VOLUME 10 ISSUE 8

MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

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VOLUME 10 - No. 8

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CARNIVAL CONTROVERSY Grand Turk residents protest blocked beach access

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esidents of Grand Turk flexed their muscles last week to protest against a decision by cruise ship giant Carnival Cruise lines to block a beach access close to the popular multi-million-dollar facility.

On Thursday, a group of angry residents marched onto the site of the barricaded beach access and forcibly removed the blockade, so that the public was able to gain access to the beach once again. The residents told The SUN that Carnival claimed to have owned the land, but the Planning Department could not confirm that assertion.

The SUN also reached out to James Lovell general, General Manager for the Grand Turk Cruise Terminal, for a comment but was told that he was unavailable since he was out of office.

This newspaper understands that in order to restore calm at the contentious site, members of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force, who were called to the scene, had to threaten arrest of the irate group for trespassing on the land.

“They threatened to lock us up because a lot of people were hot under the collar and decided that they were going to stand their ground because they knew that they were standing on the right side of history. It appeared that the beach access was blocked for some time but we just found that out,” one resident said.

It is understood that representatives from Grand Turks Cruise Terminal, who also visited the scene, claimed that the beach access area was owned by Carnival Corporation and that they had the document to prove it.

The residents said that they went to the Planning Department to verify Carnival’s claim of owning the land, but there was no evidence to suggest whether or not cruise line owned it, and so to

Real estate bouncing back

DIGICEL LAUNCHES “MISS TURKS AND CAICOS VIP EXPERIENCE” PROMOTION In the photographp, fiveve of the six contestants One fortunate Digicel customer will travel to the April 25 Miss Turks Coronation in style courtesy of that tele- Codee Coalbrooke, Todeline Defralien, Tashy Forbes, coms provider, which launched its Miss Turks and Caicos Shanice Williams and Shante Willams – were present at VIP Experience promotion on Tuesday, March 11 at its flag- the Digicel promotion. The sixth contestant - Gabreanne Capron . ship store along the Leeward Highway in Providenciales. them, the ownership of the property is up in the air.

“Carnival said they have papers from Planning (the Planning Department) claiming that they own the land. And that is funny because some of us went to Planning and they said they could not say who it was, but they are checking to find out.

“Let’s say for argument’s sake Carnival received the land as part of the concessions they got from government in the past; we are not disputing those concessions, all we are saying is that, if the land is theirs, they should not block the beach access. That is wrong,” the irate resident said.

In the meantime, Tina Fennimore, former president of the Providenciales Chamber of Commerce, who said she was in Grand Turk at the time of the incident, and confirmed that the incident, said that while Carnival is claiming ownership of the land, it does not have the right to block access to the beach under the law.

“I don’t care who owns the land, nobody has a right to block the beach access, and this is what Carnival said, they said they own the land. They are trying to open up a can of worms on the matter, but we want good sense to prevail. It does not have to be the way it is right

now. A beach access should not be blocked, the law states that,” she said.

Fennimore pointed out that some vendors on the beach, who use the entrance of the beach access to park were closed out, a situation which she described as worrisome.

Meanwhile, some vendors and tour operators who ply their trade from the cruise centre said that the beach access debacle is just one of the myriad of challenges faced in the area, as they are being charged crippling fees to operate there, and called for government to address the issue.

Delta makes inaugural flight from JFKr

Two women sentenced

PDM responds to crime increase

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DIGICEL LAUNCHES “MISS TCI VIP EXPERIENCE” PROMOTION D

igicel on Tuesday announced the launch of the “Miss TCI VIP Experience” promotion which will see customers winning great prizes as part of its sponsorship of the upcoming Miss Turks and Caicos Universe pageant.

The promotion, which was unveiled at Digicel TCI’s flagship store in Providenciales, featured the pageant contestants and Kazz Forbes, president of the Miss Turks and Caicos Universe organisation.

Customers who purchase a BlackBerry Q5, Q10 or a Samsung S5310 will have the chance to win weekly prizes of BlackBerry Playbooks, two nights stay at the Venetian on Grace Bay and VIP tickets to the pageant and a grand prize of One night stay at the Seven Stars Resort on Grace Bay, a day of VIP treatment at the Evolve Spa, a glamorous makeover by Thea Makeup Artistry and luxury transportation to the Miss Turks and Caicos Universe pageant courtesy of Williams VIP transportation.

The promotion – which will run from March 11th to April 4th – is also engaging Digicel’s Facebook fans by asking them to upload

their most fashionable photo and describe what makes them beautiful. The winner will receive a BlackBerry Playbook and VIP tickets to the pageant while the two runners up will each receive VIP tickets and US$20 Digicel call credit. The Facebook competition will run from March 11th to 22nd.

Digicel TCI Marketing Specialist, Trina Adams, said; “As a major sponsor of the Miss Turks and Caicos Universe pageant, we are excited to be able to bring our customers closer to the excitement and also experience the royal treatment through the “Miss TCI VIP Experience” promotion. We are also happy to have Evolve Spa, the Seven Stars Resort, Thea Makeup Artistry and Williams VIP transportation services supporting the promotion which will ensure that the grand prize winner will definitely receive first class treatment.”

Kazz Forbes, President of the Miss Turks and Caicos Universe organisation said; “Digicel has been a longstanding supporter of the pageant and with this promotion and Facebook competition, it has increased its support

significantly. This year’s pageant promises to be bigger and better and with Digicel, we are confident that this and future staging of the pageant will be a smashing success.”

Digicel Group Limited is a leading global telecommunications provider with operations in 31 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and Asia Pacific. After almost 13 years of operation, total investment to date stands at over US$5 billion worldwide. The company is renowned for delivering best value, best service and best network.

Digicel runs a host of community-based initiatives across its markets and has set up Digicel Foundations in Jamaica, Haiti, Papua New Guinea and Trinidad and Tobago which focus on educational, cultural and social development programmes.

Digicel is the lead sponsor of Caribbean, Central American and Pacific sports teams and individuals including the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt and Special Olympics teams throughout these regions. Digicel also sponsors the West Indies cricket team.

College Salvation Army students delights Enid Capron Primary

BY VIVIAN TYSON

A

group of Salvation Army college students from Florida, USA, excited the morning assembly at the Enid Capron Primary School in Five Cays, Providenciales on Wednesday (March 12), with skits, songs and other performances.

Lieutenant Colonel Raphael Mason, who is in charge of the Salvation Army in Turks and Caicos said that the dedicated young group of Salvation Army members were delighted to give up their Spring Break holiday to come to the Turks and Caicos Islands to share joy and happiness with TCI kids.

“This is a group of young Salvationists from Florida. They are all college students and all members of the Salvation Army, and involved in a number

Young Salvation Army members perform for the Enid Capron Primary School Children. of our programmes. They have been here for the past week and have been visiting schools, conducting meetings and have been involved in a number

of other social activities in our community,” Mason said.

Mason explained that unlike thousands of their peers, the students fore-

went their Spring Break, which many kids their age would to not only travel, but to frolic and bask in the sunshine on a beach somewhere.

“They have given up their time; this is their March (spring) break, and they have given up their March break to come down here and do this. It is the second time that they have done things and we hope that it will become an annual event. It is a very different set of young people each year,” he said.

Expressing her appreciation to the group, Rachel Taylor, Principal for the Enid Capron Primary School said that the Salvationists not only entertained the children, but also taught them very important social and inter-personal lessons.

Members of the group also delighted the school with their clinical musical instrument playing.

Alleged Jamrock Bar shooters appear in court

BY VIVIAN TYSON

O

ne of the men shot and injured on the morning of February 24 in front of Club Jamrock, Airport Road in Providenciales has been charged with attempted murder and has been remanded in custody until May 2 for sufficiency hearing in the Supreme Court.

Benson Williams, 26, who is charged along with Chabo Capron, 32, and Branchard Walkin, 22, tried to explained to Magistrate Clifton Warner on March 12, when he and his co-accused appeared in the Providenciales Magistrate’s Court One, that he was a victim of the shooting also, but because he was unrepresented, could not advance his case.

On the morning of February 24, Clayton Morris, Averson Capron and Benson Williams were standing outside the Jamrock Night Club on the Sammy Been Plaza when they were approached by a group of men who open fire on them before making their es-

cape. The three were later taken to the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre where they were admitted and treated.

Following investigation all three were charged with attempted murder. Williams and Walkin have been charged with one count of attempted murder, while Capron is charged with two counts of attempted murder.

Walkin was also remanded in custody to appear before the Supreme Court in a sufficiency hearing on May 2. However, Capron’s case was delayed because of an arresting technicality.

Capron, who was also unrepresented, told the court that Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force violated the Detention Ordinance as well as his human rights, by holding him 26 minutes longer than what was allowed by the court order.

After arresting Capron on February 27, and held in for 48 hours, investigators asked the court for a 10-day extension under the Detention Ordinance. In granting

the extension, the Supreme Court dictated that he be charged or released at 3p.m. on March 9.

However, Capron complained that he was charged at 3:26p.m., on the day given by the court, and as such, not only was his rights was violated, but also the court order.

However, Samantha Glinton of the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DDP) said that Capron’s detention was not prejudice in any way by him being charged later than ordered by the court. She said that the crown was under the impression that the police had three options once the extension had expired, which would be to charge him, released him on bail to return to court or release him entirely.

However, Magistrate Warner suggested that if investigators were uncertain that their probe would not have been completed within the requested time, they should have asked for a more extended period, adding that they

had up to 28 days under the Detention Ordinance to hold a prisoner.

On Friday, Capron appointed attorney Ashwood Forbes, who took out a writ of habeas corpus.

The office of the Director of Public Prosecution counter-filed a stay, using the same grounds as to what he was charged 26 minutes late.

Presiding judge Her Honour Margaret Ramsey Hale sided with the prosecution and throw out the matter. Ramsey-Hale, in her ruling said that Warner erred when he did not allow the charges against Capron to be read, since the charges against him are indictable matters and can only be heard in the Supreme Court.

In dismissing the case, Ramsey-Hale said that the police were right to charge him the time they did, saying that the late charge was done only because of application was not completed in time. Capron is booked to be taken back before the Magistrate’s Court on Monday 17.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

Two women sentenced for ripping off Haitian parents of cash

BY VIVIAN TYSON

T

he two women said to have been involved in a tuition fee racket, ripping off a number of parents, all of Haitian background, were sentenced to prison when they appeared in the Supreme Court on Wednesday (March 12) before Supreme Court Judge Joan Joyner in Providenciales.

Sheila Bain, who Judge Joyner indicated was the mastermind behind the fraud, was sentenced to two years for conspiracy to obtain property by deception and a combined nine months or $9,725 on seven counts of theft.

The sentences are to run concurrently – meaning that they will all run at the same time. But if the fines are not paid by the end of the two year sentence, the sentences will run consecutively – meaning that she would have to serve an additional nine months behind bars after her two years sentence is complete.

Mary Bottex was given an eight month sentence on the conspiracy to obtain property by deception.

The third individual in the matter - Lorne Jean Mary – had already been sentenced to nine months in prison.

The prosecution argued that between Friday, April 1, 2011 and Friday, September 30, 2-11, Bain, Mary and Bottex conspired to obtain money from various persons in the Providenciales community, with the intention of permanently depriving them by falsely presenting to the victims that they could get their children into Turks and Caicos Islands Government schools once a fee has been paid to them.

The three denied the charges throughout the two-week long case, during which a number of per-

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief: Hayden Boyce Senior Editor: Vivian Tyson Office Manager: Dominique Rigby Information Technology and Production Manager: Kelano Howell sons, including some of the victims, Ministry of Education officials, as well as representatives from the Clement Howell High School administration testified.

Making mitigation arguments before sentence was handed down, attorney Laura Maroof, who represented Bain, said that her client has been a responsible individual all her life, and one who steered clear of running afoul of the law before now. She argued further that Bain raised two adopted children and cared for a niece since nine months old.

She said also that Bain suffers from hypertension, and that she would be willing to repay the stolen money.

Maroof also pleaded with the judge to impose a suspended sentence and order that she make compensation, further pleading that if custodial sentence were to be handed down any at all, it should be as light as possible.

Attorney Oliver Smith, arguing his client’s mitigation, said that Bottex suffers from diabetes and respiratory illness, noting also that she is a mother of an 11 year-old son, who is about to sit his Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) but was having problem studying because of the case, his mother was not there for him as she used to.

He argued also that Bottex has been the sole breadwinner for some time now, since the child’s father had broken off the relationship and relocated from the Turks and Caicos Islands.

He said also that Bottex cooperated with investigators from the start, telling or her role in the matter, while pleading to Judge Joyner to impose a suspended sentence and order recompense, since jailing her would do her more harm than good.

In the meantime, Director of Public Prosecu-

Former Priton Development employee takes company to Labour Tribunal

BY VIVIAN TYSON

F

ormer Priton Development Ltd’s employee, Jonathon Forbes has brought his former employer before the Labour Tribunal in Providenciales for what he claimed was unfair dismissal from that company.

Forbes is claiming that he was unlawfully relieved from Priton Development and his claiming compensation, but the company is refuting his claim and is saying that Forbes was fired because he had breached company rules.

The respondent, in its opening argument, said that Forbes attempted to remove company property from the premises in the phase two development in Blue Hills, under the guise that he was authorized by management, and as a result was fired from the company.

The matter, which has started some time ago, continued in the labour court in Providenciales this past week with a Priton employee Oscar Sylvestere – a Dominican Republic national - taking the stand. Sylvestere told the court

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

Lawyers Oliver Smith and Clayton Greene

Shelia Bain (right) and Mary Bottex

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

that while he was at the phase two site, Forbes approached him and produced a list of items to be taken off property that he claimed was approved by company head Kent Soukup, but said that the claim later turned out to be false.

On Thursday (March 13) Selvestere’s time was mostly spent on the stand being reexamined by attorney Melbourne Williams, the lawyer representing Priton Development. He took the stand earlier in the week to give statements after which he was cross-examined by Brook Capron, the attorney representing Forbes.

Forbes was scheduled to take the stand later in the week to relate his version of the series of events leading up to his dismissal. Another Dominican Republic national, employed at Priton Development, was to have taken the stand before Forbes. Soukup already earlier testified in the matter.

The case is being presided over by the Labour Tribunal President, Arthur Forbes, Alco Williams and Mrs. Hope Hamilton.

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.

tion, JoAnn Meloche, pushed for Judge Joyner to hand down judgment using sentencing guidelines of other recent fraud matters. But Maroof and Oliver Smith disagreed. Smith argued that the cases to which Maroof drew references were of substantive nature and this one was not.

In handing down judgment, Justice Joyner said that Bain was the mover behind the racket, and recruited Bottex to assist her in extracting cash from vulnerable parents, who innocently paid them cash in exchange for getting their children into school, even though the children did not get into school in the final analysis and their documents and monies paid to the two were not returned. Judge Joyner said also that Bain stayed in the background operated the scheme.

She said that she took into consideration that Bottex, when approached by investigators, cooperated tremendously from day one. She noted however, that she allowed herself to be misled by Bain. She said that Bottex’s young child and asthmatic condition were taken into consideration while she crafted her judgment.

ENID CAPRON PRIMARY SCHOOL MAKES DONATION TO HEART FOUNDATION: The Enid Capron Primary School, located in Five Cays, Providenciales, made a monetary presentation to the Turks and Caicos Islands Heart Foundation during its assembly on Wednesday (March 12). Karen Mal-

colm, President of the Foundation was on hand to collect the gift. In making the presentation, teacher at the school Ismae Pereira, said that the Heart Foundation is an important entity and that the administration and student body were happy to make the presentation. She also expressed the hope that through that, and other donations to the Heart Foundation, lives would change as a result of its intervention. Accepting the donation, Malcolm reminded that heart disease is the world’s number one killer. “So this morning, I want to encourage our little ones to take care of their hearts,” she said.

Malcolm also encouraged the students to reduce their soda intake and replace it with water because sodas are packed with too much sugar and not good for their hearts. “I want to encourage you to drink a lot of water, eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, because vegetables are very important to helping you to have a healthy heart,” she continued. In photo teacher Ismae Pereira (left) makes the donation to Karen Malcolm, President of the TCI Heart Foundation. Sharing in the moment are the children of the school.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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LOCAL NEWS

Real estate market bouncing back

BY VIVIAN TYSON

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here are strong indications that the Turks and Caicos Islands real estate market is on course to bounce back in a big way, as a number of agents are reporting serious expressions of interest from foreign developers and others looking for properties within these islands.

However, most of the members, including President of the Turks and Caicos Real Estate Association, Robert Greenwood, are approaching the burst of expressions of interest with cautious optimism, for the simple reason that they are not sure as to what level the bounce would go and how long it would last.

Greenwood, in an interview with The SUN, said that the market is feeling an obvious turnaround and the prospect for further growth looks marvelous as a result of the many indicators, which gives reason for optimism in the sector, saying also that the sec-

tor is obviously no longer experiencing a bottoming, but certainly on its way back up.

“We certainly feel that the real estate industry is strengthening. It is a cautious strengthening; we are certainly no longer at the bottom after the changes in the economy that we all experienced,” he said.

Greenwood pointed out that the re-emergence of the sector also has to do with the high level of work that the members from the 15 brokerages have been exerting in promoting the business as and the country in general, coupled with other contributing factors. “ A lot of hard work has been put into having the Turks and Caicos Islands as a whole, bounced back and strengthened, and the Turks and Caicos Real Estate Association has played a big part in that, by promoting the real estate opportunities in the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands itself. It is a combined effort with all of the Turks and Caicos

Robert Greenwood, President of the Turks and Caicos Islands Real Estate Association Islands, and we are cautiously hopeful for the future,” he said.

The Turks and Caicos Real Estate Head explained that one factor which gives members that level of optimism is that the bulk of the expressions of interest for land purchases and developments came in the last six months.

“We are certainly experiencing great interest in development opportunities available in the Turks and Caicos Islands, and even more so in the last six months, that has been on the increase,” he said.

In the meantime, Greenwood is advising that the role played by the Turks and Caicos Islands Real Estate Association should not be discounted, and it is critical that the country realize its value to the economic contribution to these islands and not to discount its role.

“It is very important that people understand the market to conceive that there is progress and that there is hard work being done by the Turks and Caicos Real Estate Association.

There are 15 brokerages, all of which contribute greatly to the marketing of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and we are ambassadors for the Turks and Caicos Islands. We play a very key role in moving the economy forward,” Greenwood said.

Shadow Minister of Trade Sean Astwood responds to proposed increase in business licences S

hadow Minister for Investment and Trade Hon Sean Astwood has come out against the proposed increase in business licences, saying it is “yet another move in the wrong direction”.

In a press release, Astwood stated: “Once again this PNP Government is displaying its inability to come up with a progressive strategy to drive our economy and in turn, raise government revenue. The proposed increase to business licenses is yet another attack on the business community and further hinders any opportunity to jump start this economy. With wages stagnant and job opportunities scarce at best, can the people of these islands afford yet another round of taxation, even if disguised?

