Volume 9 issue 5 by The SUN Newspaper

FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

Website: www.suntci.com

VOLUME 9 - No. 5

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MIKE MISICK

RELEASED FROM JAIL BY HAYDEN BOYCE PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ormer Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands Michael Misick has been released from Brazilian jail. Well-placed sources told the SUN that Misick,, 47, was released late Thursday night after an ini-tial extradition hearing in Brazilian courts. According to family members, Misick, who wass arrested on December 7th 2012, is in good spirits and d is eagerly looking forward to returning home. He slept at his home for the ﬁrst time in overr six weeks and was surrounded by close friends on n his release from jail, sources said. Throughout the e day Friday, Misick was having several high levell meetings with his lawyers from Brazil. It is understood that some of his family mem-bers will be meeting him in Brazil over the nextt few days. Last weekend, several persons from Turks and d Caicos Islands, including lawyers, pastors, poli-ticians and some of Misick’s family and friends,, went to Brazil to visit him for his 47th birthday. News of Misick’s release from jail ﬁrst broke e on Friday morning and it went viral of social me-dia websites such as Facebook, Twitter and BBM.. However, there was some subsequent apprehen-sion when at 9:10 a.m., Attorney General Huw w Shepheard issued a statement through Governor’ss spokesman Neil Smith which stated: “The reportt on Radio Turks and Caicos breakfast news today y stating that former Premier Michael Misick had d been released from prison in Brazil is incorrect,”” said Huw Shepheard, Attorney General, Turks and d Caicos Islands. “The position remains that he was provision-ally arrested under the authority of the Supreme e Court in Brazil on the basis of a lawful request and d the formal request for his extradition has been n made through the proper channels. This matterr remains in the hands of the Brazilian authorities.”” At 1:27 pm., Smith issued another statementt which said: “Michael Misick, the former Premierr of the Turks and Caicos Islands (a British Overseass Territory) was released from prison in Rio de Ja-neiro on 8 February. We understand that the Bra-zilian Supreme Court has granted him bail. Thiss does not mean that the legal process is exhausted.. He was arrested on 7 December by Brazilian n Federal Police acting on a provisional arrest war-rant. Arrest was sought by the TCI Special Inves-tigation and Prosecution Team (set up to investi-gate issues arising from Sir Robin Auld’s 2008-09 9 Commission of Inquiry). TCI prosecutors submit--

ted formal extradition papers on 28 January 2013 within the 60 day time limit.” In response to the new development, Premier for the Turks and Caicos Islands Hon. Dr. Rufus Ewing said that his predecessor should not Mishave been in jail to begin with. He tagged Mis ick’s release as justice being served and expressed the hope that if and when Misick is returned to the TCI, the judicial process would take its natural course. Ewing said: “My view on the matter is, he should not have been in prison in the ﬁrst place – that’s one. His release was long overdue, and I guess justice is served in that regard. And I am sure it is against the wishes of the British and those persons who want to see him jailed. I really look forward to seeing him home a free man, and I look forward to seeing him receive justice for whatever trial he faces,” Ewing said. Asked as to what his understanding of the released was, Ewing posited: “I would not dare to misspeak like the Governor and the others; I just know that he has been released. I don’t know the conditions and the terms on which he was released; all I know that he is a free man out of prison. I won’t venture to give false information as the Governor’s Ofﬁce did.” Also weighing in on the news, Opposition Leader Hon. Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson said that

the decisions of the Brazilian authorities must be respected regardless of how one feels about Misick’s exit from jail. She also expressed the hope that whatever that is to be panned out in the matter must take due process. “The The Brazilian Court has made their decision and we have to respect that. I trust that we can move on with this thing as quickly as possible and we can get past this chapter in our country’s history. I trust that he (Misick) is well in mind and body, and I trust that he remains in good care. It is up to him (to return to the TCI for trial) because he does have asylum application that is pending. “I can’t imagine that a country would go around that until that is disposed of. So, I think the ball would more or less be in his court on whether he refuses to be part of an extradition hearing and waves his right, ” she said.

Michael Misick

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FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

LOCAL NEWS

THE GOVERNOR, AG AND CFO ARE CONFLICTED AND SHOULD BE RECALLED By Royal S. Robinson

f you did not believe it before, you must believe it now. The three top British civil servants are doing more harm than good by their continuing to be here in the Turks and Caicos Islands. First of all, it seems to all that the AG has been consistently giving bad and faulty advice. The man is definitely not up to the task. Since he came here, he has been trying to pad his resume by doing on-line courses as well as travelling to conferences and workshops at our expense. He does not know what a search engine is or how to use one. That is evidenced by his not knowing that the law dealing with scandalizing the Courts had been repealed last December. If he were aware of that, he would not have issued a statement quoting such an antiquated law that had been repealed by the Privy Council! The man just does not know his stuff! On the times that he appeared before the Consultative Forum, you could see that he was totally out of his depth by how he presented to a captive audience. On many an occasion, Mrs. Robinson had to chide him, and it came across that he was just incompetent to the keen listener or onlooker. He brought Bill that were incomplete, through no fault of the Draftsperson, but clearly on the basis of faulty instructions. The man did not even know that there was existing legislation dealing with trial by jury here in TCI. He had the notion that this was something new! In any other jurisdiction, he would not have rate as high as a Crown Counsel, much less a Senior Crown Counsel, so you see the leap and the gap to AG. A recent case in point with respect to his not knowing the process and procedure was the citing in the Governor vs. Albert Edwards. Although he had two bites of the cherry, he still got it wrong! As the legal counsel to the Governor, he had to have given the advice to send out the first letter, recall that letter and then issue a fresh one. Even in his time of reflection, he missed a salient point in that you must point out to the offending person the basis on which his misconduct is alleged and allow him to make a representation with respect to such allegation. That was not done and gave rise to issue with respect to natural justice about which the Court of Appeal in its judgment wrote! The AG is the legal advisor to both the Governor and the government. That in and of itself, in most instances is a conflict of interest. In our circumstances, he clearly gave advice to the governor who was acting in his capacity of “chief cook and bottle washer” or as some put it, “the Minister of Everything Affairs”. Now that there is a return to

elected government, realistically, how can such a person advise the current government effectively on how to dismantle some of the laws, and policies that were enacted under his watch? He would have to contort himself with great dexterity to accomplish such a feat. We know from past experience that the man possess no such ability. We know for a fact that the people of this country have no conﬁdence in the ability of this man, as he has not done anything to engender such conﬁdence. He will be trying as best he can to keep the status quo of the Interim Administration in place while Ministers would want to get their agenda, on which they campaigned and had produced in their manifesto. Most of those things do not sit well with the Interim Administration and that is why there is some acrimony between the Governor and the elected Ministers. The situation reeks of the notion of putting lipstick on a pig! That certainly cannot enhance the pig’s looks! Furthermore, the AG is away from his desk more time than he is at it. Should we be paying for a sick AG who is frequently bedridden? We certainly can do better than that. The FCO must not have us in high regard to keep us saddled with this man that is nonproductive and is costing us money left, right and centre! The CFO, from the pronouncement of nearly a year ago had taken the view that he would implement VAT, come Hell or high water. Every piece of document that he said that he relied on, to come to such a conclusion, has proven that he is living in a fantasy land. He misquotes the relevant IMF

Turks and Caicos Sun Suite # 5, Airport Plaza Providenciales Turks and Caicos Islands Tel: (649) 946-8542/ (649) 241-1510 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 Web Designer: Patrina Moore-Pierre Graphics Editor: Joleen Grant Office Manager: Dominique Rigby Distribution Manger: Kelano Howell Advertising and Marketing ManagerPatrina Moore-Pierre 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.

report, the Roe Report and the CARTAC Report. To date, we have been able to pay our bills from revenue that is free from VAT and there is a surplus that is projected. The US economy has turned around, slowly, I might add, but the people there will have access to more disposable income that they can spend in places like TCI. The Governor still is of the mindset that he is the only “big cheese” in town! That is clearly not the case. He seems not to get that fact through his head. He has rigged the civil service and some statutory boards with people who are loyal to him. He has also stacked the House of Assembly with persons who owe allegiance to him. Lillian Missick was the Chairman of the Forum, made Chairman of NIB and ﬁnally the Governor’s appointed member in the House of Assembly. Those things cannot be mere coincidence. The Governor is now hiding behind the notion that I made racial remarks against his talking parrot, Neil Smith as the basis for his not accepting the government’s recommendation of my appointment to the Board of NIB. That is total hog wash, he knows it and the people of this country know it. The real reason is because he does not want anyone to challenge the actions of the Chairman. He knows full well that if the opportunity arose again, I would not have acceded to his request to transfer money out of NIB on spurious and specious claims! These people are bad for business and the good governance for the peace and harmony of our country. The only way to alleviate us if this three man wrecking crew is for them to be recalled and that is before they are caught up in the rapture!

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

LOCAL NEWS

Governor talks about Mike Misick extradition process By Vivian Tyson

overnor Ric Todd has weighed in on the Michael Misick extradition debacle, hinting that the former premier was trying to mislead the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands as to the true nature of the process. In an interview with The SUN, Governor Todd said that Misick was saying one thing through his press releases, while doing something else on the ground in Brazil. He said that the former premier, who was forced from ofﬁce in 2009, declared in his releases that he wanted to return to the TCI to face the music, but the British Government, in collusion with the Brazilian authorities were keeping him in jail. He also rejected comments by Misick that his detention was somewhat illicit. “The application for Mr. Misick’s extradition was made properly and legally and in accordance with the UK/Brazil Extradition Treaty extended to TCI. Now, how long Mr. Misick is held in Brazil, and where, is a matter for the Brazilian authorities – they are the ones who chose the pace of the extradition process. Now, I have no part to intervene in the TCI Judicial process, and I certainly I have no part to intervene in the Brazilian judicial process,” the governor said. According to him, there has been a spirited attempt by the former premier to still seek political asylum in Brazil, which was making his return to the TCI difﬁcult. But he said that once he loosened his grip on those ambitions, the process of having him returned here should be seamless.

Ric Todd “As the Attorney General has pointed out, if Mr. Misick wishes to accelerate his return home, then he should stop resisting extradition – which he is currently doing – and second he should deﬂect on his application for political asylum, which is being separately considered,” the governor advised. “So, you have someone who says he wants to return to TCI. However, as the AG has pointed out, some of the facts on the ground in Brazil might lead you to wonder what the situation really is. But the key point is, this is in the hands of the Brazilian authorities,” Governor Todd pointed out. In his last letter from a Brazilian jail, Mis-

ick said that his detention was not as a result his not wanting to be released and returned to the Turks and Islands, but was a case of the Attorney General was predicated on documents filed by the Attorney General and British Government for him to remain in jail. He noted in part: “I am a political prisoner having been arrested illegally at the request of the Attorney General Huw Shepheard and the British Government and documents they filed in the Brazilian Supreme Court requesting my detention and extradition to the Turks and Caicos Islands. For that reason, the only way that I can be released from prison is if the AG and the British Government withdraw the prison order and agree to my voluntary return. “My stay in jail is not up to the Brazilian authorities as the AG asserted but it is up to the TCI Attorney General Huw Shepheard, Special Prosecutor Helen Garlick and the British Government. I could be home to face whatever charges they choose to place on me in 24 to 48 hours of the AG and the British Government agreeing to my voluntary return. “There is recent president for this in England where at least one high profile prisoner did agree to voluntarily return there to face charges after being away for many years. My situation is no different from theirs. It is highly unusual for a person that is a country’s most wanted to want to voluntarily return and the authorities of that country refusing to accept him or to expedite his return.”

