VOLUME 10 ISSUE 15

VOLUME 10 - No. 15

MAY 3RD - MAY 10TH, 2014

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BABY CRISIS AT HOSPITALS B

by Vivian Tyson

abies born in bushes and mothers with poor prenatal care are causing headaches for the InterHealth Canada-run hospitals, especially the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre in Providenciales, officials there said.

Dr. Soler Lorena, Head of the Pediatric Department at the hospitals said that one of the biggest problems faced by the pediatric department is managing the volume of sickly babies that arrive there on a regular basis, noting that a lot of them were born in the bushes and needed critical care due to their severe malnutrition condition.

She said, too, that another problem the department faces is the volume of local mothers, who, neither they nor their critically-ill babies have travel documents, making it very difficult to provide external care for them.

“The biggest challenge that we are facing here is the mother with no prenatal care, so those babies are really, really sick. Initially, they are infected and have respiratory problems, some of the babies are born in bushes and have no birth certificates,” Lorena revealed.

In recent times The SUN newspaper received several reports of baby deaths at the hospitals.

CEO of the hospital, Jill Magri, when asked to comment on those reports, stated: “Though infant mortality is a tragic event whenever it occurs, regardless of where or why it happens, it is nonetheless recognized as a problem in most developing countries throughout the world.

Although at Turks and Caicos Islands Hospital we have fewer deaths than is the average for the Caribbean and Central American region, we are investigating whether there are additional things we can do, either as a hospital or as part of a healthcare system, to improve this situation.

“We are pleased to be participating with the Services Review Board and our partners in TCIG and the Ministry of Health, to identify where such improvements are possible. It would be best for us to hold further comment until that investigation has been completed, but in the meantime we would like to emphasize to everyone how critically important it is for pregnant mothers to seek treatment for any chronic conditions such as diabetes and/or hypertension and to seek early and continuing prenatal care from any primary healthcare provider in TCI.

ALL HAIL THE NEW QUEEN. Twenty-one-year old Shanice Willams is the new Miss Turks and Caicos Universe

queen. The first runner-up title went to Codee Coalbrooke, while Todeline Defralien copped the second runner-up honours. Held at Brayton Hall last weekend, the five beauties competed in Swimwear, Talent, Costume, Evening gown and Final Answer segments.

In the end, winner Shanice took the Miss Intellect, Best Swimwear, Best Gown and Most Photogenic awards, while Codee won the Miss Popularity, Best Talent and Best Costume prizes. SEE PAGES 24 to 26 FOR FULL COVERAGE OF THE PAGEANT.

Continued on Page 2

Deputy Premier denies stadium move – Page 8 Mike Misick tells PNP to stop being soft – Page 9

Finance Minister explains how $170M loan was spent – Page 7

Community College launches $20,000 Scholarship Fund – Page 10

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

Baby crisis at hospitals to give babies a fighting chance at survival.

“This is necessary not only for “Unfortunately, many of these are the health and well-being of the very premature babies. But at least mother, but also for the health they have got a very good chance and well-being of her developing of surviving with the skills and infant. “ equipment that we have got here in Meantime, Dr. Lorena praised the hospital, but I can’t stress hard the National Insurance and the enough the need for good antenatal Immigration Department for care, and that is available,” she working closely with InterHealth to noted. provide the necessary funding and Miles also pointed out that documentations respectively, so mothers with no NHIP can access that the mothers and their babies care through the clinic in Blue Hills are able to access overseas care. on Providenciales.

For her part, Anne Miles, Chief In the meantime, Lorena said that CEO of the hospital, Jill Magri; Dr. Soler Lorena, Head of the Pediatric Department at the hospitals; and of Clinical Services for InterHealth there are a great deal of programmes Anne Miles, Chief of Clinical Services for InterHealth Canada TCI. Canada TCI, said that there has in place at the hospitals to improve been an increase in the number of the skills of nurses in the NICU and the nearer to the birth that you get. We do have a births at the hospitals. midwives, courtesy of online courses, some of which lot of premature babies here in the hospitals; some “And one of the messages that we want to get have been completed and others they are still taking. of these are born as young as 24-25 weeks, and these over is the importance of antenatal care to all the “We have increased and improved all the things babies have got not a huge chance of survival all the mommies. The antenatal care is available within in our NICU. We have a very good feedback from time, and if the mommy is fit and healthy, the longer the country through the Ministry of Health and also parents and very good outcomes in our babies more the baby stays in the mom the better it is for that through the hospital here and on Grand Turk as well, than 27-weekers, even for more than 25-weekers. baby. and it so important that the mom accept this care.

We have everything and all of our resources to keep “We do get some rather small babies, low birth It saves problems later on, and particular it means them here for longer time. weights that’s maybe sort of up to 35 weeks, and that we can keep an eye on the blood pressures of the “Before, we have to always rush to send them those babies are in our (NICU) Neonatal Intensive new mommies, and also maybe if they are diabetic, overseas. Today, we don’t have that rush; we can Care Unit, where we have got specially-trained we will make sure that that it is well controlled,” she keep them for weeks. We have NICU nurses, we nurses and a neonatologist as well, who look after said. have parental nutrition; we have everything we need the babies,” she said.

Miles added: “If you got uncontrolled high blood for them. We just need now to send them overseas In the meantime, Miles said that the hospitals pressure or hypertension, that can cause problems when there is a surgical problem,” Lorena said. are equipped with first world facilities that are able Continued from Page 1

Local Anglicans attends Southern Arch-Deaconry in Inagua

Members of the TCI Anglican delegation are photographed at the Provo Air Centre in Providenciales just before boarding their flight to the Bahamas for their Southern Arch-Deaconry Conference.

Turks and Caicos post cabinet meeting statement His Excellency the Governor, Peter Beckingham, chaired the meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday, 30 April 2014, at the Hilly Ewing Building, Providenciales.

All Ministers were present and at this meeting Cabinet: • Advised the Governor to approve the Financial Intelligence Agency Bill 2014. The Bill makes provision for the establishment of an independent agency responsible for the detection, prevention and control of financial crimes, and by so doing will disband the Financial Intelligence Unit currently managed within the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force. This will ensure the independence required internationally of such a body, and will place it on the same footing as similar bodies in the region.

The Bill will be introduced at the next sitting of the House of Assembly; • Advised the Governor to approve the Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2014. The purpose of the Bill is to implement the United Nations Convention Respecting the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, the UN Security Council Resolution on Terrorism and generally to make provision for preventing and combating terrorism. The Bill will be introduced at the next sitting of the House of Assembly;

• Advised the Governor to approve the Proceeds of Crime (Amendment Bill) 2014.

The Bill seeks to amend the principal Ordinance by making the necessary consequential amendments required for purposes of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2014 and the Financial Intelligence Bill 2014. The Bill will be introduced at the next sitting of the House of Assembly; • Approved amendments to the National Insurance Board Investment Policy Statement. The investment policy states the investment policies for the management of the National Investment Fund. The policy is reviewed periodically by the NIB Investment Committee, working with an Actuary and an Asset Liability Management Consultant, to ensure that the NIB has adequate funds to pay all benefits earned to date by its contributors; • Advised the Governor to approve the drafting of amendments to Schedule 2 of the Company Management (Licensing) Ordinance to repeal subparagraphs (1)(c) and (2) of paragraph 2. The amendments relate to provisions requiring licensees to ‘know your customer’ and references to ‘shadow Directors’. The concept is no longer used in the Companies’ Management (Licensing) Ordinance or the Companies Ordinance;

• Advised the Governor to grant approval for the allocation of Crown Land to the successful applicants who filed applications under the under the Grand Turk Residential Land Allocation Scheme GDT001 in accordance with the Crown Land Ordinance 2012; • Accepted explanations provided on the situation regarding the revenue arrears for Business Licensing and approved the request to write off business license arrears in the amount of $1,143,307.80 that have been verified/ assessed as uncollectable. The write off will proceed to the House of Assembly for endorsement in accordance with section 62 of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Ordinance 2012; • Approved appointments to the Physical Planning Board; Mr Burkley Malcolm, Chairman, Mr Rico O’Brien Smith, Vice Chairman, Mr Russell Garland, Member, Mr Neroy Kennedy, Member, Director of DEMA, Member, Director of DDME, Member, Director of Planning, Member; • Approved the appointment of Royal Robinson to the National Parks’ Committee.

Further information on these matters will be provided by Ministers in due course.

Thirty members of the Anglican faith in the TCI attended the Southern ArchDeaconry Conference of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands between Thursday, May 1 and Sunday, May 4 in Inagua, Bahamas.

Father Mark Kendall, Rector for the St. Thomas Parish, which comprises the St. Thomas Parish Church and the St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral in Grand Turk, who also responsible for the St. Johns Church in Salt Cay, said that the conference is an opportunity for the arch-deaconry to get together and share ideas.

“We meet annually, sometimes in the month of March, but this year we have delayed out meeting to May, because our conference is coinciding with the rededication of St. Phillips Church in Inagua. The church was destroyed by Hurricane Ike and they recently completed the restoration,” he said.

Ft. Kendall said that the TCI group would be in attendance at the service on Thursday (May 1, 2014), and then the conference the following three days. He said that plenary sessions were outlined for Friday and Saturday, where each of the eight parishes with the archdeaconry would give reports of its stewardship over the past year, plus discussions of events.

A closing service on Sunday climaxes the conference.

The diocese of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands is divided into four arch-deaconries. The Turks and Caicos Islands is located in the Southern Arch-Deaconry.

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

Regent colour

by HAB Group

•Exclusive five unit development •20 x 20 polished porcelain tiles •24 hour security •Classic Mediterranean design •Custom Italian cabinetry •Shopping & dining on your doorstep •Top of the line Frigidaire appliances •Granite countertops •Direct beach access •Kohler sanitary fixtures

by HAB Group

•New Construction •Home to over 30 TCI businesses •Excellent visibility and signage •Elevators to second floor •Fully optimized web site •Marketing opportunities available •Landscaped gardens •24 hour security & CCTV •Two storey car-park •State-of-art conference center •All major TCI banks in vicinity

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

LOCAL NEWS

AT TURTLE

COVE MARINA

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LOCAL NEWS

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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LOCAL NEWS

Majority of $170m loan went to outstanding bills, says Finance Minister

Finance Minister Hon. Washington Misick told the House of Assembly during its meeting this past week that the majority of the $170 million drawn down from the $260 million United Kingdom guaranteed loan went in outstanding bills and recurrent expenditures.

“By the end of 2008 and 2010 TCIG accumulated a deficit which had increased to $94.1 million in unpaid debts in addition to the existing public cost of $74.4 million.”

While telling the House that he could not give the full details of all the payments at that time, he noted that bills gobbled up most of the funds. He told the House that hundreds of bills were paid over the past two years provided by the funds.

“There were hundreds of bills paid over a 20 to 30 month period.

I do not at this time have the

detail to all of those stats. The remaining funds – over and above $152 million – facilitated the remaining payment plans in the current items such as salaries, rents, subventions and other government costs. The unpaid bills were actually funded from loans from the DFID, Scotiabank and FirstCaribbean. These loans were then satisfied and liquidated by the bond of $170 million,” he said.

He told the House that the loan assisted TCIG in its efforts to stabilize the economy since there was no money in government coffers between 2009 and 2010 to undertake such task.

“By the end of 2008 and 2010 TCIG accumulated a deficit which had increased to $94.1 million in unpaid debts in addition to the existing public cost of $74.4 million.

There were no reserves to finance the debt between 2008 and 2010, and as such, warranted the reform programme to stabilize government finances, which proved to be very difficult because TCI had no reserves and no credible financial management

systems in place,” he pointed out.

Explaining the UK backed loan, the Finance Minister said: “The $260 million loan was comprised the following – $170 million bond due in 2016 and $90 million revolving credit facility not drawn down on. TCIG received $170 million in cash from the issue of the bond.”

The Finance Minister also told the House that in addition to the loan that TCIG will have to repay, it is saddled with another $15 million debt, which he said was initially a gift from the United Kingdom Government, who later informed the local government that it had changed its mind and would be converting the gift into a loan because it did not want to set a bad trend.

“It is worth pointing out that of the monies, something close to $15 million were advances made to TCIG by Her Majesty’s Government; the plan when it was issued were grants, but they were actually converted into loans because Her Majesty’s Government was concerned that it would be setting a bad precedent,” the Minister told the House.

Finance Minister Hon. Washington Misick

JOB VACANCY

SENIOR JOURNALIST JOB DESCRIPTION

KEY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES • Deputising for the Publisher & Editor-in-Chief at various local, regional and international meetings.

• Managing the day-to-day operations of the newspaper to ensure that systems are followed and maintained to the highest standards. You will directly be responsible for the editorial product – from planning to production - as well as managing our editorial staff, assigning reporters for daily coverage of local events, assigning and editing freelance copy and photos; • Interviewing hiring and training staff; • Overseeing all editorial content, layout of daily and special sections and editing and planning copy and pages of all publications of SUN Media Group as assigned.

• Signing proofs of pages produced to verify that they have been checked and advising Editorial and production personnel on matters pertaining to the scanning of photographs and on the completion of pages to facilitate printing according to established schedules.

• Design sharp, eye-catching headlines, front pages and inside pages and adjust photographs that maximize the display opportunities for visual effect.

• Serve as Chief Designer or Art Director for Special Projects and Sections, including Magazines.

• Any other related duties that may be assigned from time to time by the Publisher & Editor-in-Chief.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE • Masters degree in Digital Media and Communications or related discipline • Minimum 10 years Manager Experience, at least three years at senior manager level • Track record in effective management and an ability to manage in a fast paced environment • Must have a thorough understanding of media law and practices DURATION: 1 year contract (renewable)

APPLICATION PROCEDURE: Resume with current contact information must be accompanied by a cover letter to Hayden Boyce, email haydenboyce@yahoo.com

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

Government denies scrapping National Stadium

the National Stadium. It is our national Government has dismissed as stadium, and the site will remain as is, mischievous rumours talks that it was with the necessary repairs,” she said. taking steps to remove the lights and Minister Missick added: “I also bleachers from the National Stadium, as a received the same call from the sign that it has given up its fight to regain Foundation, through our lawyers saying control of the facility after it was seized that they heard the same rumour that almost four years ago by the Turks and we are breaking down the site. And I Caicos Islands Education Foundation over told them that if government was doing an ownership land dispute. something like that it would be official A well-placed government source told and they would know. We are not The SUN that a government department removing anything from that site; we are was contacted to undertake estimates for doing the necessary repairing work on dismantling and removing of the floodlights the track and on the sand pit, things will and bleachers from the facility about two be moved in order to fix them.” weeks ago. But was contacted again last Premier and Minister of She said that from her understanding, week not to pursue that directive, since Education, Youth and Sports, talks to reach an amicable settlement negotiations between the Education are in high gear, and could be reached Foundation and government was back on Hon. Akierra Missick. soon. track.

“Negotiations are going very well. Actually, the AG The source said that it was proposed that the lights and whatever could have been accommodated would Chambers and their lawyers are the ones that are have been stored at the Down Town Ball Park, while leading those discussions, everything is under active negotiations. So, I am hoping they tell me they have the other stuff would have been placed in storage.

Richard Savory, attorney representing the Turks signed everything in time, but to say that I have an and Caicos Islands Education Foundation, when estimate on the time, I do not,” she said.

And even though the government has seemingly contacted, said that as far as he was concerned negotiations were still taking place, and was not has no plans to relinquish ownership of the stadium, many in the public domain, especially in the sporting aware that government was making such plans.

When contacted, Minister of Education, Youth and arena said they are not sure what to believe.

A senior sporting official, who did not want to Sports Hon. Akierra Missick dismissed the charges as be identified, owing to the close relationship with idle talk designed to create mischief.

“Nothing is moving from the National Stadium. government, said that if such a move were to have The site is remaining as is. Moving them to where? happened, the biggest losers would be the youth of the The (opposition) PDM asked the same question in Turks and Caicos Islands.

The sporting official said that no matter the Parliament, I wonder why they continue to make mischief. But for the official statement, no, there is outcome, the public wants to see government put up a no intention at this stage to remove anything from valiant fight for the property.

Also weighing in on the debacle, former premier Michael Misick said that he would like to see government force a compulsory acquisition of the stadium and later offer either cash payment alternative piece of land.

“The land was never owned by the trust fund (Education Foundation). The trust had an option on the land. The land was owned by Provident Ltd. The trust fund agreed that they would give up their right to the land and the government would have bought the land from Provident Ltd., directly and build the national stadium. Why else would we spend $10 million building a national stadium on private land?

If there wasn’t an agreement, we could have done a compulsory acquisition.

“It is untenable to think that a private entity can own the national stadium. It is untenable for the government to agree that they would take away the facilities of the national stadium because they can’t come to an arrangement with a private trust fund,” Misick said.

He added: “The national stadium, just like when you are building roads or hospitals or airports, is in the national interest. It is a very straightforward programme. If the legal issues are not resolved, then it is incumbent on the government to do a compulsory acquisition.

“I think there has been a lot of misinformation and misinterpretation on behalf of Richard Savory, who is the lawyer for the trust fund. Number one, it was a clear agreement, and as the person, who was premier when that happens, we made the decision in cabinet, we then left it up to the attorney general and the technocrats to ensure that the agreement was signed and that everything was done at implementing the decision of cabinet.”

Alexandra Resort

is inviting suitable applications for the following positions:

REFRIDGERATION AND AIR CONDITIONING TECHNICIAN Responsibilities:

»» Installing, troubleshooting, repairing and maintaining the refrigeration and air conditioning systems »» Fabricate and assemble refrigeration and air conditioning systems. »» Carry out all necessary changes to air in the system, test lines, components and connections for leaks »» Install expansion and control valves on units and adjust and replace parts as needed

Requirements:

»» Must possess a minimum of 5 years 4 star background in same or similar position »» Certification or diploma from a formal Electrical or Technical institution is required »» Must be a highly organized individual »» Must be computer literate and have excellent, clear communication skills written and oral

The Alexandra Resort is also looking to fill the following line positions: Gardeners, Housemen, Janitors, Labourers and Room Attendants…to qualify for these positions you should be able to push/pull carts weighing up to 150 lbs.

Must be able to ensure the cleanliness of all areas assigned, which may include guest rooms, public areas, linen closets, walls, floors, gardens and grounds.

Must be able to stand, for long periods of time and also have the ability to climb several stairs several times each day. ***Salaries for these positions will commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Salary for this position will commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Please Submit Applications to: cgibbons@wihl.com A copy should also be submitted to the TCI Labour Department.

Submissions to be no later than May 16th, 2014 Turks and Caicos Islanders need only apply.

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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LOCAL NEWS

Mike tells PNP to stop being ‘softy-softy’ Former Premier Michael Misick said that he has confidence in the current Progressive National Party (PNP) government to right what he said are the many wrongs instituted by the British over the four years that they have installed their interim administration to oversea the affairs of the TCI. However, he is not happy about the way his party’s administration is going about fixing those anomalies, as the public is beginning to believe that the administration does not have a strong will power to rubbish some of the things the British are forcing upon the country, including urgent means to find revenue.

“I can only go by what I see, and the perception is that the government is not strong enough or doesn’t oppose the will of the British. I am a PNP I still have confidence in the government, but clearly it is time for them to stand up.

You cannot run a country especially in a colonial setting by being ‘softy-softy’.

