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TWO ARRESTED E-mail: sun@suntci.com
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VOLUME 8 - No. 20
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MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
FOR MURDER
Police have made arrests in connection with the murder of 34-year-old British national Anthony Quinn in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, last weekend. Detectives say they are questioning two men in relation to the incident. Quinn, who worked as a quantity surveyor for local firm, Projetech, was reported missing by friends in the early hours of Sunday. A police search ended when his body was found close to the beach at the bottom of Technology Drive near Heaving Down Rock. He was reportedly kidnapped and ransom money demanded for his release before he met his fate, police sources said. Police have not officially confirmed the kidnapping and ransom, but sources close to the investigation have confirmed this to The SUN, saying that lawmen have supporting evidence including phone records. Despite having two men in custody, Inspector Grantley Williams of RTCI Police CID, has again appealed for witnesses to come forward. He said: “Our investigations remain at an advanced stage and we currently have two men in custody helping us with our enquiries. We are still not in a position release details of the cause of Mr Quinn’s death or a motive, but I would again ask for anyone with information to come forward as a matter of urgency. If anyone was in the vicinity of the Ports of Call, Grace Bay, Leeward Highway, Technology Drive or Long Bay areas between 4am and 10am last Sunday, and who may have seen anything suspicious, we would like to talk to them. We urge people to contact the police or Crimestoppers as a matter of urgency.” Meantime, a statement from Delphene Hartshorn of Projetech, said Quinn’s work ethic and integrity was flawless. CONTINUED ON PG 2
ADVISORY COUNCIL SUPPORTS $200M BUDGET – PAGE 5
WASHANDRA REGISTRE IS 2012 TOP MODEL
Sixteen year-old Washanda Registre from the Kew, North Caicos emerged the winner of the 2012 TCI Top Model Contest, held at the Williams Auditorium on Saturday, May 12. The 5 foot, 10 inch model also captured a number of sectional prizes before going on to take the big one. Among the sectional prizes won were: Industry Readiness, Best Body and Fashion Forward. She is seen here accepting a portion of her prize from masters of ceremony for the night Obrien Forbes (left), while looking on is CEO for the event Courtney Robinson.
THREE MORE FOR SUPREME COURT TRIAL –PAGE 5
KEITH BURANT IS LIQUIDATOR FOR WEST CAICOS – PAGE 8
MIKE MISICK DENIES GIFTS FROM DAVID SMITH – PAGE 12
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MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
LOCAL NEWS
TURKS & CAICOS SUN
TWO ARRESTED FOR MURDER
CONTINUED FROM PG 14
She said: Anthony was a key member of the Projetech team. He joined the company in September 2004 and quickly became a greatly respected member of the Projetech family. A single man originating from the United Kingdom, Anthony touched the life of a large part of the TCI community, not only in his professional life but also in social settings. His work ethic and integrity was flawless.
He was first into the office each morning and often the last man to leave. Anthony was a very peaceful and thoughtful person and it is impossible to conceive that he would have made any enemies. We understand suspects are in custody. Nevertheless, we ask the public to continue to assist police any way they can and leave no stone unturned to ensure the culprits are punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Local businessman John Hartley still facing law suit in Miami John A. Mattera, the indicted proof. Should Mattera file for Boca Raton financier buried bankruptcy protection at some under a mountain of grievances, point, the settlement still stands. A call to Mattera’s criminal began to dig his way out this defense attorney, Carl Francis week. According to the Miami Schoeppl, was not returned Heral, Mattera reached a $5 Thursday. The lawsuit, which charged million settlement with a group of investors who sued Mattera fraudulently “sold” his him in September, claiming associates $4.5 million worth of he sold them elite shares in an Fisker Automotive’s Series A-1 electric-car company that he preferred shares, was just the start didn’t actually own. Instead of his troubles. Two months after of returning their substantial it was filed, both the Securities contributions when the deal and Exchange Commission and inevitably collapsed, Mattera the Justice Department targeted and his business partners Mattera. Federal documents alleged pocketed the proceeds, the suit he convinced associates to spend millions on private shares of the alleged. booming websites Facebook and In the settlement, Mattera, 50, made clear that his participation Groupon — which investigators was not an admission of guilt say also did not exist. All together, Mattera raised at to his pending federal charges, which include securities and wire least $12 million from business partners across the country since fraud and money laundering. “Obviously, the criminal 2010, the SEC said. Mattera blew case is their prime focus,” said at least $4 million of his victims’ attorney Isaac Mitrani, who money on expensive jewelry, represents Mattera’s investors in interior decorating and luxury cars, the civil proceeding. “Now we according to the feds. To make his $1 million bond, need to monetize the judgment. Mattera surrendered $25,000 in We want to make them whole. Otherwise, all we have is some cash, property in Delray Beach, a 2010 Ferrari Italia and a five-carat pretty expensive wallpaper.” Mitrani’s clients still intend diamond ring. Mattera is under to proceed with the lawsuit house arrest, and his criminal case against Mattera’s associates has a scheduled status hearing next and co-defendants John Hartley, month. The judge presiding over Bradford van Siclen and John his SEC action has ordered the Ray Arnold, the attorney said. government to declare the steps The settlement included a it believes necessary to bring the significant stipulation: the $5 case to a final conclusion within million judgment is bankruptcy- two weeks.
Last seen leaving “Jimmy’s Dive bar” at 4:57am, Anthony’s vehicle (a green Jeep Liberty, registration TC7806) and body was discovered approx. 10:15am in a South West Location in Providenciales by colleagues. If anyone has any information, or saw either Anthony or his vehicle within this time slot, please call 941-3508 or the Police. Anonymity will be respected. “
TURKS & CAICOS SUN
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
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LOCAL NEWS
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LOCAL NEWS
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
TURKS & CAICOS SUN
TURKS & CAICOS SUN
Advisory Council supports 200million draft budget
The importance of signing off the draft Budget and this year’s hurricane preparations were the two most significant issues discussed at the Advisory Council (AC) meeting held by His Excellency Governor Ric Todd on Grand Turk on Wednesday, 16 May 2012. According to a press statement issued by Governor’s spokesman Neil Smith, one of the longest and most detailed discussions was on the matter of the $200m draft Budget. This was welcomed by the Council who commented upon its strong and credible revenue forecasts – including the 20% increase in revenue. They also appreciated that no tax increases are proposed, recognised the importance of the projected surplus of $4m after several years of deficit, the route to paying down debt and building up future financial reserves. The Advisory Council welcomed several specific proposals in the Budget, which will now be debated by the Consultative Forum next week: • Increases in the TCI capital budget from $5m to $16m, and that this will directly support the local construction sector • Increases in maintenance from $3.7m to $5.3m, including an increase in road maintenance form $150k to $1m • Increases in the social security budget from
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MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
$1.3m to $1.7m with provision for a new juvenile offender centre • The focus on key priorities such as primary health and education • Recognition of the importance of more appropriate control mechanisms to ensure that the spending will be delivered effectively His Excellency and the Council were also satisfied with preparations for this year’s Hurricane season which begins on 1 June 2012. This followed presentations from the senior team at the Ministry of Government Support Services: Permanent Secretary Wesley Clerveaux, Deputy Dr Virginia Clerveaux and Acting Director Horatio Tuit. Their report included: • Confirmation that this year’s hurricane preparation awareness campaign had already kicked off. The theme of this campaign is that disaster management is everybody’s business. • Thirty hurricane shelter managers have received up to date training in Providenciales with this now being rolled out across the other Islands. • Informed the Council that the new $1m Community Centre on South Caicos opened by His Excellency this week also doubles as a hurricane shelter. • That fit for purpose generators are being
Firearm licences ready for collection
POLICE are asking Turks and Caicos Islands gun owners to collect their new firearm licenses. Anyone who has recently renewed a license can pick up their card from Salt Mills Police Post in Grace Bay, Providenciales. These can be collected between 10am and 4.30pm on Wednesday May 15 through to Friday May 18, with licensees asked to covertly walk with their firearms. Meanwhile anyone who has not yet renewed their license for 2012 must do so by May 31. RTCI Police Firearms Officer, Acting Inspector, Darron Williams, explained: “We are reminding all firearms license holders who have renewed their licenses for the current year that they now need collecting. It is obviously very important that this is done because anyone with a firearm must be in receipt of a current license or they will be breaking the law. And we would also urge anyone who intends to renew their license this year and has not yet done it, they must do so by May 31.” Gun owners who fail to obtain a current license, or have no intention of renewing, are warned that their firearms must be handed in to the police. Act Insp Williams added: “Failure to obtain a current license will automatically render the firearm illegal. Therefore, in accordance with the Firearms Ordinance, persons in possession of any firearm, who for any reason is unable to obtain a license to keep it, must immediately deposit it with the Commissioner of Police. “In such a case a receipt will be issued and any person failing to comply will be guilty of an offence.” Anyone wanting more information is asked to contact the police on 941-3327.
LOCAL NEWS
installed at all shelters ahead of this season. • That 29 emergency staff have been trained in Urban Search and Rescue Skills including how to carry out searches in the event of collapsed roof or flooded buildings, as well as first aid, mass casualty handling, search techniques, hazardous material handling, rope rescue, stress management, lifting and shoring of loads. • That European Union funding is being sought for a new multi-agency and departmental National Emergency Operations Centre on Grand Turk • A reminder that there will be a major disaster management exercise on Providenciales on 31 May-1 June 2012. Governor Ric Todd said: “The Council felt that TCIG had struck the right balance in its draft budget between paying off our historic debts, proving that our public finances are now better managed and that we can begin to reinvest in our infrastrucutre. I have often said that the sad state of repair of the Caicos Causeway, in particular, was an icon of the failure of Government, which is why I am so pleased that work will begin to repair it next month. “Both the members of the Advisory Council and I were also extremely impressed by the udpate from the Minsitry of Government Support Services. Their message was unequivical – we must hope for the best but always plan for the worst. Significant progress is being made across a number of important areas and this gives rise to our increased confidence in the nation’s ability to repsond to a catastrophe.”
Three more for trial at Supreme Court After two days of sufficiency hearings, High Court judge Madame Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale ruled that attorneys Chal Misick and Melbourne Wilson and former Cabinet minister McAllister “Piper” Hanchell will have to stand trial in the Supreme Court. The judge gave her decision with respect to two counts for Hanchell, two counts for Wilson and seven counts for Misick on Wednesday, but she returned to court on Thursday to rule on a particular indictment in relation to Misick who reported sick and was absent that day. The three men must return to court on July 10, 2012. Hanchell faces charges of conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to receive bribes in relation to the Salt Cay development, while Wilson’s charges are for conspiracy to defraud and money laundering in connection with
a condominium development at North West Point. Misick’s indictments were for conspiracy to receive bribes, conspiracy to defraud and money laundering, all relating to the Dellis Cay project, the North West Point development, the Juniper Hole land sale in Middle Caicos, Joe Grant’s Cay and the purchase of a Gulfstream jet for his brother, former Turks and Caicos Islands Premier Michael Misick. Judge Ramsay-Hale found that the evidence presented to her was sufficient for the accused to be tried before the Supreme Court on the allegations brought. Misick was represented by UKbased barrister Colin Awlott, while Hanchell’s lawyers were Laura Maroof and Mark Fulford. Wilson’s lawyer was not present. The lead prosecutor was Andrew Mitchell, QC, who was assisted by Robert Rinder.
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COMMENTARY COMMENTARY LOCAL NEWS Page Page66
TURKS AND CAICOS SUN
MARCH 16TH - MARCH 23RD, 2012
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012 & CAICOS SUN TURKS AND CAICOS SUN MARCH 16THTURKS - MARCH 23RD, 2012
MORE WASTE AND ABUSE! By Royal S. Robinson, MBE
EDITORIAL
Cartoon
at the computer Unit. On further examination of the site, there is a reference IIt must be very clear to with some information everyone now that this Interim with respect to the items: Administration pays scant regard company information and for due process or the insurance Team leadership. But with that they get value for money for respect to Case studies, services rendered. These were Client list and Teaming some of the things complained partners, there is nothing, about with respect to the last zilch. elected government. What we are That raised a red flag seeing though is the raising of the for me and should be of ante with respect to things that concern to the Interim are adversely affecting us. Administration. However, We had this right-sizing and they seem hell bent on voluntary severance scheme that ROYAL ROBINSON CONTRIBUTER denying Turks and Caicos is supposed to by now have been Islanders and filling those completed. It is amazing how ROYAL ROBINSON positions with foreign haphazard the exercise was. This CONTRIBUTER persons no matter what their skills set is or if they was by experts who came here ostensibly to show are truly fit for purpose. But what is even more us how to properly manage a transparent system troubling as I understand it, is these persons total that is free from abuse and for which everything access and control of the technology that we pay is vetted against the notion for getting value for Microsoft for. money. That cannot be right because when these Let us begin by looking at the Computer unit. jokers leave, and they will leave, they would have The sent the head home, along with some of the complete access to things that should be in the top key technicians. The idea was to down-size control of Turks and Caicos Islanders for Turks the unit. Now when the head left, he was being and Caicos Islands, since it is our over a $1M that paid a salary in the range $3,000.00 per month. was used to procure the various licenses. They brought in Mr. Grant and are paying We have to step up to the plate and take him over $8,500.00 per month, along with an our country back from these infidels. How long assistant that is being paid over $6,500.00 per can we carry o in this mode? I must comment month. Now tell me where in God’s name is the briefly on the apparent salary increases that have savings if the information that I have been given been made to certain persons recently. I am all is correct! To further add insult to injury, the for Turks and Caicos Islanders being paid a guys are not living up to the top billing that they proper wage commensurate with their role and have been given and as a result of that, the unit responsibility. was experiencing a number of “outages”. But in the present circumstances, these I went to the site of Caribbean Systematics actions seem suspect to say the least. We are Ltd. Of 53 Knutsford Blvd., Kingston 5, Jamaica still in a down-sizing mode, if you listen to the and found that Lorenzo Grant is the Chief various pronouncements that are coming from Executive Officer and Jonah Chisholm if the different quarters of the Administration, but yet Chief Operation Officer. These are two of the there is a selected few that have been singled out three man team that is responsible for the IT
EDITORIAL CARTOON EDITORIAL CARTOON
Turks and Caicos Sun Suite # 5, Airport Plaza Providenciales TurksTurks and and Caicos Sun Islands Caicos Suite # 5, Airport Plaza Tel: (649) 946-8542/ (649) 241-1510 Providenciales Fax: (649) 941-3281 Turks and Caicos Islands Email: sun@suntci.com Tel: (649) 946-8542/ (649) 241-1510 Fax:us (649) 941-3281 Read online at www.suntci.com Email: sun@suntci.com Publisher & Editor-in-Chief: Hayden Boyce Read us online www.suntci.com Senior Editor: at Vivian Tyson Web Designer: Patrina Moore-Pierre Publisher & Editor-in-Chief: Hayden Graphics Editor: Joleen Grant Boyce SeniorOffice Editor:Manager: Vivian Tyson Dominique Rigby Web Designer: Moore-Pierre DistributionPatrina Manger: Kelano Howell Graphics Editor: Joleen Grant ManagerAdvertising and Marketing OfficePatrina Manager: Dominique Rigby Moore-Pierre Distribution Manger: Kelano Howell ManagerAdvertising and Marketing The Turks and Caicos SUN is a subsidiary Patrina Moore-Pierre of The SUN Media Group Ltd. The Turks andcommitted Caicos SUN is a subsidiary We are to excellence in journalism, of The SUN Media Group educating and informing our Ltd. readers, serving and satisfying our advertisers and assisting in the overall to development the Turks and We are committed excellence inofjournalism, Caicos Islands. serving educating and informing our readers, and satisfying our advertisers and assisting in the overall development of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
for merit and reward. What is the yardstick that was used in granting these increases? It must have emanated from one of the mood swings from those at the top. In any event, I know that on the face of things, “something smells in Denmark and it is not cheese”! I am waiting to see how these things are accounted for in the “surplus budget” that is up for discussions in the Forum next week. We cannot say debated on and passed, because that is not the style of “slick Ric”. As far as he is concerned the standard is I heard what you say, but I am going to do it my way anyway. But as Billy Mills says TIME. Momma used to say, “You might do what you like, but it ain’t going to be as long as you like”!
TURKS & CAICOS SUN
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
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LOCAL NEWS
Dramatic court battle looms between TCAA, TCA Handling, SkyBlue Aviation By Vivian Tyson
The stage is set for the legal face-off between the Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority (TCIAA) and TCA Handling Ltd., and SkyBlue Aviation Ltd., who are objecting to the TCIAA entering into a joint venture deal with groundhandling company Servisair to operate at the Providenciales International Airport. The Supreme Court granted an injunction barring the TCIAA from moving forward with the deal until a decision was reached in the matter. The Ex Parte decision, which was handed down last Friday, May 11, by Justice Margaret RamseyHale stated: “1. Pending determination of the judicial review herein in which it is contended that the aforesaid Joint Venture, embodied in a Joint Venture Agreement dated 11th November 2011, is unlawful: “(a) The Respondent (The Queen and The Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority) shall take no further steps pursuant to or in furtherance of the Joint Venture with Servisair PLS Ltd. whether by waiver of any taxes or fees, or by providing facilities, equipment or services, or by granting permits or licences, or otherwise, under or pursuant to the Joint Venture Agreement, including through its nominee on the Board of Servisair PLS Ltd., Mr. Herbert Ingham. “2. For the avoidance of doubt, the Respondent shall not grant a ground handling licence and/ or permit to Servisair PLS Ltd. to operate ground handling services at Providenciales airport.” A date for the commencement of the matter was yet to be set, and while members of the opposing party saw the injunction as a first round victory, the Airports Authority is warning against premature celebration. Shawn Malcolm whose SkyBlue Aviation is
to kick-start its ground-handling business at the Providenciales International Airport soon, has hailed the decision by the Supreme Court to grant the injunction, labeling it as a corrupt deal. Malcolm said the injunction was a start to justice journey, arguing that a joint venture by the Airports Authority and Servisair would create an uneven playing field for the other ground-handling entities at the airport. “It is ridiculous. It is absurd that the Airports Authority or the CEO at the Airports Authority think that they can be the regulator and the competitor. That would put all the local entities at a disadvantage, and that is what we have been actually fighting against for the last couple of months. “Even if the Airports Authority comes out of the deal and allow Servisair, we would still have a problem; they would still have an unfair disadvantage because there obviously is a clear intimate relationship now between Servisair and the Airports Authority. So on this matter, they have lost credibility to ever being a fair player in the market,” Malcolm argued, adding that his company was making steps to get into the market in the near future. The attorney for the TCIAA, Guy Chapman, who was said to be out of the country on medical matters, had written to the court earlier indicating his intended absence. And according to John Smith, CEO for the Airports Authority, no one should begin to take a victory lap in the matter, since it could been be a different outcome were his entity represented in court. “There was an Ex Parte hearing in the absence of our counsel who couldn’t make it; at the time he was off. The judge issued an injunction for a cooling off until such time they have the judicial review. It will prove that we have done nothing illegal and
the other side would have to pay damages. That’s what it is,” Smith articulated. Added TCIAA Boss, “Our attorney was not there, he had to go off for medical reasons, and he wrote to the court to inform the court of his intentions. But when you are writing to a court, it is nothing like being in the court. You are writing, but you are not there to rebut. If he was there to rebut it (injunction request) would not have stood, but that is how it works. That was unfortunate,” Smith reiterated. In the meantime, Smith remained upbeat that when the final ruling is made, it would do so in favour of the Airports Authority, since the truth would come out that it did nothing illegal in entering into a joint venture with Servisair to offer ground-handling service at the airport. “I am always am (upbeat). There is nothing that will shake me. There is one thing I will always say and is that my integrity remains in check. And if you (The SUN) could go back and read one of the articles in your old paper that was written by Mr. (Albray) Butterfield (Jr., Head of TCA Handling); what did he say? He said ‘the Airports Authority, they operate legally; there was nothing illegal about their actions’. “Then ask yourself, if that is the case, then why are you challenging the thing in court? If somebody makes noise, that is what the courts are there for. And then they say ‘oh, I got a victory’. You don’t have a victory; the matter has not been heard yet. Those who are talking did not say that ‘if it is found that the TCAA is operating legally, we have to pay them for damages’. They are not saying that, but they would say other things,” he argued. Smith concluded that those who were opposed to the TCIAA /Servisair joint venture knew that the deal was not illegal, but they just did not like transaction.
