VOLUME 10 ISSUE 10 by The SUN Newspaper

MARCH 29 TH - APRIL 5 TH, 2014

Website: www.suntci.com

VOLUME 10 - No. 10

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SIPT COST COVER-UP Foreign and Commonwealth Office refuses to divulge full cost of investigation

BY HAYDEN BOYCE PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

t a time when residents of the Turks and Caicos Islands are experiencing severe financial hardships, Helen Garlick and her Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (SIPT) continue to be paid millions of dollars and are smiling all the way to the bank. However, the London-based Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is refusing to divulge exactly how much they are paid. Investigations by The SUN revealed that the FCO has been ducking questions about the cost of Garlick’s five-year-old investigation, even though they were formally asked under Britain’s Freedom of Information Act which requires them to provide this information. According to the SUN’s probe, on November 22nd, 2013, a Mr. Roshan M Salih wrote the following letter to the following: Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office, I would like to know the following information regarding the Crown case against Michael Misick: 1. The amount of money paid so far to the Head of the Special Investigation Team Miss Helen Garlick, and the amount agreed to be paid until the conclusion of the case. 2. The amount of money which has so far been allocated to the Prosecution team that was sent out from the UK to prosecute Michael Misick and others. 3. The amount the Turks and Caicos Governor through the Foreign and Commonwealth office has so far paid Mr Andrew Mitchel QC for his services so far, and agreed to pay him until the conclusion of the case. 4. The amount of money paid so far to each of the 3 Junior Counsel who

JP’s house damaged by fire PAGE 2

CONTESTANTS FOR TCI TOP MODEL 2014 REVEALED The girls left to right are: Brielle Swann, Felicia WilIt was ‘A Day where Beauty was Personiﬁed’ at the reﬂecting pool on the grounds of the glamorous and ul- liams,Stephanie Sejour, Nathanelle Louis; Samentha Etitra-exclusive Regent Palms Resort on Providenciales over enne, TCI Top Model 2013; Kameia Outten, Lamia Brown, the weekend. Saturday, March 22nd featured the ‘Digital J’Keyah Jolly, Wilange Charles and Je’Cannya Garland. ( Dolls’, the nine contestants vying to become the Face of See page 16 for the full story). the Turks & Caicos, TCI Top Model 2014! will be led by Mr Mitchel in the course of the proceedings, and the amounts agreed to be paid to them until the conclusion of the proceedings. 5. The budget that was allocated to the Prosecution team. 6. The budget allocated to the Judicial Team. 7. The Budget allocated to the Defence The FCO responded on November 25th last year with a promise to respond within 20 working days. On December 20, 2013, someone

from FCO’s Overseas Territories Directorate Caribbean and Bermuda Section responded by saying: “I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you request is not held by this Department. To clarify the reason behind this, the Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (SIPT) is funded by the Turks and Caicos Islands Government (TCIG), not by the UK Government.

Bishop Coleta Williams planning a march against payroll tax

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The criminal trials of those charged with bribery, corruption and intention to defraud, as a result of the SIPT’s investigations, have not yet begun (trials are due to commence in 2014). Michael Misick, whose case you speciﬁcally request information on, is currently facing extradition from Brazil to the Turks and Caicos Islands. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

US alerts Americans about crime in TCI PAGE 7

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SIPT COST COVER-UP MARCH 29 TH - APRIL 5 TH, 2014

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 In any case, at this stage of the investigation it would be inappropriate for detailed information to be provided. To do so would necessarily involve disclosing and publicizing information about the conduct of the investigation and other operational matters, and the preparation of the prosecution case. This would result in an unnecessary and unacceptable risk of prejudice to the judicial process which must be allowed to take its course without hindrance. The SIPT expects to be held fully accountable for its expenditure and to be required to give detailed information on how the costs of the investigation and prosecution have been incurred, once the criminal proceedings are over.” On January 8th, 2014, Mr. Roshan M Salih wrote again to the FCO saying: Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews. I am writing to request an internal review of Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s handling of my FOI request ‘Request for disclosure of Prosecution costs in Michael Misick Turks and Caicos case.’. I am not satisfied with the FCO’s response and refusal to disclose information. Firstly, up to October 2012 the TCI government was being run directly from the FCO so they must know the expenditure and have those records. Secondly, as for the issue of prejudice the information sought will have absolutely no impact on the trial at all as it is not part of the evidence or other facts related to the trial process. I simply wish to know how much from the taxpayers of either the UK or its dependency has been paid to the QC and his Junior Counsels. I cannot see how this would prejudice the trial process as it is not clear what relevance the payment made to lawyers contracted by the FCO is going to be in the trial itself. The evidence cannot be said to be in anyway relevant to the issues in the trial that the tribunal of fact needs to hear. If anything the information may dispel any suggestion that the trial process is rigged in favour of the prosecution. I see no reason why this information is to be withheld other than possibly its revelation is going to prove that QC and other Prosecution team members have been paid millions of pounds of taxpayers money. This is in no different to other Lawyers in the UK whose payment

figures the government regularly releases to the national press to show how overpaid members of the bar are.” On February 6th, 2014, the FCO responded saying Dear Mr Salih Thank you for your email of 8 January 2014 asking for an internal review of the decision conveyed to you in our letter dated 20 December 2013. I have spoken to the officer involved, assessed the search terms used and I am content that a reasonable search for material held by the FCO was carried out in relation to your request. An extensive review has been carried out including a fresh search. This search has located certain financial information. However, this information does not cover the specific questions which you have asked. We have carefully considered whether we could draw on those figures as a basis for work to provide you with the information which you seek, but we have been bound to conclude that we cannot. Therefore, for the purposes of the request we do not hold the information you seek. Under our duty to provide reasonable advice and assistance we have considered if you might want to ask alternative but related questions on the funding of an ongoing case, and if so whether any information could be provided. Without closing our mind to that possibility, we would say that it is unlikely that we would be able to provide such information as there are exemptions such as section 31 FOIA (Administration of Justice) which could well apply. I hope you are satisfied with the process of this review and the outcome. However, if you feel we have not handled your internal review correctly and you wish to make a complaint, you may then apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF. Yours sincerely, Peter Clements Overseas Territories Directorate Foreign and Commonwealth Office HELEN GARLICK SAYS UK GOVERNMENT SHOULD PAY FOR INVESTIGATION Just after ahs was appointed, Special Prosecutor Helen Garlick says has told the Governor and the Foreign and

Commonwealth Office that it would be wrong in principle to pay her huge sums of money while forsaking the people of the Turks and Caicos islands. In a letter to Chris Bryant MP, the former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Michael Foster MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for International Development, Garlick said the budgeted costs of the Special Investigations team will amount to between 4.5% and 5% of the TCIG’s budget and could well increase, if charges are brought and there are several trials. She said: “There is a real prospect there will be months when the SIPT’s expenses and salaries will be met, whilst TCI Government servants, including police officers, with whom we may be working, will not. There is also a distinct possibility that other important government expenditure that has a real impact on the well being of the Islanders will be subordinated to the SIPT’s needs. “In my view this is wrong in principle. Furthermore, it is hardly likely to help us to win and maintain essential public support. We now face a considerable and highly damaging delay before the investigation can be started. In recent weeks, we have needed to react to some important and urgent developments. This is very much in the nature of major criminal investigations but our capacity to deal with them is severely limited. However, I cannot begin to interview and offer permanent posts to any new staff until I am certain that the facility is in place. You will understand that I also have a responsibility to assure staff that they will have a proper measure of job security and also that they will be paid in full and on time.” She added: “On my current understanding, that the facility will be agreed by the beginning of December, I am unlikely to be able to have a full team in place until March 2010. There is a risk that public confidence in and support for our work will ebb. Questions are being asked about the apparent lack of progress and the failure to establish a presence in TCI. Public support is vital, both to maintain the independence of the Investigation against the very real prospect of political interference, once the Islands return to elected government but also to encourage potential witnesses and providers of information. You will recall that the foreign Affairs Select Committee and the Public Inquiry both recorded evidence of intimidation and a climate of fear. It is disappointing in the extreme that funding

$1.2 MILLION HOME GOES UP IN FLAMES BY VIVIAN TYSON

he upper floor of a two storey dwelling located off the leeward Highway in Providenciales was gutted by an intense inferno on Friday (March 27), taking with it all the owners belongings, including one of their dogs. The dog was locked up and alone in the House at of the blaze, and the Providenciales Fire Department said that it is still investigating the origin of the blaze. The house was said to have been owned by Jean Pierre “JP” Demontigny, who lived in the two bedroom house with his wife and son. He said that his wife was away in the Dominican Republic at the time of the fire. Demontigny also bemoaned the fact that he would have to find every penny to rebuild the partially destroyed dwelling since there was no insurance on the structure at the time of the fire. He said the house

is valued at $1.2 million. Demontigny told reporters that he received a call minutes to 10 a.m., that his house was on fire, which he said was about two hours after he left his house to drop his son at school. He said that on his return he saw the upper floor of the structure engulfed in flames and firefighters battling the blaze. “Somebody called me at a quarter to 10, to tell me they saw some spoke coming from the ceiling,” he said. Demontigny was relieved that the tenants who occupied each of the two ground floor apartments were not adversely affected by the fire, telling the media that concrete slabs separates the top floor from the bottom floor. “No, they were not affected. (They may get affected) only by the smoke and a little bit of water because the water go inside the ceiling down stairs inside the slab,” he said.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

for the SIPT’s work has taken so long to be resolved.” She said that Sir Robin Auld’s Interim Report was published at the end of February. And she thought it is fair comment that by that date at the very latest, it was plain that the cost of a substantial criminal investigation would have to be met. “I have asked the question why a separate source of funding from HMG cannot be found for the SIPT. I have been told that it is impossible. My understanding is that the FCO has no budget for this type of expenditure and that there is no other realistic government source of funding, with the exception of DFID. I am aware that there is a traditional objection to providing support for a prosecution, I assume because DFID and other government departments do not wish to appear to be adopting a partisan stance. If that is a material objection in this case, then I would comment that larger issues are at stake here than simply securing convictions against particular individuals. The Public Inquiry was initiated by Her Majesty’s Government, as a direct result of the recommendations of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and it was also Her Majesty’s Government that decided upon the partial suspension of the Constitution and my appointment. Through no fault of their own, the TCI police and the Attorney General’s office lack the experience or the capacity to conduct this investigation and in the case of the former, largely because of the size of the population and family interrelationships, they do not have public confidence. The principles that will lie at the heart of this investigation and of any trials are those of good governance and the corruption free conduct of public office and the lessons that will be learned from a properly conducted investigation could be of lasting and international value.” “I have made it clear that although the Senior Management team are fully committed to the investigation and have complete confidence in the Governor’s support, we are not prepared to continue to work indefinitely, or to be responsible for recruiting others, without the assurance of funding that is sourced and managed on a basis that assures our independence and ability to carry out a full, independent investigation and any trials. At present I am firmly of the view that the only way in which we can be assured of this, without impacting on other important TCIG expenditure, is if separate funding is made available by Her Majesty’s Government.”

Demontigny said that since the house has no insurance he is now saddled with the daunting task of finding the cash to tear down what is left of the top floor clear the area and rebuild the house. George Penn, Fire Prevention Officer for the Turks and Caicos Fire Services, said that when firefighters turned up they saw the house already being razed by the flames, and while it was raging, they fought to get it under control. “Around about 9:57 a.m., fire officers received a called from volunteer to say that there was a household fire somewhere along the Leeward Highway. We dispatched our vehicles where we saw the house fully engulfed from the front side in flames. We were told that there was nobody inside. “Additional vehicles came and after about half hour we extinguished the fire; sad to say that the gentleman lost his little dog, which suffocated to death. The fire was so intense and the proximity from the vehicles to the flames caused us to use extra lengths of hose,” he said.

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

LOCAL NEWS

Seafood plant operators want closed lobster grace period BY VIVIAN TYSON

ome seafood processing plants in the Turks and Caicos Islands are calling on the ﬁsheries authorities to give them a few days after the lobster season is closed to get rid of the product in order for them to not run afoul of the law. The lobster season closes on Monday, March 31, and according to a seafood operator, who spoke to The SUN on the condition of anonymity, the authorities said that plants should not be in possession of any lobster a day after the season is closed, a decision they described as impossible. One seafood plant operator said that all his colleagues share the same sentiments, and while they did not want to cause any public controversy, are calling on government to review the decision. “We were told that the season is going to close on the 31st of March – next Monday – and by the 1st of April they say we should not have any lobsters in the plants. But that is impossible, because if the season closes the 31st of March, you have to work these lobsters, you have to process it. “It takes so many days to be frozen rock hard so that you can put in the master carton, they we have to wait for the ship to come in, which comes every two weeks. This is the week for shipment, so we have to wait for another two weeks before it comes back,” the plant operator said. The seafood operator added: “They are saying that if the season closes today, we need to get rid of our entire product by tomorrow, but that cannot work, and so they are making criminals out of us.”

The seafood processing plant operator told The SUN that on most occasions, on the final few days of the season fishermen, for the most part, come in late because they are working to get as much lobster as possible, and so, it would take a longer time for plant operators to process and package the lobsters. “This issue needs to be clarified right away. We can’t just close the plant just like that; it would be unfair to the fishermen because for some of them, their boats don’t come in until 8-9 o’clock in the night, because everybody is trying to use every minute of the last day to catch as much as they can, so they work late,” the operator said. The plant operator said that grace period after the season is closed would afford them the opportunity to dispose of the product. “All I am saying is that we need some attention and they need to come up with some sensible solutions. They can give us a grace period of at least a month, because you need to properly process your stock, properly free it. Lobsters are delicate things, you can’t just rush the process, anything you do that is not in order with the lobsters; you can lose a lot of money. “The process of getting the lobsters from fishermen to packaging it is a long process. You get it from the fishermen, you weigh it, you assess them, and the ones that are not up to standard you reject it. The ones that you choose will go into the plant for cleaning and packaging “ But sometimes when the fishermen bring them in it is late, and so you don’t have time to process them that night, so you just have to put them in the freezer and look about them the next day,” the seafood plant operator said.

Turks and Caicos Sun Suite # 5, Airport Plaza Providenciales Turks and Caicos Islands Tel: (649) 946-8542 Fax: (649) 941-3281 Email: sun@suntci.com Read us online at www.suntci.com Publisher & Editor-in-Chief: Hayden Boyce Senior Editor: Vivian Tyson Office Manager: Dominique Rigby Information Technology and Production Manager: Kelano Howell Design by Design2pro.com The Turks and Caicos SUN is a subsidiary of The SUN Media Group Ltd. We are committed to excellence in journalism, educating and informing our readers, serving and satisfying our advertisers and assisting in the overall development of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Government considers NHIP Amnesty T

he Turks and Caicos Islands Government is looking to embark on a National Health Insurance Plan (NHIP) amnesty programme so that those in arrears can bring their payments up-to-date while providing the scheme with enough funds so that it can will be able to depend less on government ﬁnancial support. The announcement was made by Minister of Finance while speaking at a town hall-style meeting hosted by the Providenciales Chamber of Commerce at the Gustarvus Lightbourne Complex on Tuesday (March 18).

“We are making sure that we work closely with InterHealth Canada, as our partner, to expand the contribution to the NHIP scheme and put in the programme of amnesty, so that the contributions to NHIP can be increased, and that government can reduce its subvention. We are actively working on that. “Like it or not, InterHealth Canada is about partner as it relates to health in this country, and we have to find a way to sit around the table and make that all of the decisions coming out of this will benefit everyone,” the minister said. The finance Minister also an-

nounced plans to streamline the inefficient treatment abroad programme, which he said is cutting a hole in the pocket of government. He said that steps are already been taking to cut cost in that area, which he said would be reflected in the 2014/2015 budget. “We have held down cost, and that is one of the costs that have been reflected in the budget. We are paying as much as we can so we can reduce the subvention with InterHealth Canada going forward. We are working with InterHealth Canada to reduce the cost of operating the hospital. There will be a substan-

FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMISSION TO SCRUTINISE LAW FIRMS, BANKS AND FINANCIAL BUSINESSES

he Financial Services Commission will be scrutinising law firms, banks and other financial businesses following the arrest by US federal agents of a Canadian lawyer Patrick Poulin who was practising in the the Turkis and Caicos ISlands. A press release from the FSC stated: “The Turks and Caicos Islands Financial Commission “the Commission” is aware of recent press reports of the indictment by the United States authorities of a lawyer operating from the Turks and Caicos Islands. Supervision of compliance with international anti-money laundering and terrorist financing is given high priority by the Commission. Following a recent amendment of the Proceeds of Crime Ordinance, the Commission undertook an extensive awareness campaign and registration of all Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBP) namely Law Firms, Accountants, Realtors and Dealers in High Value Goods. All relevant businesses and professions are registered with the Commission. Based upon an initial risk assessment, supervisory examinations of all registrants are to commence before the end of this year. Supervisory activities continuously aim to tackle the challenges of global changing circumstances. To this end emerging risks and vulnerability of the jurisdiction to the threats of money laundering and terrorist fi-

nancing are constantly under review and assessed by the Commission.” U.S. authorities have arrested two Canadians, Eric St-Cyr and Patrick Poulin, and an American, Joshua Vandyk, in connection with an alleged money laundering plot. The three men, based in the Caribbean, are facing criminal charges of money laundering. The arrests took place earlier this month in Miami. Mr. St-Cyr is the founder of Clover Asset Management Ltd., a Cayman Islands investment firm where Mr. Vandyk is an employee. Mr. Poulin is a partner at Bishops Legal, a law firm in the Turks and Caicos Islands. According to the indictment, three undercover agents posing as wealthy Americans and a financial planner met with Mr. St-Cyr and Mr. Vandyk in March, 2013. One of the agents indicated that he was looking to move the proceeds of a crime – defrauding a bank – out of the country, the indictment said. Mr. St-Cyr and Mr. Vandyk arranged a complex manoeuvre to achieve that objective, authorities allege, with Mr. Poulin acting as intermediary. Mr. Poulin set up an offshore foundation to receive the illegal proceeds, which he was told amounted to $2-million (U.S.), prosecutors said. The name of the foundation was Zero Exposure Inc., according to court documents.

tial saving in 2014/15. We have in fact adjusted the NHIP budget by about $3million,”he said. He said that government will be looking to reorganize the treatment abroad programme because of its inefﬁciencies, especially where persons scheduled for short stays ending up staying much longer than what was budged for. “You have people going abroad, who might have needed ﬁve days in the hospital and have spent two weeks or two months. So we are putting in systems in place to make sure that all of those are properly monitored,” he asserted.

An initial instalment of funds was transferred from the United States to the offshore foundation, and from there to the investment ﬁrm run by Mr. St-Cyr, which was responsible for managing the money, authorities said. Mr. St-Cyr and Mr. Vandyk indicated they were amenable to laundering criminal proceeds “so long as the money was not linked to drugs or terrorism,” according to the indictment. They allegedly said that their clients appreciated the fact that nothing the ﬁrm did “touches the United States” and that clients were charged higher fees to launder dirty money than to avoid taxes. In September, 2013, two of the undercover agents met with Mr. Poulin in Quebec to discuss the setup of the offshore foundation, prosecutors allege. Mr. Poulin described his clients as mostly Canadians and Americans, the indictment said. The case is part of a broader crackdown by U.S. authorities on Americans stashing money overseas, particularly in places such as the Cayman Islands, which are known for their lax regulations. “These defendants were in the business of creating layers of transactions so their U.S. clients could launder criminal proceeds,” Richard Weber, who heads the criminal investigation arm of the Internal Revenue Service, said in a statement. The IRS is committed to “holding those accountable for creating mechanisms to hide assets offshore and dodge the tax system.”

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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LOCAL NEWS

US Embassy alerts American tourists about crime in Turks and Caicos Islands T

he United States Embassy in Nassau, The Bahamas is advising American residents in, and visitors to, the Turks and Caicos Islands to be cautious and vigilant” because of the increase in crime. A security message issued on March 25th said that within the last few weeks, the Embassy has received increased reports of armed robberies of U.S. citizens in Providenciales. “ In light of these reports, we advise you to remain cautious and vigilant with regard to your personal safety and security,” the report said. “Armed robbery continues to be the primary criminal threat facing U.S. citizens in the Turks and Caicos Islands.” The report added: “The overall crime rate in the Turks and Caicos Islands is relatively low. Crimes typically involve opportunistic petty theft. However, more serious robberies have been reported… The crime level is highest on Providenciales, the territory’s economic hub and larger city. The U.S. Embassy has received a few reports of more serious crimes, including vacation home invasions, armed robberies, assaults and boat thefts.” A press release from the Turks and Caicos Islands Tourist Board said: “Notwithstanding the recent

travel advisory issued by the U.S. Embassy in Nassau, the Turks and Caicos Tourist Board, the Turks and Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association (TCHTA), and other industry stakeholders would like to reassure the traveling public that the Turks and Caicos Islands remains the safest destination in the region, if not in the entire world, for its visitors and residents alike. The recent incidents of crime involving two of our visitors are being taken very seriously by the Turks and Caicos Islands authorities, and no efforts or resources will be spared in bringing the perpetrators to justice. The Turks and Caicos Tourist Board would like to encourage our visitors and residents to go about their daily business, and acts of pleasure, while being vigilant of their environment, as usual. The Turks and Caicos Tourist Board is also appealing to anyone who have any information regarding these recent incidents, or any acts of crime committed in our borders – especially involving our visitors, to report it to the relevant local authorities.” At about 2:15 a.m. on March 12, three armed men broke into the rental villa of a vacationing couple in the Long Bay Hills area of

Providenciales by throwing a rock through the glass door. The armed assailants robbed the victims of cash and personal items and hit one victim over the head with a gun before ﬂeeing. On March 8, at around 9:00 p.m., a couple was walking along the Grace Bay main road in Providenciales to their resort when they were approached by a man who came out of nearby bushes and attempted to rob the woman of her purse. Shortly thereafter, another couple was walking along the Grace Bay main road, when a gunman robbed the woman of her purse, cell phone, credit cards, camera, and $300 cash. Additionally, according to the TCI police website, at about 3:00 a.m. on March 19, a man and his family were held at gunpoint in their villa by two masked intruders. One of the assailants struck the man on his head with a gun and demanded cash. Both suspects then ﬂed the scene with a computer, a cell phone, and the victims’ rented car. Armed robbery continues to be the primary criminal threat facing U.S. citizens in the Turks and Caicos Islands. According to TCI police crime statistics, crime increased by 24% in

2013. In their annual crime report presentation on February 26, 2014, police cited 3,337 reported crimes in 2013, up significantly from the 2,692 reported in 2012. There was a 76% increase in robberies (from 45 to 79). The U.S. Embassy alerted U.S. citizens to the dangers posed by armed robbery in Turks and Caicos in March 2013. The US Embassy report advised Americans who are victims of a crime abroad, to contact the local police and the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. “Although the investigation and prosecution of a crime are solely the responsibility of local authorities, consular officers can help you to understand the local criminal justice process and to find an attorney if needed. In the Turks and Caicos Islands, an Embassy Consular Agent can be reached at (649) 232-5713 or via email at SimonsTJ@ state.gov.,” the statement added. “We strongly recommend that U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in the Turks and Caicos Islands enroll in the Department of State’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). STEP enrollment gives you the latest security updates, and makes it easier for the U.S. embassy or nearest U.S. consulate to contact you in an emergency.”