“You have to stand for what you believe in; you have to represent the interest of the people, and then when you have obstructions or obstacles from the British Government, then you have to come back to the people and let them know,” the former premier advised.

He said that while the latest Constitution has tethered the government in a significant way, there are other measures that can be taken to better the lives of Turks and Caicos

Islanders, adding that time is still on their side politically.

“In spite of the weakness of the Constitution there are things that can be done to advance the goodwill and the interest of Turks and Caicos people. I am still hopeful that the government would do it. The government is almost midterm, so they still have an opportunity. They need to show that they are not accepting everything and anything that is just pushed down their throats. And unfortunately, that is the perception the public has. And so, the onus is on them to change that perception,” he said.

Back to basics He added: “I believe that the present government has a responsibility and opportunity to begin to right those wrongs. I believe that they have to go back to basics of making sure that Turks and Caicos Islanders involved in every aspect of our economy; that hiring practice in relation to government, to make sure that we hire qualified Turks and Caicos Islanders and that they have the opportunity to be promoted and to be given some of these positions that they brought in people from the UK to take over.

He said that the government should resist the urge to implement taxes on the TCI people, arguing that the timing

Londolozi Ltd.

is inviting suitable applications for the following position:

is wrong to want to impose payroll tax on the people.

“First, you can’t grow an economy by taxation. I believe that payroll tax should not be introduced. I believe that some of the other taxes should be relaxed. I think increasing business licenses fees is not in the interest of Turks and Caicos Islanders and growing Turks and Caicos businesses.

We have to create incentives because not only are we competing against the region – the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, St. Kits - we are competing against Dubai and the Maldives and other places that are seeking foreigndirect investments.

You grow the economy by growing incentives for foreign-direct investments, and when you are an island you have to give more incentives than you were in London or New York because London, New York or Tokyo are major cities that in their rights are incentives. I believe that it is the wrong time to be taxing people. I believe that the payroll tax is the wrong tax for the wrong people, because the payroll tax affects the people who can afford to pay the least.”

He said that based on what happened over the past four years, investors would potential investors could harbor thoughts to whether or not to invest in the TCI since their good reputation could be tarnished.

“I believe that as long as we are a

Turks and Caicos Sun Suite#5, Airport Plaza Providenciales Turks and caicos islands Tel: (649) 946-8542 Fax: (649) 941-3281 Email: sun@suntci.com Read us online at www.suntci.com Publisher & Editor-in-Chief: Hayden Boyce Senior Editor: Vivian Tyson Office Manager: Dominique Rigby Information Technology and Production Manager: Kelano Howell 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.

colony of the British Government and especially what has happened over the last four years, if you are a serious investor you are going to think very, very hard before coming in here and investing millions of dollars.

“You come in here with your good name and maybe some English consultant come in and maybe he doesn’t like you, whatever the reason is, and then they tarnish your good reputation, and you lose not only your money but your good reputation as well,” he said.

NOTICE NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS

Sommelier Responsibilities:

»» Responsible for the recommendation and sales of wines and other beverages to guests and the wine »» Sales off premises. Offering and promote the digestive trolley. »» Maintain and update wine and all other beverage lists. Ensure wines off critical age get sold. »» Establish Sommelier recommendation. Check pricing is up to date. »» Work with head chef on menu and ingredients which are wine friendly. »» Helps writing the menus in accordance with Maitre d’. »» Carry out monthly stock control, inventory. Update continuously all stock forms. »» Perform normal service duties as assigned by the Maitre d’. »» Assist and replace the Maitre d’ during its absence inclusive cash up and reconciliation. »»

Requirements:

»» Must possess a minimum of 5 years 4 star background in same or similar position »» Certification or diploma from a formal Food & Beverage institution is required »» Must be a highly organized individual »» Must be computer literate and have excellent, clear communication skills written and oral »» Must be able to work along with Restaurant Manager of the company

Salaries for these positions will commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Please Submit Applications to: cgibbons@wihl.com A copy should also be submitted to the TCI Labour Department.

Submissions to be no later than May 16th, 2014 Turks and Caicos Islanders need only apply.

Pursuant to provisions of the Non-Profit Organisations Regulations 2013 (The Regulations), the Turks and Caicos Islands Financial Services Commission makes known it has commenced registration of all NonProfit Organisations in accordance with Regulations 5,6,7,8,9 and 10.

Registration is required for;

All Non-Profit Organisations that are 1. Incorporated, formed or otherwise established in the Islands; or 2. Administered in or from within the Islands An exempted non-profit organisation is not required to be registered under the Regulations An exempted non-profit organisation means a non-profit organisation 1. The gross annual income of which does not exceed $5,000 and 2. The assets of which do not exceed $10,000 in value.

Application to Register

The Application to Register is available on the Turks and Caicos Islands Financial Services Commission Website; www.tcifsc.tc Departments →Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions → Non Profit Organisations.

Paper copies of completed applications must be delivered to the Head of Designated Non Financial Businesses and Professions at the Financial Services Commission offices in either Grand Turk or Providenciales.

The application must be accompanied by payment for the one time registration fee of $150

Further Information

Further information may be obtained from The Head of Designated Non Financial Businesses and Professions, Financial Services Commission on (649) 946 5314/ 941 8311 or by email to dnfbp@tcifsc.tc

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May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

TCI Community College Foundation launches $20,000 scholarship fund

by Vivian Tyson Twelve deserving and qualified students now have the opportunity to tap into scholarship funds provided by the Turks and Caicos Islands Community College Foundation this year, following its scholarship launch on Wednesday (April 30, 2014).

The launch took place at the Providenciales Campus of the college, and Claudette Munroe-Clare, Chairman for the Foundation said that $20,000 will be available to students under the programme this year. She said that the Foundation will seek to up the number of scholarship given as the years go by.

Claudette Munroe-Clare (centre) Chairman for the TCI Community College Foundation outlines the process by which candidates can tap into the TCI She said that the scholarship Community College Foundation Scholarship Fund, while looking on from left are board member Deveraux Malcolm, board member Lillian Boyce, board programme has been launched with a policy handbook designed to hold the member Keno Forbes and Samuel Forbes, Vice President for the TCI Community College and Principal for the Provo Campus. recipients accountable.

“Grants are to be given out, now we they also must produce evidence of legal and that the opportunity to apply for “This handbook is like a quick guide status; they should provide two forms of a scholarship is available to everyone to anyone to tap into the scholarship. are not too sure how many,” she said.

She said that the minimum government-issued identification; two student legally residing in the TCI. He There is a mission and there is a vision, and I would like to share the vision qualification to obtaining a scholarship letters of reference; copies of external said in addition to forms becoming results; transcripts; available at the College, they will also with the public. The TCICC Foundation is either getting four Caribbean examination will be recognized as the premier Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) personal statement from the applicants be available on the college’s website for fundraising organization for the TCI or International General Certificate of outlining reason they should be granted downloading. High schools across the Community College. Also, we are the Secondary Education (IGCSE) passes a scholarship; and proof of parents’ and country will be also be given handbooks and forms for students to peruse. main fundraising arm of the college,” – two at General Two or equivalent B guardians’ incomes.

Samuel Forbes, Vice President for Monroe-Clare said that the monies she said, adding that the list of criteria Grade and two at General Three or that will be available came especially the College, said that he is excited at the for obtaining a scholarship through the equivalent C Grade.

She said also that government from a major fundraiser staged last launch of the entity, since it guarantees programme is available in the handbook. more young people the opportunity to get She said that the offerings are full qualification guidelines will be followed September.

She said that government as well as educated while automatically propping and partial scholarship. She said that in granting of schools, meaning that a full scholarship will cover the cost recipients must fall within the priority the private sector has partnered with up the level of attendance at the college.

In the meantime, Board Member the Foundation to grant individual of tuition and $200 in books, while a areas as outlined by government.

She said applicants must have scholarships. Minister of Health and Lillian Boyce said that said that a partial scholarship covers the cost of evidence of acceptance from the Human Services Hon. Porsha Stubbs- number of persons and entities have tuition only. community college such as a letter, and Smith, according to Munroe-Clare, made pledges to the Foundation but has committed sponsor a scholarship, remained outstanding, but she is and so far from the private sector, the confident that those funds will be TURKS AND CAICOS WATER COMPANY LTD Gansevoort has committed to granting collected, since there will be a robust follow-up process that the Board will at least one scholarship.

Deveraux Malcolm, member of undertake.

TURKS AND CAICOS WATER COMPANY LIMITED is seeking suitably qualified individuals to fill the The total pledge at its major the TCI Community College Board following opening. Only candidates who meet the minimum requirements will be considered. of Governors and member of the fundraiser last year was $55,000, but Foundation Board said that the selection of that number $41,000 was collected, process will be fair and transparent leaving $14,000 to collect.

MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN

Iris M Williams seeks

1 Domestic Worker

PASSION BEAUTY SALON & SUPPLY SEEKS

1 HAIRDRESSER

Job Description • Responsible for maintaining the general condition of the company’s properties with regards to all aspects of basic electrical, plumbing and mechanical.

• Complete daily tasks as outlined by Supervisor.

• Complete maintenance request work orders on a timely basis.

• Performs all weekly, monthly and other scheduled preventative maintenance programs.

• Actively pursue new tasks or jobs when assigned work is completed.

• Maintain CCTV Security System.

• Maintain and service pumps and control systems.

• Maintain irrigation filtration system.

• Schedule material purchase order request.

Requirements • Should have eight years experience as a Maintenance Technician or experience working in a similar position.

• Must have strong skills in troubleshooting and repair of electrical, plumbing and general maintenance.

• Work with minimal supervision.

• On standby for 24 hours call out emergencies.

• Should have great oral and written communication skills.

• Must be proficient in Microsoft Office and Excel. ************************************************************************************** Applications giving full details of training, experience and education should be sent to Veronica Rigby by May 15, 2014 via email to ronnie@habgroup. com or fax to 649-946-5191. Only persons selected for an interview will be contacted by email or telephone to schedule an interview.

Salary $5.00 per hour

Contact 242-5435 or 341-0856

$5.00 per hour Contact 333-1235

SCUBA DIVE MASTER REQUIRED Needed:

◊ A hardworking person who has the skills and qualifications to perform the duties of a Scuba Dive Master aboard a vessel. ◊ Must be a certified and currently licensed and insured scuba dive master as will need to guide dives for both certified and non-certified divers. Must be excellent in guest relations and a good swimmer for guidance in water activities, snorkeling etc. ◊ Must be prepared to travel frequently aboard vessel and work long hours and holidays. ◊ Must speak English.

Salary is $19,000.00- $22,000.00 a year based on experience.

BELONGERS NEED ONLY APPLY. If you fit the above qualifications please send your resume to the following address: PO Box 560, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands.

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Page 11

LOCAL NEWS

Director of Tourism wants UK passenger tax scrapped

elimination of the tax because it adds additional costs to travelers to the region. We are pleased that HMG Director of Tourism Ralph Higgs wants to see has taken that measure, and hope in time they will the Air Passenger Duty (APD) – a charge levied on review it and see to its abolition, so that there will be flights flying to this region from the United Kingdom more travel to the region and generate for all parties – scrapped so that the Turks and Caicos as well as the concerned, including HMG,” Higgs said. wider Caribbean can flourish even more from British The tourism director said that the Caribbean tourists.

Tourism Organisation (CTO) should be congratulated Recently tourism in the Caribbean, including the for its persistence and diligence on the matter, and Turks and Caicos Islands, scored a major victory hopes that the regional tourism body pushes for after the United Kingdom government buckled under elimination of the tax. regional pressure to make changes to the tourismHiggs, in the meantime, said that the reduction in killing Air Passenger Duty.

APD should spark new tourism development interest British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George and travel to the region, which he said should bring Osborne, announced changes to the APD earlier in more revenue to governments across the region and April. The changes will see the knifing of APD bands HMG as well.

C and D for flights of more than 4,000 miles. All longBritain introduced the controversial travel tax haul flights will now carry the same, lower, band B tax in 1994. The APD was increased regularly, making rate, meaning persons travelling to the Caribbean will billions in revenue for the UK Government but pay the same as if they were travelling to the United increasing the price to travel from the UK to regions States. such as the Caribbean.

Osborne also said during his annual budget In addition to adversely affecting tourismpresentation to the House of Commons, that the dependent economies, a 2012 study by the World Caribbean has been put into the same band for the Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) revealed that duty as the United States of America. This means removing the APD would result in the creation of an that passengers travelling from Britain to Caribbean additional 91,000 British jobs and £4.2 billion being destinations will now pay the lower duty, which has added to that economy in 12 months. long applied to those travelling to the United States.

The CTO, in a statement, describes the Content that the UK has reduced the APD bands, announcement as a major victory for the Caribbean Higgs is still hoping for the day when the tax is community, which has been intensely lobbying for neutralized altogether. several years against what it describes as the UK’s “It [reducing the APD bands] is clearly a step in unfair APD band system which makes it costlier to the right direction, but we will like to see the total fly to the Caribbean than to rival destinations like

by Vivian Tyson

JOB VACANCY

HUMAN RESOURCE SPECIALIST JOB SUMMARY: Lead HR strategy and implementation for the WIV operation.

KEY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: • Recruitment and selection for employees through innovative and proactive recruitment campaigns, graduate programs and specialist skills.

• Maintain zero risk to the business from employee relations or related matters • Implement, maintain and optimize HR best practices • Implement & ensure that training & employee development policies and procedures are established, understood and optimized.

• Implement, maintain and enhance WIVs Performance Management systems and practices.

• Offer expert legal, generalist and best practice HR advice to the Senior Management Team and Business Managers • Ensure HR are involved and take responsibility for all employee relations issues at local levels • Help create a high performance culture where talent and achievement is recognized and rewarded • Ensure all training and development activities are managed in an effective manner QUALIFICATIONS and EXPERIENCE: • Degree in Human Resources Management or related discipline • Minimum 5 years HR Manager Experience, at least three years at senior manager level • Track record in effective HR Management ability to manage in a fast paced environment • Must have a thorough understanding of HR best practices DURATION: 6 month contract

APPLICATION PROCEDURE: • Resume with current contact information must be accompanied by a cover letter to Lydia Tucker, email lydia@wiv.tc APPLICATION DEADLINE: May 15, 2014

Tourism Director Ralph Higgs

Hawaii in the United States, giving them a competitive advantage.

The CTO said that the unrelenting efforts of tourism ministers across the region; the Caribbean diaspora in the UK; the WTO; the WTTC and other tourism partners, have paid off.

The CTO in welcoming the announcement added that “effective April 2015, the APD will be simplified into a two band system: Band A for short-haul flights of less than 2000 miles from London and Band B for all long haul flights more than 2000 miles from London.

The new Band B will be charged at the planned rate in 2015-16 (£71 for reduced rate passengers and £142 for standard rate passengers).”

Page 12

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

Independence is the only option for TCI, says former Premier

by Vivian Tyson The question as to whether or not the Turks and Caicos Islands is ready for independence is practically nonquestion, since it is tax-payers’ money and foreign-direct investment , secured by the locally-elected government that is the keeping the economy going with no financial help from the UK Administration.

“That question is an age-old question.

(Before abolition of slavery) they would say, ‘are black people ready to be free from slavery?’ It is our right to be (independent). It’s not a proper question.

It is our right to be independent; it is our right to govern ourselves,” the former premier reiterated.

He added: “I believe that we are ready, I believe that we have educated Turks and Caicos Islanders that can govern. We see that that progress that has been made has been made under both PDM and PNP. We see that during the Interim Administration that there was a depression.”

He said that since the local economy is fashioned primarily from United States money, with no economic benefit coming from the UK, and so if the TCI moves out of the British government shadows, it has nothing to lose.

“It is not a case where we get any economic benefit from being a British Territory. Ninety percent of our economy is American based. Most of the tourists come from the United States; the dollar is United States dollar. So what is it

million dollars, during the time when they were the Interim Administration.

That is why it is my firm position that the $260 million that was borrowed by the Interim Administration to prop up their administration is not a legitimate borrowing of the Turks and Caicos people. The only people who can borrow on behalf of the Turks and Caicos people is an elected government.

“The British are trying to do to us what the French did to Haiti. They laden you with that (debt), they put stringent payback requirements. And so, already some of politicians are saying, ‘we can’t discuss independence until we pay-off the debt’, which is not our debt.

It (saddling TCI with insurmountable debt burden) is a way to control our Former Premier Michael Misick future.

And so, we have to break this chain; that the British is bringing to the table we have to break this mental slavery, again? I don’t know. They don’t give and we have to say clearly to the British us a dime. All of the infrastructure we Government that we will not honour built was built from taxpayers’ money. any monies borrowed in the time of the In fact, what they have done in the four Interim Administration,” he asserted. years that is put us further and further He added: “I also believe that really, into debt,” he said. as a people, we have to decide what we In the meantime, Misick said want. And it is my firm belief that as doubled down on his argument that long as we are a British colony, we will the elected government should not never have true peace or prosperity. repay the $260 million loan that the For me pursuing independence is the British took out on its behalf, since the only route to true peace and prosperity, loan was secured when there was not and as the Americans would say, ‘the representational government and so, pursuit of happiness’.” there was no authority from the people Misick insisted that it is time to to saddle the country with such a huge break the historical chain of each time debt. that the TCI is on path to greatness, the “It is my belief that it was a strategic British Government intervenes and set decision on their part to borrow this $260 it back.

“As long as they have a situation where they are the ones benefiting and we are working for them, we never had a problem. But as soon as we begin to create wealth for our own people, then all of a sudden, the problem is corruption and anything that they can put a name to,” he said.

He said that had the TCI take the independence route in 1980, the country would have been far advanced today.

“Thirty years later we should not be having the same conversation. I believe that we made a mistake when we did not go independent in 1980. Had we gone independent we would have been a lot better country and a lot stronger country and our history would have been different. Today, even when you look at the growth and success we’ve made, we made in spite of the British Government, not because of them.

And you have a situation now where, because of strategic reasons, the British Government is less likely to voluntarily, without a fight, allow us to become independent.

“They have entrenched themselves in these islands, and they are doing more even to entrench themselves.

The present Constitution is laughable.

There is no space where can have a white man from England come down and think they are God over a black country. It is still incredible that in a 21st century, 500 miles off the coast of North America where there is the first black president that we have a country that is governed in an antiquated way,” he said.

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Page 13

LOCAL NEWS

Politics could feature prominently in Mike Misick trial – lawyer

by Vivian Tyson Courtney Griffiths QC, attorney representing Michael Misick, former premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands in his up-coming trial, said that he would not be surprised if politics plays a major role in the proceedings.

The high-profile United Kingdom lawyer said that his experience representing clients in a number of jurisdictions proved that politics has been used to secure convictions, and by virtue of the origin of the Misick case, he is not ruling out politics worming its way into the grand scheme of things.

“It is difficult to escape the idea that politics is completely divorced from criminal proceedings in whichever jurisdiction one practices. And so, it wouldn’t surprise me, given the origins of this investigation if politics played some role in the way in which the proceedings, in due course, progress,” Griffiths said.

Griffiths is hoping that a level playing field situation would prevail in the case despite the fact that true democracy has been eroded since the Sir Robin Auld-staged Commission of Inquiry in 2009.