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

LOCAL NEWS

TCIG resumes allocations of Crown land for residential purposes E ffective February 7, 2013, Lands Division, Attorney General’s Chambers of the Turks and Caicos Islands Government has resumed the allocation of Crown Land for residential purposes. The announced resumption is accompanied by a call by the Crown Land Unit for applications for the purchase of 104 parcels of land in Providenciales. These parcels, which range in sizes of between 0.22 and 0.38 of an acre and are priced at between $13,050 and $18,000, are being made available for sale for residential development only. The lot sizes are consistent with the new guidelines on the size of residential allotment of crown lands. These ﬁrst allocations, under ”Residential Scheme No. PLS001”, are being made available in Northwest and North Central Providenciales, adjacent and to the immediate west of the Millennium Heights Housing Development. Allocations are being made on a First Come First Served and completed application forms MUST be accompanied by pProof of Turks and Caicos Islander Status, pProof of age and proof of payment of the non-refundable Application Fee of US$100.00

The allocation of crown land was discontinued in 2008, just prior to the suspension of the TCI Constitution in August 2009, following allegations of widespread mis-appropriation of Crown Land assets. The resumption of Crown Land allocations are being made in line with new policies regarding land administration and in accordance with the new Crown Land Ordinance 2012. A TCI Belonger discount of 25 percent of the Open Market Value has also been applied. Prospective applicants are being asked to note, that ONLY applicants, who have never received an allocation of crown land; who are Belongers aged 21 and over are eligible to apply. Applications close on Thursday 28th February 2013 at 4:00pm. Please note further that if there are more applications than parcels available, selections will be made by open ballot. Potential applicants may collect an application form from any of the ofﬁces of the Crown Land Unit in Grand Turk and Providenciales, or the Ofﬁces of the District Commissioner on North Caicos, Middle Caicos, South Caicos and Salt Cay. Forms may also be downloaded from the Crown Land Unit Website: www.tcilandinfo.tc.

Beaches Turks & Caicos Headline Sponsors Miss TCI 2013! B

eaches Resort Villages & Spa, the leading All Inclusive resort in Providenciales is excited to announced that they have joined the Turks & Caicos Tourist Board and Saint George Fashion House (SGFH) as headline sponsor of the 2013 Miss Turks and Caicos Universe. This move comes just months after the Tourist Board announced their partnership with Miss Turks & Caicos Universe Beauty Organization (MTCUBO) to produce the upcoming 2013 Miss TCI Beauty Pageant under the direction of Kazz Forbes of Saint George Fashion House who is serving as President of the group. “Beaches Resort has once again shown itself as an ultimate corporate citizen,” Forbes said, “This support has more than monetary value as it allows us to set unprecedented standards for the Miss Turks and Caicos Universe Beauty Pageant, while featuring some of Turks & Caicos’ most beautiful women that will not only be an ambassadors, but also act as activists, role models and motivators for future generations.”

The resort is excited to be a part of this year’s extravaganza which is promised to showcase cultural awareness, talent and creativity in some of Turks and Caicos’ ﬁnest. General Manager of Beaches Resort Donald Daganias expressed his excitement on the partnership. “Miss Turks and Caicos Universe has been a big part of the Turk & Caicos cultural celebration for many years,” he said, “I am really happy that we were not only able to make this contribution to the growth and prosperity of the grand event but also help to identify talented individuals that will represent this great country internationally.” The unveiling of the Beauties will take place on Monday February 11th at Beaches Resort’s upscale nightclub, Liquids. Other events include a Cocktail Fundraiser to be hosted by the resort in their Grand Ball room in the Caribbean Village Saturday February 16, 2013. To get tickets, or the Miss Turks and Caicos Universe Beauty Organization full calendar of national events, visit the organization’s website at www.MissTCI.org.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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LOCAL NEWS

By-election ordered for Cheshire Hall and Richmond Hills

igh court judge Madame Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale ruled that there must be a by-election in the Cheshire Hall and Richmond Hill constituency.During a court session which lasted ten minutes on Thursday February 7th, the judge ruled that after careful reading of the evidence and the law, she was of the opinion that Dr. Edward Smith, who contested the November 9th elections on behalf of the People Progressive Party, was disqualified from nomination and disqualified from election. Smith received 58 votes, while Amanda Misick of the Progressive National Party got 394 votes and Oral Selver of the People’s Democratic Movement, 364. Selver brought the petition on the grounds that Missick, who won by 30 votes and who is presently the Minister of Health and Human Services, was unduly returned as a member of the House of Assembly. In her ruling, the judge stated that Smith, a retired professor, got himself on the election ballot by way of a false declaration and that his nomination amounted to an irregularity. Judge Ramsay-Hale said that if the margin of victory was under 30 votes, Smith’s irregularity would not have affected the outcome of the election. However, she stressed that because Smith’s votes exceeded the margin of victory, it is clear to see that the results would have been affected. The judge said that when all of the evidence was taken into consideration, the court was left with no choice but to declare the Cheshire Hall/ Richmond Hill election null and void. She stated: “the voters in Cheshire Hall and Richmond Hills District were presented with a larger field of candidates by reason of the inclusion of Dr Smith on the ballot. Had he not been on the ballot the voters may have expressed their votes differently. It would not be possible to suggest that Dr Smith’s participation in the election may have had an effect on the outcome of the election if the votes cast for Dr Smith were less than the margin between the Second Respondent and the Petitioner, but where, as here, the margin of votes affected by the irregularity exceeds the margin for the successful candidate, the Court must inevitably conclude that his participation in the election may have affected the outcome.” Under the constitution, a by-election must be held within 35 days, or by March 21st. In her ruling, the judge stated: “The facts are that the First Respondent, Dr. Smith, was born in Grand Turk but later migrated to the United States of America where he worked for nearly

three decades. He acquired US citizenship during those years and is the holder of a current United States passport which was renewed on the 12th of October, 2010. He returned to the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2010 upon his retirement. In 2011, preparatory to his working as a Supervisor of the Census, he swore an oath of allegiance to the Queen which was taken by his Excellency the Governor. It was his evidence that he believed that oath of allegiance “negated (his) allegiance to the US.” He said that, throughout his campaign, he maintained that he was eligible for election and that he had renounced his citizenship by default by taking the oath of allegiance to the Queen. The evidence of the US expert on Immigration matters, attorney-at-law Alan Rothwell of Maryland, was that was one of the requirements for obtaining US Citizenship and that a US passport is only available to a person who owes allegiance to the United States. While the Mr. Rothwell accepted that someone who had a US passport but never used it may not owe allegiance to the United States, a person who renewed or travelled on a US passport would. With respect to what he termed “potentially expatriating acts”- as for example, swearing allegiance to a foreign country- those acts may be seen in the future as an act taken in the furtherance of renouncing US citizenship, but they do not lead to automatic loss of citizenship for the simple reason that the US government would be unaware of it. The process of voluntary renunciation of citizenship consists in a person making a representation to a consular officer of his intention to renounce, taking the oath of renunciation and surrendering his passport. The process is only completed when the State Department issues a certificate of loss of citizenship which is usually accompanied by the cancelled passport. Dr. Smith’s oath of allegiance to the Queen was clearly only a potentially expatriating act which was ineffective to renounce his citizenship. In any event, he acknowledged his allegiance to the United States when he travelled on his passport in July 2012, subsequent to the taking of that oath. I am therefore satisfied and find that on the 25th of October, 2012, when he declared to the Returning Officer that he was not disqualified from being elected a Member of the House of Assembly, he was in fact so disqualified.” She added: “It was plainly not intended by the framers of the Constitution that a candidate who is disqualified from being elected should offer himself for election and that the outcome of the

election should then hang on his decision to rid himself - or not - of the disqualifying feature. The law stipulates that only a duly qualified candidate is to be nominated. This is the premise on which the declaration form is based. The purpose of the declaration is no doubt to concentrate the mind of the candidates on the issues of qualification and disqualification. It appears from the evidence that it did in fact do so, as several candidates took the necessary steps to renounce their foreign citizenship in order to be qualified for election on nomination day as required by the law.” Meantime, Turks and Caicos Island’s Supervisor of Elections Mr. Dudley Lewis has advised that preparations for possible by-elections began in December 2012 when the election petitions were raised. As with all elections the procedure is as follows: · The Governor will issue a Writ for the holding of by-elections within 35 days of receiving notice from the Judge indicating that the seat has been vacated. · The Writ will specify the day and place of nomination of candidates which should be no less than 14 working days after it has been issued. · In accordance with the Elections Ordinance, the date of the by-elections will be no more than 21 days from the date of nomination. Given the above calculations, by-elections could be held by the last week in March, 2013. If By-Elections are to be held before March 31, 2013, the 2012 Electors register will be used. If By-Election is held after March 31, 2013 the new register will be used. · In response to complaints in the last elections, the Elections Office will employ additional staff for each polling station, and increased the number of polling areas. · To speed up the process electors will not be required to return to the Presiding Officer for verification of signature on the ballot instead will deposit the marked ballot in the boxes provided to ensure the secrecy of their vote. Voters will be required to have their finger inked to indicate that they have voted. · Please note that as of November 9, every employer MUST allow electors in his or her employ reasonable time for voting. Electors are reminded that proof of identification is required. These include the TCI Status Card, passport, NIB Card, NHIP Card or Drivers License. · Nomination Packs have also been prepared and will be issued to the candidates. Voter Education materials and sessions will also be carried out.

STATEMENT BY PREMIER HON. DR. RUFUS EWING ON DENIAL OF ROYAL ROBINSON’S APPOINTMENT TO NIB T

here have been recent statements made by H.E. Governor Todd on the matter of his non-acceptance of the Elected Government’s nomination of Mr. Royal Robinson to the membership of the National Insurance Board (NIB). The Governor is of the view that

the content of a certain article written by the prospective Candidate was inappropriate for someone aspiring to hold public ofﬁce and therefore was unwilling to support the Elected Government’s recommendation, and hence referred the matter to the Secretary of State for

ruling. Such a matter undoubtedly would have to be communicated to the Elected Government’s Members and subject of concern in order to arrive at a resolution. This was by no means dissimilar from the prerogative that Governor Todd has to confer with his advisors on this and

other matters. Let it be known that My Government stands by our recommendation of Mr. Robinson for appointment as a member of the NIB and awaits the ruling of the Secretary of State before any further engagements.