Operation Assured nets wanted man Luvest Malcolm BY VIVIAN TYSON

peration Assured – a crime-combating initiative instituted recently by the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force to stem the crime surge in Providenciales – has roped in wanted person of interest Luvest Malcolm, whose assistance crime sleuths had sought in connection to a number of aggravated robberies on Provo. Media Liaison Ofﬁcer Audley Astwood said that Malcolm was picked up on Wednesday (March 26). At press time he was not charged, and according to Astwood, was assisting police in their investigation of the crimes. “I can also inform you that as of 6:10p.m., yesterday (Wednesday, March 26) Mr. Malcolm was arrested. As you now know, Mr. Malcolm escaped from the detention centre. He is a person of interest in our aggravated burglary cases; I don’t have the full details, but at the moment he is being processed and assisting us with some of our investigations,” Astwood said. The police liaison ofﬁcer said that Malcolm was held at the detention centre for suspect immigration status in the country, but inexplicably managed to escape from the high security facility, which Astwood said is being investigated. “He was held at the detention centre, as far as I know, for immigration matters due to his immigration status in the country. I was informed that he does not have any legal immigration status in the country, and I think that is why they are trying to ascertain the correct information as to his legal status in the country. “All escapes, to my knowledge, is being investigated, and keep in mind that once we turn those persons over to the detention centre, it is a matter for Border Control that is re-

Luvest Malcolm

Audley Astwood

sponsible for them,” Astwood pointed out. Astwood also revealed that the police have a second person in custody, who they believe can also assist them in their aggravated burglary investigations. Astwood explained that Operation Assured, since its implementation a few weeks ago, has reaped much success, including the arrest and conviction of a 17 year-old man – Dale Taylor, who was caught with stolen items, which the police liaison ofﬁcer said were taken from one of the premises that was hit during burglary spate. “Part of our operation saw the arrest of 17 year-old Dale Taylor who pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court about two days ago (Tuesday, March 25) for the charge of handling stolen goods. It was one of the items recovered from one of the aggravated burglaries over the past week. He was ﬁned $750 by the magis-

trate after pleading guilty to handling stolen goods,” Astwood explained. He added; “Operation Asssured started a few weeks ago to combat the increase in crime. I am pleased to inform that through those operations – that we are conducting now – we were able to make a number of arrests. We have noticed that over the past few weeks that there has been a sharp decline in crime being reported, especially in Providenciales. “I also want to mention that we made a number of drug arrests; we don’t have the full details as it is now as to exactly what type of drugs. We will continue with Operation Assured in Providenciales as we continue to tackle additional crimes here.” Astwood said that Operation Assured involved multiple units. He said that spot checks are a huge part of its modus operandi.

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LOCAL NEWS

Bishop Coleta Williams plans march to protest government tax policy P

astor of the Abundant Life Ministries International, Bishop C.A. Williams III, is planning to stage a march across Providenciales in the coming days if government does not offer better solution to its revenue proposal of introducing payroll tax. Preaching at his church on Sunday (March 23) Bishop Williams said that he would be spiking government to the Rufus Ewing Administration to represent the people in a more assertive way, since he is not pleased with the level of management that his government is offering. He told the congregation that he was leaving for the US, but when he returned he would organize a march in protest against government economic policies. “When I get back here, I am going to be like the fellow, him one (sic) in the heat of the sun downtown (Providenciales to demonstrate against the Interim Administration regime), and when he got in, he is not in the sun, he got no placard, and he is not saying anything anymore,” Bishop Williams said, in an ostensibly thick swipe at the premier. “I am getting ready to stand up because something has to happen in this country, and the season has come for it to happen. And so, the only way it does happen is if I don’t get back here Friday (March 27, from the United States), because enough is enough,” he said. The Abundant Life International Church preacher asserted that he will

He added: “And we are going to march until somebody answers us because it is wrong, and the wrong in this country has to stop. And somebody has got to stand up at least one time and say we are not taking this, not a day longer. “We have given them all the opportunity to represent, and they

have not done it. And so now, the people have got no horse in the race will have to take a stand. And so I arrive – Lord, help me, and I am coming home – we are going to march, and we are going to march with one message only, ‘not another taxation (sic) without representation’.”

Poker Sal folds his last hand BY JOHNNY HOOKER

Bishop C.A. Williams III not pay any of the taxes government is proposing until he is satisﬁed that government is making proper representation. “I don’t know about you but I ain’t paying a dime out of my paycheck if there is no presentation in Turks and Caicos. I got trouble to buy sugar and lard and rice, and now I have to pay out of what I have with no representation, the devil is a liar,” the preacher charged.

Grenada, West Indies

ad news guys. Poker playing pundit Sal Guisti, big friend of the TCI, passed away this week surrounded by his close family in Philadelphia. Readers will recall Sal’s extraordinary playing skills at the Player’s Club gaming tables where he rubbed shoulders with those doyens of the TCI poker scene Rhynie Campbell, Mike Sottak and Hubert Flamant. Tributes ﬂowed this morning from all corners of the poker playing world. Donald Trump in Vegas said “Sal gone! No way! He was a true legend!” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was ‘too shocked to comment’. Macau billionaire gaming king Stanley Ho said “I am speechless. Sal will be a big loss. We will miss him. All the girls loved him!” Sal played with all the greats. Bogart, Cagney, Edward G., Stallone, de Niro, Cruise, Clooney, di Caprio, Pitt and Campbell. He once said

Sal Guisti “I love playing against these Hollywood tough guys. But in all honesty I would swap them all for a game of cards in Provo. Friends, fun, sea and sun. What more could an old timer like me want?” Sal leaves behind family and friends and happy memories for us all.

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CARICOM Still awaiting response from UK to fact-finding report L

eaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) said they still have not received a response from the British Government to its critical fact-ﬁnding report on the Turks and Caicos Islands which was compiled by a team from the regional body who visited the country last summer. A statement issued at the end of the 25th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) which was held at the Buccament Bay Resort, Buccament, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, from 10-11 March 2014, said. “Heads of Government received an update on the situation in the Turks and Caicos Islands which they will continue to monitor. They expressed their support for the full restoration of democracy in the TCI on terms driven by the people of the territory. Heads of Government continued to look forward to a response from the United Kingdom Government to the CARICOM-TCI Mission Report, which was submitted for its attention.” Last year, an independent CARICOM delegation to the Turks and Caicos Islands said it found strong evidence here which supports what Premier Hon. Dr. Rufus Ewing told Caribbean leaders at a meeting in Haiti in February 2013. From 24-26 June 2013 a CARICOM Ministerial Fact-Finding Mission led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of The Bahamas, the Hon. Frederick Mitchell, comprising the Minister of Foreign Affairs of St Kitts and Nevis, the Hon. Patrice Nisbett, the Designated Special Envoy to CARICOM of the President of Haiti, Noel Peterson, and supported by Ambassador Cohn Granderson, Assistant Secretary-General, Foreign Policy and Community Relations, CARICOM Secretariat, visited the TCI. They made a number of key recommendations including a referendum on the acceptance of British rule under the present Constitution. In a comprehensive 14-page report released on Thursday July 11th, the CARICOM team also recommended a “Truth and Justice Commission type exercise along the lines of the South African post- apartheid experience might be considered as an alternative to the current SIPT and prosecutions, given the long time that it is taking to conclude the matters and the feeling expressed that the justice is costing too much money and has the society on pause”. The CARICOM report says Britain should give some public explanation of their position on the culpability or non culpability of the last Governor (Richard Tauwhare) for events that led to the Commission of Enquiry in view of his oversight responsibility. It also recommended an investigation by the UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of

Fred Mitchell, Minister of Foreign Affairs of The Bahamas Commons with specific reference to the consistent descriptions of a “climate of fear”. The report stated: “Indeed, a recurrent theme was that justice could be purchased, that there were no local people or regional people on the SIPT which gave the impression that it was designed to treat all people of TCI as crooks and target only Islanders. That Committee might also investigate a common thread and view espoused at all levels of the society that the British have used the imposition of Direct Rule and the subsequent new constitutional arrangements to provide jobs for British nationals in key areas of the Government and economy of the TCI to the exclusion of the Turks and Caicos Islanders.” CARICOM also noted that another common narrative which bears examination is that the justice being administered by the SIPT has cost the people of the TCI some $46million with no end in sight and that only islanders are facing criminal charges and jail time when non-islanders have been able to purchase justice. The fact-finders noted that the meeting with the Premier and Members of his Cabinet shed a totally different light on the general situation and the current constitutional arrangements, compared to what they heard from the then Governor Ric Todd. This, the CARICOM members said, underlined once again that there was a clear disconnect between the British and TCI narratives and perspectives: “The Premier indicated that his statement to the Conference was not posturing and that he stood by its contents. The Governor was viewed as enjoying absolute power over the executive and legislative branches arising from the provisions of the new Constitution enacted in October 2012 which had strengthened his role, as well as from the narrow margin between the governing party and opposition of one seat. The Constitution empowered the Governor to designate two Members of Parliament, which in the present political circumstances placed

Reality Is BY DEVON WILLIAMS

e often try to usurp our own versions of reality and make it real, but in truth and in theory - reality is. What is reality? Where are we? Where are we going? It’s not an abstract thought, or a series of questions destined for the “willing” listener, these are serious questions posed to inhabitants of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Reality is we remain in dire straits ﬁnancially. Pie charts and histograms cannot explain it as well as reality, because when you attend the supermarket - Reality Is. Reality is that a slew of new taxes and levies are in the pipeline, coming downstream at the speed of gravity - 9.8 meters per second square plus tax. Reality is that we will be charged and reality is that we will have to pay. Let’s get back to reality for a minute. Years ago I supported VAT. I was bashed, lambasted, ridiculed and

Devon Williams even cussed out. I predicted that the overarching motive of the UK administration was to impose tax standardization across it territories. I said that

the balance of power in the hands of the Governor. In addition, the Governor enjoyed the power to deny a draft bill at the level of Cabinet as well as withhold assent from a Private Members Bill adopted by Parliament as was the case with the legislative decision not to implement VAT. The CARICOM fact-finders noted that concern was expressed with regard to the functioning of the judicial system with its independence and selection procedures being questioned as well as what was viewed as examples of bias in favour of expatriates. “The greatest concerns were expressed over the operations of the agencies put in place to investigate and prosecute the findings of corruption and wrongdoing arising from the Commission of Enquiry and to recover ill-gotten monies and property - the Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (SIPT) and the Civil Recovery Unit (CRU). Among the criticisms was what was perceived as the inequitable treatment being meted out. The expatriate developers were being allowed to return land and to pay back large sums of monies while not being brought to trial. This was said to be taking place in the absence of transparency and accountability. On the other hand, the same facility was not being offered to the locals, former Ministers and others, though one TCI person was said to have benefited from it. The long-running operations of these agencies were also said to have ruined reputations, to be over reaching and to have created an atmosphere of fear,” the report added. According to the report, the prevailing sentiment was that the Constitution of 2012 had been imposed and was not the fruit of genuine negotiation. It was also widely viewed as a major step backwards compared to the Constitution of 2006 because of the wide discretionary powers provided to the Governor, the dissolution of ministerial power resulting from the restrictions placed on the TCIG with regard to financial governance and to the oversight vested in the Chief Financial Officer. In a word, the government could not govern. The Office of the Premier had been depreciated. Many of those met were of the view that these new constitutional arrangements did not constitute true democracy. The Governor and the Chief Financial Officer had override powers but were nor accountable to the electorate. The strictures placed on the TCIG were viewed as precluding good governance. The CARICOM statement said outrage was also expressed over the fact that of $19million recovered by the Civil Recovery Unit, some $13million went to a British law firm hired to collect the monies.

we should implement VAT, pay back the money we owe, and chart a sensible way forward when we prove we can pay bills. Years ago the boys of Grace Bay mounted an offensive against UK Tax standardization, as I saw it, and threw a rally amongst common men. Nestled comfortably on the benches of the Gustavus Lightbourne Gym, GBB after GBB and a few GBGs lamented the introduction of VAT and preached the message of unity. Politicians preparing for elections, like poppyshows, graced the podiums courting the GBBs for the mighty campaign ﬁnance funds. What did the politicians get - nix (and by nix I mean nix). GBB dollars are for business not politics but - reality is. Reality is VAT was sacked and alternate ideas were ne’er presented. John public celebrated with glee, “the county shall save, the CEO’s a knave, now pour us a next Gin and T.” Years later - Reality is. John Public, Joe Blow, etc etc etc will pay pay pay. Reality is there is still no deﬁnite path forward. Reality is that the Government of the day must act and must act now. Decisions on our sustainable

way forward must be made and must be made responsibly. Reality is - I do not know all the answers, I do not hold all of the cards, reality is it’s not my business to know, reality is - it probably is. Reality is - the TCI is one county that does not have a romantic history. The TCI is one county that has never had to overcome a struggle to validate its existence. Reality is - most TCI natives would comfortably sit on their collective romps and depend on the inborn sense of entitlement. Reality is most persons still nurture the dream of another investor with a basket full of money ﬂying in to solve all of their problems with limited efforts their part. Reality is that the only way out of dire straits is navigation, effort and commitment. The TCI will not steer its way out of this situation without hard work and determination. Tough decisions will have to be made but moreover, tough days must be spent working for a brighter future. TCIG is now the face of the country and must set the standards. Reality is - we sit and wonder and pay and ponder but reality is we must rise and overcome.

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LOCAL NEWS WHERE IS THE JUSTICE? An abused and stalked woman cries out for help

his article is to let the public know how ineffective the justice system is here in the Turks and Caicos Islands. There is someone very close to me being physically attacked by an ex-boyfriend. He was abusive during their relationship in every way imaginable and now that the relationship has ended he still is physically, emotionally and verbally abusive. He sits outside of her job waiting on her arrival. She has made several reports to the ofﬁcers about this gentleman named D .... she has even reported him to the commissioner but nothing was done. This gentleman is stalking her by following her at home, to work and other places. He attacks her. She has witnesses that can attest to this. He has threatened to kill her if he sees her by herself; he has chased her with his car forcing her to run into hiding. This is an extremely small portion of incidents that has occurred even within the past week. Some may say she needs a restraining order. Well, Turks and Caicos, you would be shocked to know that she was told by the police ofﬁcer on the case, that this was not enough for a restraining order. She was told “we can’t grant you any restraining order because you were never married to him.” He also stated that this is the law in the TCI which is NOT factual. I am appalled by such nonsense and such lack of concern for her safety as a citizen of this country. She was also told that she would have to deal with it as best as she can until they can try and put it before the court. We all know that putting this in court will not take one day, in that space of time anything can occur. This is a woman with young children between the ages of 4 and eight. She’s try-

ing to protect herself and her family from this man. Turks and Caicos if this is the approach in which our officers and people of the judicial system are handling this situation with, we do not need to wonder why 80% of crime goes unsolved. This is carelessness on their behalf and if this is the law as she was told, it is no different from saying if any person attacks or stalks you there is nothing they can do if you were not married. It’s sad to see that this young lady has to literally protect herself. If this is not enough for a restraining order then please notify the public on what is? It’s time we realize that most people on that police force can care less about the protection of this country or the people in it and as cliché as this may seem to say, it is quite clear that for them it just another pay check. This man has stated in the presence of an officer that he is not afraid to go to jail neither is he afraid of being arrested by them this shows the lack of respect for the law in the TCI. The reason for this is because police are negligent in their duties and in such cases they act unprofessionally and as if they have never been trained. If something is not done about the lack care and the poor attitude towards solving crimes in the Turks and Caicos crime rates will never go down and officers will never be respected for anything more than stopping vehicles on the road for licensing and insurance. A Concerned Friend EDITOR’S NOTE: The SUN does not routinely publish anonymous letters, but we are satisfied that this matter is sufficiently important and serious to be brought to the public’s attention.

REGENT PALMS GENERAL MANAGER KAREN WHITT RECOGNIZED AS TOP GENERAL MANAGER WORLDWIDE

he Regent Palms’ General Manager, Karen Whitt, has earned the “Top General Manager Worldwide” award in the 2013 Luxury Travel Advisor Awards of Excellence. It is the first time the prestigious award has been given to a hotel general manager who is a female, and the first time to a general manager of a Caribbean property. The awards program is produced by Luxury Travel Advisor, which offers luxury travel agents worldwide a range of travel-related services and information. Every year, the Luxury Travel Advisor Awards of Excellence advisory board, an invitation-only panel made up of influential travel advisors who have graced the cover of Luxury Travel Advisor, hand-selects the nominees across a range of products. Travel advisor readers vote to determine who is most deserving of being named an Awards of Excellence finalist. Whitt was part of an impressive list of award nominees, including General Managers from hotels such as The Connaught in London, the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong, the Peninsula in Beverly Hills and the Park Hyatt in New York City. Whitt accepted the position of General Manager at the Regent Palms in 2011. During her tenure she has also served as President

Karen Whitt of the Turks & Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association. Whitt’s prior awards include “Hotelier of the Year” in Turks and Caicos in 2010. Stan Hartling, CEO of the Hartling Group and developer of the Regent Palms noted, “ I am beyond excited and proud that such a prestigious award has been bestowed upon Karen by some of the most distinguished professionals in the luxury resort industry worldwide. She is a true reﬂection of the drive, determination, compassion and creativity that makes the entire team special. I am honored to have her as a key part of the Hartling Group.” As part of the awards process, Luxury Travel Advisor will send media representatives to Providenciales to create a feature on Whitt and the Regent Palms.

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Health workers still stigmatize HIV/AIDS victims VIVIAN TYSON

an-American Health Organisation (PAHO) and World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative for the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, Dr. Gerry Eijkemans, has said that stigma remains one of the biggest hurdles to getting the HIV/AIDS pandemic under control. Speaking at the launch of the New HIV Treatment Guidelines for the Turks and Caicos Islands at the Occasions Ballroom on Wednesday, March 19, Eijkemans said that a lot of health workers are not educated enough to comfortably treat HIV/ AIDS patients like any other person suffering from a chronic disease. She said that as a result, trust between many of those infected caregiver has broken down because the infected person do not trust the medical practitioner enough to conﬁdently go to them from treatment, and the health worker, because of his/her lack of education is not one hundred percent comfortable in treating dealing with the patient. “A lot of health workers are still stigmatizing, and are still not ready (to deal effectively with persons infected with the disease). And I am sure that most of us here have passed that hurdle and are working in an open and non-stigmatized way with people who have HIV,” she said. Dr. Eijkemans recommended that those health workers who are not up to par on their ability to treat HIV/AIDS patients without stigmatizing should be helped to ease their struggle. “There are people who are struggling with that, we and have to help them, we have to train them, and we have to work with them so that they can be agents of change. But also the stigma that is discrimination still exists in society. Many people still don’t want to talk about it. (For some, people HIV/AIDS) it is still ‘that disease. It

Dr. Gerry Eijkemans. is still easier to say I have diabetes, even to say I have cancer (than I have HIV/AIDS)’. It is a different connotation, and we need to move away from that. And of course when you have discrimination, when you have stigma, this induces fear and it is very important to overcome that fear,” Eijkemans said. She said that the guidelines are very important steps to get over stigma and discrimination, saying that they would do among other things, cut the rate of HIV transmission from mother to child. “If we touch each woman that we are doing and if we treat them, if necessary, the children will be HIV negative from they are born. That is very important. The guidelines also look at HIV testing, counseling and treatment. “The World Health Organisation (WHO) has just brought out some new guidelines that require moving towards the earlier stage of the disease. There are discussions going that say everybody that is diagnosed with HIV, we should immediately start treating them because we see the outcomes much better, and we also see that treatment can foster prevention. “And of course, we still need to use condoms;

of course, we need to be very careful. Abstinence is very important strategy. But treatment and prevention is a very important strategy that can be used,” she said. She charged medical practitioners and other healthcare workers to embark on difference-making course, so that HIV/AIDS treatment in the TCI will be manageable. “It is you, the healthcare workers of the Turks and Caicos, who can, and will have to make a difference. We ought to make sure that people feel protected and will come to you, to work with you, to conﬁde in you so that you can work with them in a non-stigmatic way and in a way that does not include any value judgment and discrimination,” she said. In the meantime, Eijkemans has called for the treatment of HIV/AIDS to be integrated in the mainstream of medical care, since a number of persons with HIV/AIDS, especially those who live longer tend to suffer from other chronic diseases. “We need to move away from looking at the disease and move to look at the patients, because that have HIV, have diabetes and hypertension. We know that people who live longer with HIV have a much higher possibly of also getting other chronic diseases. “So this integrated HIV treatment and care is something that is very important, and a lot will be asked from you to think with the government, to think with us a strategy that can bring HIV into the regular health system, and not as vertical programme, somewhere on the side that needs to be hidden. We need to do it mainstream and we need to do this correctly. “If you are committed and open, and able to work in a positive manner, we can stop AIDS, and we can make sure that nobody dies from AIDS. And we can actually start looking at zero new cases,” Dr. Eijkemans said.

JOB VACANCY – INTELLIGENCE OFFICER The Turks and Caicos Islands Integrity Commission invites applications from suitably qualified individuals to the following vacant positions within the Commission.

Purpose and Key Responsibilities To oversee and manage the acquisition and development of tactical and strategic intelligence and other prevention initiatives focused on the identification of corrupt activities and practices within the Turks & Caicos Islands public sector; to lead in the effective implementation of a ‘Whistle-blowing’ regime within the statutory framework underpinning the work of the Integrity Commission as an anti-corruption agency.

Key responsibilities will include to:

Technical and related Skills:

• receive and manage all intelligence matters of the Commission; • to design, establish, maintain and manage appropriate mechanism for receiving reports, complaints and information on potential and alleged corrupt practices and acts, as well as breaches of the Code of Conduct, within an effective and robust ‘Whistle-blowing’ regime that will meet the challenges of small Islands environment; • participate in operations, investigations, projects and prevention initiatives; gathering information, intelligence and evidence in order to build knowledge of corrupt activities and practices for the purpose giving effect to the mandate of the Commission; • provide advice on legislation, policy and tactical options to assist in the planning and implementation of investigations, operations and prevention initiatives; • provide tactical and strategic support to the Commission through research, target profile development, the collection and analysis of evidence/data, production and dissemination of intelligence and evidential products and identify prevention opportunities, as appropriate; • develop and implement relevant policy to ensure the quality, secure handling and dissemination of intelligence, maintaining confidentiality, sensitivity and associated duty of care; • provide expertise and advice on all intelligence gathering and enforcement related issues and to function as a member of the enforcement team reporting to the Commission through the Director; • conduct case management, and create, maintain and update relevant records and data base including operational or programme activity spreadsheets, case files and monthly reports.

• Comprehensive knowledge of investigative strategies, methodologies and techniques, which may include experience in complex litigation/prosecution strategies; • Ability to conduct witness interviews, handle depositions or otherwise elicit relevant testimony; • Strong writing and editing skills; experience in collating, collecting and reviewing documentation to identify relevant evidence. • Outstanding ability in gathering, analyzing and synthesizing sensitive information from multiple sources and/or formulating perspectives to make clear, timely and well-reasoned decisions and recommendations. • Strong IT knowledge and the ability to drill down into IT systems and computerized data to discover hidden information. • Good analytic, risk-assessment and evaluation skills to identify procedural or compliance weaknesses, and strong problem solving ability;

Qualifications/Experience: • The appointee should preferably hold a good Bachelor’s degree or equivalent, in Law Enforcement, Forensic Auditing, Accounting, Law or similar; • Minimum of ten years substantially relevant experience required in areas such as: sensitive intelligence and evidence-gathering, complex financial crime investigations and criminal prosecution, fraud or corruption/forensic auditing or accounting. Proven experience in interviews and interrogation involving both cooperative and hostile witnesses, and subjects of investigations. Recent and relevant senior policing, fraud and intelligence – gathering squad experience would be particularly valued. • Preferably have gained overseas work experience (ideally in the Overseas Territories) or experience at senior level working closely with other cultures in a small Islands environment.

Remuneration Salary is $60,000per annum (circa) but negotiable depending on qualification and experience

Competencies and other desirable qualities include: • Possession of the highest standards of integrity and probity, and understanding of fiduciary responsibilities to the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands; • The ability to work effectively in teams, as well as being able to work independently and under pressure; • Ability to demonstrate cross-cultural sensitivity in sharing knowledge and information; • Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills and inter-personal skills; • demonstrate the ability to rapidly attain a good knowledge and appreciation of TCI law as it pertains to corruption and integrity in public life;

Application procedure Applicants are requested to submit their CV together with an accompanying letter demonstrating why they would wish to work with the Commission and what particular attributes they would bring to its work. Certified copies of qualifications as well as the names and letters of two referees must be submitted with your application. The deadline for applications is Monday 21st April, with a view to commencing work latest by early July, 2013. Please note that only applicants selected for interview will be notified. Applicants who had previously applied for this post need not re-apply. Applications should be returned to the Secretary, TCI Integrity Commission either by email, fax, or mail. Direct mail should be addressed to Mrs. Wanda Ariza, Secretary, The Integrity Commission, Franklyn Missicks Building, Church Folly, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands. The contact details are: e-mail: secretary@integritycommission.tc; Tel. 9461941; Fax. 9461355.