“I think it is important that there be some kind of – and I use the words advisedly – democratic resolution of a problem which has plagued these islands for some time since the Auld Commission (of Inquiry) was set up so many years ago. And I think it is time that the line be drawn in this whole

Reporting To: Function:

Former Premier Michael Misick with his lawyer Courtenay Griffiths, QC, one of the top lawyers in England. episode,” he asserted.

Griffiths, who in 2012, represented former Liberian president Charles Taylor at The Hague for war crime charges, believes that should the Missick trial begin in July as is currently deemed by the court, his client would be at a disadvantage owing to the short time which the defense is given to effectively prepare its case.

“Most of the defendants in these proceedings have had several years in which to prepare for trial, and of course, everyone is aware that the SIPT has been on the ground for four years now, and they have that extended period in which to put their case together.

Effectively, we’ve, to date, only have a couple of weeks, and it would require an incredible effort on our part to get up to speed to be in the same position with the prosecution and the other defendants in the proceedings.

“Everybody is, of course, anxious to get on with the trial, and we are anxious as anybody else. But realistically, it is difficult to see how we would be in a position to proceed to trial in July, given the limited time we have to prepare to date,” Griffiths said.

Jamaican by birth, Griffiths, who, as a boy in 1961, migrated to the United Kingdom with his family, where years later he obtained a law degree from the

London School of Economics, said that he relishes the task of representing the former TCI premier.

“It was a pleasure to take on this particular task, and I am looking forward to representing Mr. Misick at the fortcoming trial. I have been fortunate in that over the three decades or so that I have been practicing in the United Kingdom, I have had the privilege of appearing in a number of high profile cases, for example the Irish Republic Army’s bombing of a hotel in Brighton (1986), which almost killed then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

“I was also involved in the Harrods Bombing (December 1983) and a number of other terrorist-type cases of that kind, and also a number of other high-profile murder trials over the years.

“So for me, coming back to the Caribbean, having left over 50 years ago, to do a case in the Caribbean, it’s like a home-coming on one level, and I am really looking forward to it. I have done cases in Bermuda, but Bermuda is more in the Atlantic than the Caribbean.

But this (the Michael Misick matter) is the first case that I have done in the Caribbean,” Griffiths said.

Sometimes described in the UK media as flamboyant, Griffiths came to the Turks and Caicos Islands fresh from securing an acquittal over the last several weeks of a man charged in the murder of a police constable in the United Kingdom 30 years ago, during a riot sparked by the death of a black woman who sustained a heart attack while police raided her home.

CHIEF ACCOUNTANT

Director of Finance Assists in the supervision of the general accounting functions of the hotel including the timely preparation of financial and operating reports and statistics and all balance sheet reconciliations. Audits internal controls when necessary

Skills Required: • Excellent Communication Skills • Very Good Leadership Skills • Must be Computer Literate • Excellent at working and applying mathematical concepts • Must be very good at analyzing and interpreting general business periodicals, professional journals or governmental regulations • Excellent Audit Skills Duties: 1. Assists with plans, supervises and evaluates the daily operations and activities of the accounting department 2. Plans, schedules and oversees the daily work of accounting staff functions including training, counseling and establishing monitoring goals 3. Assigns duties and examines work for exactness and conformance to policies and procedures.

4. Assists in preparing and supervising the timely preparation of all balance sheet reconciliations. Follow up and resolve all reconcilable items within a timely limit 5. Assists in managing the company’s bank and cash balances in line with policies set by the Director of Finance 6. Assists in overseeing income audit and ensures proper accounting of revenues and rebates 7. Assists in managing General Cashier and ensures proper accounting cash and deposits to include float counts 8. Ensures that all accounting operations are in compliance with company policies and practices 9. Ensures compliance and development of internal controls to protect company assets 10. Liaises with other departments as the need arises 11. Assist in managing accounts payable and ensures good relations with suppliers including keeping supplier account reconciliations current 12. Attends meetings when the need arises

13. Establishes high standards of behavior in all dealings with guests and staff. Performs duties with a high level of professional work ethics 14. Co-operates and forms a team with other members of Management and be supportive and loyal to the company 15. Other such duties as determined by the company from time to time

Position Overview: The Assistant Manager – Housekeeping assists in the managing and directing of the day to day operations of all Housekeeping and laundry functions. Provides support to the Executive Housekeeper in all areas of the Housekeeping operation, such as staff training, coaching and counseling and consistently inspects and enforces adherence to the Grace Bay Club standards of excellence. Participates in and enforces quality assurance for Housekeeping Department and department cost control measures. Makes certain the required LHW Brand Standards are achieved.

9. Respond to and follow through on guest requests, concerns and problems to the guest’s satisfaction 10. Delegate assignments and supervise all staff, room attendants, housemen , public area attendants 11. Monitor and perform inventories weekly/monthly. Ensure enough guest supplies, linen supplies and uniforms are available 12. Manage operating expenses to minimize costs while still maintaining excellent guest services 13. Assist with budgeting, forecasting and financial planning of the department 14. Assist with scheduling and payroll cost controls, such as edit of daily employee time card and enter employee schedule in the system weekly 15. Supervise and conduct daily detailed inspection of guest rooms, public areas, back of house and surrounding hotel areas. Ensures compliance with the hotel’s standards of excellence, health/sanitation standards and regulations 16. Any other duties which may be assigned by the Executive Housekeeper

Essential Duties & Responsibilities 1. Attend or conduct pre-shift brief meeting at 9am daily 2. Maintain clear and efficient communication and coordination with the Front Office and other departments of the hotel 3. To attract, motivate and retain staff. Provide leadership support and is readily accessible to staff.

4. Conduct performance, salary reviews and progressive discipline 5. Assist in interviewing, scheduling, training, development, empowerment, coaching and counseling of staff 6. Train staff by following hotel guidelines for the safe handling of all housekeeping chemicals and equipment 7. Review and monitor daily schedule to ensure enough coverage for that day 8. Refer and follow up on maintenance/equipment issues with Engineering. Work closely with Engineering for simple and quick repairs

Qualifications: • Bachelors Degree in Hospitality Management • Minimum 5 years of Housekeeping Management experience in a Luxury 5 Star Resort • Extensive knowledge of Chemicals, Upholstery, Floor Maintenance and Cleaning Solutions.

• Extensive knowledge of Laundry Operations • Experience managing a diverse team of minimum 35 persons • Demonstrated results showing continuous personal growth and development.

• Computer Literacy in Excel, Opera and Microsoft Word • Full competence and ability to read and write and communicate effectively in English.

• Must be able to work as part of a team and demonstrate a Service Attitude to all persons.

ASSISTANT MANAGER – HOUSEKEEPING

Email: humanresources@gracebayclub.com Fax: (649) 946-5758 P.O. Box 128 Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, British West Indies

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Page 14

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

Mike not ready to call curtains on public life

by Vivian Tyson

It appears that former premier Michael Misick is not ready to pull the plug on public life, but this is not his focus right now but to fights to clear his name of corruption charges leveled against him by the United Kingdomcommissioned Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (SIPT).

However, the former premier, who made the disclosure while fielding questions from The SUN during an exclusive interview, made it clear that his public contribution to society building does not have to be done through representational politics.

I will always be involved in the growth, the advancement and the development of our country. Mahatma Gandhi was not a politician but he was responsible for leading India into independence. Martin Luther King Jr. was not a politician but he led civil rights movement in the United States.

“So, strictly speaking, you don’t have to be a politician to be a part of the change. My top priority obviously is to clear my name, that is why I resigned in 2009 – to clear my name – and I am working feverishly to do that,” he said.

Speaking even more philosophical

Former Premier Michael Misick as before, the former premier said that he would never say no to entering representational politics but this time around, he will be led by the will of God. “Clearly, myself and my colleagues are innocent. I believe that we are being politically prosecuted, and once this is

behind me, my future is in God’s hands, and so God leads I will follow. So with that question, I would say, ‘never say never’,” the premier said.

Misick said that the while the incarceration in a Brazil jail and the subsequent charges against him after he returned to the Turks and Caicos Islands had weighed heavily on it, it could very be a blessing in disguise since it has made him stronger.

One thing being in prison or being oppressed, it is about your mind, because they can imprison your body, but it is up to you whether you want to allow them to imprison your mind, and God has given me the opportunity to come out with a straight mind, stronger than ever and even more determined. I did not have to go to a prison in Brazil, I could have been home over a year ago.

“But I was intentionally put there, thinking that it would break me but that has made me stronger. They have made me more determined. They have made me even more fearless. And so, I thank God for that, and I thank them for that,” he said.

He added: “I am not a cry baby. I take my licking and keep on ticking.

There are others who probably have gone through even more dramatic

AUTO TECH

Crust Holdings Ltd seeks to employ one

SEEKS

Pastry Cook

1 CASHIER

To assist Baker with the day to day preparations of the bakery. Caribbean experience an asset. Knowledge of the French Artisan style bakery a must.

Diploma in pastry and International 5 star Resort and Caribbean experience a must. Multi Language a must, Spanish/English/French

Please submit resumes to resortjobstci@gmail.com or 007 Emily House, 1105 Leeward Highway, Providenciales

Salary $5.50 per hour Contact

situations than I have. Obviously being in prison in a foreign country – you don’t know the language, you don’t know the people, you don’t know if they are talking about you. And so, it has had a dramatic impact on me, but I give God thanks for his mercies and his grace and not only keeping me safe there but also returning me safely here.”

In the meantime, the former premier has argued that based on the treatment that the British Government is meting out to the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands, it is now clear that the relationship between the people and the UK has reach a point of no return, and the recommended thing to do is to go their separate ways.

“Now I know without a shadow of a doubt that the relationship with the British Government and the Turks and Caicos is irretrievably breaking down, there is no future. It is like a marriage (that) is over. Sometimes people are married for years and they are living in the house for the sake of the children.

“And so, as far as I am concerned, the relationship between the British Government and the people of the Turks and Caicos is over and the sooner they come to grips with that would be better for all of us,” he said.

432-2323

TIKI HUT SEEKS

1 Mixologist

Final Touch Construction seeks

ONE

man Salary $10.00 per hour Contact 344-3275

WANTED

A BABYSITTER

Salary $7.00 per hour Must have at least three years experience in mixing and creating drink recipes

Applicant must be honest, hardworking, and fluent in English and French

Contact 331-0221

Salary $5.00 per hour Contact Jancilia 342-0462

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Page 15

LOCAL NEWS

Laws coming to ensure workers’ safety on the job

by Vivian Tyson

Before the end of the summer, employees across the Turks and Caicos Islands could be working in a safer environment, thanks to the efforts of Minister for Border Control and Labour Hon. Don-Hue Gardiner who plans to craft an Occupational Health and Safety legislation.

The minister made the revelation during an interview with The SUN while in attendance at the Employment Services Department Prayer Breakfast at Beaches Turks and Caicos on Tuesday (April 29, 2014).

He said that while there are laws to protect workers in the TCI, it has not gone far enough, and so, it is incumbent on his administration to ensure that that is done. He said that the document has already been drafted and will be taken to cabinet shortly for approval.

“I expect to have that put in the public domain in the next several weeks, certainly during the month of May, with a view to have it passed and portions of it coming into effect sometime this summer or the fall of this year. Because I see it as an important part of what we do and what we need to do to protect our workforce.

“That, coupled with a redraft of the Employment Ordinance that is going to repeal and replace the current one, we will expect to see those two key pieces of legislation sometime in the next several weeks,” he said.

The minister said that he intends to take the draft document to the public to have their input in the document also.

“We have got a first draft, and expect to take it to cabinet perhaps in a week or two, and once that is done we will consent to go into consultation on that in the draft form, rather than having it in a more perfect form and then go into consultation. What we really want is to have the public’s input before we come to the task of finalizing it. I know that these issues in labour can be very emotive, therefore, it is important that we get people to come through with their ideas beforehand,” the Minister said.

“We have laws that deal generally with their [workers] tenure of employment and how they are to be treated and certain other factors when it comes to the conditions under which they work. It has come to my knowledge, really, through this exercise, that there is not much in the way of that. So one of the things that I intend doing this year is to progress, and cause to be drafted a Bill dealing with occupational safety at the workplace,” he added.

Minister Gardiner said that his ministry is also cognizant of the consideration that it could be costly for employers to make the necessary occupational health and safety adjustments, and as such, a phasein process could take place.

“I also note that this legislation, certainly, the Occupational Health and Safety Legislation could potentially be a bit costly for employers because they would have to provide things like gloves and masks and other safety gear. Perhaps we would bring them in at different stages, but it is important that we begin to do the work. Therefore, when people go on their jobs, that they can feel and be safe – that is important for Hon. Don-Hue Gardiner us,” the minister said.

Savor Holdings Ltd seeks

ONE Head Chef Must have the following experience: • Maintain the highest standards of Food Hygiene, and adherence with all Health and Safety standards • Prepare and cook meals for small and large groups • International especially Caribbean experience a must.

• Able to sometimes work independently in a small space environment • Develop a menu, select quality ingredients, and choose portion sizes and food presentation techniques.

• In charge of creating new and innovative dishes for celebrations or events • Responsible for the overall operation of the catering facility.

This involves running the catering facility during an event or when deliveries are requested.

• Managers not only the client relations but also maintains employee and vendor relations to run a successful catering facility.

• Time Management Skills & Business Acumen is needed, must understand the business. You have to balance your expenses with your profits, manage some staff, minimize waste, and keep the kitchens running smoothly.

• Be able to travel at very short notice.

This position is ideal for someone who has been a Head Chef in a Restaurant/Hotel and has the necessary skills it takes to work in a 5 Star culinary environment.

All applicants that meet these requirements please submit resumes to resortjobstci@gmail.com or 007 Emily House, 1105 Leeward Highway, Providenciales.

Page 16

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

Taxi Association making a presentation to the Oseta Jolly Primary School

Provo taxi association donates to Oseta Jolly The Provo Taxi Association made a very important donation of toiletries, sanitation material and refreshments to the Oseta Jolly Primary School in Blue Hills on Monday (April 28, 2014).

The presentation, which was made at the school

by Alli Cox, vice-president for the Provo Taxi Association, comprised several packs of toilet tissues, sanitary hand towels and hand sanitizers, and several packages of water and juices.

During the presentation, Cox said that the request from the school regarding assistance with these items touched the heart of the Association, and members did not hesitate to jump to the cause.

“We came together [to present the school] with these items, and hopefully, it helps you through this part of the school year,” Cox said.

“We just want to show that we give back to the

community and that we have a positive side,” said the association’s vice-president.

Accepting the gifts was principal of the school, Rachel Handfield who said that the administration was happy for the gesture, adding that the juices and water would be used to replenish the school’s food programme supply.

“We want to say a big thank you to the Taxi Association for this kind donation. They continue to give us their generous support, and we are so very grateful for it. The donation will go a long way, and we look forward to the continued support of the Taxi Drivers Association,” Taylor said.

In photo, Alli Cox, Vice President of the Provo Taxi Association, present the gift to the Principal of the institution Rachel Handfield, while students share in the presentation.

Clergy intercedes for TCI workers and bosses

Pastors of various denominations joined Ministry of Border Control and Labour officials, including Minister Hon. Don-Hue Gardiner, to offer prayers for the Turks and Caicos Islands workforce in a prayer breakfast setting at Beaches Resort and Spa on Tuesday (April 29).

Clara Gardiner, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Border Control and Labour said that the event was an important one since employers and employees are the backbone of the Turks and Caicos Islands and need God’s continued protection to carry out their tasks.

The prayer breakfast was one of several events during the course of the week leading up to Workers’ Day that is observed on May 1. This year’s workers’ focuses on safety and health in the use of chemicals at work.

“It is very good to see members of the pastors’ fraternal and the religious community here holding up the nation really, because workers are really the nation, and they are there in their congregation every Sunday. They are a captive audience of them.

And so, it is good to see them here prepared to go through this exercise, pray for the workers and also pray for people who also provide work, and pray for the country as a whole.

“I believe that this kind of function is important to our national growth and development, because the Bible says that the nation that forgets God is the nation that will perish. So I think that we lift Him up in everything, and these kinds of events are important,” she said.

She said that it is a universal belief and also imperative that workers who are directly exposed to hazardous substances should have the right to work in a safe and healthy environment and be properly trained and protected.

“For this reason, coupled with the series of incidents worldwide, the ILO for Safety and Health of workers echoed a clarion call for governments,

employers, workers and their organizations to collaborate on the development and implementation of national policies and strategies in a sound management of chemicals at work.

“It is fitting therefore, the Minister of Border Control and Labour reiterated the announcement that the government is taking steps to introduce legislation to provide for the general safety and health of all workers in the workplace in the Turks and Caicos Islands. So critical is this to the safety and health and the viability of our society as well as our wellbeing and our economy,” she said.

She added: “It is fitting therefore, that we as a ministry and department engage our stakeholders, many of whom are represented here, to heighten awareness and support individual and collective imperatives for safety and health in the workplace.

Your presence here this morning is an indication that you recognize your responsibility, and we appreciate your presence.

“It is fitting that we dedicated this moment and time to recognize and thank God, who is the creator of all things; the provider of all things; and the source of all wisdom, knowledge and understanding, for His protection of all workers in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“It is our prayer that the petitions and spiritual intercessions rendered on our behalf that our permanent and migrant workforce will inspire us to action, to legislate, to educate, to train, to resource, to manage, and by so doing, fulfill the mandate that we are positioned to fulfill through Christ Jesus.

During the event, Pastor Pedro Williams offered prayers for the TCI Workforce and Government; Bishop Sherlock Padmore and Rev. Bruno Summarco offered prayers for employees and the migrant workers community, while Pastor Dale Taylor offered prayers for employers.

Chaly Josue (centre) displays a voucher of $5,200 which represents the amount won in the jars of coin promotion. Sharing in the moment at right is owner of Price Club Gus Karagianis and George Hall (left), General Manager of Price Club.

Chaly Josue wins Price Club’s jars of coins promotion

Price Club customer Chaly Josue has won a prize of over $5,000 in groceries after he correctly guessed the amount of coins placed in a jar at the supermarket. After correctly guessing the $138.72 as the total, Josue can now collect $100 in groceries at Price Club every week for 52 weeks.

Gus Karagianis, owner for the supermarket, told The SUN that the promotion idea came to him after examining a pile of coins he had at his home. “I had a jar of coins, and it just hit me one day. I just came one day and filled up the jar with coins and I told the cashiers and staff to have the customers guess the amount in it. We never thought that there would be a winner; it would be almost impossible to win.

“So when I saw the winning guess a couple of days ago, I just could not believe it. I was all choked up when I called him up. The reason we take $5,200 is that the customer is allowed $100 per week in groceries for 52 weeks, so basically, it is groceries free for one year, “ said Karagianis.

“First of all, I am overwhelmed,” says Josue. “ I was baffled when I received the call from the owner of Price Club – Mr. Gus himself.

“He called me and said, ‘Chaly, congratulations, you have won $5,200 in groceries from Price Club’,” Josue said.

“I have been shopping here for years, since I was a little boy, and I am happy that I was given the opportunity to win the prize”.

In the meantime, Karagianis said that a new promotion is underway, and more customers will have the opportunity to win another $5,200 in groceries prize.

“This is a brand new jar, with a new amount of money. Nobody knows [the sum] but me,” says the Price Club owner.

“And when somebody guesses this one, we will have the competition again,” says Karagianis.

Winner Josue told The SUN he would be entering again.