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

LOCAL NEWS

Asylum-seeking Cubans could know fate soon By Vivian Tyson

he team from the United Nationals High Commissioner for Rights (UNHCR), which flew into the Turks and Caicos Islands to interview the 16 Cubans who arrived here illegally and subsequently applied for Asylum, is expected to inform the country of their decision any day now. The Cubans, who arrived in the Turks and Caicos Islands by go fast boat sometime between the summer and fall, were held by the authorities on October 2, at what appeared to be a well-organised dwelling in Discovery Bay, and taken to the detention centre on that island. While steps were being made to have them deported, the Cubans reportedly filed for asylum. Police and immigration officials believe that they were taking steps to enter the United States, using the Turks and Caicos Islands as a transshipment point, in what they claimed was a busted human trafficking ring. Six of the Spanish-speaking individuals were released into a domestic setting because four of them were children and two of them were their mothers. One of the asylum seekers - Estela Milanes Salazar - is said to be the mother of multimillion dollar baseball star for the Oakland Athletics, Yoenis Céspedes Milanés. Yoenis Céspedes Milanés has been named by immigration officials as the main bankroller behind the scheme. In January this year, High Court Judge, Her Honour Margaret Ramsay-Hale, ordered that the remaining 10 Cubans be released from the detention centre on condition, after their attorney George Missick made an impassioned plea to the court on their behalf. Misick told the court that one female member of the 10, suffered a miscarriage after failing to get the necessary medical attention at the facility. The office of the Director Public Prosecution (DPP), at the time, argued against releasing the Cubans on the grounds that they could

board another boat and depart the jurisdiction. Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, Adrian Higgins, who initially opposed to the Cubans’ release, told the court that a representative from the UNHCR, Kitty Tubin, was due in the country to interview the migrants, and so the authorities were not seeking to deport them at that point. He told the court that some of the Cubans could have been in the country as early August of 2012, and only filed for asylum after they were held. He stressed that not all asylum-seekers were legitimate, which could be the case for the Cubans. In her ruling, Ramsay-Hale stated that prior to their application for asylum; the Cubans could be treated as prisoners. She said that even though their application for asylum may not be authentic, once they applied for asylum, one must appreciate that the dynamics of their immigration status changed, and as such, they should have been treated differently. She then asked that they be paired into three groupings, with each batch reporting to the police station once a week until their asylum case is heard. Another condition was that they came up with a cash pot of $20,000 as surety. An immigration official told The SUN that protocol would dictate that the ruling by the UNHCR would first be communicated to Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Border Control and Labour, Clara Gardiner, after which the Cubans would be notified. The names of the 16 were given as Yaenis Charon Milanes, seven months old; Jose Miguel Camejo Milanes, 10; Ivania Ortiz Garcia, 11; Reylianis Charon Milanes, 17; Mariela Garcia Palma; Estela Milanes Salazar; Ivan Ortiz Melanes; Eutimio Castell Castro; Yosniel Fernandez; Alivska Perez Milanes; Letcia Lopez Chavez Diaz; Dianelys Alverez Perez; Katia Mesa Diaz; Andriana Reyes Fernandez and Narobis Milanes Salazar.

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

LOCAL NEWS

Amanda Missick confident about reclaiming Cheshire Hall/Richmond Hill seat By Vivian Tyson

udicially -unseated member of parliament for the Cheshire Hall constituency Amanda Missick is conﬁdent that she will reclaim that seat for a third time after the Supreme Court on Thursday, February 7, voided her November 9, 2012, 30-vote victory. Missick, who told the media that she was disappointed in the verdict, said that she would not give up the opportunity to ﬁght for the people of Cheshire Hall, and with that in mind, her resolve to keep the seat has grown even stronger. “The people of Cheshire know true representation, and I have been giving them true representation. They know who has their best interest at heart, and that’s in the person of me, and I will continue to do that. And she (judge) ruled in favour of a by-election, and I would get with my party and the residents of Cheshire Hall, and I will do it (win) again. I will win a third time; this is my third shot at it, and I will do it again,” she said. Giving her thoughts on the ruling, Missick said: “Truly, in my opinion, I didn’t think it should go this way, but based on the rumours circulating from the time the case started, yes (I expected the case to go this way), so I anticipated this, this morning. So, I came prepared to hear a by-election, she said. Commenting on the court process, Missick

Amanda Missick stated: “Based on the ordinance, Dr. Smith did not win the election. I don’t think that my seat should have been contested in a by-election. The ordinance said if he had won, then it should have been at fault. I won the election fair and square. “The people of Cheshire Hall and Richmond

Don’t kill VAT, says businessman John Phillips By Vivian Tyson

overnor’s Appointed Member Hon. John Phillips is cautioning the government against attempting steps for the wholesale scrapping of the controversial Value Added Tax (VAT), but rather asking for complete scrutiny of the consumption tax measure before gaveling a verdict. Phillips was making his contribution in the House of Assembly on Friday, February 1, to the motion to repeal VAT before it comes into effect on April 1, this year. While bashing the United Kingdom government for moving ahead with the tax’s implementation before conducting proper audit to ﬁnd out whether it was the most suited revenue-raising measure for the people of the Turks and Caicos, Phillips advised his colleagues to seek to dissect it before coming to what could be a premature conclusion. “It is not something that we should probably throw away. I absolutely agree that the VAT unit is not ready, the calculations they are using are faulty, but what we should be doing is going back to the board and making it work for

Turks and Caicos. We model it, we develop it,” Phillips urged. Phillips, who is the general manager for MAC Motors in Providenciales, said that with the implementation of VAT in its current state, his automobile retail business would see a decrease in taxes, and would also result in customers paying reduced sum, while he would walk away with the targeted proﬁt margin. “It’s a very simple exercise to develop VAT, whereby government revenues are stable or increase and cost of goods drops across the board 5 percent. Goods that don’t drop in prices are the ones that zero duty and are about to be zero-rated; they don’t change at all – but everything else drops 5 percent. As an example, vehicle lands at $25,000. Right now that vehicle comes in with no duty on it, and I want to make 20 percent proﬁt. “By the time I pay duty, I am charging $45, 937 for that vehicle. Under the proposed VAT programme – because VAT is not my money and so, it’s not part of the cost of goods – duty is reduced by 15 percent, so I pay less duty; I pay the same amount of CPF, I take Continued on p. 18

Hill went to the polls and voted for the candidate of their choice; who they saw ﬁt; who they believed in; who had their best interest at heart, and that is me. They voted for me, so I think that’s the way it should have gone.” Questioned as to whether she believed the people of Cheshire Hall may be election weary, having participated in a general election a mere two months ago, which they gave up their entire day to exercise, and may foresee déjà vu at this by-election, Missick expressed conﬁdence that there will be a big turnout. “Yes (I expect a big turnout). The people of Cheshire Hall (have turned out) over the last two elections, so I believe they would do it again. I will continue to work hard. Since I have been elected over the last two months, I have been working for the people of Cheshire Hall, and I will continue to do my door-to-door campaign, just to reassure them that I would be here for them and I will continue to do that,” Missick said. Missick, who held the position of Minister of Health in the now Rufus Ewing administration, steered clear of whether charges should be brought against Dr. Edward Smith – the man who triggered her being kicked from the seat. She said that it was up to the courts to decide what should be done with him. When asked was there anything she would like to say to Smith, the ousted PNP member of parliament emphatically said “No”.

Page 12

FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

LOCAL NEWS

Tourist arrivals decline slightly

he Turks & Caicos Islands Tourist Board announced the final compilation of visitor arrivals for 2012. The data includes passenger information collected from our ports of entry (including the local FBO) and via the Grand Turk Cruise Center. Overall passenger counts for 2012 fell just short of the 1,009,720 passenger arrival mark accomplished in 2011. An aggregate of 975,583 visitors of which 676,647 (69%) arrived via cruise ship and 298,936 (31%) comprised stopover visitors. Director Ralph Higgs said: “While obviously disappointed that we were unable to expand on the record breaking numbers of arrivals achieved in 2011, I feel confident that the new year will bring new vigor and an increase in numbers of visitors to TCI. The challenges that we faced throughout the year were met and overcome with renewed determination to continue to take Turks & Caicos’ message to the world. Brand TCI still remains the destination of choice for the more discerning traveler.” According to data obtained from the Grand Turk Cruise Center for calendar year 2012 (January-December) the total number of ship calls were 261 (versus 270 in 2011) and cruise passenger arrivals were 676,647 an increase of 3.2% over 2011 which stood at 655,497. Information released from the Board’s statistical department also shows that approximately 298,936 stop-over visitors came to our Islands via commercial and private flights. This number represents a

decrease of approximately 15% from the 354,223 stop-over passengers that came to TCI in 2011. In 2012, on a weekly basis, an average of 50 commercial ﬂights operated into Providenciales International Airport. These include American Airlines, US Airways, JetBlue, Air Canada, West Jet, United, Delta and British Airways from various major airports in the USA, Canada and the UK. Private jet travel accounted for some 3% of stop-over visitors. According to the FBO operators travel by private jet also saw a decrease in 2012. Further analysis of stop-over arrival data for 2012 showed that the USA continues to be our largest source market with 229,577 visitors or 79% of the total. Visitors from Canada totaled 35,253 representing 12%. Europe and the rest of the world contributed the remaining 25,406 passenger arrivals or 9% of our long stay guests. According to the Tourist Board the decrease in arrivals in 2012 can be attributed to a number of known factors; including two days of industrial action, an outbreak of the noro –virus affecting arrivals in the short term and the recent passage of Hurricane Sandy which saw the closure of airports across the Eastern Seaboard and Tri-State areas which are the major source markets for the TCI. Other factors which would have contributed to this decrease are the continued sluggish economies of Europe and the US as well as a 25% cut in the Board’s operating budget in ﬁscal 2011/2012.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Page 13

FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

LOCAL NEWS

Oral Selver: I will win this time around I

saac Oral Selver, the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) standard-bearer for the Cheshire Hall Constituency, and who failed by a mere 30 votes to bring home that seat in the November 9, 2012 general elections, said that this time around, he would ensure that his party wins after the last ballot is counted. High Court Judge, Margaret Ramsay-Hale annulled the Cheshire Hall seat after ruling on Thursday, February 7, that third party candidate - the People Progressive Party’s (PPP) Dr. Edward Smith - was not proper nominated to run in the election and to sit in the House of Assembly. She said that the ballots cast for Smith could have determined the outcome of the election. Amanda Missick, the Progressive National Party (PNP) candidate and now ex-minister of health, won the election. She polled 394 to Selver’s 364. Smith captured 58 votes. However, after falling short of winning the seat, Selver said he noticed irregularity on the part of Smith – a United States citizen- who he claimed and, who the court courter later found out to have circumvented the electoral process. Under the Constitution, if a Turks and Caicos Islander is desirous of running for election he must ensure that he relinquishes all ties with other countries with which he has citizenship connection. Smith – a Turks and Caicos Islander by birth and retired United States Professor - claimed that he renounced his American citizenship when he swore allegiance to the Queen before taking up a 2012 census job. But during the trial in January, an expert on the American constitution laws declared that Smith’s action was clear that he did not surrender his US citizenship. Smith still maintained that he

Oral Selver did not mislead the electoral process even after the court has made its decision. Selver said that from the very night of the loss, he began campaigning for the seat, as he was of the opinion that he lost it unfairly. He said that his team was now more invigorated and poised to take home the constituency for the PDM. “I have never stopped ﬁghting; I never gave up; I have never stopped campaigning or working for the people of the constituency. With this team; being part of this group, we will give this coun-

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try the best government it has ever had. And I am looking forward to be part of this team,” Selver said. Selver, told the media that the last election taught him a lot, and he was now more experienced, and such election know-how had taught him the do’s and don’ts of campaigning, which he had already begun to apply toward his second round of campaigning. The PDM candidate said that he would be doing a lot more “door-to-door and one-on-one” crusading this time around, to ensure victory. “That’s the key; working the list one individual at a time. That’s the number one thing I am going to do,” Selver said. He told the media that he was already on the ground in the communities, noting that last week he spearheaded a massive cleanup campaign in the Glass Shack and Kew Town areas of the constituency, which he said has given those areas a well-needed facelift. “I have been on the ground, and for the clean-up campaign, that is something that was spurred on by tourists getting lost and having to pass through my community and seeing the state that it is in, I decided to do something about it. I consulted with some of my friends and more of our supporters, and we decided to just go ahead and do the cleaning up campaign,” Selver said. In the meantime, Cartwright Robinson is calling for a more stringent election nomination process so that the system would never again be caught up in such disrepute. “This court’s statement today, says we have to take better care in the nomination process and the electoral process,” she said.

