minister Andrew Holness wins vote to remain Jamaican opposition leader K

INGSTON - Jamaica’s opposition leader fended off a challenge from his party’s chief economic spokesman to retain his job on Sunday in an internal party election.

Andrew Holness, 41, leader of the center-right Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and a former prime minister, defeated Audley Shaw, one of his deputy leaders, party officials announced.

The vote came as the JLP eyes the next general election scheduled for December 2016. The campaign in this north Caribbean island of 2.8 million inhabitants had left the 70-year-old party bitterly divided, with some observers questioning how easy it will be to heal the internal wounds after the vote.

“This is a great day for the Jamaica Labour Party,” Holness told thousands of cheering supporters after his victory was announced by JLP Chairman Robert Montague at Kingston’s National Arena.

Andrew Holness

Audley Shaw

“I will do everything within my power to make sure that the party is reunited. We have proven that this party has the political talent that is better than any other political party in Jamaica,” Holness said.

Holness captured 2,704 votes compared to 2,012 for Shaw. About 5,100 delegates were eligible to vote.

Shaw, 61, a former minister of finance, accepted defeat and pledged to

work with Holness to rebuild the party that lost the December 2011 general election to the People’s National Party of current Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller.

“I am ready and willing to join with you,” Shaw told Holness. “This race has made the party stronger, we are energized and we can now move to work to form the next government of Jamaica,” Shaw said.

Party members faced a choice between two men with different styles.

Holness has faced criticism he has not been aggressive enough in taking on Simpson-Miller, while Shaw was viewed as more of an outspoken critic.

Holness served briefly as prime minister for two months from October to December 2011 when he succeeded retired Prime Minister Bruce Golding as leader of the JLP. Apparently riding a wave of popularity, Holness called a general election a full year before it was due, but was upset by People’s National Party in a December 2011 vote focused on the island’s stagnant and debt-ridden economy.

Jamaica’s debt load is estimated at more than 140 percent of its gross domestic product, according to the International Monetary Fund, and the country has grappled with a drop in its international reserves.

St Lucia pumps funds into LIAT, calls for shake-up of regional airline C

ASTRIES, St. Lucia– St. Lucia has called for a shakeup of the financially strapped regional airline, LIAT, as it agreed to guarantee a three million EC dollar (One EC dollar = US$0.37 cents) loan for the airline now undergoing a modernization of its aging fleet.

“It’s not just a matter of changing the chief executive officer but dealing decisively with a problem in management that has been inherited over the years,” said Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony.

The airline, which last week had been forced to cancel many of its flights because of a strike by pilots, has been without a chief executive officer since Trinidadian Ian Brunton resigned in September.

Anthony, who is also the finance minister, said that there was also a need for a complete overhaul of the airlines business model in order to ensure its long term sustainability and recommended a revision of operations and logistics.

Anthony said that LIAT, which flies to more than 21 destinations daily, must stop operating in a traditional manner believing that the only two bases it can have in the region are Antigua and Barbados.

“It has to rethink for example where is it in its best interest to have its maintenance facility, these are questions that loom very large and it can’t any longer be a question of historic entitlements where Governments are putting money,” Anthony said of the airline, whose shareholder governments are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, and St, Vincent and the Grenadines.

Castries has now become the fifth regional court to have a stake in the airline that in September signed a US$65 million loan with the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to finance the purchase of aircraft in the context of a fleet modernisation project.

LIAT said that the loan agreements “provide for the loans to be on lent-to and repaid by LIAT over a 13 year period following a grace period of two years”.

The fleet modernisation project involves the replacement of LIAT’s aging fleet through a combination of lease and purchase of aircraft; the transition costs associated with the changeover; the upgrade of maintenance facilities.

Anthony said that while his administration was lending support to the regional airline, it was doing so cautiously.

“We are prepared to agree to a guarantee, in

other words they are not the ones taking the loan and we are merely guaranteeing it.

“The reality is that it’s not money up front which we are taking from the treasury and passing it on to LIAT. But regardless we have to very careful because all the loans you take end up being ascribed to your GDP, because it becomes what is called a contingent liability,” he said.

Anthony said that the guarantee comes with stipulations including the selection of routes which he contends should be market driven.

“We have to review carefully the routes selected by the airline, to make sure that the people of St .Lucia are not disadvantaged, as we think that they have been some very bizarre routes.

“There have been instances where for example you fly past St. Lucia to go to Barbados to pick up an aircraft from Barbados and then return to St. Lucia.

“So that’s an issue for us and we need to determine whether LIAT is acting is acting in a fair manner and whether there is equity in its decision to support certain routes,” he said, welcoming the decision also to modernize the aging fleet.

Anthony said that the St. Lucia government remains firmly behind LIAT which he said was essential for air travel across the region.

CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES TO BENEFIT FROM NEW HEALTH INITIATIVE WITH CANADA

B

RIDGETOWN, Barbados– Caribbean countries, limited in the care they offer for specialized nature of childhood cancer, have welcomed an initiative involving the University of the West Indies (UWI), The Hospital for Sick Children in Canada, and the Centre for Global Child Health.

Health Minister John Boyce, speaking at the launch of the SickKids-Caribbean Initiative, said that due to the specialised nature of childhood cancer, Caribbean countries were limited in the care that they offered.

“Our shortcomings include limited paediatric pathological expertise to assist in diagnosis, staging and treatment modules; availability of specific drugs which may be imported to treat particular can-

cers which require interventions; and the lack of a targeted linear accelerator which will reduce the side effects of radiation therapy.

The establishment of the Shaw Family Telemedicine Room, therefore, addresses some of our limitations.”

The Telemdicine Room at the UWI Clinical Skills Building, will house the SickKids-Caribbean Initiative, launched in Toronto, Canada, earlier this year, and works with stakeholders across the English-speaking Caribbean to improve the outcomes and quality of life for children with cancer and blood disorders, as well as their families.

Boyce said the initiative provide the delivery of clinical care to persons who would otherwise require

transfer overseas for consultation.

“The health profile of children in the English-speaking Caribbean reflects a picture of overall good health. This is supported by the child health programmes which support the healthy growth and development of children under five years of age and aim to protect them from vaccine-preventable diseases through immunization.

“Unfortunately, there are some medical conditions to which children and adolescents may be susceptible which cannot be prevented, treated or cured by vaccines or other low cost interventions.

“These may result from genetic predisposition and autoimmune response, environmental factors and in many cases, unknown causes. Amongst such diseases are dia-

betes, respiratory illnesses… mental and physical disabilities, lupus, sickle cell disease and cancer,” he said.

Boyce said that there was an average of eight to 10 childhood cancer cases annually in Barbados.

“The average survival rate is 75 per cent and this represents the cases that are cured,” Boyce said, noting that each case of childhood cancer was “a very personal tragedy that can strike any family with children at anytime and anywhere.

“This facility offers connectivity with overseas medical specialists that will assist doctors resident here in Barbados with continuing education and offer support to parents and doctors managing sick children.

He said family and medical staff would have access to a team of medical experts in the diagnosis and treatment options that are available”.

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News W

RLD

An apologetic Obama unveils fix on health law

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resident Barack Obama on Thursday tried to ease the biggest crisis of his presidency, acknowledging missteps with his signature healthcare law and announcing a plan to help those seeing their current health plans canceled because of it.

Obama, trying to limit the political damage to his presidency and fellow Democrats, said health insurers could extend by at least one year policies due to be canceled because they do not comply with new minimum requirements under the law.

With insurers complaining the fix could create new problems and lead to higher premiums, it was not clear whether Obama’s plan would actually work, or soothe his party’s concerns that the botched rollout has undercut Democrats facing tough re-election fights in 2014.

A chastened Obama said he had “fumbled” the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, his biggest domestic policy achievement, and said he would have to work to regain his credibility and the public’s trust.

“I hear you loud and clear,” he told Americans who are angry he did not deliver on his repeated promises over the past three years that those who liked their plans could keep them.

“I think it’s legitimate for them to expect me to have to win back some credibility on this healthcare law in particular and on a whole range of these issues in general,” Obama said, speaking from the podium in the White House press room.

The move was in response to a rising anger from Republicans and fellow Democrats over the prospect of several million Americans having their policies canceled.

The furor has reignited a broad debate about the benefits of the health system overhaul that was enacted in 2010 in the face of huge opposition from Republicans who view it as government overreach.

It is the most sweeping social legislation since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid the 1960s.

The October 1 rollout of the program known as Obamacare has been beset by technical glitches with the federal online insurance website that allows consumers to shop for policies. In recent days the website’s problems have been overshadowed by the snowballing controversy over the policy cancellations.

US President Barack Obama.

The Obama administration on Thursday left open the possibility of extending the one-year fix beyond 2014 but said companies must spell out how the policies are substandard and what alternatives are available.

Crucially, it will be up to state insurance commissioners to allow the Obamacare fix to go ahead, and it will be up to insurers whether to renew plans that have already been canceled.

Two insurance groups questioned Obama’s proposed solution.

“Changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the law could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums for consumers,” said Karen Ignani, president and chief executive officer of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the lobbying arm of the insurance industry.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners said in a statement that it was unclear how Obama’s proposal on canceled policies could be put into effect.