Fees for police records to increase
FEES for obtaining police records and certificates of character are set to rise. RTCI Police will raise the cost of the service from $5 to $10 from June 1. The move comes as part of an efficiency drive within the force, being overseen by new Director of Corporate Services, Peter Davis. But despite the increase, Mr Davis insists the service represents ‘good value for money’, with the TCI’s fees remaining one of the lowest in the Caribbean. He explained: “We have recently undertaken an extensive review of this service and what is clear is that the $5 we charge for police records and certificates of character doesn’t actually cover the cost of producing them. “The $5 fee has been in place for many years and it has not changed despite continued
inflation and other revenue considerations. “Producing police records costs a lot of money in terms of staff hours, facilities and critical resources and so the increase is long overdue. But I would like to stress that even at $10 there is no profit and so the RTCI Police will not be making money from this.” He added: “We acknowledge that this is an essential public service with people needing these important documents for immigration and employment purposes. But even at $10, the service remains great value for money and one of the cheapest in the Caribbean. “I know of many other places where the public are charged more for similar police services and making money from this is certainly not our motive. Instead, it is simply a case of covering costs in production and making the best use of
the budget in service provision.” Meanwhile Mr Davis revealed that a corporate service review within the police service is on-going and will bring further changes. He added: “The budget for the RTCI Police service is increasingly under pressure and ways of achieving savings and best value have to be found. The focus of maintaining police services whilst reducing cost and wastage.” “We are looking at many different aspects of the organisation to see where savings can be made and where more resources can be directed towards day to day policing on the streets of the TCI. “It’s a challenging process in change, but one that will remain ongoing as we seek to make this public sector service as cost effective and efficient as possible.”
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LOCAL LOCAL NEWS NEWS
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, TURKS AND CAICOS SUN2012
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012 TURKS & CAICOS SUN
Keith Burant appointed official liquidator of West Caicos Development By Vivian Tyson
Last week, The SUN reported that the Supreme Court in Providenciales issued a winding up order of Logwood Development, the company that is responsible for the development of the West Caicos Reserve, which, on completion was supposed to have been emblazoned with the Ritz Carlton brand. The decision came out of a lengthy court battle between Logwood Development and construction firms Astrom International/Turquoise Construction for millions of dollars owed to the latter, who had appeared to have exhausted all avenues to recoup it. The project hit a snag after its main financier Lehman Brothers fell victim to the Wall Street-triggered world recession. Ashtrom International/Turquoise Construction petitioned the court to have the construction liquidated so that they could receive the funds
owed. The following is the order given by the court: Upon hearing Counsel for the Petitioner and Counsel for the Respondent. AND UPON the hearing of the Petition herein and the Petitioner’s summons to appoint Mr. Keith Burant as Official Liquidator of the Company; IT IS ORDERED that: 1. The Company be wound up; 2. The Company’s application to stay this Order pending appeal be refused; 3. The Company’s application to stay this Order pending renewal of its stay application to a Single Judge of the Court of Appeal be refused 4. Mr Keith Burant be appointed as Official Liquidator of the Company with the following powers: (a) to bring or defend any action, suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings, whether civil or
criminal, in the name and on behalf of the company; (b) to carry on the business of the company so far as may be necessary for the beneficial winding up thereof; (c) to sell the real and personal property, effects and choses in action of the company by public auction or private contract, with power to transfer the whole thereof to any person or company, or to sell the same in parcels; (d) to do all acts and to execute, in the name and on behalf of that company, all deeds, receipts and other documents; and for that purpose to use, when necessary, the company’s seal; (e) to prove, rank, claim and draw a dividend in the matter of the bankruptcy or insolvency of any contributory for any balance against the estate of such contributory, and to take and receive dividends in respect of such balance, in the matter of bankruptcy or insolvency, as a separate debt due from such bankrupt or insolvent, and rate ably with the other separate creditors; (f) to draw, accept, make and endorse any bill of exchange or promissory note in the name and on behalf of the company, and from time to time raise upon the security of the assets of the company any requisite sum or sums of money;
UNITED CONSULTANT IMMIGRATION SERVICE Old Airport Road, Providenciales, TC Tel: 649-346-7875 On behalf of clients: Lyte convenience
Domestic Worker (salary $5.00 ph)
Petition filing for: USA, Canada, Europe, Turks & Caicos Is. Visa *Work Permit* Passport PRC * Naturalization *Business License* Resident Permit * Belonger * International Driver License* Justice of the peace*
and the drawing, accepting, making or endorsing of every such bill of exchange or promissory note as aforesaid on behalf of the company shall have the same effect with respect to the liability of such company as if such bill or note had been drawn, accepted, made or endorsed by or on behalf of the company in the course of the carrying on of the business thereof; (g) to take out in his official name letters of administration to any deceased contributory, and to do in his official name any other act necessary for obtaining payment of any moneys due from a contributory or from his estate which cannot be conveniently done in the name of the company; and in any such case any moneys due shall, for the purpose of enabling him to take such letters or recover such moneys, be deemed to be due to the Official Liquidator himself; (h) to do and execute all such other things as may be necessary for winding up the affairs of the company and distributing its assets; and (i) to appoint an attorney to assist him with the performance of his duties. 5. The Petitioner has its costs of the Petition and of the Company’s application to stay this Order. 6. The Company’s application for a Validation Order be stood out to a date to be fixed.
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TURKS & CAICOS SUN
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MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
BY VIVIAN TYSON
LOCAL NEWS
Civil Service not hiring
Government has denied reports that it plans to embark on a rehiring process to fill positions left behind by a number of individuals who were granted government severance packages earlier this year. The hiring of civil servants has been a hot topic at a number of hang out spots, including bars, barber shops and hairdressing parlours. Some persons were so convinced that such an exercise would take place that they decided to file applications. On the other hand, some blasted government for allowing so many persons to go, and was now contemplating a campaign to hire new persons for those positions. However, when The SUN contacted Neil Smith, Spokesman for the Governor’s Officer regarding the topical issue, he flatly denied it, stressing instead that it was a recycled rumour that surfaced every other week, and was also an attempts to destabilize
progress made by government so far. Smith pointed out that if government was planning to rehire, it would have issued a public notice to that effect. “No truth (to the allegation). This is a rumour that reappears every couple of weeks. Were it true we’d tell you,” he said. Approximately 400 persons were axed from the civil service at the end of March this year, as part of governments move to better able to manage the system and to make it more effective, while cutting cost in a bid to balance the budget for the 2012/2013 fiscal year. Balancing the budget is one of the eight milestones that if achieved, would allow the Turks and Caicos Islands to return to self rule. About 700 of the approximately 2,500
civil servants applied but Government said that it was unable to grant all their wishes because some were too vital to the sector, while others would be too expensive to let go. A number of civil servants took the package because they see it as an opportunity for them to retrain and do other things with their lives, while others said they were just tired of working in government for so many years and would be happy to get an opportunity to either change their careers or find work in the private sector. The Voluntary Severance Scheme packages ranged from a low of $13,000 to a high of $90,000. It was rumoured that many of the persons who were successful in their package application should not have been granted the deal, since they were crucial to the service being reshaped. However, such statement was dismissed by the administration.
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LOCAL NEWS
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
TURKS & CAICOS SUN
Cops upset about being denied severance package By Vivian Tyson
Some police officer of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force are still upset at not receiving their Voluntary Severance Scheme package that Government offered to members of the civil service earlier this year, stressing that they were banking on the package to make life-changing careers, but now those hopes have been dashed. Responding to an article in last week’s edition of The SUN newspaper, no fewer than six cops, who said they applied for the package but were denied, argued that they did not see a tangible future for them in the force after so many years of service. Commissioner of Police Colin Farquhar said in an interview with this newspaper last week, that about 26 police officers applied for the package and about nine were successful. The SUN has learnt that former superintendent Ralph Doughty was the highest ranking officer to have received the package. Another senior officer – Simon Talbot – of the Marine Branch was also said
to have receive his package. But while challenging the number of applicants put forward by Commissioner Farquar, some of the cops claimed that after making their submissions for the packages, they were assured by their superiors that their request would be granted, but was heavily disappointed when they were told on the day of the deadline that the force could not afford to release them because they were vital to its stability. “It was like someone used a dagger to stab me in the heart; that was how I felt when I was told that they were not going to grant it to me. It would not have hurt so badly if I was told much earlier that my chance would be 50/50. At least I would tell myself that I could get it as well s I may not get it, but to assure me all along, and then to tell me on the final day that I would be denied, that hurts a lot,” one of the officers said. Another cop who said he was forced to go on vacation based on the accumulated days that he had racked up over the years, claimed that he was told by a member of the police hierarchy that they could not do without him even though he had been out of
the system for almost a year. “Now, whether or not they withdrew their request, I do not know, but I know from a fact that there were more that on hundred. What they are telling me is foolishness. I am out of the system for almost a year. The force is continuing without me, so how come you are telling me that you can’t don without me? That is a bunch of crap; these guys are out to kill people. And I can tell you that more than one hundred cops applied for that package that I knew of. They really upset me a lot. People are very upset, a lot of police are going to work now just because they have to go, there is no enthusiasm anymore in the force. If you ask me, I don’t want go back, but if I go and resign now, what am I going to get? Almost nothing. I wanted a change of career, and I was depending on the money to from the severance package to do so, but they denied me that opportunity and now I am back to square one,” the upset cop said.
TURKS CAICOS SUNSUN TURKS&AND CAICOS
Page 11 Page 11
LOCALNEWS NEWS LOCAL
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012 MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
Digicel, International Banking Group and Enid Capron Primary School Partner to Clean Up Five Cays. The settlement of Five Cays is shining a little brighter thanks to Digicel, International Banking Group (IBG) and the Enid Capron Primary School who teamed up on May 5th to give the community an extra shine shortly after Earth Day. The cleanup campaign attracted participation from over 90 persons from the three organizations who came out to volunteer their time and clean trash from along the roadsides in Five Cays. The partnership between the three organizations came about after Digicel announced its Go Green campaign to become the ecofriendly telecommunications GREEN leader in the Turks & Caicos market. IBG who are pursing similar initiatives contacted Digicel to forge a partnership in its Go Green efforts. The Enid Capron Primary naturally joined the cause since the Five Cays community was the selected area for the cleanup campaign. “International Banking Group’s decision to partner with Digicel in this event is a result of our awareness of the needs within our community”, said Kenny Bovell, General Manager. “We are pleased that we can continually make a difference in our community and especially one that deals with environmental awareness. It is our hope that this event will become an annual event and that this will encourage the entire community to become more environmentally conscious”, he said. As a result of the volunteers’ hard work and
Digicel, IBG and ECPS take a quick photo break from the cleanup.
dedication to the cause, some 250 bags of garbage were collected, including bottles and cans which were separated into recycle and non-recycle materials by the students. Trina Adams, Marketing Specialist for Digicel, stated that the cleanup campaign was indeed a success and it was especially great to see so many students from Enid Capron Primary take part in the cleanup. Adams further stated that she thought the students learnt the importance of keeping their community clean and volunteering their time for a good cause. Additionally, Mrs. Rachel Taylor, Principal of the Enid Capron Primary stated that she is always enthused when it comes to community initiatives especially in the area of helping to
maintain a cleaner community. The support of the students are always encouraging as this creates an opportunity not only for the students to give back to the community but to allow them to model the behaviours that will remain with them as they learn to keep their environment clean, green and pristine. The introduction of the Recycling Programme at the school works hand in hand with the numerous Cleanup Campaigns creating a greater awareness of cleanliness. Thanks to DIGICEL for their relentless efforts in helping to improve the lives of the students and residents of Five Cays. Together we can make a big difference. The organizations hope to continue their partnership going forward and look forward to partnering with other organizations in the TCI which are attempting to go green.
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LOCAL NEWS
JANUARY 13TH - JANUARY 20TH, 2012
TURKS & CAICOS SUN
Former Premier denies gifts from David Smith
Press Statement from Michael Misick
The regulation of the financial services has always being the special responsibility of the British-appointed Governor in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Governor has always been, then and now, directly supervising the issuing of licenses and has had general oversight for that industry. Whether it was Governor Jim Poston, Governor Richard Tauwhare, Governor Gordon Wetherell, or now Governor Ric Todd, they have always had full and absolute responsibility for the monitoring and regulation of the financial services industry. Let me be very clear. At no time in the history of our country has any local government had the responsibility for the financial services industry. Having said that, I wish to set the record straight, in light of recent press statements and a Supreme Court document about donations from David Smith. I met David Smith in the summer of 2003, long after coming to office as then Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands. When I met David Smith, he and his companies were licensed to carry on business in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
To be sure, I was not involved at any stage in the granting of his licenses and I had absolutely no business, officially or otherwise, with Mr Smith. As Chief Minister and then Premier, it was my job to promote the Turks and Caicos Islands as an excellent place to invest and do business, and I did that to the best of my ability, hence the success that we’ve had as a country in attracting several millions of dollars in foreign direct investment. That apart, as the years passed on, I saw Mr Smith and his family in various places including church. I have never received, directly or indirectly, $25,000 from Mr Smith as a gift or as a campaign contribution. The assertion made by him or whoever in the recently released Supreme Court documents is completely false and is yet another attempt by this illegitimate British Interim Administration to tarnish my name and my reputation. I am totally convinced that they will stop at nothing to try to rewrite history, as they have done for generations to cover up their incompetence and their plot to re-colonise the Turks and Caicos Islands and other British Overseas Territories such as the Cayman Islands, Anguilla, and Bermuda. The true history of me and my administration is one of progress and unprecedented growth for
the Turks and Caicos Islands, where we took care of the old by providing national insurance pension and decent health care for them and employment, education, jobs and business opportunities for the youth and middle-age citizens. As we say in the islands, when a man is down, everyone wants to get a kick on him. I have watched and listened to so many people blame me for everything and have called me everything except a child of God. As a proud Turks and Caicos Islander I am very proud of my accomplishments and those of my ministers and the Progressive National Party while we were in government. The persons who believe in the truth, when they search their hearts, will be reminded and admit that what I am saying is true! Despite the hardships, the pain and suffering that the British Government and their Interim Administration continue to inflict on our people, I still dream of a homeland where we in the Turks and Caicos Islands are proud united, independent and free from the chains of colonial slavery. That is my prayer. May God help us all, and may He bless our great country, the Turks and Caicos Islands.
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LOCAL NEWS TURKS & CAICOS SUN
MARCH 23RD - MARCH 30TH, 2012
TCI now has qualified Mass Casualty/ Urban Search and Rescue Experts
Page 13
LOCAL NEWS
provided an added opportunity and platform which allows us to build on alliances that have already been forged towards a collective vision and for the reduction of disaster risk, and promotion of sustainable Issue #11 WITH LILLIAN BOYCE By Vivian Tyson livelihoods and economic and social progress through the use of The Turks and Caicos Islands now search and rescue and mass casualty has an Urban Search and Rescue as handling techniques,” Boyle said. well as a Mass Casualty Unit that He stressed that with the would lead the charge in the wake of acquisition of mass casualty a disaster where persons have been management and search and rescue affected, this feat was achieved skills, the TCI could now be confident when 26 persons just this past week that it would have the wherewithal to completed training comprising mitigate any effects brought on by lectures, drills and simulation the upcoming hurricane season. exercises at various locations on In the meantime, Drexwell Providenciales. Seymour, Country Manager for Fifteen persons completed LIME said he was happy to facilitate the Urban Search and Rescue the training at his building, and programme and will now be known that his company was always a as T-CERT (Turks and Caicos strong believer in nation building. Emergency Response Team), while He said also that it was important : CEO of the Civil Service, Patrick Boyle (seated at centre) are pictured with graduates of the Mass 11 completed the Mass Casualty for the country to have such a unit Casualty and Urban Search and Rescue training and their trainers as well as Deputy Permanent training. The Urban Search and Secretary in the Ministry of Government Support Services, Virginia Clerveaux (seated at second left). established, since it would militate Rescue programme lasted for five against man-made and natural the people of the Turks and Caicos disasters. weeks, while the Mass Casualty training lasted for one week – Education received funding and Islands. The workshop provided an Tammika Lall, 911 Programme coinciding with the final week of the technical support from the Pan opportunity to revisit our disaster risk Manager, who was chosen to give Urban Search and Rescue exercise. American Health Organisation for a management strategies and to share the class’s response, noted that one of The training was conducted by number of years to train persons of best practice and lessons learned the factors that allowed a number of Ron Mobley and Dwayne Straun, the TCI in mass casualty management, through a spectrum of workshops, persons to complete the course was of United National Development saying that last year a trainer of programmes and policies, the level of camaraderie shown over “From the perspective of the the period. She said that they went in Programme (UNDP). Mobley is trainers course was completed and Chief Operating Officer for the from which seven local trainers TCIG, this workshop has also as individuals and came out as a unit. Caribbean Emergency Responders benefited. “This course is designed Training Academy (CERTA), while specifically to teach the country how Straun is the CEO of CERTA. A great deal of the training as to deal with mass casualty incidents, well as the Graduation ceremony which may overwhelm their limited on Monday, May 14, took place on resources. Trained persons are taught the compound of telecoms provider to response to different mass casualty LIME, along the Leeward Highway. incidents, so as many individuals as The individuals were drawn possible can be saved. “With PAHO ongoing approach, from a number of government and private entities, such as the police, we hope to conduct further training Fire and Rescue, immigration, the with our local trainers and expand the DECR, 911, Land and Survey, pool of persons in the TCI who are trained in mass casualty management. Public Works and the Red Cross. Deputy Permanent Secretary in We recognize the importance of this the Ministry of Government Support course and its value to the Turks and Services Virginia Clerveaux, said Caicos in allowing us to prepare that the individuals were equipped for any mass casualty incident. As with the skills to undertake light a small island nation it is important search and rescue procedures and to build capacity to respond to these types of incidents,” she said. respond to mass casualty events. Head of the Civil Service, Patrick Clerveaux urged the participants Boyle, who gave the main address to hunger after further knowledge and added skills so that they and at the event, described the training the TCI would benefit from their as a timely and relevant undertaken, since it was intended to enhance the achievements. “I sincerely hope that this country’s capacity to efficiently and ceremony today marks the beginning effectively provide urban search and of your commitment to working rescue expertise to the Turks and effectively as a team and to respond Caicos. “Having lived in the TCI over to disaster events throughout the the past year, and I would not TCI and the wider Caribbean. I must admonish you to seize opportunities forget the level of organization and to further enhance your knowledge community spirit that have allowed and develop requisite sets. Those a number of people on our islands attributes will further enhance TCI’s to live and work and move freely ability to mitigate, to prepare, to around, and to be entertained, be respond and quickly recover from protected and to conduct their daily the impact of various hazards,” she business. The birth of team T-CERT represents yet another testament of said. your organizational and leadership Director for Health Services, Dr. Nadia Astwood told the gathering qualities, as well as a spirit of that the Ministry of Health and community which distinguishes
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LOCAL NEWS LOCAL NEWS
NOTICE OF SALE BY PUBLIC AUCTION Scotiabank (Turks & Caicos) Ltd. of Cherokee Road, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands hereby gives notice of its intention to sell by Public Auction the following properties pursuant to its power of sale as registered Chargee under the Registered Land Ordinance of the Turks and Caicos Islands: 1. Parcel 61109/4 Long Bay Hills Providenciales, comprising of a single storey residence containing two bedrooms one bathroom, a kitchen, living and dining room. Registered Proprietor: Rickandro Samarl Lightbourne 2. Parcel 60900/226 - Leeward Going Through Providenciales, comprising of a single storey residence containing three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living and dining room, and external deck. Registered Proprietor: Oscar Keith Talbot and Florinda Louise Talbot 3. Parcel 10308/42 Central, Grand Turk, comprising of a two storey residence with a single one bedroom one bathroom guest unit located on the ground floor. The upper floor comprises of two bedrooms with two large walk in closets, one bathroom and a laundry closet. Registered Proprietor: Kendle Berdette Williams and Tanya Doreen Cox 4. Parcel 60906/100/K1, Leeward Going Through Providenciales, comprising of a two storey three bedroom, two bathroom condominium providing two ensuite bedrooms to the ground floor with open plan living room, dining room and kitchen, complete with enclosed private deck. The second floor is accessed by an access ladder and provides the third dormer style bedroom. Registered Proprietor: Nicholas Anthony Raymakers and Indhira Beatriz Castillo Hiraldo 5. Parcel 10104/42, North East Suburbs, Grand Turk, comprising of a single storey residence containing four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, living and dining room, and utility closet. Registered Proprietor: Lorraine Marcella Elizabeth-Ann Kenlock-Bovell and Weston Edward Livingston Bovell 6. Parcel 60811/23 The Bight & Thomas Stubbs Providenciales, comprising of a single storey residence containing three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living and dining room. Registered Proprietor: Oleta Louise Robinson 7. Parcel 60604/17 Norway and Five Cays Providenciales, comprising of a single storey residence containing four bedrooms, two and a half baths, a kitchen, living and dining room. The house provides good elevation giving excellent views towards the ocean. Registered Proprietor: Timothy Moriah Nash and Delores Oleta Rigby Nash 8. Parcel 10409/96 East Suburbs Grand Turk, comprising of a single storey residence containing three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, living and dining room. Registered Proprietor: Vanessa Denise Forbes 9. Parcel 60503/123 Blue Hills & Stamers Run Providenciales, comprising of a single storey residence containing four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living and dining room with exterior patio. Registered Proprietor: Vylma Patricia Scriven 10. Parcel 60505/228 Blue Hills & Stamers Run Providenciales, comprising of a single storey residential building with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an open plan living, dining and kitchen area. Registered Proprietor: Angela Sharonna Jennings 11. Parcel 60900/170 Leeward Going Through Providenciales, comprising of a single storey residential building with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living and dining room. There is a two car garage, fencing and an entrance gate to the front of the property. Registered Proprietor: Floyd Lyndon Ingham and Cherrie Romayne Ingham 12. Parcel 60907/229/K9 Leeward Going Through, Providenciales, comprising of a two bedroom, two and a half bath townhouse at the Provo Golf Club with a kitchen, living and dining area. The property benefits the view of the first tee and comes with half price golf membership and access to a pool which is shared between 9 units. Registered Proprietor: Simon Richard Padgett and Lisa Jane Cusack The auction will be held at the offices of Scotiabank (Turks and Caicos) Limited, Grace Bay Branch, Providenciales at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday the 1st day of June 2012 A reserve price will be fixed on all parcels. A deposit of 10% is due immediately upon all accepted bids. Terms and Conditions of Sale by Auction are available by request from Scotiabank Collections Manager (649) 946-4750.