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LOCAL NEWS OPINION & ANALYSIS

Pdm maintains its stance on the Commissioner of Police S

ince our call a few weeks ago for the Commissioner of Police to do the honorable thing and resign, there have been several developments that prompt us to renew our call and maintain our stance.

First of all, the Commissioner of Police responded to a Chamber of Commerce’s invitation to meet with the Body unlike the one suggested by the President at its Town Hall’s Meeting on Tax Strategy.

Whilst we do not know who determined this, the people present at the meeting that night by show of hands demonstrated that they wanted to meet in like fashion with the Head of the Police in this country. Needless to say, the Commissioner of Police continues to ignore the call for a public meeting to discuss his plans and to begin to bridge the gap between him and the public.

Secondly, in that meeting, the Commissioner of Police spent a great deal of time finding comfort in two aged newspapers given him by the Premier suggesting that he had inherited the situation while offering very little in his plans.

Thirdly, we are grateful for the Governor’s public call for better working conditions including pay

when the Attorney General was unable to furnish these documents due to the fact by that the Commissioner was out of the country and no Sharlene other person including the Cartwright- Acting Commissioner of Police and the number two Robinson in the institution did not Opposition Leader have access to these critical documents. This raises serious concerns for us. raise for the Police Office.

Finally, in the Chamber of Whilst the Governor is in the public Commerce meeting, the Premier domain asking for resources which he publicly told the Commissioner of cites can be reasons for low morale, Police to engage in strategic planning the Commissioner of Police is recorded and to make requests for resources he elsewhere criticizing Officers publicly. has identified.

We believe that the Commissioner This revealed to us all that he has should solve his problems internally- not been making any requests as the too often he has been adding to the Premier told him to ask and let the challenges to its image that the Force Government determine whether it can faces. We see his actions, perhaps be funded or not. unintentional, as consistently Since our call for his resignation, exacerbating the situation and we note the increase visibility of embarrassing the institution. We Officers on the roads which was even maintain that he is adding to the low before the arrival of the cars. staff morale and poor reputation for This demonstrates that more the Police. could’ve been done had efforts been Fourthly, a question asked in the made. We applaud the hardworking House of Assembly regarding Policing Police Officers for their commitment Plans and a Succession Plan on under less than conducive working Monday proved to be very revealing conditions.

Crust Holdings Ltd seeks to employ one

Baker

Preparing pastries, cakes, breads, and other baked goods is the responsibility of a Baker. Overseeing the Pastry operational area.

Also required to have at least 3 years minimum experience in 5 star luxury property and knowledge of 5 star cuisine.

Train and supervise team members in your department.

Proven track record in luxury property with multi out-let experience.

Able to organize the pastry department and have leadership qualities.

Diploma in pastry and International 5 star Resort and Caribbean experience a must. Michelin Star and experience in French desserts, bread making is a definite must. Multi Language a must, Spanish/English/French Please submit resumes to resortjobstci@gmail.com or 007 Emily House, 1105 Leeward Highway, Providenciales

Quality Supermarket Ltd is seeking an

Order Picker • Minimum of 4 years in the same or related field • Must have strong foodservice product knowledge • Must be customer friendly • Must be able to work in holidays and flexible shifts

Interested applicants should apply to quality@alliedcaribbean.com or fax to 941-7930 Qualified candidates will be contacted for an interview.

Salary commensurate with experience Belongers Preferred

We maintain that this is not a matter of nationality as some have tried to make it with the attacks on Turks and Caicos Islanders.

Furthermore, we maintain that our motives are purely in the best interest of our country and the protection of our people and tourists.

Whilst there are perhaps a myriad of reasons for offenses, we see an embolden criminal that appears encouraged by the low detection rate where 3 out of every 4 criminals escape detection and punishment.

The Premier’s call for an Independent Review instead of a direct address of the plight of the Police Force is unfortunate, especially since an Independent Review was done several years ago and remains shelved with its recommendations (largely relevant) still ignored.

We agree, however, that there should be a review of the Force under the current commissioner’s term for reasons to determine whether the use of his term was effective and also whether we ought to seek to use external assistance in other roles and ways.

We maintain that a shake – up is needed from the top.

Eagle Claw Security Ltd “No job is too big or too small” Email:ecs@tciway.tc Phone: 649 941-4429 Fax 649 941-5573

2 Security Alarm Technician/Security Officers Position Summary: To provide 24 hour electronic security alarm service for homes and business to protect facilities from unlawful intrusion and criminal acts. To ensure public safety through effective design, installation and servicing of CCTV, Security & Fire Alarm System, Access Controls Home Automation.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements: High School Education plus specialized Training in Electronics fundamentals able to read and understand building construction site and electrical drawing plus ability to understand a variety of electronic manuals and determine interface requirements for various systems. Additional courses in GE, DSC, Ademco Security Systems. Four (4) years experience as a Alarm System Installer/ Technician. To level that you can program alarm panels and trouble shoot quickly and effectively.

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May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

OPINION LOCAL NEWS & ANALYSIS

T

Debt, depopulation and ostriches

the “ NHS in UK” to be We must Repopulate with riddled with fraud – what a people with money, skills, talent surprise! and commitment to this potentially Meanwhile the Janus fantastic tiny little country and do faced duo of Cam the this forthwith lest we die on the vine.

Sham (Prime Minister) & After all Cam the Sham and The Big by The Big “O” (Chancellor “O”(above) rebuilt London’s property Bill of Exchequer) continue market ( & other property areas) by to make the Caribbean “Branding British” and inviting in “ McCollum Colonies the Sacrificial qualifiers on much more generous Lamb” to maintain their terms than offered by the latest TCI own “Offshore Finance “ Investor Category PRC programme” so that the rest of us stop being Industry” in the City of London in (issued Oct 15th 2013). punished financially & reputationally full flow in the face of the OECD/EU”.

Viva “Brand TCI”. vis late Mandela’s approach to police Yes folks, The Nation of Shopkeepers” brutality in South Africa. sports shop windows in Cardiff ( PROJECTS KICKING IN NEW 3) The London Loan – which we are city of the Companies Registry) and MONEY IN 2014: told “MUST BE REDUCED FROM within doors range of Magistrate In order to see “ our 1. Shore Club – employs 111; $155 MILLION TO $80 MILLION Courts future” under the Medical announcing “Registered 2. Two FBO’S (one will be finished IN TWO YEARS” Excessive early Offices for thousands of companies Tax Scam, look no further in April); repayments are killing the economy listed in those windows(some of such 3. The rump of the Airport contract than the history of the – this must be refinanced with shops are vacant premises). (will be finished in Sept); National Health Service commercial banks immediately so Our own F.S.C. having been 4. Some six large houses being in the U.K debt can be repaid in a realistically “minionised” by Cam the Sham and built in Leeward and Long Bay; commercial fashion.

The Big “ O” pulled the blindfold over 5. West Caicos (only a trickle so far 4) In order to see “ our future” the eyes of two successive governors. of 10-12 boated across daily); under the Medical Tax Scam, look Meanwhile, the debacle over the 1) The Medical Tax Scam; 6.

Discount Liquors new 2) The SPIT team’s recurring no further than the history of the supply of police vehicles given to “a warehouse; annual fees (without recourse from National Health Service in the U.K. Bucket Shop” endangered the lives 7. Grand Turk North Creek Marina any Belonger or full time resident);& (still has a few pockets of excellence of every resident and visitor to these (stymied by local landowners); This circus farce goes on with Padgett but doomed from end of first month shores.

8. Sail Rock, S. Caicos (let’s see No one is listening to and hearing what actually kicks off in 2014); & let off prison time. An accommodation/ (see Freedom of Information Act re settlement must be reached with release of Cabinet Minutes of Oct/ the Economic Beat of the Depopulated 9. EU-funded housing repair London on “these corruption trials” Nov 1948). The latest report5 shows Street. project in Grand Turk.

CI has been subjected to a “Black & White Minstrel Show” over the last six years resulting in debt increase and population decrease (both physical and economic).

One half of the House of Assembly is stuck in the “ Salt Industry Era” and the other half is too scared to vote against realistic expansion of the economy for fear of losing electoral votes.

The principal debts (below) meanwhile lie as a cross upon the back of an ever reducing population (above) namely:

Director Engineering and Planning Description:

To provide leadership of the Transmission and Distribution (T&D) Design department in the safe and efficient design of the transmission and distribution system to meet current and future customer needs.

To provide leadership in strategic planning of substation requirements, construction, operation, and maintenance To work with the Manager of T&D Construction in providing leadership of the Line and Technical Sections in the safe efficient construction, operation and maintenance of the transmission/distribution systems in order to achieve a safe and reliable supply of electricity to customers.

To understand the corporate vision and successfully gain support for and implement that vision.

Main Duties:

• Responsible for supporting the enterprise in all areas of electrical engineering and design.

• Responsible to supervise and lead the T & D design and engineering; substation development, project management, commissioning, and maintenance; and North & Middle Caicos Operations.

• Responsible for developing and maintaining T&D system computer based technical modeling • Responsible for planning, scheduling and implementing of resources for T&D projects.

• Responsible to work with the Manager of Line Construction for the timely and cost-effective completion of line work to achieve a safe, reliable and sufficient supply of electricity for customers.

• Responsible for overseeing the distribution standard and substation committee.

• Responsible for determining the need for new equipment, tools, and materials.

• Responsible to assist in annual budget preparation and ensure that spending is justified and within budget • Responsible for troubleshooting the electrical system for power restoration and improved reliability.

• Responsible to ensure that the electrical system mapping database is maintained • Responsible for development of policies and processes that track customer requested work from initial contact to completion of as-built information in the mapping system.

• Perform other duties as may be assigned from time to time.

Academic/Technical/Management Experience and Qualifications:

• A Degree in Electrical Engineering and 7-10 years post qualification experience in an electric utility environment.

• An MBA • Minimum of 10 years in the utility business with at least 5 years in a senior management role • Experience substation design and transmission terminations • Experience in protection systems, relays, and SCADA Development.

• Self-motivated, solution oriented and positive in outlook • Team player

Core Competency Skills:

• Excellent team player and team building skills • Good analytical skills • Excellent written and oral communication skills • Ability to deliver to strict deadlines and to work under pressure • Goal-oriented • Self-motivated

Compensation: Salary: based on qualifications and ability Deadline for submission of applications is May 17, 2014.

Kindly submit applications (inclusive of a cover letter, resume and FortisTCI application form) stating qualifications and work experience to: Dr. Kellie-Ann Evans-Hall Manager, Human Resources FortisTCI Limited P. O. Box 132, Providenciales Email address: hrapplications@ppcltd.tc or khall@fortistci.com

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Your FUTURE begins TODAY Energy for good™

S.I.P. — Student Internship Program — 2 weeks in the summer

High school students, 4th and 5th form, looking to get a head start on your career path can turn to this FortisTCI program. You’ll get a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with workplace basics such as; learning the corporate hierarchy, departmentalized structuring and inter-office coordination. It’s an exciting introduction to the modern work environment that will give you a better perspective on what to expect in your professional career!

S.S.E.P. — Student Summer Employment Program — June through August If you’re a college student looking for the opportunity to actually apply all of the classroom theory you’ve been studying, then this is for you. You’ll gain working knowledge of the utility industry and corporate operations while applying your theories under professional supervision. You’ll also be able to get a sample of what awaits you in your chosen career path while potentially establishing yourself as a possible future employee!

S.I.P. application forms can be found with your school counselor or principal. All necessary documents, along with the form, must be submitted to the same by May 30, 2014.

Whether your Future career lies in I.T., electrical engineering, business, marketing, mechanics, customer service or any other of a number of exciting career paths, FortisTCI can lead you in the Right direction.

S.S.E.P applications can be found at the Leeward Highway office or online at www.fortistci.com. All applications and necessary documents must be submitted at the Leeward Highway office ATTN: HR or sent via email to cforman@fortistci.com no later than May 30, 2014.

S.I.P criteria —

S.S.E.P criteria —



Applicants must be 4th or 5th form students at a TCI high school that is recognized by the Ministry of Education





Applicants must present a recommendation letter from their principal or guidance counselor

Applicants must be enrolled in a university or college undergraduate program majoring in: accounting, business, engineering, information technology, law or marketing



Applicants must possess a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0 or higher



Applicants must submit a 250 word essay entitled, “Why FortisTCI Should Hire Me as an Intern”



Applicants must provide an official transcript, attendance record, 2 letters of recommendation, proof of residence status and NHIB cards

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LOCAL NEWS

Confident Shani Williams crowne Miss TCI Universe 2

Winner Shanice Williams copped the Best Performance in Swimwear prize.

Gadieann Capron

Todeline Defralien in swimwear.

First runner-up Codee Coalbrooke.

Tashy Forbes

“I knew time I got of confiden Shanice W winner of Universe, Brayton H crowned t William crowd favo crescendo outclassed take the ti the crown sectional p Best Swim Photogeni Miss So Coalbroak contestant adjudged fi three secti Media Pop Best Costu SUNTv who was a was adjud Donnin Turk, Will the questi was nerve fellow con strategy th the end. “I think time and a question a the most r that was m William represent Islands at pageant sc in the glit Fortaleza.

Prior to winner, th appearanc was a dan Beaches E performin piece to op rousing ap

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LOCAL NEWS

ice ed 2014

by Vivian Tyson

w I was the winner from the here”. That was the level nce exuded by 20 year-old Williams, the 2014/2015 the Miss Turks and Caicos during an interview at Hall, shortly after being the winner. ms, who was clearly the ourite – if audience was anything to go by – d a small field of five to itle. On her way to taking n, Williams snatched the prizes of Miss Intellect, mwear, Best Gown, Most ic and Miss Congeniality.

Gadieann Capron outh Caicos, Codee ke, another popular t on the night, was first runner-up. She copped ional prizes, those of Social pularity, Most Talented and ume. v anchor Todeline Defralien, a hit was the crowd also, dged second runner up. ng the sash of Miss Grant liams revealed that while ion and answer segment e-wracking for some of her ntestants, she employed a hat worked in her favour at

First runner-up Codee Coalbrooke.

k it is all about taking your actually listening to the and trying your best to give relevant answer. I think my strategy,” she said. ms will now move on to the Turks and Caicos t the 63rd Miss Universe cheduled for early October tzy Brazilian city of . o the announcement of the he contestants made six ces. The first appearance nce number with the Entertainment Troupe, ng a synchronizing cultural pen the show, and received pproval from the Continued on PG 26&27 Tashy Forbes

Second runner-up Todeline Defralien

The new Miss Turk & Caicos Universe queen took five of the category prizes and Best Gown was among them.

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May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

At left, new queen Shanice Williams during the Costume segment.

Above, Tashy Forbes worked the stage.

At right, second runner-up Todeline Defralien.

Continued from PG 24&25

appreciative audience.

In their second appearance, the contestants let the audience know who they were, and which island they represented.

Next was the costume segment. The delegates let their imagination and creativity come alive through these cultural pieces.

The swimwear segment saw the lovely ladies compete for the hearts and minds of the judges, who were entrusted with the task of deciding who best wore the attire.

The fifth appearance was the Evening Gown, then the ladies appeared again for the Question and Answer segment.

The new queen says she will now be turning her attention to Miss Universe Pageant.

The event was also chockfull of entertainment. Noteworthy was a vocal performance by crooner Craig Archibald, who was joined by a ballet-dancing couple and accompanied by Tristan Greene on the keyboard. Another remarkable performance was from our local ‘Beyonce’ Crystal Charles, who apart from her sultry voice showed the audience that she could get down with an energetic Hip Hop dance routine.

Saxophonist Brenford Handfield was well-received by the crowd, as well as Carl Lewis and the Breezy Beach Dancers, with their cultural numbers.

Barbara Johnson, Miss Turks and Caicos Universe 1991/1992, who went on to cop the Miss Congeniality title at the international pageant, was recognised at this year’s event.

Gadieann Capron

First runner-up Codee Coalbrooke took the Best Costume prize.

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LOCAL NEWS

First runner-up and Best Talent winner Codee Coalbrooke showed versatility in dance styles during her routine.

Snwana Adams giving her final walk as queen.

Shanice’s dramatic piece focussed on spousal abuse.

Local ‘Beyonce’, Crystal Charles was a treat every time she graced the stage.

Tashy Forbes dancing to Say Something.

Todeline Defralien took the audience on a dance journey to Bahamas, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and finally landing in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Gadieann Capron was sweet as she did an African-inspired dance number.

Gaining special recognition was Miss Turks & Caicos Universe 1991-1992 queen Barbara Johnson.

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IMMEDIATE OPENING Fitness Instructor

Requirements: • Prior experience as a fitness trainer in a high end environment with experience in both personal training and teaching classes.

• Certification(s) in fitness instruction, personal training, pilates etc.

• High level of personal fitness with ability to demonstrate proper usage of equipment and proper exercise techniques.

• Very energetic person with commitment to ensuring high levels of guest satisfaction.

Duties Include: • Create and provide consistent professional fitness classes and personal training sessions in accordance with spa protocols and accepted certification practices.

• Provide instruction on safe usage of fitness equipment.

• Care for and maintain fitness equipment.

• Actively promote the spa, treatments, services and retail as well as any promotions or discounts.

• Assist in areas of the spa operation as requested by management.

• Must be able and willing to work all days and shifts Starting salary $6.00 per hour not including service charge.

Gardener

Duties Include: • General laborer duties as assigned by the supervisor or manager.

• Willingness to work varying schedules, split shifts, nights, weekends and holidays.

Salary $5.25 an hour not including service charge.

Pool & Beach Supervisor

Requirements: • Must be an excellent swimmer with rescue capability and first aid training • Must be able to operate and teach others to operate catamarans, kayaks other watercrafts • Must be able to be on your feet for long periods of time and able to lift at least 50 lbs • Must be calm under pressure and possess the ability to instill in all pool and beach staff that they are there to serve the guest quickly and courteously Duties Include: • Supervising and overseeing the pool and beach staff and providing training • Ensuring that the umbrellas, chairs etc. are properly set up at the correct time each morning and properly stowed away each evening • Ensuring pool and beach areas are clean and well maintained at all times with sufficient clean towels available.

Starting salary $6.00 per hour not including service charge.

Room Attendant

Requirements: • Ability to work with heavy cleaning machinery.

• Must be able and willing to work all days and shifts Duties include: • Ensuring that standards of cleanliness and organization are met at all times in assigned areas.

• Responsibility for care and maintenance of all equipment and machinery • Restock linens and amenities on carts • Run needed items to guest floors • Assist housekeepers as required Starting salary $5.25 not including service charge.

Housekeeping Supervisor

Requirements: • Must have minimum 2 years experience as a housekeeping supervisor in luxury hotel/resort • Must have direct knowledge of housekeeping cleaning, processes and procedures, computer PMS systems, and telephone etiquette.

• Must be able to read, write and speak English fluently.

• Must be able to handle multiple buildings, floors, and guest requests.

• Must posses high communication, handle guest complaints and procedures to resolve.

• Must be a team player and team oriented. Must be highly organized, engaged with employees, guests and owners. Must have excellent time management and communication skills.

• Must be able to work in an open air environment, and have flexible scheduling. Must be able to multitask and accomplish assignment on time.

• Must be able and willing to work all shifts Starting salary $8.50 per hour not including service charge.