‘DEEPLY RESPONSIBLE’ Obama’s move was designed to short-circuit a push for more far-reaching changes in Congress and end a growing revolt by Democrats worried the cancellations, as well as the broken website, would threaten their re-election bids.

Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who has introduced legislation to allow Americans to keep their existing health insurance plans,

described Obama’s announcement as a good first step but “we’ll probably need legislation to make it stick.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also stopped short of a full endorsement of Obama’s solution and said, “if we need to do more, we will.”

Obama said he had let down Democratic supporters who put their political careers on the line to back his policy.

“There is no doubt that our failure to roll out the ACA smoothly has put a burden on Democrats, whether they’re running or not, because they stood up and supported this,” Obama said. “I feel deeply responsible for making it harder for them, rather than easier for them.”

Obama told reporters the troubled website would work for most people by the end of the month, and that users will see a “marked and noticeable” improvement because of fixes to the software and hardware that runs it.

The Affordable Care Act aims to provide health benefits to millions of uninsured Americans. It mandates that most Americans be enrolled for health coverage by March 31 or pay a fine.

On Thursday, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, said he doubted Obama could fix the law with administrative changes. “The only way to fully protect the American people is to scrap this law once and for all.”

The House will vote on Friday on a bill by Republican Fred Upton of Michigan to allow insurers to offer canceled plans, but Democrats objected it would undermine the market and drive premiums up by allowing insurers to offer plans to new customers. Democrats said they will offer their own alternative.

Enrollment figures released by the administration on Wednesday indicated that only 106,000 people have enrolled for health plans through the exchanges, a tiny fraction of the hoped-for millions.

The low figure, while expected because of technical glitches on the government website, showed how far the administration has to go to build an individual market of millions of consumers in 2014 to keep the healthcare program financially viable.

China unveils boldest reforms in decades C

hina unwrapped its boldest set of economic and social reforms in nearly three decades on Friday, relaxing its one-child policy and further freeing up markets in order to put the world’s second-largest economy on a more stable footing.

The sweeping changes helped dispel doubts about the leadership’s zest for the reforms needed to give the economy fresh momentum as three decades of breakneck expansion shows signs of faltering.

A reform document released by the Communist Party following a four-day conclave of its top brass promised land and residence registration reforms needed to boost China’s urban population and allow its transition to a western-style service and consumption-driven economy.

Pricing of fuels, electricity and other key resources - now a source of major distortions - would be mainly decided by markets, while Beijing also pledged to speed up the opening up of its capital account and further financial liberalization.

“The reforms are unprecedented,” said Xu Hongcai, senior economist at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, a well-connected Beijing think tank. “Reforms in 1990s were limited to some areas, now reforms are all-round.”

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, appointed in March, announced several breakthroughs in social policy, pledging to unify rural and urban social security systems and to abolish controversial labor camps, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the document.

The plans, more comprehensive and specific than initially thought, also dispelled concerns that Xi would need more time to take full charge of China’s vast party and government bureaucracy.

China-watchers took the establishment of a working group to lead economic reform and a new State Security Council as further signs of how effectively Xi managed to consolidate power just eight months after he officially took over.

“This is almost an unprecedented move toward unlimited power,” said Zhang Lifan, a Beijing-based historian and political commentator.

The initial brief reform outline published on Tuesday triggered a stock market sell-off, with investors taking its scant details as a sign of a lack of commitment on Xi’s part or his inability to convert vested interests, such as powerful state-owned companies.

But a raft of specific policy plans ranging from interest rate and currency regime liberalization to residence registration and land reforms and the opening up of some of the protected sectors to private and foreign firms seemed to put such concerns to rest.

The commitment to abolish labor camps was also remarkable, given that several political sources had told Reuters this was an area where Xi was facing much resistance.

Few commentators had also expected any significant attempts to reform powerful state monopolies, even though many economists argue that other reforms will have only

limited success if the big state-owned firms’ stranglehold on key markets is not tackled.

The initial outline of the plans on Tuesday had affirmed those firms’ strategic role in the economy. But the longer report on Friday raised state firm dividend payments, allowed private firms to enter some of the protected sectors and encouraged them to take part in reforming the stateowned firms.

What appeared to be an early leak of the document on Chinese social media set off a rally in Chinese stock markets hours before its official release, with investors cheering its relatively detailed language on reforms.

Still, economists said that having a good plan was only part of the success and making the ambitious agenda a reality would be the new leaders’ true challenge.

“Based on the headlines ... they are moving in a positive direction,” said Jan von Gerich, fixed income chief analyst with Nordea Bank in Helsinki. “But one should not get too carried away as this will be a long process.”

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

WORLD NEWS

Philippine typhoon death toll jumps T

he death toll from one of the world’s most powerful typhoons surged to about 4,000 on Friday, but the aid effort was still so patchy bodies lay uncollected as rescuers tried to evacuate stricken communities across the central Philippines.

After long delays, hundreds of international aid workers set up makeshift hospitals and trucked in supplies, while helicopters from a U.S. aircraft carrier ferried medicine and water to remote areas leveled by Typhoon Haiyan a week ago.

“We are very, very worried about millions of children,” U.N. Children’s Fund spokesman Marixie Mercado told reporters in Geneva.

A U.N. official said in a guarded compliment many countries had come forward to help.

“The response from the international community has not been overwhelming compared to the magnitude of the disaster, but it has been very generous so far,” Jens Laerke of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told the Geneva news briefing.

Captain Victoriano Sambale, a military doctor who since Saturday has treated patients in a room strewn with dirt and debris in Tacloban, which bore the brunt of the storm, said there had been a change in the pace in the response.

“I can see the international support coming here,” he said.

“Day one we treated 600-plus patients. Day two we had 700-plus patients. Day three we lost our count.”

President Benigno Aquino, caught off guard by the scale of the disaster, has been criticized for the slow pace of aid distribution and unclear estimates of casualties, especially in Tacloban, capital of hardest-hit Leyte province.

A notice board in Tacloban City Hall estimated the deaths at 4,000 on Friday, up from 2,000 a day before, in that town alone. Hours later, Tacloban mayor Alfred Romualdez apologized and said the toll was for the whole central Philippines.

The toll, marked up on a whiteboard, is compiled by officials who started burying bodies in a mass grave on Thursday.

a senior police official told Reuters he believed Soria was re-assigned because of his unauthorized casualty estimate.

U.S. HELICOPTERS AID RELIEF EFFORT

Hundreds of US Marines have been deployed to the Philippines.

Romualdez said some people may have been swept out to sea and their bodies lost after a tsunami-like wall of seawater slammed into coastal areas.

One neighborhood with a population of between 10,000 and 12,000 was now deserted, he said.

The City Hall toll was the first public acknowledgement that the number of fatalities would likely far exceed an estimate given this week by Aquino, who said lives lost would be closer to 2,000 or 2,500.

Official confirmed deaths nationwide rose by more than 1,200 overnight to 3,621 on Friday. Adding to the confusion, the United Nations, citing government figures, put the latest overall death toll at 4,460, but a spokeswoman said it was now reviewing the figure.

“I hope it will not rise anymore. I hope that is the final number,” Eduardo del Rosario, director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said of the latest official toll. “If it rises, it will probably be very slight.”

On Tuesday, Aquino said estimates of 10,000 dead by local officials were overstated and caused by “emotional trauma”. Elmer Soria, a regional police chief who gave that estimate to media, was removed from his post on Thursday.

National police spokesman Reuben Sindac said Soria had experienced an “acute stress reaction” and had been transferred to headquarters in Manila. But

But massive logistical problems remain. Injured survivors waited in long lines under searing sun for treatment. Local authorities reported shortages of body bags, gasoline and staff to collect the dead.

“Bodies are still lying on the roads. But now at least they’re in sections with department of health body bags,” Ian Norton, chief of a team of Australian aid workers, told Reuters.

Stunned survivors in Tacloban said the toll could be many thousands. “There are a lot of dead people on the street in our neighborhood, by the trash,” said Aiza Umpacan, a 27-year-old resident of San Jose, one of the worst-hit neighborhoods.

“There are still a lot of streets that were not visited by the disaster relief operations. They are just going through the highways, not the inner streets,” he said. “The smell is getting worse and we actually have neighbors who have been brought to hospital because they are getting sick.”

The preliminary number of missing as of Friday, according to the Red Cross, rose to 25,000 from 22,000 a day earlier. That could include people who have since been located, it said.

The nuclear-powered USS George Washington aircraft carrier and accompanying ships arrived off eastern Samar province on Thursday evening, carrying 5,000 crew and more than 80 aircraft.

U.S. sailors have brought food and water ashore in Tacloban and the eastern Samar province town of Guiuan whose airport was a U.S. naval air base in World War Two. The carrier is moored near where U.S. General Douglas MacArthur’s force landed on October 20, 1944, in one of the biggest Allied victories.

Acting U.S. Ambassador Brian Goldbeck, the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Manila, said the United States had moved 174,000 kg (383,000 lb) of emergency supplies into affected areas and evacuated nearly 3,000 people.

TORONTO COUNCIL STRIPS MAYOR FORD OF KEY POWERS

T

he Toronto City Council voted 39-3 on Friday to strip controversial Mayor Rob Ford of key executive powers.

Just before the council voted, Ford addressed the chamber and threatened to take legal action, saying he was concerned about setting a precedent that could affect future mayors.