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LOCAL NEWS

Many parents involve in children’s life only at graduation time, says Deputy Commissioner Wayne Jones BY VIVIAN TYSON

ome parents come out of the wood works to support their children only at graduation time when they purchase the most expensive dresses and suits for their children, but that is a bad practice, according to Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Police, Wayne Jones. Jones was delivering the keynote address at the Clement Howell High School Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Programme graduation ceremony on Thursday, March 27. The acting assistant deputy commissioner of police challenged parents to take back the decision-making authority from their children and make sure that they are well supervised at all times. “Parents, you are in charge and not your children. Take control of your children. Know their whereabouts at all times and their associates. Ask a responsible adult to supervise them when you are not at home,” he said. He urged parents to get involved in their children’s school life so as to become better aware of their performance and behavior. “Do not just get involved when it is time for their graduation, but you should also attend parent/teachers meeting and develop a relationship with their teachers, and through this

relationship you will be aware of your children’s performance at school. You must also check their school bags to see what they are bringing home from school,” he urged. He said that school violence in schools always has a rippling effect across communities, and are usually triggered by a breakdown in family values, the music that children listen to, movies they watch and games they play on the computer. “To educators, parents, students and the wider community, violence in school is disturbing. These acts of violence often attributed to such things as family breakdown, violent videos, computer games, the internet and some lyrics, and also the lack of discipline,” he said. To this end, Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Jones urged the graduates to resist all that is not wholesome and dangerous to their health and freedom. “Students, you will be tried and tested with drugs, alcohol and violence. People will try to recruit you to sell their illegal substances; it is now for you to use your initiatives to say, ‘no, I will not do it. It is wrong and is against the law to do so’. It is also important to make wise choices with the people you select to be your friends. It is important to ﬁnd friends with similar interest and friends who don’t use

Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Wayne Jones drugs and alcohol or involved in violent behavior or in criminal activities. “If you are in a situation where you are pressured into using drugs and consume alcohol, it is crucial that you have supportive friends; friends who will help you out of these situations. I ask that you develop a positive outlook to law enforcement and also defend the community that you live,” he urged. He said that the DARE Programme is a positive initiative to bridging the

gap between families and law enforcement. “The knowledge that you have gained from the training over the past 10 weeks, I ask you not to let it go to waste but use it as a tool to share with others in your school and your community. Changing the mindset of one person at a time will make a difference in the community. I ask that you develop the skills to stay safe, healthy and make a positive contribution to society. “Set goals for your development, raise yourself esteem. I ask you to remain focused and be a role model to your peers at school and within the community that you reside. Be disciplined and take responsibility for your actions, as discipline is the key component to your development,” he said. He added; “Students, let me inform you that the age of criminality responsibility in the Turks and Caicos Islands is eight years old. This means that a person can be charged with committing a crime at this tender age, because it is deemed at this age that a child of this age should know right from wrong. “I urge you not to get involved in criminal activity and embrace education as it is the path to your development and success. Trouble will always be around you, but you do not have to let it take control of you.”

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Expatriate parents with children in Government school should be taxed, says Pastor Courtenay Missick P

astor Courtney Missick has some advice for government to raise revenue for its 2014/2015 budget: tax expatriates whose children attend public schools. Pastor Missick, who was in attendance at the Five Cays leg of government’s revenue-raising consultation meetings, said that the practice of Turks and Caicos Islanders bankrolling education for expatriates in public schools should stop, and instead, government should start charging those parents to rake money in its coffers. “One question I would ask; why haven’t you all considered charging these foreigners and taking the burden off our people?” Pastor Missick asked. The preacher said that he is not averse to taxation since he knows government business needs to be funded, but he was not in agreement with the method. “I am not against tax. You have to raise monies because things need to be paid for; but it is the way you go about doing things. Some of you, ministers, you make up to $400 a day. If you are raising tax that is nothing for you (to pay), but if you are sitting in the seat where we are tonight, it would have meant something,” he argued. The pastor said that a past study had revealed more than 600 expatriates were attending the Clement Howell High School in Providenciales, and government has been ﬁnancially offsetting their attendance, which he said was not right.

Pastor Courtney Missick “Some time ago a survey was done in our schools, which showed that for every Turks Islander in our schools there are six foreigners. The (education) minister said that it costs (government) some $4,000 to $5,000 a year per child (who attends government high schools). And I did a calculation that said there were over 600 foreigners’ children in our high school in Provo. And the ﬁgure that you gave -

$4,000 per student; 600 by $400, that is $2,400,000 for the year that the Turks and Caicos Government is paying out for foreign children,” the minister lamented. He added: “Here tonight, we have the premier, we have the professor (Dr. Gilbert Morris, a member of the blue ribbon commission on revenue) dealing with economics and everything, and we have the education minister and the minister of ﬁnance; they are here telling us in the Turks and Caicos Islands that they need to raise more taxes. “Why are we overlooking that area (tax expatriate parents for each child in government school)? Why are we, in this day and age, paying for foreigners’ education?” he said. In the meantime, the pastor said that he supports government paying the tuition of children born in the TCI to expatriate parents, but is against paying for those who were brought here by their immigrant parents. “I have no problem if a foreigner has a child here; they (children) are Turks and Caicos Islanders. They must get their free education. I have no problem with that, they are one of us. But you cannot do both. (They can’t just) put on a uniform, go into the schools, and our government is taking taxpayers’ money -$4,000 per year- (and pay for expatriates’ children). And then you come in here and try to put more burden on other people. And at the end of the four years you come to us and say ‘please give

us your vote’, we love you, we care for you’,” he said. In response, Education Minister Hon. Akierra Missick, informed the minister of religion that the moves he is advocating are both unconstitutional and violating human rights under international protocols. “The 2012 Constitution answers the bulk of your questions. The Constitution clearly states – and we received advice from (the Attorney General) Chambers as well as external lawyers – on the Turks and Caicos Islands obligations as it relates to school children and as it relates to access to primary and secondary education. “We considered a levy on nonTurks and Caicos Islanders at our government institutions. That was knocked back as quickly as we could utter it out of our mouths, with legal innuendoes as to why it could not take place. “And I believed I answered a similar question in the House of Assembly, as I know it would be the most sensible approach; either we shut the doors to only our people who pay for it or we have persons who are not Turks and Caicos Islanders pay the difference for their children’s education. That would not be allowed; there are several conventions as to why it could not be allowed,” she informed the religious leader. She said that a number of the conventions were signed under the interim administration, and so government has nothing to do with them.

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VIA VENETO RESTAURANT Is looking for a

BAKER With at least 5 years experience in Italian restaurant & cuisine Knowledge of the language and of the Italian products Must have experience from at least 5 regions in Italy Salary based on experience

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941-2372

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

LOCAL NEWS OLIVER AND SONJI WILLIAMS TO APPEAL THEIR CASE

he decision of Madame Justice Margaret Ramsay Hale in the matter of the first Integrity Commission court case against Sonji and Oliver Williams has been challenged as the court battle further intensifies in this important case. The judge delivered her judgment on February 7th, 2014 and the SUN understands that by February 11th, 2014 defence lawyer Noel Skippings acting for Oliver Williams and lawyer Courtenay Barnett representing Sonji Williams had filed some 12 grounds of appeal before the Court of Appeal. The appeal will be heard in May. The effect of the appeals is to stay the convictions until the Court of Appeal determines whether Justice Ramsay-Hale was correct in law in upholding the convictions for illegal importation of a horse as an act of corruption, or whether the Williams will be free and clear of the convictions. The SUN understands that one of the main grounds of appeal that the lawyers are advancing is that under section 57 of the Integrity Commission Ordinance, it is only the Attorney General ( now DPP) who must institute proceedings, by way of what is termed a “fiat” and this was not done. At the time that the Williams were prosecuted for a March 12th, 2012 importation of the horse, the Attorney General acted both in the Government’s civil cases and in prosecuting criminal matters.

At that time in March, 2012, the Integrity Commission was not yet functional and no Commission members had been appointed until October of 2012. The defence is contending that the authorities prosecuted at a time when there was no existing jurisdiction to effect the prosecution, a statutory period of six months having already expired by the time the prosecution wrongly ( they contend) advanced a complaint ( not the AG’s “fiat”) and well past a statutory limit for instituting the prosecutions. The defence lawyers will be arguing that the prosecutions were instituted contrary to the express provisions of the Integrity Commission Ordinance and that such errors rendered the cases void for want of jurisdiction or were misconceived. A source told the SUN that the combined cases remain of special interest to the Integrity Commission, because not only is it the first such case to be prosecuted under the Integrity Commission Ordinance, but also the way in which similar prosecutions are to be advanced in the future need final definitive legal clarification. “For the Turks and Caicos Islands this case is of special importance since the Integrity Commission acts as an oversight body against any alleged act of corruption. The integrity Commission exists to police the conduct of all public servants and persons in public life,” the source added.

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Page 15

MARCH 29 TH - APRIL 5 TH, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

Clement Howell High School to get brand new lunch facility

lement Howell, the country’s largest high school will be the proud recipient of a brand new lunch facility this May - all thanks to Beaches philanthropic arm the Sandals Foundation. The project, which is designed to accommodate students while they dine and commune during their lunch hours, has been in the works from the beginning of the academic year. The official launch was marked by an illustrious groundbreaking ceremony which took place last week. In attendance were Education Officer for Secondary Schools, Dara Thomas, Principal Gerald Persaud, Clement Howell vice Principals, Sandals Foundation representatives, students and Faculty. The project, which has been in the works from the beginning of the academic year, saw its official ground breaking last week. In attendance were Education Officer for Secondary Schools, Dara Thomas, Principal Gerald Persaud, Clement Howell vice Principals, Sandals Foundation representatives, students and Faculty. “I am very happy that the Sandals Foundation has once again partnered with the Clement Howell High School in building a brand new eating area.” Said Mr. Persaud during the ground breaking press conference. “During our initial planning with the Foundation, we felt that it was necessary to have an eating area for the students since there is none currently in existence. I am very pleased to say that today has started the commencement of this new project with the groundbreaking ceremony.” The 18 by 40 structure has already begun its pre-construction phase and has an estimate time of completion

Education Officer Dara Thomas, Principal Gerald Persaud, CHHS Faculty & Sandals Foundation Representatives with Clement Howell High School Students at Groundbreaking Ceremony date for May 2014. “This project is another example of the contribution the Sandals Foundation and Beaches Turks and Caicos is making to nation building in the Turks and Caicos Islands,” said Education office Dara Thomas, “and what better way to contribute then through education.” Ms. Thomas also expressed how the development would assist students in learning proper table manners and the overall improvement it would make to the students’ wellbeing. She said, “The students of Clement Howell High School will benefit immensely from this project. It will help with their dinner etiquette and social development skills as well as improve the physical presentation of the school. She continues, “On behalf of the Ministry and Department of Education, I wish to thank the Sandals Foundation and Beaches TCI for their continuous support and spon-

BCQS LIMITED Seeks A Chartered Surveyor The successful applicant must possess • Associate Membership of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors or equivalent. • BSc in Urban Estate Management of RICS-recognised qualification. • Five years post qualification work experience. • Computer literate with experience in Word, Excel, MS Project & Quickbooks.

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sorship to the improvement of education in the TCI.” Elanor Finﬁn Krzanowski, Public Relations Manager at Beaches Turks and Caicos and Sandals Foundation representative spoke of the reason for the Foundation taking on such a task at Providenciales’ only Government secondary school. She said, This is our way of continuing our commitment to the Clement Howell High School, “ Elanor said, “Earlier in the school year we conducted an audit which identify areas of the school that were in desperate need of improvement and we identify that the lunch area would be beneﬁcial to a school that is home to so many students. ” “We are very proud of the school and we are committed to continuing our efforts to improve not only the physical infrastructure of institution but to continue to work alongside facility to assist with education

improvement as well.” She concluded. One of the students and a member of the construction team - Jean Auguste - shared just how important it was for the pupils to get involved in the building process. He said, “It’s great to see a big business like Beaches working with students to build something so positive.” He continues, “I am very grateful for the Sandals Foundation, because there are many times that they give to our school and I am proud that we are allowed to get involved in building the lunch shed.” The Lunch Shed project is one of the many initiatives Sandals Foundation has been working on in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Sandals Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Sandals Resorts International and works solely on guest donations to develop countries through education, environment and community outreach. This year, was the ﬁfth anniversary of The Sandals Foundation and to mark the monumental occasion, the charity gave back to Clement Howell High School in Blue Hills. The Sandals Foundation been a thriving force in the Turks and Caicos Islands since its inception in 2009 and continues to work with the community through education and the environment. “This project will not only boost the canteen but will also serve as a multipurpose area which can be used for other meaningful engagements. I want to express our profound gratitude to the Sandals Foundation for this offer and we hope to continue to partner with them for the development of student growth and success at the Clement Howell High School.” Principal Persaud concluded.

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Page 16

MARCH 29 TH - APRIL 5 TH, 2014

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

LOCAL NEWS THE CONTESTANTS VYING TO BECOME THE FACE OF THE TURKS & CAICOS, TCI TOP MODEL 2014, WERE LAUNCHED OVER THE WEEKEND!

t was ‘A Day where Beauty was Personified’ at the reflecting pool on the grounds of the glamorous and ultra-exclusive Regent Palms Resort on Providenciales over the weekend. Saturday, March 22nd featured the ‘Digital Dolls’, the nine contestants vying to become the Face of the Turks & Caicos, TCI Top Model 2014! The event, themed ‘A Dolls World @ The Regent Palms Resort Spa - saw appearances by Samentha Etienne, TCI Top Model 2013; a parade of fashions offered at the Regent Palms Resort worn by Turks & Caicos models that have rocked the catwalks in Los Angeles, New York and London; and Junior Models donned in pristine white, strutting their stuff! There was also a special vocal performance by fashion designer and singer Jermell Williams who kept the audience rapt attention to the catchy song by Sam Smith ‘Money on my mind’. Guests were not only treated to a fabulous event, but they each received a Lancaster gift bag with products courtesy of the resort. Wearing daring styles, bright colours, graphic prints, knee-highs, leggings and stilettos courtesy of Shoe Gallery; the fashions complemented the hair and dramatic make-up splendidly. The audience was in awe as each contestant took her turn strutting around the reflecting pool, pivoting and posing to thunderous rounds of applause. Guests commented that the affair debuting the nine young ladies proved to be thoroughly exciting, one in which they have never seen. Attendees remarked how strong and confident each girl was. They were impressed with their presentation, noting that competition was indeed stiff, as it appeared each girl wanted the TCI Top Model title – and showed it through her performance. “The presentation of the contestants was very bold and unexpected. I have only ever seen anything such as it on America’s Next Top Model. The wardrobe, hair, make up and those fierce, fun and daring eyelashes – I was completely blown away”, said Dee Barker, Sales Executive at Sotheby’s International Realty. “I couldn’t take my eyes off the ‘Digital Dolls’ as they passed. They were utterly unique; the poise and style at which these young ladies displayed; I was totally transported to somewhere otherworldly. Milan, Italy perhaps... This surpassed

my expectation of what a ‘doll’ would look like or a how concept is translated to fashion. Well done to the team behind the production. If the launch was any indication of what the main event will be like, well, I just cannot wait to see the show.” The names of the young ladies vying for this country’s only coveted title are as follows: 1. Je’Cannya Garland 2. Wilange Charles 3. J’Keyah Jolly 4. Lamia Brown 5. Nathanelle Louis 6. Stephanie Sejour 7. Kameia Outten 8. Felicia Williams and 9. Brielle Swann

Immediately following A Dolls World, guests moved on to resort’s courtyard, where The Swag Party continued the celebrations. Lashonda Malcolm was the lucky guest that won the Regent Palms Resort rafﬂe, a gift basket valued at over $1,300.00! Following on from the launch, event organizers will host A Dolls Life on Regent Street, an event that is FREE and open to the public. That event will be held on Saturday, April 19th at 4pm. There will be appearances by the 2014 TCI Top Model Contestants, the L’ete Boutique Catwalk Competition, the second annual Salvation Army TCI Fashion Challenge, live entertainment, amazing music, prizes, surprises and the most

magnificent afternoon party of your lives! The 2014 TCI Top Model Contest finale event The Dollhouse will take place at The Williams Auditorium, Downtown Provo on Friday, May 2nd 2014. Tickets for the event are VIP $100 and General Admission - $50.00. There will be a charge of $10.00 more at the door. For events schedule, kindly log on to www.tcitopmodel.com, 649.232.6796 or email: tcitopmodelcontest@gmail.com. You may also find us on Facebook: www.facebook. com/tcitopmodel; follow us on Twitter - @tcitsopmodel and Instagram – tcistopmodel and add us on Blackberry Messenger – 79AF8461. Fashion Models: Samentha Etienne, TCI Top Model 2013; Breanna Johnson, Carlisa Williams, Ryesha Higgs, Sanadia Forbes, Tacianna Bin-Amie, Widline Paen, Myah-Audae Simpson, Wilandra Elliott, Magalie, Tashy Forbes and Nikeira Stuart. Junior Models: Zaria Ingham, Chyna Clare, Natalia Salvador, Alvin Parker Jnr, Caitlin Swann and Juhnee Parker. The host was Jamell Robinson of Learn & Lead Consultancy, while the photographers were Renau Destine & Galaxy Vancela, Double R Media and Spotlight Communications and Videogrpahy: LIFE Productions Make-up: Melissa Johnson, 3MJayEssenceMakeupArtistry, Tianna Williams, Serendipity Make-up and Hair: Nakier Wilson, Kier’s Hairapy – assisted by Nadra Wilson. CLOTHING: 2014 TCI Top Model Contestants wardrobe and accessories provided by TCI Top Model Fashion Team. Shoes courtesy of Shoe Gallery. Models of the Runway outfits provided by the boutiques at Regent Palms Resort. Location: Regent Palms Resort, Grace Bay, Providenciales, DJ: Subtronic Reinforcement & DJ Dayoh ABOUT: The annual TCI Top Model Contest & Fashion Extravaganza (TCITM) is the Turks & Caicos Islands premier event for Fashion, Beauty, Arts and Entertainment. It is an event that is designed to give those persons residing in the Turks and Caicos Islands interested in careers in the fashion, arts and creative industry an opportunity and the platform to debut, by showcasing their talent with the hope of launching an international career.

A non-compliance tax system could force increase, new taxes P remier for the Turks and Caicos Islands Hon. Dr. Rufus is arguing that if the TCI does not have a highly compliance taxation system then government could be forced to either raise taxes or implement new ones in the near future. The premier made those comments while ﬁelding questions from citizens of Five Cays during a community meeting at the Five Cays Community Centre on Tuesday (March 25), where his administration had gone to pitch its proposed payroll tax implementation. “With all the taxation method that government had in front of us, we had to look at a number of things. We have to look at the consistency or reliability of collecting that revenue which is its compliance. It has to be something that has a high compliance rate, because if you don’t have a high compliance rate, what will happen is that the money that the government budget would fall very much short, and it will result in one of two things; it will increase the (tax) rate, meaning that we will be taking more from you or we will introduce more taxes,” he warned.

He noted that the tax system that government will be introducing should not only be simple but also has to ﬁt into an existing collection system, which is what he said the payroll tax does. He said that the proposed tax would be collected using the NIB system. “So you have to introduce a method that is of high compliance. You have to introduce something in this day and age that is simple to implement at very little cost and includes something where the system (for collection) already exists. We also want to put something in place whereby the ‘small man’ – those persons who are less fortunate and don’t have (as much money) - are not impacted,” he said. In the meantime, the premier is reminding the country that government collects revenue to spend on the people and not on itself, and so, the proposed payroll tax initiative is to aid the various communities and programmes across the country. “First of all, you have to take into consideration government’s obligation to its people, because ﬁrst of all, government is getting money to serve its peo-

ple – to serve you. It is not getting money to serve itself. So when government is saying that they want revenue; the revenue is used to provide all the things that you complain about everyday that you don’t have, that you lack; things such as schools, roads, social programmes like daycare centres (and) scholarships for students. “There are also the things that government cannot provide to the level that they like to provide, and they put in place taxation structures that will facilitate that revenue but in addition for that level of growth in the economy, so that the increased revenue is not due to the tax alone but also due to the economic growth and sheer volume. It is a thin line especially coming out of the recession – and we understand the frustration of some people –it is a delicate balance by putting in place taxes and allowing for economic growth,” he said. The premier said that while the taxation measures come on stream government will be seeking ways to cushion the harsher effects of the proposed payroll tax.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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LOCAL NEWS

Community College open day a smashing success BY VIVIAN TYSON

ice President for the Turks and Caicos Islands Community College and Principal for the Providenciales Campus, Samuel Forbes has described that campus’ open on March 19th a great success. Forbes told The SUN that the open day was part of the college’s 20th anniversary in the Turks and Caicos Islands and with the Turks

and Caicos Islands Community College Foundation – the fundraising arm of the institution – declaring March as “College Month”. “In keeping with the celebration for our 20th anniversary, and with the Foundation declaring March as ‘College Month’, we feel it necessary to have a number of activities. We started with a church service at the Anglican Church, and today is our open day where all departments displaying

Culinary Arts students garbed in the TCI national colours display creation

Hospitality student Janice Handﬁeld shows oﬀ her artistic culinary display

activities and things that are done in the department. We invited high schools and primary school children to come and talk with the students at the college as it relates to what they do in their classes,” Forbes said. He said that students from some of the departments had displays that they could explain to visitors who visited. “We have students from all departments displaying their activ-

ities, such as the Culinary Arts Department, the Hospitality Department, the Education Department, the Business Department and Building Department. It is a signiﬁcant anniversary, and we want to do all we can to sell our college to the community. We don’t think enough is being done to sell the college, and so, we will do as much as we possibly can with what we have to present our college,” he said. The Clement Howell High School and TCIPS Comprehensive High were two of the high schools that visited the College’s open day. A number of primary schools also visited. There was also a mini job fair attend by several resorts, including Grace Bay Club and the recently-open Blue Haven Resort. The Provo Campus Culinary Arts Students all attired in their kitchen College principal dewear ready to cook up a storm clared that a number of resorts have climbed on board and are now at the college’s disposal whenever it needed aid. “Blue Haven has become one of the main partners; Gansevoort is assisting us; the Regent Palms and Grace Bay Club are all assisting. We have the kind of relationship with those resorts that they Architectural students show oﬀ their latest construction are ready to assist us,” Forbes declared.

Get ready for GSAT 2014 G

SAT 2014 will soon be here in mid-May and LIME has paid for the access to the site for every student registered in Grade 6 in Government or Private Schools nationally. The program offered at www.CaribbeanExams.com allows students to log on and complete practice exams; to revise for the GSAT examinations and to be assisted by live Teachers with any questions that parents and students may have. Students can receive assistance with homework or they can get tailored assignments to strengthen them in areas where improvement is needed prior to the examination. LIME is a partner with Caribbean Exams.com and the Department of Education and this means that the children of the Turks & Caicos Islands can beneﬁt from taking advantage of the opportunity afforded to them with this program. Acting General Manager, Lacal Palmer stated, “LIME has contributed to the ﬁeld of education in the Turks & Caicos Islands for decades and that continued commitment with the GoGSAT site is instrumental in bringing relevant tools to assist the students who will be taking the exam.” She went on to say “This is not a one-off investment but the company has invested over $100,000 over a 6 year period so that students could have every chance to succeed.” If students have not yet received the access information, parents would need to contact the various Principals around the country who should be

LIME’s Scholarship and Grant students Alan Joy & Jyles Javier respectively with their Principals. able to assist. LIME encourages students to make the most of this opportunity. The top performing

student nationally at GSAT 2014 will receive a scholarship or grant from LIME.