Spa Attendant

Requirements: • Must posses and demonstrate the ability to interact with all guests and team members effectively with tact and diplomacy in line with property’s service standards.

• Must be able to work all days and shifts Duties Include: • Ensure that standards of cleanliness and organization are met at all times in the spa area.

• Escort guests from reception; provide locker keys, towels, robes, water etc. and assist with guest needs as required.

Starting salary $5.50 an hour not including service charge.

Houseman

Requirements: • Ability to work with heavy cleaning machinery.

• Must be able and willing to work all days and shifts Duties include: • Ensuring that standards of cleanliness and organization are met at all times in assigned areas.

• Responsibility for care and maintenance of all equipment and machinery • Restock linens and amenities on carts • Run needed items to guest floors • Assist housekeepers as required Starting salary $5.25 not including service charge.

Youth Program and Facilities Manager

Requirements: • 3-5 years experience managing children’s program and facilities with capability to distinguish ageappropriate activities and behavior; education and credentials in child development • Certified in CPR, water safety and First Aid • Post secondary degree or equivalent qualification by experience • Knowledge of kids programs, logistics and related skills as well as competitor’s products and services • Experience developing annual budget in conjunction with Controller and General Manager • Must be able and willing to work all days and shifts Duties Include: • Developing, implementing and marketing youth program facilities • Managing the operations of the kids club with wide variety of activities for all ages • Order and maintain supplies and equipment as well as operating equipment Starting salary 28,000 per annum not including service charge.

Spa Manager

Requirements: • Minimum of 5 years experience as spa manager at luxury spa of similar size and status • Post secondary degree or equivalent qualification by experience • Strong written and verbal skills with documented responsibility for promotions sales and marketing.

• Merchandising/visual skills; experience with retail products and apparel goods.

• Knowledge of current trends In luxury spa facilities and services • Must be able and willing to work all days and shifts Duties Include: • Manage the day to day operations of the Fitness Center and Spa Facilities • Maximize profitability by increasing sales of products and services and by managing effectively • Ensure high quality of facility and services to meet international luxury and brand standards and earn global recognition and awards • Experience developing and implementing effective preventative maintenance programs • Demonstrated experience in development budgets and cost saving measures • Develop annual operating and Capex budgets, monitoring and adjusting as needed Salary commensurate with qualification and experience.

Hotel Manager

Requirements • 12- 15 years of management experience in internationally branded luxury hotels/resort including at least 5 years at Executive Committee Level • In depth knowledge of rooms operations and full knowledge of overall hotel operations as they affect department • Financial management skills including ability to analyze P&L statements, develop operating budgets, forecasting and capital expenditure planning • In-depth knowledge of hotel systems – Opera (Fidelio), Micros.

• Experience implementing and monitoring brand standards of operation and quality • Strategic planning skills • Ability to evaluate business trends, determine applicability to customer profile and modify business strategies accordingly • Ability to take constructive action without relying on directions from others • Ability to network and build relationships to grow the business • Strong problem-solving skills; encourages new innovative solutions when appropriate • Strong communication skills with experience developing correspondence and business materials for customers/guests, owners, management and staff • Must be willing and available to work all shifts and days Duties Include: • Directs rooms, pool and beach, retail, youth programs and security departments ensuring maximum guest satisfaction and profitability.

• Oversees the development and implementation of departmental strategies and ensures implementation of brand service strategies initiatives.

• Develops annual operating and capital expenditure budgets • Ensures implementation of and compliance with brand policies, programs and standards of operation and quality Salary commensurate with qualification and experience.

Interested applicants should apply to Regent Palms, Human Resources Department, Monday through Friday, and bring along an updated resume, or by emailing your resume to marjorie.dorsett@regenthotels.com, no later than end of day Friday, May 16, 2014.

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CARIBBEAN NEWS

NEWS

Jamaica bank tax proposal withdrawn

Caribbean leaders attending the Mexico CARICOM Summit.

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Plans to impose a tax on bank withdrawals as part of revenue measures for the 2014/2015 financial year, have been scrapped.

Faced with intense opposition to the proposed tax, the Simpson-Miller administration has decided to look elsewhere, to collect revenues for the Budget.

Finance Minister Dr. Peter Phillips who made the announcement as he closed the Budget Debate on Wednesday afternoon, said the gap will be filled by the life insurance industry .

“The first being the introduction of a 15 percent withholding tax on bilateral and multilateral cooperation in all insurance premiums the Greater Caribbean.” paid by Jamaican resiDirectly addressing the Caribbean’s dents to non residents, leaders and people, the Mexican president premiums paid by Jasaid, “We would like your countries to maican residents to by receive resources from the Infrastructure registered Jamaican inFund for Mesoamerican and Caribbean surance companies will countries established in the Yucatan be exempt. The objective Agreement.” of this measure is to asIn addition to infrastructure support, he sist us in improving comsaid, “technical and scientific cooperation pliance while we strive between Mexico and the Caribbean to protect the most countries continues to be wide-ranging and vulnerable.” diverse, and includes initiatives to promote Phillips also anagricultural and social development, energy, nounced a modification mining, the environment, and small and of the tax relating to immedium enterprises.” ported service.

This year, the ACS is celebrating its 20th “The second measure anniversary, and the Mexican president relates to the GCT (Gensaid it offered “an opportune moment to eral Consumption Tax) further strengthen its position.” act to improve the rules He explained that “This fact, coupled related to imported serwith the need for more flexible and effective vices. GCT which was incollaboration mechanisms to help us troduced in 1991 providrespond to our current challenges,” is what ed for a tax on imported led Mexico to be the host of two meetings services, this was amendstarting on Tuesday: the third Mexico- ed in 2003 to strengthen CARICOM summit and the sixth summit of the mechanism for the the ACS in Merida, Yucatan, on April 29 effective collection of the and 30, respectively.

GCT,” Phillips said.

Mexico pledges continuing support for Caribbean

MERIDA, Mexico – Mexican President and holds a strategic value of the utmost Enrique Pena Nieto says his country is importance to Mexico.”

He also said the Caribbean was “Our proud of its relations with the Caribbean, with which it has “a shared vision of gateway to other regions of the world, and a vital space for our daily interactions with development and unity.”

He made the declaration ahead of the sister nations.”

“This is why,” he explained, “the opening of a historic “double summit” of Caribbean and Latin American leaders Mexican government’s foreign policy of states belonging to the Association of on the Greater Caribbean promotes an Caribbean States (ACS) and the Caribbean agenda of cooperation in various issues of common interest, including environmental Community (CARICOM).

His country holds the presidency of the protection, health, education, integrated ACS and the Mexican leader, as host, took disaster risk management, and the the opportunity to explain his country’s eradication of poverty, to mention a few.” view of its relationship with “the Greater Caribbean”, as well as to outline some Strengthen ties of the issues to be discussed when the Latin American and Caribbean leaders meet for two days of talks on Tuesday and “Over the last ten years,” said the Wednesday in the Mexican city of Merida.

Mexican president, “the nations in the According to Pena Nieto, “Mexico has Caribbean have made significant progress close historical and cultural ties with the in building up their economic growth and Caribbean nations.” development.”

He described the nature of the ties as As a consequence, he noted, “The “bonds that fill us with pride.” opportunities to multiply and strengthen In a statement on his country’s our political and economic ties are enormous relationship with its Caribbean neighbours and will allow us to work together in entitled “A Shared Vision of development creating better conditions for our societies.” and Unity”, the Mexican leader said, “The “It is with this conviction,” he explained, Caribbean Sea is our common heritage “that my government is promoting both

Shortage of US currency in Trinidad and Tobago

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) Tuesday reiterated that it is taking “aggressive steps” to deal with the “unusual degree of tightness” being experienced in the local foreign exchange market.

The Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA) said it is dissatisfied with the continued struggle faced by member companies in accessing foreign exchange for business operations.

“The situation is further exacerbated, as the association and the general public was advised that this anomaly would have been regularised by the end of February 2014.

“TTMA is informed by its members that the situation continues unabated, with commercial banks maintaining a queuing system and, even then, banks are only able to supply a small percentage of the requirements of local manufacturers’ needs,” the TTMA said in a statement.

The TTMA said that the unavailability of foreign exchange has resulted in the inability of manufacturers

to meet their financial obligations to foreign suppliers, noting that if the situation continues it will adversely impact manufacturers’ credit ratings with suppliers, as well as overall competitiveness, and, ultimately, business employment levels, since not being able to secure foreign exchange to procure raw material will negatively impact production, the association said.

“Such a situation cannot persist, as it will destroy the non-oil manufacturing sector, which serves as the catalyst for the diversification of the economy of Trinidad and Tobago,” the TTMA said.

But the CBTT said that it has kept its word and has been steadily implementing a series of new and improved mechanisms to enhance the distribution of United States currency in the local foreign exchange market.

“As we indicated back in February 2014, we would be taking aggressive steps to deal with the unusual degree of tightness that was being experienced in the market at the time. We believe these steps have been successful. “

Cuba protests terror designation on latest US list

HAVANA — Havana is protesting its continued inclusion on the U.S. government’s latest list of “state sponsors of terrorism.”

Cuban Foreign Ministry issued a statement late Wednesday calling the designation “absurd.”

It accused Washington of trying to justify the 52-year-old economic embargo against the island.

The U.S. State Department’s global terrorism report for 2013 notes that Havana is hosting peace talks between the Colombian government and that nation’s biggest guerrilla army. It says there is no information that the Cuban government is aiding any terrorist groups.

But it also mentions the presence of U.S. fugitives in Cuba. The Cuban Foreign Ministry statement countered that none are terrorists, and those who committed crimes were punished on the island.

The U.S. terror list also names Iran, Syria and Sudan.

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Bermuda warned about dangerous bacteria risk in tank water Bermudians are often heard rejoicing at heavy rainfall and the “good tank rain” it delivers.

But a top overseas scientist has warned the Island’s residents that each time the clouds open, dangerous bacteria is being washed into their tanks straight from the roof.

Professor Eric Dewailly, a public health specialist from Université Laval in Quebec, said untreated tank water could not be considered safe to drink because of the fecal matter from animals it contains.

And he said it was up to citizens –

not Government – to ensure they had he led on the microbiological quality a clean water supply, especially when of drinking water from household infants or seniors were likely to be tanks in Bermuda found that the only procedures “significantly related” to drinking it.

He told The Royal Gazette: “People lower contamination were regular realise that there is dirty mud in their emptying and cleaning of tanks and a tank but they don’t realise that the recent topping up with bought water.

“It’s private water,” he said “It’s not contamination is coming with each rain.

“Bermuda is fortunate to have access the responsibility of the Government. to this rainwater in its tanks and it has When it’s your own tank, it’s your own to be protected and [the tanks] cleaned.” water.

“I know that the Department of He acknowledged, having lived on the Island himself for a year, that tank Health, they say boil and chlorinate, but at the same time they know or they cleaning was “not an easy job”.

But he explained that a 2004 study probably have an idea that nobody is

doing it so it’s a way of [the Department[ protecting itself.”

He suggested residents consider having a UV treatment system installed to kill bacteria before the water comes out of the tap.

A call to Clearwater Systems by this newspaper yesterday determined that an under-the-sink system starts at $435 and a whole-house system costs more than $1,100.

Dr Dewailly said: “I know it costs some money but it could be the price to pay if you don’t want to buy bottled water.”

Leaders must create right mix to attract investors

“The long-spined sea urchin was a keA marine biologist has cautioned stone species in the Caribbean marine that the mass deaths of starfish along ecosystem, similar to the affected starthe United States west coast in recent fish in the Pacific-California ecosystem. months could also occur in the CaribThe designation as ‘keystone’ is due to bean region because of climate change, the fact that if there is anything affectthreatening the vital fishing sector. ing their large populations, then this can Since June 2013, scientists began noticbe interpreted as a reliable indication of ing that starfish, which they say funcproblems in the entire ecosystem that tion as keystone species in the marine will likely affect other species,” Mussecosystem, have been mysteriously dyington said. ing by the millions.

“Something went very wrong with our “The cause of the starfish die-off which Caribbean marine ecosystem in 1983 is taking place in the Pacific Ocean is not A marine biologist has cautioned that the mass and the black sea urchin was wiped out deaths of starfish along the United States west coast known at this time but it could turn out – the species is considered today to be in recent months could also occur in the Caribbean reto be from a number of factors including functionally extinct. With the decline of gion because of climate change, threatening the vital climate change,” John Mussington told Antigua-born scholar, Dr. Isaac Newton this keystone species, the Caribbean has fishing sector. Since June 2013, scientists began noticIPS. seen significant decline in its coral reefs ing that starfish, which they say function as keystone “If it turns out that climate change and the marine communities they sup- species in the marine ecosystem, have been mysterifactors such as ocean warming are indeed implicated in the starfish die-off, then there is port, including economically important commercial ously dying by the millions. the possibility that the same thing could happen in species.”

“The cause of the starfish die-off which is taking Mussington said the spiny urchin grazes on algae place in the Pacific Ocean is not known at this time the Atlantic and affect Caribbean species. We are living in an era when the predicted consequences of and it is important to control the number of algae on but it could turn out to be from a number of factors climate change are now reality. Large scale die-off of coral reefs. including climate change,” John Mussington told IPS. Habitat degradation, specifically of coral reefs, can therefore happen to us in the Caribbean,” Muss“If it turns out that climate change factors such as has been cited by numerous studies as the primary ocean warming are indeed implicated in the starfish ington added.

Starfish play a key role in marine ecosystems. cause of ongoing fish declines of Caribbean fish popu- die-off, then there is the possibility that the same They eat mussels, barnacles, snails, mollusks and lations. thing could happen in the Atlantic and affect CaribCaribbean coral reefs have experienced drastic bean species. We are living in an era when the preother smaller sea life so their health is considered a measure of marine life on the whole in a given area. losses in the past several decades. Fish use the struc- dicted consequences of climate change are now reality.

Starfish are in turn eaten by shorebirds, gulls, and ture of corals for shelter and they also contribute to Large scale die-off of can therefore happen to us in the coastal protection. sometimes sea otters.

Caribbean,” Mussington added.

Established research has predicted that the comMussington explained that something similar to Starfish play a key role in marine ecosystems. what’s happening in California has happened in the munities located in coastal areas, as well as national They eat mussels, barnacles, snails, mollusks and economies in the general Caribbean region, are like- other smaller sea life so their health is considered a region before.

He told IPS that in 1983 there was a Caribbean- ly to sustain substantial economic losses should the measure of marine life on the whole in a given area. wide die-off of the black sea urchin, spreading from current trends in coral reef degradation and destruc- Starfish are in turn eaten by shorebirds, gulls, and as far north as The Bahamas right down the chain of tion continue. sometimes sea otters. islands to the south.

Caribbean fishing industry under threat

St. Lucia Government presents EC$1.2 billion budget

Cuba’s President Raul Castro holds a pair of binoculars as he watches the May Day parade in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, May 1, 2014.

CASTRIES, St. Lucia – Prime involvement of the International Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony has Monetary Fund (IMF)”.

Anthony, who will deliver his presented an EC$1.2 billion (One EC dollar =US$0.37 cents) budget budget statement on May 13, with for consideration of Parliament the debate scheduled for May 15saying the fiscal measures con- 16, said his administration had tained are intended to reduce the also been able to stabilise revenue intake for the previous financial island’s current financial deficit.

Anthony, who is also Finance year and expressed gratitude to Minister, presented the expendi- the population for understanding ture and estimates to legislators that measures had to be put in on Tuesday highlighting the suc- place, to assist with the reduction cess made over the last 12 months of the fiscal deficit.

Anthony said he hopes during in reducing the fiscal deficit from 9.4 to 5.7 per cent. The deficit how- the fiscal year 2014/15, the fiscal deficit will be reduced significantever stands at EC$57.2 million.

He described the achievement ly telling legislators however “we as “commendable,” adding “I don’t are not out of the worst.

“I hope that this government think I can identify any country in the Eastern Caribbean that would be able to present legislawas able to do that without the tion, to deal with public debt and

refashion how to address that issue … to determine what to borrow and at what time we can borrow,” he added.

Anthony also said the government is faced with increase spending for wages and salaries in the public service sector. During 2012/2013 the bill for wages and salary in the public sector stood at EC$449 million. This figure is expected to increase to over $450 million, this year.

Prime Minister Anthony said that outstanding increase in wages and salaries for the public sector, brought about through wage negotiations stands at approximately $459 million and that serious attention must be paid to that situation.

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Drought triggers water rationing in St. Vincent

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent – The Central Water and Sewerage Authority (CWSA) has introduced water rationing in one section of the island, as the severe drought continues to affect St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The water utility company has warned that it may be forced to expand it rationing exercise to the entire island if the present weather conditions continue.

The CWSA said the continuing lack of rainfall has resulted in a further decrease in the inflow from the rivers at its Dalaway, Majorca and Montreal

intakes.

“Production at these three systems is now estimated to be below 50 per cent, with the worst affected being the Montreal system that supplies mainly the Marriaqua valley, Belmont and some areas in the south-east of the island,” the CSWA said.

The state-owned company further said that during the past five weeks, its technical staff has been trying to avert the need for rationing the supply by closely monitoring and managing these three systems.

“However, given the forecast

of relatively low rainfall amounts throughout the region, in the foreseeable future, the CWSA has now arrived at the situation where the water supply from the Montreal system, in the first instance, will have to be restricted.

“Additionally, because of the reduced supply from the Majorca and Dalaway systems, it is also expected that residents at higher elevations in and around Kingstown and its environs, and including upper Ratho-Mill may also experience short periodic interruptions during the daily peak hours of 5 a.m. to

9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m (local time).”

The CWSA said it would continue to keep the public informed by issuing periodic if not daily notices via the electronic and social media, giving details of the planned interruptions, including, the affected areas and the times and durations of the interruptions.

The company further urged the public to observe strict water conservation measures by eliminating wastage at public facilities, reporting leaks and limiting water use to only priority household activities.

New airline in Cayman Islands targets Cuban tourists An Aerocaribbean plane

UN struggles to stem Haiti cholera epidemic CHAPOTEAU, Haiti — For three years, the run out of water purification tablets, and she United Nations has refused to address whether its drank water from what must have been a polluted peacekeepers brought a deadly strain of cholera to stream nearby.

“I felt dizzy and sick,” the girl said. She was Haiti, insisting instead that it was more important to help the country stanch the disease once and struck by sudden vomiting and diarrhea. Doctors diagnosed cholera. for all.

Her predicament has multiplied across Haiti, But on that score, it is still very far behind. In some ways, Haiti is even less equipped to tackle which has had the most cholera cases in the world for three years in a row. cholera than it was three years ago.

The United Nations has yet to raise the $5 The United Nations raised barely a fourth of the $38 million it needed last year to provide million necessary to vaccinate 600,000 vulnerable lifesaving supplies, including the most basic, like people right away – as the rainy season approaches water purification tablets. Clinics have run short and the threat of waterborne illnesses like cholera of oral rehydration salts to treat the debilitating looms – let alone the $2 billion that it promised to raise from rich countries to build Haiti’s water diarrhea that accompanies the disease.

Some treatment centers in the countryside and sanitation infrastructure, which public health have shut down as the aid groups that ran them experts say is vital to ridding the country of cholera.

Pedro Medrano Rojas, the United Nations have moved on to other crises. And a growing share of patients are dying after they finally reach secretary general’s newly appointed envoy for the hospitals, according to the United Nations’ own cholera outbreak, attributed the shortfall to global “donor fatigue” in the face of other humanitarian assessments.