LOCAL NEWS
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012 TURKS & CAICOS SUN TURKS AND CAICOS SUN MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
TURKS CAICOS SUNSUN TURKS&AND CAICOS
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LOCAL LOCAL NEWS NEWS
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012 MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
Beaches Staff Drops 45 pounds for Fitness Competition
Beaches Turks & Caicos crowned its 3rd annual Fit- to-Serve fitness competition winner last week when the resort hosted a cocktail celebration to celebrate the weight loss success of three of its employees. The resort joined forces with the renowned Athletic Club at the Salt Mills Plaza to launch the annual Fitto-Serve Fitness challenge geared towards empowering, encouraging and motivating employees to get fit and lead a healthy lifestyle. This year’s competition featured the three staff that went head-tohead for top ‘Beaches biggest looser’ title. Top prize went to Concierge Agent, Claudine Boyce who beat out two tough competitors by shedding an astonishing 24 lbs. for the competition. Spa associate, Natrice William was crowned first runner up for her 16lbs weight loss, while Food & beverage Secretary Selman Delancy took third prize. Claudine Boyce a mother of two who started the competition at 196 lbs. explained earlier in the competition that the motivation behind joining this fitness challenge was not only to enhance her self-confidence and build more energy to keep up with her two boys but to also gain control of her weight-related ailments. She expressed her excitement with her victory, she said, “This weight loss challenge has definitely boosted my self-confidence, and also enhanced my energy levels to not only do everyday activities with my two
boys but also improve the quality of service I offer this resort,” she concluded, “I am so happy I joined this competition and thank Beaches Resorts for this amazing life-altering opportunity.” The goal of the fitness challenge is to motivate employees to eat well and be more active while learning important healthy habits that can be applied to their everyday lives. Nancy Mizinski, Director of The Athletic Club, who partnered with the resort in designing a workout program and also worked closely with the competitors, also commented “Determination equals transformation and the 45 Lbs. shed by these contestants is evident of that” she continued, “Consistency and discipline was the key to this fitness challenge, We met with each of the participants to discuss their goals and came up with a plan for each of them that was realistic to their lifestyle. The participants not only had a daily fitness routine, they also joined in on The Athletic Club Fat Blasting Boot Camp for 10 days” and concluded, “Their daily routines include fitness classes, strength and cardio training.” General Manager of Beaches Resorts, Don Dagenais was delighted by the initiative these three managers have taken. In response to the positive turn-out for the challenge he said, “Leading a healthy life style is not only for the work environment but it is a life time commitment,” he continued, “I applaud the three
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Claudine Boyce Before.After
employees who have taken charge and are leading the way to becoming better and healthier individuals.” Earlier this year the resort invited employees to submit a 50 word essay explaining why they should be selected to enter the program. The three contestants have lost a combined weight of 45 lbs. Runner-ups Natrice Williams and Selma Delancy were
awarded gifts such as Bicycle and certificate of achievement, while top prize winner Claudine Boyce also took home Gift certificates for new wardrobe, professional photo shoot package courtesy of the Resort Snap Shop Spa Gift Certificates and six months of free Gym membership at The Athletic Club in the Salt Mills Plaza.
POSITIONS AVAILABLE InterIsland Aviation Services Group InterIsland Aviation Services Group is seeking: 1 Accounts Clerk Must have accounting certification from an accredited Accounting school. Must have five or more years of experience of working with Quick books. Must be able to process payroll for 100 plus employees 2 Aircraft Mechanics Experience working on piston and turbo-propeller aircraft. Responsible for inspecting, servicing, repairing and testing aircraft, engines and related systems as directed. Read, understand and work from aircraft maintenance manuals and specifications. 1 Ramp and Safety Manager Candidate must have 10 years or more experience with Ramp handling and hold the following certification: • Ramp handling • Dangerous goods • Load control • Air cargo security • Supervising Aircraft Handling • Management of airside Safety • Dangerous goods instructor Must be also knowledgeable and experienced in maintaining Ramp Procedures Manual with
current and accurate documentation of procedures. • Ability to Train and certify all Ramp Staff to operate effectively, maintenance of records of Ramp Courses and Training done. • Responsible for retraining on a regular and punctual basis. • Responsible for the assessment and Ensuring compliance with all safety issues. • Ability to perform Station Audits. Must have strong supervisory skills . All positions require the following: • Excellent command of the English language – reading, writing and speaking. • Good communication skills and team player • Detail oriented & organized individual • Ability to work shifts, early mornings, late nights, weekends and Holidays. • Clean police record • Able to work under pressure Salary commensurate with experience. Belongers need only apply. Interested applicants should apply to HR@flyairtc.com or via fax to HR Department 649946-4040. No phone calls please. Qualified candidates will be contacted for an interview.
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LOCAL LOCAL NEWS NEWS
TURKS SUN2012 MAY AND 18TH CAICOS - MAY 25TH,
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012 TURKS & CAICOS SUN
Claudette Clare represents TCI at International Book Fair in London
BY VIVIAN TYSON
Amazing – that was how Claudette Clare, owner of New Age Book Centre in Providenciales, and the Turks and Caicos Islands representative for Nelson Thornes Publishers, described the International Book Fair that she attended in London, England in April. Clare was not only startled by the level of technologies that she saw in the publishing realm at the international exhibition of journals and book accessories but also the global interest that the book fair generated. “On the first day over 500 persons were there; it was massive. It was an experience that I never had before - the magnitude of it, the breadth of technology, the linkages that you form and the contacts that you meet. I never knew that there were so many book publishers and publishing houses that existed. I was able to go to the source; the home base of these different companies because their reps were there, and I was able to also see in terms of choice, who I would want to do business with. I was able to set-up accounts with some of the publishers like Oxford, McMillan, Penguin and others.” Clare explained. Clare said while she was mesmerized by the vast levels of technologies on display at the event, e-book or electronic book technology was one of the medium term goal achievements that she would want to pursue so that the Turks and Caicos Islands could have better access to books and other journals.
“The whole thing of e-book; that is something that I would want to pursue at some later date, and I was also impressed by the level of book accessories that were available, such as little lamps and magnets that you can attach to the pages – oh, the ideas are fantastic. “I also never knew that there were so many publishers coming out of India itself and China, who would provide service like this to the western world, even to the Caribbean,” she said, adding that the event also attracted a number of book shippers. The takeaway that Clare received from attending the book fair was: “I want to build a business that is efficient; a business that can meet the needs of our Provo community and by extension the community of the Turks and Caicos Islands,” she said. She told The SUN that she had already approached government with a proposal to allow her to initially source text books for schools in Zone Two, comprising schools from Providenciales, Middle Caicos and North Caicos. “I have already been liaising with the new assistant PS (permanent Secretary) and the Department of Education, so I am now waiting on them,” Clare revealed, saying also that her business was already getting a great deal of support from the schools on Providenciales, such as British West Indies Collegiate, Ianthe Pratt Primary and Enid Capron Primary, as well as from individuals within the community. She said that the New Age Book
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Claudette Clare (second right) is seen with other Nelson Thornes Caribbean colleagues. From left – Barbara Arrineli – Antigua; Berndette Flyn – Nelson Thornes’ Caribbean Representative; Thomas Cane, Officer in Charge of Caribbean/Latin America; and Kevin Fullerton, the Nelson Thornes representative for Jamaica.
Centre was the successor of the now defunct New Age Academy and Language Centre, which paved the way for college and vocational education for a number of Turks and Caicos Islanders. “I had the school before, and obviously I was buying books and bringing them in, but those books were sold to the children. After I closed, I had an inventory, and yes, I had given away a lot of stuff to different places and schools. But then, I had this inventory of brand new books, and one day the thought came to me, ‘why not have a bookstore? Because there is always needs, and people having to go wherever to get these books, let me bring the service to Provo’. That is how
New Age Book Centre was born. “Although it is New Age Book Centre, we do other things, because I personally have other skills. Although I am not pushing teaching – I have 40 years of that – I cannot stop translating because, though I am fluent Spanish, I still need that practice. So, I have the bookstore, the translation service and Mr. (Bill) Clare (her husband), of course, he is a notary public and justice of the peace; all of those things happen here,” she said. Clare revealed that in the medium term, she intends to expand her establishment, to sell other merchandise that comes with the bookselling businesses.
TURKS & CAICOS SUN
Page 17
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
Washanda Regisgtre wins the 2012 TCI Top Model Contest!
On Saturday May12th, 16 year old Washanda Registre from the Kew, North Caicos was named the 2012 TCI Top Model! As contestant number one, stood out and charged to the fore with her Amazonian look, smooth cocoa skin tone, lithe physique and marvelous personality. The bubbly 5’10” local beauty not only won the contest, but also captured ‘Industry Readiness’, ‘Best Body’ and strutted off with‘ Fashion Forward’ awards. “This is an amazing feeling. I’m so ecstatic! This is really a dream come true,” said the Clement Howell High School fifth form student who enjoys reading, socializing with her peers as well as participating in track meets. “Winning TCI Top Model is the beginning of a wonderful journey. A lot of avenues are now open to me, and I’m more than ready to take the fashion world by storm! New York, Paris, Milan – look out for Washanda!” The TCI Top Model Contest & Fashion Extravaganza was a cultural and colorful explosion, which saw a catwalk competition of nine (9) beautiful young ladies vying for the title of TCI Top Model 2012. The event also featured the collections of TCI Fashion Designers of Kazz Forbes of Saint George Fashion House’s ‘Island Breeze: A La Mer’ and Jermall Williams’ Jeritt Jermell Collection ‘Fashic Goddess’. There were also performances by Leeward Heights, Mike Dizzo and Co, Ryesha Higgs and Ruben Altidor. Saturday’s show at The Williams Auditorium in Providenciales was packed to the gills as the contestants and models took to the 60 feet runway, strutting their stuff in some of the most festive carnival and avant guarde attire to Techno Sound. Ashley Smith, the 2010 TCI Top Model opened Carnivalé in a glamorous white, silver and diamonté ensemble, with Davia Chambers, the 2009 TCI Supermodel closing the segment in gold. Carnivalé: Culture, Music, Fashion! The theme for this year’s event - saw a multi-media and video presentation that left the audience in awe. The contestants were featured in six video segments: the opening montage that captivated
Willandra Elliott
Washanda Registre, 2012 TCI Top Model
the audience, an about the TCI Top Model Contest & Fashion Extravaganza, its history, training, sponsors and those that make it an overwhelming success; this, along with the contestants performing in a commercial element. As the winner of the 2012 TCI Top Model Contest, Washanda receives an opportunity of a lifetime. She will be named Digicel TCI Brand Ambassador for a year appearing on advertising campaigns for TV, print, billboards and making appearances at Digicel TCI events. She receives a Digicel TCI post-paid cellular phone for a year. Washanda will be featured on the cover and in an editorial spread in the 2012 Summer Times of the Islands magazine along with a profile page in the 2013 Destination: Turks and Caicos Islands. She wins a round trip ticket to New
Breanna Johnson
LOCAL NEWS
York and a $500.00 Savings Account CIBC First Caribbean International Bank. She wins a Parrot Cay Weekend get-away; a Spa Gift package at Regent Palms; a $150.00 gift certificate to Jai’s; $150 gift certificate of a dinner for two at Gracie’s Cottage, Point Grace; a one month’s membership to Rock It Hot Fitness; $500 gift certificate to Wish Boutique; and a Brilliant by Tropical Imaging Ltd photo-shoot. Not only did Washanda win TCI Top Model, more so - both visiting agents are interested in her, and want her in New York this July. The agents included Roman Young, Director of Scouting and the Women’s Board at Wilhelmina Model Management and Tahlani Knight, Director of the Women’s Division at Q Management. Both agents were also interested in 2nd Runner-Up Vielka Salvador; with Q Management expressing interest in Breanna Johnson, as they both showed potential to be a top model on the fashion scene. The Wilhelmina Director was also interested in Wilandra Elliott and Brittney Bien-Aime, with Q Women’s Director being interested in Ryesha Higgs and Brittney Bien-Aime. “These high fashion agencies jumped at the chance at coming to the Turks and Caicos to scout for a new face to develop and represent in the mega business that is beauty and fashion; and they did,” said Executive Producer Robinson. ”Year on year, more contestants and models are selected, and this bodes well for the event, and those that are serious about having careers in fashion.” ”I am more than pleased how the event turned out. The level of professionalism and presentation will continue to get better each year. Our intention is not only to have a model contest, but to produce a high caliber event that all involved can feel proud and privileged that they were a partner in its success.” Robinson went on to add: “I am truly honored to head a team that is passionate about giving those in the Turks and Caicos Islands an opportunity to shine, a platform to debut, and the tools to grow. This event is our way of giving back to our community and our hope is that everyone moving forward can dream big, follow it to the fullest, and help establish a creative industry in these “Beautiful By Nature” islands.”
Vielka Salvador, 2nd Runner Up, 2012 TCI Top Model Contest
Ashley Smith, 2012 TCI Top Model
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MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
LOCAL NEWS
Victor Gorman, Retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police Staff Sergeant in a demonstration.
TURKS & CAICOS SUN
Crime scene police personnel participate in the training
Crime scenes officers get special training By Vivian Tyson
Ten Scenes of Crime Officer from the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police received vital crime scene examination training techniques this week that are bound to give them impetus to solving crime more effectively, courtesy of a workshop conducted by a pair of retired senior forensic specialists from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Retired staff sergeants Craig Tamash told The
SUN that on completion by himself and fellow retired RCMP staff sergeant Victor Gorman, the local forensics police would be better able to effectively process a crime scene which would make it much easier to close cases. He said they would be better able to collect DNA samples and accurately match them, and also be better able to lift fingerprints from crime scenes and expertly match them. “They would be better able to process a crime scene, whether that being a burglary or a homicide, sexual assault. They
Police crime report
PROVO POLICE are investigating a burglary at an apartment in Blue Hills. A quantity of cash was stolen during the break-in, which happened sometime between 9am and 5.30pm on Saturday. TWO people were rushed to hospital following a single vehicle road traffic accident close to the entrance of Silly Creek. Witnesses to the crash, which happened in the early hours of Sunday, are being sought by the RTCI Police Traffic Division. A BURGLARY took place at a property near Suzie Turn sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning. CASH and jewellery were taken during a break-in at a property in Blue Hills. The incident happened sometime between 10.30am and 3pm on Friday. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the police on 911 or Crimestoppers on 1-8008477. Tips can also be left in English, French or Spanish at www.crimestoppers.tc or by becoming a friend of Crimestoppers TCI on Facebook. Crime prevention tips are also available by visiting www.tcipolice.tc A MAN is being questioned by police in relation to an immigration issue. THIEVES stole a battery from a vehicle parked in Cooper Jack Road. The theft took place sometime between 2pm on Friday and 8am on Saturday. POLICE, in conjunction with Fortis Power workers, are investigating reports of electricity being abstracted illegally in Duck yard, Kew Town. SOUTH CAICOS POLICE are searching for an intruder who broke into a house in South Caicos at about 4.15am on Friday.