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Parrot Cay Resort and COMO Shambhala have vacancies for the following positions: Managerial Position: Director of Asset Protection & Emergency Management We are looking for a highly self-motivated individual who has professional managerial experience in Hotel Asset Protection, Risk Management and Emergency Management skills within a Five Star Resort environment. Qualification and Experience: • Degree from a recognized university or an equivalent professional qualification • A tertiary accreditation in the related field highly desirable • At least 10 years of operational experience in Security and Asset Management • Proven ability and experience in conducting management training as well as line staff is required • Experience in Hotel Security and Asset Management, knowledge of Canine Handling and security training will be an Asset. International certifications in these fields will be highly desirable. • Expected to easily familiarize with all aspects of the Company’s organization, its activities and personnel • Proven knowledge of investigation procedures and international terrorist activity • Knowledge of current security technology and security audits/surveys • Knowledge of Security processes and procedures • Knowledge of Emergency Management principles • Knowledge of International Hotel Security Standards • Experience in preparation for and managing medical and fire response emergencies • Excellent Communication Skills • Exercise good judgment, proper planning with strong leadership capabilities • Business Acumen and Functional Skills Duties and Responsibilities: • Be responsible for the safety and security of all of Caicos Holdings Property and its Assets identifying and managing key risks in a professional manner. • Be responsible for the safety and protections of all Home owners Assets at Caicos Holdings • To manage and maintain an asset risk management register for Caicos Holdings • Be responsible for the Emergency Management and response planning for Caicos Holdings operations including disaster preparation, medical and fire response management • Be responsible for the Safety and Security of all Employees and Guests at Caicos Holdings • Conduct Security Training in all areas regarding investigations, incident/scene preservation, proper Patrols, Canine Handling, and report taking. • Effectively direct and manage the Security & Emergency Response Department at Caicos Holdings on a daily basis • Conduct and manage sensitive investigations as and when required and prepare timely reports to Company Director • To ensure adequate emergency response plans and procedures are in place and routinely exercised to ensure appropriate professional responses to all emergencies including but not limited to natural disasters, medical and fire emergencies. • Prepare and Manage yearly Security & Emergency Response Budget for Caicos Holdings • Ensure that all Canines are properly cared for. • Implement and ensure that Policies are put in place to protect the integrity and reputation of Caicos Holdings, its assets and its clients. • Provide sound advice to top management on all security and emergency response related issues. • Be willing to accept any other duties assigned to you by the Company Director. • To provide regular written and verbal reports to the Company Director as and when required. • To take advice and direction as and when required from Company Security Risk Specialist consultants. The successful candidate will be required to work public holidays and weekends and must reside on Parrot Cay. Spa Manager We are looking for a highly motivated individual with at least 5yrs previous experience as a Spa Manager or equivalent. The successful candidate must have knowledge of Asian, Thai, European, Japanese and Indonesian body Therapy.

JOB SUMMARY To oversee the entire Spa Operation and contribute holistically the executive branch of the resort as well as daily administrative duties and monitoring team performance. MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES • Ensure that top quality services are provided to our guests at all times. • Daily running of the spa operation and administration • You must ensure that all treatments are of the highest quality on a daily basis. • Ensure that all staffs are professional, courteous and attentive to all guest’s needs. • Take service recovery action should there be a glitch or guest complaint. • Ensure staffing level is sufficient and appropriate to promote smooth flow of daily operation. • Preparation and management of all spas budgets and provide strong financial Advice and implement cost effective measures for the effective running of the spa. • Ensure the spa areas and facilities are properly maintained and well organized in order to provide an optimal environment to guests and staff. • Coordinating and hosting all International Yoga Retreats, Weddings and any other related events. • Ensure visiting Consultants or Yoga Instructors for the Retreats are well looked after and properly assisted. • Promote retreats and spa events to bring in more revenue. • Develop sales and marketing strategies to promote and increase revenue at the Spa • Direct contact with suppliers and product quality control. • Identify retail products and operational supplies that are low in stock and maintain supply. Qualification and Experience: • At least a Bachelors Degree • Minimum of 5yrs Five Star Resort experience as a Spa Manager. • Excellent problem solving, communication, administration and interpersonal skills. • Must have sound knowledge about full body Therapy, wellness and fitness. • Candidate will be required to work long hours and must reside on Parrot Cay for the efficient discharge of his/her duties. Other Managerial Positions: Chief Steward Financial Controller Information & Technology Manager Asst. Recreation Manager

Beach House Manager Food & Beverage Cost Controller Executive Pastry Chef Asst. Executive Housekeeper

LINE POSITIONS: Reverse Osmosis, Water Plant Operator Seamstress Pilates Instructor Recreation Attendant Turndown Attendant Estates Attendant Butler Housekeeping Supervisor Electrician Commis Chef Food & Beverage Server Food & Beverage Supervisor Bartender Pastry Chef Boat Engineer Chef de Partie Spa Therapist Massage Therapist Spa Attendant Supervisor Spa Attendant Private Estates Attendant Carpenter Candidates interested in the Spa Reservation Agent position must be able to speak Tagalog, must reside on Parrot Cay and remain flexible to work the night shift and be on call 24hrs attend to and arrange late bookings for VIP Clients. Salaries for these positions will be paid base on qualification and experience. Please note that all application must be submitted with a valid Police Record, two reference letters from previous employers or a notary public and current educational certificates. Only suitable candidates will be contacted for an interview. Forward your resume to the Human Resources Department at the following address:

Parrot Cay Resort and COMO Shambhala P.O. Box 164 Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands Ph: (649) 946 7788, Fax: (649) 946 7749 Email: careers.parrotcay@comohotels.com

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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MARCH 29 TH - APRIL 5 TH, 2014

NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE BOARD VACANCY FOR THE POSITION OF MEDICAL BILLING & CODING SPECIALIST- PROVIDENCIALES To perform highly technical and specialized coding functions for the Claims Department, Health Insurance Board. The employee reviews, analyzes, and codes diagnostic and procedural information that determines payments. The primary function of this position is to perform ICD-9-CM, CPT and HCPCS coding for payments for medical services. The coding function is a primary source for data and information used in health care, and promotes provider/patient continuity, accurate database information. The coding function also ensures compliance with established universal coding guidelines. A CPC is specifically qualified to do this thereby ensuring the institution has accurate information in a format that can be used for monitoring and planning.

Duties and Responsibilities: • To assign and sequences ICD-9-CM/CPT/HCPCS codes to diagnoses and procedures for documented information. Assures the final diagnoses and operative procedures as stated by the physician are valid and complete. Abstracts all necessary information from health records to identify secondary complications and co-morbid conditions. • Abstracts all necessary information and assigns codes (ICD-9, CPT & HCPCS), which most accurately describe each documented diagnosis, surgical procedure and special therapy or procedure according to established guidelines. • To determines the final diagnoses and procedures stated by the physician or other health care providers are valid and complete. • To performs a comprehensive review for the record to assure the presence of all component parts such as: patient and record identification, signatures and dates where required and other necessary data in the presence of all reports which appear to be indicated by the nature of the treatment rendered. • To evaluates the record for documentation consistency and adequacy. CPC ensures that the final diagnosis accurately reflects the care and treatment rendered. Reviews the records for compliance with established TPAs when submitted. • Establishes and maintains a log for claims process, by assigning batch numbers. • Performs all duties according to established claim procedures and company policy. • Performs other duties assigned by the operations/claims manger. • To assign and sequences ICD-9-CM/CPT/HCPCS codes to diagnoses and procedures for documented information. Assures the final diagnoses and operative procedures as stated by the physician are valid and complete. Abstracts all necessary information from health records to identify secondary complications and co-morbid conditions. • Abstracts all necessary information and assigns codes (ICD-9, CPT & HCPCS), which most accurately describe each documented diagnosis, surgical procedure and special therapy or procedure according to established guidelines. • To determines the final diagnoses and procedures stated by the physician or other health care providers are valid and complete. • To performs a comprehensive review for the record to assure the presence of all component parts such as: patient and record identification, signatures and dates where required and other necessary data in the presence of all reports which appear to be indicated by the nature of the treatment rendered. • To evaluates the record for documentation consistency and adequacy. CPC ensures that the final diagnosis accurately reflects the care and treatment rendered. Reviews the records for compliance with established TPAs when submitted. • Establishes and maintains a log for claims process, by assigning batch numbers. • Performs all duties according to established claim procedures and company policy. • Performs other duties assigned by the operations/claims manger or authorized person to assign such duties.

Person speciﬁcation • Preferred candidate should completion tertiary level education, and must have no less than two years of coding experience using ICD-9-CM or equivalency. CCS, ChhCS-P or CPC certification is required. CPC is expected to enroll in continuing education courses to maintain certification. • Advance knowledge of medical terminology, abbreviations, techniques and surgical procedures; anatomy and physiology; major disease processes; pharmacology; and the metric system to identify specific clinical findings, to support existing diagnoses, or substantiate listing additional diagnoses in the medical record. • Advance knowledge of medical codes involving selections of most accurate and description code using the ICD-9-CM, Volumes 1- 3, CPT, HCPCS, and IHS coding conventions. • Skill in correlating generalized observations/symptoms (vital signs, lab results, medications, etc.) to a stated diagnosis to assign the correct ICD-9-CM code. • Advance knowledge of medical codes involving selection of most accurate and descriptive code using the CPT codes for billing. • Must have good math skills and effective communication skills. • Very detail oriented with the ability to multi-task • Show initiative • Time management skills • Must be able to follow instructions and work independently.

Salary Salary for this position is $30,000.00 per annum. Deadline for Submission is April 11, 2014. All Applications should be addressed to:

Human Resource Oﬃcer National Health Insurance Board Salt Mills Plaza Providenciales Turks and Caicos Islands British West Indies Email: recruitment@tcinhip.tc

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LOCAL NEWS

MEDIA DARLING AWARD POLLING COMMENCES

rganizers of this Springsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; most heavily anticipated extravaganza - The Dollhouse, Cycle5 of TCI Top Model Contest & Fashion Extravaganza have created a fun social media voters poll on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the premiĂ¨re social networking and photo sharing sites. The polls, which starts today is available on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/tcitopmodel, in our â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Social Media Darling Awardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; photo folder along with photos posted on the eventâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Instagram account - tcistopmodel. Photos can also be twitted via our Twitter account @tcistopmodel. All photos shared on Instagram and Twitter must use the &RQWHVWDQWV RIÂżFLDO Âľ7&, 7RS 0RGHO +DVKWDJÂś The TCI Top Model Facebook page allows â&#x20AC;&#x153;Facebook Friendsâ&#x20AC;? to cast a vote by clicking â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Likeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Shareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on their favorite 2014 TCI Top Model Contestant photo. What is more, persons with Instagram will be able to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Likeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; their favourite contestantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photo on our @tcistopmodel account.

Instagrammers may also post the photo but they PXVW XVH WKH 7&, 7RS 0RGHO +DVKWDJ The Contestant photos that receives the most â&#x20AC;&#x153;Likesâ&#x20AC;? on Facebook and Instagram, combined with their Facebook â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Sharesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, Instagram posts and Âł7ZHHWVÂ´ RQ 7ZLWWHU ZLOO ZLQ D JLIW FHUWLÂżFDWH WR Lupo Restaurant. The names of the young ladies vying for this FRXQWU\ÂśV RQO\ FRYHWHG WLWOH DQG WKHLU Âľ2IÂżFLDO 7&, 7RS 0RGHO +DVKWDJVÂś DUH DV IROORZV 1$0( 7&,70 +$6+7$* -HÂś&DQQ\D *DUODQG 7&,70-HFDQQ\D :LODQJH &KDUOHV 7&,70:LODQJH -Âś.H\DK -ROO\ 7&,70-.H\DK /DPLD %URZQ 7&,70/DPLD 1DWKDQHOOH /RXLV 7&,701DWKDQHOOH 6WHSKDQLH 6HMRXU 7&,706WHSKDQLH .DPHLD 2XWWHQ 7&,70.DPHLD )HOLFLD :LOOLDPV 7&,70)HOLFLD

%ULHOOH 6ZDQQ 7&,70%ULHOOH The Social Media Darling Awards voters poll will close on Wednesday, April 30th at 6PM. It worth noting that this poll will not form part of the scores going towards choosing the 2014 TCI Top Model Contest winner. For the competition itself, the contestants are being judged on eight categories, with the highest score attainable being ten (10) points. There will be pre-show and event judging. The pre-show judging will be on Personality, Professionalism, Models Portfolio Folder and Industry Readiness. The event judging will be on Impact Appeal (initial presence on the catwalk), Rock That Look (Runway Walk), Pristine 6ZLP SK\VLFDO ÂżWQHVV LQ WKH VZLPVXLW VHJPHQW and Fashion Forward (how best they showcased WKH ÂżQDOH JDUPHQW 7KHVH HLJKW FDWHJRULHV ZLOO JR towards naming the Face of the Turks and Caicos, TCI Top Model 2014.

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Meet with over 100+ companies including

www.latinpartsexpo.com iinfo@latinpartsexpo.com Tel. +1 (786)293-5186

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FortisTCI National Science Fair 2014

Energy for Goodâ&#x201E;˘

On behalf of the FortisTCI team, I would like to thank the participants and their schools for supporting the 2014 Science Fair. To the teachers who spend countless hours teaching and mentoring our science students and, indeed, all their students, I would like to say thanks. - President & CEO Eddinton Powell

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Encouraging our youth to expand their minds and pave the way to a brighter future for the TCI.

LEADING TODAY. ™ INVESTING IN TOMORROW.

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MISS UNIVERSE TCI FRANCHISE IGNITES THE NATIONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CAPITAL

Miss Universe Turks and Caicos 2013, Snwazna Adams

Todeline Defralien

rovidenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands; Tuesday, March 25th 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Capital, Cockburn Town, Grand Turk was set a buzzed on Saturday March 22nd when contestants of the Miss Universe Turks and Caicos 2014 Pageant showcased in a grand motorcade led by the reigning Miss Universe Turks and Caicos 2013, Miss Snwazna Adams and also featured Miss H.J. Robinson High School 2013-14 titleholder Makayla Tucker with music by DJ Shakes. Miss Turks and Caicos Universe Beauty Organization (MTCUBO) treated the residents and visitors of Grand Turk, to the grand event that began at Wallyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Restaurant and culminated with a beach party at Governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Beach where the pageant hopefuls adorned in Saint George Fashion House polo shirts were greeted by hundreds of adoring residents wishing them well and pledging their support. 7KLV FDOO RQ WKH &DSLWDO PDUNHG DQ RIÂżFLDO VDOXWH to the residents of the Turks Islands for a successful reign of the current Ambassador who hails from Back Salina, Grand Turk and allowed the Queen D ÂżQDO ERZ RQ WKH KRPHVWHDG KDYLQJ YDOLDQWO\ carried the pride and aspirations of the peoples of so rich a history of pageantry. Kazz Forbes, President of the Organization said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;MTCUBO continues to break new ground

Miss H. J. Robinson High School, Makayla Tucker

Shanice Williams

Gabreann Capron

Shante Williams

and realizing the essence of its mission to represent Restaurant in Grand Turk. the entire Turks and Caicos Islands. We are The Miss Turks and Caicos Universe Beauty overwhelmed at the response we got on Grand Organization produces the pageant events under Turk and this bodes well for the success remaining the direction of Kazz Forbes/Saint George Fashion events of the pageant series. Grand Turk continues House in partnership with the Turks and Caicos WR KDYH D VLJQLÂżFDQW LPSDFW RQ WKH SDJHDQW KDYLQJ Tourist Board. given us a number of titleholders over the years. To date the pageantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s partners are Digicel TCI, This presentation on Grand Turk has opened up Beaches TCI Resort Villages and Spa, Cargo the potential for events throughout the islands Express Services, interCaribbean Airways, Saint expanding on the depth and reach of our efforts.â&#x20AC;? George Fashion House, Rock It Hot Fitness, The Sassy Six â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Gabreann Capron, Codee Gilleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Enterprises, Jaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Parrot Cay Resort, Coalbrooke, Todeline Defralien, Tashy Forbes, Regent Palms Resort, Paradise Smiles, Courtyard Shanice Williams and Shante Williams, will Chiropractic, West Bay Club, COXCO, A La Mode FRPSHWH WR ÂżQG WKH RQH ZKR SHUVRQLÂżHV WKH EHDXW\ Boutique, FOTTAC, Villa Del Mar, Power 92.5 elegance, poise and intelligence of Miss Universe FM, 102.5 Kiss FM, Nirvana Magazine, Bowtie Turks and Caicos 2014. The winner will be ushered VIP Transfer, Zanzi Bar and Restaurant, Magnetic onto dominate the local and international scene, Media, Philosophy Boutique, TCI Sun Newspaper, as the cultural, beauty, fashion and goodwill Forbes Concierge, Ports of Call Resort, Tremm ambassador of the Turks and Caicos Islands and Jocale, TCI Cinemas, Spotlight Communications, compete at Miss Universe 2014. Turks and Caicos Friends of the Arts Foundation, The Miss Universe Turks and Caicos 2014 Floral Couture Lounge, Turks and Caicos Hotel Pageant National Events will take place April and Tourism Association, CBMS, Couture Lips 24th to 26th, with a motorcade from the Tourist Cosmetics, Everything TCI, Times of the Islands %RDUGÂśV RIÂżFH WR ,VODQG )LVK )U\ RQ WKH WK DQG Magazine, AVON by Shirley Hentutler, Royal two exhilarating nights of competitions on the 25th Jewels, Wallyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Restaurant, Flatline Videos, Evolve and 26th at Brayton Hall, Providenciales. Tickets and B&B Service Station. to the competitions are limited and sold at Digicel To view the Miss Universe Turks and Caicos 2014 and FOTTAC in Providenciales and at Wallyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pageant calendar of events visit www.MissTCI.org.

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FUN&GAMES

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News

CARIBBEAN

Cayman Islands businessman arrested in Puerto Rico for drugs and money laundering in a sting operation

.S. Homeland Security investigators arrested Caymanian businessman Bryce Gilroy Merren earlier this month in connection with what U.S. federal court records allege was an attempt to set up a money laundering operation to cover up planned drug smuggling activities. The arrest was reported in U.S. court records on March 5. Mr. Merren was expected to appear in a Puerto Rican court Friday, charged in connection with a criminal complaint with conspiracy to distribute narcotics and money laundering under U.S. criminal code sections 21 and 18, respectively. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the U.S. A probable cause affidavit, filed by Homeland Security Special Agent Harry Schmidt, alleges that Mr. Merren met at different times with two undercover federal agents who posed as accomplices in setting up a drug smuggling operation in Puerto Rico. The records allege that Mr. Merren intended to use certain business interests in the Cayman Islands and the southern Caribbean island of Curacao to help launder the money. The criminal complaint is not an indictment in federal court and is not proof of any wrongdoing. U.S. federal investigators are required to file such affidavits prior to arresting someone suspected of criminal offenses. Mr. Merren’s brother, Randy, was contacted Friday for comment. Randy Merren confirmed he was in Puerto Rico trying to sort out attorney

Caymanian businessman Bryce Gilroy Merren arrangements for his brother. He declined to make any statements on Bryce Merren’s behalf. According to Special Agent Schmidt’s probable cause affidavit, U.S. federal investigators in San Juan, Puerto Rico, received confidential information in July 2013 that Bryce Merren was “seeking to purchase approximately 3,000 kilograms of cocaine and establish a U.S. bank account in order to deposit drug proceeds and make an initial payment for the transportation of narcotics.” The records did not state from where the alleged narcotics were to be transported. The first meeting between Mr. Merren and an undercover U.S. agent, referred to as UCA1 in the court documents, was held on July 20, 2013.

During the meeting, investigators said Mr. Merren “suggested” conducting a narcotics sea transfer in September after returning to the Cayman Islands from a boat show in Florida. “It was agreed that an initial 1,000 kilograms of cocaine would be transferred in the first smuggling venture and subsequently smuggling ventures of 2,000 and 3,000 kilograms of cocaine,” the probable cause affidavit states. On Aug. 27, 2013, court records reveal that UCA1, Mr. Merren and a second undercover agent [identified as UCA2] posing as a “financial facilitator” met in San Juan. This meeting was held to set up a U.S. account that would assist in the money laundering scheme, investigators said. “[Mr.] Merren stated that he intended to deposit US$400,000 a day into the accounts through the use of commercial merchant machines,” court records state. “The accounts would be used as a guarantee for the narcotics smuggling venture and {Mr.] Merren agreed to coordinate for the narcotics sea transfer to take place on or about November 2013.” Further discussions regarding the bank accounts occurred in September between Mr. Merren, the two undercover agents and a man identified in the court records as an associate of Mr. Merren’s. Arrangements were also made for the planned cocaine transfer around this time. A third meeting was held on Nov. 6, 2013, between Mr. Merren and the two undercover agents, court records

CARICOM chairman to address reparation conference in United States

EW YORK – Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines will address an international forum in reparations in the United States next month. Gonsalves will deliver the feature address at the April 19 forum titled “Revitalizing the Reparations Movement,” organized by the New York-based Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW). IBW described Gonsalves as “one of the leading voices in the Americas demanding that the former European colonial powers pay reparations to Caribbean and South American countries for centuries of African enslavement, native genocide and colonial exploitation”. The forum will be held in collaboration with the Center for Inner City Studies and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference. IBW said among the specially invited guests will be Detroit’s congressman John Conyers, Sr., dean of the US Congressional Black Caucus, and sponsor of HR-40, the Reparations Study Bill and Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. “A primary goal of the forum is to revitalize the reparations movement in the USA by revisiting the Durban Resolution on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, present-

ing an update on HR-40 and examining the status of CARICOM’s reparations initiative,” IBW said. “We are delighted and honored to have Prime Minister Gonsalves keynote this critical forum on reparations, a subject of fundamental historical justice that is near and dear to the hearts of Black people around the world,” said IBW?s president Dr. Ron Daniels. Director of Chicago’s Inner City Studies, Dr. Conrad Worrill, said “our ancestors will be pleased that the reparations movement is being re-energized from the Caribbean islands. “In demanding reparations, CARICOM is vindicating the vestiges of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade,” he added. CARICOM leaders at their inter-sessional summit in St, Vincent and the Grenadinesearlier this month discussed the reparation issue and hope to have a meeting with European leaders in June. The leaders unanimously adopted a 10-point plan that would seek a formal apology for slavery; debt cancellation from former colonizers, such as Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands; and reparation payments to repair the persisting “psychological trauma” from the days of plantation slavery.

state, in order to discuss details of the alleged money laundering scheme. “[Mr.] Merren explained to UCA2 that he has legitimate businesses in the Cayman Islands and Curacao where he receives funds from customers from all over the world that conduct credit card transactions utilizing his businesses’ merchant machines in order to convert foreign currency into U.S. currency,” the probable cause afﬁdavit states. “[Mr.] Merren charges a percentage for the exchange and then wire transfers the bulk amount of the currency back to its correspondent owner. “[Mr.] Merren also prepares purchase receipts for the customers in order to make it seem as if they are purchasing or paying for services,” the court records stated. Court records said it was agreed in December 2013 that Mr. Merren would make an initial down payment to cover “transportation fees for the smuggling venture” and deposit the payment into a personal bank account he established, with the help of UCA2, in Puerto Rico. “It would serve as a guarantee in order to conduct the smuggling venture,” the court records noted. On March 3, 2014, a wire transfer of US$200,000 was made from a Cayman Islands bank account to the U.S. bank account located in Puerto Rico, court records state. “[Mr.] Merren advised UCA2 via BBM [Blackberry] that the US$200,000 would serve as a down payment to facilitate the narcotics smuggling venture.”

EX COP FOUND DEAD IN MOBAY, THROAT SLASHED

n ex-policeman, who was formerly assigned to the St James Police Division, was found dead at his Cornwall Courts home in Montego Bay thursday morning. His throat was slashed. The dead man, who has been identiﬁed as Kirk Palmer, is believed to be 43 years old. He was attached to the Freeport Police Station in Montego Bay up to 2000 when he ran afoul of the law and was sentenced to eight months in prison. “We (the police) got a call, summoning us to his (Palmer’s) home this morning,” said Sergeant Peter Salkey, the police’s Corporate Communications Unit liaison ofﬁcer for St James. “When we got there, his body was found in a pool of blood with what appeared to be either machete or knife wounds to his throat.” Although the police spent a considerable amount of time at Palmer’s house searching for evidence, Salkey said investigators were not yet in a position to release a statement.

However, persons living in proximity to Palmer’s house said he lived alone and had very few friends. “Is not a man who chat up to a lot of people,” a resident of the area told The Gleaner. “He had friends, but they were mostly outsiders who were not well known.” Palmer’s career in the police force was cut short on December 5, 2000 when he and two colleagues, Corporal Waldron Francis and Constable Curtis Hylton, were arrested and charged after being accused of robbing a musician of J$150,000 and US$10,000. All three policemen were convicted in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court on March 6, 2003, and sentenced to eight months in prison. They all appealed their conviction but, in a 2003 ruling, the Appeal Court threw out their appeal. Efforts to get information on Palmer’s family proved futile, as none of his neighbours or former police colleagues were able to provide any such information.