Josilia Fils-Aime, 11, who lives in this village crises.

“Had we had the resources it would have been on an isolated spit of land near the Artibonite River, where the epidemic first began, knows different,” Mr. Medrano said. “It’s not expensive. these shortcomings all too well. Her family had No one should be dying from cholera.”

A new airline company in Grand Cayman will make its first flight between George Town and Havana next month.

The company, Cubano Airtours, has leased a plane from Aero Caribbean – one of Cuba’s state-owned airlines – and will begin twice-weekly service between Havana and George Town on May 21.

It aims to cater to an emerging market of Cuban tourists as well as targeting European travelers for “dual destination” trips to Cuba and Cayman.

The airline will also seek to entice travelers from Cayman to bypass Miami and use Cuba as a gateway to the rest of the world.

Chris Pope, owner of the company, said scheduled flights to other major Cuban cities, including Santiago de Cuba and Camaguey, would likely begin within the next few months. An expansion into cargo transportation is expected to follow before the end of the year.

Mr. Pope said, “This is a long-term project for us. I see this developing into something much bigger than a short-haul service to Havana. There is a niche to bring European travelers here, there is a niche for residents to go to the rest of the world without having to go through Miami.”

The company will initially use an ATR 72, a twinengine turbo prop plane, with capacity for 72 passengers, though the limit will be set at 56. Flights went on sale on Tuesday for CI$285.

He said partnerships with both Aero Caribbean and Havanatur, Cuba’s state-owned travel agency, which has 58 offices across the island and has launched a marketing campaign for the Cayman route in the country, would help make the business a success.

“They see a niche for this and are very supportive of us adding flights from other cities fairly quickly. They believe they can fill the planes coming here, “People don’t really think of Cuba as an affluent island, but there are actually a lot of people that travel on a regular basis.”

He said promotions, including offers with retailers to entice Cuban visitors here on shopping trips, were also a prospect.

The company is also developing “dual island” tours for travelers from Europe to make package trips that include flights between Cuba and Cayman.

Jamaica reports big drop in lionfish sightings KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica is reporting a big decline in sightings of lionfish, the voracious invasive species that has been wreaking havoc on regional reefs for years and wolfing down native juvenile fish and crustaceans.

Some four years after a national campaign got started to slash numbers of the candy-striped predator with a mane of venomous spines, Jamaica’s National Environment and Planning Agency is reporting a 66 percent drop in sightings of lionfish in coastal waters with depths of 75 feet (23 meters).

Dayne Buddo, a Jamaican marine

ecologist who focuses on marine invaders at the Caribbean island’s University of the West Indies, attributes much of the local decrease in sightings to a growing appetite for their fillets. He said Sunday that Jamaican fishermen are now selling lionfish briskly at markets. In contrast, a few years ago island fishermen ‘‘didn’t want to mess’’ with the exotic fish with spines that can deliver a very painful sting. ‘‘After learning how to handle them, the fishermen have definitely been going after them harder, especially spear fishermen. I believe persons here have caught on to the whole idea

of consuming them,’’ Buddo said in a phone interview.

Lionfish, a tropical native of the Indian and Pacific oceans likely introduced through the pet trade, have been colonizing swaths of the Caribbean and Atlantic for years – from the U.S. Eastern Seaboard and the hard-hit Bahamas to the Gulf of Mexico. They have been such a worrying problem that divers in the Caribbean and Florida are encouraged to capture them Lionfish, a tropical native of the Indian and whenever they can to protect reefs and Pacific oceans likely introduced through the native marine life already burdened by pet trade, have been colonizing swaths of the pollution, overfishing and the effects of Caribbean and Atlantic for years. climate change.

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NEWS

Heartbreaking video shows students as ferry sinks

Students ask whether the ship will mostly from inside the submerged and “defying gravity” by trying to walk SEOUL, South Korea – Soon after the ferry begins to tilt, nervous laughter sink and where their teachers are. vessel, have so far been recovered. on the walls.

“It’s like we’re becoming the Titanic,” More than 80 percent of the victims can be heard from the high school “What’s the captain doing?”

Several times they are warned over were students from one high school in one student says. students huddled below deck. In video Some of the teens in the video use clips (http://apne.ws/R7iRbX ) from the the loudspeaker to stay where they Ansan, south of Seoul, on their way to cellphone of a victim of a disaster that are, even as the tilting increases and it the southern tourist island of Jeju for a it to offer their last words. Some warn their siblings not to take school trips school trip. has shaken South Korea, the teenagers becomes less possible for them to flee.

The group of teens in the video unless they want to end up like them.

The shaky video was on the talk of taking selfies, wonder if they’ll “I’m really scared,” a student says at make the news and discuss posting cellphone of a 17-year-old student, Park alternates between bluster, attempts one point. about the excitement later on Facebook. Su-hyeon, when rescuers recovered at humor and unmistakable fear.

“Is it really sinking?” another asks.

Only one can be seen wearing a life The fear in the cabin builds as the his body. The boy’s father provided listing becomes worse. Some say they it Thursday to The Associated Press, jacket at the beginning of the video “Wow, they’re giving us life vests.”

“I’m getting out of here,” one says. feel dizzy, that their legs are shaking. saying he wanted to show the world the clips, which start at 8:52 a.m. and One student can be seen walking with ship’s condition as it sank. Park Jong- end, with a small break between them, “Me too, me too,” says another.

A student says: “We have to survive his hands braced against the wall for dae, the boy’s father, earlier released it at 9:09, when everyone appears to be now.” wearing them. to select South Korean media. balance.

“We’re all finished. I have to leave Some of the students in the video The tragedy, which has left more “Am I really going to die?” a student asks at 8:53 a.m., April 16, two minutes than 300 people dead or missing, has struggle as they try to buckle their life some farewell words before I die,” says before a crew member on the bridge created a sense of national mourning, jackets. As the ferry lists, they joke another.

“Mom, I love you,” says one. anger and shame. About 220 bodies, about “final commemorative pictures” made the ferry’s first distress call.

Colorado Former president lawmakers want Bush hopes brother pot industry runs for White House bank option Former President George W. Bush said he wants his brother Jeb to run for president in 2016, in an interview with CNN released on Thursday.

“I hope Jeb runs,” Bush told CNN. “I think he would be a great president. I have no clue what’s going on in his mind and we will talk when he’s ready. I noticed he’s moving around the country quite a bit.”

Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida, has said he will make a decision on whether to run after November’s congressional elections.

His older brother served as president from 2001 to 2009, and his father, George H.W. Bush, served in the White House from 1989 to 1993.

Jeb Bush has been touring the country delivering speeches and raising money for Republicans, though he has been less open about possible presidential ambitions than some other contenders.

He is seen as a favorite of Republican donors who are more moderate than the Tea Party and he performs well in preliminary national polls, which are rarely predictive this far ahead of elections.

Bush has also begun wading into the midterm elections: on Thursday he endorsed Thom Tillis, a moderate Republican running for his party’s

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

nomination for Senate in North Carolina.

“Hey Jeb, if you need some advice, give me a call,” said the former president, who has kept a low profile since leaving the White House.

55 schools face US federal sex assault probe

WASHINGTON – Fifty-five colleges and universities – big and small, public and private – are being investigated over their handling of sexual abuse complaints under Title IX, the Education Department revealed Thursday.

The Education Department’s decision to release the list is unprecedented and comes as the Obama administration seeks to shed greater transparency on the issue of sexual assault in higher education and how it is being handled.

Going forward, the department said, it will keep an updated list of schools facing such an investigation and make it available upon request.

The schools range from big public universities like Ohio State University, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Arizona State University to private schools like Knox College in Illinois, Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and Catholic University of America in the District of Columbia. Ivy League schools like Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth are also on the list.

The agency previously would confirm such an investigation when asked, but students and others were often unaware of them.

“We hope this increased transparency will spur community dialogue about this important issue,” Catherine E. Lhamon, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement.

Lhamon said a school’s appearance on the list does not mean that it has violated the law but that an investigation is ongoing.

Some investigations were prompted by complaints directly to the department; others were initiated by the department after a regular compliance review.

That was the case at Dartmouth, where investigators visited the Hanover, New Hampshire, campus in late January to speak with students, faculty and alumni.

“We are hopeful at the end of this there will be a resolution that will strengthen our internal processes and result in a safer community,” Dartmouth spokesman Justin Anderson said Thursday. “There’s always something we can learn and ways to get better.”

DENVER — Colorado is trying again to set up the world’s first financial system for marijuana in an attempt to move the pot industry away from its cashonly roots.

A bill up for its first hearing Thursday is prompted by frustration with recent marijuana banking guidance from the Treasury Department. Banks and the pot industry say the guidance is inadequate because it gives financial institutions no confidence that they can serve the marijuana industry without running afoul of federal law.

“This is cracking the whip and really sending a flare up to the feds to make sure that they understand that this is a pressing issue,” said Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont and sponsor of the bill.

The measure would allow state-licensed marijuana businesses to create a financial co-op, sort of an uninsured credit union. The co-ops would be overseen

by Colorado’s Division of Financial Services and expressly prohibited from calling themselves “banks” or “credit unions,” though they could provide credit and checking and other traditional financial services.

The pot co-ops also would have to comply with the new federal requirements on banking for the marijuana industry, including filing detailed reports to show that sales revenue is not ending up in the hands of criminal organizations.

State lawmakers tried but failed two years ago to set up a state-chartered bank for the marijuana industry. The effort was abandoned as unworkable.

“The banking issue is a huge problem,” said Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, who sponsored the failed banking plan two years ago. Steadman said the problem has only grown, so he signed on for another effort.

“We want an audit trail. We want to know they’re paying their taxes correctly. And when they’re operating on a cash-only basis, that’s a huge problem,” Steadman said.

Banking services have been a top priority for the marijuana lobby for years in Colorado. Earlier this month, marijuana industry workers briefed lawmakers on their continuing headaches operating without a bank. Industry workers told of being scared to walk to their cars at the end of the day carrying large amounts of cash.

“It is very easy to see somebody get killed over this issue,” said Michael Elliott, head of the Denver-based Marijuana Industry Group. “It’s really just a matter of time before something happens.”

Elan Nelson, a business strategist for the Medicine Man dispensary in northeast Denver, told lawmakers the federal guidance has done little to alleviate the problem.

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Syria confirms 24 hopefuls for presidential election

Damascus – A total of 24 Syrians have registered to run in next month’s presidential election, including incumbent President Bashar al-Assad, the Supreme Constitutional Court announced Thursday as the application deadline expired.

The vote, scheduled for June 3, is expected to return to power Assad, the embattled president who has faced a three-year-old armed revolt. But there has been no shortage of would-be challengers.

The court will now spend five days examining the 24 hopefuls to see if they meet electoral criteria to run for office in Syria’s first multi-candidate presidential vote.

A maximum of three candidates are expected to figure on the final list.

“At 3:00 pm (1200 GMT) on Thursday May 1, 2014, the period for submitting presidential candidacy ended,” court head Adnan Zureiq said, quoted on state television.

“Twenty-four requests for candidacy for the post of Syrian president” had been submitted and the court would begin work Friday to examine which candidates Supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad celebrate after he formally submitted his nomination to seek re-election in June, in Damascus met electoral criteria.

The results, he said, would be announced within April 28, 2014. five days.

Northern Ireland Venezuela to rocked by Gerry Adams crush cars, bikes to build arrest over 1972 killing houses

ANTRIM, Northern Ireland/ DUBLIN – Police in Northern Ireland questioned Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams on Thursday after arresting him under an investigation into one of the province’s most notorious murders, a move that stirred fierce political reaction in Britain and Ireland.

Reviled by many in Britain as the spokesman for the Irish Republican Army in the 1980s, Adams reinvented himself as a Northern Ireland peacemaker and then as a populist opposition politician in the Irish parliament.

His Sinn Fein party said he was arrested on Wednesday evening by police investigating the 1972 abduction and murder of Jean McConville, a mother of 10 children.

In this February 19, 2008 file photo, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, right, carries the Adams can be held for up to 48 coffin of senior IRA commander Brendan Hughes, in west Belfast, Northern Ireland. hours, or until 8 p.m. on Friday, before a judge must rule on whether he can be held any longer. Under British antiThe investigation into McConville’s killing has terrorism laws, a suspect can be held for up to 28 been revived by the release of a series of taped days before being charged. interviews given by former guerrillas from the Adams, 65, who has always denied membership Northern Ireland conflict for a research project at of the IRA, said he was “innocent of any part” in the Boston College in the United States. killing, which he said was “wrong and a grievous The Northern Ireland police took legal steps to injustice to her and her family”. acquire the interviews, parts of which have already “Well publicized, malicious allegations have been released after one IRA interviewee died. been made against me. I reject these,” he said in a Participants had been told by the college that their statement. words would be released only after they died.

Venezuela said it would start crushing abandoned cars and bicycles to provide raw materials for housing construction and supplement drastically reduced amounts of local steel.

“We have sent 10,485 automobiles, 9,651 motorbikes and 539 bicycles to the national steel industry,” Maria Martinez, a deputy justice minister, said during a visit to an abandoned car deposit outside Caracas.

That quantity of steel, she said, could be used for rebars, which reinforce concrete, in the construction of tens of thousands of housing units.

In one of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez’s most popular policies, the “Great Venezuelan Housing Mission,” authorities built or refurbished more than 250,000 housing units in 2012 for lowincome families. That fell to around 150,000 last year.

Production of rebars in March 2014 was at an 18-year monthly low of 8,796 tonnes, down from 46,051 tonnes in March last year.

Venezuelan steelmaker Sidor has an installed annual capacity of 5 million tonnes, but output has declined since its nationalization six years ago due to frequent protests and insufficient investment.

Total steel output reached a 16-year low of 1.5 million tonnes in 2012, and was only slightly higher at 1.6 million in 2013.

The steelmaker’s problems are part of a general malaise in the South American OPEC nation’s once-buoyant metals industry.

UK judge halts fraud case in dispute over lawyers LONDON – A British judge halted a complex fraud case Thursday because the five defendants couldn’t find qualified lawyers willing to represent them under new rates offered by the government for legal aid.

Judge Anthony Leonard’s decision Thursday could have wider ramifications for the country’s courts, with several fraud cases in danger of collapsing if lawyers refuse to accept the new rate structure. Prosecutors had hoped to delay the case, but Leonard said he saw no basis to suspect that skilled lawyers would be available —

even with more time.

“I am compelled to conclude that to allow the state an adjournment to put right its failure to provide the necessary resources to permit a fair trial to take place now amounts to a violation of the process of this court,” he wrote in his decision.

The judge’s decision means the five men accused of being involved in an alleged property scam are free — subject to any appeal by prosecutors.

Britain’s government has slashed billions from public spending in the name of deficit reduction — arguing

that its legal aid system is among the world’s most expensive. It has planned to cut the legal aid budget by 220 million pounds ($360 million) a year through 2019.

But the Criminal Bar Association has argued that the new rates will discourage attorneys from taking on criminal cases, where defendants often rely on state funding for legal representation. The association says the average legal aid earnings of barristers — lawyers who argue in court — was around 36,000 pounds ($59,000) after services tax and

expenses. The cuts mean their income will fall 30 percent.

Lawyers for the defendants said they approached about 70 sets of barristers’ chambers, seeking to find someone qualified and willing to undertake this type of complex case.

They were unsuccessful. Alex Cameron, the brother of Prime Minister David Cameron, had represented the defendants on a pro-bono basis to argue that they could not get a fair trial under the circumstances.

The prime minister refused to get drawn into the controversy.

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Malaysia releases preliminary report into MH370 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Air traffic controllers did not realize that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was missing until 17 minutes after it disappeared from civilian radar, according to a preliminary report on the plane’s disappearance released Thursday by Malaysia’s government.

The government also released other information from the investigation into the flight, including audio recordings of conversations between the cockpit and air

traffic control, the plane’s cargo manifest and its seating plan.

It provided a map showing the Boeing 777’s deduced flight path and a document detailing actions taken by authorities during the hours of confusion that followed the jet’s disappearance near the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace. Many of the details have previously been disclosed.

The report noted that there is no requirement for real-time tracking of commercial aircraft,

and said the uncertainty about Flight 370’s last position made it much more difficult to locate the plane. It recommended that international aviation authorities examine the safety benefits of introducing a tracking standard.

The plane went off Malaysian radar at 1:21 a.m. on March 8, and Vietnamese air traffic controllers began contacting Kuala Lumpur at 1:38 a.m. after they failed to establish verbal contact with the pilots and the plane didn’t show up on their radar,

according to the five-page report, which was dated April 9 and sent last month to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The documents showed that Malaysian authorities did not launch an official search and rescue operation until four hours later, at 5:30 a.m., after efforts to locate the plane failed.

They indicated that Malaysia Airlines at one point thought the plane may have entered Cambodian airspace.

The airline said in the report that “MH370 was able to

exchange signals with the flight and flying in Cambodian airspace,” but that Cambodian authorities said they had no information or contact with Flight 370. It was unclear which flight it was referring to that supposedly exchanged signals with MH370.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak last week appointed a team of experts to review all the information the government has regarding the missing plane, and decide which information should be made public.

Toronto Mayor Ford takes leave of absence TORONTO – Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has informed city staff he is taking a leave of absence, but has not said when he plans to return, a city spokeswoman said on Thursday, one day after Ford said he will seek professional help for a drinking problem.

Ford was spotted leaving his house and getting into a car driven by another person on Thursday morning. Earlier, a large suitcase was seen being taken out of the house.

Ford, 44, who is running for re-election, gained global notoriety last year when he admitted he had smoked crack cocaine, but at the time he refused to resign, or even take time off.

His change of heart on Wednesday about taking a leave of absence came as two Canadian newspapers published embarrassing reports. The Globe and Mail

reported it had seen a video that was shot last week and showed Ford using what appeared to be drugs.

Also, the Toronto Sun reported on a recording it had obtained of Ford ranting and swearing at a suburban Toronto bar on Monday.

“I have a problem with alcohol, and the choices I have made while under the influence.

I have struggled with this for some time,” Ford said in his statement.

“I have tried to deal with these issues by myself over the past year. I know that I need professional help and I am now 100 percent committed to getting myself right.”

Allegations about Ford’s drug use began in May of last year, when two media outlets said they had seen video of him smoking from what appeared to be a crack pipe.

He initially said he did not

India invites US to discuss IP

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford , who gained global notoriety after admitting to smoking crack cocaine, will take a break to deal with substance abuse issues, his lawyer told Canadian media, as one newspaper reported a new video showed him using what appears to be.

smoke crack cocaine, before admitting in November that he had indeed done so. He said at the time that the incident had probably happened “in one of my drunken stupors,” but he insisted he was not an addict.

The Globe and Mail said on Wednesday that two of its reporters had seen a video of

Ford taking a drag from a long copper-colored pipe. The Globe said the video was secretly filmed early Saturday morning by a self-professed drug dealer.

Ford’s office and campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters has not seen the video and cannot verify its authenticity.

India said on Thursday it would hold trade talks on intellectual property rights with the United States after its general election, buying time to address friction over drug patents until a new government is formed.

Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher praised a decision by the U.S. Trade Representative not to label India with its worst offender tag in an annual scorecard on protecting U.S. patents, copyrights and other intellectual property.