The constant hike in prices or new taxes implemented by this government on an economy that is struggling to recover will only result in more financial hardship for an already distressed people.”

Sean Astwood The MP for Five Cays added: “Each new tax has been added without consultation or without consideration for small businesses or the average family. The domino effect happens in all instances, as businesses undoubtedly will pass on the additional costs to the consumer. Ultimately, the buck will stop with the small man. The cry of the people falls

POLICE INVESTIGATING AGGRAVATED BURGLARY AT TWO VILLAS

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etectives of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force (RTCIPF) are conducting investigations after a man and woman were held at gunpoint at a villa last week.

About 2:32 am, two masked males brandishing firearms used a rock to break a glass sliding door and gained entry to a villa. The masked men struck a male on the head and demanded cash. Both suspects then fled the scene in a vehicle with a sum of cash. No description of the vehicle was given to police nor the direction in which the suspects fled.

Police were called to Long Bay Hills where they established a crime scene which was examined by forensic officers. A search of the area was also conducted, however, the two armed men were not located.

The male who was struck on his head received a laceration but refused to seek medical attention.

A man and his family were held at gunpoint at a villa earlier last week.

About 3:07AM, a male was alerted to the sound of a patio door to

his villa being smashed. Upoun investigating the source of the noise, he was confronted by two masked males dressed in black wearing face mask bandanas and hoodies. Both masked males brandishing firearms threathed the man and demanded cash. Both suspects then fled the scene with a sum of cash on foot in an unknown direction.

Police were called to Humming Bird Lane where they established a crime scene which was examined by forensic officers. A search of the area was also conducted, however, the two armed men were not located.

The villa at the time of the incident was occupied by four adults and four children. No one was harmed during this incident.

Detectives from the RTCIPF are conducting investigations into these matter and are urging anyone with information to assist in locating the stolen items and the arrest of those involved in these crimes.

on deaf ears as the government which was sought to represent them is now the main source of discontent. This continued attempt to get blood out of a stone is a bad strategy that will result in further stress on business and possibly lead to some closures.”

Astwood said the continued uncertainty created by this government is bad for business.

“Whether it is loose talks of independence or implementing increase taxation with short to no notice, this will undoubtedly paint a negative picture of the business environment here in the Turks & Caicos for any potential investor,” he said. “Again, I am calling on this government to rethink its approach to taxation and seek consultation before making decisions that is detrimental to our people and their businesses. As Shadow Minister for Investment and Trade, I urge this government to implement incentives and relief packages that will create a better climate for business.”

TCI’S INTEGRITY COMMISSION TO SHARE UNIQUE EXPERIENCE AT ANTI-CORRUPTION CONFERENCE

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he Director of the Mr. Otuonye will share the anti-corrupTCI’s Integrity Comtion model of the Turks mission Mr. Eugene Otuonye Q.C. will be among and Caicos Islands, highlighting the unique feaseveral leading figures from the Caribbean and tures of the TCI Integrity Commission and its exthe rest of the world dispanded mandate. cussing the path “Towards a Corruption-Free The delegates will learn first-hand from Mr. Caribbean” in the Cayman Islands between Otuonye, the Turks and Caicos Islands’ success March 17 and 21, 2014.

Mr. Otuonye will join story of effectively regEugene Otuonye Q.C ulating the financing of the likes of Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, political parties, including donations Dr. The Hon. Ralph Gonsalves; the and campaign expenditure under the Hon. Perry Christie, Prime Minister of Political Activities Ordinance, the first the Bahamas, Dr. the Hon. Ngozi Okon- of its kind in the Caribbean. jo-Iweala, Nigerian Minister of Finance Organisers anticipate roughly 600 and a host of other regional Ministers attendees, representing a cross-section of government, theologians, academ- of regional and international business ics and subject area experts at a series leaders, government officials, academof meetings and the 2014 conference ics and professionals involved in the on corruption organised by the Uni- fight against corruption. versity College of Cayman Islands(UCThe 2014 conference seeks to bring CI) under the theme “Towards a Cor- together the main thinkers and political ruption-Free Caribbean: Ethics, Values, and civic actors from across the region Trust and Morality”. and the world in “an intellectually rich Chairman of the board of Trans- and open environment” to discuss the parency International Dr. Huguette La- values and ethical philosophies that are belle who will open the conference likely to impact the policies and practicon Wednesday, 19 March, 2014 is also es of public institutions at all levels. At among the speakers. Dr. Labelle’s orga- the centre of discussion will be the imnization works in more than 100 coun- pacts of these decisions on individuals, tries in the fight against corruption. families, and the countries of the region.

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LOCAL NEWS

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

$40,000 reward for Robbie Been’s killers

BY VIVIAN TYSON

T

he family of Robert “Robbie” Been is offering $35,000 for the capture and charge of the hoodlums who gunned down the businessman inside the parking lot of his businessplace on the night of March 4,adding to Crimestoppers original reward of $5,000, and thereby pushing the total reward to $40,000.

Ian McLeod, Head of Crimestoppers in the Turks and Caicos Islands made the announcement during a police news conference on Friday, March 14, to update the media on the latest in their investigation.

“At about 9 o’clock this morning, Crimestoppers received an email from the attorney for the Been family, signaling that they want to increase the reward amount by $35,000, to make a total reward of $40,000,” McLeod told the news conference.

He said that arrangements would be made with the family to ensure that the funds are transferred to a special account so that they become available to award tipsters in the wake of those tips lead to an arrest and charge.

“We must have the ability to deliver, so we must come up with a firm written agreement between (Crimestoppers) and the Been family, to make sure that those funds are kept in a special account so that they are available under our control – Crimestoppers’ control – in order to make that payment. There needs to be a timeframe as to when those funds are going to be available. But we fully expect to be offering that reward for $40,000,” he said.

Ira Baptiste (centre), Detective Superintendent in charge of CID, addresses the news conference. Accompanying him at the event are (from left) – Inspector Grantley Williams, Head of the CID; Assistant Superintendent Kenville Charles of the Financial Crimes Unit; Inspector Hilton Duncan of the CID and Ian McLeod of Crimestoppers TCI. In the meantime, the police have said that the seized rent-a-car company-owned van believed to have been used in the crime was in fact reported stolen from the Providenciales International Airport. The police were unable to say whether the report of the stolen van was lodged before or after Been’s murder.

Investigator, Detective Inspector Grantly Williams, who is in Charge of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said that since the van was parked in a public area and would liable to be touched by a number of persons, the police have been working to eliminate evidence considered irrelevant and focus on the ones they believe could assist them in their investigation.

“You could imagine that a vehicle that is parked in the public domain

Grenada, West Indies

would make for different people having reasons to touch it, so we are trying to eliminate all of that,” Williams said.

In the meantime, the police said that their investigations have yet to lead to an arrest, even though they have expanded their probe to include every element of crime, including the financial aspect of it.

Kenville Charles, Assistant Superintendent of Police in charge of the Financial Crimes Unit and Deputy Head of the Criminal Investigation Department said that investigators are also probing whether or not there is a financial aspect to the murder.

“In most cases with some crimes there are financial aspects to those particular crimes. We don’t believe that the incident is robbery, so we are looking at alternative motives why

this crime has been committed, and we are looking at the potential of the financial aspect to it. So that is where my expertise comes in and assisting with the investigation,” Charles said.

Superintendent Ira Baptiste of the Criminal Investigation Department said that while the police are following every lead that comes to them, and had already interviewed a number of persons they believe could assist them in their investigations, no one suspect has been identified or questioned.

Meanwhile, McLeod said that once someone is charged, Crimestoppers pays the individual who offered the tip that leads to that arrest.

“We pay for an arrest and charge.

The police definitely arrest people from time to time and then release them subsequently, after they continue their investigation and found that there is no reason to proceed. The ones that are actually charged means that the police have found evidence that they think they need to bring forward to court, and it is quite possible that the person would be released afterwards; the jury could find them not guilty, but that does not mean that we would not pay, we do pay,” McLeod said.

He reiterated that all tips to Crimestoppers are confidential.

“There is no caller ID if you decide to use our tips number – 1-800-8477.

There are specially encrypted forms on our website. In fact, most of our tips are done now by the internet.

The forms are in English, French and Spanish, and again, they (contacts) go to Miami, they are not seen here. We have a Facebook page, where, again, is encrypted,” McLeod assured.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Page 9

MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

Delta makes inaugural flight from JFK to Provo

BY VIVIAN TYSON

A

irlift to the ever-climbing demand for vacation travel to the Turks and Caicos Islands received a boost when Delta Airlines made its inaugural flight to the Providenciales from JFK International, New York on Saturday, March 8.

In addition to Delta executives - Richard Price and Maria Piles - the full flight included a number of local tourism industry players, including Kingsley Been, Chairman for the Turks and Caicos Islands Tourist Board; John Smith, CEO for the Turks and Caicos Airports Authority; Stacy Cox, Executive Director for the Turks and Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association (TCHTA); Karen Whitt, former President of the TCHTA and now executive member: and reigning Miss Turks and Caicos Islands Snwana Adams.

On its way to the tarmac, the flight took the water cannon salute from two firefighting units – an aviation ritualistic symbol demonstrating welcome to the country.

Cox dubbed the new weekly flight, which arrives on Saturdays at 10:50 a.m. and returns to JFK on Saturdays at 11:50 a.m., a well-needed boost to the local tourism sector.

“This is Delta’s first time flight from JFK to Providenciales, and we are just excited to be part of this today. As you know New York and the northeast are the key markets for the destination. What it does is opens up the Turks and Caicos to the New York area because, of course, that is where we get most of our clientele from,” Cox said.

Cox revealed that on Friday night – March 7, a cocktail party was held at Gansevoort, New York City, to celebrate the achievement.

“It was a full flight, the people on that flight were just excited to have Turks and Caicos well represented. Last night we celebrated with a cocktail party with executives from the Delta Team, and just again

Left to right: Kingsley Been, Chairman of the Tourist Board; Oehleo Higgs,Public Relations Officer for the Tourist Board; Urmas Karner of Delta; John Smith, CEO of the TCIAA; Karen Whitt, , Executive Member of the TCHTA; Miss Turks and Caicos Snwana Adams; Stacy, Executive Director of the Tourist Board; and Maria Price, Lizzy Couric and Richard Piles of Delta. in celebration of this inaugural flight from JFK,” Cox pointed out.

She added: “ Delta has shown to us is pretty strong for this flight to Turks and Caicos, it is saying that the Turks and Caicos is growing extremely well, it is still in demand and people are looking forward to visiting this beautiful destination.”

She said that the inaugural flight signals Delta’s commitment to increasing airlift to TCI from the East Coast of the destination’s largest market – the USA - and will provide visitors with a major convenience factor, and enhance both business and leisure travellers’ numbers.

Cox, who also spoke at the New York City Gan-

sevoort, to celebrate the new flight, pointed out that TCHTA’s members matched the Tourist Board’s $100,000 to promote the new route, which she is a testament to the TCHTA members’ commitment to supporting the Tourist Board with its marketing initiatives, especially in its main target market.

“Travellers from the Eastern region of the USA now have a new reason to visit us in 2014 and beyond, as the new service offers convenient connections and provides passengers with the opportunity to discover a great destination,” she said.

Cox pointed out that Delta will use Airbus A320 with seating capacity of 150 persons, to service the route.

Page 10

MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Turks and Caicos Islands is the 4th most expensive Caribbean destination for families T

he Turks and Caicos Islands has emerged as the fourth most expensive Caribbean tourist destination according to TripAdvisor’s TripIndex Caribbean.

St. Barts is the most expensive destination, followed by Anguilla in second place and the British Virgin Islands in third.

The TripIndex looked at the 20 most popular Caribbean destinations and includes roundtrip airfare from the US, a seven-night hotel stay, dinner for six nights and a half-day snorkeling excursion for four people.

“After a particularly harsh winter, many Americans are desperate to escape the Polar Vortex and thaw out in the warm waters of the Caribbean,” said Brooke Ferencsik, director of communications for TripAdvisor. “The TripAdvisor TripIndex reveals that U.S. travelers heading to Dominican Republic, Jamaica, or Puerto Rico within the Greater Antilles can get more value for their money and save 36 percent compared to other Caribbean destinations.”

The priciest destinations and costs are as follows: 1. St. Barthelemy - $12,486 2. Anguilla - $10,709 3. British Virgin Islands - $9,712 4. Turks and Caicos - $8,812 5. St. Kitts and Nevis - $8,668 6. Cayman Islands - $8,082 7. Antigua and Barbuda - $7,972 8. St. Lucia - $7,627 9. U.S. Virgin Islands - $6,782 10. Barbados $6,710 Meantime, Puerto Rico has emerged

as the cheapest Caribbean vacation this spring.

Families looking to escape the seemingly interminable grip of winter with a budget vacation over the spring break may want to consider booking a sunshine getaway to Puerto Rico, where a family of four can soak in the sun for $4,609.

Analysts also found a trend while compiling their list that could also serve as a guide for budget-conscious families: trips to territories controlled by the US are 20 percent cheaper than the average Caribbean destination.

Here are the top 10 most affordable Caribbean destinations for a family of four: 1. Puerto Rico, $4,609 2. Jamaica, $4,630 3. Trinidad and Tobago, $4771 4. Dominican Republic, $5,315 5. St. Maarten-St. Martin, $5,565 6. Bahamas, $5,815 7. Curacao, $5,832 8. Bermuda, $6,064 9. Aruba, $6,260 10. 10 Grenada, $6,622 TripIndex Caribbean looks at 20 popular Caribbean destinations, based on spots with the most visits on TripAdvisor from U.S. travelers between November 15, 2013 and January 15, 2014. Cuba was excluded due to limited direct travel from the United States.

Hotel prices included in the TripIndex reflect the average cost of a seven night stay in a hotel found on TripAdvisor, excluding all-inclusive resorts. On average, about 40 hotels were includ-

ed in the total cost of each destination.

Pricing information was sourced using TripAdvisor Hotel Price Comparison for the travel period of March 1, 2014 – April 30, 2014.

Flight prices included in the TripIndex reflect the average round-trip airfare for a family of four from the continental U.S. to each destination’s airports. Pricing information was sourced using TripAdvisor Flights and is accurate of fares found between February 17-24, 2014 for the eight Saturday-Saturday departure/ return dates between March 1, 2014 and April 30, 2014.

Meal prices included in the TripIndex specify the average cost of dinner for six nights for four people, consisting of a two-course meal (salad and fish filet entree) paired with two bottles of beer and two sodas. Prices are averaged from

three mid-range restaurants.

Snorkel trip prices included in the TripIndex specify the average cost of a half-day (3-4 hour) guided snorkeling tour for four people and are averaged from three tour operators.

TripAdvisor is the world’s largest travel site*, enabling travelers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from real travelers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools. TripAdvisor branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, reaching more than 260 million unique monthly visitors** in 2013, and more than 150 million reviews and opinions covering more than 3.7 million accommodations, restaurants, and attractions. The sites operate in 34 countries worldwide,

FIVE CAYS MP PRESENTS SIGNS TO ECPS: Member of Parliament for the Five Cays constituency in Providenciales Hon. Sean Astwood, gave a number of signs to Little Miss ECPS (Enid Capron Primary School). The signs are to be placed around the school’s compound, and according to Rachel Taylor, Principal for the school, placing of signs on the compound is inline with the institution’s Critical Incident Management Plan. The MP can be seen in photo presenting the gifts to Little Miss ECPS Jermina Lewis, while other students displaying signs, sharing in the moment.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

Page 11

LOCAL NEWS

THE PDM RESPONDS TO THE ANNUAL CRIME STATISTICS F

or the period of 1st January 2013 to 31st December 2013, the Turks and Caicos Islands has recorded its highest level of crime ever. We ďŹ nd these statistics alarming and are quick to say that there may be a number of reasons for the surge. We must strategically address those of which we are aware. Furthermore, we are even more alarmed at the low detection rate and as such cannot ignore this crucial fact- over the past three years, crime has increased two years over previous year lows: 2011 crime increased over 2010; 2012 crime decreased over 2011 and 2013 crime increased over 2012. Whilst we still enjoy a safer environment than our neighboring countries, we must not take comfort in this.

During the recent police press conference, a number of reasons were cited as factors that contributed to crime increasing in 2013. The lack of resources is unfortunately nothing new; over ďŹ ve years preceding 2009 crime was reduced three (3) years, despite the many challenges that were faced.

The police force has the beneďŹ t of accessing funds from the National Forfeiture Fund whose funding does not derive from the country’s Consolidated Fund. The Opposition supported the purchase and approval of the additional cars since December 2012 and as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, I worked along with the committee to ensure that these monies were approved in the interest of transparency as the control of the NFF lies with the Attorney General and the Governor. Having heard the issues raised by our ofďŹ cers, we wish to put forward the following suggestions to the Commissioner of Police and his team:

1.  A crime strategy MUST be put in place to address concerns about crime. OfďŹ cers need to have goals and objectives to work towards; this must include the public and other community leaders.

2.  We need to see the police doing much more stop searches and road block initiatives to show criminals that zero tolerance is the order of business in addressing crime and deviance in these Turks and Caicos Islands.

3.  Community policing strategies such as Community Beat OfďŹ cers Programme CBOP are essential if the police are serious about community police and bridging the gap between the police and public and building trust, conďŹ dence and relationships. It must be remembered that people will not trust you overnight. It’s a continuous process. Over a year ago, I wrote to the Commissioner and the Governor expressing my concerns over the widening of the gap between the people and the police. I suggested ways to bridge this divide.

All recommendations appeared to be ignored as there have been no public forums or meetings with pastors to assist.

4.  The police must lead by example. Allegations of police wrong doing must be investigated.

The police and Integrity Commission must never appear be selective as to which matters they will look into. It must apply to all ranks from the Commissioner of Police to the youngest recruit.

5.  The police MUST work closely with our youth. The Cadet Program is essential and MUST return. Strategies must be put in place to address challenges at our schools.

6.   Joint operations between the police and other enforcement bodies are essential. We need

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to see the return of SPICE. Name change is not the answer, as many have suggested since SPICE was placed on ice. Holding staff accountable is what is needed.

7.  The need for a Police Service Commission has come. This is something that I asked for during the Kate Sullivanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Consultations; this can act as a watch dog over policing administrative issues. This will serve the people of our country better. The commissioner should, as the law dictates, remain operationally independent.

8.  The Commissioner of Police MUST be required to produce a policing strategy annually after consultation with partners and stakeholders.

He will then be held accountable to the Governor and the Commission.

9.  The police needs to review the 2009 to 2014 policing strategy and crime strategy left by Mr. Hall and move forward with implementing many of the plans that are still useful. These include but are not limited to CCTV and ANPR applications in public spaces, forensic coding and intelligence led policing. Focus must be placed on training of staff in key areas. 10. The return of optimum engagements with our schools e.g. engaging in sports with students and teachers; school clean ups; community clean up engagements. These initiatives help to build relationships.