The female occupant of the property was awoken and shouted out at the culprit who ran away. A QUANTITY of food was stolen from the restaurant area during a burglary at South Caicos Airport. The airport building was secured at 5pm on Friday with staff discovering the break-in at 6am on Saturday morning. The main office was also ransacked during the incident and anyone with information is asked to call the police on 911 or Crimestoppers on 1-800-8477. Tips can also be left in English, French or Spanish at www.crimestoppers.tc or by becoming a friend of Crimestoppers TCI on Facebook. Crime prevention tips are also available by visiting www.tcipolice.tc GRAND TURK TWO motorists were taken to hospital following a two-vehicle collision in Grand Turk. The crash happened on Friday morning close to the Triangle Gas Station. Witnesses to the incident are being sought by police. TRE Forbes was sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty of aggravated burglary by Grand Turk Magistrates. UP TO 20 pallets of building blocks were taken from an area in South Base. The blocks were removed sometime during the day on Monday. Anyone who is offered building blocks for sale is asked to contact the police on 911. A LARGE amount of cash was stolen in a burglary at a property at Pelican House. POLICE are questioning a man on suspicion of using an offensive weapon so as to cause fear, following an incident in Grand Turk, yesterday.
would be better able to document it accurately, using photographs, sketches and notes, as well as gathering physically evidence so it can be later identified or compared by the proper experts. “So, when they go to a burglary and find fingerprints, they photograph the fingerprints, they lift the fingerprints, they develop the fingerprints, and then those fingerprints are brought back, and then there is a police officer, Sergeant O’Neil , who runs AFIS - the automatic fingerprints identification System – and then makes a comparison,” Tamash said. Tamash further explained: “They would also recognize DNA, blood stains, body fluids – from serious crimes. They would understand how to gather that evidence and provide it to the appropriate labs, whether in the Bahamas, Barbados or Miami. The 10-day course was a mixture of presentations, discussions, instructions and a great deal of hands-on scenario training, where crime scenes were simulated, and the candidates who were paired in groups, given the responsibility of tending to the scene, in search of footwear, fingerprints, blood stains and DNA evidence. “We start at the basic and then build. We start at simple burglaries and then we move up to sexual assaults and homicides, firearms and weapons. We try to cover a wide variety of trainings, so that it would give them the background and experience to move forward,” Tamash said.
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LOCAL NEWS
Soroptimist Club honours 3 stalwarts
Lucille Lightbourne (left) collects her award from Karen Malcolm at the event By Vivian Tyson SENIOR SUN EDITOR
Three humanitarians - Marion Williams, Lucille Lightbourne and Norma Jackson were honoured by the Soroptimist Club of Providenciales at a special pre-Mothers Day Banquet held at the Occasions Ballroom at the Airport Hotel, on Saturday, May 12. Marion Williams has been the driving force behind the SNAP Centre which caters to special needs children in Providenciales. She is also a champion for ensuring that the lives of the elderly is cushioned from society’s hard knocks by providing basic necessities for them. She also established a Senior Citizen’s Club. Lucille Lightbourne is the President of the National Cancer Society, which assists cancer patients recover from the dreaded disease, by providing assistance for them. Her organization regularly stages fundraisers, including the annual cancer walk and banquet in support of the afflicted. A great chunk of the funds go towards payment for cancer treatment. Norma Jackson, who is a member of the Methodist Church, is the driving force behind a hot meal programme particularly in the Blue Hills area for seniors. She also volunteers at schools, assisting children with reading. Clare said that the Soroptimist Club was proud of their accomplishments, which was why it had seen it fit to honour them at the banquet. In response, Williams, who was named as a past CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank Unsung, said that she was honoured that her work in the community was gaining traction, resulted in her being honour by the Soroptimists. “I am very thankful and I proud to know that Ms Clare and the others saw it fitting to recognize me in such a manner, though it was a surprise. I am thankful, and I still determined, by God’s grace doing whatever I can for my community and for the people of my community.
ROYAL TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS POLICE DISTRICT CONSTABLE
Norma Jackson (left) is presented with her award by President of the Soroptimist Club of Providenciales, Betty Dean
“My thing is disabled children and the elderly; that is where I work and that is where I have my life and my heart. I request your prayers, for Christ’s sake, that God will keep me humble and that I would work in his fear for the betterment of my community,” Williams said. Lightbourne, in her response, reiterated that he was an avid admirer of the work undertaken by the Soroptimists, referring to them as vital and important. “I just hope that this work will continue, as I Marion Williams is presented with her award by Blythe Clare am sure they will do that. I just hope that our young people out there would special blessing to do that,” she said. take heed and see what is happening and will listen Speaking directly about the banquet, Blythe Clare, to them, because we do need to groom our young Federation Executive Councillor for the Soroptimist people to carry on the work that we are doing. We Clubs in the Turks and Caicos Islands, noted that are going away and we need the younger to come up this year, that the club decided that it would identify and do that, so I just want to thank the Soroptimists,” three women in the community who were making a Lightbourne said. difference in the lives of people and honour them. Jackson, who explained that she and her husband “Hence we have identified three honourees this were living on Providenciales for more than 14 years, year; it is going to be an annual thing. So, hopefully noted that she was thrilled and surprised that the next year we would have six honourees,” said. Soroptimists Club of Providenciales chose her as one She also revealed that the clubbed decided to of this year’s honourees. She further explained that induct Williams as an honorary life member of the club volunteerism was something dear to her heart, while of Providenciales, while Jackson and Lightbourne urging others to join in the process in whatever way were name honorary members of the club. they could. In the meantime, Betty Dean, President for the “You get a lot more out of it than what you put Soroptimist Club of Providenciales said that she was into it, and I really enjoy working with the children thrilled at response from the community and that she and delivering the soup to the elderly. It gives me a was happy for the turnout at the banquet.
DISTRICT CONSTABLES WANTED Want to give something back to your community? Then have you considered taking up a challenging role as a District Constable? As a District Constable, you will work on the frontline of the police force, providing a visible and reassuring presence on the streets to reduce crime and provide community reassurance. The Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police extend the opportunity to serve your community by becoming a District Constable within the Police Force on the island of Providenciales. MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: • Providing a police presence in the community • Assist in Courts duties and procedure • Take reports and support victims of crime • Assist with prisoners and detainees • Regulate traffic and crowd control • Assist in maintaining the functioning of various police stations ESSENTIAL CRITERIA FOR ROLE: • Must be self motivated and a person that thrives on challenges • Have high regard for the laws of the Turks and Caicos Islands • Must be self disciplined and have a professional attitude
• Have a willingness to serve unselfishly • Be Team oriented • Possess good written and oral communication skills • The holder of a clean police record • Must be between the ages 21 to 60 • Must reside on the island employed to work • Must be physically fit • Must not be a member of Legislative Counsel or otherwise exempted from serving on a jury under the provisions of the Jury Ordinance. SALARY::
$21,600.00 per annum
We are seeking 7 qualifying candidates. If this opportunity interest you and you want to make a difference in your community please submit your application without delay to: Miss. Juliet Arthur or Sgt. Curvalene Skippings Human Resource Department Police Headquarters, Church Folly, Grand Turk Turks and Caicos Islands Telephone: 649-946-2371 ext 30315 / 30312 Fax: (649) 946 - 2099 APPLICATION DEADLINE: 1st June 2012
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LOCAL NEWS
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FEBRUARY 17TH - FEBRUARY 24TH, 2012
LOCAL NEWS
Students’ Survey Results
MATHEMATICS PAPER 2 1. S = 10, T = 5. What is the value of 6S + 5T? 2. The length of a fence is 16m. What is the length in cm? On sports day a student jumped a height of 1m 61cm. What was this height in meters? 3. A mini bus travelled at 75km per hour. How far did it travel in 3hrs? 4. Aunt Tanya is buying football socks for her 5 nephews. She wants each boy to get 3 pairs of red socks and 4 pairs of white ones. How many pairs of socks does she need to buy? 5. Mrs. Simons in Salt Cay made a batch of Salt Cay candies this morning. She sent half the batch to Grand Turk, and then she sent 50 to South Caicos. She gave half that amount to Providenciales and kept the last 22 for herself. How many candies did she make this morning? 6. Matthew studies 20 minutes every Monday and 30 minutes every Tuesday. On Wednesdays he studies for 40 minutes, if he repeats this pattern on Thursday what is the total amount of minutes he would study for the week?
a. What percentage was very happy with their lives? b. What percentage was not happy with their lives? 4 c. How many students were quite happy with their lives? d. Of the total number of students who were very happy, 200 were boys. How many students were girls? 16.What is the size of the angle marked a?
7. Ava and Nate were asked to mark the race track with cones. They placed one cone every 15 meters that they walked. They placed the last cone at the 180 meter mark. How many cones did they place? 8. David drank half a box of apple juice. His brother, Maurice drank % of what was left. If the box holds 2 litres, how much ml did Maurice drink? 9. Water was pumped into a tank at a rate of 20 liters per minute. How much water was in the tank after one hour? 10. The average of 4 numbers is 22. Three of the numbers are 19, 17, and 21. What is the fourth number? 11. Use the table below to record how the amounts of money that father had to pay at the end of the month would be done using the smallest amount of bills and coins as possible. Amounts to be paid
$20
$5
$1
50c
25c
10c
Sc
2c
17. What is the size of angle e in the triangle below. e
30
18. This is a graph of pets that belong to the students of Miss Smith’s class. Use the information from the graph to answer the questions.
1c
$8.26 $53.15 $35.42 $23.50 12. Ona Glinton Primary School has 267 students. Iris Stubbs has 89 fewer Students that Ona Glinton. How many students are in both schools? 13. Quinton gave away 7/8 of his marbles and had 96 left. a. How many marbles did he have before? b. lf % of his total number of marbles was red. How many red marbles did he have? 14. Find the area of the polygons listed below.
15. 650 students from Providenciales were surveyed about their lives. The diagram below shows the results of one question. Use the survey results in the graph below to answer items a — d.
a. How many dogs do the students have? b. How many birds do they have? c. How many cats do they have? d. How many fish do they have? e. Do they have more fish or cats?
Stay tuned for more GSAT past papers next week.
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LOCAL NEWS
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ENTERTAINMENT
Disco Queen Donna Summer dead at age 63 Donna Summer, whom millions of fans revered as "the Queen of Disco," died Thursday at the age of 63 in Florida after a battle with cancer. The news comes as a surprise to those who were not aware that she was ill. The legendary superstar was publicly active as recently as last June, when she appeared as a guest panelist on Bravo's music reality show Platinum Hit. The gorgeous singer with flowing locks commanded listeners to move with sultry vocals riding waves of pulsing rhythms and lyrics that promised "a last chance for romance" or her intent to "bring a wild man back home." The five-time Grammy winner was still making records as recently as last year. Summer was the first artist to have three double albums reach No. 1 on Billboard's album chart: Live and More, Bad Girls, On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II. She became a cultural icon, not only as one of the defining voices of the era, but also as an influence on pop divas ranging from Madonna to Beyoncé. The Boston-born, gospel-trained Summer (born LaDonna Andrea Gaines) initially found success in European stage productions of Hair
Lady Gaga Joins List of Celebrities Banned Abroad Lady Gaga, who is scheduled to perform in Jakarta next month, has been banned in Indonesia following Islamic protests. The critics have ripped the pop superstar for her for her “Satanic lyrics” that threaten to “destroy the children’s sense of morality,” Time reports. The “Born This Way” singer has been denied a permit to perform in the country — even though she had sold out the massive, 52,000-seat Gelora Bung Karno stadium for the June 3 show. The singer, 26, joins a slew of other celebrities including Beyonce,Russell Brand and Paris Hilton, who’ve all been banned from foreign countries. Click through the gallery to see why the stars were denied access abroad. The tour stop in Indonesia was set to be the largest stop on her “Born this Way Ball” Asian tour, which includes stops in Bangkok, Manila, Tapei, Hong Kong and South Korea. The singer’s Asian tour kicked off in late April and has already had plenty of controversy. Conservative groups in South Korea complained about Lady Gaga’s skimpy costumes, leading authorities to ban minors from attending her recent show.
Donna Summer
and Godspell. She was living in Germany when she met producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, who would produce some of her biggest hits, including her star-making, groan-accentuated pillow-talk song Love to Love You Baby in 1975. A 17minute version of the track became a club favorite and set the stage for what was to come.
Three years later, Last Dance, from the disco movie Thank God It's Friday (she played a singer hoping to perform at the disco), made her an international superstar. It was the start of an uninterrupted run of top 10 pop hits in 1978 and 1979 that included MacArthur Park, Heaven Knows, Hot Stuff and Bad Girls. The pace slowed after that, but she still scored with On
the Radio, Love Is In Control (Finger on the Trigger) and the feminist anthem She Works Hard for the Money, which hit No. 1 in 1983. Her 1979 platinum-selling duet with Barbra Streisand, No More Tears (Enough Is Enough), was another career highlight. Though her mainstream popularity waned as the '80s progressed, she continued to pump out dance hits, while also exploring other genres, including jazz, reggae, rock and R&B. During this time, she became a bornagain Christian and was accused of making anti-gay comments in the advent of the AIDS epidemic. The resulting boycott saw thousands of her records returned to her record label. She denied making the statements and profusely apologized. In 2008, she revisited her disco roots with the well-received Crayons, her first album in 17 years. The diverse disc featured a still-vibrant Summer, brimming with energy and urging perseverance with the single Stamp Your Feet. It was an attitude that would sustain Summer over a 40-year career. She also performed on American Idol that year with its top female contestants and in 2009 sang at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, Norway, in honor of President Obama. Summer, who lived in Nashville, is survived by her husband, Brooklyn Dreams keyboardist/producer Bruce Sudano, whom she married in 1980. (The band collaborated with her on 1979's Heaven Knows.) The couple has two grown daughters, Brooklyn and Amanda.
Tiger Woods ex-wife Elin Nordegren is single again Tiger Woods‘ ex Elin Nordegren is single again. According to People magazine, she broke off her relationship with financier Jamie Dingman in January. “She says Jamie’s a great guy — and they’re still friends — but I think it was just too early [after the divorce] for her to get serious with anyone,” a friend of Nordegren told the magazine. The pair were first linked last summer.
Dingman, the son of billionaire Michael Dingman, president of international investments firm Shipston Group Ltd., manages his father’s business in China. He and Nordegren’s pro-golfer ex-husband reportedly share something in common — a fling with former nightlife hostess Rachel Uchitel. Nordegren lives with her two children in North Palm Beach, Fla., and is a part-time college student working on her psychology degree.
Elin Nordegren
Tyra Banks: At 17 and a Size 4, I ‘would’ve been considered too heavy’ to model now Tyra Banks has created a multi-milliondollar empire with her own production company, her hit reality series "America's Next Top Model," her own syndicated daytime talk show that had a five year run, and a book franchise. But none of it would have ever happened had the 5' 10" beauty not landed her first modeling contract as a teenager more than 20 years ago. Had the timing been different, however, Banks now says wouldn't have been able to become a model in the first place. Why? In an "open letter to models" published in The Daily Beast on Tuesday, the 38-year-old says the size 4 figure she flaunted when she first kicked off her career wouldn't have flown in today's fashion industry. "The truth is that if I was just starting to model at age 17 in 2012, I could not have had the
Tyra Banks career that I did. I would've been considered too heavy," Banks writes. "In my time, the average model's size was a
four or six. Today you are expected to be a size zero. When I started out, I didn't know such a size even existed." The real goal of the letter, however, was to "celebrate" Vogue's recent decision to ban models who "appear to have an eating disorder" from all 19 of its editions worldwide. "When I started modeling, I used to see models who seemed unhealthy backstage at fashion shows. They appeared to be abusing their bodies to maintain a certain weight," Banks continues in the letter. "These girls were booked over and over again for countless fashion shows and photo shoots. I'm sure many of you today have witnessed this, or even live it. Now, real progress is finally on the horizon. Vogue is stepping up, doing the right thing, and protecting that girl. Perhaps that girl is you!"
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FUN and GAMES
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FUN and GAMES
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HIGHLIGHTS
• Cuban President’s daugher gets visa • Bloody weekend in Trinidad
Cayman Islands Immigration staff handles 19,000 permits in one year Cayman Islands Immigration Department staff members are processing the vast majority of work permit grants for non-Caymanian workers employed within the Islands, according to records provided to the Caymanian Compass newspaper by the department. Also, those records reveal that – no matter who processes those applications – work permits during the past year are being turned down less than 10 per cent of the time, the newspaper said. The territory’s chief immigration officer, or staff members designated as work permit administrators by her, processed a total of 19,127 permit applications between 1 April, 2011 and 31 March, 2012 – most of those being standard work permit or temporary work permit applications. During the same period, members of the government appointed work permit board processed a total of 5,587 applications; while members of the Business Staffing Plan Board
processed 4,443 applications. Previously, all work permit applications in the Cayman Islands had to be approved by either one of the two boards. In 2009, that was changed to allow Immigration Department employees to review those documents. That change has sped up the process and made time demands on the Work Permit Board quite a bit easier, according to board chairwoman Sophia Dilbert. “You have administrative staff doing straight applications that don’t have any issues, that are noncontentious,” Ms Dilbert said during an interview last month. “Immigration have been doing a really exceptional job of ensuring applicants have submitted full applications ... so when they come to the board an application is complete.” Ms Dilbert said she has yet to see an incomplete application for a work permit. Although applications that come before immigration staff are
supposedly non-contentious, records provided to the Compass show they are sometimes refused. More than 1,400 permit applications were refused by immigration staff, according to the records; although that only accounts for about 7.5 per cent of all those processed between April 2011 and March 2012. By comparison, 9 per cent of applications that went before the Work Permit Board during the past year were turned down. Just 2 per cent of those that were presented to the Business Staffing Plan Board were nixed, according to immigration records. Overall, work permit applications were approved more than 90 per cent of the time between 1 April, 2011 and 31 March, 2012, the Immigration Department records showed. A review of the Immigration Department’s activities during the past two years presented to the Cayman Islands Tourism Association last month showed some progress on speeding through business permit
Grenada Foreign Minister resigns following noconfidence motion ST.GEORGE’S, Grenada – Grenada’s government, already rocked by party and cabinet infighting, tottered again on Thursday as Foreign Minister Karl Hood, who refused to vote on a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, quit the cabinet early Thursday. A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said Thomas had accepted Hood’s resignation Thursday morning. Hood is the second senior minister to resign in less than a month, following the departure of tourism minister Peter David, and comes two days after the administration survived a noconfidence motion in Parliament that appeared to expose deep rifts between the prime minister and his cabinet colleagues. “The Prime Minister thanked Mr. Hood for his service to the government of Grenada over the past three and a half years and wished him well in his future endeavours,” said the prime minister’s office in a brief statement. “Prime Minister Thomas continues to be focused on fulfilling the commitment he gave to the people of Grenada, who elected him to serve and his pledge to implement government projects announced in September last year,” the
statement added. Speculation mounted that Hood would leave the government after abstaining on a vote of no confidence against the Grenadian leader brought by Opposition Leader Dr. Keith Mitchell. The government defeated the motion by eight votes to five in a strict party line vote, but with one government backbencher supporting the censure and Hood abstaining. Hood instead launched a scathing attack on his own government during the 13-hour debate on Tuesday, saying he supported the motion in principle. “Although I do not disagree with the sentiments of this motion, I want to take a step back. Mr. Speaker, someone once said that if you have nothing good to say about someone else keep your mouth shut,” Hood said. While eight government MPs voted to save Thomas’ faltering administration, the parliamentarians were less than enthusiastic in their praise of Thomas’ leadership, observers noted. Only three of the government MPs openly defended the Prime Minister’s record, while three government MPs did not utter a word in defence of either government or leader.
applications. The department said the average processing time for work permit applications had been reduced from eight weeks to five weeks as long as the complete application had been submitted by the employer. Applications for permanent residence – the right to remain in Cayman for the rest of one’s life – had been averaging about two years. That has been significantly reduced, according to the department, to around three months per application. The Immigration Department is also working on establishing a fully electronic filing system for work and residency applications, rather than the physical files the department has relied on. Immigration maintains more than 125,000 files, although it is estimated just around 30,000 are active. Some 80,000 files have been scanned through the computer database, the department noted.
8 Lottery Scam Suspects Arrested in Jamaica Jamaican police have arrested eight people accused of defrauding U.S. citizens through lottery scams. A police statement said Thursday that officers detained six men and two women after a raid of several homes on a single street in the hills above the capital of Kingston. Officers also seized five cars, jewelry, eight flat-screen television sets, and nearly $150,000 in cash. Police say numerous lottery swindlers have fled their Montego Bay base amid a crackdown and relocated to other communities. They urge residents to "desist from renting houses to them or assisting them in any way." Police Commissioner Owen Ellington has said that other scam suspects arrested earlier this year have been released on bail. In recent years, Jamaica has become a center for international telemarketing frauds that target elderly Americans.