“It is a very sensible decision,” Kher, India’s chief trade negotiator, told Reuters, saying India was committed to protecting copyrights and reining in piracy. “They know very well that India is in transition.”

But he defended India’s right to overrule patents in special cases – a bone of contention between the U.S. drugs industry and New Delhi, which wants its 1.2 billion people to have access to affordable medicines.

Florida jail explosion kills 2, injures 150 PENSACOLA, Florida – An apparent gas explosion rocked a jail in the Florida Panhandle, killing two inmates, injuring as many as 150 people, and creating a chaotic scene Thursday after inmates were bused to hospitals and nearby jails when the crippled building had to be evacuated.

Three inmates were unaccounted for and the jail was almost completely destroyed, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said at a news conference last Thursday.

Pieces of glass and brick were strewn about on the ground and the front of the building appeared bowed, with cracks throughout.

“The explosion shook us so hard it was like we were in an earthquake,” Monique Barnes, an inmate who said she was knocked off her fourth-floor bunk, told The Associated Press by phone. “It was like a movie, a horrible, horrible movie.”

Barnes, who spoke to AP after she was taken to a nearby jail, said she and other inmates had complained of smelling gas ahead of the blast late Wednesday, and some reported headaches.

The sheriff wouldn’t comment on whether inmates complained about gas.

Authorities blocked off roads leading to the jail and

Police officers maintain a cordon after an apparent gas explosion injured over 100 inmates and guards at Escambia County jail in Pensacola .

relatives and attorneys for the inmates stood behind police tape, trying to figure out who was injured and killed.

About 600 inmates – 200 men and 400 women – were in the building at the time of the explosion.

Barnes said during the evacuation, hundreds of inmates and corrections officers had to use one stairwell, “everyone pushing and bleeding.”

County spokeswoman Kathleen Castro said authorities did not yet know the extent of injuries, but local hospitals said some inmates had already been released.

The sheriff said a corrections officer was seriously injured.

The names of the two inmates killed in the explosion weren’t immediately released.

The Pensacola area was drenched by rains and severely flooded Tuesday and

Wednesday as part of a large storm system making its way across the United States Castro said the building was running on generator power.

Barnes, the inmate, said the toilets weren’t working, so they had to use plastic trash bags.

Castro said officials did not know whether the flooding and explosion were related. The fire marshal would ultimately determine the cause.

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WORLD NEWS

General Motors fate in hands of bankruptcy judge – again

Five years ago, New York bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber oversaw the historic bankruptcy of General Motors, establishing a new company that is shielded from liability for the actions of its precursor.

Now, with thousands of drivers suing “New GM” for the alleged loss of value in their cars after an ignition defect sparked a massive recall, the same judge must decide whether to lift the shield he put in place.

GM may have the upper hand when it meets for the first time Friday morning in Gerber’s courtroom with the plaintiffs’ lawyers leading the challenge. The company asked Gerber to enforce the so-called bankruptcy shield, in a pre-emptive move aimed at staving off dozens of lawsuits from customers who say they took a financial

hit from the recall.

Most legal experts believe the shield is virtually iron-clad and that Gerber would be unlikely to undo a key part of the bankruptcy sale order he approved in 2009. But the high-stakes issue is not necessarily a slam dunk for GM. While evidence has already emerged that at least some GM employees were aware of problems with the switch, GM is asking for a clear-cut ruling declaring that it did not intentionally hide anything from the bankruptcy court.

But plaintiffs’ lawyers have prepared a multi-pronged attack, raising questions of bankruptcy law and constitutional rights.

Additionally, if plaintiffs can prove that the company knew about the switch problems during its

bankruptcy proceedings but failed to notify customers or the court, they may be able to convince Gerber that the company committed fraud on the bankruptcy court. A win for them would mean they could proceed with their lawsuits against New GM.

Finding fraud A finding of fraud may not be enough for Gerber to undo the shield, since the bankruptcy code provides only a sixmonth window to unwind bankruptcy sales for fraud. However, he could find other ways to let the lawsuits proceed.

The bankruptcy court’s role in exploring GM’s conduct during the bankruptcy proceedings is unrelated to ongoing investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the National

Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which are looking specifically at potential criminal or civil violations.

But federal officials may well take notice if Gerber identifies any misconduct on GM’s part.

Moreover, even if Gerber upholds the shield, he could rebuke GM for any deception, adding to mounting pressure on the automaker to settle with the thousands of customers who claim the value of their vehicles has plummeted.

A review of Gerber’s track record shows he’s not above admonishing the company for actions he considers underhanded. In a 2012 trial stemming from the GM bankruptcy, for instance, he expressed “shock” at revelations that GM did not tell him about a $367 million payment to certain creditors.

Iraq April death toll among worst in years Baghdad – Violence in Iraq in April was around its highest level since 2008, official and UN figures showed Thursday, a day after the country’s first parliamentary election since US troops withdrew.

Government figures compiled by the ministries of health, interior and defence put the toll of people killed in April at 1,009 – 881 civilians, 52 policemen and 76 soldiers.

The United Nations gave an overall toll of 750 dead, but not including those who were killed in the western province of Anbar where anti-government fighters have battled security forces since the beginning of the year.

An AFP tally based on reports from security and medical officials showed that 795 people were killed in attacks and clashes.

All the tolls indicated that April was among the bloodiest month since Iraq was embroiled in a brutal Sunni-Shiite sectarian war in 2006 and 2007 that left tens of thousands dead.

The government figures said a total of 1,375 people were also wounded in April.

In the chaotic aftermath of bombings and attacks, different sources often give different tolls.

The latest figures come a day after a parliamentary election was held across Iraq, with the exception of

Iraqi policemen arrive to inspect the site of a car bombing in Baghdad.

parts of Anbar province, in the first national polls since US forces withdrew in late 2011.

The government has been criticised for underplaying the level of violence in public statements.

Republicans slam Obama over Benghazi attack spin Washington – Republican lawmakers compared Barack Obama’s White House to the secretive Nixon administration on Thursday, denouncing its response to the 2012 attack on a US mission in Benghazi, Libya.

On Wednesday a conservative group published a White House email it had obtained after a legal challenge and which critics say shows an attempt to put a political spin on the deadly assault.

In the mail, Obama’s deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes tells Susan Rice – then the US envoy to the UN – to blame the attack on local anger in Benghazi over an anti-Muslim Internet video.

It has since become clear the September 11, 2012 attack on the mission – which cost the lives

of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens – was planned by armed militants.

In the email, obtained

by Judicial Watch and dated September 14, 2012, Rhodes laid out talking points and goals for Rice in her planned appearances on several major US talk shows the next day.

She was asked “to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, not a broader failure of policy.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday after the Rhodes email was first made public that it referred to protests in the Arab world as a whole, and not specifically to the Benghazi attack.

But the attack and Rice’s media appearances took place at the

height of Obama’s successful reelection campaign -- a campaign in which he made great play of having put Al-Qaeda on the back foot.

Republican lawmakers accuse the White House of having tried to cover-up the organized nature of the attack, carried out by Libyan Islamist extremists with suspected Al-Qaeda ties or sympathies.

The administration, in part through Rice’s early public statements, said the attack was provoked by an anti-Islamic video posted on YouTube. But this version of events was quickly proven false.

Congress launched hearings and thousands of documents were turned over, but the Rhodes email from Rhodes had not been revealed, despite requests from the House of Representatives.

High school senior class prank leads to 62 arrests

TEANECK, N.J. – Sixty-two students were arrested Thursday after police said they broke into their high school overnight for a senior class prank, urinating in hallways, greasing doorknobs with petroleum jelly and taping hot dogs to lockers.

Police said officers responding to a burglar alarm at Teaneck High School shortly after 2 a.m. also found desks flipped over, chairs broken, graffiti on the walls, silly string on the floors and balloons throughout the building.

Even before they went inside, police said, officers could see many students through the building’s windows.

Police from more than a dozen neighboring towns plus county law enforcement officers were called in to help.

They used police dogs in their room-by-room roundup of students, some of whom were hiding.

“It is possible that a few got away, but the majority were caught,” Acting Police Chief Robert Carney said.

He said the students told officers that it was a senior prank — an annual tradition at the northern New Jersey school of 1,300 students, though it is usually not this involved. As they were arrested, Carney said, some students were scared but others were laughing.

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TECHNOLOGY

Bank of England warns housing market boom may turn to crash Britain’s booming housing history of booms turning to bust. market could be heading for a “This is a movie that has been fresh crash, the Bank of England seen more than once in the UK.” The Bank’s deputy governor said in its toughest warning yet about the dangers of the return said that there were always risks of rapidly rising property prices. to financial stability “blinking on Sir Jon Cunliffe, the dashboard” but made clear Threadneedle Street’s deputy his concern about the possibility governor for financial stability, that borrowers taking on large said it would be dangerous to mortgages could find themselves ignore the momentum apparent in trouble when interest rates across the country and dropped inevitably rose.

“The growing momentum strong hints of new measures to slow down the market in the in the market is now in my view the brightest light on that months ahead.

On a day when it emerged dashboard”, Cunliffe said. “It that one in 15 London homes has not yet been accompanied are now selling for £1m or more, by a substantial increase Cunliffe said Britain had a in aggregate mortgage debt,

though gross mortgage lending is growing and there are signs that debts are becoming more concentrated.”

Cunliffe said the housing market could have a “soft landing” as houses became less affordable and lenders tightened up the conditions for granting homes loans. “But other outcomes are very possible and the financial policy committee [FPC] will need be both vigilant and ready to act.”

He said the risk was of “a major overshoot in prices and buildup in debt followed by a sharp correction with negative equity and an overhang of debt for many households”.

Pfizer’s $100bn bid on AstraZeneca stir tax envy Rumors about a massive healthcare deal were circulating in industry circles, months before Pfizer Inc disclosed its $100 billion pursuit of Britain’s AstraZeneca Plc, according to several industry bankers and lawyers.

As rivals and bankers assessed what it could mean for different companies in the industry, one aspect touched nearly everyone: what it could mean for an increasingly popular U.S. tax loophole.

U.S. healthcare companies worried that if a household name like Pfizer changed its domicile to Britain to lower its tax rate as a result of a deal with AstraZeneca, it would spur Congress into action and close the tax arbitrage opportunity, called tax inversion, for everyone else, these people said.

The fear of such an outcome – even though it is likely many months, if not years, away – added new urgency to companies such as Botox-maker Allergan Inc and generic drugmaker Mylan Inc that were already looking at European targets, people familiar with these situations said.

IMF approves $17bn bailout for Ukraine amid tensions

The International Monetary Fund’s industrial heartland bordering Russia. board signed off on a $17 billion two- The unrest in the east follows months of year aid program for Ukraine to help anti-government protests and Russia’s the former Soviet republic’s economy annexation of the Crimea region, which recover after months of upheaval had already pushed Ukraine’s economy as it continues to face geopolitical to the brink of bankruptcy and a likely economic contraction this year. uncertainty.

Kiev is also in a dispute with The IMF aid will allow the immediate disbursement of $3.2 billion Moscow over the price it will pay for to Kiev and unlock further credits natural gas exports in the future, and from other donors of about $15 billion, over about $2.2 billion Russia says intended to help Ukraine stabilise its it is owed for prior gas purchases. economy in the middle of its worst civil Ukraine’s economy may further suffer if sanctions intensify on Russia, a key turmoil since independence in 1991.

IMF managing director Christine export market.

Western nations have placed visa Lagarde admitted the program faced risks, including from the government’s bans and asset freezes on Russian ability to carry out the politically individuals and companies over what unpopular measures necessary to get they see as meddling in Ukraine.

“Anything that undermines the its finances in order.

“In particular, further escalation of economic situation of (Ukraine) will tensions with Russia and unrest in the jeopardize the implementation of the east of the country pose a substantial program, which is why we very strongly risk to the economic outlook,” she encourage the parties to negotiate, said in a statement. Pro-Moscow to come to terms,” Ms Lagarde told separatists seized government offices reporters after the board’s decision.

The IMF has slashed its already in more Ukrainian towns yesterday, a further sign authorities in Kiev are modest growth forecast for Russia, losing control of the country’s eastern warning that sanctions were scaring

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde off investors and pushing the economy towards recession.

The IMF said it also expects Ukraine’s economy to contract by about 5 per cent this year; government forecasts are for a 3 per cent contraction.

The economy should rebound to 2 per cent next year, and 4 to 4.5 per cent

after that, according to the fund.

External debt should rise to just below 100 per cent of GDP this year as the government borrows money to finance itself and devalues its currency, even as revenues fall because of the economic contraction and political unrest.

Microsoft rescues XP users with emergency browser fix Microsoft is helping the estimated hundreds of millions of customers still running Windows XP, which it stopped supporting earlier this month, by providing an emergency update to fix a critical bug in its Internet Explorer browser.

Microsoft Corp rushed to create the fix after learning of the bug in the operating system over the weekend when cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc warned that a sophisticated group of hackers had exploited the bug to launch attacks in a campaign dubbed “Operation Clandestine Fox. It was the first high-profile threat to emerge after Microsoft stopped providing support to its 13-year-old

XP operating software on April 8.

Microsoft on Wednesday initially said it would not provide the remedy to Windows XP users because it had stopped supporting the product. But on Thursday, as Microsoft started releasing the fix for the bug through its automated Windows Update system, a company spokeswoman said the remedy also would be pushed out to XP customers.

“We decided to fix it, fix it fast, and fix it for all our customers,” spokeswoman Adrienne Hall said on Microsoft’s official blog.

She said there had not been many attacks exploiting the vulnerability, which Microsoft decided

to patch in XP “based on the proximity” to its recent end of support.

“There have been a very small number of attacks based on this particular vulnerability and concerns were, frankly, overblown,” she said in the blog.

At the end of last week, FireEye initially uncovered attacks involving recent versions of Windows that are still supported by Microsoft.

Then, three days ago, it began identifying attacks on Windows XP, which users would not necessarily have been able to thwart if Microsoft had not decided to roll out the update to XP users in addition to other customers.

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AT&T approaches DirecTV about takeover AT&T Inc has approached DirecTV about a possible purchase of the satellite TV company, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

A deal would likely be worth at least $40 billion, DirecTV’s current market capitalization, the newspaper said.

A combination of AT&T and DirecTV would create a pay TV network that could rival Comcast Corp if it completes its purchase of Time Warner Cable Inc DirectTV is the nation’s second largest pay TV provider after Comcast and is followed by Dish Network However, it lags cable and phone companies in the broadband market.

Aggressive discounting to attract customers in a nearly saturated

wireless market is taking a toll on carriers such as AT&T, forcing them to explore other areas for growth.

AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. mobile provider behind Verizon Communications Inc is expanding its broadband and video services.

AT&T has held talks with both Dish Network and DirecTV in recent years, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.

AT&T and DirecTV have an agreement through which the companies offer a co-branded version of DirecTV’s satellite television service across the 22 states where AT&T offers residential broadband and voice service.

DirecTV also sells AT&T’s broadband services, including AT&T U-verse High

Speed Internet to existing DirecTV customers.

Dish Network Corp has also approached DirecTV for a tie-up. There were reports in March that Dish Chief Executive Charlie Ergen contacted DirecTV CEO Mike White to discuss a possible deal.

Representatives for AT&T were not immediately available for comment.

DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer said the company does not comment on speculation.

Comcast Corp this week agreed to a three-way deal with Charter Communications Inc as part of Comcast’s efforts to win regulatory approvals for its proposed $45 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable.

Workers process laptop accessories at a factory in Dazu, Chongqing Municipality, China

China poised to pass US as world’s leading economic power The US is on the brink of losing its status as the world’s largest economy, and is likely to slip behind China this year, sooner than widely anticipated, according to the world’s leading statistical agencies.

The US has been the global leader since overtaking the UK in 1872. Most economists previously thought China would pull ahead in 2019.

The figures, compiled by the International Comparison Program (ICP) hosted by the World Bank, are the most authoritative estimates of what money can buy in different countries and are used by most public and private sector organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund.

This is the first time they have been updated since 2005.

After extensive research on the prices of goods and services, the ICP concluded that money goes further in poorer countries than it previously thought, prompting it to increase the relative size of emerging market economies.

The estimates of the real cost of living, known as purchasing power parity or PPPs, are recognised as the best way to compare the size of economies rather than using volatile exchange rates, which rarely reflect the true cost of goods and services: on this measure the IMF put US GDP in 2012 at $16.2 trillion, and China’s at $8.2 trillion.

In 2005, the ICP thought China’s economy was less than half the size of the US, accounting for only 43 per cent of America’s total. Because of the new methodology - and the fact that China’s economy has grown much more quickly the research placed China’s GDP at 87 per cent of the US in 2011.

For 2011, the report says: “The US remained the world’s largest economy, but it was closely followed by China when measured using PPPs”.

With the IMF expecting China’s economy to have grown 24 per cent between 2011 and 2014 while the US is expected to expand only 7.6 per cent, China is likely to overtake the US this year.

The figures revolutionise the picture of the world’s economic landscape, boosting the importance of large middle-income countries. India becomes the third-largest economy having previously been in tenth place. The size of its economy almost doubled from 19 per cent of the US in 2005 to 37 per cent in 2011.

Russia, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico make the top 12 in the global table. In contrast, high costs and lower growth push the UK and Japan further behind the US than in the 2005 tables while Germany improved its relative position a little and Italy remained the same.

The findings will intensify arguments about control over global international organisations such as the World Bank and IMF, which are increasingly out of line with the balance of global economic power.

When looking at the actual consumption per head, the report found the new methodology as well as faster growth in poor countries have “greatly reduced” the gap between rich and poor, “suggesting that the world has become more equal”.

The world’s rich countries still account for 50 per cent of global GDP while containing only 17 per cent of the world’s population.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook to let users limit data revealed by log-ins SAN FRANCISCO – Trying to become even bigger – and make more money – Facebook will allow users to reveal a little less.

The social network announced on Wednesday that when its 1.3 billion users log in to other websites or mobile apps through their Facebook identities, they will be able to limit what they reveal to the site or app to just their email addresses and public profile information, like name and gender. Before, depending on the app or site, the simple act of using the Facebook log-in exposed much of their Facebook information to that app or site.

The social network also announced that it was testing a feature to allow people to use their Facebook identity to log in to other sites or apps through a button marked “Log in anonymously.”

Users who choose that button would not be anonymous to Facebook, which will continue to collect the information about what apps its users are active on – data that is useful for targeting ads. But no personal information would be revealed to the outside service.

Longtime complaints Both these moves respond to longtime complaints raised by many users who object to requests for personal data, and who object to being asked to log in through Facebook. Even Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, seems to share these concerns.

“I install a lot of apps,” Mr. Zuckerberg said in an interview at the company’s conference for application developers on Wednesday in San Francisco. “If it looks like it’s kind of sketchy, no, I don’t want to give it access to my messages and every part of Facebook. I think that’s something a lot of people can empathize with, and we just want to give them the tools to help mediate that.”

While the changed rules involving Facebook log-ins are likely to be popular with Facebook users, app developers will lose access to valuable information about their customers.

But Facebook is offering them other inducements to work with the social network. The company formally announced a new mobile ad network that can tap Facebook’s knowledge of its users to place targeted ads inside other companies’ apps, with Facebook and the app maker sharing the revenue. Facebook had already been testing this network on a smaller scale for several months.