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CARIBBEAN NEWS

Perrry Christie pushing for new Parliament Building and official residence for Prime Minister T

HE Christie administration is forging ahead with plans to construct a new House of Assembly complex and Prime Minister’s residence with recommendations for both undertakings to be made before a Parliamentary committee, according to the Nassau Tribune. Prime Minister Perry Christie, who made the announcement Thursday, said it was an appropriate time to consider the matter especially regarding locations for both facilities as New Providence currently sees a spark in new developments. In the infant stages of the plan and amid considerable fiscal constraints, Mr Christie said it was also his intention to ensure that the new complex allowed for each elected official to have an office. The new complex will also house the Senate among other things, Mr Christie said. It is not yet known how much the new buildings could cost taxpayers. Mr Christie was speaking during the opening ceremony of the Post Election Seminar - Bahamas Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. The two-day meeting, which comes to a close today, was held at the Beach Towers, Atlantis Paradise Island. Mr Christie said: “When we entertain guests on behalf of the country, we have to go, in the case of

Prime Minister of The Bahamas Perry Christie the former Prime Minister and myself either in a dining room or a hotel or a private room in a hotel. Or in the case of actual travelling, borrowing Sol Kerzner’s suite in this hotel to entertain on behalf of the Bahamian people. “Therefore, I would like to propose before a committee of the House of Assembly as the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in as near in the future as can be constitutionally arranged, meaning that if the committee is still standing that is listed in the House (of Assembly) to look into conditions and beneﬁts for Members of Parliament. “If that committee is still standing then I would

like to appear before the committee with a view to presenting specific recommendations about the establishment of a new Parliament that would house both the House of Assembly and the Senate that would embrace the possibility of all of the modern conveniences of the House of Assembly, inclusive of offices for Members of Parliament.” Mr Christie said Opposition leader Dr Hubert Minnis should also be in support of the move, as, if he is successful in becoming Prime Minister at some point, he would benefit from the new facilities. “If you become Prime Minister one day it will affect you. You would be the beneficiary of it, not so much me because I am in the twilight of my political career. But these things are so serious that somehow we have allowed the political will to be lacking. We have caused there to be a feeling that the institution of Parliament must be a budgetary concern. It’s like having a cathedral.” Last February, Mr Christie announced that despite fiscal constraints, the Government was considering a new Parliament and Prime Minister’s residence. As a result, he faced considerable backlash from political pundits who said Mr Christie should be more focused on pressing issues, including unemployment and the national debt.

Caribbean urged to ban sale of high salt foods, high sugar beverages to children P

ORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries are being urged to establish regional standards for “clear, consistent, food labeling” while also banning, or at least limiting, the marketing of energy dense, high salt, foods and beverages to children. The recommendations are contained in an 80 page report released at the Second International Conference on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) of Children and Adolescents which ends here on Friday. The report notes that while most Caribbean countries have played a signiﬁcant role globally in advancing the response to NCDs, “there are no national policies against advertising of unhealthy foods to children or against the harmful use of alcohol”. It said also that no CARICOM country has national policies or major initiatives aimed at reducing salt intake of the population which has been shown to reduce blood pressure which is a major problem among Caribbean people and a major cause of heart disease.

Professor Nigel Unwin, one of the authors of the report titled “Responses to NCDs in the Caribbean Community”, said that it outlines the response of governments and regional organizations, such as CARICOM and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), to the NCD epidemic that’s taking place in the Caribbean. He told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the report looks at the success stories of which there are many but also looks at the considerable challenges that still exist to address this epidemic. “An example of one of the big gaps that currently exist is that there is no – within any of the countries that we looked at –policy around the marketing of energy-dense, often called ‘fast foods’ and sugar sweetened drinks to children for example; and that’s now recognized world over as a very important step to be taken to decrease childhood obesity. “Another one for the Caribbean is the issue of alcohol and harm caused by alcohol; and again there’s…a real lack of policy here and initiatives to address problem drinking around the

Caribbean,” said Unwin, a professor of public health and epidemiology at the University of the West Indies (UWI).. Professor Sir Trevor Hassell, president of the Health Caribbean Coalition (HCC), which sponsored the report, said “what we have done is to assess actions that have been taken since the heads of government of CARICOM met in a seminal meeting here in Port of Spain in 2007 and issued the declaration of Port of Spain, uniting to stop the epidemic of NCD and since the UN High Level Meeting on chronic diseases in 2011. “As far as we know this is the ﬁrst occasion that a review has been undertaken regionally by a civil society organisation to determine the response to chronic diseases in the Caribbean,” he said. The report urges regional governments to ban, or “at the very least limiting” the marketing of energy dense, high salt, foods and beverages to children, as well as promote the reduction in salt consumption and reduction in consumption of sugar sweetened beverages including fruit juices.

CARNIVAL CRUISE SHIP RESCUES 41 CUBAN MIGRANTS IN FLORIDA STRAITS

IAMI - A Carnival Cruise ship rescued 41 Cuban migrants from a small, overcrowded boat in the Florida Straits, the 90-mile span of water between the southern tip of Florida and Cuba, a U.S. Coast Guard ofﬁcial said on Wednesday. No injuries were reported and the migrants were transferred to a nearby U.S. Coast Guard ship after they were spotted on Tuesday, according to Coast Guard spokesman Gabe Somma. “This could’ve been a real tragedy. There was no lifesaving or navigation equipment and the boat was taking on water,” he said. The migrants will be returned to Cuba “in a couple of days,” Somma said. Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz said the cruise ship was travel-

ing from Key West, Florida, to Cozumel, Mexico, with 2,650 passengers onboard. For decades, thousands of Cubans seeking to escape the communist-led island have fled on rickety vessels bound for Florida, Central America and nearby islands. A large spike came in the mid-1990s, when tens of thousands of Cubans fled toward Florida and hundreds of refugees flowed toward other Caribbean islands. Cruise ships have been involved in several previous rescues. A Carnival ship earlier this month plucked 24 migrants from a wooden boat near the Cayman Islands. Last April, the Carnival Conquest and the Disney Wonder rescued 21 Cuban migrants on stricken boats in two separate incidents in the Florida Straits.

Moreover, the authors of the report are also calling for the establishment of regional standards for clear, consistent, food labeling as well as the development, implementation and monitoring of national strategies on the reduction in harm from alcohol. The report also calls for NCDs “to be fully addressed within national development plans” and the “use of up to date regionally derived evidence based guidelines for the treatment and management of chronic diseases”. Dr. T. Laﬁah Samuels, UWI senior lecturer on epidemiology and public Health, who also co-authored the report, told CMC that in Trinidad and Tobago, for example, there is a lot of fast food that’s being sold, there’re lots of people sitting in their cars in trafﬁc, not exercising, drinking a little too much alcohol…(and) although reports are written, the environment and the lifestyles of persons still continue”. She said she hopes now that the report has been released action would be taken on different fronts.

VYBZ KARTEL SENTENCING DELAYED

INGSTON,Jamaica-The sentencing of entertainer Vybz Kartel and his co-accused Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John has been delayed until Thursday April 3. In court on Thursday morning, the Judge Justice Lennox Campbell asked the defense team provide some pertinent information before going ahead with handing down the sentences. On March 13, Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, fellow entertainer Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John were convicted for the August 16, 2011 murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams. The sentencing will be the ﬁnal stage of the record 65 day trial, which lasted for roughly ﬁve months.

Under Jamaican law, the penalty for murder is death, but since 1992 no convicted murderer has been executed, despite calls from the populace for the penalty to be utilised and a majority vote by legislators in Parliament in November 2008 in favour of retaining the penalty. Meanwhile, Kartel faces more legal challenges, as he is scheduled to stand trial in court on August 11, for attempting to pervert the course of justice. He’s charged jointly with entertainers, Vanessa Saddler otherwise called “Gaza Slim” and Andre Henry otherwise called “Pim Pim”. The three were charged in 2012, following an investigation into a scheme to deceive the police in their probe of the murder of Williams.

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CARIBBEAN NEWS

Cuba plans big tax breaks to lure foreign investors C

uba’s communist government has drawn up a new foreign investment law that will cut the proﬁts tax in half and exempt investors from paying it for eight years in an attempt to attract desperately needed capital into the economy. The National Assembly will meet on Saturday to approve the legislation that Cuba promises will offer investment security to foreigners and help further integrate the Caribbean island in the global economy. But the proposed law appears to withhold many of the tax beneﬁts from companies that are 100 percent foreign-owned, instead reserving those incentives for joint ventures with the Cuban state and between foreign and Cuban companies. The proposed law includes a clause that bans expropriations except in cases of public interest previously established by the government, in which case investors would be compensated. The new investment law continues the structural economic reforms under way in Cuba since President Raul Castro took over from his ailing brother Fidel in 2008. It has been anticipated since 2011, when Cuba enacted a 300-point overhaul of its domestic economy to encourage more private enterprise. The law aims to address the lengthy and sometimes murky process to approve foreign investment deals and improve investment guarantees, two major concerns of potential investors and foreign governments. It would also guarantee the free transfer of profits or dividends outside of Cuba without paying additional tax, and allows investment in any sector of the economy except education and healthcare. Details of the proposed law were published on Wednesday in state-run media, and Reuters later re-

viewed a copy of the complete draft. The National Assembly was expected to approve the draft with little change. Cuba is cut off from U.S. investment by a comprehensive trade embargo and has failed to meet its investment targets for each of the past five years. Major foreign companies doing business in Cuba include Canada’s Sherritt International (S.TO), which has a joint venture with the Cuban state to mine nickel, and Spanish hotel group Melia Hotels International (MEL.MC), among others. Such companies will enjoy the new lower tax rates but not the 8-year tax holiday granted to new investors. Cuba is promising legal protections to persuade foreign investors to risk their capital in the Soviet-style economy, and new incentives such as the dramatically lowered tax. “The Cuban government has a major credibility gap to overcome with foreign investors. Investors will want evidence, not just legislation, that Cuba is prepared to allow investors to make money, employ Cubans they select and not move the goal posts when success seems to be too rewarding,” said Paul Hare, a former British ambassador to Cuba who now teaches at Boston University. Under the current foreign investment law, which went into effect in 1995, all tax breaks are negotiated and foreign firms pay a 30 percent profits tax and 20 percent labor tax. The labor tax was already being gradually reduced and now will be eliminated completely. However, foreign ventures that mine natural resources, including oil, can be subject to a higher profits tax of up to 22.5 percent, depending on how those ventures are negotiated with the state. Investors will still have to hire labor through

state-run companies, a major complaint of foreign ﬁrms. “The policy’s impact will be known once Cuba starts negotiating deals with potential partners, but the new law’s incentives and ﬂexibility seem to be designed to bring in the capital needed to lift the economy and make the reforms succeed,” said Phil Peters, who runs the Virginia-based Cuba Research Center. “Agriculture, sugar, and renewable energy are key sectors to watch for signs of a new attitude toward foreign investment.”

MARKET-ORIENTED REFORMS Under Castro’s reforms, Cuba has proposed moving 20 percent of the state labor force to a non-state sector made up of farms, small businesses, cooperatives and joint ventures. Greater foreign investment ﬂows would “increase exports, the effective substitution of imports, (spur) high-technology and local development projects, as well as contribute to the creation of new jobs,” according to the 300-point plan in 2011. Yet to date the reforms have not led to fast growth. The economy is expected to expand 2.2 percent this year, compared with 2.7 percent in 2013. The current law and new law allow for 100 percent foreign-owned companies and do not explicitly exclude Cubans who are citizens of other countries, but in practice Cuba has in most cases insisted on 51 percent ownership of joint ventures and has not allowed Cubans abroad or its own citizens to invest, except in small businesses. There are currently around 200 joint ventures and other projects involving foreign investment in Cuba, compared with more than 400 some 12 years ago and the economy is considered one of the least investor friendly in the world.

Pitbulls maul elderly woman to death P

ORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Police shot and killed three pitbulls on Tuesday after the dogs mauled to death an 83-year-old woman, who had gone into the yard of her home to check her mailbox in Tunapuna, east of here. Police said that Sylvia Roberts was killed by the three pitbulls that belong to her 43-year-old son, who had been at work. The dogs were unleashed in the secure compound of the home. The attack is likely to intensify

debate here for the government to ensure the proclamation of the Dog Control Amendment Act that has been passed in both houses of Parliament.

Earlier this week, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TTSPCA), Sita Kuruvilla, said she was concerned that at least 200 pitbulls had been abandoned over the past months as government moved to enact the new legislation. In addition, she described as “fear-inducing” full-page advertisement by the government in the daily newspapers calling for support of the legislation. “We were a bit concerned because we saw the full-page ad in the paper and

it is basically seeking support for the Dog Control Act…it was pretty alarming. “We had a couple of problems with it—we ﬁnd that the Government is taking an approach that is…it is either you are for the Bill or you are against the Bill, or you are for responsible ownership or you are not for responsible ownership. Our organisation, the TTSPCA as well as Animal Welfare Network fully support legislation that promotes responsible dog ownership,” she added.

Regional tourism alliance launched in Barbados A

n initiative to offer support to seven tourist destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America was launched in Barbados Thursday. The Sustainable Destinations Alliance for the Americas, or SDAA, represents the largest effort of its kind to date, the promoters said. Each participating location will undertake an evaluation of destination management practices designed to recognize areas of strength and to identify areas with the greatest scope for improvement. Sustainable Travel International, an NGO selected as the SDAA’s implementation partner, will conduct assessments using its Rapid Destination Diagnostic tool, which provides a snapshot of sus-

tainability status and a summary of destination management priorities. “With the focus of this initiative on destination sustainability and management, we are strengthening our ability to assess issues that are critical to the competitiveness and destination product and to make targeted recommendations,” Sherry Tross, the Organization of American States’ executive secretary for Integral Development, said. “For the OAS, it is important that these issues remain as an integral part of the sustainable tourism policy dialogue so we can respond effectively to the needs of our member states,” she said. “It’s critical that companies look at ways they can have a positive impact in the places where they

do business,” Rich Pruitt, vice president of Safety and Environmental Stewardship at Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., said It is hoped that the seven destinations taking part in the SDAA initiative will emulate the successful implementation of similar pilot programs in Cozumel, Mexico and Roatan, Honduras. Organizers would like to expand the SDAA to include more than 30 destinations within the next few years, the Caribbean Tourism Organization said Thursday in a statement. The SDAA includes the OAS, the Caribbean Tourism Organization, Sustainable Travel International, Royal Caribbean and the U.S. government.

TRINIDADIAN MINISTER FIRED OVER INCIDENT ON AIRLINE

ort-of-Spain - Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar dismissed a member of her Cabinet after he harassed a ﬂight attendant on a Caribbean Airlines domestic ﬂight earlier this month. “As I have always said, regardless of the consequences, I remain resolved to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do,” the premier said late Tuesday. “In the circumstances, I have advised the President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, His Excellency

Justice Anthony Carmona, to revoke the appointment of the Honorable Minister of the People, Dr Glen Ramadharsingh,” she said in a brief statement. Ramadharsingh has attributed the incident to “fatigue” and denied that he was intoxicated when he refused to follow instructions given by ﬂight attendant Ronelle Laidlow. The confrontation took place last Friday on a ﬂight to Port-of-Spain. Laidlow, 25, told police and Airports Authority security that the minister’s hand touched her breast when he

reached for her identification badge. Ramadharsingh, however, denies having touched the flight attendant and says he did not threaten to have her fired over the incident. He said he subsequently made an “unreserved apology” to Laidlow. The leader of the country’s largest Hindu organization, Sat Maharaj, called Ramadharsingh an embarrassment and “a poor role model” and said he should resign or be fired. Persad-Bissessar, who was out of the country at the time of the incident, said

that on her return she asked the minister and the relevant authorities to submit reports. “All my considerations are character driven. I hold no brief for any man or woman save the greater public interest,” the prime minister said. Persad-Bissessar has booted more than half-a-dozen Cabinet ministers since taking ofﬁce in May 2010. “No man, nor woman for that matter, has been allowed, nor will be permitted, to deviate from the very principles upon which we were elected by the people into ofﬁce,” she said. EFE

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News W

RLD

Obama urges Russian troops to pull back from Ukraine border

.S. President Barack Obama on Friday said Russia’s troop buildup on the Ukraine border was out of the ordinary and called on Moscow to pull its military back and begin talks to defuse tensions. “You’ve seen a range of troops massing along that border under the guise of military exercises,” he told CBS This Morning in an interview in Vatican City. “But these are not what Russia would normally be doing.” Obama said the moves might be no more than an effort to intimidate Ukraine, but also could be a precursor to other actions. “It may be that they’ve got additional plans,” he said. While official estimates of the number of Russian troops currently massing on the border with Ukraine have varied over the last 24 hours, Ukrainian officials says there may be as many as 100,000. U.S. officials at the Pentagon told reporters on Thursday that they estimate that about 50,000 troops are currently part of the build-up.

Russian news agency Interfax reported Friday that a senior Russian security ofﬁcial told President Putin that Russia faces growing international threats. “There has been a sharp increase in external threats to the state. The lawful desire of the peoples of Crimea and eastern Ukrainian regions is causing hysteria in the U.S. and its allies,” said Alexander Malevany, deputy head of the Federal Security Service. The report indicated Malevany had given no details about the measures, but the remarks could increase Western concerns that Moscow may have designs on eastern Ukraine after annexing Crimea and inciting a build-up of East-West tensions unseen since the Cold War. Putin has received permission from parliament to send the armed forces into Ukraine if necessary, raising concerns that he could cite alleged threats to Russian-speakers in eastern regions as grounds for intervention.

RUSSIA’S ‘MILITARY PROWESS’ Putin on Friday said Russia’s takeover of Crimea showed off its military prowess, as his defence minister reported that the Russian flag was now flying over all military sites on the Black Sea peninsula. In a Kremlin ceremony with senior security officials, Sergei Shoigu told Putin that all Ukrainian servicemen still loyal to Kyiv have left the Crimea region. “The recent events in Crimea were a serious test,” Putin was shown on state television as saying in an echoing and glided Kremlin hall. “They demonstrated both the completely new capabilities of our Armed Forces and the high morale of the personnel.” Putin also praised Russian troops for “avoiding bloodshed” in Crimea, whose largely ethnic Russian citizens overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in a March 16 referendum dismissed in the West as illegal.

90 still missing in fatal Washington state mudslide; 16 bodies recovered D

ARRINGTON, Wash. — Washington authorities on Wednesday reduced the number of people missing from a community wiped out by a mudslide to 90, as the families and friends of those still unaccounted for begin to confront the reality that some may never be found. The ofﬁcial death toll remains at 16, with an additional eight bodies located but not recovered, Snohomish County Emergency Management Director John Pennington said. Authorities said they expected more bodies to be found on Thursday. The number of missing had been ﬂuctuating — at one point reaching as high as 220 — but authorities were able to verify that 140 people reported missing had been located, Pennington said. That left 90 people

missing, plus 35 others who may or may not have been in the area at the time of the slide. The revised numbers come at the end of a rain-soaked fifth day of searching for survivors in the small community of Oso, some 55 miles southeast of Seattle. But as time passes and the death toll continues to rise, the chances grow increasingly dim of finding people alive amid the debris. With little hope to cling to, family members of the missing are beginning realize their loved ones may remain entombed forever inside a mountain of mud that is believed to have claimed more than 20 lives. Becky Bach watches and waits, hoping that search crews find her brother and three other relatives

who are missing in Washington state’s deadly mudslide. Doug Massingale waits too, for word about his 4-month-old granddaughter. Searchers were able to identify carpet from the infant’s bedroom, but a log jam stood in the way of a more thorough effort to find little Sanoah Huestis, known as “Snowy.” It just generates so many questions if they don’t find them,” Bach said. “I’ve never known anyb ody to die in a natural disaster. Do they issue death certificates?” Search crews using dogs, bulldozers and their bare hands kept slogging through the mess of broken wood and mud, but authorities have acknowledged they might have to leave some victims buried.

Trying to recover every corpse would be impractical and dangerous. The debris field is about a square mile and 30 to 40 feet deep in places, with a moon-like surface that includes quicksand-like muck, rain-slickened mud and ice. The terrain is difficult to navigate on foot and makes it treacherous or impossible to bring in heavy equipment. To make matters worse, the pile is laced with other hazards that include fallen trees, propane and septic tanks, twisted vehicles and countless shards of shattered homes. “We have to get on with our lives at some point,” said Bach, who has spent the past several days in the area in hopes that searchers would find her brother, his wife, her 20-year-old great niece and the young girl’s fiance.

SEARCH FOR MISSING JET IS MOVED NEARLY 700 MILES, BASED ON RADAR ANALYSIS

UALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Australia announced on Friday that it had moved the search area for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 nearly 700 miles to the northeast, the latest in a long series of changes by the authorities on where they think the plane might have disappeared. The authority said it was acting after further analysis of radar data from when the plane, which was supposed to be flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, instead turned over the South China Sea and flew back over Peninsular Malaysia. The analysis showed that the aircraft was moving faster than previously estimated and so would have used more fuel. That in turn would mean that the aircraft could have run out of fuel sooner as it flew out over the southern Indian Ocean, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. Mikael Robertsson, a co-founder of Flightradar24, an aviation tracking firm based in Stockholm, said that the unusual speed of the aircraft over peninsular Malaysia following its turnaround over the South China Sea could be explained either as an attempt by pilots to race to a runway to land the plane in

response to an aircraft malfunction or else as part of an effort to hide from the authorities. “Either they wanted to land very fast or they wanted to escape radar coverage as soon as possible,” he said. “You burn a lot more fuel when you fly very fast, so normally you try to avoid it.” The revision of the search area, based on further analysis by an international team of experts working with Malaysian officials, means that Australia is redirecting the search far from the floating objects seen in the previous search area in satellite images released by Australia, China and the European satellite launch company Airbus Defense and Space. Those objects were in or very near the previous search area, as satellite operators had trained their cameras there. At 123,000 square miles, or 319,000 square kilometers, the new area is about the size of New Mexico and is only one-fifth of the size of the previous search area. John Young, the director general of the Maritime Safety Authority, said at a news conference near Canberra on Friday that the ocean is 2,000 to 4,000 meters deep in the new search

area, or 6,500 to 13,000 feet, making it shallower in some places than the previous search area. Mr. Young also said at the news conference that the weather in the new search area should be considerably better than that of the zone previously searched. The new zone is 1,150 miles west-southwest of Perth, Australia, closer to Perth than the previous zone, shortening the ﬂight for surveillance aircraft by up to an hour in each direction and allowing aircrews to spend more time actually looking for debris from Flight 370. “It is a different ballpark,” said Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer of New South Wales University, of the new search area. “Where they are searching now is more like a subtropical ocean. It is not nearly as bad as the southern Indian Ocean, which should make the search easier.” “The water in this area is more like the oceans around the Bahamas,” Dr. van Sebille added. But he also warned that the seabed in the area is marked by a steep ridge and that prevailing currents drag in more debris from other parts of the ocean.

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WORLD NEWS

Obama and Pope Francis meet for first time P

resident Barack Obama gave Pope Francis a box of seeds as a gift, a fitting token as their first-ever meeting provided a fresh start of sorts between the administration and Catholic leadership after years of strained relations. “These, I think, are carrots,” Obama told the Pontiff, showing him a pouch from the box, which was made from timber from the first cathedral to open in the United States, in Baltimore. The Pope gave the President two medallions -- one symbolizing the need for peace and solidarity between the two hemispheres -- and a copy of “Evangelii Gaudium,” or “The Joy of the Gospel.” The book was penned by the Pope and calls for a new era of evangelization and a renewed focus on the poor. The tokens of goodwill underscored the goal of the meeting: Focus on areas where two of the world’s most influential men agree, and gently tread ground where they differ. The two men greeted each other with a smile and a handshake and posed for pictures before sitting down across a table from each other. They spoke privately for nearly an hour. When they emerged from the meeting, the President and the Vatican had slightly different takes on the tenor of their discussions, especially when it came to issues that have frayed the relationship between the Obama administration and American Catholic leaders.