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CARIBBEAN NEWS
Diabetes, obesity and hypertension on the rise in the Caribbean UNITED NATIONS – The number of Caribbean people with high blood pressure and diabetes is drastically increasing as elswhere in both developed and developing countries, a United Nations report has said. “This report is further evidence of the dramatic increase in the conditions that trigger heart disease and other chronic illnesses, particularly in lowand middle-income countries,” said the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Margaret Chan. WHO’s World Health Statistics 2012 report, which includes data from 194 countries, said that one in three adults worldwide has raised blood pressure and one in 10 suffers from diabetes. The global average prevalence of diabetes is around 10 per cent, with up to one in three people in some Pacific Island countries having this condition, the report said. Left untreated, diabetes can lead to cardiovascular disease, blindness, amputation of limbs and kidney failure. An increase in obesity is also highlighted in the report as being a major health risk. “In every region of the world,
obesity doubled between 1980 and 2008,” said the Director of the Department of Health Statistics and Information Systems at WHO, Ties Boerma. “Today, half a billion people – 12 per cent of the world’s population – are considered obese.” The highest obesity levels are in the Americas, with 26 per cent of
adults suffering from obesity, and the lowest in the South-East Asian region, where only three per cent of the population is obese, the report says. It says in all parts of the world, women are more likely to be obese than men, making them more vulnerable to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.
In high-income countries, widespread diagnosis and treatment with low-cost medication have reduced mean blood pressure across populations, leading in turn to a reduction in deaths from heart disease, the report said. But in Africa, more than 40 per cent of adults in many countries are estimated to have high blood pressure – most of them remain undiagnosed, even though many of these cases could be treated with low-cost medications, which would significantly reduce the risk of death, the report said. According to WHO, noncommunicable diseases currently cause almost two thirds of all deaths worldwide. Concern about the rise in the numbers of deaths from heart and lung disease, diabetes and cancer prompted the UN to hold a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases in New York in September last year, spearheaded by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states. The World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of WHO, is expected next week to review progress made since that meeting and agree on next steps, the UN said
Bloody weekend in Trinidad PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad –Several people, including a Jamaican national, lost their lives in a bloody weekend in Trinidad and Tobago, law enforcement officials here have confirmed. Police said that Anthony Patrick Gayle of Kingston, Jamaica, who was sea-bathing with his girlfriend, in Arima, east of here, reportedly got into difficulties and drowned. Investigators said that Gayle arrived in Trinidad about three months ago and was seeking employment here.. They said that a 70-year-old pensioner was bludgeoned to death by her son on Mother’s Day after she had gone to his home at Barrackpore, south of here in an effort to patch up differences between them. Relatives of Batia Ramsumair, said she believed her son, Basdeo Ragoobar, 47 would have softened his heart and reached out to her. But the mother of five suffered a deadly blow to the head, dying instantly. Her son later committed suicide by drinking a poisonous substance. Relatives said that the mother and son had been at odds over the ownership of a parcel of land. Police are also investing the causes of several vehicular accidents that have claimed the lives of a number of people including a police constable. The non-government organisation, “Arrive Alive” said it is perturbed at the number of deaths caused by vehicular
accidents in Trinidad and Tobago. “What is most disturbing is the average age of six of the persons who died in the crashes is 27 years and 100 per cent were male,” said Brent Batson, director of Arrive Alive,w ho has reiterated his call for the authorities to
play a greater role in helping to curb the escalating number of road accidents by launching road safety initiatives and enforcement strategies specifically targeting young males. He said officials of the US-based road safety advocate group Mothers
Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is also scheduled to visit T&T in October to host a symposium targeting young drivers. The symposium is to be hosted by Jonathan Camacho’s Organisation for Road Safety and the National Road Safety Council.
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CARIBBEAN NEWS
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
Cuban President’s daughter gets US Visa The daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro has been granted a U.S. visa to attend an academic conference in San Francisco and another event, one of her associates confirmed Thursday. The decision has already drawn fire from Cuban-American politicians and on anti-Castro blogs, which argue that she is an apologist for the Communist government her family has led for decades. Mariela Castro is a noted advocate of gay rights as the head of Cuba's National Center for Sex Education, and has been pushing for the island to legalize gay marriage for years. She said recently that her father supports her efforts, despite his unwillingness to say so publically. Castro received a visa from the U.S. State Department and will chair a panel on the politics of sexual diversity at a gathering in San Francisco next week organized by the Latin American Studies Association, an official at her institute told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss the matter. The Web site of the New York
| Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuba's President Raul Castro, holds a sign demanding President Barack Obama release five Cuban intelligence agents imprisoned in U.S., popularly known as the "Cuban Five.
Public Library says Castro is also scheduled to talk there on May 29. The U.S. State Department
declined to comment, saying rules prohibit discussion of individual visa applications. A diplomat at the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba also had no comment. AP Cuban-American Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, slammed the decision on Wednesday, even before the trip was confirmed. He called Mariela Castro "a vociferous advocate of the regime and opponent of democracy." On Thursday, four other CubanAmerican lawmakers added their voices to the outcry, noting that State Department guidelines prohibit visas to officers of the Communist Party or government of Cuba. "The administration's appalling decision to allow regime agents into the U.S. directly contradicts Congressional intent and longstanding U.S. foreign policy," wrote Representatives Mario DiazBalart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and David Rivera of Florida, along with Albio Sires of New Jersey in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"While the Cuban people struggle for freedom against increasing brutality at the hands of Castro's thugs, the Obama administration is greeting high-level agents of that murderous dictatorship with open arms," they wrote. "It is shameful that the Obama Administration would waive the common sense restrictions in place to appease the Castro dictatorship once again." Despite the controversy, it is apparently not the first time Mariela Castro has gone to the United States. The official at her institute said Castro went to America in 2002 to receive an award for her work. Washington and Havana have been locked in dispute for more than half a century, since a few months after Fidel Castro's rebels swept to power in 1959. Efforts at rapprochement following the election of President Barack Obama have fizzled, particularly since an American subcontractor working for USAID was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison in Cuba for bringing communications equipment onto the island illegally.
CDB tackling Jamaica putting forward legislation on Caribbean crime and violence in the region Court of Justice KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica government will table legislation to make the Trinidadbased Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) the island’s final court of appeal. Governor General Sir Patrick Allen, delivering the traditional Throne Speech, said that the Portia Simpson-Miller administration intends to table 32 pieces of legislation during this parliamentary year. “We will considerably improve the number and quality of Bills passed, and will strengthen all stages of the legislative process. During this legislative year, approximately 32 bills will be passed, which would be about twice the average of the last few years. “The key pieces of legislation to be passed include, An Act to establish the Caribbean Court of Justice as Jamaica’s final Court of Appeal. This process will involve further dialogue with the Opposition,” Sir Patrick said. Jamaica, like most of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have signed on to the orginal jurisdiction of the CCJ that acts as an international tribunal that interprets the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the regional integration movement. However, only Barbados, Belize and Guyana are signatories to the appellate jurisdiction of the court that was established in 2001 to replace the London-based Privy Council as the regional final court. Trinidad and Tobago earlier this year announced plans for a phased withdrawal from the Privy Council and earlier this year Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said her newly elected government would seek to end the long standing relationship with the London-based court. She told reporters on Thursday that “the CCJ is critical because Jamaicans, particularly the poor, will never be able to travel to England to get their proper defence. “The Caribbean Court of Justice is much closer to us in terms of geographic location than going to London, and everyone understands that there are two issues. One, the CCJ that we intend to deal with in consultation with the Opposition and the republic in consultation with the Opposition as well,” she said. In February 2005, the then PJ Patterson-led PNP Government was forced to put on hold plans to make the CCJ the country’s final appellate court following a UK-based Privy Council ruling. The then-Opposition JLP and a number of local human rights groups had also protested against the passage of the legislation. During his address to legislator, Sir Patrick also said that the government is placing priority on preparing and passing legislation establishing Jamaica as a Republic and removing Britain’s Queen Elizabeth as its Head of State. “The Government will be proceeding in this regard through consensus and dialogue with the Opposition,” Sir Patrick said
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) governors of the financial institution will participate in a panel discussion on improving citizen security in the region later this month. It said the May 23 event in the Cayman Islands is among the activities planned for annual meetings of the CDB Board of Governors. “Crime and violence is a developmental issue which the CDB has identified as an important area of focus over the next strategic plan period 2012-2014,” the CDB said in a statement, noting that “increasing violent crime in many of CDB’s Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) represents a significant threat to economic and social development and hampers efforts to reduce poverty and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. “CDB recognises the urgency with which this issue must be addressed if the region is not to lose the developmental momentum of the past two decades or worse, experience an erosion in the socio-economic gains attained.” At his inaugural address to the bank’s governors last year, CDB President, Dr. Warren Smith had promised that the “CDB will work very closely with governments, community-based organisations and other stakeholders to begin to address the infrastructure deficiencies and social interventions needed to engage and transform communities adversely affected by crime and violence”. Among the panelist are Professor Anthony Harriott, Director of the University of West Indies Institute of Criminal Justice and Security and Head of the Department of Government at UWI Mona; Professor Richard R. Bennett, Professor of Justice in the Department of Justice, Law and Society at American University in Washington, DC and Barbadian poet, Adisa ‘AJA’ Andwele. Professor Harriott is the author of several scholarly articles and the author/editor of six books primarily on the issues of violence, and policing in Caribbean societies, while Professor Bennett, who has taught graduate and undergraduate students for over 30 years at American University and elsewhere, is an expert on comparative crime and criminal justice. Andwele’s work addresses a number of global issues, including war and conflict; poverty; the threat to the environment; and the abuse of children and women.
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LOCAL NEWS
Police report says Trayvon Martin’s shooting was avoidable
The report, dated March 13, came nearly a month before a special prosecutor brought second-degree charges against Zimmerman, 28, in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon. He has pleaded not guilty and said he acted in self-defense... Read more below
Largest protests yet in Syrian city of Aleppo
BEIRUT — Syrian security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse thousands rallying Friday in Aleppo in what activists said was the largest protest yet in a city that has largely remained loyal to President Bashar Assad during the country's 15-month uprising. The protest pointed to rising antiregime sentiment in Syria's largest city, particularly after a raid on dormitories at the city's main university killed four students and forced the temporary closure of the state-run school earlier this month. The May 3 raid at Aleppo University was an unusually violent incident for the northern city, a major economic hub, where business ties and the presence of significant populations of sectarian minorities have kept residents largely on the side of the regime — or at least unwilling to join the opposition. On Thursday, some 15,000 students demonstrated outside the gates of Aleppo University in the
presence of U.N. observers, before were dubbed "The Heroes of Aleppo their hopes on a peace plan for University" in solidarity with the Syria that special envoy Kofi Annan security forces broke up the protest. Opposition activists brokered in April. The plan paved the Even bigger numbers took to the students. streets Friday. Aleppo-based activist said security forces opened fire in way for the U.N. observers, and it calls Mohammad Saeed said it was the several other locations including the for a cease-fire and dialogue to stop 15 largest demonstration there since the Damascus suburbs and the central city months of bloodshed. The U.N. estimated in March start of the uprising. He said more of Hama to disperse protesters and that than 10,000 people protested in the the regime shelled the town of Rastan, that the violence in Syria has killed Salaheddine and al-Shaar districts which has been under the control of more than 9,000 people. Hundreds alone and thousands protested in other rebels since January. The violence more have been killed since then as a comes as the head of U.N. observer revolt that began in March 2011 with areas of the city. "The number of protesters is team in Syria cautioned that unarmed mostly peaceful calls for reform has increasing every day and today saw the force alone cannot stop the bloodshed transformed into an armed insurgency. Both sides have flouted the ceasebiggest protests," said Saeed, adding without genuine talks between the two that several people were wounded sides that have been locked in a violent fire, raising concerns that the peace plan is ineffective in a conflict where when government forces tear gas and conflict for more than a year. Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, the the violence is spinning out of control. live ammunition to try and disperse the rally. The head of the British-based Norwegian head of the 200-strong Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for Annan, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, observer team, warned Friday that said in Geneva that the envoy would Rami Abdul-Rahman, said the protest no number of observers can achieve be visiting Syria soon, but did not give showed "it's a real uprising happening "a permanent end to the violence if a date. "We condemn in the strongest the commitment to give dialogue a in Aleppo these days." Thousands of people across the chance is not genuine from all internal terms violence in all its forms by all country also staged anti-government and external actors." He spoke at a parties," Fawzi said. "This must come rallies in solidarity with Aleppo. Friday news conference in the Syrian capital, to an end for any political process to be launched and to have a glimmer of is the main day of protests across Damascus. International powers have pinned success." Syria and this week's demonstrations
UK surveillance could yield window into lives
LONDON — British officials have given their word: "We won't read your emails." But experts say that its proposed new surveillance program, unveiled last week as part of the government's annual legislative program, will gather so much data that spooks won't have to read your messages to guess what you're up to. The U.K. Home Office stresses that it is not seeking to read the content of every Britons' communications, saying the data it was seeking "is NOT the content of any communication." It is, however, seeking information on who's sending the message, whom it's sent to, where it's sent from, and potentially other details including a message's length and its format. The government's proposal is just a draft bill, so it could be modified or scrapped. But if passed in its current form, it would put a huge amount of
Merkel urges Greece to resolve political instability
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Greece's president Friday she hoped the uncertainty over its government would be resolved as soon as possible, a German
personal data at the government's disposal, which it could potentially use to deduce a startling amount about Britons' private life — from sleep patterns to driving habits or even infidelity. "We're really entering a whole new phase of analysis based on the data that we can collect," said Gerald Kane, an information systems expert at Boston College. "There is quite a lot you can learn." The ocean of information is hard to fathom. Britons generate 4 billion hours of voice calls and 130 billion text messages annually, according to industry figures. In 2008 the BBC put the annual number of U.K.linked emails at around 1 trillion. Then there are instant messaging services run by companies such as BlackBerry, Internet telephony services such as Skype, chat rooms, and in-game services liked those used by World of Warcraft. Communications service providers, who
government spokeswoman said. Merkel made a call to President Karolos Papoulias on Friday morning, ahead of her visit to the United States for the G8 summit of international leaders. "(Merkel) reiterated the German position that Europe is waiting for the elections and that it is the wish of all European partners and also of Germany that a government is formed as quickly as possible after the elections," the spokeswoman said. A temporary Greek government took office Thursday as the country wrestles with a political crisis that sprang from its inability to pay its debts. Greece is heading toward new
would log the details of all that back-and-forth, believe that the government's program would force them to process petabytes (1 quadrillion bytes) of information every day. It's a mind-bogglingly large amount of data on the scale of every book, every movie, and every piece of music ever released.So even without opening emails, how much can British spooks learn about who's sending them? Do you know how fast you were going? Your phone does. If you sent a first text from London before stepping behind the wheel, and a second one from a service station outside Manchester only three hours later, authorities could infer that you broke the speed limit to cover the roughly 200 miles which separate the two.Crunching location data and communications patterns gives a remarkable rich view of a person's lives — and their misadventures.
elections next month, with polls suggesting a narrow victory for a radical leftist party that wants to tear up an international loan agreement that forced the government to make deep budget cuts. That possibility has sent ripples of fear through markets in Europe, Asia and the United States as analysts worry that it could ultimately lead to the collapse of the euro currency used by 17 European nations. Ratings agency Fitch cut Greece's long-term credit rating from B- to CCC on Thursday, reflecting worries about its ability to remain in the eurozone. "The downgrade of Greece's sovereign ratings reflects the heightened risk that Greece may not
be able to sustain its membership of Economic and Monetary Union," Fitch said. "In the event that the new general elections scheduled for 17 June fail to produce a government with a mandate to continue with the EU-IMF programme of fiscal austerity and structural reform, an exit of Greece from EMU would be probable." Greek voters punished the major parties at the polls this month for the harsh budget cuts imposed by the country's international lenders, the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
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Queen’s Jubilee guest list raises eyebrows
Britain has come under criticism demonstrators since protests erupted from the queen, "rather than expose for inviting the king of Bahrain, in the Gulf state. her to having to dine with a despot." whose Gulf state has been Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman Republic, the anti-monarchy engaged in a brutal crackdown on bin Hamad Al Khalifa eventually group, called the lunch invitation political dissent, to a lunch Friday skipped the royal wedding, saying he "a catastrophic error of judgment" celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's didn't want the controversy to tarnish which "seriously damages Britain's Diamond Jubilee. the couple's happy day. reputation." The lunch in Windsor Castle was The Foreign Office, which But on Friday Buckingham the largest gathering of foreign royals Palace confirmed that his father, advised Buckingham Palace on the in Britain since Queen Elizabeth King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, invitations, said that Britain's ties II's grandson, Prince William, was attended the queen's lunch — along to Bahrain allowed U.K. officials married to Kate Middleton last with some 45 other royal guests from to talk frankly with the strategic year. Then, as now, the decision to around the world. island nation's rulers about "a range extend an invitation to members Labour lawmaker and former of issues including those where we of the Bahraini royal family has Foreign Office minister Denis have concerns." angered whose who are upset by the MacShane said diplomats should Al Khalifa wasn't the only deadly violence deployed against have tried to keep Al Khalifa away controversial guest dining at Windsor
Castle. Swaziland's King Mswati III, who is accused of living in luxury while his people go hungry, also is attending the lunch. Earlier this week protesters gathered outside the exclusive London hotel where he was rumored to be staying with a large entourage. There wasn't anything in the way of protest outside Windsor Castle Friday. Sky News television footage showed a handful of royal supporters clutching red-and-white Bahraini flags. The Diamond Jubilee marks 60 years of Elizabeth's reign as Britain's monarch.
Judge Delays Netanyahu says Iran aims to Mladic trial due deceive in atomic talks to evidence errors
An apparent clerical error prompted judges to postpone the long-awaited war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic on Thursday, possibly for months. The delay cast a shadow over one of the court's biggest cases — and over the reputation of the court itself, where most prominent trials have proceeded at a snail's pace, frustrating many victims. It also highlighted problems faced by international tribunals in prosecuting sweeping indictments covering allegations of atrocities spanning years in countries far from the courts where defendants face justice. "It is fraught with delay because of the volume of documentation and scope of alleged crimes," Richard Dicker, the director of Human Rights Watch's international justice program, said in a telephone interview Thursday. "Add to that the need to translate and it really takes it to a whole new level of complexity that you don't see in domestic trials." Presiding judge Alphons Orie said he was delaying the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal case due to "significant disclosure errors" by prosecutors, who are obliged to share all evidence with Mladic's lawyers. Orie said judges will analyze the "scope and full impact" of the problem and aim to set a new starting date as soon as possible. The presentation of evidence was supposed to begin later this month. Prosecutors had already acknowledged the errors and did not object to the delay. Mladic's attorney has asked for six months to study the materials.