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Page 14

FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

LOCAL NEWS

Dr. Edward Smith vows to fight any charges against him By Vivian Tyson

eople National Party’s (PPP) Dr. Edward Smith, the man at the centre of the reason a by-election was called for the Cheshire Hall constituency in Providenciales, is vowing to defend himself vigorously in a court of law in the event charges are brought against him in relation to his ﬁling for the nomination process. Smith was asked to give comments after High Court Judge, Her Ladyship Margaret Ramsay-Hale, ruled on Thursday, February 7, that a by-election be called because Smith, who received 59 votes and ended third in a three-horse race, was not properly nominated and may have shaved off some votes from losing candidate, the Peoples Democratic Movement’s Oral Selver. Selver lost to the now ousted Member of Parliament and ex-minister of health Amanda Missick, by 30 votes. Misick polled 394 votes to Selver 364 votes in the No-

Edward Smith vember 9, 2012 election. Smith’s action, by virtue of the ruling by Ramsay-Hale, could topple the Rufus Ewing administration based on the razor-thin 8-7 victory margin. And if that happened, he could be made

to shoulder a great deal of the blame, especially from Progressive National Party (PNP) operatives. Smith emphasized that if it came to the point of him being charged for misconduct, he would spare no ef-

fort to defend himself in a court of law because he believed his actions for his name to be emblazoned on the November 9, 2012 ballot was above board. “If I am charged I will defend myself basically because I feel within myself that I did nothing to intentionally mislead anyone. I cannot disagree with the judge – that’s the court’s decision. However, my decision, when I was actually (being nominated) I thought I was qualified,” Smith insisted. Expressing why he believed he was qualified to run as a candidate and sit in the House of Parliament, Smith declared: “First and foremost, I am a Turks and Caicos Islander, and also, if you look at the US Passport, which says specifically through Conditions two through eight – I think it is – it seems to be that everybody understands that renunciation is the only way that you can lose (US) citizenship. “The passport specifies

that there are seven other ways, so therefore, I chose number two, which was, I can take allegiance with the governor, and also that I was gainfully employed.” Asked if there would be any contrition coming from him to the country, based on the court’s decision, Smith disclosed that there was no need for that, since his intention was never to be negligent in misleading the electoral process and the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands. In the meantime, Smith does not rule out running in the next general elections constitutionally due in 2016. He said that his relationship with the PPP remained intact, and the party aimed to grow even bigger as the years go by. “I am a Turks and Caicos Islander and I am here to stay, and I will always exercise that right as a Turks and Caicos Islander. The PPP is a viable organization, I am the treasurer and we are here to stay,” he said.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Page 15

FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

LOCAL NEWS

PDM bubbling with confidence after by-election decision By Vivian Tyson

he tails of Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) members has risen sky high after Supreme Court Judge, Her Ladyship Margaret Ramsay-Hale ruled that the November 9, 2012 election result for the Cheshire Hall Constituency be voided and fresh elections called. The judge’s ruling on Thursday, February 7, effectively ousted Member of Parliament for the constituency and Minister of Health, Amanda Missick of the Progressive National. The court made the decision after People Progressive Party (PPP) candidate Dr. Edward Smith was deemed to have been nominated unlawfully. Smith ended in third place with 58 votes. Missick topped the race with 394 votes to the PDM’s Oral Selver 364 votes. Commenting on the decision, PDM Leader and Leader of the Opposition, Sharlene Cartwright Robinson, said that her party was now election ready. She expressed conﬁ-

From left – Oral Selver, Hon. MP Delroy Williams, PDM Chairman Lynden Hall (standing) and Opposition Leader Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson strategizing at the party headquarters shortly after the Supreme Court rule the Cheshire Hall results should be annulled. PDM Strategy dence that Selver will win the seat this time because the public has seen that the PDM, pound for pound, has the better team. “As Leader of the Opposition, we know that it (by-election) would have to come; it was in regularity and

we know that that act would have to be corrected. And I can tell you, we feel much better than we did back in 2003 (when the PDM government was ousted through by-elections). Our candidate is going to win this seat. I can assure you that the peo-

ple have seen that we are a stronger team and we can govern this country better than what we have now. “You have seen us in the House of Assembly; you have seen our representation so far – compare us to them (PNP). We are much stronger, and anybody who knows that, knows that we are a government in waiting, and we are going to be the government after the by-election. We know that this country has a second chance of going in the right direction, and we intend to take the country there,” Cartwright-Robinson vowed. Commenting on the judge’s decision, Cartwright-Robinson noted: “I would have been actually stunned if it (election being voided) hadn’t happen. We had someone that was placed on the ballot that should not have been, and the votes that he got was greater than the margin of victory. And of course, with the evidence of one of the witnesses who said he would have voted for PNP or PDM if Dr. Smith was not in the race. That was a giveaway.”

Page 16

FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

LOCAL NEWS

Governor Todd describes current revenue system is a ‘dog’s breakfast’ By Vivian Tyson

urks and Caicos Islands Governor His Excellency Ric Todd is describing the current revenue-collection system as ‘a dog’s breakfast, claiming that the scheme is a mess, and that the contentious Value Added Tax (VAT), would better streamline government’s revenue gathering. The governor made the assessment after being asked by The SUN during an interview, as to what assurance could he give the public that VAT would be a better mechanism than the current revenue pooling system. “I think the reason why VAT is the right tax system for the TCI – as the British Ministers have consistently said – is because it is fairer and broader, and it is easier to collect. At the moment you have a complete dog’s breakfast of taxes. You have customs duties varying between zero and 40 percent. You have a whole set of businesses who effectively secured exemption from taxes and you have a whole section of the economy – small businesses and professional ﬁrms who don’t pay any taxes at all. The governor surmised that the

primary fear of VAT not working in the TCI was predicated on the consideration that the current revenue-raking measure was woefully antiquated. He pointed out that the feedback he was getting from the people of the TCI is that they yearn for acceptable government services, which he said would result in more spending. And for more spending in the public sector to take place, taxes would have to be raised.

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To make recommendations on the systems and procedures being reviewed, report on the findings and recommendations and monitor management's response and implementation

To review internal processes and controls for the purpose of ensuring financial information is properly processed, reported, and safeguarded.

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“So, I think to say that we have this sort of system at the moment, we are worried that a different one might not work is to miss the point – the present one doesn’t work. The other problem we have with the present one is that very much depends on imports and tourism. We have seen where government revenue has swung around wildly, and people want consistent delivery of public services,” he said. Governor Todd intimated that it was paradoxical for politicians saying during the election campaign that they would spend more money on the public service but yet do not

want to apply the necessary measures to generate the required revenue. He said that the anti-VAT lobbyists were so engrossed in their effort to kill the impending consumption tax, that they missed the real point. “The election manifestos of all three parties declared that what they wanted to do is improve the quality of public service by spending more money it – that is a perfectly reasonable thing to want. If you want to spend more money, you have to raise more taxes. And that is a point that I think is sometimes missed by the anti-VAT lobbying. Value Added Tax was passed into law last year and is to take effect on April 1 this year. However, the Rufus Ewing-led Progressive National Party (PNP) Administration has not given up on thwarting such efforts by the United Kingdom Government. Mark Simmons, Minister in charge of the Foreign and Commonwealth ofﬁce said, on his visit to the TCI late last year, insisted that the tax would take effect, and would only be delayed if the government presented a credible alternative. An option was presented but Simmons said that he was not sold on the idea, and so, VAT would go ahead. Government then dispatched a letter, giving the minister speciﬁcs of its alternative revenue stream, but that document was rejected. A second letter has been sent, and a reply is now being waited upon.

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TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Page 17

FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

LOCAL NEWS

250 government vacancies By Vivian Tyson

here are currently more than 250 job vacancies in government waiting to be filled between now and the new budgetary year, this according to Finance Minister Hon. Washington Misick, who was responding to Opposition Leader Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson’s statement that government was apparently only content on extending National Health Insurance Plan (NHIP) benefits to the unemployed rather than finding them jobs. Cartwright Robinson, at an emergency news conference called at party headquarters in Providenciales, shortly after the High Court annulled the Cheshire Hall Constituency election results

Charlene Cartwright Robinson on Thursday, February 7, accused the Rufus Ewing administration of not doing enough to find Turks and Caicos Islanders jobs. “Now, one of the things the government will tell you in the three months that they were there is that they went ahead and they extended the period for those who were unemployed, on health care, what about finding them a job? That’s the most important thing. Three months after (election) some people can’t eat because they are not paying their bills. “We can’t continue to pay lip service to the man who is suffering every night, who have to look in his children’s face, look in his wife’s face. So many people are without electricity in this country, while we are sitting down and have members of the opposite party their salary was just pittance – they are going to be scraping. Some people don’t get a dollar a day,” Cartwright reiterated. But during his by-monthly post cabinet media briefing, the finance minister slighted the opposition statement, dismissing it as disingenuous of ignorance to the facts. “We are doing everything we can to create jobs, and it has been ninety days more or less, since we have been in office. Some (jobs) relate to the private sectors initiatives that we are working with and some relate to some government initiatives. “I think there are close to 250 vacancies in government that have to be filled between now and the next budgetary sessions or the next fiscal period. We are looking at ways to increase the government infrastructure; looking at creating employment in the private sector, looking at partnership, to provide space for schools that would create construction jobs; to create accommodation for government offices,” Misick said. He noted too, that the lack of a permanent office on Providenciales for minister was making life difficult for the current administration to get things done more effectively. “We have been in office for ninety days, and we basically like nomads, because we have no place that we can unpack out bags and simply

do the people’s job. So, all of these are areas that we are working on to create serious employment by the development of new infrastructure. So, I think to make a statement like that is either disingenuous or somebody is ignorant of the facts. In the meantime, Misick accused the PDM of not coming clean on NHIP issue. “The PDM has criticized the National Insurance Scheme for not covering certain individuals. The premier has made it very clear that it was never the intention of the legislation. So what we are trying to do is to make sure that the intended legislation of the NHIP programme is being adhered to, in the ﬁrst place. People who are contributing to the scheme and have been unemployed over 90 days; we feel that it is inequitable, through no fault of theirs that they are unemployed, that they are denied health care. “When, at the same time, there are people who have never contributed to scheme, who come in because of emergency and other situations and are taken care of, and they leave the hospital without ever having to pay a dime. So, there are

certain inequities in the policies or in the way the system has been operating that we need to correct,” Misick pointed out. For his part, Premier Hon. Dr. Rufus Ewing said that his government was committed to reducing both the number of unemployed people in the TCI and the ﬁgure currently on health care beneﬁts. “Our intention is to do both – to reduce the number of unemployed persons and at the same time - while those persons are unemployed for 90 days, you create a safety net for them. It is not to create a welfare state. The goal is to create jobs. The he goal is to grow the economy. “The Minister of Immigration along with Labour is already putting plans in place to try and identify those persons who are on work permit, and when the work permit would be expiring, to give Turks and Caicos Islanders the opportunity to be employed in jobs,” Ewing said. He noted also that government was looking to assist in ways to crank up key investments that would assist in lowering the unemployment rate.