“If someone else steps out of line as I have, it will affect mayors for years to come,” he said. “I can’t support it. I completely understand where they come from.”

He also said he regretted the cost to taxpayers of a legal battle over the council’s action, but that he felt he had no choice.

Under the vote, Ford technically remains mayor, but no longer maintains powers, delegated to him by the council, to appoint key committee committee chairs or the deputy mayor’s seat.

The council, however, does not have to legal authority to remove the mayor from office.

During the morning hearing, Ford frequently stood up from his seat on the council floor and walked around speaking to members, including his brother, council member Doug Ford.

Council member John Filion said before the vote that the steps were being taken “reluctantly” and “sadly.” He said the council had “reached the point where this is both warranted and necessary” to end a “chaotic situation.”

“If there is a silver lining in this sad situation, this issue has

Mayor Rob Ford united members of this council like they haven’t been united for a period of this term of office,” FIlion said.

The council -- which has already called on him to resign -stepped up the pressure after the 44-year-old mayor shocked Canadians on live TV with graphic language that surpassed even his most raunchy offerings.

It was only the latest in a series of can-you-top-this incidents involving the combative mayor of Canada’s largest city.

It stems from a report several months ago of a video that showed Ford smoking crack cocaine. Ford initially denied the report, but eventually acknowledged it after Toronto police said they had a copy of the video. Ford said the incident occurred while he was in a drunken stupor.

The City Council’s moved to take stronger action Friday after Ford gave an impromptu morning news conference on Thursday in which Ford denied allegations by some of his former staff members that he had partied with prostitutes, snorted cocaine and used OxyContin.

The allegations were contained in a police report released as a court document on Wednesday.

Ford, in his heated morning statement, railed against his former staffers and their allegations, and threatened to sue them. He was particularly irate about an allegation that he had performed oral sex on one of his female staffers.

In graphic remarks, carried live on TV as reporters surrounded him, Ford said: “(The police document) says I wanted to eat her (expletive). I’ve never said that in my life to her. I would never do that. I’m happily married. I’ve got more than enough to eat at home.”

On Thursday afternoon, in a second hastily called news conference, Ford apologized for the obscene remarks he made to reporters earlier in the day and acknowledged for the first time that he is getting professional help for his drinking problem.

In a brief statement, with his wife, Renata, by his side, the embattled mayor — who has already acknowledged smoking crack cocaine and buying illegal drugs — said that he has been under “tremendous, tremendous stress” for the past six months. He also said he was getting health-care “support.”

Afterward, the premier of Ontario indicated for the first time that the provincial government might intervene, calling the Ford spectacle “truly disturbing.”

US DOCTORS URGE WIDER USE OF CHOLESTEROL DRUGS

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or decades, if you asked your doctor what your odds were of suffering a heart attack, the answer would turn on a number: your cholesterol level.

Now the nation’s first new heart disease prevention guidelines in a decade take a very different approach, focusing more broadly on risk and moving away from specific targets for cholesterol.

The guidance offers doctors a new formula for estimating risk that includes age, gender, race and factors such as whether someone smokes.

And for the first time, the guidelines take aim at preventing strokes, not just heart attacks. Partly because of that, they set a lower threshold for using medicines to reduce risk. They recommend using statin drugs such as Lipitor and Zocor, and identify four groups of people they help the most.

The end result: Twice as many Americans — one-third of all adults — would be told to consider taking statins, which lower cholesterol but also reduce heart risks in other ways.

“The emphasis is to try to treat more appropriately,” said Dr. Neil Stone, the Northwestern University doctor who headed the cholesterol guideline panel. “We’re going to give statins to those who are the most likely to benefit.”

Doctors say the new approach will limit how many people are put on statins simply because of a cholesterol number. Yet under the new advice, one-third of U.S. adults — 44 percent of men and 22 percent of women — would meet the threshold to consider taking a statin. Under the current guidelines, statins are recommended for only about 15 percent of adults.

The guidelines were issued Tuesday by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. Some doctors not involved in writing the guidance worry that it will be tough to understand.

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WORLD NEWS

NSA chief says Snowden leaked up to 200000 secret documents F

ormer U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked as many as 200,000 classified U.S. documents to the media, according to little-noticed public remarks by the eavesdropping agency’s chief late last month.

In a question-and-answer session following a speech to a foreign affairs group in Baltimore on October 31, NSA Director General Keith Alexander was asked by a member of the audience what steps U.S. authorities were taking to stop Snowden from leaking additional information to journalists.

“I wish there was a way to prevent it. Snowden has shared somewhere between 50 (thousand) and 200,000 documents with reporters. These will continue to come out,” Alexander said.

Alexander added that the documents were “being put out in a way that does the maximum damage to NSA and our nation,” according to a transcript of his talk made available by NSA. U.S. officials briefed on investigations into Snowden’s activities have said privately for months that internal government assessments indicate that the number of classified documents to which Snowden got access as a systems operator at NSA installations ran into the hundreds of thousands.

Officials said that while investigators now believe they know the range of documents that Snowden accessed, they remain unsure which documents he downloaded for leaking to the media.

By comparison, the number of Pentagon and State Department documents leaked to WikiLeaks

Edward Snowden by a disgruntled U.S. Army private was much larger. The anti-secrecy group obtained around 400,000 Pentagon reports on the Iraq war, as well as 250,000 State Department cables and tens of thousands of documents on U.S. operations in Afghanistan.

None of the WikiLeaks material was classified higher than “Secret” but many NSA documents leaked by Snowden were marked “Top Secret” or with an even more restrictive “Special Intelligence” stamp. The material includes highly technical details on U.S. and allied eavesdropping activities.

Snowden’s revelations, which first surfaced in June, are still causing a headache for the government of President Barack Obama, particularly in its dealing with allies.

For example, Germany was outraged by reports that the NSA monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone.

Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said Snowden’s leaks were “extremely damaging.”

“There is no doubt that those disclosures have made our job harder. We’ve seen that terrorists or adversaries are seeking to learn about the ways that we collect intelligence and seeking to adapt and change the ways that they communicate,” he told a congressional hearing on Thursday.

In the past few days, U.S. officials say, a panel of former officials and experts set up by Obama to review NSA operations in the wake of Snowden’s disclosures has privately reported interim conclusions to the White House. The group’s final report is due on December 15.

The report, along with the White House’s own review, is likely to lead to policy changes to be announced by year’s end. These are expected to include some constraints on the NSA’s wide-ranging eavesdropping.

Also included in documents leaked by Snowden are at least 58,000 classified documents generated by Government Communications Headquarters, the NSA’s British counterpart and eavesdropping partner, according to British authorities.

Snowden is in Russia, where he was granted asylum in August for at least a year.

Iran putting brakes on nuclear expansion under Rouhani S ince Hassan Rouhani became president, Iran has stopped expanding its uranium enrichment capacity, a U.N. inspection report showed on Thursday, in a potential boost for diplomacy to end Tehran’s nuclear dispute with the West.

The quarterly report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said that since August no further major components had been added to a potential plutonium-producing reactor that worries the United States and its allies.

The marked slowdown in the growth of activities of possible use in developing nuclear bombs may be intended to back up Rouhani’s warmer tone towards the West after years of worsening confrontation, and strengthen Tehran’s hand in talks with world powers due to resume on November 20.

The six powers - the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China - are pressing Iran to curb its nuclear program to ease fears that it may be seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

Iran halted a previously rapid increase in its capacity to refine uranium - which can fuel nuclear power plants but also bombs if processed much more - “when their team changed” in August, a senior diplomat familiar with the IAEA report said, referring to Rouhani and his administration.

But Iran is still pressing ahead with its most sensitive nuclear activity, the enrichment of uranium to a fissile con-

centration of 20 percent, a relatively short technical step away from weapons-grade material, the report showed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - who strongly opposes any deal with Iran that does not dismantle its entire enrichment program - said he was “not impressed” as the Islamic state did not need to expand its program.

“They’ve got enough facilities, enough centrifuges to develop and to complete the fissile material which is at the core of an atomic bomb,” Netanyahu said.

Israel, believed to be the Middle East’s sole nuclear-armed power, has long warned it could use force to prevent Iran from gaining such weapons.

The Arak reactor, which Iran previously said it would start up in the first quarter of 2014 but later postponed, is of great concern for Western powers as it could yield weapons-grade plutonium once it is operating.

France said during talks between Iran and world powers in Geneva last week that Tehran must suspend building Arak.

However, the IAEA report showed that Iran has “more or less frozen” construction of the heavy water reactor, the diplomat said, making clear he did not believe it would be up and running any time soon: “Major components are missing from the plant.”

The quarterly IAEA document was the first that included developments only since Rouhani took office on August 3, prompting a diplomatic open-

CHINA INCREASES TYPHOON AID TO PHILIPPINES

C

hina is increasing the amount of its relief aid to the typhoon-hit Philippines, days after it offered an initial donation much smaller than that of other global powers.

Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday that Beijing would send $1.6 million in additional aid to the Philippines.

“Several days ago we also decided to send 10 million RMB ($1.64 million) worth of humanitarian aid, including tents and blankets, to the Philippine people in the disaster zone. These include thousands of tents and hundreds of thousands of blankets,” she said.

Earlier this week, the Beijing government, along with the Chinese Red Cross,

ing during which Iran and the world powers have made progress towards a possible nuclear accord.