PRAGUE — Iran is looking to deceive the world over its nuclear programme in talks with the P5+1 group of world powers, Israel premier Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday after talks with Czech President Vaclav Klaus. "It looks as though they see the talks as another opportunity to delay and deceive and buy time, pretty much as North Korea did for many years," he said, just days ahead of the next round of negotiations which are to take place in Baghdad on May 23. "They might try to go from meeting-tomeeting with empty promises. They might agree to something in principle, but not implement it. They might even agree to implement something, but nothing that would actually derail their nuclear weapons programme," Netanyahu said at a press conference in the Czech capital. The P5+1 grouping of diplomats from permanent UN Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany held a first round of talks with Iran on April 14 in Istanbul and a second round is due to take place in Baghdad on May 23. But Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials have repeatedly expressed scepticism that the talks would succeed
in convincing Iran to abandon its nuclear programme, which Israel and much of the West believes is a bid to develop atomic weapons -- a charge denied by Tehran. "Iran is good at playing this kind of chess game, they know that sometimes you have to sacrifice a pawn to save the king," Netanyahu added, saying he had "seen no evidence whatsoever that Iran is serious about ending its nuclear weapons programme." Israel is reportedly concerned the upcoming talks could ultimately end with a deal that would allow Tehran to continue enriching uranium. "The goal of the negotiations should be very clear -- freeze all nuclear enrichment activity inside Iran, take all nuclear-enriched material outside of Iran, and dismantle the underground nuclear facility near the city of Qom," he said, repeating demands laid out last week to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. "When this is achieved I will be the first one to applaud, but until then, you'll have to count me among the sceptics." Israel, widely considered the sole if undeclared nuclear power in the Middle East, has consistently warned a nucleararmed Iran would pose an existential threat to the Jewish state, and has refused to rule out a pre-emptive strike in a bid to halt it.
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WORLD LOCAL NEWS NEWS WORLD NEWS A witness reported seeing Martin on top of
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
Police report says Trayvon Trayvon Martin had drugs in his Martin’s shooting was avoidable
and struggle. banging Zimmerman, straddling hitting him inhim a physical Zimmerman's head on the ground. Another witness interviewed the night of the Martin's autopsy report also shooting described hearing commotion going revealed that athere was a and quarterout to investigate, thehalf-inch same report said: on the left inch by abrasion fourtha finger of Martin, "He witnessed black male, wearinganother a dark indication of a possible struggle. The Trayvon Martin's fatal encounter with George released to the public Thursday evening. colored 'hoodie' on top of a white or Hispanic teen, who lived in Miami, was Zimmerman was "avoidable," and the teen was The case has attracted worldwide attention male who was yelling for help. He elaborated in by Sanford while serving a suspension Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old who outrage after police released Martin's about racial profiling. not doing anything criminal at the time of their with accusations by Trayvon's family and civil stating the black was of mounted on thebeing white a bag marijuana was shot and killed by a shooter, George Zimmerman, The autopsy report shows traces for male confrontation on Feb. 26, a report by Sanford, rights leaders that Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, discovered in his possession. or Hispanic male and throwing punches 'MMA neighborhood watch volunteer, had without any criminal charges for the of the drug THC, which is found in Later a hetrove of Fla., policeTHC says. targeted Trayvon because he was black in andMartin's said he blood (mixedand martial arts) style.'today, He stated yelled out marijuana, the drug in his system the night killing. documents that are part of the The report, dated March 13, came nearly a appeared to be "up to no good." of this death, according to new Zimmerman, 28, is a multi-racial urine. to the two individuals was going totrial callare the discoverythat in he Zimmerman's information ABC News. Hispanic who shot black autopsy also shows month before obtained a special by prosecutor brought second-man The reportthesaid a singleThe bullet perforated police. that He then heard a 'pop.' He stated that after expected to be released on a website revelation came as 28, highinschool junior at heart. close range on Zimmerman shot Martin from the a 'pop,' degreeThe charges against Zimmerman, the Tayvon's run byhethe state's attorney, including hearing observed the person he had Feb. 26, self-defense, distance between 1 inch and 18 67 CDs worth of documents, video prosecutors in the case prepared to pleaded death of 17-year-old Trayvon. He has notand claimed Other police investigative reportsofsaid Trayvon previously observed on top of the other person (the away, bolstering of Martin on the night of the release to the public hundreds of though Martin was unarmed. inches guilty and said he acted in self-defense. had been staying in the gated residential complex thehis 'hoodie') laidreport out onand the pages of new evidence along with Zimmerman was later charged with Zimmerman's claim thatblack he male shot wearing shooting, autopsy "The encounter between George Zimmerman for a week and that he had been sent to the home grass." videos and crime scene photos. second-degree murder, and the Martin during a struggle that landed videos of Zimmerman's questioning and Trayvon ultimately of a friend by hisdebate father after the teen on had his beenback, Martin by police. Officer Jonathan Mead recognized Zimmerman Martin'sMartin death was sparked publicavoidable killing by provoked widespread Zimmerman Zimmerman, if Zimmerman had remained in his suspended from school for marijuana possession. A as the head of neighborhood watch. "Zimmerman vehicle and awaited the arrival of law enforcement, toxicology report on his body found small amount appeared to have a broken and bloody nose and or conversely if he had identified himself to Martin of THC in his blood. swelling of his face," Mead said. Another officer as a concerned citizen and initiated dialog in an A police report concluded that at the time he reported taking a photo of Zimmerman's injuries effort to dispel each party's concern," the report was confronted by Zimmerman, Trayvon "was in with his personal phone. The documents released said. "There is no indication that Trayvon Martin fact generally running in the direction of where he include a photo of Zimmerman with what appears was involved in any criminal activity at the time of was staying as a guest in the neighborhood." to be blood coming from his nose. the encounter." Zimmerman had reported "suspicious persons, Officer Timothy Smith said EMTs treated Mary Richardson Kennedy, the wife of Robert F. professor of psychiatry at the University of been at the center of several disturbing episodes. A large cache of reports, documents, photos all young black males" to police on three previous Zimmerman for his injuries at the scene, and he Kennedy Jr., died of asphyxiation by hanging, Wisconsin. In September 2007, the Westchester Journal and otherthe descriptions ofCounty evidence in the Examiner's case were occasions in 2011, the said. to go to a hospital. reports Westchester Medical Psychologists say reports problems with alcohol and declined News reported that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., worried office. drugs were one of the most common factors that about his wife's mental state, had tried to drive her Her body was found Wednesday in an increase a person's risk of suicide. Robbins said to a psychologist's office. She resisted and ran from outbuilding on the couple's property in Bedford, about 90 percent of people who commit suicide had the car into the road, according to police reports. The couple filed for divorce in 2010, a day after N.Y. The death has not been officially ruled a a history of substance abuse and a record of suicide, but sources told ABC News that Kennedy psychiatric illness, usually depression. police had been called to the couple's Bedford home in apparently killed herself. Her death marked the final "When it [depression] is combined with alcohol response to a "domestic incident" during which Mary event in a life that had turned tumultuous of late and in particular, it increases the risk of suicide Kennedy was allegedly intoxicated, according to the a Kennedy suicide, butdramatically sources told ABCof the adds yet another dark momentthe in the because disinhibiting effects of drug Westchester News. She claimed that her husband reports of alcohol and abuse JournalPsychologists say problems Mary Richardson Kennedy, family's history. alcohol. It becomes much harder to talk yourself had been verbally abusive to her and her children. News that Kennedy apparently and psychiatric problems, pointed with alcohol and drugs were one wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., died Three days later, she was charged with driving Psychologists said events in Kennedy's recent down from the marked suicidal thoughts," Robbins said. killed herself. Her death to an increased risk of suicide. of the most common factors that of asphyxiation by hanging, reports history, such as reports of alcohol and the drugfinal abuseevent inKennedy, 52, had had four children with her under the influence after she ran the family's station a life that "When these things come to increase a person's suicide. the Westchesterproblems, County pointed Medicalto an increased husband, the son of Ethel Kennedy and Sen. Robert wagon over a curb outside a schoolrisk near of their home, and psychiatric turned tumultuous of late and adds together in theMary wrong way, they Robbins Examiner's office. risk of suicide. Kennedy, who was assassinated in just 1968. the newspaper reported.said about 90 percent of yetin just another moment in theand can really put someone people commit suicide Her body wasthings foundcome Wednesday "When these to together the dark Richardson Kennedy Robert Kennedy Jr. hadat greater Inrisk August 2010, who she was arrested againhad for Kennedy family's history. said Dr.York Ken Robbins, a athehistory of of substance abuse and a wrong way, they canonreally put someone at greater been married for 16 years.ofInsuicide," 2010, the New driving under influence drugs, according to the in an outbuilding the couple's said events in Richardson risk of suicide," said Dr.N.Y. Ken Robbins, a Psychologists clinical Post reported that Mary Kennedyofhad Associated clinical professor psychiatry at Press. record of psychiatric illness, usually property in Bedford, The depression. death has not been officially ruled Kennedy's recent history, such as the University of Wisconsin.
system, autopsy found
Mary Richardson Kennedy’s Death Attributed to Hanging, Psychologists See Signs in Recent Past Mary Richardson Kennedy’s Death Attributed to Hanging, Psychologists See Signs in Recent Past
e jealous First Lady:
How Michelle orders women close to Barack watched and has shunned Oprah because she 'hates fat people' Michelle Obama orders women close to her husband to be watched in case he cheats on her like John F Kennedy did to his wife, a new book claims. The First Lady is supposedly ‘unusually jealous’ and has so little trust in Barack Obama that she turns up unannounced during the day to see what he is doing. She also objected to her husband’s close relationship to U.S. chat show queen Oprah Winfrey - and shunned her because she ‘hates fat people’. The explosive claims are likely to feed the image of Mrs Obama as an ‘angry black woman’, a label she herself dismissed earlier this year. They could also reopen questions about the Obama's marriage of 20 years as in the past they reportedly rowed a lot and came close to splitting up. In ‘The Amateur’, American author Edward Klein’s book about Mr Obama’s first term, he claims that Mrs Obama’s ‘obsessive’ behaviour is the talk of the White House. Portions of the book that were released to The New York Post tells of quotes from a source close to Miss Winfrey as saying: ‘Michelle is very
Michelle Obama
jealous, I would say unusually so. ‘Most people after years of marriage have trust and don’t follow their husbands around and check on them. ‘Michelle doesn’t seem to trust Barack at all. She insists on knowing his every movement and drops in on him at all kinds of odd times. ‘Michelle makes it clear to her inner circle...that she wants women around Barack watched and wants info about who he has an eye for and gets
touchy with. ‘The thing is, she knows, like everybody, about JFK’s shenanigans, and she thinks, hey, JFK was young and good looking like my guy.’ By the time he was assassinated in 1963 Mr Kennedy had become as famous for his extra marital liaisons as he was for being President. In her memoir former White House intern Mimi Alford recalled how Mr Kennedy eyed her up in the White House pool then had sex with her in the bedroom he shared with his wife. Mr Kennedy also supposedly had sex with Marlene Dietrich in the Oval office and famously romanced Marilyn Monroe - amongst many others. In ‘The Amateur’ Mr Klein claims that relations between Miss Winfrey and Mrs Obama took a nosedive over the chat show host’s close relationship with Mr Obama. The book claims that in the weeks after the 2008 U.S. election victory Mr Obama gave Miss Winfrey’s advice ‘priority over Michelle’s’ Mr Klein writes: ‘When she (Winfrey) phoned, he dropped everything and took her call. They
huddled over strategy. Of all of Obama’s unofficial White House advisers, Oprah had unparalleled access, input, influence, and power.’ Mr Klein quotes a White House insider who says that Mrs Obama was ‘furious’ about her husband’s late night phone calls to Miss Winfrey and that he should be turning to her for advice instead. Another sticking point was that Mrs Obama thought that Miss Winfrey had urged Hillary Clinton to run in the election against her husband. When she grew sick of being rejected, specifically in her offer to help with Mrs Obama's campaign against obesity, Miss Winfrey is supposed to have screamed out to a friend: ‘Michelle hates fat people and doesn’t want me waddling around the White House!’ In extracts already made public Mr Klein’s book also claims that former U.S. President Bill Clinton once branded Mr Obama ‘an amateur’ and too incompetent to hold office. Mr Clinton has strongly denied the claims. Nobody from the White House was available for comment.
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Newsweek calls Obama ‘First Gay President' Take that, Time magazine! The latest issue of Newsweek magazine lionizes President Obama with the headline: "The First Gay President." The president is shown with a rainbow halo around his head — a multicolored symbol meant to underscore his beatification by the gay-rights movement. The cover arrives on newsstands and supermarket checkout stands today, less than a week after Obama announced his support for same-sex marriages. In an interview with ABC, Obama discussed how an evolution in his thought processes — including the fact that his young daughters have several schoolmates with same-sex parents — brought him to this new position. The Newsweek cover story by writer Andrew Sullivan delves into this "evolution" and compares Obama's experience as a biracial American to the gay experience in America. Speculation is rampant about whether Obama's announcement will hurt — or help — him in the November election. But this much is sure: The magazine wars are on! Just last week, Time magazine elbowed its way onto pop culture's front lines with a cover about a mother breastfeeding her 3-year-old son, with both of them looking into the camera.
Newsweek’s latest cover
It set off a media frenzy, triggering debates about, among other things, attachment parenting,
breastfeeding itself and whether Time and the motherwith-a-cause unfairly positioned the young boy on the cover up for a lifetime of ridicule. Magazine expert Samir Husni told the Los Angeles Times on Monday that while he applauded Time for tapping into a trend and reporting it out in an edgy, provocative way, he was critical of the Newsweek cover. He said he disapproves of using visual gimmicks to make a point, and said he wished the news magazine would stick to facts and reality. He said Newsweek is struggling for survival in the marketplace, and doing what it can to pull in new readers. "It doesn't want to become the next U.S. News & World Report," said Husni, a professor at the Magazine Innovation Center, Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi. He added of the magazine wars: "It's going to be fun to watch. One thing I am happy about: People are talking about print." It's too soon to say what the cover will do for Newsweek's subscriptions, although it seems likely that street sales will get a bump. A spokesman for the magazine told the L.A. Times that, since Tina Brown took over as editor in chief, the magazine has seen a 30% year-over-year jump in street sales, and a 27% jump in ad pages for that same period.
Woman battles flesh-eating bacteria: Are you at risk? Necrotizing fasciitis is a rare but potentially deadly disease that ravages the body's tissues and causes them to die off, earning it the fiendish nickname "flesh-eating bacteria." A Georgia college student, Aimee Copeland, 24, is currently fighting the disease from her hospital bed near Atlanta. She contracted necrotizing fasciitis after falling from a homemade zip line ride during what was supposed to be a day of fun in the sun on May 1. The fall left a gash in her left calf, believed to have been the entry point for the necrotizing fasciitis. Doctors have since had to amputate one of her legs, and may have to remove her fingers and remaining foot. Her father, Andy Copeland, has started a blog to keep people apprised of her progress, and says he uses the world "miracle" to describe her continued recovery. Necrotizing fasciitis is caused by Group A Streptococcus, also referred to in shorthand as GAS. "Most GAS infections are relatively mild illnesses," like strep throat, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website. But occasionally these strep infections can cause severe and even life-threatening diseases if they're introduced into a part of the body where bacteria are not usually found, "such as the blood, muscle, or the lungs." There is no known way to fully prevent the illness, but the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation suggests these common sense tips: frequent hand-washing, immediate medical treatment for wounds (thorough cleansing of the area and application of an antibacterial ointment), limited contact with
anyone with a strep infection, and teaching children the need for cleanliness. "The single biggest preventative measure is keeping the skin intact," the foundation says. That's important because necrotizing fasciitis can find a way to breach the body's natural barriers through a wound or sore -- even through a minor opening such as a paper cut or staple puncture, according to the CDC and the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation. It can also enter through weakened skin, such as that found with a bruise or blister. Symptoms include severe pain, swelling, fever, redness at the wound site, flu-like symptoms and,
on rare occasions, "a flat red rash over large areas of the body." Treatment for necrotizing fasciitis includes high doses of the antibiotics penicillin and clindamycin; "early and aggressive surgery is often needed to remove damaged tissue and stop disease spread," according to the CDC. The CDC notes that the people at the greatest risk for developing necrotizing fasciitis are people who already have chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and heart or lung disease, or those who are on steroids. People with lesions -- openings due to cuts, chicken pox, and even surgical wounds -- are especially susceptible, the CDC says. Elderly
Aimee Copeland
people and adults with a history of alcohol abuse or injection drug use also have a higher risk for disease, the CDC says. The CDC stresses that the chance of contracting necrotizing fasciitis is rare.
200-Year-Old Shipwreck Found in Gulf of Mexico A newly discovered shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico may have originally gone down 200 years ago. The ship is full of glass bottles, ceramic plates and boxes of muskets. The shipwreck was discovered 200 miles (321 kilometers) off the Gulf Coast in more than 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) of water by a Gulf of Mexico mission led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The wooden hull of the ship has nearly disintegrated, but a greenish copper shell that once protected the ship's wood remains behind. "Artifacts in and around the wreck and the hull's copper sheathing may date the vessel to the early to mid19th century," Jack Irion, a maritime archaeologist with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), said in a statement. The first hint of the shipwreck came in 2011, when a sonar survey by Shell Oil Company turned up an unknown blip on the seafloor. BOEM requested that NOAA explore such unknown blips during a recent expedition by the ship Okeanos Explorer. The ship returned April 29 from its 56day mission exploring unknown areas of the Gulf. [See a gallery of expedition photos]
Along the way, the researchers imaged deep-sea corals near the Macondo well, the site of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. They explored a thick forest of corals at the West Florida Escarpment, an undersea cliff. And they installed a device on Okeanos' remotely operated vehicle to measure the rate that gas rises in the water column. The research team also explored four shipwrecks on the ocean bottom. One, explored on April 19, was first discovered in the 1980s, but has only been investigated by deep-sea archaeologists twice. This wooden-hulled ship dates between the mid-19th and early-20th centuries, though its story is currently a mystery. An exploration of another wreck, this one near the mouth of the Mississippi River, revealed that what was once thought to be a ship cannon was actually a bilge pump. "Some of the more datable objects include what appears to be a type of ceramic plate that was popular between 1800 and 1830, and a wide variety of glass bottles," said BOEM's Irion. "A rare ship's stove on the site is one of only a handful of surviving examples in the world and the second one found on a shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico."
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MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
HIGHLIGHTS
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Facebook cofounder Saverin gives up US citizenship READ ON PAGE 40
Facebook's $16 billion IPO one of world's largest NEW YORK — Facebook's initial public offering of stock is shaping up to be one of the largest ever. The world's definitive online social network is raising at least $16 billion, a big windfall for a company that began eight years ago with no way to make money. Facebook priced its IPO at $38 per share on Thursday, at the high end of its expected range. If extra shares reserved to cover additional demand are sold as part of the transaction, Facebook Inc. and its early investors stand to reap as much as $18.4 billion from the IPO. The IPO values the company at around $104 billion, slightly more than Amazon.com, and well above wellknown corporations such as Disney and Kraft. The $38 is the price at which the investment banks orchestrating the offering will sell the stock to their clients. Facebook's stock is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market sometime Friday morning under the ticker symbol "FB." That's when so-called retail investors can try to buy the stock. Facebook is the third-highest valued company to ever go public, according to data from Dealogic, a financial data provider. Only the two
Chinese banks have been worth more. At $16 billion, the size of the IPO is the third-largest for a U.S. company, squeezed between No. 2 power company Enel and No. 4 General Motors, according to Renaissance Capital. The largest U.S. IPO was Visa, which raised $17.86 billion in 2008. For the Harvard dorm-born social network that re-imagined how people communicate online, the stock sale means more money to operate the data centers that hold the trove of status updates, photos and videos shared by Facebook's 900 million users. It means more money to hire the best engineers to work at its sprawling Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, or in New York City, where it opened an engineering office last year. And it means early investors, who took a chance seeding the young social network with start-up funds six, seven and eight years ago, can reap big rewards. Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who sits on Facebook's board of directors, invested $500,000 in the company back in 2004. He's selling nearly 17 million of his shares in the IPO, which means he'll get some $640 million. The offering values Facebook,
whose 2011 revenue was $3.7 billion, at as much as $104 billion. The skyhigh valuation has its skeptics. Google Inc., whose revenue stood at $38 billion last year, has a market capitalization of $207 billion. "There seems to be somewhat of a hype around the stock offering," says Gartner analyst Brian Blau in somewhat of an understatement. There are a few reasons for the exuberance. One is the IPO's sheer size. Investor appetite for the stock will likely propel Facebook's valuation above other well-known companies such as Kraft, Disney and even Amazon.com. Secondly, it's personal. "It's probably one of the first times there has been an IPO where everyone sort of has a stake in the outcome," Blau says. While most Facebook users won't see a penny from the offering, they are all intimately familiar with the company, so it resonates as something they understand. And then there's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who just turned 28 on Monday. He has emerged as the latest in a lineage of Silicon Valley prodigies who are alternately hailed for pushing the world in new directions and reviled
for overstepping their bounds. He's counted the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs among his mentors and he became one of the world's youngest billionaires — at least on paper — well before Facebook went public. A dramatized version of Facebook's founding was the subject of a Hollywood movie that won three Academy Awards last year, propelling Zuckerberg even further into the public spotlight. Though Zuckerberg is selling about 30 million shares, he will remain Facebook's largest shareholder. He set up two classes of Facebook stock, building on the model Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin created as part of the online search leader's 2004 IPO. The dual class structure helps to ensure that he and other executives keep control as the sometimes conflicting demands of Wall Street exert new pressures on the company. As a result, with the help of early investors who've promised to vote their stock his way, Zuckerberg will have the final say on how nearly 56 percent of Facebook's stock votes. True to form, Zuckerberg and Facebook's engineers are ringing in the IPO on their own terms. The company is holding an overnight "hackathon" Thursday, where engineers stay up writing programming code to come up with new features for the site. On Friday morning, Zuckerberg will ring the Nasdaq opening bell from Facebook's headquarters.