The ďŹ ght has to be taken to those in our society who have chosen a career path on the opposite side of the law. The Opposition stands ready to work with the police whenever and wherever we can. We consider ourselves partners in the ďŹ ght against crime and we call on our people to accept this role as well.

Page 12

LOCAL NEWS

MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

TURKS AND CAICOS AT THE 2014 NEW YORK TIMES TRAVEL SHOW T

he Turks and Caicos were recently well represented at The New York Times Travel Show.

Held from the 28th February to the 2nd March at the Jacob K Javits Convention Centre in New York, The New York Times Travel Show is the largest trade and consumer travel event in North America, featuring exhibitors from Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, Mexico and the United States.

Representing the Turks and Caicos were Pamela Ewing from the Turks and Caicos Tourist Board, Samantha Slattery from HAB Group, Grace Grillo representing The Regent Grand and Villa Renaissance, Caesar Campbell promoting Olympia Destination Management Company and Andrea Kubon representing Point Grace.

This show kicked off Friday morning, with a full day of seminars and panel discussions where attendees heard about the state of the worldwide travel industry from leaders in the field. Seminars tailored for travel industry professionals ranged from adventure travel, the Caribbean, cruising & river cruising, culinary tourism, Europe, LGBT to wellness travel and medical tourism. Friday afternoon saw exclusive access to the exhibition hall for travel industry professionals. This was followed on Saturday and Sunday by the twoday consumer show that included the travel exhibits as well as consum-

er seminars and events focusing on destinations, family friendly travel, adventure travel, and food and wine travel.

Our TCI representative in the United States, Pamela Ewing commented:“The New York Times Travel Show is the leading travel show on the east coast, it is the perfect avenue for us to promote tourism to The Turks and Caicos. Our participation is so important because this is the major feeder market to the Turks and Caicos with over 85% of our visitors arriving from this area”.

The final count showed 430 exhibitors from 150 nations, with 5748 trade professionals and over 20,000 consumers attending the 2 day event, making this New York Times Travel Show the most successful in its 11 year history.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Page 13

MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

Advocates legal group responds to business licences increase S

tatement from Mark A Fulford, Noel T Skippings, Arthur Hamilton, Ashwood Forbes, Courtenay Barnett, Kendle B Williams Having learnt through the Sun Newspaper article of the proposed increase that the Government intends to levy upon the legal fraternity through, we feel compelled to register our displeasure publically through the same medium about the Government’s intended action.

As lawyers, our role is one that is enshrined and protected in the constitution, although indirectly, as gate keepers who are charged with performing the vital role of ensuring that every citizen has a right to a fair trial, by making our service available to the citizens so that they can fulfill their right of hiring a lawyer of their choice.

The majority of members of the ALG practice provide legal aid services, which we have been arguing for the longest is inadequate. No other group of lawyers in the Turks and Caicos Islands have with more consistency than the ALG served the legal needs of the indigent than our group. We are the ones who work either as sole practitioners or have two or so persons within our practices, and while we will be paid $600 per day to defend in say a murder trial, at that rate we are expected to pay the Government $10,000 to be permitted to enter court.

With the new fee schedule proposed, if not revised and significantly reduced, then the majority of the law firms practicing will be forced to close down, in order not to be found in contravention of the new law. We simply cannot afford to pay the new fees of $10,000.00 per year at a minimum, $20,000.00 at a medium and $30,000.00 at a maximum level.

The idea that a law firm has to pay these high fees based on the number of staff employed is counter productive to the end which the government is seeking to achieve. With the recent release of the unemployment figures standing at 20%, every law firm would be seeking to downsize in order to fall into the minimum or medium category, which will dump more people on the unemployment line.

Additionally the tax is highly regressive and demonstrably inequitable. One lawyer must pay $10,000; while a three person law firm will pay $20,000; but a large ten person law firm will pay the same sum as the three person law firm.

Be that as it may, to seek to extract annually $10k per annum is a 110% increase and is simply unreasonable.

The idea that an elected Government can pass amendments to increase taxation without any consultation wreaks of behaviour similar to that of Rick Todd and the Interim administration. We call on the government to consult with the legal fraternity on what a just, and fair business license fee should be.

Failing a revision of the proposed fees intended to take effect in July, we would be left with no choice but to seek Judicial Review of the decision to levy such increase which would force a slew of the local law firms to close shop almost immediately. The greater picture, is the effect that this decision would have on the economy in the TCI which will result in a double dip in the economy given the little signs of revitalization that we are experiencing. It’s unfortunate to see that our elected government, whom we have entrusted to revive the economy, is implementing policies that are detrimental to the economy, small business and the employment of Turks and Caicos Islanders.

GRAND EVENTS FOR GRAND TURK WITH 2014 MISS UNIVERSE TURKS AND CAICOS CONTESTANTS

R

esidents and visitors of the Nation’s Capital, Grand Turk will be treated to grand activities that will showcase the 2014 Miss Universe Turks and Caicos Pageant Contestants and reigning Queen Snwazna Adams on Saturday March 22nd 2014.

The beauties; Gabreann Capron, Codee Coalbrooke, Todeline Defralien, Tashy Forbes, Shanice Williams and Shante Williams and reigning Queen Snwazna Adams will travel to the Nation’s Capital and be featured in a grand motorcade starting at 3:00pm from Wally’s Restaurant to Governor’s Beach for a beach party with live music, games and food and drinks for sale.

President Kazz Forbes said, “With the continued rebranding and rapid growth of the Miss Universe Turks and Caicos Franchise, we are extending our pageant activities from Providenciales to our other islands. Last year our contestants were in North Caicos for the Rake and Scrape Festival and from there we drove over to Middle Caicos and explored the island and had an amazing time on both islands. This year we are doing much more by visiting Grand Turk, North Caicos and Middle Caicos.”

“The Grand Turk Motorcade and Beach Party will be epic! We welcome the entire community to join us in celebrating and embracing the empowering of young Turks and Caicos women who have proven that they are strong young women with the courage and qualities to represent our country on a local and international stage. Come out and toot your horns, blow your whistles, wave your flags and cheer on the contestants.”

The Miss Universe Turks and Caicos 2014 Pageant will see two electrifying nights of competitions on April 25th and 26th at Brayton Hall, Providenciales. Tickets to the competitions are limited and sold at Digicel flagship store in Providenciales as of Friday March 14th. The pageant events are produced by the Miss Turks and Caicos Universe Beauty Organization under the direction of Kazz Forbes/ Saint George Fashion House in partnership with the Turks and Caicos Tourist Board.

NOTICE OF SALE BY PUBLIC AUCTION Scotiabank (Turks & Caicos) Ltd. of Cherokee Road, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands hereby gives notice of its intention to sell by Public Auction the following properties pursuant to its power of sale as registered Chargee under the Registered Land Ordinance of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

1. Parcel 60003/58 North West & North Central, Providenciales, this property forms part of the Phase One Priton Homes affordable housing scheme. This residence has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry room and open living areas. Registered Proprietor: Mario Larese 2. Parcel 60905/123 Leeward Going Through, Providenciales. The property is located on Castle Road on land two tiers behind the Mansion condominium development. This residence comprises of a detached single two bedroom, two bathrooms, one living/dining room, and one kitchen and laundry room. Registered Proprietor: Colin Whittingham & Avril Joan Whittingham 3. Parcel 60003/8 North West & North Central, Providenciales. This property forms part of the Low Cost Government Housing Development, known as Belglade Gardens. This residence is a single storey building that consists of three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living/ dining area and laundry room. Registered Proprietor: Alan Percy 4. Parcel 60003/45 North West & North Central, Providenciales. This property forms part of the Phase one Low Cost Government Housing Development, known as Belglade Gardens.

This residence is a single storey building that consists of three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living/dining area and laundry room. Registered Proprietor: Deka Williams & Roland Cadeau 5. Parcel 10404/145 East Suburbs, Grand Turk. The property is a residential corner lot consisting of a single storey building comprising a private residence in part and a bar & restaurant operation. The residence comprises two bedrooms, bathroom, living/dining area, shared kitchen with restaurant. The bar and restaurant comprises open floor area, gaming room and male & female washrooms. There is also a detached gazebo. Registered Proprietor: Arthur Mcdonald Swann 6. Parcel 60714/159 Cheshire Hall & Richmond Hills, Providenciales. The property is located in the Richmond Hills Villas development. The land has a two storey detached duplex apartment building and accessorial site works. The building consist of a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment on the upper floor and a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment on the lower level. The building shares a large swimming pool and two tennis courts. Registered Proprietor: James Roland Pickett & Ellen Pickett

7. Parcel 60503/145 Blue Hills & Stamers Run, Providenciales. The property is located within a residential sub-division positioned off the Millennium Highway. The property comprises a part single storey and two-storey building. The accommodation comprises two ground level units plus an open floor area which can be used for business purpose. An incomplete upper section at the front of the building is arranged as a two bedroom apartment with lots of potential. Registered Proprietor: Sharon Elizabeth Rigby 8. Parcel 61105/62 Blue Hills & Stamers Run, Providenciales. The property is a rectangular shaped vacant lot located in a relatively undeveloped area where most development has occurred near the beach. The land is an attractive corner lot on Curlew Drive in the third tier from the beach and has relatively good elevation. Registered Proprietor: Titus Deboer 9. Parcel 10401/241 East Suburbs, Grand Turk. The property is located within a residential subdivision on Breezy Brea Road of Breezy Brea, Grand Turk. The subject property consists of a single storey-family dwelling house with five bedrooms, three bathrooms and large kitchen and living areas. The property also includes a detached cabana and swimming pool. Registered Proprietor: Derek Antonio Rolle 10. Parcel 60804/88 The Bight and Thomas Stubbs. The property is centrally located near to Beaches Turks & Caicos in the main Grace Bay area and is in walking distance of the Grace Bay Beach. The property is a block of apartments built as an income producing investment which consist of four apartments that include two 2-bedroom apartments and two 1-bedroom apartments. Registered Proprietor: Michelle Swann 11. Parcel 60707/81 Cheshire Hall & Richmond Hill, Providenciales. The subject property comprises of a vacant lot which lies to the south of Leeward Highway within a residential sub-division. The land is partly overgrown by native vegetation. Any development of the land will have excellent views of Cheshire Hall Creek. Registered Proprietor: Michael R. Fenimore 12. Parcel 10104/42 North East Suburbs, Grand Turk. The property is located on Lighthouse Road, North Ridge Grand Turk and sits on .31 acre. The properties consist of an inland parcel of land which supports a single-storey residence with beautiful landscaping. The dwelling home comprises three bedrooms, two bathrooms, an office, kitchen and large living areas.

Registered Proprietor: Lorraine M. E. Kenlock-Bovell and Weston E.L. Bovell

The auction will be held at the offices of Scotiabank (Turks and Caicos) Limited, Grace Bay Branch, Providenciales at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday the 28th day of March 2014.

A reserve price will be fixed on all parcels. A deposit of 10% is due immediately upon all accepted bids.

Terms and Conditions of Sale by Auction are available by request from Scotiabank Collections Department (649) 339-7100.

Page 14

MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

GOT U COVERED Seeks

1

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946-5133

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Contact Delthia Russell 244-3572

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

THREE LEADING FITNESS FACILITIES PARTNER WITH TCI TOP MODEL Rock It Hot Fitness and Tubbz Tru Fitness facilities has once again partnered with the TCI Top Model Contest & Fashion Extravaganza. Their partnership is an effort to provide Contestants in the upcoming 2014 TCI Top Model Contest with complimentary fitness training in advance of the Contest on Friday May 2nd, 2014!

Rock It Hot Fitness, a unisex group fitness classes and personal training lounge in the heart of Grace Bay, Providenciales, offers a variety of traditional and signature fitness group classes, yoga and personal training; that along with kickboxing, spinning, body sculpting, stepping, the Brazilian Butt toning workout and hip hop dance classes. What is more, the winner of the 2014 TCI Top Model will receive a three-month membership to the studio to continue her fitness training.

Tubbz True Fitness Gym, the premier fitness center in the nation’s capital, Grand Turk – is a family-run fitness facility owned by Hon. Edwin Astwood, located in the heart of Palm Grove, is so named in honor of the family’s deceased brother and friend Lea Astwood Jr., nicknamed Tubbz. Tubbz True Fitness Gym offers a variety of traditional and signature fitness group classes, personal training sessions, weight and exercise machines. With trainers on hand that are willing to give personal attention to clients, this ensures that their goals are met.

What is more, Graceway Sports Center is providing the winner of The Best Body, in the swimsuit competition with three-months complementary service to utilizing their leading sports center.

Courtney Robinson, Director of Pro-

duction for the TCI Top Model Contest says that: “We, are indeed priviledeged to be partnered with three of this country’s top fitness facilities. No matter what each Contestant goal is – whether it is to de-stress, loose weight, maintain her current fitness level, tone or completely re-sculpt the body; the fitness professionals are there to help and guide them towards success.”

For more information on Tubbz Tru Fitness Gym, call (649) 242-7061 or email them on TubbzTrueFitness@gmail.com; Rock It Hot Fitness – log on to www. rockithotfitness.tc; or Graceway Sports Center visit www.gracewaysportscentre.com The 2014 TCI Top Model Contest will be launched on Saturday, Mar 22nd at The Regent Palms Resort, with the finale event The Dollhouse taking place at The Williams Auditorium, Downtown Provo on Friday, May 2nd 2014. 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.

THE TCI TOP MODEL CONTEST& FASHION EXTRAVAGANZA 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.

Page 15

LOCAL NEWS

Page 16

LOCAL NEWS

MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Turks and Caicos Tourist Passport launched

BY VIVIAN TYSON

T

urks and Caicos Islands Tourist Passport – a travel document-look-a-like but loaded instead with information on local attractions and restaurants, and described by the government and local tourism players as a brilliant idea - was launched by the sibling pair of Alison Capron-Advani and Thorn Capron.

The launch took place inside the ballroom of the Regent Palms on Thursday (March 13). Capron-Advani, explaining how the idea came about, said that the idea was hatched after she visited Brazil sometime ago and saw a similar document, which she took it home as a souvenir.

“Back home I was sitting with my brother, and he said to me, ‘you have a marketing company, we should do one of these’. And I agreed,” Capron said. “We envisioned it to be a pocket-size guide. Right now we do not have a Turks and Caicos Guide, one that people can just carry in their pockets, and just easy and light to take around. But second most importantly, the fact that this can be taken home as a souvenir.”

Capron-Advani said the guide is made of the highest quality so as to not only suit its souvenir status, but also to market itself outside these shores. In addition to attractions and restaurants, Capron-Advani said that the guide also contains a bit of local history so that tourists would have an idea of what the Turks and Caicos Islands is all about.

“We also stressed that having local companies in the book; I realized that there are a lot of native businesses that do not get much publicity as they should,” she said, noting that tourists often ask where they could get some of the best local foods on island, and the guide provides that opportunity.

She also thanked the government, she said ensured that the product came to fruition and assisted in ensuring distribution points.

She said that original concept behind the Tourist Passport was to have it handed out to visitors as soon as they pass through immigration, and while that has not yet to come to fruition, the TCI Airports Authority has allowed them to issue the guides at other parts of the facility.

Capron-Advani noted also that the creation of the product is part of young a gesture by young persons such as herself and brother giving back to the country, realizing also that tourism is important to the buoyancy of the economy.

Premier Hon. Dr. Rufus Ewing, in bringing greetings on behalf of the government, lauded the two for what he described as their splendid entrepreneurial efforts in marking the destination.

“When Alison first came to me with the idea, I was very, very, very excited. It was a brilliant idea, brilliant concept and something that would be unique to this destination. People love to take souvenir with them back home, and this is one, I am sure that they would be taking back home with them,” Premier Ewing said.

The premier expressed regret that government was not yet able to work out immigration distribution logistics for the guide, but promised that the matter is being worked on. He said that government would also like to see the cultural markets, as well as the family islands represented in the Tourist Passport.

“So, I will be working along with the Tourist Board and the Office of the Premier to see how we can get these additional pages in this book that speaks to the cultural markets, that speaks to the family islands.

“We are going to make sure that persons could look in there and see what’s happening in South Caicos, what’s happening in North Caicos, what’s happening in Middle Caicos and what’s happening in Salt Cay and Grand Turk,” the Premier said.

In congratulating the duo, Director of Tourism Ralph Higgs, said that the entity’s website, which receives the most traffic in all of Turks and Caicos, is available to them to further promote their product.

“I just want to say that the Tourist Board is excited about this project, and entire government is. We have met with Alison on a number of occasions to give her the assurance, and I want to assure her today that the Tourist Board stands fully behind you in the promotion of this booklet.

“I am convinced that it is not only going to inform our visitors and guests about the multitude of things that they can do while they are here, it is going to con-

tribute considerably to building the Turks and Caicos,” Higgs said.

For his part, Thorn Capron said that without Galmo and Althea Williams the creation of the product probably would never happen, since both believed in the product and backed it financially through the Wine Cellar.

He expressed the hope that as times goes by more local businesses would see it fit to invest in the guide, so that the travelling public could get to know them even more.

Althea Williams, for her part, said that when Capron-Advani approached her with the idea of launching the Tourist Passport, she was excited to support it. She said that the booklet would be ideal for especially men, who she said would be able to tuck it in their shirt pocket and carry around with them without hassle.

“It is really the perfect tool for people to see what’s going on. From the Wine Cellar, we decided to assist Alison and Thorn and signed on in being their major sponsor for three reasons: one, the distribution point was very appealing to us; two, Alison was very passionate about doing it ‘because I want to see my local businesses advertise, and I want to make advertising affordable for them’.

“Most persons can’t afford to pay advertising prices around here, so the major sponsor was going to have to pay a considerable amount and kind of writing it off for everybody else. So we kind of take into consideration; and third, we like to support young people, we like to see young people getting out there and doing their own businesses,” Williams said.

In the meantime, Michel Neutelings, President of the Turks and Caicos Islands Tourist Board also applauded the effort by the two, noting that the future of the TCI rests on entrepreneurship and creative ideas.

“I love the local entrepreneurship, and I want to encourage a lot more young people to come up with ideas because that is who we are, and that is how it is supposed to be. There are a lot of opportunities out there and you would be surprised to see that the Hotel and Tourism Association and private entrepreneurs are ready to support fantastic ideas, and this is an example of such an idea,” Neutelings said.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

TCI Happy video goes viral A

TCI dance video posted online last week has gone viral, racking up an incredible 5,000 views in just six days.

The fun video montage features people across Providenciales dancing to Pharrell Williams’ new hit Happy, with the island’s stunning scenery as a visual backdrop.

‘Turks and Caicos Happy’ was put together by a small group of friends with the aim of promoting the best aspects of the country to the rest of the world – its beautiful surroundings and spirit of fun.

The team were also responsible for creating the ‘TCI Harlem Shake’ in 2013 which became extremely popular reach-

“She said that that lots of different countries had created montages of people dancing to the song Happy, and they were getting thousands of hits.