STILL BELOW ISRAELI “RED LINE” It was issued the same week as Iran agreed to grant IAEA inspectors access to two nuclear-related facilities as part of a cooperation pact to resolve outstanding issues between the two, including suspicions of nuclear bomb research by Tehran.

“Iran has now taken two unilateral steps to show it wants a deal - it has stopped expanding its nuclear program and begun to provide more transparency,” said Middle East expert Cliff Kupchan of risk consultancy Eurasia group. This was “clever diplomacy - it puts the onus on the West to respond.”

The report also showed that Iran’s stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium had risen by about 5 percent to 196 kg (431 pounds) since August, largely due to a temporary halt in converting the material into reactor fuel.

But it still remained below the roughly 250 kg (550 pounds) needed for a bomb if processed further - an

amount that Israel has indicated is a “red line” that may trigger military action.

Iran says it needs higher-grade enriched uranium to fuel a medical research reactor in the capital, Tehran.

It says it is refining uranium for peaceful energy. But its refusal so far to scale back its nuclear program and open it up to unfettered IAEA inspections has drawn tough sanctions that have severely damaged its oil-dependent economy.

The IAEA said Iran had installed only four first-generation IR-1 centrifuges - machines used to refine uranium - at its Natanz plant since August, making a total of 15,240. In the previous three-month period, May-August, it put in place an additional 1,800. Not all of the centrifuges are operating.

The report also said Iran had not installed any more advanced centrifuges, which can refine uranium much faster than the IR-1 model and have also fanned concern in the West.

Rouhani succeeded hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in August, promising to try to settle the nuclear row and ease sanctions.

Negotiations between Iran and the six major powers are scheduled to resume in Geneva next week. They want Iran to halt its most sensitive nuclear work and take other measures to restrict its program in exchange for limited sanctions relief as part of a confidence-building deal that would buy time for talks on a more far-reaching settlement.

pledged $200,000 in aid to the Philippines, which is struggling to deal with the aftermath of one of its worst natural disasters in decades.

That figure was significantly less than the aid offered by other nations. By comparison, Japan has offered $10 million in aid. Australia has donated $9.6 million. The United States, meanwhile, has given $20 million and its military is helping lead a massive relief effort.

Earlier this week, China’s foreign ministry refused to say whether its aid packages were being influenced by Beijing’s worsening territorial dispute with the Philippines.

The Philippines has accused China of using its rising military power to aggressively defend disputed areas in the energy-rich South China Sea. Last year, Chinese and Philippine ships were involved in a weekslong standoff at the disputed Scarborough Shoal, an uninhabited archipelago.

Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani

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WORLD NEWS

Two of Obama’s Secret Service supervisors under investigation in misconduct probe T

wo Secret Service supervisors on President Barack Obama’s protective detail are under investigation for alleged misconduct, a federal law enforcement source with knowledge of the internal Secret Service investigation told CNN’s John King.

The details were first reported in the Washington Post Wednesday night.

The investigation began after an incident at the posh Hay-Adams Hotel near the White House in May. As first reported by the Post, one Secret Service agent allegedly removed ammunition from his service weapon and left a bullet in the room of a female guest, whom he had met in the hotel bar.

The agent tried to regain entry to the room when he realized the bullet was left behind, the Post said.

Hotel staff notified the White House after he identified himself as a Secret Service agent and demanded to be let in to the room.

No police report was filed and no complaint was filed with the Secret Service by any of the parties involved, a government source told CNN’s Joe Johns Thursday.

“The Secret Service takes allegations of improper behavior seriously and works diligently to investigate and resolve issues. Any misconduct is regrettable, but when it is identified, appropriate action is

always taken based on established rules and regulations,” Edwin M. Donovan, deputy assistant director of the Secret Service, said in a statement.

Investigation revisits Secret Service prostitution scandal The internal investigation was launched as a result of inquiries by the Post, the government source said.

That probe led to a routine search of the agent’s agency-issued BlackBerry, the Post reported.

The federal law enforcement source confirmed that the agent, a supervisor, and a second supervisor were discovered to have sent sexually suggestive e-mails to a female Secret Service employee. Nothing explicitly suggestive has been found, the government source said.

The first supervisor was removed from his position, the source said, but the second supervisor remains on the presidential security detail. The Post reported that the second supervisor was removed from the security detail.

While the paper named the two supervisors involved, CNN is not yet identifying them.

The investigation follows the Secret Service scandal in April 2012 involving prostitution and drinking before a presidential trip to Cartagena, Colombia. A review prompted new rules of conduct for Secret Service employees in the wake of the incident.

Sen. Ron Johnson said at a Senate hearing Thursday that despite assurances from Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service that the 2012 Cartagena prostitution scandal involving presidential detail agents was an anomaly, congress has found similar instances in 17 countries.

“Yesterday we learned that two senior level United States Secret Service agents assigned to the President’s detail were recently disciplined for sexual misconduct. According to whistle-blowers, one of these men helped lead the USSS internal investigation of the sexual misconduct in Cartagena in April of last year. This is like the fox guarding the hen house,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “This type of behavior jeopardizes the security of the President of the United States and makes U.S. government personnel susceptible to coercion and blackmail.”

While not addressing the specifics of the most recent case, William Hillsburg, acting director of the Public Affairs Department of the Homeland Security office of the inspector general, said that in the next couple of weeks his office is expected to release an inspection report with an in-depth look at the culture of the U.S. Secret Service.

The report will look at whether there’s something in the Secret Service culture that led to the behavior in Cartagena. It will also include recommendations on how agents are trained.

World’s oceans becoming more acid T

he world’s oceans are becoming acidic at an “unprecedented rate” and may be souring more rapidly than at any time in the past 300 million years.

In their strongest statement yet on this issue, scientists say acidification could increase by 170% by 2100.

They say that some 30% of ocean species are unlikely to survive in these conditions.

The researchers conclude that human emissions of CO2 are clearly to blame.

The study will be presented at global climate talks in Poland next week.

In 2012, over 500 of the world’s leading experts on ocean acidification gathered in California. Led by the International Biosphere-Geosphere Programme, a review of the state of the science has now been published.

This Summary for Policymakers states with “very high confidence” that increasing acidification is caused by human activities which are adding 24 million tonnes of CO2 to oceans every day.

The addition of so much carbon has altered the chemistry of the waters.

Since the start of the industrial revolution, the waters have become 26% more acidic.

“This is the state of the art,” said Prof Jean-Pierre Gattuso, from CNRS, the French national research agency.

“My colleagues have not found in the geological record, rates of change that are faster than the ones we see today.”

What worries the scientists is the potential impact on many ocean species including corals.

Studies carried out at deep sea vents where the waters are naturally acidic thanks to CO2, indicate that around 30% of the ocean’s biodiversity may be lost by the end of this century.

These vents may be a “window on the future” according to the researchers.

“You don’t find a mollusc at the pH level expected for 2100, this is really quite a stunning fact,” said Prof Gattuso.

“It’s an imperfect window, only the ocean’s acidity is increasing at

these sites, they don’t reflect the warming we will see this century.

“If you combine the two, it could be even more dramatic than what we see at CO2 vents.”

The effect of acidity is currently being felt most profoundly felt in the Arctic and Antarctic oceans.

These chilly waters hold more CO2 and increasing levels of the gas are turning them acidic more rapidly than the rest of the world.

The more acidic they become, the more damaging they are to the shells and skeletons of marine organisms.

The researchers say that by 2020, ten percent of the Arctic will be inhospitable to species that build their shells from calcium carbonate.

By 2100 the entire Arctic will be a hostile environment.

These effects are already visible says Prof Gattuso.

“In the Southern Ocean, we already see corrosion of pteropods which are like sea snails, in the ocean we see corrosion of the shell.

“They are a key component in the food chain, they are eaten by fish,

North Korea denies aiding Syria in fight against rebels N

orth Korea denied it was sending military aid to the Syrian government, one of its few close allies, in its battle against rebel forces after media reports said that Pyongyang had sent advisors and helicopter pilots.

“Some foreign media are floating misinformation that the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) supplied war equipment to Syria, its airmen are directly involved in air-raids on insurgent troops in Syria,” the North’s state run KCNA news agency said late on Thursday.

The Jerusalem Post reported

in October that 15 North Korean helicopter pilots were operating in Syria “on behalf of President Bashar Assad’s regime” and said the report had been confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Other reports have identified North Korean artillery officers as being in Syria, although they were said not to be directing fire.

North Korea has long-standing ties with Syria and constructed a plutonium reactor there that was destroyed by an Israeli strike in 2007. It also has links with Syria’s chemical weapons program.

Under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States, Assad agreed to destroy all Syria’s chemical weapons after Washington threatened to use force in response to a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people on August 21.

Japanese media reports in August said Turkey had intercepted a shipment of gas masks and small arms from North Korea to Syria.

The North is under United Nations sanctions for its nuclear weapons and missile program and its role in proliferating nuclear and missile technology.

birds and whales, so if one element is going then there is a cascading impact on the whole food chain.”

The authors warn that the economic impact of the losses from aquaculture could be huge - the global cost of the decline in molluscs could be $130bn by 2100 if emissions of CO2 continue on their current pathway.