Firing of CEO throws Yahoo into turmoil Yahoo fired its second CEO in less than time. With all of its problems, now a year Sunday amid concerns about an this." exaggerated resume, throwing the In the meantime, observers say, company into turmoil just months into its the chaos at the top levels is latest turnaround effort. diminishing the already-low morale The board ousted Scott Thompson, at Yahoo, as well as making it more 54, who took Yahoo's top job in January, difficult for the company to recruit after a dissident shareholder questioned talent. the biography he had submitted to the "There's an external lack of company before becoming CEO. Ross credibility, which is going to make it Levinsohn, 48, executive vice president of very hard for the firm to move the Americas for Yahoo, was named forward," said Rita McGrath, interim CEO. associate professor at Columbia Thompson's departure comes just as Business School. some details of his plan for righting the For his part, Levinsohn e-mailed struggling Sunnyvale company were employees Sunday saying Yahoo's Scott Thompson starting to become clear. He recently fortunes were improving despite the announced Yahoo would shut down 50 under- Thompson fiasco. performing products, without revealing what they were, "In spite of the very bumpy road we've traveled, we and cut 2,000 jobs. He also launched a patent war against are achieving genuine and meaningful successes in the rival Facebook. marketplace every day and heading in the right It's not clear whether his successor will follow a direction," he wrote in a memo that was re-posted to similar path. several technology blogs. "We really don't know what Thompson's road map Replacing Thompson came as part of a settlement was with a great deal of clarity," said Rebecca Lieb, an with activist shareholder Daniel Loeb, whose Third Point analyst with the Altimeter Group. "This is just more LLC hedge fund publicized the issue surrounding foundering for Yahoo, which is very unfortunate because Thompson's credentials as part of a bid to win seats on it's a company that's been foundering for a very long Yahoo's board. Under the deal struck Sunday, Loeb will
drop a planned proxy challenge in exchange for three of his nominees joining the Yahoo board. Third Point owns about 5.8 percent of Yahoo stock. Thompson's firing is a stinging setback for the Internet giant, where revenue has declined for years amid struggles in its core advertising business. The company employs more than 12,000 people, the bulk of them in California. In September, the board fired CEO Carol Bartz, who had guided the company for 2 1/2 years, after a series of bold moves failed to reverse a decline in ad revenue. Since then, Yahoo has explored selling part or all of its business. Last month, Thompson began reorganizing the company into three core divisions. Yahoo is used by more than 500 million people a month, according to the company, and its popular products include sites for e-mail, news, sports, finance and the photo-sharing application Flickr. But in the years since it was the Web's dominant portal, Yahoo has struggled to keep up with Google and Facebook, which have developed more sophisticated tools for advertisers. The question now is how the company will emerge from the current debacle, particularly given that Thompson's blueprint for the company was only starting to become clear. Much of the company's current market value comes from its stakes in Asian Internet businesses, which Yahoo has been looking to sell. The Porse Pajun
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BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
Facebook co-founder Saverin gives up US citizenship Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire cofounder of Facebook Inc., renounced his U.S. citizenship before an initial public offering that values the social network at as much as $96 billion, a move that may reduce his tax bill. Facebook plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion through the IPO, the biggest in history for an Internet company. Saverin’s stake is about 4 percent, according to the website Who Owns Facebook. At the high end of the IPO valuation, that would be worth about $3.84 billion. His holdings aren’t listed in Facebook’s regulatory filings. Saverin, 30, joins a growing number of people giving up U.S. citizenship, a move that can trim their tax liabilities in that country. The Brazilian-born resident of Singapore is one of several people who helped Mark Zuckerberg start Facebook in a Harvard University dorm and stand to reap billions of dollars after the world’s largest social network holds its IPO. “Eduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time,” said Tom Goodman, a spokesman for Saverin, in an e-mailed statement. Saverin’s name is on a list of people who chose to renounce citizenship as of April 30, published by the Internal Revenue Service. Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship “around September” of last year, according to his spokesman.
Singapore doesn’t have a capital gains tax. It does tax income earned in that nation, as well as “certain foreignsourced income,” according to a government website on tax policies there. Saverin won’t escape all U.S. taxes. Americans who give up their citizenship owe what is effectively an exit tax on the capital gains from their stock holdings, even if they don’t sell the shares, said Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, director of the international tax program at the University of Michigan’s law school. For tax purposes, the IRS treats the stock as if it has been sold. Renouncing your citizenship well in advance of an IPO is “a very smart idea,” from a tax standpoint, said AviYonah. “Once it’s public you can’t fool around with the value.” Saverin previously scuffled with Zuckerberg, his Harvard University classmate, over his ownership in Facebook. Saverin sued him and settled for an undisclosed amount. The 2010 movie “The Social Network” added to Saverin’s fame after it portrayed him as a scorned friend who provided the company’s early financing and then was squeezed out. In the film, written by Aaron Sorkin, Saverin was portrayed by Andrew Garfield, who will play Spider-Man in “The Amazing Spider- Man.” Saverin moved to the U.S. in 1992, and became a citizen in 1998, his spokesman said. He has invested in
Asian, U.S. and European companies, according to his spokesman. He plans to invest in Brazilian and in other global companies that have strong interests in entering the Asian markets. “Accordingly, it made the most sense for him to use Singapore as a home base,” Goodman said in the statement. His U.S. holdings include Jumio Inc., an online payments company, and ShopSavvy Inc., a price-comparison service. Renouncing citizenship is an option chosen by increasing numbers of Americans. A record 1,780 gave up their U.S. passports last year compared with 235 in 2008, according to government records. Income-tax rates for top U.S. earners will rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent next year, and rates on capital gains and dividends also are scheduled to rise unless Congress blocks the increases. “It’s a loss for the U.S. to have many well-educated people who actually have a great deal of affection for America make that choice,” said Richard Weisman, an attorney at Baker & McKenzie in Hong Kong. “The tax cost, complexity and the traps for the unwary are among the considerations.” Some of the world’s largest wealthmanagement firms have ramped up efforts to fight tax evasion ahead of Washington’s implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act,
Another woman loses a top spot on Wall Street Add Ina Drew to the list of prominent Wall Street women who have left their jobs. JPMorgan Chase said today that Ina Drew, head of the bank’s chief investment office, is retiring, following the disclosure of a $2 billion trading loss. The bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, had urged her unit, which invests the bank’s cash, to make riskier bets to boost profits, Bloomberg News reported, citing five former executives. Drew had a 30-year career at the bank and rose to be one of two women who were part of the bank’s powerful operating committee. The ranks of female execs on Wall Street were thin even before the financial crisis, and Drew’s exit follows a string of female executive departures. In June of last year, another Dimon lieutenant, Heidi Miller, the former head of JPMorgan Chase’s international operations, announced plans to leave the bank. Last fall, Sallie Krawcheck, who ran Bank of America’s wealth management division, left the bank as part of a management reorganization. She got a $6 million severance package and stayed out of the public eye for months until reemerging this spring as a frequent tweeter. The financial crisis precipitated other high-profile departures. In June 2008 Lehman Brother’s chief financial officer, Erin Callan, lost her job as investors questioned the firm’s finances before it collapsed. Zoe Cruz, a former co-head of
Morgan Stanley, was ousted in 2007. (Bloomberg News reported last week that Cruz is liquidating the hedge fund she founded after leaving Morgan Stanley.) Krawcheck recently told Marie Claire that while women have senior roles in about 15 percent of corporations, the number falls well below 10 percent on Wall Street. “We are significantly underrepresented there,” she said. Women are more than half of the workforce in the financial sector but are chief executives at fewer than 3 percent of U.S. financial companies, according to Catalyst, a nonprofit dedicated to working with women in business. Krawcheck said that Wall Street should rethink how best to develop female leaders: “We’re putting women on diversity councils; we’re putting them in mentoring programs; we’re giving them special leadership training, telling them how to ask for promotions—but we are not promoting them. My goodness, we’re just making women busier.” Beyond advancement, pay for women in the finance sector is not on a par with men’s either. Census data show that financial jobs have a bigger earnings gap than other fields. In some jobs, such as financial managers, women make from 55¢ to 62¢ for every $1 a man earns. There’s no word yet on Drew’s severance.
Eduardo Saverin
known as Fatca, which seeks to prevent tax evasion by Americans with offshore accounts. HSBC Holdings Plc, Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of Singapore Ltd. and DBS Group Holdings Ltd. all say they have turned away business. The 2010 law, to be phased in starting Jan. 1, 2013, requires financial institutions based outside the U.S. to obtain and report information about income and interest payments accrued to the accounts of American clients. That means additional compliance costs for banks and fewer investment options and advisers for all U.S. citizens living abroad, which may depress banks’ returns. Facebook plans to price its IPO on May 17, offering 337.4 million shares at $28 to $35 each. The shares will be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol FB. Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are leading the sale.
JPMorgan hit with lawsuits over trading losses JPMorgan Chase now faces two new lawsuits from shareholders angry over the bank’s $2 billion trading loss. The suits, filed in federal court in New York, allege JPMorgan misled investors about the bets that went bad. “Defendants misrepresented the losses and risk of loss to the Company arising from massive bets on derivative contracts,” plaintiff Saratoga Advantage Trust said in court papers. “These derivative bets went horribly wrong.” Chief executive Jamie Dimon, whose pay package was approved by shareholders on Tuesday, has said the bank made “egregious” and “self-inflicted” mistakes, words that may come back to haunt him in court. “We believe that he made false and misleading statements and omissions quite frankly,” Bruce Ventimiglia, CEO of Saratoga Advantage Trust, one of the firms that filed suit, told ABC News. The lawsuit names Dimon and Chief Financial Officer Douglas Braunstein. Dimon and Braunstein “knew, or could not reasonably have been unaware of, the magnitude of losses being incurred by JPMorgan,” court records said. When JPMorgan disclosed the loss last week the bank said it resulted from a failed hedging strategy meant to insulate its portfolio from losses. Ventimiglia does not buy the explanation. “They have mislabeled what they were doing. They describe what they were doing as hedging strategies. We think they were outright bets,” he said. JPMorgan Chase declined to comment on the lawsuits. The bank has also declined to give specifics about the trades, but Saratoga Advantage Trust believes “these wagers may have reached close to $100 billion in size.”
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MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
LOCAL NEWS
Green Dragons crowned Sail Rock U15 Girls Champions
The Striking Cheetahs needed to win all three of their games and hope that the Dragons slipped up and they gave everything they had in defeating the Yellow Jaguars (4-1) and White Wolves (6-0) before tying 1-1 against the Dragons... Read more below
Police demolished Kischo Kishco’s hope of moving on to Semi final was shattered by police as the Hap Group / Gansevoort T20 continues at the downtown ball park. Batting first after winning the toss, Kishco were never allowed to get a partnership together courtesy of some ferocious bowling by the police led by Damion Young. In the end, Kischco was bundled out for a meager 61 run in 12.5 overs. The top-scorer for Kishco was the Jose Blanco with 17 runs, comprising three 4s. Bowling for Police, Young claimed four wickets for 19 runs from 4 overs, while skipper Garvin Bruno, Jerry Grant, Lyndon Tyson took two wickets apiece. In reply, Police reached the target in just 8 over, losing just one wicket. The top-scorer was Kareem Jack with an unbeaten 18 runs, which included two 4s. He was supported by Bruno, who was unbeaten on 17 runs, which was punctuated by a 4 and a 6. Bowling for Kischo, Winston Callum took one wicket for 25 runs
Man of the match Damion Young
from 3 overs. Young was duly named Man of the Match. The competition was due to continue on Saturday, May 19 and Sunday, May 20. In the first match, Quality Supermarket Kings were due to face-off against the Police, while the following day KB Home was down to take on Beaches.
Green Dragons ahead in Boys U11 league The U11 Boys reached the half way performance to the end as they blasted phase with the Green Dragons taking away the Strikers with goals coming a commanding league at the top of the from Junior Paul (2), Mario Powell, Jack Small and Ishnar Beloni. table. The Red Devils picked up a win The Dragons won all three of their and a draw as they defeated the All Stars games last Saturday starting with a 2-0 win against the Red Devils. Manuel 3-1 before tying with Strikers 1-1. The Vigo and Orin Campbell scored the Devils scorers on the day where Joovens goals and Vigo was also on the score- Joseph and Neri williams who both sheet alongside Carlton Mills and Zarek scored two goals each. The Purple Pirates were involved in Swann as they overcame the Blue two high scoring games as they tied 2-2 Marlins (3-1). with the All Stars before losing 3-2 to the Jack Small had scored for the Marlins but the Dragons controlled possession Strikers. Shadown St. John scored twice and created many chances. However, in against the Strikers and one against the their final game they had to work hard All Stars with John Kolas adding the to overcome the Orange All Stars and it other goal. In their win the Strikers saw AJ was Swann who came up with the winner with only a few minutes to spare. Elenus, Charlie McKnight and Sebastien In the remaining games most teams Turbyfield hit the back of the net and experienced mixed days. The Blue Javaughn Jackson scored twice for the Marlins bounced back from their defeat All Stars in their tie with the Pirates. against the Dragons with a 1-1 draw Goal of the day was scored by Sebastien against the Purple Pirates and a 5-0 win Turbyfield as he turned and shot from against the Yellow Strikers. Junior Paul scored for the Marlins long range to secure a draw against the in the game against the Pirates who Red Devils, who will need to win all their had taken the lead through Shadown St. remianing games if they are to catch the John, yet the Marlins saved their best Dragons who lead by eight points.
Grasshoppers secure U14 Boys title ahead of final round
The Under 14 Boys League has one week remaining but the Grasshoppers have already ensured they will be crowned champions as they hold a ten point lead over the Eagles. The Grasshoppers beat the Eagles 4-1 to secure the title after having already beaten the Tigers 3-2 in their opening game. The Grasshoppers goals were spread out amongst the team with Gabriel Diotte scoring three times, Idlin beloni twice and Michael Johnson, Reinaldo scoring one each. Wilkins Sylvain and Adner Davilmar scored for the Tigers and Marvin Joseph scored the lone goal for the Eagles. In their opening game the Eagles had worked hard to overcome the Golden Retrievers with a 3-2 win. Joseph scored twice and Samir Tolani added another for the Eagles as Tariq Germal and Wendy Joseph had kept the Retrievers in the game. The Retrievers were involved inother high scoring match as they lost 4-3 to the Tigers. Cole Nickson, Wilkins Sylavain, Adner Davilmar and Arod Turrel all scored for the Tigers and goals from Ras Diamond (2) and Jefty Desvales ensured it would be a tense finish.
Mermaids atop Beach Soccer leader board The Captain Marvin's Women’s Beach Soccer League reached the half way stage last weekend as the Mermaids cemented their place at the top of the league with a 12-2 win against the Purple Pirates. The Mermaids are undefeated so far this season and this is largely due to their overall team work and commitment as very player makes a valid contribution and they do not have to rely upon a star player to lead the way. The Purple Pirates took the lead when Christina Hinds' poweful shot left the Mermaids' keeper with no chance, however they fought back to take a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period with goals from Yarileny De La Cruz and Kadine Delphin. During the two remaining periods the Mermaids dominated the game and finished off as comfortable winners. Kadine Delphin led the scroing with six goals and she was assisted by Lilli Fenelus who claimed a hattrick. Yarileny De La Cruz (2)
and Griet Vanbrabant rounded off the scoring for the league leaders. Yarielca de la Cruz scored a consolation goal for the Pirates but they were well beaten on the day. In the other game the Blue Marlins moved into second place with a 7-3 win against the Great White Sharks. The Sharks played well but yet again they were let down by some poor finishing. At the start of the second period the Marlins held a slender lead (32) but soon managed to make the most of their efforts on goal as they slowly pulled away to go into the final period with a 5-3 lead. Two late goals from Tyra Forbes sealed the win for the Marlins, whose other goals were scored by Sarah Cenary (3) Amelie Speer and Marie Dorcelus. Simone Smith, Jessica Lange and Briandie Brooks were on the scoresheet for the Sharks who are improving week by week but have yet to get their first win on the season.
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LOCAL NEWS SPORTS LOCAL
MAY 18TH - MAY 25TH, 2012
TURKS & CAICOS SUN
Green Dragons
Green Dragons crowned Sail Rock U15 Girls Champions
The Sailrock U15 Girls League came to a close with the Green Dragons crowned as deserved champions. In second place were the Striking Cheetahs who held off a late surge from the Titans. As though-out the league the final day saw a lot of goal action. The Striking Cheetahs needed to win all three of their games and hope that the Dragons slipped up and they gave everything they had in defeating the Yellow Jaguars (4-1) and White Wolves (60) before tying 1-1 against the Dragons. Yarielca De La Cruz and Crystal Stirling dominated the scoring for the Cheetahs as the scored six and five goals respectively. The Green Dragons did enough to secure the championship with a 0-0 draw with the Red Devils and a 2-0 win against the White Wolves.
Jenny Fluerenvil, Lashauna Thompson and Danara Brooks scored for the Dragons on the day. In the remaining games the Titans bounced back after a 3-2 defeat against the White Wolves with a 3-0 win over the Devils and a 2-0 defeat of the Jaguars. Yarileny De La Cruz scored all seven of her teams goals and was voted MVP for the day. The Wolves goals were shared between Waldine Pierre, Sydnee Campbell and Rhian Davies with Tyra Forbes scoring for the Jaguars in their loss against the Cheetahs. Earlier on Jachelle Gardner had scored for the Jaguars as they tied with the Devils courtesy of Melissa Jean Guy's goal. Team MVPs - Striking Cheetahs - Crystal Stirling; Yellow Jaguars - Tyra Forbes; Titans - Yarileny De La Cruz; White Wolves - Waldine Pierre; Red Devils - Melissa Jean Guy; Green
Dragons - Sanardia Forbes. The top goal-scorer was Yarielca De La Cruz with 31 goals. The Most Improved Player award went to Sydnee Campbell, while the League MVP title went to Jenny Fluerenvil. Technical Director Matthew Green thanked the league sponsors, Sailrock, for their continued support as well as the coaches and referees. “The girls continue to improve at a fast rate and it is great to see new players doing well in the league alongside girls that have been playing for a few years now. These leagues help us identify talent for our Centres of Excellence as well as our future national teams. They aslo help prepare our players for more serious and competitive games ahead by giving them a chance to compete at a young age.”