“As soon as I watched one of the videos that was it, I loved it and I knew we had to make our own version to promote the TCI.” Rebecca got together with friends Mark Gangasingh, Lemens Welch, Isaiah Gardiner and Thea Gangasingh – a talented group of media enthusiasts - to put together a plan.

From there the production process was extremely quick; the team discussed what they wanted from the project and

Stills from the video showing some of the Turks and Caicos Islands’ happy faces

Mark Gangasingh, Rebecca Bird and Isaiah Gardiner check out some of their footage ing 9,500 views on video site YouTube.

Project coordinator and director Rebecca Bird said: “Just last week a friend mentioned to me that she had seen a new video craze online.

used social media to invite dancers to take part.

They set aside Friday (March 7) to travel around Providenciales and film residents and tourists dancing in differ-

ent picturesque locations.

“We started at 8.30am and it was pretty much non-stop from there,” Rebecca explained.

“We had appointments all day until sunset and in the few moments we had spare we tried to encourage onlookers to take part as well.

“It was important to us that everyone had an opportunity to be involved – as long as they were happy and had some energy they were welcome to be in the video.”

Media experts Mark Gangasingh of Visual Storytelling and Lemens Welch of Cay Light were responsible for all of the project’s stunning videography and editing.

Mark said: “It’s always fun to do these projects especially when the team is my group of friends.”

He added that what he enjoyed most about the project was the “willingness of

the people around the island to take part and just be happy.”

Once all of the filming was finished the friends met up again to select their favourite clips and coordinate the complex editing process.

Within 24 hours the video was complete and on Saturday evening (March 8) the team posted it on popular website YouTube.

Mark said: “The day was a success - we met all our appointments and the video turned out great!”

The production has since been shared across numerous social media sites and racked up an impressive 5,000 views.

It can be accessed on www.youtube. com by searching for ‘Turks and Caicos Happy’.

Find out more about Visual Storytelling at www.vstci.com and Cay Light at www.caylight.com.

ENDS

Caicos Television Holding Ltd

Job Vacancy -Maintenance & Construction Supervisor Job Summary: Utilize Computer Aided Design software to design plant extension and system rebuilds/upgrade projects. Prepare cost estimates for minor and major plant extensions. Activate and troubleshoot nodes and Internet system problems. Splice and maintain the Fiber Optic system when necessary.

Act as the company’s primary liaison with Residential, Commercial and Multi Dwelling Unit construction developers.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Understand and follow all company safety standards and practices including but not limited to: vehicle safety, proper placement of traffic signs and cones. Understand and follow accident reporting procedures. Understand and follow applicable Electric Safety Code rules and regulations.

• Have the ability to troubleshoot and maintain head-end equipment (fiber optic lasers, fiber optic splitters, modulators and RF combining network).

• Supervise and train field technicians.

• Have the ability to read and interpret, organize, update and maintain complete set(s) of system prints related to repairs to optimize system faults when necessary.

• Utilize Signal Level Dsam-3600b and JDSU Dsam-6000 Cable meters w/VoIP/Web Browser and path track field view.

• Must be willing and able to handle special projects.

• Perform all job functions with the appropriate safety measures.

• Must be capable of carrying heavy equipment and climbing 32ft ladders.

• Must be able to work flexible hours, including weekends and holidays.

• Have a valid driver’s license and the ability to operate large vehicles in a safe manner.

• Liaise with Internet technicians to troubleshoot internet problems.

• Inspect test and repair cable and fiber equipment at WIV’s various locations.

• Verify that repairs are completed to the satisfaction of the customer and meet company standards.

• Determine the serviceability of residences deemed not serviceable according to the company’s billing database. Communicate the status of serviceability to the Customer Service department.

• Prepare costs estimates if construction is necessary to service a residence or commercial establishment and prepare bill of materials for supplies and materials required for construction related projects • Responsible for the coordination of design information exchange and timeliness of construction activities between WIV and Developers to ensure construction projects are designed and completed within associated time lines and established cost guidelines.

• Communicate with and assist field technicians with revisions to strand and design maps of existing cable facilities.

Qualifications and requirements:

Education: BSc in Electronics or equivalent Experience: Five years related experience and /or training • Must have experience in general drafting and the ability to use tools, instruments, and materials normally used in such activities.

• Must have extensive knowledge of equipment characteristics, capabilities and limitations. Must have the ability to make sketched diagrams accurately.

Application procedure: -Resume with current contact information and a cover letter must be emailed to Lydia@WIV.tc

Application Deadline date: March 31, 2014

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LOCAL NEWS

MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Highlights of Education Week in North and Middle Caicos

in Trinidad, after the British took over and imposed a listening to authority.

By Marguerite C. Anderson He emphasized that there are many students ban on the Spiritual Baptistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s way of worship. Students, who act as if they are above the authority of along with their teacher, Ms. Marguerite Anderson made WHDFKHUV DQG DGPLQLVWUDWLYH ÂżJXUHV LQ WKH learning a communal affair when they gave a glimpse at orth and Middle Caicos schools united to schools. He reminded students that no good the literary texts explored throughout their school year.

Thursdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s activity was no less exciting for the students commemorate Education Week. The theme for is ever achieved with this kind of attitude as Special Constable, Audley A. Astwood visited the Education Week this year is: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Promoting Education and he reiterated this sentiment by making a through Teacher Appreciationâ&#x20AC;?. parallel to the importance of listening to the Raymond Gardiner High School and had a rap-session A combined devotional exercise held on Monday, instructions and directives of the Sovereign with the student body. In the face of the recent shut-down March 3rd at the Church of God of Prophecy in Authority-God. His message gave a powerful at Clement Howell High School, Constable Astwood Bottle Creek, North Caicos opened the annual reminder of how students and teachers may was invited to speak to parents, students, teachers and celebration. The service which began at 9:00am ÂżQG LW HDVLHU WR FRPPXQLFDWH LQ D KDUPRQLRXV community members in an effort to tackle gangs rising up into our schools. brought together the Doris Robinson Primary way.

On Wednesday afternoon, a separate forum was used (Middle Caicos), and the North Caicos group of Pastor Harris spoke of how the more we, schools: Adelaide Oemler Primary, Charles Hubert as individuals, love God, then the more we to address parents and community members on this James Primary and the Raymond Gardiner High will, in turn, love others and will treat them concern. Other members of the Royal Turks & Caicos School. Staff and students of these institutions had with respect. His message to teachers is that Police Force shared in this forum. Among them were a jubilant fellowship at the church. despite the challenges they may face in the Divisional Inspector, Kingsley Laborde, and Sergeant A number of distinguished guests and Members classroom, the more they (teachers) love God, Felix Brown.

The forum took place through the initiative of of Parliament were in attendance. Among these the more they will in turn love the students R.G.H.Sâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Guidance Counsellor, Mrs. Felicia Lewis. were Opposition Leader, the Honorable Sharlene they teach. He reminded the congregation Cartwright-Robinson; Honorable Josephine that when an individual â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yields to the spiritâ&#x20AC;? Specially invited speaker, Corporal Audley Astwood Connolly; Honorable Clarence Selver; Honorable and submits to Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s authority, then God, expressed grave concern over the emerging criminal Astwood Forbes; D.C. for North and Middle Caicos, Himself, can put inside us, the power to do acts in T.C.I. Constable Astwood said that the recent murder of Grace Bay businessman, Mr. Robert Been is Ms. Donna Gardiner; Guest Speaker and Trinity all things.

Baptist Church minister, Pastor Arthur Harris; The events at the Raymond Gardiner something that has rocked the community.

He added that many parents shield their children President of T.C.I. Baptist Union, Mr. Llewlyn High School continued on Wednesday with a +DQGÂżHOG 3 7 $ 3UHVLGHQW RI WKH 5D\PRQG Literary Symposium. Students of Literature (students) who are involved in early criminal acts and *DUGLQHU +LJK 0U +HQU\ %XWWHUÂżHOG DQG 0V showcased what they have been taught by who have formed gangs within the schools. Constable Cynclair Musgrove (Lady C). The event was chaired their teacher. They gave skits on various Astwood spoke of the fact that too many of us are afraid E\ 0UV +DPXWDO +DQGÂżHOG UHWLUHG HGXFDWRU RI WKH Literature texts that they have studied and to offend people and he says this attitude is a major Adelaide Oemler Primary. also gave items in the form of dramatic UHDVRQ IRU WKH GLIÂżFXOW\ WKH 3ROLFH )RUFH KDV LQ JHWWLQJ Students gave tributes to teachers through song, poetry. Among the entertaining and hilarious people to speak out against the ills in this country. The dramatic poetry, and other musical selections. WDOHQWV ZDV D VNLW GRQH E\ ÂżIWK IRUP VWXGHQWV weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s events culminated with Teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Day on Friday.

Among these musical selections were tributes from and depicting a scene from Earl Lovelaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Teachers from schools all across the islands got the day R.G.H.S. students, Edwin Forbes and Kamia Rolle novel, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Wine of Astonishmentâ&#x20AC;?. The off to dine and be pampered on their staff excursions. We who gave saxophone renditions. Guest speaker, scene gave a frightening social commentary salute all teachers and thank them for their tremendous Pastor Arthur Harris spoke of the importance of on the dilemma faced by a small community contribution to nation building.

N

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MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

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Thank you to all of

our employees for your hard work and dedication during our recent major outage.

“I’m proud of your hard work; you’re the best team of utility professionals in the world!”

- CEO, Eddinton Powell

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Energy for Good™

FACT CHECK:

CLEARING UP INACCURATE AND MISLEADING INFORMATION

DEAR READER It is not our inten on to engage in a public debate through the medium of the newspapers about the future of the electricity u lity industry in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

This ma er is far too important to the country for us to sensa onalize this vitally important industry by playing on the emo ons of the public. The end result of that approach would invariably be short-term expedient decisions that would be ruinous to the electrical infrastructure, and for which electricity consumers, and indeed the economy on a whole, would pay in the form of increased cost and lower service reliability.

While we hope to engage the Minister responsible for u li es in construc ve discussions at any me and place of his availability and convenience, there were, however, some unfortunate misstatements made and wrong impressions given in the ar cle appearing in the Turks and Caicos Weekly News (Weekly News) of March 1 - 7, 2014 under the cap on “No fossil fuels by 2024” that must be corrected as publicly as they were made.

We very much appreciate that some of the a endees to Mr. Branson’s private Island may have le dazzled by the charisma c billionaire, but the impression that “our Caribbean Neighbours” are rushing into renewables is a false impression. The truth is that the penetra on of renewable energy in the Caribbean has thus far been miniscule. The reason for that is simple: (1) Renewable energy (like wind and solar) is not a firm source of energy (that is, it is intermiƩent and variable), and (2) it is not yet generally cheaper than hydrocarbons like diesel or Heavy Fuel Oils (HFO).

BY COMPARISON For example, Aruba is o en men oned as having the highest penetra on of renewable energy in the Caribbean with approximately 14% of its electricity peak load coming from mostly wind energy.

However, Aruba’s energy paradigm is complex

(compared to ours) with the co-ownership of water and electricity produc on, high wind corridors, use of HFO fuel, in-country oil refinery, a popula on of just over one hundred thousand (100,000), and very developed support infrastructures. But even with these advantages, there is no credible data that renewable energy has had a posi ve impact on electricity rates in Aruba, thus far.

The following charts illustrate to a small degree just how much renewable energy is being u lized by a few of “our Caribbean Neighbours”: Dominican Republic: Climatescope 2013 Dashboard Clean Energy Capacity (MW) Small Hydro Wind Other Energy Clean Energy GeneraƟon (GWh) Small Hydro Wind Other Energy

Total Share 260 227 7% 33 1% 3,182 92% 935 841 6% 94 1% 12,423 93%

Source: IDB MIF, Bloomberg New Energy Finance

Jamaica: Climatescope 2013 Dashboard Clean Energy Capacity (MW) Small Hydro Wind Other Energy Clean Energy GeneraƟon (GWh) Small Hydro Wind Other Energy

Total Share 65 23 2% 42 4% 874 93% 258 148 4% 110 3% 3,878 94%

Source: IDB MIF, Bloomberg New Energy Finance

CASE-STUDY Most Caribbean u li es are taking the same approach that For sTCI (FTCI) has adopted: carefully evalua ng the appropriate technologies and grid architecture, and conduc ng careful cost benefit analysis. The Hawaiian Islands (Hawaii) are a good casestudy of what can go wrong when there is a rush to implement widespread renewable without the proper understanding of cause and effect.

Although Hawaii is an American state, it is not connected to a con nental electricity grid, and faces many of the same energy challenges as Caribbean Islands (with fossil fuel being its primary energy source). Denmark, cited in the Weekly News ar cle, is connected to the European electricity grid and can buy and sell electricity in the European market which is second in size only to the North American electricity grid. It is a stretch of the imaginaƟon to compare Caribbean Islands to Denmark.

SERVICE RELIABILITY FTCI is mee ng its “obliga on to serve”. We provide the best service of any country in our area. In 2013 our ASAI (average system availability index) was 99.95%. ASAI measures the amount of me within a rolling 12-month period that electricity is available to the average electricity customer. Moreover, in 2013, our SAIDI (system average interrup on dura on index) was 5 hours. SAIDI measures in hours the cumula ve length of me that the average customer is without power in a rolling 12-month period. As the table below for 2007 shows, our service ranks with the best in the developed world.

United States Germany United Kingdom Denmark Turks and Caicos

SAIDI (hours) 240 23 90 24 5*

Source: Council of European Energy Regulators ASBL. (2008). 4th Benchmarking Report on the Quality of Electricity Supply.

Brussels: CEER. (* indicates numbers from 2013)

Indeed, the statement that “it is now clear and unequivocally proven that only renewable energy can meet this obligaƟon [to serve]” is without merit and amounts to red herring.

OUR ALLOWABLE PROFIT The fallacy con nues to be perpetrated that FTCI is guaranteed 17.5% allowable profit. The Minister, who has access to our annual regulatory audited submissions, should know be er.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

And it should not be too much to ask a newspaper reporter to corroborate an important statement before blazing it across the pages of a newspaper as fact. As inconvenient as the truth may be to some, here are the facts: our Return on Asset (ROA) for the last five years was:

ROA

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

9.4%

8.4%

6.7%

6.8%

6.8%

Notwithstanding, over this period, FTCI invested over one hundred sixty million dollars ($160,000,000) into the Turks and Caicos Islands. Most serious interna onal investors would argue that our ROA’s are low given the risk profile of the Caribbean; yet, we have not applied for a general rate increase under the Electricity Ordinance and the terms of our License. Our view is that the electricity business is a long-term, capital intensive business. We are here for the long term. We treat the rela onship with the Turks and Caicos Islands as long-term, and symbio c.

Unfortunately, that is by no means the view of some investors in the Caribbean. Indeed, the Turks and Caicos Islands have a long-term strategic partner in For s, whose interna onal reputa on is unassailable, and who adheres to the highest ethical and investment standards.

In addiƟon, our parent company, ForƟs Inc., has reinvested every dollar of earnings back into FTCI since acquiring the Company in 2006. Yet we are the subject of irresponsible statements and insinuaƟons.

REALISTIC PERSPECTIVE The insinua on that we “s ck our heads in the sand and complain every me we get a light bill whilst our neighbours and regional compe tors strive and con nue to benefit financially, environmentally, and otherwise, leaving us behind” has no basis in fact. Who are these “neighbours” that are leaving us behind? The last me we did a regional survey, the TCI was leading most of the rest of the Caribbean out of the economic recession, in no small part because we have affordable, reliable electricity.

Indeed, the availability of reliable electricity is a prerequisite for any serious potenƟal investor. Change that and we fundamentally change the investment climate. FTCI provides a compeƟƟve advantage for the country. We supply electricity to Turks and Caicos Islands, not to private islands owned by billionaires.

We operate four power plants in the Turks and Caicos Islands, two of which are not economical, yet we provide every customer with the same high quality of service, as we understand our mandate to be.

We produce and deliver electricity, using the best available and most prac cal technology and energy source, to a variety of demographics and income groups; to residents and visitors alike. Unfortunately, electricity is expensive everywhere in the Caribbean.

There are several underlying factors, including economies of scales, infrastructure, taxaƟon, and energy-mix, why electricity rates vary throughout the Caribbean. To simply gloss over these factors would be a disservice to the country.

GREEN ≠ INEXPENSIVE Moreover, the impression being summarily advanced is that energy produced by wind and solar is cheaper than produced using hydrocarbons. This is not true. Not when you consider all-in life-cycle cost and the power factor of renewables.

Also, the corollary impression being put forth is that the integra on of u lity-scale renewable energy into a standalone, ver cally integrated system is simple. It is not. As previously men oned, wind and solar energy is not firm capacity, meaning that it is intermi ent. It requires investments in protec on and control systems, and upgrades to Transmissions & Distribu ons (T&D) systems. From the statement made in the ar cle that “none of this is true”, it can be construed that manufacturers and distributors of renewable energy equipment a ending the Necker Island conference must have given the impression that it is simply “plug and play.”

Because wind and solar are not firm capacity (and because the Turks and Caicos Islands are not on a con nental electrical grid from which to purchase back-up power) renewables in our context can only displace diesel (fuel), and not capacity. The u lity company must have the capability to meet peak demand at any given me with quick-start firm capacity (diesel generators) whenever the renewables drop off the grid, and our protec on systems and spinning reserves must be able to handle the varia on.

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scale except the Turks and Caicos Islands does not help advance the much needed serious dialogues. We are very much interested in the introduc on of renewable energy as part of an overall energy future. Indeed, no one has yet explained to us why we would not generate electricity from renewable energy if it was cheaper and technologically pracƟcal. Why not? Furthermore, we encourage our customers to install behind-the-meter renewables where they think it makes economical and technical sense. But we also urge our customers to do the proper due diligence before invesƟng in these systems and make sure that they are installed properly by qualified technicians.

We are interested in mee ng with the Minister to see what prac cal lessons can be learnt from the energy conference on Necker Island. We are very keen to understand how the Carbon War Room (CWR) ini a ve can help us reduce energy prices in the TCI. We would welcome the opportunity to work with West Caicos and monitor their progress with their CWR projects.

In the mean me, the men and women at FTCI will con nue to do what we do best: provide the Turks and Caicos Islands with the most reliable electricity in the Caribbean at the available least-cost op on. We will con nue to reduce our carbon footprint and improve fuel and opera onal efficiencies. We will con nue to work with our customers to help them conserve electricity in their homes and businesses. We will con nue to research and test renewable energy and deploy renewable technologies that do not increase cost to our customers nor degrade the reliability of the electricity system.

We urge a very though ul and collabora ve approach to this very important ma er.

— President & CEO, Eddinton Powell

IN SUMMARY Finally, there is much, much more that we could comment on arising from the above referenced ar cle, including the renewable targets suggested, but suffice to say we would welcome the opportunity to engage in serious discussions with all stakeholders about serious ways to reduce the cost of electricity to the country. Some of these ideas require bold policy decisions and investments.