Adding alkaline substances such as crushed limestone to the waters has been mooted as a potential way of mitigating the worst impacts of acidification. But Prof Gattuso says it would only have a limited effect.

“Maybe in bays which have a restricted exchange with open oceans it may work, it may give some local relief.

“But the latest research is showing that it is not really practical at a global scale. It is very expensive and very energy intensive.”

Marine protection zones would also give some short term benefit, but the scientists say that in the long term only significant cuts in emissions will slow the progress of acidification.

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usiness B AND

TFCC toOwireless carriers: agree on ECHN

LOGY

phone unlocking policy or face rules

W

ASHINGTON - The top telecommunications regulator on Thursday demanded that wireless providers voluntarily agree on the rights of consumers to unlock mobile devices once contracts end, or the Federal Communications Commission will make it a rule.

At issue is whether cellphone buyers, who often get new devices at a heavily subsidized price in return for committing to long-term contracts, should be able to take their gadgets with them when they change carriers.

The FCC and the wireless trade group CTIA have been working for eight months on developing a policy for the industry’s Consumer Code that would address the rights of phone owners to unlock their devices.

In a letter to CTIA President Steve Largent on Thursday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler urged the industry to adopt the new unlocking policy within weeks, before the holiday shopping season.

“Enough time has passed, and it is now time for the industry to act voluntarily or for the FCC to regulate,” Wheeler said in the letter posted online.

According to Wheeler’s letter, the carriers agree that consumers should be able to unlock their devices once their contracts are fulfilled but have not agreed to a policy of notifying customers when their device is eligible for unlocking or automatically unlocking the device when it becomes eligible.

“Absent the consumer’s right to be informed about eligibility, any voluntary program would be a hollow shell,” Wheeler said in his letter.

The ban on unlocking originates in the U.S. copyright law overseen by the Library of Congress. The White House in March responded to an online petition protesting the law and sided with the thousands who signed it.

Lawmakers have introduced bills for a legislative fix but consumer advocates have urged the FCC, the agency that regulates the wireless industry, to get involved.

In a statement on Thursday, CTIA’s vice president for regulatory affairs, Scott Bergmann, said the trade association would continue discussions with Wheeler and that consumers now can take advantage of a “wide variety” of unlocked devices and “liberal” unlocking policies.

He added that not all devices can be switched from one provider to another because of their technological or engineering specifications.

Opponents of unlocking have argued that the phones should be “locked,” or prevented from moving freely across networks, because of the subsidies that carriers such as AT&T Inc, Verizon Wireless and Sprint provide to consumers when they buy the phones.

Wheeler’s push on Thursday was welcomed by smaller rural and regional carriers who hope it will help them access more advanced devices now not manufactured with their networks in mind; and by consumer interest groups like Public Knowledge, which has accused the wireless industry of foot-dragging.

“If we all agree that people should be able to use their devices on any network they choose, it’s time for that to be a reality,” said Sherwin Siy, vice president of legal affairs for Washington-based Public Knowledge.

CTIA, where Wheeler himself was once president, has advocated for the passage of a bill in Congress that would narrowly repeal the Library of Congress decision that sparked this year’s unlocking policy debate.

The Library of Congress is responsible for setting rules related to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Last year it stopped exempting cellphone unlocking from the reach of the law, meaning customers now have to request their wireless company’s permission to legally unlock a phone even after fulfilling the contract with that company.

In response to the online petition that ensued, the White House said it would support a narrow legislative fix.

More people prefer a male boss, but gender gap is narrowing “M y last boss was a woman. All she did was micromanage everyone.”

“Every woman boss I’ve ever had was extremely passive-aggressive in their leadership.”

“It (was) much easier being managed by a male because he didn’t put up with the pettiness or the gossip.”

Sorry, ladies of the working world.

Those are comments we received in response to my recent piece about how companies with more women in C-suites and corporate boards do better financially.

But so many commenters said they absolutely preferred working for a man, we knew we had to explore the “why” behind that sentiment.

Then this week, the Gallup organization added some numbers -- and fuel -- to the debate.

In telephone interviews with a random sample of 2,059 adults, Gallup found that Americans still prefer a male boss over a female, with 35% choosing to work for a man and 23% saying they prefer women supervisors. It’s the highest-ever number recorded for women bosses since Gallup has been asking. When you compare these results to the 1953 responses -- that’s when Gallup first asked this question -- the gap has narrowed significantly. In 1953, 66% chose a male boss and 5% picked a fe-

male one, a huge gap that has been reduced to a 12-point difference today.

“I think it’s great to see that trend, so I’m very encouraged by it, but I’m not surprised that it’s still a 2-to-1 ratio of people preferring to work for men than women,” said sociologist and workplace consultant BJ Gallagher, who has written several books, including a best-seller on diversity called “A Peacock in the Land of Penguins.”

Topping the list of reasons, according to Gallagher, is the fact that men still have more power in the workplace than women.

“If you had your druthers, you’d rather work for somebody who has some influence, some power, some clout, some status and that’s true for men and women,” Gallagher said.

“It trickles down so that if you work for a powerful boss, you’re a little bit more powerful. Your whole department is seen in a more positive light if the boss is a powerful (and) influential person,” she said.

In conversations with Gallagher and other experts, it’s clear another factor is at work -- the real stereotypes that exist about working for a woman. It’s an old stereotype that women may not be good bosses so when that happens, it sticks,” said Susan Nierenberg, vice president of global marketing and corporate communications for Catalyst, a nonprofit focused on

expanding opportunities for women in business. “Because the stereotype is in the water, and there are fewer women leaders than men, you may remember the woman who treated you badly and say, ‘Oh yeah, I remember her.’ And it reinforces the stereotype.

“Perception is not reality, and stereotypes are perceptions.”

Gallagher has created a list titled “How to Tell a Male Boss From a Female Boss” with examples of perceived gender differences -- “A male boss is assertive; a female bossy is bossy” and “A male boss is attentive to details; a female boss is picky.”

Opinion: Are female leaders too cheerful for their own good?

“There is a double standard,” said Gallagher, who also wrote “Everything I Need to Know I Learned From Other Women.” “The same exact behavior in a male boss is seen as a plus, and the same behavior in a female boss gets seen as a negative.”

For instance, Gallagher said if a male boss “gets agitated and slams his fist down on the table and goes, ‘I want this done by 3 o’clock this afternoon,’ everyone goes, ‘Ooh, take charge kind of guy.’”

If a woman does the same thing, Gallagher said, people are likely to say, “Oh, what a bitch.”

“So the same tone of voice, the same words, the same body lan-

guage, the same everything gets filtered through our stereotypes and assumptions about how various groups should behave,” she said.

Fueling the stereotypes, Gallagher and leaders from Catalyst said, are environments with few women in leadership positions.

“When there’s going to be a token woman, one woman is going to make it to the top, what does this do?” said Ilene Lang, president and CEO of Catalyst, during an interview last month.

“Does that encourage anybody to support women? Does it encourage women to support other women? It’s a culture that will encourage women to fight with other women or to discourage other women.” and sponsorship, and there are more women in leadership positions, that “Queen Bee myth” of women not helping women gets busted, Lang said.

Read: Sheryl Sandberg at BlogHer: Not every woman has to be a CEO In fact, a report by Catalyst found that 73% of women who received career development support are helping to support and develop other women, versus 30% of men.

“Our research shows that women not only sponsor and support other women, but that they do other men as well, and they really do pay it forward to a huge amount,” Lang said.

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BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

Eurozone economic growth slows T

he economy of the eurozone grew by just 0.1% in the July-to-September period, down from 0.3% growth in the previous quarter.

The figure marks just the second quarter of a growth phase that replaced an 18-month recession, the longest period of contraction to affect the single currency area.

It shows the eurozone’s recovery is extremely tentative.

Europe’s Central Bank last week cut interest rates to 0.25% to lift growth.

Europe’s economy is taking far longer to recover than the other advanced regions affected by the credit crisis of 2008.

Although its debt levels are not dissimilar to those in the US and the UK, for many countries they are more politically important.

Weaker countries in the eurozone have been propped up by bailout money, advanced on condition they cut government spending sharply to reduce their debts.

Moves to do this have hit directly at voters, through large-scale job cuts, reduced wages and pensions, higher taxes and widespread changes to public services.

With the resulting higher unemployment and fall in living standards, few economists think there is much there to drive forward a robust recovery.

Growth of 1.1% is being predicted by the European Commission for next year and 1.7% in 2015.

The US, with its own giant government debt, is currently growing at an annualised rate of 2.8%, compared with the eurozone’s rate so far this year of about 0.4%.

Even figures from the region’s strongest and most important economies, France and Germany, proved disappointing.

France shrank 0.1% in the third quarter of the year, while German growth slowed to 0.3% from 0.7% in the previous quarter.

Figures from Italy, the third most important country, showed its economy shrank by 0.1%, after a 0.3% contraction in the second quarter.

There were better signs of economic activity from some of the worst-hit countries in southern Europe.

Spain returned to quarter-on-quarter growth for the first time since the first quarter of 2011, albeit with growth of just 0.1%.

Portugal’s economy grew by 0.2% in the quarter.

When France’s economy grew by 0.5% in the second quarter of the year, it pulled the country out of recession, although economists had not expected that level of growth to be sustained.