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Ford CEO to retire earlier than expected Ford Motor Co on Thursday made official what investors and analysts had been waiting for – Chief Executive Alan Mulally this summer will pass the baton of leadership to Chief Operating Officer Mark Fields, six months earlier than expected.

The 68-year-old Mulally is credited with transforming the No. 2 U.S. automaker from a money-loser to a company that expects to realize a pretax profit of up to $8 billion this year after joining in 2006 from Boeing Co. Mulally, who was in the running for the top job at Microsoft Corp late last year, did not say what was next for him.

Ford’s CEO change takes effect on July 1. The ascension of 53-year-old Fields as the next CEO, which the company’s board approved on Wednesday, was expected, but the timing had been unclear. Mulally said the transition was moved up from year-end because he felt the team and Fields were ready.

Fields, who promised to hew to his predecessor’s strategy, said his current COO position would not be filled when the CEO change occurs, adding in a later interview that the management team structure without that position was “appropriate.”

When asked whether he considered promoting Joe Hinrichs, president of the Americas and an executive perceived by many in the auto industry as a rising star, Fields told Reuters that Hinrichs

Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally (left), and Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford (right) share a laugh during a press conference at Ford world headquarters where it was announced that effective July 1 Ford COO Mark Fields will succeed Alan Mulally as president and chief executive on May 1, 2014 at Ford Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. Mulally departs after seven years as CEO. had a “really big job now running North America. He’s very talented and he’s got a bright future.”

Mulally said in a later interview that he had no concerns that Hinrichs would leave as he is intimately involved in setting the company’s strategy.

Fields also said he would stay in touch with Mulally even though he will leave the company board. Fields pointed out that Mulally remains a Ford shareholder. Asked why he was

not remaining on Ford’s board, Mulally said it was the right time for him to leave and turn it over to the next team.

Analysts said Fields will inherit a much stronger company than Mulally did, one with a highly profitable North American operation underpinned by the top-selling F-150 large pickup truck.

Ford also has a growing share of the China auto market, the world’s largest, and is seeing a nascent recovery in Europe.

MasterCard sees threat in Putin’s plans for Russia

MasterCard Inc (MA.N), the world’s second-biggest credit and debit card company, said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to create a domestic card payment system would create “serious complications” for its operations in the country.

Putin, lashing back against U.S. and EU sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine, has said Russia needs its own card system to reduce its reliance on Western companies.

Russia’s parliament passed legislation last week that would allow for the creation of domestic credit and debit cards as well as require Western card companies to pay a security deposit to operate in the country.

MasterCard and larger rival Visa Inc (V.N) stopped providing services to some Russian banks after U.S. President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia in March.

“There are provisions (in the legislation) there that I believe would create serious complications for the way that we can operate in (Russia),” MasterCard Chief Executive Ajay Banga said on a post-earnings call with analysts on Thursday.

Are you a high performing, result driven professional?

If so, we would like to speak with you to join our dynamic team in the capacity of:

Pre-Sales Support Officer (Based in Turks & Caicos)

Applications are invited from individuals with a solid background who will be responsible for recommendation, design implementation and performance of LIME solutions that exceed the productivity expectations of the Corporate Customers.

The successful candidate will work closely with Account Managers to deliver sound Sales Presentations with the technical advice the corporate customers need to make informed, value-based decisions.

Main Accountabilities are: • Provide bid-support for Account Managers ensuring complete responses to customer RFPs. • Proactively seek new opportunities to drive sales and maintenance revenues and present these to Account Managers.

• Provide technical interface between Customers and Managed Service Operations.

• Support Account Managers to ensure complete Customer Requirement Definitions are fully documented.

• Plan system layouts and implementation in consultation with customer and Manager MSO.

• Provide direct technical support to all Account Managers as required.

• Provide product support and project management oversight.

• Manage the range of products and services offered by the company as it relates to corporate

Minimum Experience and Qualifications: • A Bachelors’ Degree or demonstrable equivalent experience • 1-2 years’ experience in project management • 3-5 years of CPE Network Experience

To explore this exciting career opportunity please send your application and resume no later than May 12th 2014 to recruit@lime.com or fax to: 1-876-920-9336

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LOCAL NEWS

Are you a high performing, result driven professional?

If so, we would like to speak with you to join our dynamic team in the capacity of:

Customer Care Representative (Based in Turks & Caicos) Applications are invited from individuals with a solid background who will be will be an aggressive and enthusiastic phone personality who can articulate C&W’s value proposition to executive level decision-makers.

The successful candidate needs to be able to work in a team environment and will be responsible for supporting the Corporate and Government Sales Team.

Main Accountabilities are:

timely basis through to resolution.

• Provides 1st level support for products and services offered by the Company • Process requests for Sales Orders utilizing the Job Order System

• Performs administrative sales support related activities to optimize the sales outcomes of the Corporate Sales Department • Liaise with relevant internal resource team for timely follow-up to all incoming leads and emails to convert to sales • Make outbound lead follow-up calls to potential and existing customers via telephone • Effectively communicate C&W’s products and processes in detail to customers • Work closely with Sales Executives (Corporate and Government) to provide product feedback • Advise customers on product features, detail of services and their cost.

• Receive customer enquiries or issues as they arise, investigate/resolve/escalate/consult with Credit Control, Service delivery or other departments as required.

• Conduct follow-up activities and update customers on a

Minimum Experience and Qualifications: • A minimum of four (4) CXC passes at the General Proficiency level, inclusive of English Language, Mathematics or Accounts • 2 – 3 years of sales experience • Excellent verbal and written communication skills • Possess an entrepreneurial spirit • Knowledge of MS Office and PC • Ability to manage multiple task prioritizing effectively • Customer Service Focused • Effective Planning and Organization skills • Excellent presentation skills

To explore this exciting career opportunity please send your application and resume no later than May 12th, 2014 to recruit@lime.com or fax to: 1-876-920-9336

Are you a high performing, result driven professional?

If so, we would like to speak with you to join our dynamic team in the capacity of:

Sales Support Officer (Based in Turks & Caicos)

Applications are invited from individuals with a solid background who with an aggressive and enthusiastic phone personality who can articulate C&W’s value proposition to executive level decision-makers.

The successful candidate needs to be able to work in a team environment and will be responsible for supporting the Corporate and Government Sales Team.

Main Accountabilities are: • Performs administrative sales support related activities to optimize the sales outcomes of the Corporate Sales Department • Liaise with relevant internal resource team for timely follow-up to all incoming leads and emails to convert to sales • Make outbound lead follow-up calls to potential and existing customers via telephone • Effectively communicate C&W’s products and processes in detail to customers • Work closely with Sales Executives (Corporate and Government) to provide product feedback • Assists in the preparation of quotations, proposals and presentations based on customer requirements.

• Maintain records utilizing Microsoft Excel and Salesforce.com

• Facilitate resolution of inquiries and issues • Process requests for Sales Orders utilizing the Job Order System

Minimum Experience and Qualifications: • A minimum of four (4) CXC passes at the General Proficiency level, inclusive of English Language, Mathematics or Accounts • 2 – 3 years of sales experience • Excellent verbal and written communication skills • Possess an entrepreneurial spirit • Knowledge of MS Office and PC • Ability to manage multiple task prioritizing effectively • Customer Service Focused • Effective Planning and Organization skills • Excellent presentation skills

To explore this exciting career opportunity please send your application and resume no later than May 12th 2014 to recruit@lime.com or fax to: 1-876-920-9336

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SPORTS Madrid celebrates Champions League final success

Atletico Madrid’s Arda Turan, left, Koke, center, and Diego Godin celebrate after the Champions League semifinal second leg soccer match between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid at Stamford Bridge Stadium in London, Wednesday, April 30, 2014.

Famous bidders already lining up for LA Clippers LOS ANGELES – If Donald Sterling is compelled to sell the Los Angeles Clippers, the list of potential buyers has more stars than their roster.

Oprah Winfrey is contemplating a bid. Sean Combs is a Knicks fan, but he wants in.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants the whole team. Matt Damon wants a tiny piece.

Billionaires, entertainers and athletes alike announced their intentions to pursue the Clippers with varying degrees of seriousness Wednesday, proving the longtime losers will be quite a prize if the NBA is able to wrest control of the team away from Sterling after his lifetime ban for racist remarks. Winfrey led the list, and the media mogul is already bringing in her friends.

“Oprah Winfrey is in discussions with David Geffen and Larry Ellison to make a bid for the Los Angeles Clippers should the team become available,” spokesperson Nicole Nichols confirmed in an email.

If Winfrey joins Geffen, the billionaire entertainment executive, and Oracle CEO Ellison to pool their vast resources for a bid, they could be among the top contenders for a franchise that would be among the most valuable sports properties to hit the market since the Los Angeles Dodgers’ $2 billion sale in 2012 to the Guggenheim Partners group fronted by Magic Johnson, the Lakers

great and another potential Clippers bidder.

The Clippers spent the last three decades rotting in the shadow of the glamorous Lakers, who piled up championships while the lowly Clips only racked up losses.

With Sterling’s ouster, the Clippers suddenly became the most attractive team in town to wealthy fans lining up for an unlikely chance to seize control of a Hollywood sports franchise on the move.

David Carter, the executive director of USC’s Sports Business Institute, identifies multiple factors contributing to the Clippers’ extraordinary value.

“Interest in the team results from the combination of NBA teams being rare assets that are seldom available for purchase, the location of this particular team, and potential owners’ belief that revenue streams linked to rehabbing the brand and participating in future revenue linked to a new TV deal all make the team very attractive to prospective buyers,” Carter said.

For a day, almost everybody seemed interested in being those buyers – and even entertainers without those limitless resources were clamoring for the chance.

Combs, Rick Ross and Snoop Dogg all aired their interest, as did longtime Clippers fan Frankie Muniz and Damon, who told CNBC he’d like to be a “super tiny minority investor.”

MADRID – Madrid is celebrating the success of its two major football clubs after Atletico Madrid ensured a historic Champions League final derby against crosstown rival Real Madrid.

Atletico’s 3-1 victory at Chelsea saw it progress to its first European Cup final in 40 years, where record champion Madrid awaits after crushing titleholder Bayern Munich 5-0 over two legs.

Atletico is on the verge of an historic double as it closes in on its first Spanish league title in 18 years, while Madrid is chasing a treble after winning the Copa del Rey against Barcelona.

The feat is all the more impressive for Atletico, which under coach Diego Simeone has completely turned from a club with a history for underachieving and late collapses into a European heavyweight.

“Atletico is a real team,” Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said after Wednesday’s defeat. “It knows how to be strong in defense and when to come out and attack. It’s a great team.”

One year after an all-German Champions League final, the continent’s top competition has its first ever final between clubs from the same city.

“I’m happy that it’s an all-Spanish final,” Atletico playmaker Koke said of the May 24 date in Lisbon. “It’s going to be a special day, a very nice day because all of Madrid will be in Lisbon.”

The final will also highlight the teams’ different philosophies and history.

Atletico’s blue-collar base is far removed from Real’s home in the northwest Chamartin area with its leafy avenues, luxury homes, and expensive cars.

Madrid is the record 32-time Spanish champion with nine European Cups, and record revenues that are nearly five times that of Atletico allow it to pay for Ballon d’Or recipient Cristiano Ronaldo and worldrecord 100 million euros signing Gareth Bale.

Atletico’s payroll is a fraction of Madrid’s or Barcelona’s, and it is a club with a history of dubious finances.

Yet Simeone, who was on the team that won the league-cup double in 1996, has nurtured a winning culture from a squad that has changed little since his arrival more than two years ago, and despite the sale of star striker Radamel Falcao in the offseason.

“It’s crazy to think we’re in the Champions League final,” Atletico midfielder Tiago Mendes said. “But this team deserves it after everything it has accomplished.”

Heisman Trophy winner accused of shoplifting crab legs

Florida State Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston throws a pass against the Auburn Tigers in the fourth quarter during the NCAA BCS Championship football game in Pasadena, California.

Florida State University quarterback Jameis Winston, the 2013 winner of college football’s prestigious Heisman Trophy, was issued a civil citation for shoplifting $32.72 worth of crab legs and crawfish from a Florida grocery store, police said on Wednesday.

Winston, 20, who is also on the university’s baseball team, was suspended indefinitely after the incident, team officials said.

The star athlete walked into a Publix supermarket near the university campus in Tallahassee on Tuesday night, ordered the food and left the store without paying, said Mike Wood of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office.

Store employees identified Winston and deputies

went to his apartment, Wood said. He said Winston told authorities he forgot to pay and realized it when he got home but made no attempt to return to the store or contact Publix.

“Jameis was very cooperative,” Wood told reporters. “He said he left without paying for the items.”

In a statement issued through his lawyer, Winston said he made “a terrible mistake” and called the incident a “moment of youthful ignorance.”

“I must realize that my mistakes are magnified and can bring great embarrassment to all those who support me every day,” he said. “I make no excuses for my actions and will learn and grow from this unfortunate situation.”

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WORLDNEWS SPORTS LOCAL

Mayweather considering retiring after Maidana fight LAS VEGAS – Nearly two years ago, Floyd Mayweather Jr. began to discuss the idea of retirement with his close friend Nate Jones.

Mayweather had grown weary of the long press tours, the intrusive questions by reporters. The act of reviving his body after bouts had begun to tear at him.

“He’d just become tired of the training, the rigors of the sport, the media, the tours, people begging him for stuff,” Jones told the Daily News on Wednesday. “He’s just tired of the regimen, of the whole game. He wants to get away sometimes. Now that his kids are taken care of he thinks about it.”

Mayweather (45-0, 26 knockouts) gave voice to that concern on Tuesday, admitting he considers retiring from the sport on a near daily basis. He could even step away after Saturday’s welterweight unification match with Marcos Maidana (34-3, 31 knockouts) at the MGM Grand on Showtime PPV, he said. It was perhaps the first time that Mayweather, 37, had ever publicly uttered the idea of walking away following a fight.

“I’m not really worried about [GOING 50-0],” he told reporters. “I’m being honest- I be contemplating every day... getting out of the sport now. I’m very comfortable. Very comfortable.”

He repeated those comments on Wednesday at the final press conference

Floyd Mayweather Jr. will look to improve his record to 46-0 against Marcos Maidana that Saturday’s bout could be his “It’s just me being a human being. If I last. He might retire, call it a day, get feel like walking away then I’m walking married and start a family, ending his away.” time with a sterling 46-0 record if he At the same time, Mayweather is wins. He’s guaranteed a purse of $32 consumed with his place in history and million while Maidana is set to receive his desire to go down as an all-time great. $1.5 million. The bout with Maidana And he admitted to being conflicted will be the fourth largest live gate in the with those twin desires- his wish to step sport’s history with around $15 million, down and also keep furthering his place Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy said. in the pantheon of all-time greats.

“If I choose to walk away then I walk “When my career is over,” he told away,” Mayweather told the Daily News. reporters on Tuesday, “I don’t want y’all

Derrick Rose question still hangs over Chicago Bulls DEERFIELD, Ill. — Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls hoped all questions surrounding his recovery would be answered by now. Instead, they’re still hanging there as they head into the offseason.

Rose’s status remains the big issue after his longawaited comeback got cut short by another seasonending knee injury as the Bulls turned their attention toward next year.

They managed to win 48 games despite losing their superstar and trading away Luol Deng, only to bow to the Washington Wizards in five games in the first round of the playoffs.

They were eliminated Tuesday night. On Wednesday, their focus turned toward the future, one they hope includes a healthy, dominant Rose and maybe another star player.

“You don’t know what direction it could go,” general manager Gar Forman said. “First of all, we could have (salary-cap) flexibility. That’s dependent on some different ways that we could go. At this point, it’s not definite that we would have a large amount of flexibility.

But that’s one of the roads we can take. There are so many moving parts that can happen. It’ll obviously be an active summer for us.”

Speculation has centered on the Bulls using the amnesty clause on Carlos Boozer and making a run at the New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony.

No doubt, he could spark an offense that ranked dead last in both scoring and shooting. But with the Bulls, everything still starts with Rose.

The comeback story has been running on what seems like an endless loop ever since he crumbled to the court with a torn anterior cruciate ligament with his left knee against Philadelphia in the opener of the 2012 playoffs. The Bulls thought he would come back at some point last season, except that didn’t happen.

He finally returned this season, only to have his comeback cut short in his 10th game because of a torn

talking about nobody else.”

Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, spoke of this fickleness. “Sometimes he feels one way one day [about retiring] and another way another day,” he said.

Mayweather laughed when someone asked if he had any health concerns. “I didn’t say if I had health problems or anything,” he said.

He chuckled again at the suggestion that he’d be foolish to retire while he’s still at the top of his game. He dominated the much-younger Saul (Canelo) Alvarez last September and toyed with Robert Guerrero in May of last year. “I’m in my prime and almost 40?” he said. “Well what was I doing when I was 20?”

If Mayweather does retire after Saturday, he would fail to fulfill his lucrative six-fight contract with Showtime. The bout with Maidana would be the third of the deal. But Showtime Sports executive Stephen Espinoza said it was Mayweather’s right to walk away.

“He’s not obligated to fight that many times,” Espinoza told the Daily News.

“If he wants to retire- if he wants to fight then he’s going to fight with us. And if he decides not to fight we can thank him for what he’s given to the sport and wouldn’t begrudge him on it at all. We certainly wouldn’t sue him. I may do my best to talk him out of it. But there would be no legal ramifications.”

D’Antoni leaves Lakers after two troubled seasons Mike D’Antoni has resigned as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, ending an unhappy two-season tenure with the struggling NBA franchise.

The 62-year-old still had a year to run on his $12 million three-year contract but the team announced on Tuesday that he had decided to step down.

D’Antoni joined the Lakers in November, 2012 after Mike Brown was fired following just 71 games in charge.

Under D’Antoni’s guidance, the Lakers Mike D’Antoni compiled a 67-87 record.

Derrick Rose, the Bulls point guard will miss the rest of the “Given the circumstances, I don’t know that 2013-14 season after a late November medial meniscus tear in anybody could have done a better job than Mike his right knee. did the past two seasons,” Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said in a statement. meniscus in his right knee. So the story continues.

“On behalf of the Lakers, we thank Mike for the The same questions remain unanswered, with both work ethic, professionalism and positive attitude that Rose and the Bulls insisting he can dominate again. he brought to the team every day. We wish him the “He’s had two unfortunate injuries,” coach Tom Thi- best of luck.” bodeau said. “I think he’s put a lot of work into his The Lakers limped into the playoffs in D’Antoni’s body, and so we’re optimistic that he’s going to make a first year in charge but finished the 2013-14 season complete and full recovery.” with a dismal 27-55 record, the worst 82-game return Rose, who was not available for comment Tues- in team history. day, recently started taking contact, and the next few There had been growing speculation about his months figure to be busy for him. position with the fading team and his departure was Thibodeau said he will work out more in Chicago greeted warmly by one of his more outspoken and than in Los Angeles. He also indicated Rose will prac- high-profile critics. tice with the team during summer league workouts “Happy days are here again. Mike D’Antoni resigns but not play. as Lakers coach. I couldn’t be happier,” Lakers great The Bulls also hope Rose plays for Team USA this Magic Johnson tweeted. summer.

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LOCAL NEWS

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May 3RD - May 10TH, 2014

LOCAL NEWS

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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