Renewable energy is not the “silver bullet,” but will eventually play a role in our energy paradigm as these systems become more economically and technologically feasible. But to paint the picture that it is happening in every Caribbean country on a rapid and huge

649-946-4313

P.O. Box 132 1030 Leeward Highway

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands www.for stci.com

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MARCH 15TH - MARCH 22ND, 2014

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

“PRETTY HURTS” (Uh huh huh) (Uh huh huh) (Uh huh huh) [Verse 1:] Mama said, “You’re a pretty girl.

What’s in your head, it doesn’t matter Brush your hair, fix your teeth.

What you wear is all that matters.”

[Pre-Hook:] Just another stage, pageant the pain away This time I’m gonna take the crown Without falling down, down, down [Hook:] Pretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever’s worst Perfection is a disease of a nation, pretty hurts, pretty hurts Pretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever’s worst We try to fix something but you can’t fix what you can’t see It’s the soul that needs the surgery

[Hook:] Pretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever’s worst Perfection is a disease of a nation, pretty hurts, pretty hurts (pretty hurts) Pretty hurts (pretty hurts), we shine the light on whatever’s worst We try to fix something but you can’t fix what you can’t see It’s the soul that needs the surgery [Bridge:] Ain’t got no doctor or pill that can take the pain away The pain’s inside and nobody frees you from your body It’s the soul, it’s the soul that needs surgery It’s my soul that needs surgery Plastic smiles and denial can only take you so far Then you break when the fake facade leaves you in the dark You left with shattered mirrors and the shards of a beautiful past [Hook:] Pretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever’s worst (pretty hurts) Perfection is a disease of a nation, pretty hurts, pretty hurts Pretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever’s worst We try to fix something but you can’t fix what you can’t see It’s the soul that needs the surgery

(Uh huh huh) [Verse 2:] Blonder hair, flat chest TV says, “Bigger is better.”

South beach, sugar free Vogue says, “Thinner is better.”

[Pre-Hook:] Just another stage, pageant the pain away This time I’m gonna take the crown Without falling down, down, down

[Outro:] When you’re alone all by yourself (pretty hurts, pretty hurts) And you’re lying in your bed (pretty hurts, pretty hurts) Reflection stares right into you (pretty hurts, pretty hurts) Are you happy with yourself? (pretty hurts, pretty hurts) You stripped away the masquerade (pretty hurts, pretty hurts) The illusion has been shed (pretty hurts, pretty hurts) Are you happy with yourself? (pretty hurts, pretty hurts) Are you happy with yourself? (pretty hurts, pretty hurts) Yes Uh huh huh

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FUN&GAMES

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News

CARIBBEAN

The Bahamas VAT rate to be lower than 15%

P

rime Minister of The Bahamas Perry Christie confirmed that Value-Added Tax (VAT) would be introduction at a lower rate than the initially proposed 15 per cent, with the implementation date also subject to potential change, according to the Nassau Tribune newspaper.

In a move widely anticipated by many in the private sector, who had predicted this to Tribune Business in recent days, Mr Christie effectively confirmed that his administration was backpedalling on the details of its VAT proposal.

“As to the rate of VAT, I can assure you that it will not be as high as 15 per cent,” the Prime Minister told the House of Assembly as he wrapped up the Mid-Year Budget debate last night.

“I can assure the Bahamian people that when we put the final package together, the rate will not be 15 per cent,” he reiterated for dramatic effect. The actual rate is not settled yet, although I expect it will be in the very near future, along with the final list of exemptions as well as the date for the introduction of VAT.” Mr Christie added that the Government was waiting to complete public and private sector consultations before deciding on these issues, “including, frankly, the question as to whether we are indeed absolutely convinced that there really is no viable alternative to VAT”.

“In this sense, therefore, although the proverbial door is closing, it is still open at the moment,” Mr Christie added.

“My government therefore welcomes further input from the private sector and the public general-

Prime Minister Perry Christie ly, so that we can seriously consider alternatives to VAT and, if need be, change course accordingly. We need to get it right.

“I want to emphasise, therefore, that the VAT position I have outlined is not cast in stone. It is not yet a foregone conclusion. My Government has clearly demonstrated its openness to entertaining varying proposals from the public on VAT and alternative sources of revenue. We will therefore await the outcome of the study being conducted on behalf of the Coalition for Responsible Taxation.”

The Prime Minister’s comments last night represent the first public concession by his government over VAT, although there will be repercussions from dropping the proposed tax - if it is implemented - to a new rate.

Many have predicted, or suggested, that VAT either be implemented at a 10 per cent or 7.5 per cent rate. But either way, a lower VAT rate means a small-

er drop in Customs/import tariffs, which had been due to fall by a projected 17 per cent if the new tax came in at 15 per cent.

Well-known businessman Dionisio D’Aguilar last week projected that the Government would drop the VAT rate and push back the implementation date, arguing that government officials including financial secretary, John Rolle, had sent subtle signals indicating this would happen.

Elsewhere, Mr Christie last night effectively said that the Government was looking to privatise real property tax collection, as it moves to deal with an outstanding bill that totals more than $500 million.

“In the case of real property tax we have engaged private assessors to deal with the backlog of assessment, and we are engaging private collectors as well,” he confirmed.

Many in the private sector have been suggesting that the Government take such a course for years, and Mr Christie said the Government had also signed an agreement with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to aid departure tax collection.

He reaffirmed that the Government was seeking a $500 million gross revenue increase by the 20162017 fiscal year, with $200 million to come from VAT and $100 million from economic growth.

“The modernisation of the real property tax system and the Customs Department is expected contribute to additional revenues, on the order of roughly $100 million and $80 million, respectively,” the Prime Minister said.

Barbados Finance Minister says government laying platform for positive economic growth B

RIDGETOWN, Barbados –The Barbados government says it is laying the platform for positive economic growth in the future by making the necessary adjustments and seeking to rebuild the various sectors of the economy.

The Freundel Stuart government has embarked on a retrenchment programme to trim the public service by almost 3,000 in the coming months as it seeks to reverse an ailing economy.

But a government statement quoted Finance Minister Christopher Sinckler as giving an assurance to the new British High Commissioner, Victoria Dean, that the government is moving towards rebuilding the economy.

Sinckler said that in addition to making the necessary adjustments

in the economy, government was also seeking to rebuild and enhance the tourism product, develop the international business and financial services sector, especially in non-traditional markets such as Latin America; roll out an alternative energy sector, and reform the sugar industry.

“The cutting of expenditure is a painful exercise but it is one that has to happen because the alternative is much worse and you do not want to visit the alternative on those who are least vulnerable in your community; so we have to make the adjustments and that is what we are doing.

“We are confident about what we are doing…and we are trying to work on other things to ensure that discomfort does not last longer than is necessary,” he said.

Sinckler told the British diplomat

Chris Sinckler that there were some structural inefficiencies in the economy that had not been addressed but pointed out that Government was trying to clear the way for the private sector – the local and foreign – to reinvest.

He said that the Bill, which would make provision for the Economic Partnership Agreement to be given the force of law in Barbados, should be debated in Parliament shortly, and expressed the view that it would be a very serious, wide-ranging and nonpartisan discussion.

The government statement quoted Mrs. Dean as describing the island’s tourism offer as “fabulous”, but expressed the view that there was a need for product diversification and investment.

“The Minister agreed, and said a number of things were being done to enhance the tourism industry.

The High Commissioner said both countries needed to explore ways in which they could collaborate and promised further discussions on the areas” the statement said.

GRENADA GOVERNMENT DEFENDS AMENDING ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP LEGISLATION

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INGSTOWN, Grenada – The Grenada government has defended its decision to amend legislation allowing for persons who apply for citizenship under the island’s Citizenship by Investment Programme not to have their names made public.

The government, which controls all 15-seats in the Parliament, amended the existing legislation deleting the section which required that the information be included in the bi-annual report of the programme which is presented to Parliament no later than September every year.

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell, speaking to reporters during the just concluded Caribbean Community (CARICOM) inter-sessional summit, said while his administration had not yet granted citizenship to anyone since coming to power in February last year, it was necessary to amend the legislation.

“If you look at economic citizenship no matter what country, no one puts out the name of every single person it gives citizenship, they don’t do that.

“That clearly was a non starter it was an error on our part and we corrected it,” he said, adding “if you look around the globe you don’t see anyone including the United States doing this… and therefore we did the right thing in correcting that weakness”.

Mitchell said that his administration as taking a very cautious approach towards the citizenship programme, saying “we are making sure we dot the “I’s” (and) cross the “t’s” “We don’t want to make the mistakes we made when we implemented it years ago and we did not have the infrastructure in place or the administrative mechanism and the background checks that were necessary to make

sure we do not compromise our country.”

Mitchell said he remains very confident that based on the interest that the citizenship by investment programme would “bring tremendous investment to Grenada.

“We have seen a lot of interest but we are doing it diligently and we are taking our time,” he said, insisting that Grenada would not be sidetracked by any comments from the detractors including developed countries, adding “we are a sovereign nation and we will take decision on what’s best for us”.

A number of Caribbean countries have adopted the citizenship by investment programme through which investors pump significant sums of money into projects on the islands in return for acquiring a passport from the island.

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Vybz Kartel lawyers to appeal murder conviction K

INGSTON, Jamaica – Lawyers for the popular dancehall artiste, Vybz Kartel (Adidja Palmer), who was found guilty of murder on Thursday, say they intend to appeal the conviction following a trial that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) said had put the judicial system “on trial”.

“There is an appeal process, which we will embark upon immediately. But we will have to look back through the transcript to determine the grounds for appeal,” said Tom Tavares-Finson, the lead attorney for the singer.

Kartel, along with fellow entertainer Shawn Campbell, also called Shawn Storm; Kahira Jones; Shane Williams; and André St John had been charged with the murder of 27-year-old Clive “Lizard Williams, a dancer, on August 16, 2011.

Shane Williams was found not guilty. The men who had been in custody since September 2011, all pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The jury had deliberated for more than two hours returning a majority verdict of 10-1. The men will be sentenced on March 27.

Tavares-Finson told reporters that while the defence team accepted the ruling of the jury, an appeal was imminent.

“There is an appeal process on which we will embark. We have to accept it and move along,” he said But DPP Paula Llewellyn said the 65-day trial provided a shot in the arm for Jamaica’s judicial system.

“Our system was on trial,” but I would like to think that what Jamaica and the international arena

Vybz Kartel has been reminded of is that, notwithstanding all the challenges, there are persons in the system...

who have integrity and who are committed to public service above self,” she said.

“It’s not that we are striving for a winning situation, we strive to put up the best evidence that is available,” she said.

During the trial, the prosecution had argued that on August 16, Williams was taken to Kartel’s home in Havendale, St Andrew, where he was stabbed and beaten to death over two missing guns. Williams’ body was never found.

Meanwhile, attorney Everton Dewar said his client, Shane Williams, who was freed of the murder charge, has requested psychological help to help cope with the trauma of being in custody for more than a year.

CARICOM leaders end “very successful” summit K

INGSTOWN, St. Vincent -Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders say they have had a “very successful” two day inter-sessional summit here, completing a 20-odd agenda and implementing policies and strategies that would ensure the future socio-economic and political development of the region.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who is also the CARICOM chairman, told reporters late Tuesday night that the summit had dealt with a number of matters regarding the further development of the 15-member regional integration grouping, ranging from information communications and technology (ICT) to a future trade agreement with Canada.

“We had a very successful conference we had 20 odd items on the agenda and we completed the agenda,” he told reporters adding that high on the agenda was the ICT sector which regional leaders agreed “should take place in tandem with the reform process of the region for the years 2014-19”.

Gonsalves said the two-day meeting here took place against the background of the continued economic problems facing the region and the need to fashion a framework for regional growth and development.

“We welcomed the preliminary report from the CARICOM Commission on the Economy established last September to advise on a sustain growth strategy for the community. We accepted the report as a work in progress which would be refined and supplemented with an implementation time table for consideration by mem-

Dr. Ralph Gonsalves ber states at our July meeting in Antigua and Barbuda,” he told reporters.

He said the preliminary report outlines the scope of the Commission’s work programmes and specific initiatives that comprise the basis for both joint and or country specific immediate action in respect of financial sustainability including debt management, private sector stimulation, business regulatory environment and resource mobilisation.

“All these are areas various governments have been working upon, we are looking at what each other has been doing…and more importantly coordinating our work in a more efficacious way.”

Gonsalves said there was also agreement at the summit for a “high level” consultation with leaders of commerce and industry in the region to take place in July.

On the issue of climate change, he said a task force had been established to help the region coordinate its strategies as it moves to enhance its engagement in the climate change negotiation process “so as to increase the

PUERTO RICAN COPS COLLAR DOZENS IN MAJOR DRUG BUST

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AN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Sixty-three people accused of running a US$10 million drug-trafficking operation in Puerto Rico’s second largest city have been arrested, authorities in the US island territory said on Wednesday.

The suspects are accused of trafficking crack, heroin, cocaine, marijuana and prescription medication in the southern coastal city of Ponce, according to US Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez.

Rodriguez added that the suspects began operating the ring in 2003 at a public housing project.

The arrests were carried out by Puerto Rico police and agents with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

with help from other federal and local authorities.

The same day, in an unrelated case, the FBI announced two arrests involving more than US$7 million worth of cocaine.

According to FBI spokesman Moises Quinones, one of the suspects had jumped from a boat that authorities detected travelling toward Puerto Rico’s south coast late last year, while the other suspect was one of eight people awaiting the alleged drug shipment at a beach in the island’s southern region.

About 318 kilograms (700 pounds) of cocaine had been found in the boat, the federal agent said.

region’s access to available climate change financial resources”.

It will also provide guidance to climate change negotiators.

The meeting here discussed the ongoing situation in the Dominican republic with regards to the last September Constitutional Court ruling that has had the effect of making thousands of persons born of Haitian descent, stateless.

CARICOM has already suspended talks with Santo Domingo on its application for membership in the 15-member grouping as a result and Gonsalves said that CARICOM was now awaiting “anxiously” the promised draft law by President Danilo Medina to “address the grave uman rights effects of the (Court) ruling.

Gonsalves told reporters that the Dominican Republic had promised that the legislation would have been available by February 27 and “we haven’t seen it as yet”.

He said when the legislation is provided, CARICOM will re-enter the Haiti-Dominican Republic bilateral Commission, adding “but we really need to see the Dominican Republic making some progress on the matter.

“They have to show us that they are doing something so when they present us with that law and we get a copy we will participate in the Commission,” he added.

DECRIMINALISATION OF MARIJUANA DISCUSSED On the issue of the decriminalisation of marijuana for medicinal and religious purposes, Gonsalves said there had been “intensive” discussions among the leaders on the issue.

“In our discussions we explored the economic benefits that might be derived from marijuana cultivation in a structured sense,” he said, noting that various concerns about health issues had also been raised.

He said the leaders recognised the need for in-depth research of the methods being contemplated and mandated the establishment of a regional commission “ to address the issues identified and others which are deemed relevant in order to provide clear guidance to the community with regards to the decision to be taken”.

The commission is expected to report to the regular CARICOM meeting in July.

“Through this particular modality we are taking obviously more than baby steps we want the issue to be addressed in a serious mature manner,” Gonsalves added.

He said that regarding the matter of reparation for the slave trade, the leaders had received a draft regional operational and strategy plan putting forward 10 points under the heading Caribbean Reparatory Justice programme.

He said the programme which calls for a full apology from the governments of Europe from trans Atlantic slave trade, among other measures, was accepted and would be further discussed by the Prime Ministerial subcommittee on Reparation, headed by the Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart.

Gonsalves said the summit spent “ a great deal of time” on the proposed Canada-CARICOM trade and development agreement.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC NATIONAL JAILED FOR 61 MONTHS FOR TRAFFICKING IDENTITIES OF PUERTO RICAN US CITIZENS ASHINGTON – The United States W Department of Justice (DOJ) says a Dominican Republic national has been jailed for 61 months for his “leading role in trafficking the identities and corresponding identity documents of Puerto Rican US citizens.”

Wilfredo Blanco-Diaz, 40, who lived in Caguas, Puerto Rico, will also serve three years of supervised release.

US District Judge Gustavo A. Gelpí in the District of Puerto Rico also ordered Blanco-Diaz to forfeit US$422,793 in proceeds and be deported to the Dominican Republic on completion of his sentence.

On September 24, 2013, Blanco-Diaz pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit identification fraud,

one count of conspiracy to commit human smuggling for financial gain and one count of aggravated identity theft.

The DOJ said, to date, 53 individuals have been charged for their roles in the identity trafficking scheme. All 49 arrested defendants have pleaded guilty and 42 defendants have been sentenced.

According to the DOJ, Blanco-Diaz was a “supplier of Puerto Rican identity documents who operated in Caguas and provided Puerto Rican identities to brokers in Florida, Nebraska, North Carolina and Virginia, knowing that the identities would be sold to undocumented aliens who would then pose as US citizens.”

Blanco-Diaz admitted that he was a manager and supervisor in the conspiracy.

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Dutch academic says Caribbean should not expect much from reparations claims A

MSTERDAM, Netherlands, – A noted Dutch historian has warned Caribbean leaders that they should not expect much from their reparation claims against Europe even as they on Monday adopted a plan to further pursue the issue.

“Europe is going to entertain the dialogue, but they will not pay,” Professor Gert Oostindie told the Dutch television station, NOS, on Tuesday.

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders now winding up their two-day intersessional haveadopted a 10-point reparatory justice framework, presented by Professor Sir Hillary Beckles, head of CARICOM’s Reparations Commission.

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, the host and CARICOM cahirman said the framework comprises “basically issues relating to things which have been talked about all the time like an apology, the question of organising with African countries and those persons who want to have reparations, matters relating to health, education and literacy, building the cultural institutions and matters concerning

a special programme for the development of the indigenous people…”

At least 14 CARICOM member states have set up national reparations commission even as some Europeans countries against which claims are being made have said that they will not pay compensation for slavery and native genocide.

Gonsalves said Caribbean countries are hoping to hold talks with Europe in June on the issue.

But, Oostindie, who is director of the Royal Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies in Leiden and whose primary areas of interest are Caribbean and Dutch colonial history, said he could understand why the Caribbean countries were making the move. “(At the same time) the countries that experiences slavery know that the European nations will never offer excuses. If those would be expressed, it could lead to financial claims and that is not a risk European countries want to run.

“Nonetheless some of the former slave states feel that they are entitlt-

Professor Gert Oostindie ed to compensation; many of them are poor; some very poor. They blame slavery and are of the opinion that development aid is warranted,” he said.

Oostindie said the Caribbean leaders want Europe to acknowledge its in slavery.

“They want unconditional acknowledgement and a dialogue with the former colonizers. I understand that, because so far the European na-

tions have not wanted to discuss it and stopped short of expressing sorry,” he said.

Ooostindie said that in a recent discussion with a British ambassador to the Caribbean he was told that it was not likely that the United Kingdom would pay any financial compensation.

“The ambassador told me ‘we will not be avoiding the dialogue, but we will not be talking about money. We have to look toward the future.”