Figures from the national statistics agency Insee showed that exports dropped by 1.5% in the third quarter, while business investment fell by 0.6%.

However, France’s Finance Minister, Pierre Moscovici, said he still believed the economy would grow by 0.1-0.2% over 2013 as a whole.

“The productive forces are starting up again, pro-

duction is recovering,” Mr Moscovici told French radio.

“We knew the third quarter would mark a pause, it’s not a surprise, it’s not an indicator of decline, it’s not a recession.”

Germany’s statistics office, Destatis, also cited weak exports as a factor holding back growth.

“The positive impulses in the third quarter came exclusively from within Germany,” Destatis said.

“Private household and public spending were somewhat higher than in the preceding quarter. And investment in equipment and construction also increased compared with the second quarter.

“By contrast, the trade balance put a brake on GDP growth. While imports continued to rise, exports showed little momentum compared with the preceding quarter,” it said.

Economists greeted the news with mixed views.

Chris Williamson from Markit said: “The region’s periphery continues to show signs of reviving, and the region is on course to expand at a slightly stronger, though still modest, pace in the fourth quarter.

“The data go a long way to vindicate the ECB’s decision to cut interest rates to re-stimulate growth across the single currency area.”

But Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, was more downbeat: “The near-stagnation of the eurozone economy in the third quarter underlines the fragility of the recovery and the growing dangers of a damaging bout of deflation in the region.”

NY factories slow down in November in bad sign for US economy

F

actory activity declined in New York state earlier this month and employment in the sector failed to grow for the first time since June, signs that U.S. manufacturing may have lost a step.

A separate report on Friday showed prices for U.S. exports unexpectedly fell in October, the latest indication of global economic weakness.

The New York Fed’s “Empire State” index of business conditions at factories fell to minus 2.21 from 1.52 in October, the first negative reading since May. Economists in a Reuters poll had forecast an index of 5.00. A reading above zero indicates expansion.

The report underscores the headwinds facing the world’s largest economy, where the recovery remains fragile.

The survey of manufacturing plants in the state is one of the earliest monthly guideposts to U.S. factory conditions. If the weakness in New York also appears in other major manufacturing regions, it would mark a setback after data in October showed relatively robust hiring across the economy and strong expansion at factories.

A federal government shutdown in October had been expected to drag on growth, but data in the wake of that congressional impasse has been mixed.

Labor market conditions in New York’s factories weakened, with the index for the number of employees slipping to 0.0 from 3.61 in October.

The average employee workweek index also sank to minus 5.26 from 3.61.

U.S. Treasuries prices pared earli-

er losses following the release of the factory data, which backed the view the U.S. central bank will keep buying bonds to help support the economy.

Separately, the U.S. Labor Department said export prices dropped 0.5 percent last month, the seventh decline in eight months. Analysts polled

by Reuters had expected a slight increase in export prices.

The decline suggests that consumers in crisis-stricken Europe and other major trading partners are struggling so much that American producers have little leverage to raise prices.

The European Central Bank cut interest rates earlier this month in part over concerns the region’s weak economy is weighing too much on prices.

The Labor Department’s report also showed that prices for U.S. imports fell 0.7 percent in October,

GOOGLE SCORES KEY LEGAL VICTORY IN BOOKS LAWSUIT

S

AN FRANCISCO — Google on Thursday landed a key legal victory against the publishing industry in what could pave the way for the search giant to continue its quest to scan the world’s books.

A New York federal judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit from book authors against the Mountain View, Calif., company. The long-simmering battle stems from a suit brought by the Authors Guild, which sued Google in 2005 in Manhattan federal court, claiming copyright infringement.

The Authors Guild charged Google’s online library was in violation of “fair use” of copyrighted works by providing snippets of works.

The Authors Guild guild was seeking $750 for each copyrighted book made digital, a huge sum considering that the Internet search company had scanned more than 20 million books.

“This is a huge victory for Google, which had previously tried to resolve legal issues regarding Google Books by class-action settlement,” says Mark McKenna, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame.

Circuit Judge Denny Chin found Google’s book-scanning project did not run

afoul of fair use of the content under copyright law. The judge said that the Google service contributes to new audiences that offer new sources of income for authors and publishers.

“Google’s use of copyrighted works is highly transformative,” wrote Chin.

“Words in books are being used in a way they have not been used before.”

Google cheered the legal victory.

“This has been a long road, and we are absolutely delighted with today’s judgement,” the company said in a statement.

“As we have long said, Google Books is in compliance with copyright law and acts like a card catalog for the digital age, giving users the ability to find books to buy or borrow.”

The Authors Guild did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Law professor McKenna says the decision vindicates Google’s massive book-scanning project on fair use grounds, yielding unnecessary an elaborate proposed compensation structure for the effort.

“The decision is sure to be appealed, as its implications are enormous,” he says.

which was a sharper decline than expected.

A 3.6 percent fall in petroleum imports, which was the biggest fall in more than a year, drove the drop in overall prices. However, there were signs that weakness abroad was also fueling price declines.

Prices for imports from Japan dropped 0.2 percent last month, a possible sign that the downward pressure on Japan’s currency from its extremely accommodative monetary policy has made its exports more competitive abroad.

In a possible sign of the wind in Japan’s sails, prices for auto imports fell 0.1 percent and were down 1.4 percent in the year through October. The 12-month decline is the biggest drop since the Labor Department began tracking it in 1981.

BERKSHIRE ACQUIRES $3.7 BILLION EXXON MOBIL STAKE

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erkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) reported a stake in Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) valued at about $3.7 billion as Warren Buffett’s company disclosed its largest new holding since adding International Business Machines Corp. in 2011.

Buffett’s company owned 40.1 million shares of Exxon on Sept.

30, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said today in a regulatory filing. The world’s biggest oil company by market value closed at $93.22 today in New York. It rose to $93.90 in extended trading at 5:14 p.m., after the filing.

Berkshire has benefited this year as its stock picks rallied along with the broader market, affirming a strategy of favoring equities instead of bonds amid near record-low interest rates. Buffett has tracked Exxon and bought its stock in the past, holding a stake in the Irving, Texas-based energy producer as recently as 2011.

Exxon Mobil “is undervalued, in his opinion, and pretty much being ignored by the market,” said Da-

vid Kass, a professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business who has taken students to meet Buffett in Omaha.

“He knows the company. He knows it well.”

About three-quarters of the Exxon holding was added in the three months ended June 30, according to a separate filing today. Berkshire requested confidential treatment in an August filing listing its holdings at the end of the second quarter. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sometimes allows companies to withhold information from the public to limit copycat investing while they build or cut a position.

EFFICIENT EXPLORER Exxon, which traces its roots to the 1880s and John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust, is among the most-efficient explorers among major international energy producers, spending $19.27 to find the equivalent of a barrel of crude last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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Sports

CARIBBEAN

US drug testers offer to help Jamaica

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he United States’ Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) has offered to help Jamaica’s anti-doping team because they feel the island’s athletes have been “let down”.

Usada’s chief executive Travis Tygart said talks had already begun over a possible partnership with Jamaica.

“Jamaican athletes deserve a robust anti-doping programme,” said Tygart.

Six Jamaican athletes have tested positive this year and the country has already been accused of “losing its way” on drug testing for athletes. John Fahey, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), earlier this week said his organisation had been aware of difficulties in Jamaica for some time, revealing one of the solutions was for the country’s anti-doping team to be mentored by a more successful agency.

Paul Wright, Jamaica’s most senior drug tester, also warned that the recent rash of failed tests might be the “tip of an iceberg”.

Former Jadco (Jamaica’s anti-doping commission) executive director Renee Anne Shirley raised concerns when she said the agency had conducted only one out-of-competition test in the six months leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Her comments followed a series of positive tests for Jamaican athletes and resulted in Wada visiting the country at the end of October to assess its doping policies.

Former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell, three-time Olympic gold medallist Veronica Campbell-Brown and Olympic relay gold medallist Sher-

one Simpson are among six Jamaicans who have tested positive this year.

“Right now, the athletes in Jamaica are being let down by their organisation,” said Tygart.

“Having one test out of competition prior to the London Olympic Games, if what is being reported is accurate, is unacceptable. No blood test, no human growth hormone test - that’s an injustice to the fairness of the sport and tremendously letting down those athletes.

“A firm, committed play to moving forward is what we’re all after.

“There have been discussions. We’ve talked to Wada, we’ve met with the Jamaican officials.

“We’ll sort through whether there’s a role for us to play. We’re happy to help some other programmes that need some assistance.”

Wada officials are due to discuss their visit to Jamaica at an executive board meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Tuesday and they could make a series of recommendations to improve the Caribbean island’s anti-doping policies. One of those will be for Jamaica’s anti-doping team to be ‘mentored’ by a more successful agency. Fahey told a news conference in Johannesburg: “I am confident, from the discussions that took place, that there’s a recognition in Jamaica that they have to do a whole lot better and they have to beef up their programme and skill set. Wada will give them every assistance there.

“We have asked them to enter an international partnership. We’ve found that’s been very effective in other struggling areas of anti-doping. For example, Russia have been mentored by Norway and that proved to be a very valuable way of doing things.”

Earlier, Fahey told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve been aware of difficulties in Jamaica for some time.