US President Barack Obama and Pope Francis “... (I)t was hoped that, in areas of conﬂict, there would be respect for humanitarian and international law and a negotiated solution between the parties involved,” the Vatican said in a statement. “In the context of bilateral relations and cooperation between Church and State, there was a discussion on questions of particular relevance for the Church in that country, such as the exercise of the rights to religious freedom, life and conscientious objection. ...” Obama, in a news conference that followed, told reporters that such issues were “not a topic of conversation” with the Pope and instead were discussed with Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin. According to the Vatican, the two men also discussed the issue of immigration reform and “stated their common commitment to the eradication of human trafﬁcking throughout the world.”

On this point, the President and the Pope were simpatico. “I was grateful to have the opportunity to speak with him about the responsibilities that we all share to care for the least of these, the poor, the excluded,” Obama told reporters after the meeting. “And I was extremely moved by his insights about the importance of us all having a moral perspective on world problems and not simply thinking in terms of our own narrow self-interests.” The meeting took place two days after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on a contraception mandate included in the President’s signature health care reform law. The law exempts churches and houses of worship from the requirement, but nonproﬁt, religiously afﬁliated groups are required either to provide contraception coverage to their employees directly or through a third-party insurer. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has been vocal in its opposition to the provision, said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the organization. “Religious liberties and right-tolife issues are a concern,” she said of the tension between American Catholic leadership and the administration. However, “the U.S. bishops have appreciated the administration’s cooperation on issues of mutual concern.” 5 things you didn’t know about

popes and presidents Those areas of “mutual concern” include immigration and poverty -- issues on which the President and the Pope could ﬁnd common ground. In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Obama pointed to the Pope’s concern for income inequality, saying, “Given his great moral authority, when the Pope speaks it carries enormous weight.” Continuing to focus on income inequality, Obama said, “And it isn’t just an economic issue, it’s a moral issue. I think the Pope was speaking to the danger that over time we grow accustomed to this kind of inequality and accept it as normal. But we can’t.” The President said he admires the Pope’s courage to speak out on economic and social issues. “It doesn’t mean we agree on every issue, but his voice is one that I think the world needs to hear. He challenges us,” Obama told the newspaper. “He implores us to remember the people, especially the poor, who are affected by the economic decisions we make.”

IMMIGRATION ISSUES Francis underscored his commitment to the plight of immigrants during a trip last year to the Italian island of Lampedusa, a place where thousands of African migrants desperately ﬂeeing political upheaval and poverty pour onto European shores. Many die in the attempt to cross.

New BlackBerry phones to cater to keyboard lovers B

lackBerry Ltd plans to introduce high-end smartphones that cater to keyboard aﬁcionados in the coming 18 months, in an effort to win back core corporate and government clients who have shunned the company’s touch-screen devices. Chief Executive John Chen said in an interview that the company’s engineers have designed at least three different next-generation handsets that are being “kicked around right now.” “The focus is going to be very keyboard centric,” said Chen, the former Sybase CEO who took the reins of the Canadian company just over four months ago. Chen, viewed by tech industry insiders as a turnaround artist, wants BlackBerry to zero in on its core base of corporate and government clients, and on its services arm, which secures mobile devices on the internal networks of big clients. He sees that strategy as the best way to reverse market share losses to Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics and other companies that make smartphones powered by Google Inc’s Android operating system. BlackBerry reported a ﬁscal fourth-quarter loss on Friday. Last month, at the annual Mobile World Congress trade fair in Barcelona, BlackBerry unveiled a new “classic” model with a keyboard that boasts a return of

the command keys that include ‘Menu,’ ‘Back,’ ‘Send’ and ‘End’ buttons, along with a trackpad. The device, dubbed the Q20, will hit store shelves before the end of 2014. Last year, BlackBerry’s product launches emphasized full touch screens. And even the keyboard-equipped devices that it did introduce came without the command keys, alienating some of their die-hard fans. BBM FOR DESKTOPS Chen, who has been meeting with BlackBerry clients, said another item that may be on the agenda is bringing the company’s popular BlackBerry Messenger service, known as BBM, from mobile devices onto desktop computers. Such a move, Chen said, would allow employees of big companies and government agencies to go mobile on group chats started on their PCs, without skipping a beat. “We are certainly going to take a very serious look at putting BBM on the desktop,” he said. Last month, BlackBerry said that it would make BBM available on Microsoft Corp’s Windows Phone and the upcoming Nokia X platforms in the coming months. The messaging tool was last year opened up to users of iPhones and Android devices.

BBM, with over 80 million users, was a pioneering mobile-messaging service, but user growth has failed to keep pace with that of WhatsApp and other competitors, in part because BlackBerry had long refused to open the program other platforms. The potential value of a messaging platform was highlighted by Facebook Inc’s acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion in stock and cash. The news had helped boost BlackBerry’s stock. In February, BlackBerry outlined its plans to launch BBM Protected for enterprise clients in regulated industries, such as the financial sector. Chen said BlackBerry is now back on solid financial footing after it sold the vast majority of its real estate portfolio and arranged a convertible debt financing in 2013. The CEO said he was “very comfortable” with the balance sheet and plans to be cash flow positive or neutral by the end of this fiscal year. Still, any hope of turning a profit is quite a few quarters away. “It is our plan to return to profitability at some point in fiscal 2016,” said Chen. “We need to generate cash and make money on a consistent basis, and it’s got to come from our big installed base of enterprise and if we can do that, then we can branch out to do a lot of other stuff.” (Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson and Tiffany Wu)

SOUTH KOREA PROPOSES AID FOR NORTH IF IT HALTS NUCLEAR ARMS PROGRAM

outh Korean President Park Geun-hye proposed a broad range of economic aid for impoverished North Korea on Friday if it agrees to give up its nuclear program. It was not immediately clear how the North would respond to the proposal, made in a speech in Dresden, Germany, but it has repeatedly rejected the idea of abandoning its nuclear program, which it says is a necessary deterrent against U.S. hostility. North and South Korea have been technically at war since the end of their 1950-53 civil conﬂict, as the ﬁghting ended with a mere truce, not a treaty. North Korea threatened nuclear strikes against the South and the United States last year after the United Nations tightened sanctions against it for conducting its third nuclear test. Park said the two Koreas must put confrontation behind them and start the

South Korean President Park Geun-hye looks at the exhibition ‘DMZ-Gruenes Band’ during a visit to the East Side Gallery in Berlin March 27, 2014. work of preparing for uniﬁcation, and offered to help develop the North’s economy, agriculture and social infrastructure. “In order for these efforts for us to become one again to bear results at an early time, North Korea must go on the road to denuclearization,” Park said. She also offered to help the North join the international ﬁnancial system

and proposed the establishment of liaison ofﬁces on both sides to promote exchanges. Park’s proposal continues a series of policy initiatives by Park and her predecessor offering huge economic incentives in return for the North giving up its nuclear ambitions. Five countries including the South and the United States in 2005 also struck a deal with the North to provide economic aid in return for an agreement to end its nuclear arms program, which Pyongyang has since torn up. On Thursday, the North ridiculed Park in scathing commentary for her comments at a nuclear security summit earlier in the week in The Hague where she spoke about the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation posed by North Korea. “Explicitly speaking about the nuclear issue, there may be the denuclearization of the whole Korean peninsula but

no unilateral denuclearization by the north under any circumstances,” it said. “She had better not even dream about it.” North Korea has accused the United States of maintaining nuclear weapons in South Korea and planning to invade the North, which Washington denies. North Korea’s economy is about a thirtieth of the size of industrial powerhouse South Korea and often has trouble feeding its people. Its missile launches and nuclear tests since 2006 have led to U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban arms trade and cut it off international ﬁnancial system. In the latest rebuke of the North’s arms provocation, the U.N. Security Council condemned its ballistic missile launch this week as a violation of resolutions and said it would hold discussions on a response.

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WORLD NEWS

Shortage of limes causes prices to rise L

ime prices have shot up in recent months, in large part due to a bad harvest in Mexico. Last year at this time, the weighted average price for a single lime was 21 cents; now they’re 53 cents apiece, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “We’re at an unprecedented price point,” said Ronnie Cohen, vice president of sales for Vision Import Group, a produce importer based in New Jersey, in an interview with USA TODAY Network. The spike in prices has become so pronounced that people in the lime community are now calling the fruit “oro verde,” or green gold, Cohen said.

A year ago, Vision Import Group was selling 40-pound boxes of the seedless Persian limes for $55. Now the limes are selling for up to $100 per box, he said. Most of the limes that Americans consume come from Mexico, he said. The high prices of the last couple months reﬂect a shortage from bad weather that caused blooms on the lime trees to drop, Cohen said. The high prices are making them a security risk as well, with thieves stealing the fruit. The high prices are temporary, and there should be some “price relief” in May when the new harvest arrives, Cohen said.

In addition to shortages, lime growers in Michoacán continue to grapple with the inﬂuence of cartels, which includes paying extortion money, reports the Associated Press. The Knights Templar drug cartel even controls the wholesale distribution center where growers sell limes to the rest of the world, according to AP. More expensive margaritas? Despite the price hike, you probably won’t see an increase in prices at restaurants, said Annika Stensson, spokeswoman for the National Restaurant Association. With these short-term spikes, restaurants tend not to increase menu prices, but they will make other adjustments as needed, Stensson said.

For example, restaurants may take margaritas off a happy hour menu, or promote flavored margaritas such as peach or strawberry, she said. Restaurants also could choose not to use limes as a garnish, she said. Another option is to substitute lemons for limes, but she added, “Sometimes a lime is just a lime, and that’s what you need.” Grocers are more flexible with pricing. It’s likely stores will increase prices while decreasing the supply of limes on sale, said Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. “Stores are not going to quit carrying limes. Odds are you’ll still find them,” he said.

Russian-U.S. crew makes belated arrival at space station A

Russian spaceship carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut made a belated arrival at the International Space Station on Thursday, returning the orbital outpost to full staff. Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson blasted off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket two days ago from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They had expected to reach the station, a $100 billion research complex that flies about 250 miles above Earth, six hours later. But about two hours after launch, the crew’s Soyuz capsule failed to fire its maneuvering engines as planned, forcing a delay to the next station docking opportunity on Thursday. The cause of the skipped rocket firing remains under investigation, said NASA mission commentator Rob Navias.

Preliminary analysis shows the spaceship was 1 degree out of alignment from its predicted orientation, triggering the Soyuz computers to automatically abort the engine burn, Navias said during a NASA Television broadcast of the docking. Since Tuesday’s mishap, the Soyuz successfully conducted the necessary engine ﬁrings to reach the station. “Better late than never,” said Navias as the Soyuz made its ﬁnal approach to the outpost. The crew’s prolonged journey ended at 7:53 p.m. EDT as the Soyuz slipped into a berthing port on the station’s Poisk module. The arrival of Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson returns the station to a full six-member crew. The orbital outpost, a project of 15 nations, has been short-staffed since two other cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut returned to Earth on March 11. The 15-nation space station partnership, overseen by the United States and Russia, so far has

been immunized from the political and economic fallout following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Since retiring its ﬂeet of space shuttles in 2011, the United States is dependent on Russia to ﬂy its astronauts to the station, a service that costs NASA more than $63 million per person. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, testifying before Congress on Thursday, said it is unlikely Russia will cutoff U.S. access to the station as payback for U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia’s takeover of Crimea. “Russia is dependent upon the United States to operate the station when it comes to power, when it comes to everyday operation,” Bolden told members of the Space Subcommittee of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. “Based on my conversations with my Russian counterparts, they are equally worried about terminating activity on the ISS,” Bolden said.

JURY CONVICTS BIN LADEN SON-IN-LAW ON TERRORISM CHARGES

uleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, was found guilty of terrorism-related charges on Wednesday following a threeweek trial that offered unusually vivid details of the former al Qaeda leader’s actions in the days after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Abu Ghaith, 48, a Kuwait-born Muslim cleric, faces life in prison after a federal court jury in New York convicted him of conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to provide material support for terrorists, and providing such support. Jurors took just over one day to reach a verdict in a courtroom that is blocks from the site of the World Trade Center destroyed in the hi-

jacked plane attacks nearly 13 years ago. Abu Ghaith’s court-appointed lawyer, Stanley Cohen, said there were several issues he would raise on appeal. They include U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s decision to bar testimony from Pakistan-born Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man the U.S. government accuses of masterminding the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. “He was stoic, he was at ease,” Cohen said of Abu Ghaith’s reaction to the verdict. “I think he feels that it was impossible under the circumstances to receive a fair trial.”

The judge scheduled September 8 for sentencing. Prosecutors had accused Abu Ghaith, one of the highest-profile bin Laden advisers to face trial in a U.S. civilian court, of acting as an al Qaeda mouthpiece and using videotapes of his inflammatory rhetoric to recruit new fighters. They also said Abu Ghaith knew in advance of an attempt to detonate a shoe bomb aboard an airplane by Briton Richard Reid in December 2001, citing in part an October 2001 video in which he warned Americans that the “storm of airplanes will not stop.” Lawyers for Abu Ghaith said the prosecution was based on “ugly

OUSTED UKRANIAN LEADER URGES REFERENDUM

OSCOW -- Ukraine’s fugitive leader pushed Friday for a vote to determine the status of each of the country’s regions - a call serving the Kremlin’s purpose of turning Ukraine into a loosely knit federation. The statement from Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president who fled to Russia last month after three months of protests, raised the threat of more unrest in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking eastern provinces, where many resent the new Ukrainian government. Also Friday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin that the Ukrainian military withdrawal from Crimea was complete. Ukrainian soldiers were seen carrying duffel bags and flags as they shipped out of the Black Sea peninsula that Russia has annexed. While Yanukovych has practically no leverage in Ukraine, his statement clearly reflected the Kremlin’s focus on supporting separatist sentiments in eastern Ukraine.

Deep divisions between Ukraine’s Russian-speaking eastern regions, where many favor close ties with Moscow, and the Ukrainian-speaking west, where most want to integrate into Europe, continue to fuel tensions. The Crimea Peninsula, where ethnic Russians are a majority, voted this month to secede from Ukraine before Russia formally annexed it, a move that Western countries have denounced as illegitimate. Talk percolates of similar votes in other Ukrainian regions with large Russian populations, although none has been scheduled. Russia has pushed strongly for federalizing Ukraine - giving its regions more autonomy - but Ukraine’s interim authorities in Kiev have rejected such a move. The one vote that has been scheduled is a presidential election on May 25. “Only an all-Ukrainian referendum, not the early presidential elections, could to a large extent stabilize

words and bad associations,” rather than actual evidence that the defendant knew of or joined plots against Americans. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, in a statement after the verdict, said it bolstered the argument that militants should be tried on terrorism charges in civilian courts, rather than as combatants in military commissions. That sentiment was echoed by Karen Greenberg, the director of Fordham Law School’s Center on National Security, who attended the trial. “The federal courts are robust and can handle the numerous challenges that terror trials pose, including witnesses taking the stand and classiﬁed material,” she said on Wednesday.

the political situation and preserve Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Yanukovych said in a statement carried by the ITAR-Tass news agency. He didn’t specify what the vote should ask or when it should be held. Russia’s state RIA-Novosti news agency quoted Alexei Mukhin, a Kremlin-connected political analyst, as saying while a nationwide referendum would be difﬁcult to organize in each of Ukraine’s provinces, the country’s southeastern regions could follow Yanukovych’s advice. In Kiev, Ukrainian prosecutors opened a new investigation against Yanukovych on charges of making calls to overthrowing the country’s constitutional order. He already is being investigated in the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian protesters who were shot dead in Kiev in February. Yanukovych’s old rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, attacked his statement, accusing him of being “a tool aimed at destroying the independence of Ukraine.”

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WORLD NEWS

Is Hillary Clinton too old to be president? DEMOCRATS HAVE ‘OLD, TIRED CANDIDATES’

oes age matter when it comes to who occupies the White House? That’s a question that could be asked with more frequency should Hillary Clinton decide to seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. president, as she is widely expected to do, and as the Republican field of potential candidates fills up with 40-year-olds. The former first lady and secretary of state will turn 67 in October, meaning she would be moving back into the White House at 69 if she won the 2016 election. Most U.S. presidents have been in their 40s or 50s when they took office, including the current president Barack Obama who was 47 when he won, so Clinton would be one of the oldest. What role, if any, Clinton’s age might play — in her decision and in the race if she does go for it — has already been the subject of some debate. It may be rude to talk about a woman’s age, but politics plays by different rules. Fox News host Mike Huckabee, who hasn’t ruled out another run at the Republican nomination (he tried in 2008), said last month that he’s not sure Clinton will run. “I think everybody assumes she will but look, she’s going to be at an age where it’s going to be a challenge for her,” he said before going on to criticize her record as the U.S.’s top diplomat. National Journal columnist Charlie Cook recently broached the topic in a piece that prompted more than 4,200 comments on the magazine’s website as well as accusations of sexism. Cook didn’t say that Clinton shouldn’t run because of her age, he tried to make the point that perhaps she herself is taking it into consideration in making her decision. Becoming president is typically a nine-year commitment by taking a year to run then serving two four-year terms, the maximum allowed.

WORRIES ABOUT WRINKLES Cook wrote that her rigorous schedule as secretary of state took a toll on Clinton’s health and that the pace of a campaign is even more intense and she would be enduring it at an older age. “This is not necessarily an end-all-be-all argument that she should or would not run, simply that she likely would have to think long

Hilalry Clinton has not announced whether she will run for president in 2016 but already her age, 66, is being discussed as a factor in her decision, and in the race should she decide to campaign. and hard as to whether she is physically up to the rigours of running and serving in ofﬁce,” he wrote. Howard Kurtz noted in a Media Buzz column on Foxnews.com on the questions being raised about Clinton’s age that women politicians are scrutinized more than men when it comes to their birthdays. “Hillary — she of the ever-changing hairstyles — has to worry about wrinkles in a way that male candidates do not.” He also warned that if Clinton critics try and use her age against her it could backﬁre. Indeed the Republicans will have to be careful if they want to make an issue out of her age. Baby Boomer voters may be insulted and alienated if they claim someone in their late 60s is too old to be president. Plus their own candidate in 2008, Sen. John McCain, was 72 when he ran against Obama. Vice-President Joe Biden, who would be 73 come election time, hasn’t ruled out a run for the top job and some Republicans have been contrasting his and Clinton’s ages with their own potential 2016 candidates. “Don’t tell me that Democrats are the party of the future when their presidential ticket for 2016 is shaping up to look like a re-run of The Golden Girls,” Sen. Mitch McConnell told last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference. “We’ve got Rand Paul, we’ve got Marco Rubio, we’ve got Paul Ryan and a slew of smart, young and energetic governors. And the other guys? They’ve got Hillary and Joe Biden,” he said.

Journalists and media under attack from hackers T

wenty-one of the world’s top-25 news organizations have been the target of likely state-sponsored hacking attacks, according to research by two Google security engineers. While many internet users face attacks via email designed to steal personal data, journalists were “massively over-represented” among such targets, said Shane Huntley, a security software engineer at Google. The attacks were launched by hackers either working for or in support of a government, and were specifically targeting journalists, Huntley and co-author Morgan Marquis-Boire said in interviews. Their paper was presented at a Black Hat hackers conference in Singapore on Friday. “If you’re a journalist or a journalistic organization we will see state-sponsored targeting and we see it happening regardless of region, we see it from all over the world both from where the targets are and where the targets are from,” Huntley told Reuters. Both researchers declined to go into detail about how Google monitors such attacks, but said it “tracks the state actors that attack our users.” Recipients of such emails in Google’s Gmail service typically receive a warning message. Security researcher Ashkan Soltani said in an earlier Twitter post that nine of the top25 news websites use Google for hosted email services. The list is based on traffic volumes measured by Alexa, a web information firm owned by Amazon.com Inc. California-headquartered Google also owns VirusTotal, a website that analyses files and websites to check for malicious content.

“TIP OF THE ICEBERG” Several U.S. news organizations have said they have been hacked in the past year, and

Forbes, the Financial Times and the New York Times have all succumbed to attacks by the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of pro-government hackers. Huntley said Chinese hackers recently gained access to a major Western news organization, which he declined to identify, via a fake questionnaire emailed to staff. Most such attacks involve carefully crafted emails carrying malware or directing users to a website crafted to trick them into giving up credentials. Marquis-Boire said that while such attacks were nothing new, their research showed that the number of attacks on media organizations and journalists that went unreported was signiﬁcantly higher than those made public. “This is the tip of the iceberg,” he said, noting a year-long spate of attacks on journalists and others interested in human rights in Vietnam, including an Associated Press reporter. The attacks usually involved sending the target an infected email attachment masquerading as a human rights document. While many of the world’s biggest media players have been targeted in these attacks, small news organizations, citizen journalists and bloggers were also targeted, Huntley said, noting hacking attacks on journalists in Morocco and Ethiopia. The problem, Marquis-Boire said, was that news organizations have been slower than other businesses in recognizing the threat and taking action. “A lot of news organizations are just waking up to this,” he said. Many journalists are now taking individual action to protect their computers and email accounts, he said. “We’re seeing a deﬁnite upswing of individual journalists who recognize this is important.”

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a 42-year-old Republican who is said to be interested in running for president, has said the Democrats have “old, tired candidates.” If Clinton’s and Biden’s ages are used against them in the presidential race, the Republicans likely won’t be arguing that they are too old to carry out their duties, but rather they’ve just been around too long, their ideas are stale, and the White House should belong to a younger, fresher face. The oldest of the potential candidates mentioned by McConnell is Rand Paul at 51, the rest are in their 40s and will be counted on to attract younger voters, who convincingly chose Obama over Mitt Romney and McCain in the last two elections. If it is Clinton on the ballot in 2016, she could try and counter the Republican spin on her age by arguing that she’s been working in politics virtually as long as some of their potential candidates have been alive and she has the experience they lack to lead the country. But Clinton, and her husband Bill, are polarizing figures and her age likely will have nothing to do with whether she gets elected or not. “If Hillary Clinton runs for president and doesn’t win it’s not going to be because of her age,’ the National Journal’s Cook said in an interview. The Democrats have been in for two terms and Obama’s approval ratings are abysmal, voters may be looking for a change no matter who is running for the Democrats, he said. Clinton also has her share of critics based solely on her own record as a New York senator and as secretary of state. First thing is first though — Clinton has to decide if she will run. “Having turned 60, I can tell you that people don’t make eight or nine-year commitments lightly when they’re in their 60s, particularly their late 60s,” said Cook. If Clinton does become president in 2016, she still won’t hold the record for oldest elected president — that title goes to the president who is revered, adored and considered nearly flawless by Republicans, Ronald Reagan. He was inaugurated in 1981 at the age of 69, and turned 70 two weeks later. He was 77 when he left the White House.

OSCAR PISTORIUS TRIAL POSTPONED

he defence in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius has been postponed until 7 April as one of the assessors assisting the judge has been taken ill. The athlete had been expected to take the stand on Friday. The trial, in the South African city of Pretoria, has already heard 15 days of prosecution-led testimony. Mr Pistorius denies deliberately shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in February 2013, saying he mistook her for an intruder. Prosecutors allege that he killed her after an argument. Judge Thokozile Masipa, announcing that the assessor was ill, said that in her absence the court was “not properly constituted”. The judge suggested the date of 7 April to resume the trial, which both prosecution and defence teams accepted. Under South African law, there is no jury system and two assessors, normally lawyers or retired magistrates, help the judge reach a decision in serious cases. The BBC’s Karen Allen in Pretoria says that, although Mr Pistorius is not legally obliged to testify, he is the only witness to the alleged murder and is expected to testify when the trial restarts. His lawyers had previously told journalists that it was “like-

Oscar Pistorius denies the murder of Reeva Steenkamp ly” they would call him to give evidence first, she adds. Prosecution testimony has relied on accounts from neighbours and specialist ballistics, forensic and mobile phone evidence. Our correspondent says the defence had been due to address key questions, in particular: Allegations from witnesses that Mr Pistorius was reckless with guns and had fired a pistol indiscriminately on two occasions in the past Why he didn’t check the whereabouts of Ms Steenkamp when he feared an intruder was in the house Why, as a person used to handling weapons, he didn’t fire a warning shot Ms Steenkamp, a model, reality TV celebrity and law graduate, was hit by four bullets while in the toilet cubicle of Mr Pistorius’ home in Pretoria. People who were in the area on the night of the shooting have told the court they heard screams, shots and bangs.