Page 18

FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Stop the insults, start the debate By Vivian Tyson

overnor for the Turks and Caicos Islands His Excellency Ric Todd is calling for the replacement of insults with honest and frank debate on issues affecting the country. Governor Todd, in an interview with The SUN, said that while he welcomes debates on a number of issues that the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands feel strongly about, insults should not part of that process. The governor pointed out that he relishes a good debate, which is why he often engaged the people across the country, especially during the tenure of the former Interim Administration, for them to serve him with tough questions. But he said that those engagements may become non-productive if people begin to blend them with name-calling and other abuses. “I think that the sort of public debate that you have in a country is important. And I think that debates can be open, and it should be pretty frank. Here on TCI, I know that people like to have their debates, and I am pretty happy to do that. “I have done about a dozen public meetings, so you know I have no problems of people asking tough questions

and me giving direct answers. But I do think that on TCI it is important that we follow the advice of President Obama, when he said insults are not debate,” Governor Todd advised. Governor Todd has also poured cold water on remarks in some quarters which suggested that there are two separate governments simultaneously running the country. I think a number of the comments are quite misleading, because again, the situation is, the TCI is a country governed by the Constitution and, the previous Constitution follows on the previous ones – it is very similar to them. And this Constitution, like the previous ones, set out a division of responsibilities among the governor, the elected Government, the judiciary and independent authorities, which are there to ensure good governance, like the Judicial Service Commission, the Human Rights Commission or the Public Services Commission. “Therefore, politics in TCI is about shared responsibility and partnership. So, when one part of the Constitution – be it the governor or the premier or an independent judiciary or an independent commission – carry out their responsibility under the Continued on p. 19

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DON’T KILL VAT, SAYS BUSINESSMAN JOHN PHILLIPS Continued from p. 11 my 20 percent proﬁt and I sell the vehicle $700 cheaper. “In the meantime, government made $10,250 per duty on the current scheme, and would make $12,048 under a VAT scheme. Government makes more, but the price of goods drops. It’s a mathematical function to make it work,” Phillips explained. While implicitly agreeing with the repeal of VAT, Phillips hinted that such a process must only be the beginning. He said that the tax measure should be hammered out, and parts that could probably work should be kept, while elements deemed unworkable for the territory should be discarded. “I worry a little bit about a simple repeal of the VAT Ordinance. VAT is an acronym for Value Added Tax. Technically, we have a bright sheet of paper and the pencil, and I don’t care for the experts from overseas who understand VAT the way it’s done in their countries. “One member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, who was here said that his country rejected VAT not because they didn’t like it, but because they didn’t want EU VAT according to EU calculations, and they didn’t want someone in Brussels saying, ‘this is what you are gonna do.’ But he did say to me, had he been given a blank page, like we have, he would love to see it because they could design it to suit their own country’s dynamics. “And I believe we could do that, but we have to work towards it and make the effort to do it. It is doable. Vat would be a good tax if we develop the formula correctly,” Phillips posited. Phillips agreed with the Rufus Ewing government for the tax to be set aside for a period while, but said that it should not be disbanded, but organized and, if proven feasible by that time, implement it. “If it is delayed until August, it might make some sense, if the unit could become organized during that period of time. I don’t think it’s bad; I wouldn’t like to see the baby thrown out with the bathwater. But we could design it and make it work for us,” Smith encouraged.

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

Page 19

FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

Some Glass Shack roads need resurfacing By Vivian Tyson

overnment will have to abandon patching road works in some Glass Shack communities in Providenciales and embark on wholesale resurfacing because those thoroughfares are damaged beyond mere piecing work. This was disclosed by Chief Engineer in the Ministry of Works, Garvin Thomas, during an interview with The SUN. During a town hall meeting held at the Gustarvus Lightbourne Complex in January, as part of the Premier’s country-wide tour, Hon. Amanda Missick, Minister of Health and member of parliament for Cheshire Hall constituency – in which Glass Shack falls - told the audience, among other things, that repair works were on the cards for a

STOP THE INSULTS, START THE DEBATE Continued from p. 18 Constitution, that’s not conﬂict, it’s not confrontation, it’s not obstruction, it’s simply the constitutional actors of the TCI doing their job,” Governor Todd maintained. He made the case that under the new Constitution, the governor has reserved powers and that he has been mandated to ensure that respect is given to good governance and the law. He reasoned that the issues that

number of roads in that community. She said the work would start soon. Thomas, in the interview, noted however, that after an assessment of the road network in that area, a number of surfaces had declined beyond simple patching work, but would instead need blanket resurfacing. He said though that for those levels of work to take place, additional funding would need to be identiﬁed, as the funds available would not be able to undertake such level of work. “There are a number of roads in the Glass Shack area that cannot patch - they need to be resurfaced. So we are now trying to ﬁnd additional funding, because we already have a contract with Herzog for patching – only for patching – but not for actual road-paving. So, I have put in (additional funding) for roads to be paved in Glass Shack, for

the new ﬁnancial year, and hopefully, we can do that early after April as well,” Thomas said. Thomas added: “There are some roads in Glass Shack that can patch; we are going to patch them and the ones that are really damaged, we have to resurface them. The patching work should start in the next week or so.” He said that there are other communities that the Herzog patching crew would be working to rehabilitate pothole-riddled roads, and so, the neighborhoods that have not yet seen the workmen are asked to hold on a little while longer. “We are trying to start the repair works in town and then work our way up the Long Bay area. We went into Glass Shack and we saw that it was more damage that we thought it was. So we are going to have to delay some stuff in Glass Shack, and slip

to the smaller areas that we can deal with right away, since Glass Shack would require more funding. “But we are going to patch up what we can patch up in Glass Shack, but we will be moving to areas that have minor holes, and which can be patched real quick. Others places that we will patch are Leeward Palms, Blue Hills and Chalk Sound. We have a call-off contract with Herzog, so whenever we need them we call them to do the required work. “We have call-off contract for paving; we have call-off contract for plumbing and so on. A call-off contract is that you sign a contract with someone to use them on future dates, and so, whenever we need to do a particular work, those persons are already identiﬁed,” Thomas explained. He said the limit for those contracts is about $20,000.

Turks and Caicos Islanders care about the most have been placed in the hands of locally-elected ofﬁcials. “Essentially, almost all the things that the people of the TCI care about are in the hands of the Government. It is the government that is responsible for schools, health services, hospitals, roads, water, the environment, planning the economy. “All the things that people are concerned about; all the issues they raised during the election campaign, these are matters for the government to handle. So it seems right

that government should be the ones who are leading the work of governing the country, and the governor should conﬁne his or herself to his constitutionally responsibilities,” Governor Todd declared. Looking back at his short tenure leading the Interim Administration, Governor said that that he pretty much achieved three major goals that he set out to do on day one. “When I arrived in TCI September 2010, I set out at that time three objectives. First, to meet the milestones and ensure that elec-

tions took place by 2012 – I am very pleased to say it happened. Second, I said I want to develop the economy, and I think we can see that over the last 15 months the economy grew in 2011, it grew again last year. We were able to announce a signiﬁcant number of new investments on TCI, literally totaling millions of dollars and the potential for a lot of jobs that would beneﬁt TCI. And the third thing I said I wanted was to do honest, transparent and effective government – and we tried to do that as well,” Governor Todd said.

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EXECUTIVE CHEF Job Description The Executive Chef will be responsible for all aspects of managing the kitchen and kitchen staff, ensuring the quality preparation and presentation of all food for the restaurant.

Main Duties u 5HVSRQVLEOH IRU WKH GD\ WR GD\ IRRG DQG EHYHUDJH RSHUDWLRQ of the restaurant. u 'HYHORS FUHDWLYH PHQXV DQG FDWHULQJ SDFNDJHV WR DVVXUH maximum appeal to customers. u +LUH VXSHUYLVH VFKHGXOH WUDLQ DQG GHYHORS NLWFKHQ VWDII u 0XVW PDLQWDLQ D FOHDQ DQG RUGHUO\ NLWFKHQ DQG FRQIRUP to all local sanitation standards and regulations. u 2YHUVHH WKH LQYHQWRU\ SURFHVV IRU IRRG DQG EHYHUDJH SURGXFWV u 3UHSDUH WKH ) % EXGJHW DQG PD[LPL]H UHVWDXUDQW UHVRXUFHV to contribute to the successful achievement of the budget.

Requirements u 0XVW KDYH WHQ \HDUV RU PRUH FXOLQDU\ H[SHULHQFH IURP an accredited culinary school or equivalent work experience. u 7KRURXJK NQRZOHGJH RI IRRG SUHSDUDWLRQ SXUFKDVLQJ and inventory procedures. u 0XVW EH SURILFLHQW LQ 06 2IILFH DSSOLFDWLRQ DQG 4XLFN%RRNV u *RRG RUJDQL]DWLRQDO DQG DGPLQLVWUDWLYH VNLOOV UHTXLUHG u ([FHOOHQW RUDO DQG ZULWWHQ FRPPXQLFDWLRQ VNLOOV DUH UHTXLUHG u 0XVW EH ZLOOLQJ WR ZRUN D YDULHW\ RI GD\ QLJKW DQG ZHHNHQG VKLIWV u ([FHOOHQW SHRSOH VNLOOV LQ RUGHU WR FRPPXQLFDWH ZHOO with guests and staff. The salary for this position is $50,000.00 - $60,000.00 per annum commensurate with experience, training and education. Interested applicants should contact Veronica Rigby via email by January 28, 2013 at ronnie@habgroup.com or by fax 649-946-5191. Only persons selected for an interview will be contacted by email or telephone to schedule an interview.

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The perfect place

to host your special event!

BANQUET HALL AND CONFERENCE CENTRE at the turks and CAICOS AIRPORT HOTEL

Centrally located Downtown, Providenciales, in the Provo Business District, The Occasions ballroom seats 200 persons theatre style and 150 seated. Standard features include tables, chairs, a podium, setup and breakdown. We also offer complimentary internet access and special rental packages for public address systems and projectors. Here are some additional reasons why Occasions Banquet Hall and Conference Centre is the best choice for you: 1. Personalised Service: Create your own menufrom over 50 dishes and platters. 2. Get Custom designed and free printed menus: Include your organization's colour scheme, logo or any other image/design /information you desire! Your customised menu can be a keepsake for many years to come. 3. Enjoy discounts: Combine the ballroom rental with catering from Carambola Grill and Lounge and expect even lower prices!