“We’ve gone to them, we have assisted them, we’ve given them some support, we’ve indicated that they need to make some improvements - we’ve received a number of assurances that that was occurring.

“It was only in recent times when further information came to light that indications were that, despite some improvements a few years ago, they’d lost their way again that we felt the need to go back again and we did that.”

There have also been fears raised about the level of anti-doping testing in Kenya.

Since January 2012, 17 Kenyan athletes have been suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs and Wada will discuss the issue in Johannesburg.

Fahey said he was “disappointed” at the attitude to anti-doping shown by Kenyan officials but admitted it was a voluntary system, adding: “If Kenya does not wish to increase its activity in anti-doping then there is not a lot that can be done.”

However, while Fahey, who is due to be replaced

by Britain’s Sir Craig Reedie later this week, expressed frustration at the lack of power Wada has, he believes forthcoming changes will strengthen the organisation’s powers.

“I can say to you that with the code in review there is a likelihood by the end of this week for there to be a much greater emphasis on investigation and a capacity, when investigations are not conducted in countries like Kenya, for Wada to instigate the investigations themselves - and I welcome that.”

Surfers unite for annual ‘Soup Bowl’ competition in Barbados

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RIDGETOWN, Barbados -- Worldclass surfers will gather November 14-17 in Barbados, one of the top surfing destinations in the Caribbean, for the 30th annual Independence Pro Surfing “Soup Bowl.” Surfers will be competing with top talent from around the world for a grand prize of $10,000.

In addition to the exciting events at the hugely successful competition, this year over 60 young surfers

will take to the rolling waves of the eastern Atlantic for the first Junior Pro Soup Bowl. Together the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) and Barbados Surfing Association (BSA) with the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) have joined to boost awareness for the talented teens. This year, the BTA is supporting the 2013 Soup Bowl by sponsoring the entry fees for ten Barbadian surfers and prize money for two ASP Junior Pro winners.

HOLDING DISAGREES WITH CALL TO PROMOTE CHANDERPAUL

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INGSTON, Jamaica - Former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding says he does not agree with the former Indian captain Rahul Dravid who has suggested that middle order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul be promoted in the order.

Dravid made the suggestion following West Indies humiliating defeat to India by an innings and 51 runs in the first test match which finished inside three days.

However, in an interview with ESPN Cricinfo, Holding says other batsmen need to step up their game.

“I think though when you look at the names and the talent of the guys that are in this West Indies team, he is batting at the right position,” said Holding.

“Young Darren Bravo, he should have been producing a lot more

Michael Holding runs. He should have been the one coming in at three or four and getting a lot of runs and Shivnarine Chanderpaul stay in at number five.

Remember he is not a young man anymore”.

Chanderpaul was among the leading scorers for West Indies in the first test against India- 31 not out and 36.

According to Dravid: “He is bat-

“Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the rugged landscape of the eastern side of our island creates the perfect surfing conditions for the annual Independence Pro Surfing Competition,” said Campbell Rudder, vice president marketing USA, for the Barbados Tourism Authority. “We are especially happy to support our Barbadian youth competing this year and look forward to welcoming back surfers to the

ting a little bit too low in this kind of batting line-up where their batting is almost ending at number five. You can’t have their best batsman as your last recognised batsman so to speak”.

Chanderpaul was set to become the first West Indies player to appear in 150 Tests, and the seventh player to achieve the landmark as West Indies play India in the second test on Thursday.

Holding has appealed to the likes of Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo to come to the party.

“Samuels, again a very talented batsman for the West indies. The two openers, Darren Bravo, Samuels should be the first four then Chanderpaul. I have no problems with that,” said Holding.

“Samuels and Bravo, you can’t call them youngsters anymore and that they need grooming.. they need to take up their responsibility and let Chanderpaul stay at five”.

island for another year of this exciting competition. Our island is a world-class surfing destination and we encourage travelers to book a trip to our sunny shores to experience first-hand.”

Each round of the “Soup Bowl” promises to be impressive as the swells roll in from the Atlantic. Travelers are encouraged to watch the shores of Barbados heat up as surfers vie for the grand prize.

WEST INDIES FAST BOWLER ROACH TO RETURN HOME DUE TO INJURY

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UMBAI, India -- Fast bowler Kemar Roach has been ruled out of the remainder of the West Indies’ tour of India due to a shoulder injury.

West Indies team physiotherapist C.J. Clark said it was an injury which is uncommon among cricketers.

“Kemar has not made the expected recovery from the shoulder injury that kept him out of the first Test and he is returning to the Caribbean for ongoing management and subsequent physical rehabilitation,” said Clark.

Shannon Gabriel has been selected to replace his fellow fast bowler and is expected to arrive in India in time for consider-

ation for selection in the second Test which opens on Thursday at the Wankhede Stadium here.

The 25-year-old Roach has been the bright spark in the West Indies attack over the last three years in particular.

He has taken 85 wickets at 27.71 runs apiece in 23 Tests and has risen in the ICC Test bowling rankings to become the only West Indian in the Top-20 at 14th.

“We’re sad to announce that Kemar has to return home to the Caribbean and will not have an opportunity on this tour, where we felt he could have made a major difference,” said West Indies head coach Ottis Gibson.

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Sports W

RLD

Richie Incognito files grievance

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iami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito has filed a non-football injury grievance against the club, challenging his status as indefinitely suspended for conduct detrimental to the team, according to sources.

Under Article 42 of the collective bargaining agreement, the maximum a player can be suspended by a team for detrimental conduct is four weeks plus an additional game check. In this case, that would amount to $1.2million.

The Dolphins have not defined the length of the suspension, which was announced in the late evening on Nov. 3 following allegations of harassment and misconduct toward teammate Jonathan Martin.

Under the labor agreement, all non-football injury grievances must be heard by a neutral arbitrator.

Incognito has requested an expedited hearing.

Incognito deflected blame for many of his harsh actions against Martin during an interview with Fox Sports on Sunday. He also accused Martin of using equally crass language, claiming that was the nature of their relationship.

Richie Incognito Incognito staunchly denied bullying Martin and claimed to be Martin’s most supportive teammate.

Incognito said he was genuinely surprised Martin left the team and that it became a national media firestorm.

“You can ask anybody in the Miami Dolphins’ locker room who had Jon Martin’s back the absolute most, and they will undoubtedly tell you [it was me],” Incognito told Fox Sports. “Jon never showed signs that football was getting to him [or] the locker room was getting to him.”

Martin left the Dolphins on Oct. 28 following an incident in the team’s lunchroom. However, Incognito said Sunday that he and Martin exchanged text messages four days later.

Incognito’s phone showed 1,142 text messages between the two players over the past year, Fox Sports reported.

Martin’s attorney, David Cornwell, has said Martin was repeatedly harassed by Incognito and others in ways that “went far beyond the traditional locker-room hazing.”

Martin is scheduled to meet with Ted Wells, the independent investigator assigned by the NFL, on Friday in New York. Dolphins officials had been scheduled to meet with Martin on Wednesday but delayed the meeting at the NFL’s request.

David Beckham back in Miami eyeing a Major League Soccer team

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etired English soccer star David Beckham toured potential stadium sites in Miami on Wednesday, signaling he is forging ahead with his interest in owning a new Major League franchise in the United States.

It was the second time in five months that Beckham, a former star with Manchester United, Real Madrid and the MLS club L.A. Galaxy, has visited Miami.

Last month, a source familiar with the negotiations told Reuters that Beckham, who retired from professional soccer earlier this year, has chosen the city as the site for an expansion team.

His MLS player contract included an option to create a team for $25 million.

On Wednesday, Beckham visited the campus of Florida International University and the Marlins Park baseball stadium with one possible investor in the MLS team, Bolivi-

David Beckham an-born billionaire Marcelo Claure, CEO of Miami-based wireless services company Brightstar Corporation.

The two looked at the stadiums as potential sites until a possible

permanent soccer stadium can be built, said Vanessa Santana-Penate, a spokeswoman for Miami-Dade county mayor Carlos Gimenez.

The visits came a day after Beckham and Claure dined with Gimenez in Claure’s Miami Beach home, Santana-Penate said.

Claure, who owns his own soccer team in Bolivia, posted a picture on his Instagram account with Beckham and Simon Fuller, whose management company 19 Entertainment handles Beckham’s business affairs.

“An unforgettable night in my house in Miami,” Claure wrote in Spanish, all three men smiling in the picture.

Beckham’s trip also coincided with the arrival of Brazil’s national soccer team to Miami. Brazil will play Honduras in an exhibition match on Saturday in front of what is expected to be a packed house at Sun Life stadium, home of the Mi-

NOVAK DJOKOVIC WINS 3RD ATP FINALS

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ONDON -- Novak Djokovic capped off his season by defending his ATP World Tour Finals title with an impressive 6-3, 6-4 win over Rafael Nadal on Monday night.

There’s no doubt Djokovic is the man to beat on indoor hard courts. And for the record, his 22 consecutive wins to finish 2013 matched top-ranked Nadal’s best stretch of the year.

Djokovic’s winning run started after a US Open final defeat to Nadal and continued during a span in which the Spaniard replaced him atop the rankings.

“The most positive thing that I can take from those 2½ months is the fact that I managed to regroup after a few big losses against Nadal, especially in Roland Garros, US Open final and Wimbledon final,” said Djokovic, who became the seventh player to win the elite season-ending tournament at least three times.