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usiness B AND

T O

ECHN LOGY Facebook and Google in tech cold war

acebook and Google are locked in a high-stakes, multi-billion dollar battle to shape the future. Both companies are spending like crazy on emerging technologies. Their aims: when their current businesses are disrupted -- and they will be -- they’ll have a fallback plan. While Facebook is doing well now, it knows that its core business could degrade just as MySpace’s did,” said Carl Howe, analyst at Yankee Group. That’s why Facebook has poured billions of dollars into a photo sharing network, facial recognition software, a chat app and now virtual reality company Oculus. Google in turn, has invested billions in driverless cars, wearable gadgets, military robots and -- most recently through its purchase of Nest -- connected home devices like smoke detectors and thermostats. It’s as if Facebook and Google are now combatants in Silicon Valley’s version of a Cold War arms race. “Facebook and Google are high technology titans engaged in a real world game of ‘Monopoly’ to grab the choicest technology properties in a bid to maintain and extend their dominance with each other as well and various other rivals,” said Laura DiDio principal analyst at

consultancy ITIC. These are long-term bets. For all their attempts to diversify, neither company’s purchases have helped them expand beyond their core business models just yet. Both Google and Facebook generated about 90% of their revenue from advertising last year. By buying Oculus, Facebook is betting that the next tech wave could be ruled by wearable devices. Google is making a similar bet with Glass and its Android Wear smartwatch platform. The big question is whether Facebook bought the right wearable company. Mark Zuckerberg said on a conference call with analysts Tuesday that he believes virtual reality has a chance to become the communications platform of the future. But Oculus is unlike most wearable devices -- it is closed off from the rest of the world, taking over most of your senses, including your entire ﬁeld of vision. That’s great

for gaming but it’s not like we’re going to be able to walk down the street with these things as we do today with smartphones and could even do one day with smartwatches and Google Glass. “Oculus has a lot of cool, very immersive applications,” said Ron Gruia, principal consultant at Frost & Sullivan. “At the same time, Oculus is very isolating, limiting its usefulness.” Even if it doesn’t succeed, the bet seems to be worth it for Facebook. The company spent $2 billion on Oculus but only $400 million in cash -- loose change for a company with $11.5 billion in its corporate coffers. But in the emerging Cold War between Facebook and Google, Facebook can’t take quite as many risks. Google has $59 billion in cash and can lose a bet every once in a while, as it did with Motorola Mobility. (Google bought Motorola for $12.5 billion in 2011 but subsequently shed most of the assets, includ-

ing the recent sale of Motorola’s smartphone business to Lenovo for about $3 billion.) Google’s mission of cataloging information is also broader than Facebook’s “connecting people” goal. So while Facebook can make wild bets like it is with Oculus, it has less wiggle room than Google in ensuring they pay off. Investors showed their disapproval on Wednesday as well. Shares of Facebook were down more than 3%. But give both companies credit for knowing they can’t rest on their laurels. Google CEO Larry Page and Facebook’s Zuckerberg seem to recognize that it’s not easy to stay on top of the tech world forever. Numerous firms that were once industry titans fell to Earth after they failed to adapt to a new wave of technology. In fact, both companies literally have their headquarters in the graveyard of former tech darlings. Facebook’s Menlo Park offices are in the former home of Sun Microsystems, which Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) snapped up in 2010. And Google lives in the former headquarters of Silicon Graphics Inc. -- the once-mighty computing company that filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

GM halts most Chevy Cruze sales G

eneral Motors has halted the sale of most of the Chevrolet Cruzes now on dealer lots. The Cruze is GM’s best selling car model in the United States, and is also widely distributed internationally. Spokesman Alan Adler confirmed that GM has ordered a halt to sales of models with the 1.4-liter turbo engine, the most popular version of the compact car. Adler did not know the reason for the halt, and said there hasn’t been a recall issued on cars already sold. The news comes as GM contends with a damaging recall of 1.6 million small cars worldwide due to an ignition switch flaw that has been linked to at least 12 deaths. This stop order is minor in comparison to that recall, but comes at a bad time, as Congress and federal prosecutors probe why GM did not recall the cars for a decade after it discovered the problem. GM CEO Mary Bar-

GM says it has ordered dealers to stop selling its best selling U.S. car model.

ra is due to testify before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. The Cruze is one of GM’s best selling models worldwide, with more than 2 million sold globally since it went on sale in

2009. GM sold 248,000 in the United States last year. Adler said the stop sales order is only for U.S. dealerships. GM had about a 70 day-inventory of Cruzes at the end of February. That comes to about 7,000 cars nationwide. Adler said stop orders are not uncommon and can be for something as minor as a flaw in the window sticker, or as major as a problem that leads to a recall. But not all stop orders lead to recalls. Also on Friday, GM recalled just under 700 of the Cadillac ELR, the plug-in hybrid that is the luxury brand’s version of the Chevy Volt. Only 55 of the cars have been sold to customers, Adler said, while the rest are on dealer lots. The recalled ELR’s have a calibration problem with their electronic stability control. Adler said the fix is a 20-minute software update.

Airbus to supply 70 jets to China, worth more than $10billion

uropean aviation giant Airbus has signed a deal to supply 70 jets, worth more than $10bn (£6bn), to China’s state-owned purchasing agency. The deal had been on hold because of a row between the EU and outside countries over carbon emissions tax on ﬂights. The breakthrough came during a state visit to France by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.

The order includes 27 longhaul A330s and 43 smaller A320 planes. China also signed a new 10year agreement allowing Airbus to continue building planes in the northern city of Tianjin until 2025. Earlier, Airbus’ helicopter division announced a deal to provide 1,000 civilian helicopters to China over the next 20 years

The three biggest European economies, Germany, France and the UK, have all been clamouring to improve their trade links with China. Last year, France had a trade deﬁcit with China of about 26bn euros (£22bn), which accounts for approximately 40% of France’s total foreign trade deﬁcit. French president Francois Hollande told his Chinese counter-

part that he wanted to “re-balance trade between our two countries”. Aerospace already accounts for 29% of French exports to China. A ﬁfth of Airbus’s global production takes place on the Chinese mainland. China and France also signed 50 trade agreements in a number of other areas, including the nuclear, ﬁnancial and automotive sectors.

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BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

Candy Crush Maker Falls in Trading Debut C

andy Crush Saga has been a runaway hit, attracting tens of millions of players and generating eye-popping proﬁts for its developer, King Digital Entertainment. But on Wednesday, when King had its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, investors feared that the company was at risk of becoming a one hit wonder. The stock slumped 15.6 percent on Wednesday to close at $19 a share, disappointing the investors who bought shares in the morning and also those who received stock in the initial public offering Tuesday evening. It was the worst ﬁrst-day performance of an I.P.O. so far this year, according to data from Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ. (But a majority of the companies that stumbled out of the gate have recovered since their trading debuts). With the popularity of Candy Crush already on the wane, King has said that its other games are gaining users. But the big question now

Characters from the company’s games, including a giant plush strawberry from the Farm Heroes Saga game and candy pieces from Candy Crush, roamed the stock exchange floor, posing for the cameras. To some extent, King may have suffered from unfortunate timing. While the I.P.O. market has been unusually robust this year, with companies raising $31.2 billion in proceeds to date, this week has been a stormy one for young technology companies. Twitter, last year’s I.P.O. darling, is down 13 percent this week through Wednesday. FireEye, a cybersecurity services provider that had a splashy debut in September, is also down 13 percent. Even Netflix, a more mature technology player, is down 8 percent. But King also faces a unique set of challenges. Many young technology companies report rapid growth, if little or no profit, when they first disclose their financials to the public. Investors have learned to love these types of companies, helping upstarts

is whether a company that derives 78 percent of its total gross bookings from a single game can blossom into a more diversiﬁed studio. Other popular games, including Angry Birds, have lost some of their luster. And Zynga, a company once heralded as the next big thing in games, has fallen 54 percent since its I.P.O. in 2011, as it has struggled to replicate its past successes. “We’re not focused on the shortterm,” the chief executive and co-founder of King, Riccardo Zacconi, said in an interview on Wednesday. “If you want to achieve shareholder value, you have to look at the long-term. I’m looking forward to getting back to work in the studio tomorrow.” The company generated a considerable amount of hype going into the I.P.O., with earnings that rose a staggering 7,000 percent last year to nearly $568 million. On Wednesday morning, a banner with its logo was draped on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange building in Lower Manhattan.

like Twitter pop on their trading debuts. King’s situation is quite different. The company is rolling in profit, but its megahit game is slowing down. Candy Crush’s gross bookings, a nonstandard measure of what players pay for items in the game, fell in the fourth quarter of last year. Seen through that lens, the company’s financial statements may induce a feeling of vertigo. “Getting vertical takeoff is one thing,” said Rett Wallace, the chief executive of Triton Research, a firm that analyzes private companies. “But antigravity is harder.” The company’s defenders argue that comparisons to other technology firms are not the most useful. One person involved in the I.P.O. process, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, drew a comparison to Amgen, the giant drug company, which more than a decade ago bought Immunex to get its hands on a blockbuster drug.

Microsoft CEO signals new course with Office for iPad A

t a news conference Thursday, executives demonstrated a new “touch-first” version of Office crafted for the iPad, available for download as a free app, though a subscription is needed to let users create or edit documents rather than just read them. Significantly, they did not demonstrate any software on Windows machines, telegraphing a departure from former Chief Executive Steve Ballmer’s focus on the personal computer operating software and its own devices. “Their absence speaks volumes,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets. “Nadella’s a cloud-centric guy; he’s going to focus on what’s been successful, and where the future’s going. Windows 8 thus far has been extremely underwhelming.” Nadella kicked off the presentation with a fluid, low-key introduction to Microsoft’s approach to the new mobile, cloud-centric world of computing, in his first public appearance since taking the helm 52 days ago. Dressed in a black polo shirt and dark jeans, the 46-year-old computer scientist threw in some geek humor and lines of poetry from T.S. Eliot, marking a change in style from his energetic predecessor Steve Ballmer. His lack of references to Windows indicated a deeper strategic shift. Nadella gave no indication of when Microsoft would release “touch-first” versions of Office apps for Windows 8, the latest version of the operating software, which he acknowledged had fallen behind in the mobile era. “The Windows strategy, there’s no change, except we want to be known as the innovative company that’s coming from behind in some categories,” Nadella told reporters in an ad hoc question and answer

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at a Microsoft event in San Francisco, California March 27, 2014. session after the presentation, another sign of new openness at the company. “If you look at the story of Windows, we lead in some, we have fallen behind in some. We’re grounded in that reality,” he said. “What we need to be is a challenger there and be able to show what we’re capable of doing in these new form factors.” Apart from the absence of any Windows devices, the Surface, one of Ballmer’s prized concepts, was conspicuously missing from a show ﬂoor at the event that included Google Inc Android tablets from Samsung and Acer as well as the iPad. Nadella did not mention the poor-selling tablet at all in conversations with reporters.

OFFICE, AT LAST The Ofﬁce apps are free to download from Apple’s app store, but to create new documents, users will need a subscription to Microsoft’s existing cloud-

WALMART SUES VISA OVER CARD FEES

EW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores is suing Visa over fees that it charges the world’s largest retailer when customers use a credit or debit card. Wal-Mart says Visa conspired with banks to illegally fix and inflate fees that retailers pay on card transactions. The company says that the fees cost U.S. retailers and shoppers more than $350 billion between 2004 and November 2012. The complaint was filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. Visa did not return a request for comment. In December, a judge approved

Wal-Mart is accusing Visa of price ﬁxing in the setting of fees charged to merchants for credit card transactions. a settlement over card fees between 19 merchants and Visa and MasterCard. Wal-Mart was not part of that group. The settlement was originally valued at $7.25 billion but shrank to about $5.7 billion because some retailers opted out.

based service called Office 365. Microsoft’s Office 365 Home Premium, designed for home consumers, costs $100 a year. For businesses it costs $60 or more per year, depending on features. Apple gets its standard 30 percent cut of new Office 365 Home subscriptions sold through its app store, but no share of existing Office 365 revenue or multiple subscriptions bought by companies. That is analogous to the way Apple treats magazine subscriptions. Analysts have estimated that Microsoft could rake in anywhere from $840 million to $6.7 billion a year in revenue from iPad-native Office, although some fear it may have moved too late to grab the attention of many. Easy to use, touch-friendly work apps like Haiku Deck, Quip, Smartsheet and Evernote, not to mention Google Apps, have quickly gained a following among younger users who have never worked with Office applications, or relish the change. Sources have said an iPad-friendly version of Office - which encompasses such popular applications as Word, Excel and PowerPoint - had been ready for years, but the Redmond, Washington-based company had been reluctant to compromise its signature PC operating system. At the time, the sources could not speak because they were not authorized to talk to the press. However, Microsoft’s own efforts to produce a touch-friendly operating system capable of challenging the iPad have floundered, with poor sales of its Surface tablet, and a general lack of interest from third party hardware makers in making tablets running Windows 8.

BANK OF AMERICA IN $9.5BILLION SETTLEMENT

ank of America agreed to pay $9.5bn (£5.7bn) to settle charges it misled US mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the housing crisis in 2008. The bank will pay $6.3bn in cash and buy back $3.2bn in mortgage securities. The settlement resolves four lawsuits filed in 2011 by US regulatory agency, the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA). Those suits were filed against Bank of America as well as Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. Bank of America bought Countrywide and Merrill Lynch in 2008 and 2009 respectively, during the height of the financial crisis. The bank said the agreement resolved “one of the most significant remaining pieces” of housing market-related litigation against the firm. “This settlement... represents an important step in helping restore stability to our broader mortgage market and moving to bring back the role of private firms in providing mortgage credit,” said FHFA director Mel-

vin Watt in a statement. Separately, Bank of America settled a lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general in 2010. That suit, which was filed against Bank of America as well as the bank’s former chief executive Kenneth Lewis, alleged that Bank of America failed to disclose losses at Merrill Lynch prior to the bank’s acquisition of the firm. In hiding these losses, New York’s attorney general alleged that Bank of America misled shareholders about the purchase. To settle the suit, Bank of America agreed to pay $15m and adopt certain corporate governance changes. Additionally, Mr Lewis agreed to pay $10m, and said he will accept a three-year ban from working at any public company as part of the settlement. The firm said that it has now resolved around 88% of the total cost of pending litigation relating to the bank’s conduct during the housing crisis.

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UK posts big current account deficit, household savings down B

ritain’s current account deficit was much bigger than expected in the fourth quarter and households ran down savings to keep up their spending, reminders of the need to put the economy on a more balanced footing to maintain growth. The current account deficit in the October-December period was 22.4 billion pounds ($37.21 billion), or 5.4 percent of gross domestic product, down only slightly from a record of 5.6 percent in the third quarter, official data showed. A Reuters poll had predicted a deficit of 14 billion pounds. Britain’s economy staged a surprisingly fast rebound last year and looks to have started 2014 with the same kind of momentum. But the recovery has yet to broaden significantly beyond its reliance on unsustainable domestic demand. The Office for National Statistics confirmed the economy grew 0.7 per-

cent in October-December last year compared with the previous quarter and was 2.7 percent bigger than in the fourth quarter of 2012. Economists had expected no change to previous ONS estimates. The current account shortfall was driven largely by an increase in foreign investment earnings leaving the country and a drop in income on British investments abroad, heightened by a rise in sterling, the ONS said. Economists said the data underscored the importance of Britain exporting and investing more, of which there were some signs in the fourth quarter. Last week, British finance minister George Osborne announced measures he said would help companies invest and export more. For 2013 as a whole, the current account deficit stood at 4.4 percent of GDP, the widest deficit since 1989.

Overall economic growth in 2013 was revised to 1.7 percent, matching a growth rate last seen in 2010, down from a previous estimate of 1.8 percent.

MIXED REPORT Samuel Tombs, UK economist at Capital Economics, said the data presented “a mixed report card”. Exports counted for more of the economy’s growth between October and December than previously thought and strong growth in business investment was conﬁrmed. But a fall in household incomes down 0.1 percent from the third quarter - and a decline in the savings ratio to 5.0 percent from 5.6 percent raised concerns about how long the recovery could last. “Nonetheless, a recovery in real earnings and further employment gains should provide more solid foundations for further growth in consum-

er spending this year,” Tombs said. The ONS also said Britain’s dominant services sector got off to a solid start in 2014, growing 0.4 percent in January, picking up a bit of speed from December. Data from the ONS released on Thursday showed that retail sales rose by more than expected in February, another sign of continued momentum in Britain’s economy at the start of the year. And a separate survey published earlier on Friday showed British consumer sentiment rose in March to its highest level since around the start of the ﬁnancial crisis in 2007. ID:nL4N0MO2V0] Despite Britain’s stronger than expected recovery, total output in the fourth quarter was still 1.4 percent below the pre-ﬁnancial crisis peak in early 2008 - a weaker situation than in almost all other big advanced economies. ($1 = 0.6019 British Pounds)

Facebook Looks to Drones to Boost Internet Access C

an drones help expand broadband availability? Facebook’s new Connectivity Lab is looking at the high-ﬂying devices - not to mention satellites and lasers - to assist in providing Internet access worldwide. In a blog post, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said his Internet.org outreach organization has “made good progress so far,” citing work in the Philippines and Paraguay, where 3 million more people now have access to the Web. “We’re going to continue building these partnerships,” he pledged, “but connecting the whole world will require inventing new technology, too.” To that end, the Connectivity Lab team has been working on developing new platforms for connectivity “on the ground, in the air and in orbit,” according to Internet.org. The team includes aerospace and communications tech experts with backgrounds at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Ames Research Center, as well as the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. But Zuckerberg also revealed a new partner: U.K.-based Ascenta, whose ﬁve-person team worked on early

versions of Zephyr, the longest-ﬂying solar-powered unmanned aircraft. Facebook is “bringing on key members of the team from Ascenta,” Zuckerberg said, who will be “working on connectivity aircraft.” According to Bloomberg, the acquisition cost Facebook $20 million—a drop in the bucket compared to recent purchases of WhatsApp ($16 billion) and Oculus VR ($2 billion). Zuckerberg launched Internet.org in August, with the intent of increasing access to the Web, and bringing the Internet “to the next 5 billion people.” As of now, about one-third of the world’s population has online access. Industry heavyweights like Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm, and Samsung have thrown their support into the venture, pledging to develop joint projects, share knowledge, and mobilize organizations and governments to bring the world online. But it’s going to take more than connection control, more capacity, and faster data speeds to turn the entire globe onto the Web. So Facebook will

UK GDP GROWTH ESTIMATE FOR 2013 DECLINED

IMF CLOSE TO AGREEING AID PACKAGE FOR UKRAINE

he International Monetary Fund (IMF) is close to agreement with Ukraine on financial assistance worth $14-18bn (£8.5-£11bn) over the next two years. An agreement still needs approval by the full board of the IMF. The stand-by arrangement comes at the end of a three-week visit by IMF officials to the country. The deal is expected to unlock a further $10bn in loans for Ukraine from the European Union and the US. “Following the intense economic and political turbulence of recent months, Ukraine has achieved some stability but faces difficult challenges”, the IMF’s Mission Chief for Ukraine said in a statement. The deal goes hand in hand with a reform programme for Ukraine’s ailing economy. A cut in energy subsidies to consumers has been one of the conditions of an international rescue deal and on Wednesday Ukraine’s interim government agreed to raise domestic gas prices by 50% in its effort to secure the IMF aid package. Ukraine’s ousted President Viktor Yanukovich had refused to take this unpopular step. But the country’s new Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk told parliament that Ukraine was “on the edge of economic and financial bankruptcy”.

He said that without the austerity measures proposed by the IMF, the economy could contract by as much as 10% this year. ‘REDUCE COSTS’ The IMF says a key part of Ukraine’s reform programme will focus on the country’s stateowned energy company, Naftogaz, which imports gas from Russian energy giant Gazprom. Russia has already said that the discounted gas prices Ukraine gets from Gazprom will come to an end next week. “Over time the programme will focus also on improving the transparency of Naftogaz’s accounts and restructuring of the company to reduce its costs and raise efficiency,” the IMF’s statement added. According to the IMF, Naftogaz’s deficit in 2013 amounted to close to 2% of national GDP. Last week the firm’s chief executive was arrested in connection with a corruption investigation. The IMF says it will undertake a review of the country’s anti-corruption framework, the way its laws and regulations are implemented, and the effectiveness of its judiciary and tax administration. In 2013 Ukraine was ranked 144 out of 177 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. The index measures perceived corruption among a country’s public sector officials.

take to the air. The only problem: different communities need different solutions. So where satellites may do the trick in lower-density areas, solar-powered drones are better suited for more high-frequency locations. “There’s a fabulous set of problems to work on to try to figure out … how to make all those satellites interconnect with each other to make sure that you have an Internet backbone that’s essentially flying through the air as these satellites are moving by you,” Yael Maguire, Facebook’s director of engineering, explained in a video (below). Located 20 kilometers above the earth, these drones, which can stay aloft for months at a time, will broadcast the Internet to local users at significantly higher speeds and better connection than a satellite would. “We’re just at the beginning,” Maguire said. “There’s some awesome problems to solve.” Google has a similar Internet-connection effort, dubbed Project Loon, which is using base stations and high-flying balloons to increase Internet access.

he UK’s economy grew by 1.7% last year, official figures show, less than the previous estimate of 1.8%. It is the second time the estimate for GDP growth in 2013 has been cut, after an initial estimate of 1.9%. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed that the UK economy grew by 0.7% in the final quarter of 2013, unchanged from its previous estimate. Business investment rose 2.4% in the fourth quarter, the ONS confirmed. At the end of 2013, the size of the UK economy remained 1.4% below its pre-downturn peak reached at the beginning of 2008, the ONS said, but signs of economic recovery strengthened in 2013. In the final three months of 2013, the ONS said “growth in the services industries remained the strongest contributor” to the economy, increasing by 0.8% during the period. The manufacturing sector grew by 0.5%, in the fourth

quarter, but the construction sector contracted by 0.2%. Manufacturers’ industry body EEF said the fourth quarter estimates may point to “a more balanced pattern of growth” in 2014. “Businesses have begun 2014 in positive mood, with activity in the manufacturing sector and across the wider economy expected to rise at a healthy clip in the ﬁrst quarter,” said Neil Prothero, deputy chief economist at EEF. “Translating ﬁrms’ intentions to invest and hire more staff into concrete action remains the ultimate test if the UK is to achieve a sustainable long-term recovery,” he added. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said that the ONS data “supports our view that the UK recovery remains on course”. “However, there is little doubt that the further efforts are needed to place the recovery on a broader footing, as we are still too reliant on consumer spending,” said BCC chief economist David Kern.