As for the Netherlands, he named Suriname as an “important factor” in the pending suit from the Caribbean.

“Among the initiators of this is the Surinamer Armand Zunder who a few years ago wrote a book that says that Suriname is owed at least Euro 50 million (One Euro = US$1.29 cents) by the Netherlands.

“This shows that it is not just about acknowledgement, but also about money. And as far as the Netherlands is concerned, this is not an option, and Suriname knows that. Even President Bouterse is on record as saying ‘let’s forget this matter,” Ooostindie said.

CDB funds for development projects in The Bahamas and Barbados

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RIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is making available more than US$18 million in loans to the Bahamas and Barbados for various development projects.

CDB at its 60th meeting of the Board of Directors on Thursday approved US$16.18 million for the 40 year-old College of The Bahamas (COB) for an institutional and physical makeover.

Among the initiatives for COB are a new Hall of Residence to house 100 students and a new Business Centre.

“The transformation of COB is part of a national strategic goal to enhance the human resource capacity of the country to meet its existing and emerging socio-economic development needs. And, this project is the first phase of a wider transformation programme to support COB’s transition to university status by 2015,” said Deidre Clarendon, Officer in Charge, Projects Department, CDB. Along with the construction of the Hall of Residence and Business Centre, the loan will fundenergy efficiency enhancements, and consultancy services for development of the legislative framework for university status and for the development of Enterprise Risk Management and Quality Assurance systems.

The project will also undertake the restructuring of the Business Finance and Human Resource Management systems, the establishment of a Research and Innovation Centre and expanded distance education capacity for learners in the Family Islands.

“CDB’s involvement in the tertiary education sector in the Caribbean is informed by its education and training policy and strategy. This strategy supports investments for increasing and broadening access, improving efficiency and effectiveness, strengthening institutional capacity and enhancing technological capacity,” Clarendon said.

The CDB said that the COB project complements initiatives in tertiary education in the bank’s borrowing member countries such as the establishment of the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network and the establishment of a regional accreditation system.

The CDB said that it had approved a loan totalling US$357, 200 for a study that would explorethe best approach to improving cargo facilities at the Grantley Adams International Airport.

The CDB said that the study would assess the current and future needs, and the type of infrastructure that will best create a world class fa-

cility. Such an upgrade will result in improved international competitiveness and multiple benefits to small medium enterprises (SMEs) in particular.

The CDB said that aong the outcomes of the study will be a gap analysis of the existing operations/physical infrastructure and proposed operations/infrastructure required to accommodate forecasted cargo opportunities and facility demand as well as security considerations to applicable international standards, for both operations and physical infrastructure “Investments in improved logistics and supply chain management can help maximize opportunities that exist for improvement in the productivity of the transportation system.

“Trade logistics in Barbados require institutional reform and investment in infrastructure in order to improve efficiency in the processing goods and services in trade. The development of modern air cargo facilitation will be critical in achieving this goal,” said CDB’s Vice-President, Operations, Dr. Carla Barnett.

The GAIA is Barbados’ only international airport. According to data published by the GAIA Inc, in 2013 it loaded 8.2 million tonnes of cargo and unloaded 12.1 million tonnes.

WORLD BANK SAYS TALENT, DEPTH OF IDEAS RESIDE IN THE CARIBBEAN ASHINGTON, - From apps to fight W rising crime levels to e-learning tools for pre-school and up, the World Bank says a prodigious talent and a depth of ideas reside in the Caribbean.

The Washington-based financial institution said it’s a potential that could secure the economic future for the region, and, more specifically, valuable career opportunities for the youth.

The bank said a central part of the recent Digital Jam 3.0 conference in Jamaica was an opportunity for the shortlisted contestants to pitch their app ideas to industry leaders from across the world.

“But they weren’t just there to listen but to act, and so while the finalists put the finishing touches to their presentations, the Caribbean’s private sector met to begin the process of creating the sub-region’s first angel investors network.”

The World Bank said currently access to finance is a major barrier for entrepreneurs across the spectrum, adding that such a network would work to “revolutionise investment and access

to finance for wannabe tech startups, as well as give the wide Caribbean Diaspora a clear route into investing back into the region.

“It (Digital Jam 3.0) really is beyond a competition, it’s beyond a conference, it’s really laying the basis for a full ecosystem, which is what we wanted to do,” said the World Bank?s Fabio Pittaluga, who created the Digital Jam and KingstOOn projects.

The World Bank said there is “a real demand for Caribbean talent,” stating that this year’s graduates from the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) new Animate Jamaica course were “all snapped up by one company prior to finishing the course, and there are still more positions available.

“There is no doubt of the intelligence and capabilities of the Caribbean’s youth. In fact, their skills are already on a par with those found in other regions with a much more developed telecommunications sector.”

The World Bank said events such as Digital Jam.30 and the future launch of StartUp Jamaica, a body to foster the development of creative startups in

the country, focus attention to this dormant potential.

“They convoke both the private and public sector and propose practical solutions to combating low economic growth, high youth unemployment and help secure a brighter future for talented individuals like Digital Jam 3.0?s Grand Prize winner, Gareth Thompson,” it said.

“It’s shocking to see how an idea can really become a reality,” said Thompson, whose team won the Digial Jam 3.0 Grand Prize. “We have to have a serious next step, which is developing Crimebot further and trying to address the real issue: Crime.”

For Gareth and the other winners of Digital Jam 3.0,, the next step really is serious, said the World Bank, stating that pledges were made across two days to “incubate and develop the talent found in the Caribbean, with the aim of transforming them from ideas to a profitable business model, which hopefully will inspire the next generation of app developers in the Caribbean.

“We view the digital economy as a way to harness the enormous creativi-

ty that exists in the country and our job is to be the enablers,” Jamaica’s Minister of State for Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Julian Robinson, told the World Bank.

“To take that creativity, covert it into businesses and earn foreign exchange and facilitate economic growth.”

The World Bank said a “real desire exists among the public and private sector to harness this intellectual talent and turn it into a powerful catalyst to kick start the region’s stalling economies” However, it said, while the entrepreneurial spirit abounds, wide changes are needed in order to transform potential into reality, both within Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.

“Small developing countries like ours require this kind of innovation in order to make the leap we need to make and that’s what we have to do,” said Gary Sinclair, chief executive officer of LIME Jamaica, which sponsored the event.

“We literally have to leapfrog generations of legacies, instead of sort of sitting back and having these kinds of technologies just sort of beat up on us rather than adding value to it ourselves,” he added.

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RLD

Investigators focus on foul play behind missing plane

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n investigation into the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner is focusing more on a suspicion of foul play, as evidence suggests it was diverted hundreds of miles off course, sources familiar with the Malaysian probe said.

In a far more detailed description of military radar plotting than has been publicly revealed, two sources told Reuters an unidentified aircraft that investigators suspect was missing Flight MH370 appeared to be following a commonly used navigational route when it was last spotted early on Saturday, northwest of Malaysia.

That course - headed into the Andaman Sea and towards the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean - could only have been set deliberately, either by flying the Boeing 777-200ER jet manually or by programming the auto-pilot.

A third investigative source said inquiries were focusing more on the theory that someone who knew how to fly a plane deliberately diverted the flight hundreds of miles off its scheduled course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

“What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijack still on the cards,” said the source, a senior Malaysian police official.

One of the most baffling mysteries in the history of modern aviation remains unsolved after nearly a week.

The latest radar evidence is consistent with the expansion of the search for the aircraft to the west of Malaysia.

There has been no trace of the plane nor any sign of wreckage as the navies and military aircraft of more than a dozen countries scour the seas across Southeast Asia.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said he could not confirm the last heading of the plane or if investigators were focusing on sabotage.

“A normal investigation becomes narrower with time ... as new information focuses the search, but this is not a normal investigation,” he told a news conference. “In this case, the information has forced us to look further and further afield.”

Investigators were still looking at “four or five” possibilities, including a diversion that was intentional or under duress, or an explosion, he said. Police would search the pilot’s home if necessary and were still investigating all 239 passengers and crew on the plane, he added.

INDIAN OCEAN “BIGGEST CHALLENGE” If the jetliner did stray into the Indian Ocean, a vast expanse with depths of more than 7,000 meters (23,000 feet), the task faced by searchers would become dramatically more difficult. Winds and currents could shift any surface debris tens of nautical miles within hours, dramatically widening the search area with each passing day.

“Ships alone are not going to get you that coverage, helicopters are barely going to make a dent in it and only a few countries fly P-3s (long-range search aircraft),” William Marks, spokesman for the U.S. Seventh Fleet, told Reuters.

“So this massive expanse of water space will be the biggest challenge.”

The U.S. Navy was sending an advanced P-8A Poseidon plane to help search the Strait of Malacca, a busy sealane separating the Malay Peninsula from the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It had already deployed a Navy P-3 Orion aircraft to those waters.

U.S. defense officials told Reuters that the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer, USS Kidd, was heading to the Strait of Malacca, answering a request from the Malaysian government. The Kidd had been searching the areas south of the Gulf of Thailand, along with the destroyer USS Pinckney.

Satellites picked up faint electronic pulses from the aircraft after it went missing on Saturday, but the signals gave no immediate information about where the jet was heading and little else about its fate, two sources close to the investigation said on Thursday.

U.S. experts are still examining the data to see if any information about its last location could be extracted, a source close to the investigation told Reuters. Malaysia’s civil aviation chief confirmed on Friday the government was working with U.S. investigators to establish if there was any satellite information that could help locate the airliner.

LAST RADAR SIGHTING The last sighting of the aircraft on civilian radar screens came shortly before 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, less than an hour after take-off. It was flying as scheduled across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand on the eastern side of peninsular Malaysia, heading towards Beijing.

However, Malaysia’s air force chief said on Wednesday that an aircraft that could have been the missing plane was plotted on military radar at 2:15 a.m., 200 miles northwest of Penang Island off Malaysia’s west coast.

This position marks the limit of Malaysia’s military radar in that part of the country, a fourth source familiar with the investigation told Reuters.

Malaysia says it has asked neighboring countries for their radar data, but has not confirmed receiving the information. Indonesian and Thai authorities said on Friday they had not received an official request for such data from Malaysia.

The fact that the plane - if it was MH370 - had lost contact with air traffic control and was invisible to civilian radar suggested someone on board had turned off its communication systems, the first two sources said.

They also gave new details on the direction in which the unidentified aircraft was heading - following aviation corridors identified on maps used by pilots as N571 and P628 - routes taken by commercial planes flying from Southeast Asia to the Middle East or Europe.

Hishammuddin said it remained unclear if that aircraft was MH370. “We need to get verification and we are working very closely with the experts,” he said.

An already difficult search task has been complicated in some areas by a choking haze caused by burning forest and farmland that has enveloped much of Malaysia and spilled into the Strait of Malacca. The haze, exacerbated by a prolonged dry spell, has reached hazardous levels in several spots.

India had deployed ships, planes and helicopters from the remote, forested and mostly uninhabited Andaman and Nicobar Islands, at the juncture of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, military spokesman Harmeet Singh said on Friday.

The Indian Defence Ministry said the Eastern Naval Command would also search across a new area measuring 15 km by 600 km along the Chennai coast in the Bay of Bengal.

The shape of this area, located 900 km west of Port Blair, capital of the islands, suggested the search was focusing on a narrow flight corridor.

China, which had more than 150 citizens on board the missing plane, has deployed four warships, four coastguard vessels, eight aircraft and trained 10 satellites on a wide search area. Chinese media have described the ship deployment as the largest Chinese rescue fleet ever assembled.

The Boeing 777 has one of the best safety records of any commercial aircraft in service. Its only previous fatal crash came on July 6 last year when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 struck a seawall with its undercarriage on landing in San Francisco. Three people died.

US prosecutors again indict Indian diplomat Khobragade

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grand jury in New York has returned a new indictment against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade for visa fraud, two days after a U.S. judge dismissed a similar indictment because she had diplomatic immunity.

Khobragade’s arrest last December and a subsequent strip search drew outrage in India, causing a major diplomatic rift between the United States and India.

The row ended on January 9 after the United States granted her immunity and then essentially had her expelled from the country in a flurry of diplomatic maneuvers, the same day she was indicted for the first time.

Khobragade’s lawyer, Daniel Arshack, did not immediately comment on the new indictment, which effectively returns the case to where it was before Wednesday’s dismissal.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled on Wednesday that Khobragade, who was India’s deputy consul-general in New York, had diplomatic immunity when she sought on January 9 to dismiss the indictment, and thus could not be prosecuted for alleged underpayment of her nanny.

Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade (C) leaves with her father Uttam Khobragade (L) from the Maharashtra Sadan state guesthouse to meet India’s Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid in New Delhi January 11, 2014.

A spokesman for Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said at the time that the ruling did not bar prosecutors from seeking a new indictment based on the same charges, now that she has left the country.

In Friday’s move, the grand jury indicted Khobragade for visa fraud and making false statements.

Prosecutors have accused her of forcing Sangeeta Richard, her housekeeper and nanny, to work 100hour weeks at a salary of just over $1 an hour, far below the legal minimum U.S. wage of $7.25 an hour.

With Khobragade in India, the new indictment does not appear to have any immediate practical consequences.

Bharara’s office did not immediately comment.

A State Department spokeswoman said earlier this week that the agency’s position was that Khobragade had full immunity from prosecution only for a single day in January and no longer enjoyed protection from prosecution once she left the country.

The dispute over Khobragade’s arrest set off reprisals against U.S. diplomats and the removal of some security barriers near the U.S. embassy in India.

It also led to the postponement of trips by U.S. officials and business executives to India, imperiling U.S. efforts to strengthen ties between the two countries.

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West prepares sanctions as Russia presses on with Crimea takeover D

ozens of Russians involved in Russia’s gradual takeover of Crimea face U.S. and EU travel bans and asset freezes on Monday, after six hours of crisis talks between Washington and Moscow ended with both sides still far apart.

Moscow shipped more troops and armor into Crimea on Friday and repeated its threat to invade other parts of Ukraine in response to violence in Donetsk on Thursday night despite Western demands to pull back.

EU diplomats will choose from a long list of 120130 possible Russian targets for sanctions on Sunday, as pro-Moscow authorities who have taken power in Crimea hold a vote to join Russia in the worst East-West confrontation since the Cold War. Several diplomats dismissed a German newspaper report that said the list would include the heads of Russia’s two biggest companies, energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Russia would be guilty of a backdoor annexation of Crimea if its parliament ratified the Crimea referendum, which is taking place after an armed takeover of Crimea and gives voters no chance to say “no”.

He has warned Moscow that U.S. and EU sanctions could be imposed as soon as Monday if the referendum goes ahead, although U.S. officials said after Kerry’s marathon meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in London on Friday the door was still open for more talks.

Lavrov played down his own ministry’s threats, saying Moscow had no plans to invade Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow groups have occupied state buildings.

But he said Russia would respect the referendum result.

STOCK MARKET FALLS Russia’s stock markets tumbled and the cost of insuring its debt soared on the last day of trading before the Crimea vote.

Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries have also plunged this week, leading some traders to speculate that Russia has cut its dollar reserves to support the rouble and avoid possible sanctions.

An EU diplomat said he expected the final list of those to be sanctioned on Monday to be between “tens and scores” of people from the long list, which runs to five pages.

Germany’s Bild newspaper reported that Alexei Miller, boss of natural gas monopoly Gazprom, and Igor Sechin, head of Russia’s biggest oil firm, Rosneft, would be among those targeted, along with senior ministers and Kremlin aides.

Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the Bild report and European diplomats said the choice had not yet been made and was unlikely to include business leaders. “(Business interests) is not the target initially, the focus is on the political decision that has been taken to act in Crimea and destabilize Ukraine,” said one diplomat involved in the negotiations.

Nazis in World War Two, are strongly anti-Russian.

FACTS ON THE GROUND

An Ukrainian tank takes part in the military exercise near Kharkiv March 14, 2014.

Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said sanctions on his firm’s boss would be “stupid, petty and obvious sabotage of themselves most of all. I think it will primarily affect Rosneft’s business partners in the West in an extraordinary way.” Gazprom and the Kremlin declined to comment.

FELLOW CITIZENS The Russian Foreign Ministry, responding to the death of at least one protester in Ukraine’s eastern city of Donetsk, repeated President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of the right to invade to protect Russian citizens and “compatriots”.

“Russia is aware of its responsibility for the lives of compatriots and fellow citizens in Ukraine and reserves the right to take people under its protection,” it said, alluding to what it says are threats from Ukraine’s new pro-Western leaders.

Ukrainian health authorities say one 22-yearold man was stabbed to death and at least 15 others were being treated in hospital after clashes in Donetsk, the mainly Russian-speaking home city of Ukraine’s ousted President Viktor Yanukovich.

Organizers of the anti-Moscow demonstration said the dead man was from their group and the new pro-Western governor of Donetsk said Russians were behind the clashes.

Moscow denies that its forces are intervening in Crimea, an assertion Washington ridicules as “Putin’s fiction”. Journalists have seen Russian forces operating openly in their thousands over the past two weeks, driving in armored columns of vehicles with Russian license plates and identifying themselves to besieged Ukrainian troops as members of Russia’s armed forces.

A Reuters reporter watched a Russian warship unload trucks, troops and at least one armored personnel carrier at Kazachaya bay near Sevastopol on Friday morning. Trucks drove off a ramp from the Yamal 156, a large landing ship that can carry more than 300 troops and up to a dozen APCs. In nearby Simferopol, around 300 Tatars protested against the referendum. Tatars, a majority in Crimea until Soviet leader Josef Stalin deported them en masse for alleged collaboration with the

Russian troops seized the Black Sea peninsula two weeks ago as a pro-Moscow regional government took power there. The new regional authorities intend to secede from Ukraine and join Russia in a vote described in the West as illegal.

Putin declared on March 1 that Russia had the right to invade its neighbor, a week after its ally Yanukovich fled the Ukrainian capital following three months of demonstrations that ended with about 100 people killed in the final days.

In further signs of Moscow’s belligerent posture ahead of the Crimea vote, the Defence Ministry announced on Friday it would hold exercises with fighter jets and helicopters over the Mediterranean Sea. On Thursday it announced artillery drills near Ukraine’s border.

U.S. and EU sanctions on Russian officials and other figures, are now seen as inevitable.

U.S. and European officials say the targets will not include Putin or Lavrov, and an east European diplomat set out a scenario in which the EU might impose sanctions on one set of people on Monday, and then take further steps on Wednesday and then on Thursday-Friday during an EU summit in Brussels.

“It could start by sanctioning those directly involved with the situation in Crimea. Then if Russia doesn’t respond, expand to include senior figures in the Russian Senate, and then ultimately expand to include very senior people,” the diplomat said.

Bild’s list included Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, presidential administration chief Sergei Ivanov and the secretary of the National Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev.

SHARES FALL, DEBT INSURANCE COSTS RISE Russia’s MICEX stock index has lost more than 16 percent of its value in the two weeks since Putin declared his right to invade. The cost of insuring Russia’s debt against default is now up by half since the crisis began.