His victory in London denied Nadal the only big trophy missing from his résumé.

Having produced one of the most memorable comebacks in tennis, Nadal lost in a deciding match for the second time at the tour finals, and missed the chance to join Andre Agassi as the only players to have won all four Grand Slams, Olympic gold, the Davis Cup and the year-end tournament.

“It’s not going to change my career, winning or losing today,” Nadal said. “I am not very disappointed. I know that I was not the favorite for the match, even if I tried with the right attitude, in my opinion, fighting for every moment, trying to be positive in every moment, even if the match was not going the way that I would like.”

Monday’s defeat was a strong warning to Nadal -- who overtook Djokovic for the No. 1 ranking last month -- that his Serbian rival will be ready to extend his form into next year’s Australian Open, where he is the three-time defending champion.

Djokovic has beaten Nadal 10 times in 19 finals.

“After the US Open final, of course, I needed to take things slowly and see and analyze what I

ami Dolphins American football team.

MLS has confirmed the league is in discussions with Beckham about a team but has said it is awaiting a formal bid, including details of the ownership group and a stadium plan.

Beckham’s Galaxy contract contained a franchise option, for a set fee of $25 million, much less than the $100 million Manchester City and the New York Yankees paid for their new team, New York City FC, which will join the league in 2015.

While Miami’s status as one of the largest Latin American population centers in the United States makes it an obvious option for MLS, the city has proved to be a tough market.

The Miami Fusion, who played in nearby Fort Lauderdale, joined MLS in 1998 but were closed by the then struggling league after four seasons along with another Florida team, the Tampa Bay Mutiny.

did wrong, especially in the matches against him, to understand what I need to do in order to win against him,” Djokovic said. “I think the results are showing that we had a great improvement in the last 2½ months.”

Djokovic returned superbly from the start to move his Spanish rival around the court and prevent him from dictating the points.

Nadal, playing on his less-than-favorite surface, hit only nine winners and was broken three times.

“If I can say about one thing that makes the difference in today’s match was the serve -- I didn’t serve well, he served well,” Nadal said. “So in this kind of court, first shot is very important, and he did that first shot much better than me.”

Nadal’s return to the No. 1 ranking came on the back of a stunning comeback from a career-threatening knee injury.

Since returning in February, the Spaniard has won 75 matches -- losing only seven -- to win 10 titles including the French Open, the US Open and five Masters 1000 events.

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WORLD SPORTS

Lance Armstrong life ban could be reduced L

ance Armstrong’s lifetime ban from cycling could be cut to eight years, according to the man who played a key role in proving he doped during all seven of his Tour de France wins.

Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), said such a reduction is “technically possible” should the American, 42, agree to reveal all about his past.

“He’s had plenty of opportunities to come in before now and there’s no sense that is actually now going to happen,” Tygart told BBC Sport.

“We’ll see if there is still an opportunity for him to get any reduction.”

Armstrong was banned for life by Usada in August 2012 and stripped of the seven Tour de France titles he won between 1999 and 2005.

After repeatedly denying accusations of doping, the Texan finally admitted in an interview with television chat show host Oprah Winfrey in January that he took performance-enhancing drugs during his career.

Cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, intends to set up an independent inquiry into doping.

UCI president Brian Cookson is keen the inquiry hears evidence from a large number of people, not just Armstrong, as he attempts to restore cycling’s credibility and that of his own organisation, which has faced allegations of corruption.

Lance Armstrong Tygart told the BBC that it was important for cycling to “unshackle itself from its dirty past for the good of everyone”.He added: “What’s important is this sport moves forward and puts this dark, dirty time period behind it and give clean athletes a chance to be successful.”

But he condemned Armstrong for continuing to cast a shadow over the sport, claiming “clean athletes have been hurt” by his failure to speak up.

On Monday, Armstrong told the BBC he would be willing to reveal more about his past as a drugs cheat, but only if he was treated fairly by those investigating cycling’s culture of doping.

The American, who pledged to testify with “100% transparency and honesty”, argued that some cheats had received “a total free pass” while others had been given “the death penalty”.

In an interview with BBC sports editor David Bond, Cookson made clear that Armstrong’s ban is a matter for Usada.

“It wouldn’t be helpful for me to suggest a length of ban but, if you look at the current rules, Usada could probably look at an eight-year ban,” said Cookson.

“If Usada were to agree that, then the UCI certainly wouldn’t oppose it but, equally, I’m not recommending that either.”

Cookson stressed that Usada, as the sanctioning body, has sole responsibility for deciding whether Armstrong’s ban is reduced or not.

“The UCI can’t have much impact on his current situation because the sanctions have been imposed

by Usada,” said Cookson.

“Armstrong needs to be clear with them what his role is, what he can and can’t offer to them in terms of substantial assistance to look at whether they can offer him any reductions in the sanctions that he’s currently got.” Cookson met with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) president John Fahey to discuss plans for an inquiry into doping.

Overwhelming support for revised anti-doping code T

he adoption of a revised World Anti-Doping Code received “overwhelming support” after intense discussions on Wednesday said WADA’s president with the agency confident it will be ratified as planned on Friday.

“There was overwhelming support for the direction in which the code is heading,” World Anti-Doping Agency chief John Fahey said after the first full day of the World Conference on Doping in Sport.

Tougher sanctions, more vigorous testing and an enhanced drive to catch drug cheats form the basis of some 2,000 changes to the code, set to be adopted at the end of the

conference by some 1,000 delegates from government, civil bodies, sports associations and the International Olympic Committee.

It will be implemented from the start of 2015.

The draft code includes doubling the standard ban for serious doping offences and excluding offenders from the Olympic Games, although there was some objection to these plans from the speakers during Wednesday’s deliberations.

“The overwhelming majority of athletes who made submissions left the impression they want a four-year, or more, ban for offend-

ers. I can say there were only a few submissions that did not support tougher penalties and maybe some flexibility for those who unwittingly dope,” said the WADA president.

“But I don’t agree with a twoyear ban,” added Fahey, whose term ends next month.

WADA also said it was working with Jamaica on extensive improvements to their anti-doping policy in the wake of a reported breakdown in their testing procedures in recent years.

“We went to Jamaica at the invitation of the government to audit the process after media reports

Michael Jordan picks top pickup team M

ichael Jordan named his unbeatable pickup team and revealed one of his favorite dunks in a promotional video he did for a video game.

The former Chicago Bulls star chose teammate Scottie Pippen, Los Angeles Lakers James Worthy and Magic Johnson and Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon as his teammates in a pickup game.

“I got no chance of losing. None at all,” he said in the video released by 2K Sports to promote “NBA 2K14.”

Of the many poster-worthy dunks in his career, Jordan singled out his slam on Patrick Ewing in the 1991 playoffs as one of his favorites. Jordan did a quick spin away from Charles Oakley on the baseline, soared to the hoop and put down a onehand slam in the face of Ewing’s challenge.

Jordan said he thinks about that one “very, very often.”

“I told him, Georgetown guys don’t block shots, they take charges,” Jordan said on the video. “I dunked it on him so hard it was unbelievable. Every time I see him, that’s the first thing I remind him of.”

Jordan also mentioned his 1997 dunk on Dikembe Mutombo that ended with MJ

FIVE MILLION DOLLAR RACE HORSE BATTLING FOR LIFE AFTER SPIDER-BITE

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Michael Jordan waving his finger just as the Atlanta Hawks center used to do after blocks.

Jordan said that the 1995-96 season was his best. He played in only 17 games the previous season after returning from a failed stint in minor league baseball, and some questioned whether he would be the same player. But Jordan averaged a league-high 30.4 points and led the Bulls to an NBA record 72-10 regular season and his fourth of six championships.

and we put an extensive report together for them,” said WADA director general David Howman.

“We have met with the Jamaica sports minister (Natalie Neita Headley) and had a very positive response. We are now working with them to implement the recommendations. We are confident that Jamaica’s issues will be resolved.’

Former world 100 meters record holder Asafa Powell, three-times Olympic gold medalist Veronica Campbell-Brown and Olympic relay gold medalist Sherone Simpson are among six Jamaican athletes who have tested positive for banned substances this year.

he half-brother of Australia’s unbeaten champion race horse Black Caviar is battling for his life after being bitten by a venomous spider, local media reported on Thursday.

Bought for A$5 million ($4.65 million) in April, Australia’s most expensive yearling is being treated at an equine clinic outside Melbourne.

“His life is on the line, he’s a 50-50 prospect and we hold grave concerns for him,” equine vet Tom Brennan told Australian news agency AAP. Named Jimmy, the colt suffered an adverse reaction to antibiotics, which led to an onset of the hoof disease laminitis in his two front feet, Brennan said.

The next couple of days would be crucial for the horse, Brennan added.

“We’re hopeful, if he has no further complications, there is still a slim chance we may be able to get him to the racetrack but, at the moment, we’re focused on trying to save him and his breeding career.”

Jimmy was brought to the equine clinic two weeks ago after the suspected bite from a white-tailed spider.

“We invest our lives in horses and to have him as a member of our team was a dream,” Simon Marshall, a spokesman for the syndicate which bought the colt, said.

“We were really looking forward to a bright future,” he added.

Sprinter Black Caviar went 25 races unbeaten before retiring in April.

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