RESERVE YOUR DATE NOW!! %$148(76 &21&(576 :('',1*6 $1' 5(&(37,216 &+85&+ (9(176 %86,1(66 $1' 35(66 &21)(5(1&(6 6(0,1$56 2)),&( &(/(%5$7,216 AN AFFILATE OF

Airport Plaza Hotel, Airport Road, Providenciales Tel: 649-946-4701 email: info@airportinntci.com website: airportinntci.com

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FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

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LOCAL NEWS

Stix on Grace Bay;

the new chic restaurant sensation By Vivian Tyson

he newest culinary sensation on the Grace Bay Beach strip is a tiny pop-up informal restaurant and bar called Stix, situated directly on the powdery sand on the Grace Bay Club property. Stix on Grace Bay is so called for its offering of every piece of food being served on a stick. Stix also boasts what is referred to as the innovative, hyper-local cuisine, harmonized by an array of Rose’ wines and creative cocktails served in an open-air atmosphere. Thierry Grandsire, General Manager for Grace Bay Club said that the feedback from guests has been phenomenal for its laidback Caribbean theme with a taste of gourmet. “We are very excited to have Stix on the Beach. It is a very casual bar for our guests and the public in Turks and Caicos, where you just sit down, just wearing your T-shirt, have beer. And the food is very simple, that’s why it’s called sticks – it serves food on a stick. It has been very popular so far, and it is comfortable for everybody to enjoy,” Grandsire said. According to Grandsire, guests are bound to enjoy the unique food and wine pairings at the 30-foot communal table, while experiencing the dazzling sunset in typical Caribbean lifestyle. The adjacent lounge area featuring oversized sofas in a kaleidoscope of orange, purple and while provides unobstructed views of the ocean, while Caribbean music and subtle lighting set the atmosphere for a relaxed and luxurious experience. For their dining pleasure, Stix on Grace Bay also offers a variety of savory handmade skewers as well as sweet treats. Menu highlights, according to the resort, include Lobster Cocktail and a stick with tangy citrus aioli and chili garlic crumbs; grilled lion ﬁsh with pickled carrots and roasted coriander seed; jerk roasted corn on the cob with Grace Bay Coconut; and spicy sambal beef skewer with scallion and rumsoaked pineapple. The resort noted that guests with a sweet touch can enjoy a pina colada popsicle, frozen banana rama with caramel and marshmallows, or tropical fruit ‘stix’ with Bailey’s Chocolate Dip. Additionally, Stix offers an exceptional selection of international acclaimed Rose’ wines as the signature libation. “The motivation behind Stix is to bring something new to the island. When you are in this business, it always good to think about new ideas, and we think about guests. It is not all the time that you want to lie on a lounge chair all day long; sometimes you want to sit up and have a beer, a rum punch and enjoy some easy food, relax and enjoy a really beautiful beach,” Grandsire added. For his part Ajay Vyas, Director of Food and Beverage, said that Stix affords guests with the pleasure of not having to leave the beach to get dressed for dining. “The idea of making it casually approachable, something that is fun and still gourmet, is something that entices everybody. It is the beach the guests come here for; and every time you expect guests to leave the beach to dine is kind of unfair for them. So Stix has got a great reception; guests love it; they don’t have to worry about dressing up and go for lunch. Its open all day; the food is phenomenal. It is a very chic casual approach to food and beverage.

Media representatives mingle with the Grace Bay Club management and staﬀ at the newly-opened Stix on Grace Bay on Friday, February 1.

Stix Bartenders ready to take your orders

TURKS & CAICOS SUN

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FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

Love Air is in the

Celebrate Valentines Day witk tke one you love at Carambola Caram ola Grill and Lounge

Tantalizing Grilled Steak with Garlic butter

The Perfect Gift...

Join us tor lunch or dinner and be prepared for a romantic dining experience with dishes designed to stimulate all your appetites... p Steamy Herbed Fish (Grouper)

Sensuous Shrimp with Basil Mango Sauce

rizing Mesme iced Sp Mango n Chicke

Sweet and T Tender Curried P Pork Chops

CALL FOR RESERVATIONS AT TEL: 946-8122 AIRPORT HOTEL PlAZA, AIRPORT ROAD, PKOVIUKNCAIM

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Highlights of Islan The Turks and Caicos Islands Tourist Board in conjunction with telecoms company LIME, has opened another chapter in local tourism, with the launch of Island Fish Fry – a weekly culinary and performing arts event for locals and tourists alike at the Bight Park on Providenciales. Island Fish Fry occasions every Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. It is billed as not only to show-off the various authentic local cuisines but also musical and performing arts talent of the country. If last week’s ﬁrst staging was anything to go by, the event will be a smashing success, based on the turnout and the variety of foods on display. The following are photo highlights of the event.

Kingsley Been, board member of the Tourist Board brings greetings on behalf of that body Students from the Turks and Caicos Islands Hospitality Department at the Turks and Caicos Islands Community College attend the event to get ﬁrsthand knowledge of Island Fish Fry

Nothing like authentic Turks and Caicos Islands music to accompany the delectable food and beverage A section of the huge turnout at the ﬁrst weekend of Island Fish Fry

Fried Fish is the signature menu at the happening

A number of hotel guests turned out at the ﬁrst night of Island Fish Fry

The smile on this patron’s face is a telltale sign of the pleasant-tasting food

Tourists having a good time at the occasion

Beryl Charles (right) of the Turks and Caicos Islands Tourist Board gives attention to a member of the TUCA Dance Group member

Deputy Governor Her Excellency Anya Williams brings greetings on behalf of the Governor’s Oﬃce

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FEBRUARY 9TH-FEBRUARY 16TH, 2013

d Fish Fry Kick-oﬀ

Before declaring the event open, Premier for the Turks and Caicos Islands Hon. Dr. Rufus Ewing brings greetings on behalf of the government

Authentic Turks and Caicos Islands baked products were also on show

The aﬀair would never be complete without the sumptuous taste of roasted corn

Arts and Craft were also on display at the event

Drexwell Seymour, Country Manager for telecoms company LIME, brings greetings on behalf of his company. LIME is the title banner sponsor of the event

Leader of the Opposition Hon. Sharlene Cartwright Robinson gives her stamp of approval for Island Fish Fry

Conch Salad was one of the many favourites at the event

Tourists who accounted for a huge chunk of the patrons are captured making purchases at one of the booths

A foursome of tourist hangs out at the Upstairs Bar and Grill stall

While enjoying the best of Turks and Caicos Islands culinary, patrons could also enjoy an array of liqueurs

The event was also made for father and son moments

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“As Long As You Love Me” By Justin Bieber (feat. Big Sean) As long as you love me [x3] We’re under pressure, Seven billion people in the world trying to ﬁt in Keep it together, Smile on your face even though your heart is frowning But hey now, you know, girl, We both know it’s a cruel world But I will take my chances As long as you love me We could be starving, we could be homeless, we could be broke As long as you love me I’ll be your platinum, I’ll be your silver, I’ll be your gold As long as you lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love me (love me) As long as you lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love me (love me) I’ll be your soldier, Fighting every second of the day for your dreams, girl I’ll be your Hova You can be my Destiny’s Child on the scene girl So don’t stress, don’t cry, we don’t need no wings to ﬂy Just take my hand As long as you love me We could be starving, we could be homeless, we could be broke As long as you love me I’ll be your platinum, I’ll be your silver, I’ll be your gold As long as you lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love me (love me) As long as you lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love me (love me) [Big Sean] Yo, B-I-G I don’t know if this makes sense, but you’re my hallelujah

Give me a time and place, and I’ll rendezvous, and I’ll ﬂy you to it, I’ll beat you there Girl you know I got you Us, trust... A couple of things I can’t spell without ‘U’ Now we are on top of the world, ‘cause that’s just how we do (do it) Used to tell me, “Sky’s the limit”, now the sky’s our point of view (view) Man now we stepping out like, “Whoa” (Oh God) Cameras point and shoot (shoot) Ask me what’s my best side, I stand back and point at you You, you the one that I argue with, I feel like I need a new girl to be bothered with, But the grass ain’t always greener on the other side, It’s green where you water it So I know we got issues baby true, true, true, But I’d rather work on this with you Than to go ahead and start with someone new As long as you love me As long as you love me (love me yeah yeah yeah) We could be starving, we could be homeless, we could be broke As long as you love me I’ll be your platinum (platinum), I’ll be your silver, I’ll be your gold As long as you lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love me As long as you lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love me As long as you lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love me (I’ll be your silver, I’ll be your gold) As long as you lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love As long as you love, love, love, love me As long as you love me (that’s all I want baby) As long as you love, love, love, love me As long as you love, love, love, love me (please don’t go) As long as you love me As long as you love me

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ENTERTAINMENT

Whitney Houston to Be Honored at Clive Davis’ Pre-Grammy Party I

t will be one-year ago on Monday that Whitney Houston passed away. She was found in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel just a few hours before Clive Davis and the Recording Academy’s annual pre-Grammy party was to take place just four ﬂoors below in the International Ballroom. The party went on with Davis telling guests it’s what the late singer’s family wanted. Davis will once again hold court on Saturday for this year’s soiree in the same ballroom. While he had been telling press that he wasn’t sure if he’d pay a special tribute this year to mark the anniversary of her death, it turns that plans are not only in place, but members of Houston’s family will be in attendance. “She was this generation’s greatest, greatest singing talent,” Davis told E! News earlier today.

“So we’ll do something over the course of the evening Saturday night to show that.” Davis also said, “It’s very much with me and she’ll be with me.” Houston’s brother and half-sister, Gary and Pat Houston will be at the bash, a source conﬁrms to E!. “We’re going in support of Clive to show our appreciation of him as he honors Whitney,” Pat told the New York Daily News. However, Houston’s mom Cissy Houston declined an invite to the party, telling Access Hollywood, “I got an invitation to the party, which is the most obscene thing. I don’t know why they would want me to come to the party in which she died, you know? Unheard of.” Meanwhile, Davis said there’s only one singer right now who reminds him of Houston. “The

Rihanna shows support in court for Chris Brown L

os Angeles -- Rihanna left no doubt about how she feels about Chris Brown and the probation he’s serving for beating her up four years ago. The pop star sat behind Brown in court Wednesday while a prosecutor asked a judge to order the singer to restart the community labor that is his punishment for the felony assault conviction. It was Rihanna’s second time in a courtroom with Brown. The first was the day in August 2009 when Brown was sentenced to five years’ probation and ordered to stay away from her. Then, she was a witness for the prosecution. “She thinks it’s utterly ridiculous what they’re doing to him,” Brown lawyer Mark Geragos said when a reporter asked why his assault victim was in court. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has “tortured” Brown during his probation worse than any client he’s ever had, Geragos said. In a court filing this week, prosecutors accused Brown of not completing the 180 days of community labor ordered when he pleaded guilty to the felony assault charge. The paperwork Brown submitted to show he had completed community labor is “at best sloppy documentation and at worst fraudulent reporting,” District Attorney Jackie Lacey said. Brown wasn’t in town on some of the dates reported, the motion said. Geragos, however, angrily disputed the charges, calling them “absolutely false.” “And I don’t mean just false, it is fraudulent,” Geragos said after the hearing. Brown’s attorney said the prosecutor’s filing was so fraudulent that he would ask the judge to punish the deputy district attorneys involved and call for a contempt of court hearing for filing false documents with the court. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Brandlin set a hearing for April 5 for Brown to return to court, but a full hearing on the allegations will be held later. The ever divisive Chris Brown Brandlin ordered Brown to report to his probation officer within the next two days to be interviewed for a report that will be used at the hearing. Despite the serious allegations outlined in the court filing, the prosecutor is not asking for Brown’s probation to be revoked and the singer sent to jail. She is asking the judge to order him to

restart his 1,400 hours of community service under the supervision of a Los Angeles probation officer. Brown got an unusual deal when he pleaded guilty that allowed him to complete his court-ordered community service in Virginia, under the personal supervision of Richmond Police Chief Bryan Norwood. Normally, community service must be supervised by a probation office. The district attorney alleged that investigators he sent to Virginia discovered that Brown’s mother supervised most of it, and they found evidence it was never done. In response, Geragos said he’s received 10 e-mails in the past day from Richmond police officers and firefighters “who observed Chris doing his community service.” “I’ve got pictures, I’ve got witnesses,” Geragos said. “I’ve got what they don’t have. We have evidence that he did it.” The motion also accused Brown of violating probation by punching singer Frank Ocean at a Hollywood recording studio last month, threatening to “bust” -- or shoot -- the singer. It also notes a Miami incident during which Brown allegedly stole a fan’s cell phone and a chair-throwing incident after a “Good Morning America” interview. Also, Brown’s claim to have medical marijuana license, which used to defend against a drug test result, was invalid because the acupuncturist who wrote it was not licensed to prescribe drugs, the motion said. This Friday marks the fourth anniversary of the night Brown punched Rihanna inside a rented Lamborghini on a Hollywood street, leaving her face bruised and bloody. Rihanna and Brown broke up after he was arrested for assaulting her, but they’ve made no secret in recent months that they are a couple again.