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FORTIS TO HOST 6TH ANNUAL SPRING FUN WALK, RUN & CYCLE

he 6th Annual FortisTCI Spring Fun Walk & Run will take place on Saturday, April 5, with warm ups begining at 5:45 a.m. with a prompt 6:00 a.m. start time. Âľ*HW ÂżW %H +HDOWK\Âś LV WKH PRWWR WKDW )RUWLV7&, has adopted for the 6th annual FortisTCI Spring Fun Walk & Run; And in keeping with modern interests the Company has extended its participant SRRO E\ RIÂżFLDOO\ ZHOFRPLQJ F\FOLVWV WR MRLQ LQ WKH event. The annual FortisTCI Spring Fun Walk & Run has become one of the largest community events KRVWHG E\ WKH XWLOLW\ LQ 3URYLGHQFLDOHV +HOG HDFK year at the start of spring, FortisTCI highlights the importance of living a healthy lifestyle each day. 7KLV HYHQW WKDW SURPRWHV KHDOWK DQG ÂżWQHVV WKURXJK exercise and good eating habits, also reminds attendees that comradely and light competition

amongst family and friends are also important in living a balanced life. Free to all that attend, the event features a ÂżYH NLORPHWHU URXWH DQG D NLORPHWHU URXWH IRU walkers and runners, and a new 22.5 kilometer route for cyclists that starts off at the Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s headquarters. Other activities and event features include push-up contests, jump rope contests, hula KRRS FRQWHVWV DQG PRUH $QRWKHU ÂżUVW ZLOO EH DQ obstacle course style contest which puts contestants against each other by utilizing multiple activity stations. Also joining in the festivities will be representatives IURP ORFDO QRQ SURÂżW RUJDQL]DWLRQV WKHUH WR VKDUH information about their causes. FortisTCI will also offer a hot breakfast to participants before awarding SUL]HV LQ WKH IROORZLQJ FDWHJRULHV ÂżUVW SODFH PDOH IHPDOH DQG FKLOG . URXWH ÂżUVW SODFH PDOH DQG

TCIFA HOST TOURNAMENT TO ENCOURAGE FOOTIE SUCCESS! the Turks & Caicos, young players in this country need the proper environment to compete against more seasoned players. By having teams visit, this program provides the optimum developmental environment for the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top youth football players, coaches and referees by emphasizing development through meaningful competition. The games schedule is as follows: Friday, 11th April Game one: 5 - 6:45PM, U13 game Game two: 7 - 8:45PM, U15 game Saturday, 12th April TCI FA General Secretary Sonia Bien-Aime

Game one: 9 - 10:30AM, U13 game In an effort to increase the level of play of its Game two: 10:45AM â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 12Noon, U15 game Academy members, the Turks & Caicos Islands Football Association (TCIFA) will be hosting a Sunday, 13th April tournament next month to do just that. Through its Visiting Team Program, driven by Game one: 3 - 4:30PM, Beach Tournament for U13 its players, coaches and referees, the local football Game two: 7 - 8:45PM, U15 game (where will this association is excited to host a Boys U13 and Boys be played) U15 team from Brooklyn, New York in April. This game-centric approach by the TCIFA allows for Monday 14th April long-term development to occur through a deeper understanding of what makes players successful at Game one: 4:30 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 6:00PM Beach Tournament for the highest level. U15 Game two: 5 - 6:30PM, U13 game (where will As the sport of football continue to grow in this be played)

IHPDOH )RUWLV7&, HPSOR\HHV . URXWH ÂżUVW place cyclist, and largest corporate group. There ZLOO DOVR EH D JUDQG SUL]H UDIĂ&#x20AC;H GUDZLQJ RSHQ WR DOO participants. FortisTCI President and CEO Eddinton Powell said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;FortisTCI and its employees are again pleased to sponsor the annual Spring Walk & Run event. It is a fun event, but the underlying reason is serious: promoting healthy living in our community. We are delighted once more to partner with other organizations and personalities who always work with us to make this event a success.â&#x20AC;? Those wanting to register can do so by emailing dkrzanowski@fortistci.com or ejennings@fortistci. FRP <RX FDQ DOVR YLVLW WKH RIÂżFH ORFDWHG DW /HHZDUG +LJKZD\ )UHH W VKLUW DYDLODEOH ZLWK registration while they last.

TCIFA FUN RUN AND WALK APRIL 12 The TCIFA Annual Fun Run and Walka-Thon, sponsored by Native Eye, Arts, Crafts & Souvenirs at the Ports of Call Plaza, Providenciales will be held on April 12 beginning at 5a.m. TCIFA advises that pre-registration takes place on April 4. Preregistration fees are $20 per person and $15.00 per person in groups of 10 or more. Registration fees on the day of event will be $25 per person and $20 per person in groups of 10 or more. Registration includes T-shirt, hat, fruits and refreshments. There will be prizes

for 1st place female; 1st place male; 1st place female youth, and 1st place male youth. There will also be many consolation prizes. The TCIFA is advising that registration forms can be obtained and return with fees WKH 7&,)$ÂśV RIÂżFH on Venetian Road, Providenciales. Interested parties can also email or call for registration forms at 941-5532 or tcifa@ tciway.tc â&#x20AC;&#x201C; TCIFA 241-2905 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Paula, 332-3458 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Candace. All proceeds will EHQHÂżW WKH 7&,)$ development programmes

PROPHESY CHURCH, BETHANY BAPTIST RECORD SOFTBALL WINS Prophesy Church and Bethany Baptist Church recorded wins in the latest round of the Church Softball League played at the National Stadium on March 27. In the curtain raiser,

Prophesy Church defeated Roman Catholic Church 15 to 4. Things were a little bit competitive in the early stages but Prophesy was able to end things early in the bottom of the 3rd

inning with the 10 run rule, and went on to win that game 15 to 4. In the second encounter between Bethany Baptist Church and the Jericho Baptist church, in the WRS RI WKH ÂżUVW LQQLQJ

the former took the lead 6 -0. At the top of the 5th inning the score was 9 to 3 in favour of Bethany. At the bottom of the 5th inning Jericho was able to add another 5 runs on the board with 2 outs,

and needed 1 to tied and 2 to win but Bethany was not about to let that happen, ending 9 to 8. Top hitters were 5REHUW +DOO DQG 5RFKHOO Williams, both scoring 2 runs apiece for their team.

Games continue at 6pm on Monday at the national Stadium with St. Monicaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Church VS Roman Catholic, the Methodist Church YHUVXV +DUYHVW %LEOH

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Sports

CARIBBEAN

Bolt needs to improve running style if he’s going to get any faster, says Michael Johnson

rack legend Michael Johnson suspects the best has already come from Usain Bolt – but feels the Jamaican can still break 19 seconds in the 200m if he brushes up on his technique and works harder in training. Bolt beat Johnson’s 12-year record of 19.32secs on his way to a second gold medal at the 2008 Olympics before lowering his mark of 19.30secs to 19.19secs at the World Championships a year later. The 27-year-old has since failed to match that astonishing standard and Johnson suspects he will need to make adjustments to his running style if he is to ever better his past times. Johnson said: ‘If I had to guess and go out there and say, “Have we seen the best of him?” I would say probably but you never know with him. ‘As a sprinter gets older you are not going to get faster. Probably. It becomes harder to stay healthy which makes it more difﬁcult.

Usain Bolt ‘It’s about being obsessive about how you shave off times here and there and run the perfect race. Being obsessive about every single element of training and competition. That’s something very few athletes actually get to.’ Despite Johnson’s reservations, the American believes Bolt, who has not yet committed to running

in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer, is capable of smashing through a major barrier in the 200m. Speaking ahead of the Laureus World Sports Awards, Johnson said: ‘I think he can run under 19 seconds. After that I don’t know. Technically he is not the best. ‘Technically he is a little bit all over the place and that’s a race where the longer it goes the more you need to be really efﬁcient in order to sustain the level of speed you want. ‘If he cleans up some of those things I think he can go under 19 seconds. For someone his size his start is about as good as it will get. Some of the starts we have seen from him are pretty incredible given his size. I wouldn’t focus on that area if I was him. ‘Given the fact he is as tall as he is it will always be a struggle to get a really good start. That’s not the real area of opportunity as I see it.’

WI head coach and captains added to selection panel T

he West Indies head coach, Ottis Gibson and captains Darren Sammy and Dwayne Bravo have been added to the selection panel, as part of 19 recommendations approved by the board of directors of the West Indies Cricket Board to help improve the game in the region. The recommendations were presented by Richard Pybus, the WICB’s director of cricket. The 33-page Pybus Report follows a comprehensive three month, region-wide study which he conducted between November 2013 and January 2014. Pybus, who coached Pakistan and Bangladesh apart from a host of domestic teams around the

Richard Pybus world, took on his new position last October.

Gibson will have voting rights in the selection panel while Sammy (Test and T20 captain) and Bravo (ODI captain) are in the panel as non-voting members. They will be added to the panel that includes Clyde Butts (chairman), Robert Haynes and Courtney Browne. Another signiﬁcant recommendation was the restructuring of the ﬁrstclass game in the region. There will be a structured year-round cricket programme with each team playing a minimum of ten matches per season with a home and away format, stretching the domestic season to six months. In a bid to further professionalise the game, annual contracts

will be given to 15 players from each territorial board. There will be professional coaching staff for all ﬁrst-class teams and all matches will be played at international standard grounds. The WICB will appoint a Coaching Manager to implement and oversee coaching programme throughout the region and implement the Elite Coaches Pathway programme which will identify current and former players for accelerated coaching training. There was a recommendation to downsize the number of ﬁrst-class teams from seven to six to make the Regional Four Day more competitive, but the decision was deferred.

Shillingford cleared for international return hane Shillingford, the West “Obviously, I am extremeScleared Indies offspinner, has been ly happy that I will be playto return to internationing this weekend,” Shillingal cricket after remedial work on his bowling action but will not bowl his doosra which remains illegal. Shillingford was suspended in December, during the tour of New Zealand, following tests in Perth which showed both his doosra and conventional offspinner breached the 15-degree limit laid down by ICC. He had been reported during the second Test against India, in Mumbai, and it was the second time he had been suspended due to an illegal action. Subsequent testing on March 4, again at the University of Western Australia in Perth, showed that his offspinner and straighter ball were now within the regulations. Shillingford made his ﬁrstclass comeback for Windward Islands against Jamaica this week

Shane Shillingford

and claimed 11 wickets in the match. The results of the initial tests in late November came out during the Test series against New Zealand and Shillingford then returned to the Caribbean. Since then he has been working in Barbados alongside Vasbert Drakes, the former West Indies pace bowler, to ﬁnd a solution to his problems and is now conﬁdent he as overcome the problem.

ford said. “I have put in a lot of hard work over the past few months. It was a bit tough at first, but once the coaches told me what I had to do, I went straight to work. I just had to be really patient and I worked really hard.” “I am happy for the advice that I have received from the coaches, especially Vasbert, and I must also thank everyone for the support they have given me during this period.” Richard Pybus, West Indies’ director of cricket, said: “It’s great to have Shane playing ﬁrstclass cricket again and I’m sure Windwards are delighted to have him back.” West Indies’ next Test cricket will come in June when New Zealand visit for a three-match series

ALMOST 800 ATHLETES NAMED FOR IAAF WORLD RELAYS

ome 762 athletes from 48 countries are set to compete in the IAAF’s inaugural World Relays in the Bahamas on May 24-25, track and field’s world governing body announced Thursday. The five relay events in Nassau will involve 90 men’s teams and 64 women’s teams, with preliminary entry lists naming 440 men and 322 women, the IAAF said. Besides the Olympic and world disciplines of the 4x100m and 4x400m, there will also be the 4x200m, 4x800m and 4x1500m. The top eight teams in both the men’s and women’s 4x100m and 4x400m will automatically qualify for the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing. There will also be substantial prize money on offer for the eight finalists, the winners going away with $50,000, with a similar bonus for any world record.

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Sports W

RLD

New sports doping test ‘1,000 times more sensitive’

S researchers have developed a new way to detect performance-enhancing drugs that they say is 1,000 times more sensitive than current tests. In the laboratory, the new screen detected stimulants and steroids in minute concentrations. The method is inexpensive and works with existing equipment, the scientists claim. If validated, the test would signiﬁcantly extend the time in which cheating athletes could be caught. The research has been presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). Most testing for doping products uses a long-established technique called mass spectrometry. This involves zapping urine samples with a beam of electrons that turns the atoms into charged particles. These particles then travel through the spectrometer where they are weighed by a magnetic ﬁeld.

As the scientists already know the weight of many steroids, for example, they are able to rapidly and accurately detect doping. But there are difﬁculties with this system. Some byproducts of doping substances are so small and have a negative electrical charge that they may not produce a strong enough signal for detection. Now chemists at the University of Texas in Arlington believe they have developed a method that builds on existing mass spectrometry techniques to detect these extremely small metabolites. Called Paired Ion Electrospray Ionisation (PIESI), the system uses a chemical agent to bind to the minute pieces of steroid or amphetamine and make them more visible to the detector. “It makes them much more detectable,” Dr Daniel Armstrong, who led the research team, told BBC News. “We’re talking about parts per trillion, sub-parts per trillion - and

the amazing thing is that it is so simple.” In laboratory tests, the system was able to detect steroids, stimulants, alcohol and depressants. “We listed our sensitivity versus everything we found in the literature thus far, and that’s where we got this 10-1,000 times more sensitive than anything else recorded, depending on the drug you are talking about,” said Dr Armstrong. As the key binding agent is commercially available, it should be relatively inexpensive to adapt existing detection methods, the researcher said. A variation of the method is already being used to detect minute amounts of industrial contaminants. Open window The new detection method would radically alter the detection window in which an athlete could be caught after taking these drugs. This is a critical issue in the ﬁght

against doping. A detailed knowledge of the length of time a substance is detectable has been used by many cheating athletes and their scientiﬁc advisers to avoid being caught. “With steroids, it’s about two orders of magnitude, about 100 times more sensitive. We may be able to detect a steroid or something that’s long-lived a couple of years after it was taken,” said Dr Armstrong. The new method wouldn’t work for blood doping, nor would it detect human growth hormone, said the researchers. The scientists will be submitting their work for peer review after the American Chemical Society meeting in Dallas. While they have had many enquiries from reporters, so far they’ve had none from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the US anti-doping agency (USADA), or the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Royal and Ancient to vote on women members at St Andrews T he Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is urging its 2,500 members to vote in favour of abolishing its men-only policy, the BBC has learned. The club, which was formed more than two centuries ago, has only ever allowed men to join. A vote on proposals to change that rule is scheduled for September. In advance of that meeting, the Royal and Ancient has written to its members urging them to support a change in policy which would allow women members. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club has been the

guardian of the rules of the game since 1754, although in 2004 it devolved responsibility for the administration of the game and the Open to the newly-formed R&A. “It’s a big day for the club,” R&A chief executive Peter Dawson told BBC Sport. “We’ve done this really because of our governance role in the game. “We think it’s very good for the governance of golf that we make this move. Sport has been changing, society has been changing and golf is part of that. “We think it’s time this change is made.”

YANKEES EXTEND REIGN AS MLB’S MOST VALUABLE TEAM: FORBES

DERRICK ROSE PARTICIPATES IN DRILLS

EERFIELD, Ill. -- Tentative about starting more Derrick Rose rumors, Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said the former MVP point guard has started to participate in non-contact drills during team practices, while also making it clear he will not come back this season. “Yeah, yeah, he’s doing that; he’s moving along ﬁne,” Thibodeau said when asked about non-contact drills. “He has picked it up a little bit. But there’s still no contact. He’s out for the year, but he’s doing well.” Told that the question wasn’t about making a comeback either in the regular season or the playoffs, Thibodeau stopped that statement in its tracks. “I’m just beating you to the next [question],” the coach said. Rose tore his right meniscus Nov. 22, and had season-ending surgery three days later. He had played in just 10 games after

Derrick Rose missing all of last season with a torn left ACL. Despite recent rumors that he might return for the playoffs, the Bulls have remained steadfast that Rose won’t play this season. He could return to the court this summer, though, for USA Basketball and possibly participate in the World Cup in Spain. That ﬁgures to be Rose’s ﬁrst chance at contact since the Bulls won’t be taking part in any scrimmages at practice this late in the season. “You know, we’re not practicing real long this time of the year, but all the non-contact stuff he’s doing,” Thibodeau said.

he New York Yankees are Major League Baseball’s most valuable team for a 17th consecutive year, coming in at more than triple the league’s average value, according to a survey released by Forbes on Wednesday. The 27-time World Series champion Yankees were valued at $2.5 billion, a nine percent jump from last year and comfortably above the second ranked Los Angeles Dodgers, whose value rose 24 percent to $2 billion due largely to a new television deal. The Yankees, who last year missed the playoffs for only the second time since 1994 and saw their revenue dip 2 percent to an MLB-high $461 million, have topped the list since Forbes began tracking MLB team valuations in 1998. The 2013 World Series champion Boston Red Sox ($1.5 billion), Chicago Cubs ($1.2 billion) and San Francisco Giants ($1 billion) rounded out the top five. It marked the first time five MLB teams were worth at least $1 billion. The average MLB team is now worth $811 million, up nine percent from last year, which Forbes attributed to television deals.

If the vote goes against women members, Dawson said that would be an “undesirable” result. He added: “The early indication is that there is great support. We will have to see what happens.” Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond boycotted last year’s Open at all-male club Muirﬁeld, while Open venues Royal St George’s and Troon also bar women members. However, in 2012 the Augusta National Club, which hosts the Masters in the United States every year, allowed women to join for the ﬁrst time in its 80-year history.

MANCHESTER UNITED TROUBLES AFFECT PREMIER LEAGUE BRAND

anchester United’s troubled defence of their Premier League title is harming the English top flight’s worldwide brand, says the competition’s chief executive Richard Scudamore. Under new boss David Moyes, United are seventh in a disappointing campaign. The 20-time champions are 18 points adrift of leaders Chelsea. “It’s a double-edged sword,” said Scudamore. “When your most popular club isn’t doing as well, that costs you interest and audience in some places.” Former Everton manager Moyes has watched the Red Devils suffer 10 defeats in 31 league matches since he replaced Sir Alex Ferguson, who retired last summer after almost 27 years in charge. His team were knocked out of the FA Cup at the third-round stage before being eliminated from the Capital One Cup in the semi-finals. They have reached the Champions League quarter-finals, where they will face defending champions Bayern Munich next month. “There are lots of fans around the world who wish Manchester United were winning it again,” Scudamore told Bloomberg. “But you have to balance that off against, generally, we’re in the business of putting on a competition and competition means people can compete.” Overseas television deals will earn the Premier League more than £2bn between 2013 and 2016. The Premier League sold its domestic broadcasting rights to Sky and BT in a record-breaking deal, worth around £3bn, last year.

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David Beckham unveils proposal for waterfront Miami soccer stadium A

group led by English soccer star David Beckham unveiled plans on Monday to build a 25,000-seat soccer stadium on Miami’s waterfront for the Major League Soccer team he will own, but the proposal is already facing some opposition. The open-air stadium would be built in an area known as PortMiami, which hosts the world’s busiest cruise ship terminal. Long-term plans for the island port have never included the possibility of being home to a sports arena, port ofﬁcials have said. PortMiami Director Bill Johnson declined to comment on the stadium proposal.

“The important part for us is getting everybody on side, getting everybody to realize why we want to bring the team here, and why we want to have the stadium in a certain place,” Beckham told reporters in Miami. Royal Caribbean Cruises, whose headquarters are located at the port, has expressed concern about the proposed stadium, citing trafﬁc concerns and its own plans to develop the land the Beckham group hopes to lease for the stadium. “We have shared our serious reservations about the suitability of PortMiami as a location for a stadium,” Cynthia Martinez, Royal Caribbean’s

director for global corporate communications, wrote in an e-mail on Monday. Development of the 36-acre (14.5 hectare) stadium site would cost about $200 million and include shops, hotels and ofﬁces connected to the mainland by a pedestrian bridge, according to John Alschuler, Beckham’s New York-based real-estate adviser. Beckham’s group is not looking for public ﬁnancing, but must negotiate site plans with Miami-Dade County. “The funding is in place,” Alschuler told reporters. “The goal is to have a team playing by 2016.” Since Beckham signaled interest

in establishing a Major League Soccer team in Miami, the league has stressed the importance of having a ﬁnal stadium deal, along with a business plan, before it will approve a new team. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid star retired as a player last May with a $25 million option in his MLS contract to start a new franchise. Beckham in February ﬁnalized an ownership group with American Idol creator Simon Fuller and Bolivian-born billionaire Marcelo Claure, founder of Miami-based Brightstar Corp, the world’s largest wireless distributor and the provider of global services to Apple Inc.

FICA tells players to shun BPL T

he future of the Bangladesh Premier League as a reputable international tournament is now in serious doubt after FICA, the international players’ federation, advised against future participation because of prolonged non-payment of fees. ESPNcricinfo understands many players are still awaiting full payment for the 2013 edition of the BPL, with FICA - the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations - now stating it has “no choice” but to “recommend players don’t participate.” FICA’s condemnation of BPL comes at a bad time for Bangladesh as it concentrates on staging a successful World Twenty20 tournament. “Whilst a few players have received full payments from their participation in the 2013 BPL, the vast majority haven’t and payments are now

months overdue,” Paul Marsh, chairman of FICA, said. “This is a repeat of the issues we saw in 2012. “Unfortunately this is an outcome FICA predicted and we advised players prior to the tournament of our concerns. We were hoping the BPL would prove us wrong and deliver an event that addressed our concerns. “It didn’t and going forward we are left with no choice but to recommend players don’t participate in an event that doesn’t respect players’ basic contractual rights.” The latest player chasing payment is Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan. He claims he has been paid only 21 per cent of the fee promised to him for representing Dhaka Gladiators. Although he was promised a second instalment immediately after the tournament, this payment never

reached his bank account. The franchise owners insist they owe him nothing. The Bangladesh Cricket Board, who originally said they would act as guarantors in the event of non-payment issues in the BPL, are now claiming it is not their responsibility to pay the fees incurred by franchises. Sri Lanka Cricket have made representations to the BCB on Dilshan’s behalf, but to no avail. Tim May, the former chairman of FICA, had warned players against participating in the BPL as early as 2012 due to similar issues. The news comes just days after it emerged that several Chittagong Kings players - England’s Ravi Bopara, Netherlands’ Ryan ten Doeschate, West Indies’ Kevon Cooper, Zimbabwe’s Brendan Taylor and Surrey’s Jason Roy - had also complained to the BCB that they have not been paid.

JARED ALLEN HAS AGREED TO A FOUR-YEAR, $32 MILLION DEAL WITH THE BEARS

ared Allen has a new home, and the defensive end will continue to chase many of the same quarterbacks he’s pursued for the past six years. The Chicago Bears agreed to terms with Allen on a four-year deal, the team announced Wednesday. Allen told ESPN NFL Insider Ed Werder in a text that “the Bears came in last minute and everything worked out.” Allen also released a statement Wednesday, thanking the Minnesota Vikings and addressing his future in Chicago. “I’d like to take a moment to thank my former teammates, coaches and the staff at the Minnesota Vikings for all of their inspiring work and dedication,” Allen said. “Perhaps more im-

Jared Allen

portantly I would like to thank the fans and the Minnesota community. I can only hope that I have left with you all, with even a fraction of the positive support and impact you have had on my life, my foundation and my family. “I am very excited about this next chapter in my career with the Chicago Bears and can’t wait to see what the future holds for us. God bless.” Allen’s deal could be worth up to $32 million, a league source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter. It includes $15.5 million in guaranteed money and could void after three years and $24 million. “We’re really excited about adding Jared to our football team,” Bears

coach Mark Trestman told the team’s website. “We know what his abilities bring to the table. We believe he’s going to come in hungry and excited to be part of our football team, and we believe he’ll ﬁt right in.” The Bears recently cleared $4 million in cap space by restructuring quarterback Jay Cutler’s contract, according to multiple reports. The Bears converted $5 million of his base salary into a signing bonus and prorated that over ﬁve years, the reports said. Allen has 128.5 career sacks, 12th most in NFL history. He has seven consecutive double-digit-sack seasons, including 11.5 last season with Minnesota -- where he made his mark after the Vikings traded for him in 2008.

Co-worker accuses Shaquille O’Neal of assault S

haquille O’Neal is the subject of an open assault investigation by police in Atlanta after an incident his lawyer described as “horseplay” in which a co-worker was injured last year. No charges have been ﬁled by local police over the event, which according to a police report is alleged to have occurred May 9 and ﬁrst reported to police July 2. According to Robert Williams, a co-worker of O’Neal’s at Turner Studios, for whom O’Neal is an NBA analyst, the 15-time All-Star “ran out of a room and hit me with a tackle punch to the back knocking me down and falling on top of me injuring my neck and back,” the police report says.

Williams said Turner Security was made aware of the incident within a day. “The investigation was initially handled by the zone and as that investigation deepened, it was transferred (to) the complex case squad,” Atlanta police Sgt. Greg Lyon said, according to WSB TV in Atlanta. “At the conclusion of their investigation, we’ll have their findings and we’ll go forth from there, whether charges will be filed, whether it (will) be reviewed by the DA’s Office.” O’Neal’s attorney, Dennis Roach, said in statement sent to the local ABC affiliate that the incident “was nothing more than horseplay. No one intended for anyone to get injured.”

Shaquilee O’Neal

Williams’ attorney countered that statement with his own, denying the situation was the result of horseplay. “We understand that the physical attack by Shaquille O’Neal upon Mr. Robert Williams is under criminal investigation,” Williams’ attorney said in a statement to WSB. “Mr. Williams is presently recovering after surgery. “However, he does state, emphatically, that the permanent injuries he received were not the result of participation in any form of ‘horseplay.’ “ O’Neal retired in 2011 after a 19year career with the Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat. He also played for the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics.

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