Although Russian public opinion, fed by overwhelmingly state-controlled media, is still solidly behind the plan to annex Crimea, Western countries believe sanctions could undermine support for Putin among the wealthy elite.

Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told Russian media that the threat of Western sanctions was already imposing higher borrowing costs on Russian businesses and that further sanctions would push capital flight to $50 billion a quarter.

Renaissance Capital estimated capital outflow in the first quarter would exceed $55 billion, compared with $63 billion for the whole of 2013.

The rouble has declined only slightly despite the fall in share prices, held aloft by a central bank that raised its lending rates on March 3 and has been spending reserves to keep the currency from falling.

Arizona man gets nine life terms for Buddhist temple murders A

n Arizona man convicted of the execution-style killings of six Buddhist monks and three others at a temple near Phoenix more than two decades ago was sentenced on Friday to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Johnathan Doody, 39, was sentenced to nine consecutive life terms after being convicted by a jury in January of nine counts of first-degree murder and armed robbery for a crime that drew international attention and remains the most deadly mass murder in the southwest U.S. state’s history.

Thailand-born Doody also received another 33 years for eight armed robbery counts, and one count each of burglary and conspiracy after being convicted in Maricopa County Superior Court after a month-long trial.

“From my perspective, there can be no other sentence,” Judge Joseph

Kreamer said in handing down his decision. Kreamer also read aloud the names of the nine people the then-high school student was convicted of murdering in Waddell, Arizona.

Doody was not eligible for the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the killings at the Wat Promkunaram temple, where the bodies of six monks, a novice, a nun and a temple boy were discovered on August 10, 1991, in a circle, face down, each with a single gunshot to the head.

Four men from Tucson were originally arrested for the killings after an interrogation by sheriff’s deputies resulted in their confessions. But the charges were dropped when the men recanted and authorities could not pin the crime on them.

Authorities then focused on Doody and his high school classmate, Alessandro “Alex” Garcia, 16, after a .22-caliber

Johnathan Doody listens as he is found guilty of the 1991 execution-style murders of nine people, including six monks, at a Buddhist temple near Phoenix, January 23, 2014. semiautomatic rifle was found during an unrelated search of a friend’s vehicle.

It was identified as the murder weapon.

Doody, who did not testify during his last trial, also did not speak during the sentencing. Shackled and wearing gray prison stripes, he showed no emotion while the judge spoke. His father

told Reuters that the sentence came as no surprise.

“This is what we expected,” Brian Doody said, moments after learning his son’s sentence, his wife and daughter by his side. “It wasn’t a shock to us. We haven’t recovered from the verdict. We still believe in his innocence.”

Maria Schaffer, one of Doody’s attorneys, told the court she will appeal. A county attorney’s spokesman declined comment on the sentence.

Doody was originally convicted in 1994, but a U.S. appeals court threw out the decision in May 2011, saying it was based on a coerced confession, and a retrial was ordered. A second jury deadlocked on his fate in October 2013, but he was convicted in a second retrial.

The case cast a harsh spotlight on Arizona and the tactics used to solicit confessions from the accused.

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WORLD NEWS

Searchers sift rubble in aftermath of NY building collapse S

earch and rescue workers on Friday combed the still-smoldering rubble for victims of a gas explosion that caused two New York City apartment buildings to collapse this week, killing eight people and injuring dozens.

The blast shook the East Harlem neighborhood on Wednesday morning, shortly after a resident complained to the Con Edison utility about a gas odor.

Since then, authorities have parsed the smoking pile of bricks and twisted metal that at one point was three stories high in an effort to find any remaining victims.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which reviews natural gas-related accidents, said in an afternoon news conference that it would be overseeing pressure tests and interviewing people involved in the response through the weekend and into next week.

Meanwhile, the city’s fire department said it is still in the process of removing and sifting through the debris, and that it hopes to have the area cleared by Saturday.

An excavator clears debris at the site of a building explosion in the Harlem section of New York, March 13, 2014.

“We have eight victims found at this point. We are still in rescue, recovery operations,” said New York Fire Department spokesman Brian Norton.

“We do not stop until we are 100 percent sure there is nobody left.”

Search-and-rescue efforts will contin-

ue on Friday even though there are no known persons still missing, police said.

Five women and three men were killed, police said on Friday, but not all victim identities have been released.

The latest was female and pulled from the rubble late on Thursday.

The dead include Griselde Camacho, 44, a public safety officer for Hunter College in East Harlem; Carmen Tanco, 67, a dental hygienist; Rosaura Hernandez, 21, and Andreas Panagopoulos, 43.

At least three children were hurt; two were treated for minor injuries and released, while the third was more seriously injured, hospital officials said.

Con Edison said that gas odor complaints have increased three-fold since the accident.

The two buildings in a largely residential block at East 116th Street and Park Avenue housed 15 apartments, a ground-floor church and a piano store.

Passersby in the primarily Latino neighborhood donned dust masks or wrapped winter scarves around their faces to limit inhalation of dust and smoke.

The main, low-pressure gas distribution line that runs along Park Avenue was still intact, the NTSB said. Service lines carry gas into buildings from that main pipe.

US regulator sues 16 banks for rigging Libor rate T

he Federal Deposit Insurance Corp sued 16 of the world’s largest banks on Friday, accusing them of cheating dozens of other now defunct banks by manipulating the Libor interest rate.

The global financial institutions broke certain swaps contracts they had entered into with the now-closed banks, by separately colluding to rig the Libor rate to which the contracts were tied, the FDIC said.

Some of the banks accused in the lawsuit, including Barclays Plc and UBS, have already paid some $6 billion to resolve charges from U.S. and European authorities that they worked to manipulate benchmark interest rates.

They have also been sued by investors and others who claim they lost money due to the manipulation.

A federal judge last March dismissed many of those claims that were based on antitrust law, but has yet to rule on cases that rely on the “breach of contract” theory used by the FDIC. “These look very much like claims that I think are going to have a much better chance with the court,” said Daniel Brockett, a lawyer with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan who had brought other cases against banks over Libor manipulation.

A representative of the FDIC declined comment. Representatives of the banks declined comment or did not respond to a request for comment.

Libor, which is the average rate that a panel of banks say they can borrow unsecured funds, has become a key rate globally, underpinning more than $550 trillion in financial products, from home loans to derivatives.

“SUBSTANTIAL LOSSES” The financial institutions’ conduct caused “substantial losses” to 38 banks that the U.S. regulator had taken into receivership since 2008, including Washington Mutual Bank and IndyMac Bank, the FDIC said.

The regulator did not quantify the losses at issue. The lawsuit also did not specify what damages the FDIC is seeking.

The lawsuit also accused the British Bankers’ Association, the U.K. trade organization that during the pe-

riod at issue administered Libor, of participating in the scheme.

The BBA had said it independently monitored the banks’ Libor submissions, and represented that Libor was a “transparent” benchmark, even though it knew those statements were false, the FDIC said. A representative of the BBA declined comment.

The banks named as defendants include Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings PLC, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. Other defendants in the lawsuit are Rabobank, Lloyds Banking Group plc, Societe Generale, Norinchukin Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and WestLB AG.

DEAL SIGNED TO END ROW OVER PANAMA CANAL EXPANSION

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he Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has approved a deal to end a dispute over $1.6bn (£1bn) cost overruns that had delayed work to widen the waterway.

The Spanish-led construction consortium and the ACP say each will invest an extra $100m in the project, due to be completed in 2015.

The consortium will also be allowed to claim $400m from the project insurers.

Construction was halted for two weeks in February, but resumed after an initial agreement was reached.

The canal authority says the deal reached late on Thursday should accelerate the con-

struction works, aiming to finish the third lock by December 2015.

It also extends up to 2018 a moratorium for the construction group - officially known as Grupo Unido por el Canal (GUPC) - to repay around $780m worth of cash advances.

The dispute emerged late in 2013, when GUPC claimed it was owed $1.6bn.

But the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said the demand amounted to blackmail.

The new lock was designed to allow the passage of larger cargo ships in one of the world’s busiest maritime routes.

In late February, GUPC - headed by the

Spanish company Sacyr and the Italian Impregilo - and the Canal Authority announced a temporary deal to resume works.

A stoppage would have risked 10,000 jobs, local media reported.

The Panama Canal, linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, is celebrating its centenary in August.

More than 13,000 ships use the maritime shortcut every year.

Before the latest agreement, the canal’s expansion project was due to be completed in June 2015, nine months behind its original schedule, with the overall cost of the project estimated at $5.2bn.

ISRAEL SHELLS SOUTHERN LEBANON AFTER BORDER BOMBING

I

srael fired tank and artillery shells Friday night into southern Lebanon after a roadside bomb exploded near its soldiers patrolling the border.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said the explosion damaged a military vehicle near the border. He said no soldiers were hurt in the blast, though three went to hospital for observation to rule out internal injuries.

He said the military immediately responded with tank and artillery

fire directed at “Hezbollah positions and other suspicious locations.” Soldiers also used smoke-screen munitions to mask their movements, Lerner said.

He said the military is on alert and reinforcing its presence on the border.

Lerner said there is a “Hezbollah connection” to the roadside bomb but would not go into detail. Hezbollah had no immediate comment Friday night.

The Lebanese army said in a

statement that a roadside bomb hit the Israeli patrol around 5:45 p.m. local time. In response, “the Israeli enemy forces fired several artillery shells, nine of which fell on Bastara Farms.”

Lebanese security officials said at least two artillery shells fired from Israel landed near the village of Halta in southern Lebanon, but caused no casualties.

The Lebanese officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak public-

ly to journalists.

A Halta resident reached by telephone said at least six or seven shells landed in the hills east of the village.

Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shiite group committed to Israel’s destruction, battled to a stalemate during a monthlong war in the summer of 2006. Both sides have mostly avoided any direct confrontation since a United Nations-brokered cease-fire ended the fighting.

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Cops took bloody pictures of Pistorius after he shot girlfriend P

RETORIA, South Africa -- Police photographs of Oscar Pistorius standing on his blood-stained prosthetic legs and wearing shorts covered in blood, taken shortly after the athlete fatally shot his girlfriend, were shown to the court at his murder trial Friday. Prosecutors displayed two photos on TV monitors in the courtroom. In one, the muscled Olympic athlete, who is shirtless, is standing facing the camera wearing his prosthetics. There are blood stains up to the knees of his limbs and his shorts are also bloodied, but his naked chest appears to be clean of blood.

A second photograph shows Pistorius from the waist up and from the left side, also showing blood on his shorts and parts of his body, with a tattoo visible on his back.

The photographs were taken in the garage of Pistorius’ Pretoria home where the athlete killed Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day last year, a former policeman testified.

Former police colonel G.S. van Rensburg described the early part of the police investigation into the shooting after he arrived at the scene around 30 to 40 minutes after prosecutors say Pistorius killed Steenkamp in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14, 2013.

The prosecution says Pistorius intentionally killed Steenkamp in an upstairs bathroom after a loud argument and then tried to cover it up by saying he thought the 29-year-old model was a dangerous intruder.

Pistorius, 27, maintains the killing was an accident and has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

Paralympic superstar Oscar Pistorius was charged with the murder of his girlfriend who was shot dead inside his home in South Africa Van Rensburg, the former commander at a police station close to Pistorius’ home, said he didn’t arrest Pistorius immediately after discovering Steenkamp had been shot dead, but did warn him to remain at the house.

“I told him I observed him as a suspect at that stage,” van Rensburg said. “I warned him of his rights. I said to him I wasn’t arresting him at that stage ... I requested him to remain present at all times at the scene.”

Van Rensburg didn’t describe Pistorius’ reactions in detail, but said that the runner’s brother, Carl, sister, Aimee, and a lawyer arrived at the house.

During the investigation in the bathroom, van Rensburg also said that he turned around at one point to see that the firearms expert had handled the gun Pistorius used to kill Steenkamp and taken the magazine out of the weapon without using gloves.

“I asked him, ‘What are you doing?’” van Rensburg testified. The officer realized his error, apologized, put the magazine back in the gun and laid it on the mat where it was on the floor, van Rensburg said. He then took the gloves out of his chest pocket, and again picked up the gun, according to van Rensburg.

“I was very angry,” he said.

Van Rensburg also testified Friday that one of Pistorius’ expensive watches was apparently stolen from the crime scene that night. About eight expen-

sive watches were found in a blood-spattered box in Pistorius’ bedroom upstairs, said van Rensburg and he said he warned fellow officers that the watches should be observed closely because they could be tempting to anyone moving through the crime scene.

Pistorius’ sister asked if she could take one of the watches, leaving seven in place, he said. But van Rensburg said another went missing while he was out of the room, prompting him to order the frisking of all the police forensic experts on the scene, as well as a search of their bags and vehicles, and the entire house.

Van Rensburg, who recalled that one of the officers had estimated the cost of one watch at close to $10,000, said he then opened a case of theft after the watch was not found.

Later, he said, Pistorius’ brother, Carl, asked if he could take the watches. Van Rensburg said he would instead hand the watches directly to Oscar Pistorius, the owner of the watches, but without the box, which was still being analyzed. While doing so, he asked Pistorius to inform him if anything else went missing, but nothing else was reported stolen.

On Thursday, images of blood stains on the walls, floors and furniture in Pistorius’ home were displayed in court, prompting Pistorius to look away from TV monitors showing the photographs.

The screen in front of Pistorius was switched off Thursday and remained off for the testimony Friday morning.

Pistorius, the first double amputee to run at the Olympics, faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of murder in Steenkamp’s killing.

Venezuela’s foreign minister calls Kerry ‘murderer’ V

enezuela’s foreign minister lambasted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday as a “murderer” fomenting unrest that has killed 28 people in the South American OPEC member nation.

Since street demonstrations began against President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government in early February, Venezuelan officials have been accusing Washington of stirring the country’s worst political troubles in a decade.

U.S. officials say Venezuela is using them as a scapegoat, inventing accusations to distract from internal economic and political problems. In the sternest words during the crisis from Washington, Kerry said on Thursday the Venezuela government was using a “terror campaign” to repress its own citizens.

“Every time we’re about to isolate and reduce the violence, Mr. Kerry comes out with a declaration and im-

mediately the street protests are activated,” Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said in a speech carried on state TV. “Mr. Kerry, we denounce to the whole world, you encourage the violence in Venezuela ... We denounce you as a murderer of the Venezuelan people.”

After tense relations during the 14-year rule of the late Hugo Chavez, there had been some hopes on both sides of a rapprochement between Venezuela and the United States.

Kerry and Jaua did actually meet in June last year, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization of American States in Guatemala, with both governments saying they wanted better ties.

But the bitterness and incidents have continued, with Maduro last month expelling three U.S. diplomats he accused of recruiting protesters.

Washington responded in kind.

“In Guatemala, you said to me ‘you

Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Elias Jaua attends an extraordinary session of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in Santiago, March 12, 2014. have to lower the tone’,” Jaua added in his speech. “We are not going to lower the tone to any empire until you order your lackeys in Venezuela to cease the violence against the people.”

Despite the harsh words, pragmatism has continued to trump politics when it comes to oil, with shipments unaffected and the United States remaining Venezuela’s main export market.

Elected last year to replace Chavez who died of cancer, former bus driver Maduro has faced six weeks of protests led by militant opposition leaders and students.

As well as the 28 deaths during the unrest, more than 300 people have been injured. Security forces have arrested nearly 1,300 people, of whom about 100 are still in jail.

Maduro says he has seen off a “coup” attempt, and he does not look in danger of being toppled by a “Venezuelan Spring”, with the military apparently still behind him.

But opponents and rights groups say he has used heavy-handed tactics against opponents, including unnecessary brutality from troops and police on the street. Several dozen detainees have denounced being beaten and other forms of mistreatment.

A hard core of mainly student protesters are vowing to stay in the streets until Maduro quits.

ANTI-GAY LAWS VIOLATE GLOBAL PACTS: U.N. RIGHTS CHIEF

A

legal ban on same-sex marriage in Nigeria, Africa’s largest country, violates international accords and could bring mob law against gays onto its streets, the United Nations’ human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Friday.

The comments in the Nigerian capital Abuja from the outspoken Pillay, a former top judge in South Africa, came as in Geneva Russia and Islamic countries urged more global focus on protecting traditional family life.

Pillay told her largely Nigerian audience that the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community was “living in fear”, since the loosely-drafted law, not yet put into effect, had gone onto the statute books.

“The law violates international law in that it is discriminatory and seriously impinges on the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly,” she declared.

It could also “lead to human rights defenders advocating for the rights of LGBT people receiving draconian prison sentences,” Pillay said, in a clear refer-

ence to phrasing in the measure that bars promotion of homosexuality.

U.N. human rights officials were already getting reports of widespread arrests of gays and lesbians in some parts of Nigeria, of physical attacks “including by mobs,” and a rise in blackmail and extortion, the U.N. rights chief said.

DEFENDING THE FAMILY Officials in Nigeria, and other African countries like Uganda, whose own legislation criminalizing homosexuality has also been criticized by Pillay, often argue that the measures are aimed at defending family life from attack.

At the U.N.’s 47-nation Human Rights Council, Russia -- whose own restrictions on gays have brought strong criticism from Western and some other countries -- argued on Friday that the family was the “natural and basic unit of society.”

Russia has recently introduced a law banning “promotion of homosexuality”, a move that led Western

leaders to stay away from the recent Winter Olympics and the Paralympic Games in the southern Russian resort of Sochi Reflecting the stand of the Russian Orthodox Church, with which President Vladimir Putin identifies, a Moscow diplomat told the Council that it should be addressing the “problems facing the institution of the modern family.”

A similar view was voiced by the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which fiercely rejects the idea that gays are covered under U.N. rights pacts, and by Namibia.

But Netherlands and the international humanist organisation IHEU rejected this stance. A Dutch diplomat told the council that the judicial harassment of defenders of the LGBT community and criminalization of gays were deplorable.

“Imprisoning people on the basis of sexual orientation is a violation of human rights, including the freedom of expression, association and assembly,” an IHEU speaker from the British Humanist Association said.

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usiness B AND

O T Cameron urges Scots to heed ECHN

LOGY

business warnings on independence

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ritish Prime Minister David Cameron urged Scots on Friday to heed warnings from the head of the Bank of England and business leaders about the uncertain consequences of voting for independence in a referendum in six months’ time.

Cameron told the Scottish Conservative Party conference in Edinburgh that the government faced a “monumental battle” to keep Scotland as part of Britain at the September 18 referendum.

Dismissing accusations from Scottish nationalists of trying to bully Scots into voting against independence, he said the vote was a major life choice, and no decision should be taken without full awareness of the consequences.

Business leaders have raised concerns about Scotland leaving the United Kingdom after more than three centuries of union with England, fearing uncertainties over currency, tax, regulation and membership of the European Union.

All three main UK political parties have ruled out sharing the pound, which is the Scottish government’s preferred currency option if voters back independence.