best voice out there today of the younger performers is Jennifer Hudson,” he said. “There’s really nothing Jennifer can’t do.” Davis gets the biggest names in the music biz to perform at the party. Houston, Hudson, Alicia Keys, Pink, Fergie, Christina Aguilera, Usher, Mumford & Sons, Kelly Clarkson and Jamie Foxx are just a few of the more recent artists who have been on the previous lineups. While Davis is keeping mum on the upcoming lineup, we do know that ﬁve-time Grammy nominee Miguel will be performing. “You want them to be proud,” Miguel says of the legendary artists who will be in the audience. “You want then to be proud of you so it’s a bit of pressure. But I love what I do so I welcome that.”

NBC NEWS PRESIDENT STEVE CAPUS STEPPING DOWN

EW YORK - NBC News President Steve Capus, who presided over years of strong ratings at the news division and expanded digital offerings but was hurt by the downfall of the “Today” show, said that he was resigning. The Philadelphia-area native joined NBC News 20 years ago and produced various newscasts for Brian Williams before being appointed news division president by Jeff Zucker, at the time chief of NBC Universal, on the week that Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005. NBC parent company Comcast Corp.’s decision last year to appoint Pat Fili-Krushel to a supervisory role over the company’s news properties signaled to many that Capus’ tenure was nearing an end. His contract gave Capus an optout provision and he chose to exercise it. Capus said in an email to staff members that “it is now time to head in a new direction,” although he hasn’t said what that might be. “I have seldom described my role as presiding over NBC News,” Capus said. “Instead, I have viewed it as leading a collaborative effort to pursue journalistic excellence.” A primary yardstick for network news’ success is the ratings for the flagship evening news program, and NBC’s broadcast with Williams has held on to the top spot. Capus has expanded NBC’s reach with specialty websites aimed at black and Latino audiences, and reached a deal to take over all responsibility for the main NBC news site, buying out Microsoft’s stake. Capus also oversaw the MSNBC news division. MSNBC has become profitable through its decision to skew liberal in its commentary. Tim Russert’s sudden death forced Capus to revamp the Sunday morning political talk show “Meet the Press,” where David Gregory has run hot and cold since taking over. The profitable “Today” show has taken a hard fall in the past year and now runs a consistent second to ABC’s “Good Morning America.” NBC was widely criticized for mismanagement of Ann Curry’s dismissal as “Today” anchor last summer. Jim Bell, the show’s executive producer, stepped down last fall. Fili-Krushel set out a new temporary management structure, increasing the authority of executives Alex Wallace and Antoine Sanfuentes, until she names a successor. “NBC News is America’s leading source of television news and Steve has been a big part of that success,” Fili-Krushel said in a memo to staff members.

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ames

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FUN&GAMES

News Page 32

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HIGHLIGHTS

Haiti court postpones Duvalier Appeal Sex tourism booming in the DR

CARIBBEAN

67 candidates to contest Barbados general election

RIDGETOWN, Barbados – Sixty-seven candidates, including seven independents, have been nominated to contest the February 21 general election, according to electoral officials. Both the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and the main opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) have nominated candidates to contest all 30 seats in the Barbados parliament. In a festive atmosphere and surrounded by party supporters, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart filed his papers at the Graydon Sealy Secondary School where he was warmly greeted by students. After completing the process, Stuart, the parliamentary representative for the St. Michael South constituency, warned that the DLP’s campaign would now move into high gear as it seeks another five year term in office. “The DLP’s case for re-election

will be put as of tonight with all the vigour, all the clarity, with all the enthusiasm at our command because we think that we have a record of which we are justly proud and we have a vision for the future that we feel strongly about and that we can with conﬁdence put the people of Barbados.” Stuart also dismissed claims of a swing of support towards his opponent Noel Lynch of the BLP, who he defeated in the 2008 general election. “When I cease to be Prime Minister 10 years from now he will win the seat up here and I have no problem with that, “the Prime Minister said. But an upbeat Lynch told reporters he’s conﬁdent of unseating the country’s leader. “The people of St. Michael South have already made up their minds like most of the people of Barbados.

We need to put an end to a failed government in this country and the people have spoken and they are going to speak loudly on February 21.” In the northern parish of St. Peter, BLP leader and former prime minister Owen Arthur, accompanied by family, supporters and his party colleagues, filed his papers to contest his ninth general election. He later told reporters he is ready for the poll and to represent the constituency of St. Peter as well as Barbados. “I’m confident not only in relation to my constituents in St. Peter but I am confident that this will be a victory for the Barbados Labour Party,” said Arthur, who in 2008 led the then ruling BLP into defeat. Arthur said that the election is a serious undertaking and he pledged to give Barbadians a clear programme on how his BLP intends to return the ailing economy to pros-

perity in its manifesto soon to be released. “Our manifesto went through four drafts and we have been using our public meetings, our focused group meetings, our town hall meetings to bounce things off the people. It’s been a collaborative effort reflecting the whole cross section of the Barbados Labour Party family “What you will find in the manifesto is no wish listing from our party but peoples’ perspective as to what they want their government to do,” he added. Arthur’s opponent and relative Haynesley Benn of the DLP told reporters he will deliver the constituency to the DLP. “I have a big fish to fry not the biggest this time. He (Arthur) was the biggest last time. The fish has been reduced in size and is able to hold into my pan. I have this fish under control, “ he added.

Airlines want controversial Air Passenger Duty dropped A

new report has said that scrapping the controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD), which has negatively impacted on the tourism industry throughout the Caribbean, could generate 60,000 jobs by 2020. The report commissioned by four airlines, British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic, is also expected to boost gross domestic product (GDP) by almost one per cent. The APD, instituted in 1994, is a British environmental tax aimed at offsetting aviation’s carbon footprint. In its initial stage, it was set at US$7.85 per person. Caribbean governments have been lobbying London to remove the tax, which they said negatively affects the growth of the tourism industry since the region has been placed in a band that makes travel to the region much more expensive than travelling from London to the United States. The rate of APD paid by travellers is calculated according to the distance from London to the destination country’s capital city. Under this system, passengers travelling to Caribbean destinations, around 4,500 miles from London, pay more in APD than those travelling to Hawaii, which is more than 7,000 miles from the British capital. Overall UK arrivals to the Caribbean region are down around 12 per cent, more than is being seen in other source markets suggesting it is not just down to the global recession. Last year, St Lucia Prime Minister and former Caribbean Community (Caricom) chairman Dr Kenny Anthony expressed disappointment that the Unit-

Dr. Kenny Anthony ed Kingdom had “opted to retain its discriminatory approach” Anthony said then that he had received a response from the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne which he described as “interesting in one respect”. “The Chancellor more or less conﬁrms that the APD was introduced primarily to raise revenue to tackle the deﬁcit in the United Kingdom,” Anthony said. The airlines that use the London route argue the APD acts as a major barrier to both tourism and potential investment in Britain. The UK is currently ranked 134th out of 138 countries by the World Economic Forum in terms of competitive aviation taxes and airport charges, ahead of only Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mali and Chad. The study by the four major airlines estimates the economy would be £16 billion better off by 2015 were APD to be scrapped. Withdrawal of the tax would deliver an immediate increase of as much as 40 per cent in the

number of foreign visitors to Britain, the study estimates, noting it would also encourage airlines to invest in new aircraft and develop routes to high-growth regions. Last year, the four airlines had urged Osborne to suspend the planned APD pending the outcome of the independent study of the economic effects of such a tax rise. The UK government plans to again raise APD rates in April 2013 and bring business jet fares into the tax net. The tax, ﬁrst introduced in 1994 as a British environmental tax aimed at offsetting aviation’s carbon footprint, was calculated on a twoband system, one for European destinations, one for all other destinations. That two-band system remained in place, despite a tax increase in 2007. The APD issue heated up in April 2009 when rules for a much higher, four-band, mileage-based tax were announced. The tax amount was calculated on the distance between London and the destination country’s capital city. The US is in Band B, using Washington as the capital; the Caribbean is in Band C because their capital cities are farther from London, making the APD higher for UK travel to the Caribbean than to Florida, California or even Hawaii. The four-band rules took effect in November 2009, boosting the average tax from US$53 to US$67 per passenger for travel to the Caribbean. It later rose to $100. The tax from London to Portof-Spain, starts at $186 per passenger in economy. A family of four ﬂying from the UK to the Caribbean now pays close to US$625 in taxes. In 2005, the same family paid US$125 in taxes.

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Haiti court postpones Duvalier appeals hearing A

Haitian judge on Thursday postponed a court hearing on possible human rights abuse charges against Jean-Claude Duvalier because the former dictator known as “Baby Doc” failed to show up. Judge Jean Joseph Lebrun of Haiti’s Court of Appeals accepted a request by the defense team to reschedule the hearing because it fell on the 27th anniversary of Duvalier’s ouster. Defense attorney Reynold Georges said that given the anniversary, there could be trouble in the streets if the judge decided to drop the prosecution of Duvalier. Critics of the ex-dictator and his supporters staged dueling demonstrations outside. Lebrun didn’t punish Duvalier for ignoring an order to appear before the court but said Duvalier would be arrested if he didn’t show up for the new hearing Feb. 21. The hearing involves an appeal ﬁled by people who say they were abused by Duvalier’s gov-

Former Haitian leader Jean-Claude Duvalier ernment, which ruled from 1971 to 1986. The complainants want charges of human rights abuses reinstated against him. A judge recommended last year that Duvalier face prosecution only for ﬁnancial crimes instead of abuse charges ﬁled against him after he returned to Haiti in 2011 following 25 years in exile. That judge said there were no grounds to prosecute Duvalier for alleged crimes against human-

ity because the statute of limitations had expired under Haitian law — an argument the defense has made. The defense has appealed the judge’s recommendation to prosecute Duvalier for alleged financial crimes. Human rights groups in Haiti and abroad argue there are international rulings that show crimes against humanity are exempt from a statute of limitations, and they say there is ample evidence of abuse to prosecute Duvalier. The 61-year-old Duvalier would face no more than five years in prison if convicted of the financial crimes, which include embezzlement of public funds. Duvalier has remained free during the court proceedings. The court placed him under house arrest but he has traveled the country without consequence. The Haitian government in December renewed Duvalier’s diplomatic passport as is customary for former presidents, his attorney said.