Classic Battle between Bears and Warriors under the Rain
If last week’s clash was the best it was going to be to achieve that. match of the TCIRFU Under 19 Franco Mompremier, outstanding season so far, the BCQS Bears in recent weeks and again here, and Vix Warriors consigned splintered the Warriors’ defence it to history as they upped the with a blockbusting run and crashed ante again at Meridian Field on over to score. The field was still relatively dry Saturday. Not even the torrential rain nor at this point, which allowed Andrew the thunder and lightning which Seymour to use his twinkling raged throughout the duration footwork to score the Bears’ second of the match could dampen the try almost immediately after enthusiasm and skill of these two Mompremier’s effort. This only sides. If anything, the players strengthened the Warriors’ resolve were even more excited by the though and they were quick to opportunity to test themselves respond with a good team effort under hugely difficult conditions, a sending Leon Rene clear down the test they passed with flying colours. left wing for their opening try. Soon after, Mompremier again The committed and brave defending was there for all to see proved too quick, strong and once more, as was the teamwork powerful for the willing Warriors built upon several weeks of familiar defenders to notch up his second combinations, while the handling try and the Bears’ third of the half. The Warriors hit right back and passing of the incredibly slippery ball was perhaps the most however, firstly through the impressive Rosemon Joseph who impressive aspect. The Warriors were looking for is going from strength to strength back to back wins after their great in his debut season, and then again effort last week, but the Bears right on half-time with a well showed them early on how tough constructed team try finished off
by Hendy Diaz. The saturated but determined players went into their huddles at half-time with the score locked at 15-15. With the second half under way, the storm showed no signs of slowing down and neither did the players. Handling became increasingly difficult and with the ground getting heavier and slipperier by the minute the game became one of attrition and close quarter combat. The commitment shown by both teams in putting their bodies on the line was incredible, as was one particular passage of play from the Warriors where Edwardo Villanueva and Edward Jean displayed superb handling skills in a beautiful little interplay that resulted in Rene again flying down the left wing, only to be caught and bundled into touch just short of the line by the desperate Bears’ defence. Still the score was locked at 15 – all but the Bears obtained crucial field position and with it the chance to set up Kendall Dean to
power over for a great try despite the attentions of several Warriors defenders. The Bears continued to apply the pressure, which the Warriors continued to soak up, until Lincoln Outten’s team-mates were able to create the tiniest of gaps down the right side-line and his pace and finishing ability did the rest for the final try that clinch the Bears the victory by 25 – 15. A difficult choice for Man of the Match honours has to go to Franco Mompremier for being at the heart of everything the Bears were throwing at the Warriors. This coming Saturday at the Meridian Field sees a brand new event commemorate the last weekend of junior rugby for this season: the Digicel Provo InterSchool Tag Rugby tournament which will start at 10am. All interested parties are invited and encouraged to attend. Enquiries are welcome to Jamie Tait, Rugby Development Officer, at rdo@ rugby.tc
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LOCAL NEWS
West Indies face tough cricket test in England
It’s about getting victories under our belts and that is something that will come when we play more together and believe more in ourselves,” Sammy told a media conference... Read more below
New US$5million football stadium to be built in Haiti
From the rubble, literally, of the earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010, plans to build the first professional soccer stadium in the country are taking shape. The appropriately named Phoenix Stadium is set to rise in Cité Soleil, an area designated by the United Nations as a red zone — an impoverished town in desperate need of economic development. The entire project, which has an estimated cost of $5 million, will have the majority of its financing provided by Delos LLC as part of the Clinton Global Initiative. Additional financing will be secured from corporations and individual donors. The stadium is only the first component of a project that will result in the construction of a youth soccer academy, an elementary and middle school, and infrastructure projects that will include agriculture, composting and water treatment. Part of the impetus for the project came from the long-term efforts of Boby Duval, the founder of L’Athletique D’Haiti, a nonprofit youth development program that has been providing children with education through sports. “This is like a dream come true,” Duval said in a telephone interview from Haiti. “This project will change people’s lives. I started this 18 years ago when I came back to Haiti from college in the States.” He added: “I know this is working. We have more than 2,000 kids we’re serving here. They’ve gone to Brazil, the U.S., the women’s team were
champions of the Homeless World Cup. Sports is the universal language. The kids may be poor and barefoot, but when they walk on the field I guarantee you, you don’t know who’s rich. For an hour on the field, they are people who make a difference. This is not rocket science.” Since Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, sports has organically taken a back seat to the struggles to simply put food on the table, for many people. On the global soccer stage, Haiti has had meager success: the country has no national stadium (playing in Stade Sylvio Cator in Port-au-Prince), it has played in only one World Cup (1974 in West Germany) and its ability to field a credible national team has been hampered by little, if any, infrastructure on the youth level. “They do have a national stadium, but it was built 60 years ago and it costs too much to see a game there,” said Morad Fareed, a New Yorkbased businessman and former national team player for Palestine (making three appearances during qualifying for the 2006 World Cup). Fareed cofounded Delos, which bills itself as a builder of Wellness Real Estate. “This stadium is not for the national team,” he said. “It is intended for a new 10-team league run by Boby Duval. “I have seen how transformative sports can be in the most desperate places in the world. My company looks for high-impact, philanthropic projects, and this one is just bold enough. It has an exciting potential to have an impact on many
people. Besides the essential infrastructure, we are trying to focus on simply enabling children to grow and develop character.” The stadium (capacity 12,000, expandable to more than 20,000) will be part of the first phase of the development that builders hope will spread over more than 15 acres. The plan, put forward by the well-known architect Carlos Zapata — whose projects include the renovation of Soldier Field in Chicago and the design of the Bitexco Financial Tower in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam — will use rubble from the 2010 earthquake in the construction process. CZ StudioCarlos Zapata, who designed the reboot of Soldier Field in Chicago, above, is on board as the architect the new stadium in Haiti. “It’s a very unlikely project, if you think about it,” Zapata said. “Some people would say a soccer stadium in Haiti is something they don’t need. I’ve really been moved by this project. What they don’t need is another government building. We’re all in support of Boby, who is trying to give the kids a chance.” In Zapata’s conception, the project will incorporate labor and materials from Haiti while also creating at least 500 jobs at the start, instead of “importing steel from Miami and a crew from Miami, to put it together and leave.” He said it is about using the current landscape, “the geometry of the land,” to mold the space and create hills for people to see the field. “Architecture is poetry,” he said. “It goes beyond the basics of building. I believe it can be a beautiful place that doesn’t need to be compromised. It’s a new opportunity to build something that is an inspiration for everyone, not just Haiti. We aspire to do great things.”
West Indies face tough cricket test in England
LORD'S, England — Embattled West Indies are playing against world number one England, facing an avalanche of criticism over a novice top order, patchy preparation and a recent record than has seen them win just one series over top-ranked opposition in three years. The British media has been as ruthless as it has been calculated in its assault on the Caribbean side's chances in the three-Test series, and pundits here have held out little hope for the Windies against what appears to be a daunting England side in familiar conditions. Entering the series on the back of a 2-0 defeat to Australia — the latest in a long sequence of defeats — West Indies have been dogged by the late arrival of players, damp, chilly weather which ruined their opening tour match against Sussex and erratic form which resulted in a 10-wicket defeat to England Lions last weekend. All these factors have combined
to leave the Windies as definite underdogs, but captain Darren Sammy on Wednesday upheld faith in his side to compete strongly despite the nature of the challenge. "This young team has shown the kind of character and attitude that shows signs we could compete and we've been competing against top-ranked teams. It's about getting victories under our belts and that is something that will come when we play more together and believe more in ourselves," Sammy told a media conference. "I think we did the best we can (with our preparation). Our practice matches were affected by rain but the guys got to use the indoors facilities to hit a lot of balls, although it's different from the actual outdoors. But it's the conditions which we don't have control over and the guys made the best use of it." West Indies are seeking to overturn a dire record against the hosts in recent years where they
have won just two of the last 24 Tests played, while losing 15. When the tourists were last here three years ago, they were demolished in the two-Test series — losing the first at Lord's by 10 wickets inside three days and the second at Chesterle-Street by an innings. England have suffered in recent months, however, whitewashed 3-0 by Pakistan and struggling to a 1-1 draw with Sri Lanka on the Asian subcontinent, but Sammy said he did not see this as a sign of weakness. "They are number one and we expected them to play like world champions," Sammy asserted. "(James) Anderson just got Cricketer-of-the-Year (in England) and he's been doing really well. In fact, the whole team, batsmen and bowlers, have been doing well. "We left the Caribbean knowing it's going to be a very difficult challenge but we also know that if we can play well and put runs on the
board, we back our bowling attack to get 20 wickets and win a Test match." The Windies enter the match with a green top order that boasts 41 Tests among them, none of them in English conditions. And while 22-year-old lefthanded opener Kieran Powell got a century at Northampton against Lions and Bravo picked up halfcenturies in either innings, question marks still remain especially against a more experienced England seam attack. "Seeing off the new ball is very important. In County cricket, batsmen have been having trying times seeing off the new ball so asking our youngsters to do that is going to pose a challenge against Anderson and (Stuart) Broad and these guys," Sammy acknowledged. The worry which abounded over the fitness of the Windies pace attack seems to have subsided, with Sammy expecting all the players to be available for selection.
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“Never in my life did I see a final like today... A crazy season, a crazy 90 minutes — what can I say?” CITY’S MANAGER, ROBERTO MANCINI, ON THEIR FIRST WIN IN 44 YEARS
READ MORE BELOW
After 44 Years Manchester City Wins Premiership LONDON — The blue moon has risen again in Manchester after 44 years of heartache. Manchester City fans, the blue half of a city dominated by United red, on Sunday won the English league for the first time since 1968. The suspense — if not always the quality — that makes the Premier League such a compelling spectacle was spun out into injury time when two late goals changed the course of history. “Never in my life did I see a final like today,” said City’s manager, Roberto Mancini, an Italian flag draped around his shoulders. “A crazy season, a crazy 90 minutes — what can I say?” He can get his timing right for a start. Mancini has managed some of the most volatile, unpredictable characters in the sport, and taken them to this title. But fate played the final hand. After the regulation 90 minutes, the champion appeared to be United. It won, 1-0, at Sunderland through a Wayne Rooney-headed goal, and its game was over before the final, delayed whistle at City’s Etihad Stadium. At that moment, United was the champion, again. But in Manchester, the clock ticked on. City was a goal down to Queens Park Rangers, itself an extraordinary story because Mancini’s team has the best home record in England this season, and Q.P.R. the worst away. But time, as well as the times, change. Years ago, the final whistle would blow after 90 minutes regardless. Nowadays, the timekeepers add on minutes deemed lost for injuries, substitutions, and deliberate attempts to waste seconds. So it was that the referee at Etihad, Mike Dean, allowed five extra minutes. As those five minutes began, City trailed, 2-1. But in the 92nd minute, Edin Dzeko, the Manchester club’s Bosnian striker, headed an equalizer from a corner. In the 94th, Sergio Agüero, City’s marvellous opportunist from Argentina, kept his nerve, stayed on his feet against a rash challenge and shot the winner with his right foot. Pandemonium. On the sideline, Mancini leapt out of a pensive crouch and ran around like a headless chicken. Up in the main stand, a Malaysian hugged an Arab. The final whistle gave them both what they wanted. City is owned by the ruling family of
Manchester City team members celebrate with the English Premier League trophy after their team's 3-2 win over Queens Park Rangers at The Etihad Stadium Sunday, May 11th, 2012
Abu Dhabi whose emissary in the stand was the club chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak. And the man embracing him was Tony Fernandes, the entrepreneur who bought Q.P.R.’s major shareholding last year. To City goes the championship, but to Rangers, even in defeat, the safety of staying in the Premiership because, far, far away in Stoke, Bolton was held, 2-2, meaning that Bolton dropped out of the Premier league and Q.P.R. lives to fight another season. This final, emotional Sunday afternoon was not even confined to those two extremes of winning the league or being demoted out of it. The race for third and fourth places, vital to qualifying for the Champions League and for the millions in income related to it, ended with Arsenal just pipping Tottenham for third, and Tottenham edging out Newcastle for forth. But for anyone who has lived in Manchester, as I have, that is nothing compared with the emotions the Citizens, as the City fans are known, have gone through. Most of the people who spilled onto the turf when the final whistle sounded are far too young to have seen the old boys — Francis Lee, Tony Book, Mike Summerbee et al — win the league in 1968. But when the field cleared, the surviving members of that side formed
a guard of honor and handed the trophy to the new elite. Vincent Kompany, the Belgian who now captains City, tried to find words for his feelings. “So much is said about the money that brings us here,” he said, “but it’s not money that you dream about when you are a kid with nothing. You want to say this is the best moment of your life, but please, never like this again.” Kompany’s defending, Joe Hart’s goalkeeping, Yaya Touré’s midfield power, David Silva’s creative mind, and Agüero’s finishing make this a thoroughly deserving and cosmopolitan modern City side. But the squad also has hotheads, past and present. A dark moment of madness nine minutes into the second half disgraced this intoxicating afternoon. Joey Barton, who once was kicked out of Manchester City because of his appalling violence, wore the armband as Q.P.R.’s leader. But in the 55th minute, he clashed with Carlos Tévez, his successor as the team’s most intemperate figure. Barton had his back to Tévez, but, as they jostled off the ball, Tévez suddenly fell holding his jaw. The referee saw nothing, but one of his linesmen, Andy Jarrett raised his flag. The assistant told the ref that he saw an elbow raised by Barton, the consequence was a red card, and in the
ill-tempered altercations that followed Barton kicked Agüero in the back of his thigh. Eventually, Barton was manhandled off the pitch, like a thug under police arrest. It is not, by any means, his first such crime against the sport, and he surely faces a long, long time banned from the game. He besmirches soccer too often to be allowed its privileges and its rewards. Without him, his team was almost magnificent. It had fought back from a goal down to lead 2-1, and it was clinging tenaciously, all 10 men defending for their Premiership status for 40 minutes while a man down. The statistics of their defiance takes some believing. In the entire game, QPR had three attempts on goal, and scored twice. City ran up 44 shots or headers, and just, in those minutes added on for, among other things, the disgraceful hiatus caused by Barton, the resistance of Rangers was broken. Forty-four shots thus ended 44 years of longing for the unattainable prize in the city of Manchester. The fans who never deserted them, even when the club fell into the third tier of English soccer, are the salt of the earth. They are born to follow a team. The players, and owners, are just passing through.
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WORLD SPORTS
Five Indian players suspended on corruption allegations Five cricketers were suspended by Indian officials on Tuesday following a sting operation that showed them either agreeing to spot-fixing in domestic games or to negotiate IPL contracts, which was disallowed. The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced provisional suspensions on TP Sudhindra, Shalabh Srivastava, Mohnish Mishra, Amit Yadav and Abhinav Bali after watching the sting performed by the news channel India TV. The BCCI also named the former head of the ICC anti-corruption unit, Ravi Sawani to hold an inquiry that will look into “the involvement of players in illegal activities or activities against the interests of the BCCI and the game.” The TV sting involved reporters posing as agents of a sports management firm offering players money to perform in a certain way at specific times in the match. The channel showed Sudhindra, who plays for Deccan Chargers in the IPL, allegedly bowling a no-ball in a
Shalabh Srivastava is one of the players suspended
local Twenty20 game in the central Indian city of Indore for $1,000. Pictures captured by a hidden camera appeared to show Sudhindra agreeing to bowl a no-ball with his second delivery of the game. Broadcaster India TV then showed video of the game in which Sudhindra
bowls a no-ball by well over a foot at the predetermined time. Though the video does not show Sudhindra agreeing to fix an IPL game, the channel did play out a purported telephone conversation with Srivastava of the Kings XI Punjab agreeing to bowl a no-ball in the IPL.
Srivastava, who did not get to play in the IPL this season, denied the allegations. “This is a false allegation and I will definitely file a case against them (India TV),” Srivastava told the NDTV news channel. “They have video clippings of me in other conversations, but why is it that they don’t have a video of me demanding money for spot-fixing in IPL? Why is that only an audio clipping?” India TV also showed some players claiming IPL teams lure players by offering them more money than allowed under tournament rules with undeclared transactions. Pune Warriors player Mishra and Kings XI Punjab’s Yadav were shown apparently agreeing to negotiate with other teams in the IPL, which is not allowed under tournament rules. Delhi player Bali, who does not play in the IPL, was shown in the sting operation as claiming that such negotiations are common practice. The allegations come within days of the BCCI announcing plans to set up its own anti-corruption unit.
McDermott quits as Nadal unconcerned Australia bowling coach by rankings slip ROME - Rafael Nadal's chances of winning an open era record seventh French Open title next month will not be affected by his fall to number three in the world rankings, the Spaniard said on Monday. His third-round defeat last week in Madrid meant he was overtaken by tournament winner Roger Federer, with Novak Djokovic still top of the pile. "Being number two or number three isn't going to change my goal," Nadal told a news conference at the Foro Rafael Nadal Italico, the long-time home of the Rome Masters, which began on Sunday. "My goal will be the same, number two, three or number 10. To win you have to beat the best players in the world. The only change is in the semi-finals but it doesn't make any difference." Nadal could regain second spot from Federer this week but said he was more concerned with the way he is playing. "I will try my best to play my best and if I am able to do that I will have my chances to have a good result," he said. "I will just try to play the same way I did in Monte Carlo and Barcelona (where he won the title). The feeling is there and I am happy with how I am playing." Nadal and Djokovic were the most vocal critics of the slippery nature of the blue clay which was used in Madrid for the first time last week. "I don't think about Madrid," Nadal said. "I lost (to Fernando Verdasco). I accept that I played bad and I lost because I didn't play the level that I needed to win. "But Rome is a tournament I love, one of my favourite tournaments of the year. I am just excited and motivated to come back here."
SYDNEY - Australia cricket suffered a major blow on Friday when Craig McDermott decided to step down as bowling coach after just a year in the job because of the demands of touring with the side. McDermott has overseen a transformation in Australian pace bowling in the last year, rejuvenating seasoned campaigners like Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle and introducing exciting new talents like Pat Cummins and James Pattinson. "It has been a very difficult decision to leave my position as the bowling coach of the Australian cricket team, a job I have thoroughly enjoyed since beginning 12 months ago," he said in a Cricket Australia media release. "However, the team's schedule is a particularly busy one and after looking at the upcoming touring demands, I felt this to be the right decision from a personal and professional point of view." McDermott took over last year after the humiliating home Ashes defeat and set about revitalising a bowling unit which had been ruthlessly put to the sword by the English batsmen. Bowling with much more discipline and clear strategies for individual batsmen, Australia's seamers succeeded in suffocating India's celebrated batting line-up and were instrumental in the 4-0 test whitewash around the turn of this year. "Craig has done outstanding job since taking over the role and without doubt will be very difficult to replace," coach Mickey Arthur said. "As the Australian public and cricket world has seen, Craig has taken our fast
Craig McDermott
bowlers to another level and his skills and experience will be sorely missed around the group. "However, we completely understand and respect Craig's decision. The international schedule is a particularly busy one and family must always come first." McDermott, who in his career as a quick bowler took 291 wickets in 71 tests for Australia in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said he would continue to "provide input" through Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence. "It has been a great honour to work with our most exciting bowlers over this period and we have achieved much success," he said. "The progression of particular players and the improvement of depth in Australian bowling stocks has been the result of much hard work from both sides and is something I am particularly proud of."
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