Cameron said the warnings had come from non-partisan figures, with leaders of oil giants Shell (RDSa.L) and BP (BP.L) and financial services heavyweights Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) (RBS.L), Standard Life (SL.L), and Barclays (BARC.L) all joining the debate in recent weeks.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has been at pains not to get embroiled in the political debate over Scotland, but has set out the difficulties of any currency-sharing arrangement and has said that RBS may have relocate to London in the event

British Prime Minister David Cameron gestures as he speaks during a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (not pictured) in the West Bank town of Bethlehem March 13, 2014. of a Scottish split.

“The idea that these are empty warnings and political scare-mongering is a myth - and we owe it to the people of Scotland to take that myth apart,” Cameron told party activists.

His intervention comes after an opinion poll found support for independence was at its highest in six months. A Survation poll found 39 percent of Scots planned to vote Yes for independence, compared to 48 percent No and 13 percent undecided.

Scottish leader Alex Salmond argues that Scotland, with its offshore oil reserves, could be a prosperous nation, and that independence will give it the chance to raise and spend its own money rather than being directed by a London-based government.

IBM says it has not given client data to the U.S. government

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nternational Business Machines Corp has not relinquished its customers’ data to the U.S. government and would challenge any orders to do so, the company said in a blog post on Friday.

The post by the world’s largest technology service provider is the latest backlash by a tech company against U.S. electronic surveillance practices, after published reports on Wednesday that alleged the government used websites to break into computers.

“IBM has not provided client data to the NSA or any other government agency under any surveillance program involving the bulk collection of content or metadata,” Robert Weber, IBM’s senior vice president of legal and regulatory affairs, wrote in the blog post.

“If the U.S. government were to serve a national security order on IBM to obtain data from an enterprise client and impose a gag order that prohibits IBM from notifying that client, IBM will take appropriate steps to challenge the gag order through judicial action or other means,” Weber said.

He added that the New Yorkbased company would challenge national security orders to obtain data stored outside the United States and that efforts to access that data should go through recognized legal channels like treaties.

The NSA has “co-opted” more than 140,000 computers since August 2007 to inject them with spying software, according to a slide leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and published by The Intercept news website on Wednesday.]

In a statement, the NSA said the reports were “inaccurate” and said it does not target users of global Internet services without appropriate legal authority.

“Reports of indiscriminate computer exploitation operations are simply false,” the agency said.

IBM is one of several U.S. tech companies hit by the growing government spying scandal. Its sales to China fell by 20 percent in the second half of last year as Beijing encouraged state- owned companies to buy China-branded products on fears of U.S. government spying.

In the post, Weber also called for greater transparency

and a robust debate about government surveillance.

“Data is the next great natural resource, with the potential to improve lives and transform institutions for the better. However, establishing and maintaining the public’s trust in new technologies is essential,” he wrote.

On Thursday, Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg also blasted the U.S. government’s electronic spying.

“When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we’re protecting you against criminals, not our own government,” Zuckerberg said in a post on his personal Facebook page.

The documents showed that the NSA impersonated Facebook web pages in order to gather information from targets. When those people thought they were logging into Facebook, they were actually communicating with the NSA. The agency then used malicious code on the fake page to break into the targets’ computers and remove data from them.

The agency rejected the reports and declined impersonating any U.S. company websites.

He has accused the pro-UK “Better Together” campaign of scare-mongering about independence, dubbing it “Project Fear”.

Cameron said that voting against independence did not mean choosing to keep the status quo between London and Edinburgh, and that the process of transferring policymaking powers to Scotland’s devolved parliament would go on.

“A vote for ‘no’ is not a vote for ‘no change’,” he said. “We are committed to making devolution work better still.”

Although the separatists are still trailing in support, opinion polls have narrowed this year, prompting British officials to warn against complacency as the referendum nears.

Cameron last month stepped up the debate with a speech at the cycling venue used for the 2012 London Olympics. In what commentators dubbed a “love-bombing”, he declared to Scots: “We want you to stay”.

On Friday, he returned to the sporting theme as he looked forward to Scotland’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games in July, and described the union with England, Wales and Northern Ireland as a “family of nations”.

“We’ll see the strength of that family again at the Commonwealth Games this summer. When the call went out for volunteers at Glasgow 2014, more than a quarter of those who responded were from elsewhere in the UK ,” he said.

“Because it’s not ‘over the border’, it’s not a foreign country: this is our home, and when any corner of these islands needs back-up or support, the rest is there.”

GODADDY EYES INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING

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eb hosting company The GoDaddy Group Inc is preparing for a second run at an initial public offering, according to two people familiar with the matter, as the 2014 tech IPO pipeline continues to grow.

GoDaddy, the Internet domain registrar and web host known for its racy ads, would join a number of high-profile technames expected to go public this year in the wake of Twitter Inc’s successful debut. They include “Candy Crush” developer King Digital and cloud services providers Box and Dropbox.

The company is in the process of selecting underwriters for its IPO, one of the two sources said on condition of anonymity.

GoDaddy was not immediately available for comment.

GoDaddy had filed to go public in 2006 but was told at the time that it would be required to take a 50 percent haircut -- a percentage that is subtracted from the par value of assets that are being used as collateral -- on its initial public offering.

The company instead decided to pull its filing, citing unfavorable market conditions.

The company, founded in 1997, was eventually acquired by a private equity consortium led by KKR & Co and Silver Lake in 2011 for $2.25 billion. Silver Lake declined to comment while KKR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other private equity buyers included Technology Crossover Ventures.

GoDaddy, which provides website domain names, is famous for airing bawdy commercials with scantily clad women for the past decade during the Super Bowl.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the plans.

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BUSINESS AND T ECHNOLOGY

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Spain tax proposal calls for company rate cuts, VAT hike S

pain must cut individual and business tax rates and increase levies on consumer items from alcohol to fuel to repair one of Europe’s lowest tax takes, according to proposals the government took in hand on Friday.

The government will use the recommendations from a group of experts to create a tax reform bill that will go to Parliament by June, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said at the government’s weekly news conference.

The law will come into effect in 2015, an election year, and 2016.

The reform aims to widen the tax base to make the most of an economic turnaround, rather than directly increase the country’s tax revenue, which fell to 36.4 percent of economic output in 2012.

“Where there’s been a cut in one tax, there’s been an increase in another to collect the same.

If we’re able to create a more efficient system, it’ll help economic recovery,” one of the members of the committee, who asked to remain anonymous, said.

Spain’s tax take, over-reliant on revenue from a property boom which turned to bust in 2008, has fallen almost 50 billion euros ($69.64 billion) in the last six years and is plagued by complicated loopholes, exemptions and a massive black economy.

Commissioned by the Treasury Ministry last year, the proposal calls for cuts to income taxes and reduction of the corporate tax rate from 30 percent to, first 25 percent, then 20 percent.

The rate cut would be accompanied by the removal of numerous tax breaks which have permitted most large companies to pay an effective rate of less than 5 percent.

Meanwhile, the report includes a call for some products and services to be moved out of the reduced value-added tax (VAT) brackets of 4 percent and 10 percent and put into the standard 21 percent category.

It also calls for increases to environmental, alcohol and electricity levies.

In a research paper published last year, BBVA bank said a cut of 3.5 percentage points in social contributions coupled with a 2 percentage point increase in consumer taxes would add 0.74 percent to gross domestic product and create more than 200,000 jobs in two years.

Target Warns Data Breach Could Be Worse Than Reported So Far T

arget Corp. warned that last year’s massive security breach could have been more extensive than reported so far.

“Our investigation of the matter is ongoing and it is possible that we will identify additional information that was accessed or stolen, which could materially worsen the losses and reputational damage we have experienced,” the company said in its 10-K annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

The company has so far said that some 40 million payment card records were stolen along with 70 million other customer records during a massive cyberattack over the holiday shopping season.

For example, the SEC filing noted that when the company initially identified the intrusion in mid-December investigators believed the information stolen was limited to some 40 million payment card records. They later discovered that

another 70 million pieces of customer data had been taken.

The Minneapolis-based retailer has previously warned that news of the breach has damaged its reputation, causing some customers to stay away and hurting sales.

Target executives are unsure how long it might take to restore the company’s reputation, the filing said.

“We cannot predict the length or extent of any ongoing impact to sales.”

When the company reported quarterly results on Feb. 26, it said

customer traffic had started to improve this year after falling significantly on news of the cyberattack, which surfaced in mid-December.

Congress is investigating the breach along with potential lapses at other retailers, and credit card companies are pushing for better security.

Target faces dozens of class actions and potential action from banks seeking reimbursement for millions of dollars in losses due to fraud and the cost of card replacements.

US government to get out of Internet naming business A

division of the U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday it would give up control of the group that manages much of the architecture of the Internet, including the parceling out of domain names.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration said in a statement it would shift those tasks to “the global multistakeholder community.”

NTIA’s role includes administering changes to the database that contains the list of names and addresses of all so-called “top level” Internet domains,

including the commonly used “.com,” .edu,” “.info,” and others.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit organization, will help launch a process to transition away from the current, U.S.-government-run Internet domain name system.

“The timing is right to start the transition process,” said Lawrence Strickling, U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information. “We look forward to ICANN con-

India court rejects Nokia appeal over asset transfer to Microsoft I

ndia’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered Nokia to give a 35 billion rupees ($572.5 million) guarantee before it transfers one of its biggest mobile phone plants and other assets in the country to Microsoft Corp.

The ruling upheld a lower court verdict over the plant in Chennai, which is the subject of a tax dispute, and had been challenged by the Finnish company.

Nokia’s case is one of several high-profile tax disputes involving foreign companies in India. Vodafone Group Plc, IBM and Royal Dutch Shell Plc are among foreign firms contesting local tax claims.

Nokia, which is selling its mobile phones business to Microsoft in a 5.4 billion euro ($7.5 billion) deal, last month appealed to the Supreme Court saying the Delhi High Court had imposed new conditions over the transfer after previously lifting a freeze.

The deal, which will allow Nokia to shift its focus to network equipment, is expected to close by the end of this month and Nokia had been keen for a

ruling before then.

Nokia did not immediately comment after the Supreme Court verdict on Friday.

Nokia had agreed at the Delhi High Court to set aside 22.5 billion rupees in an escrow account while it fights the Indian tax authority’s claims in court.

But it was also asked to give a guarantee for 35 billion rupees more, which the company has said will restrict its ability to contest the tax claims locally and internationally.

The Chennai plant is one of Nokia’s biggest phone-making factories and the company says it employs 8,000 people.

If the plant is not allowed to be transferred, Nokia can run it as a contractor to Microsoft but not for long, the Finnish company’s lawyers have previously said in court hearings.

Nokia was served with a tax demand of about 20.8 billion rupees last year in March. Including the anticipated liability, interest and penalty, the bill could total 210 billion rupees, a lawyer representing the tax office said in December.

vening stakeholders across the global Internet community to craft an appropriate transition plan.”

Fadi Chehade, ICANN’s chief executive officer, said it would seek input from groups including representatives from governments, the private sector and “civil society” around the world to develop the plan.

“All stakeholders deserve a voice in the management and governance of this global resource as equal partners,” Chehade said.

LAWSUIT SAYS GM HID IGNITION DEFECT IN RECALLED CARS

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eneral Motors was hit with a lawsuit on Friday from customers who said their vehicles lost value because of ignition problems that prompted a recall of 1.6 million cars.

General Motors Co’s new chief executive Mary Barra The proposed class action, filed in federal court in Texas, said GM knew about the problem since 2004, but failed to fix it, creating “unreasonably dangerous” conditions for drivers of the affected models.

“GM’s mishandling of the ignition switch defect....has adversely affected the company’s reputation as a manufacturer of safe, reliable vehicles with high resale value,” the lawsuit said.

GM did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

GM did not recall the cars until February, despite learning of problems with the ignition switch in 2001 and issuing related service bulletins to dealers with suggested remedies in 2005.

In announcing the recall, GM said that when the ignition switch was jostled, a key could turn off the car’s engine and disable airbags, sometimes while traveling at high speed.

GM has said it received reports of 12 deaths and 34 crashes in the recalled cars.

The plaintiffs are seeking damages from GM that include compensation for loss of the use of their vehicles and repairs and diminished resale value.

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LOCAL NEWS

CLEMENT HOWELL HIGH ARE NATIONAL INTERHIGH TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONS coming to perform well on the track. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know for example for sure that some of our main rivals were coming to focus more on the track events, so we just compensated it by coming strong LQ WKH ÂżHOG HYHQWV ZH ZHUH WKHUH :H PDGH ÂżUVW and second some times and other times we made ÂżUVW DQG IRXUWK â&#x20AC;&#x153;So the kids had it in their minds that we would MXVW PD[ RXW LQ WKH ÂżHOG HYHQWV DQG SLFNHG XS WKH rest of points on the track, and that was what we did. Ten points for win doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t matter whether it FRPHV IURP WKH WUDFN RU IURP WKH ÂżHOG WKDW ZDV WKH approach we took,â&#x20AC;? Ford said.

He said that the athletes were prepared more than ever this year, as they showed a great deal of dedication, and miraculously they entire team was injury-free coming into the championship. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thank God for the blessing because to train all season and got no injury, really speaks to a blessing, that canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be luck. Furthermore, the athletes really put in all the work, so this victory is really for them.

7KH\ VWDUWHG DV HDUO\ DV 2FWREHU DIWHU ÂżYH PRQWKV RI SUHSDUDWLRQ WKLV LV WKH UHVXOWV \RX DUH VHHLQJ KHUH Minister of Sports Hon. Akierra Missick presents the championship trophy to the victorious â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would really like to thank the parents who Clement Howell High School for emerging champions of the Annual National Inter-High School really stood out with me, who were patient, a very Track and Field Championship. At left is head coach Randy Ford right is Coach Samuel Forbes. supportive principal and VPs, and also the teachers. sixth with 211 .50 points, Maranatha Academy We also like to thank our sponsors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Beaches â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for

By Vivian Tyson seventh with 167 points, Wesley Methodist High providing lunch for the past three days,â&#x20AC;? he said. in eighth place with 103 points, while Holy Family The stand-out for Ford at the event was his class lement Howell High have been crowned the Academy ended in ninth place with 50I points. two male athlete, Dario Duncan, who he said Clement Howell High emerged with most clocked under 11 seconds on two occasions.

National High Schools Athletics Champions, turning back strong challenges from especially H.J. points 372 in the female team scores, ahead of The under 17 boys really made me proud.

Raymond Gardiner with with 225.50 points and Robinson High in Grand Turk, Raymond Gardiner I speak to Dario Duncan who has gone under 11 High in North Caicos and Majorie Basden in South H.J. Robinson with 196.50 points, but lost the male seconds on two occasions for the 100m. He has team scores 647 to H.J. Robinson 796.

Caicos. done 10.7, and for a 16 year-old, that is pretty Head coach for the team Randy Ford said impressive. And I am sure, joined with some other Clement Howell High ended with 796 points, followed by H.J. Robinson High with 647 points. that the strategy used in this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s championship athletes from Grand Turk and North Caicos, we In third place was Raymond Gardiner High with was for each student to take up four events â&#x20AC;&#x201C; two should see a decent 4x100m team representing the 515 points. Marjorie Basden High was fourth with WUDFN DQG WZR ÂżHOG VR WKDW WKH\ ZHUH QRW EXUQW RXW Turks and Caicos at the Under 18 boys. I see 40 SRLQWV 7FLSV &RPSUHKHQVLYH ZDV ÂżIWK He said, too, that the strategy included performing to 41 seconds, and that should get us on the medal with 231 points, British West Indies Collegiate ZHOO LQ WKH ÂżHOG HYHQWV VLQFH LWV ULYDOV ZRXOG EH podium once all goes well.

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Akia Gurrier, Jovoy Knight crowned Inter-High Championship Girl and Boy

C

lass three athletes Jevoy Knight of the Clement Howell High School and Akia Gurrier of British West Indies Collegiate were crowned champion boy and girl respectively at the 2014 renewal of the Annual National Inter-High School Track and Field Championship held at the National Stadium in Providenciales between March 8 and 11.

Both said that they were crowned champions as a result of the hard work and dedication put into the events in which they took part. Knight won the 100m, LQ VHFRQGV P LQ VHFRQGV DQG WKH P in a time of 54.0 seconds. He also played a role in his team 4x100m relay win.

Gurrier won the 400m in a time of1:05.6 seconds, the 800m in a time of 2:47.6 seconds and the 1500m in a time of 5:51.3 seconds and the 3000m open in a time of 12:40.1 seconds.

Knight said that even though he worked hard on WKH WUDFN DQG WKH ÂżHOG EHLQJ QDPHG FKDPSLRQ ER\ was not what he had anticipated.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expecting to get this (trophy). I tried my EHVW RQ WKH WUDFN DQG LQ WKH ÂżHOG :KLOH , EHOLHYHG , GLG ZHOO RQ WKH WUDFN , GLGQÂśW GR VR JRRG LQ WKH ÂżHOG because I had to pull out. I did the 100m, the 200m, and 400m, and I also did the high jump but I had to pull out of the high jump because of injury. My coach worked with me for the past couple of months at least, and prepared me for this championship,â&#x20AC;? Knight said.

For her part, Gurrier said that she was happy that she was able to stay injury-free leading up to the event even though she had participated in a number of extra-curricular activities. Âł0\ DLP LV WR VWD\ ÂżW GXULQJ DOO RI P\ H[WUD curricular activities because I also play soccer, and my parents and teachers, and everyone that surrounds me encourages me to keep focused.

She said that at some stage in the competition she was suffered some level of discomfort, but eventually over it, noting that she paced herself each day of the three-day competition and was able to end on a high

note. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For the 4x400m I was suffering from a lack of oxygen and I had a stomach ache, I got through that.

My right calf was hurting on the second day, but I pushed through that and excelled,â&#x20AC;? she said.

Both are now looking forward to be selected to the Carifta Track and Field Championship team to be held in Martinique on the Easter Weekend.

Knight noted: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I hope I can make the Carifta team, because I really tried hard.â&#x20AC;?

Gurrier said that she did well at the championships and is hoping to be selected this year. Âł, GLG P\ EHVW WR TXDOLI\ VR , JXHVV LW LV XS WR WKH 7&$$$ DQG WKH RIÂżFLDOV WR VHOHFW PH IRU WKLV opportunity,â&#x20AC;? she said.

Having been to the championships last year, Gurrierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advice to herself and fellow athletes is: â&#x20AC;&#x153;In order to win or place, you must work extremely hard because everybody is pushing to win.â&#x20AC;?

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CARIBBEAN SPORTS LOCAL NEWS

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Highlights of National Inter-High School National Championship

The Clement Howell High School in Providenciales emerged winners of the National Inter-High School Champion held at the National Stadium in Providenciales between Sunday (March 9) to Tuesday (March 11). Akia Gurrier, class

three athlete, of British West Indies Collegiate was crowned champion girl of the event, while Class 3 athlete, Jevoy Knight, of Clement Howell High Was crowned champion boy. The following are photo highlights of the event.

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