Bermuda can make waves in yacht registry business I

f there is one thing that Bermuda has over the Cayman Islands, it’s a very large yacht. In fact, it’s the largest privately owned yacht in the world — the 533foot Eclipse owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich — now docked in Hamilton, which flies the Bermuda flag. And that’s no small feat considering that Cayman holds the majority of private yacht registries. According to the Royal Gazette newspaper, private yacht registry is big business for offshore domiciles and growing in Bermuda. “More often than not, people who own these mega-yachts have other assets, property and interests that involve off shore, so hopefully when you see a yacht it’s part of a bigger picture, whether that is a holding company, business interests or insurance needs or private client work,” said Timothy Counsell, partner at Appleby Bermuda who specialises in banking & asset finance. Appleby is one of the local law firms that provide shipping registry services. “It could spin off into other things, so it could be a part of a bigger package.” Because many of these yachts are so incredibly expensive, many yacht owners set up holding companies to offset some of the liability, should the vessel be chartered out or if the boat was say, damaged, sank or spilled oil. While no doubt that Bermuda and Cayman’s tax neutrality is also attractive, it’s also the cache of a British flagged ship that is appealing. Being that both ports are British, a Bermuda registry carries with it the benefit of the protection of the British Navy. “That all ties in with residual value and recognition of a good register are where good yachts are looked

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich after properly — people who have safety in mind and play by the rules — that’s where owners will go,” said Mr Counsell. “The cost of registering in Bermuda will generally be more expensive than one would see than other shipping registries, like Panama, Liberia and Marshall Islands,” he explained, adding that in Bermuda owners pay a tonnage fee — the bigger the boat, the more expensive it is to register here.

“Those registers tend overwhelmingly to be commercial ship registers.” Where as private yachts tend to go a small handful of places like Bermuda and more likely, the Caymans. “They (Cayman) really steal the march on private yachts worldwide,” said Mr Counsell. Part of the reason for Cayman’s stronghold on the industry is its aggressive marketing at yacht shows and trade events where these mega-ships

are built and sold. Over the years and as word of mouth takes hold, it is difﬁcult to stop the momentum. “One skipper talks to another and word gets around,” he said. “Cayman recognised this as a good business opportunity and they’ve actively marketed at events.” Bermuda, however, seeing the potential of this market, is trying to increase its share of business. Ed Robinson, Bermuda’s Shipping Registrar within the Department of Maritime Administration said that there is ample room for Bermuda to grow this industry. To further advertise Bermuda’s advantages as a yacht registry, Mr Robinson’s group is planning on attending some of the largest yacht shows this year in Monaco and Florida. Though Bermuda is the David to Cayman’s Goliath, the Island can still lay claim to be the registry of choice for the world’s largest private yacht. “There are some signiﬁcant yachts registered in Bermuda, the Eclipse being one of them. That’s a feather in our hat,” said Mr Counsell. “That shouldn’t be underestimated and it’s a good thing.”

Eclipse, the world’s largest yacht, was recently in Bermuda

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CARIBBEAN NEWS

Sex tourism booming in the Dominican Republic S

ANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – While many Caribbean countries are exploring innovative approaches to boost their tourism industries, the Dominican Republic reportedly continues to attract large numbers of visitors, thanks, in part, to the world’s oldest profession. The popular destination, which attracted 4.6 million visitors in 2012, making it the most visited nation in the Caribbean, is renowned for its breathtaking scenery, pristine beaches and quality accommodation. But in the paradisiacal resort areas, it’s not unusual to spot foreign men with attractive local women a fraction of their age, providing visible evidence of an aspect of the tourism industry neither promoted nor condemned by the government and tour operators. Way before allegations surfaced claiming United States Senator Bob Menendez and a po-

litical contributor visited the country for wild parties with prostitutes, the Dominican Republic had acquired a reputation as a sex tourism haven. According to the Centre for Integral Orientation and Investigation, a Santo Domingo-based health and outreach organization, studies suggest that between 60,000 and 100,000 women work in the country’s sex trade. “The Dominican Republic has been associated both on the island and off the island with sex for sale,” noted Georgetown University professor Denise Brennan, author of What’s Love Got to Do With It?, which examines sex tourism in the country. “Dominican sex workers strategically position themselves and talk about themselves and make use of foreigners’ expectations of them as being hot and sexy.” While countries from Brazil and Costa Rica to

Thailand and Cambodia are also known to have thriving sex tourism industries, the Dominican Republic’s proximity to the United States and Europe, bolstered by its inexpensive travel packages, have made it a favoured spot. There’s also a wide range of options available, from 30 minutes with a woman in a small hotel for about US$40 to various packages often arranged privately via the internet. “We’ve become known as a place where foreigners feel they can come and live out their fantasies,” according to former prostitute Jacqueline Montero, who now heads an organization that assists sex workers. “It’s not illegal. … It’s easy and, for tourists, it’s inexpensive.” While laws prohibit sex with minors, prostitution is neither illegal nor legal in the Dominican Republic. As such, it is practiced openly and widely accepted as legal by police.

UK prison recommendations in Cayman Islands will cost over $20M A

bevy of recommended changes to the Cayman Islands prisons system made following a United Kingdom inspection report could cost more than $20 million to implement, according to government estimates. “Very early estimates are expected to be an investment of over $20 million to rebuild a purpose-built facility that will be fully compliant with human rights and UK standards,” said Eric Bush, chief ofﬁcer of the government’s Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs. “We are researching all options.” The portfolio has some evidence to provide a baseline comparison for costs of a new prison. “The prison which was newly built in Anguilla a few years ago is built to house 110 inmates and cost over US$11 million,” Mr. Bush said. “We need to build a facility to house at least double that [number] and to include females and juveniles in separate and secured areas.” According to the Caymanian

Compass newspaper, one of the major issues with Northward men’s prison right now, according to Mr. Bush and UK inspectors, is that it is not constructed to house more than mid-level risk inmates. Security at Northward was one of the top concerns of UK inspectors. Cayman handles what are known as Class A, Class B, Class C and Class D-type offenders. Class D offenders are the least serious, more minor or rehabilitated offenders; Class A is the highest-risk offender category. According to UK inspectors, Northward could only be coded as a Class C prison facility. “It needs better walls, better fencing, better [inmate] dorms, better segregation [of prisoners],” said Acting Deputy Prisons Director Aduke Natalie Joseph-Caesar, noting there are quite a few things the prison service must do in the meantime to counteract potential security threats within the system. However, the construction and/ or complete renovation of North-

ward and also of Fairbanks women’s prison – which Mr. Bush eventually hopes to move back to the Northward compound – is not the only cost-related issue identified in the UK report. The report also noted that juvenile prisoners, some of whom currently being housed in the adult population and having contact with older male prisoners, are at critical risk of being recruited into local gangs or even being sexually assaulted by older prisoners. “Juveniles should be protected from abuse and bullying,” UK prison inspectors recommended. “As a minimum [they] should be specific to their needs and include education and a focus on rehabilitation.” Although the Cayman Islands constitutionally requires the total separation of adult and juvenile prisoners by November 2013, funding for the multimillion dollar juvenile remand facility being constructed in George Town was delayed in last year’s budget because of financial

problems. Another $1.7 million was expected to be added to the current 2012/13 government budget to continue work on the detention centre in a wooded area south of Fern Circle and west of Fairview Road in George Town. For both juvenile prisoners and adults, the UK recommended that “meaningful activities” be made more available for prisoners in the areas of education, training and work study. Prisoners should be required to attend such activities; currently, they are only voluntary. The prison service has formed a 32-person team, including a psychologist, a qualiﬁed counsellor, two social workers and other trained staff to work with offenders while they are in prison, Mrs. Joseph-Caesar said. Healthcare for prisoners was also a matter addressed in the UK inspection report. Both adequate health assessments and adequate healthcare staff were problematic within the entire prison system, UK inspectors said.

The Bahamas to form business alliance with Panama N ASSAU, The Bahamas -- Leaders in The Bahamas have agreed in principle to form a joint business development alliance with Panama to boost bilateral trade and commercial relations. Fresh off a delegation to Panama, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) seeks to further cement ties by holding annual meetings and engage in the frequent exchange of information. The agreement, which has been obtained by Guardian Business, would also identify impediments and obstacles to trade and investment, assist in linkages and joint

ventures and allow Bahamians to create “afﬁliate memberships” with the Chamber in Panama. “The alliance would be cochaired by the chairman for each section,” the agreement stated. “The chairman and vice chairman, representing Bahamian and Panama sections, shall be appointed by the parties. Each side shall communicate to the other their designated chairman and vice chairman.” The imminent signing of a joint business development alliance could be the most tangible result of the recent delegation. Nearly two dozen Bahamians, representing shipping, logistics, construction, ﬁ-

nancial services and wholesale, joined the BCCEC, the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) and government ofﬁcials. Michael Darville, the minister of Grand Bahama, stressed the “commonality” between the two countries in regards the global trade industry. Whereas Panama is well established in this area, Grand Bahama is only beginning to realize the scope of its potential. Darville made special mention of the Panama Canal’s expansion, due to be completed in 2014. “Its relevance to international commerce has been reassumed and has drawn the attention of neighbor-

ing Caribbean countries, including The Bahamas, who are all looking for the best means to capitalize on the increased flow of ships. As demand is rising for efficient global shipping of goods, the canal is positioned to be a significant feature of world shipping for the foreseeable future,” he said. A number of other business opportunities were also explored during the trip. Copa Airlines, now operating a direct flight to Nassau, was encouraged to start passenger and cargo opportunities in Grand Bahama. Improvement in airlift would bolster both the tourism industry and commercial activity.

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HIGHLIGHTS

David Cameron’s party split on gay marriage vote - Page 36 Gov. Chris Christie responds to weight claims - Page 37

Obama pushes 2nd term agenda to House Democrats

EESBURG, Va. — President Barack Obama predicted a tough road ahead as he urged House Democrats on Thursday to stick to their principles on guns, immigration and the economy in legislative fights with Republicans. He told lawmakers at their annual retreat in suburban Virginia that one fundamental question will guide his second-term policies: Do they give everyone a fair shot at success. “It won’t be smooth. It won’t be simple. There will be frustrations. There will be times when you guys are mad at me, and occasionally I’ll read about it,” Obama said. He asked fellow Democrats to remember what led them to turn to public office in the first place — a wish to improve their communities. “If we keep that in mind every single day,” he said, “I have no doubt that we will continue the extraordinary progress that we’ve made already.” The president also tried to offer

hope to Democrats tired of being the minority party in the House. “As a byproduct of doing that good work and keeping that focus, I would expect that Nancy Pelosi is going to be speaker again pretty soon,” he said. The California Democrat was speaker until Republicans took control of the chamber in 2010. Previewing his State of the Union address Tuesday night, Obama mentioned topics such as job creation, education, clean energy and taxes and spending. He said he still want to achieve a broad budget deal with Republicans. But he brushed off a GOP plan to avoid looming across-the-board spending cuts, saying the plan would not ask enough of the wealthy while putting all the burden on older people and disabled children. “If that’s the choice we’ve got, I promise you we can win that debate because we’re on the right side of this argument,” Obama said. After Obama’s brief public re-

marks, reporters were taken out of the room and the president took lawmakers’ questions in private. Obama met privately for more than two hours with Democratic senators on Wednesday. The White House said the president spoke brieﬂy, took questions from 10 senators, then spent an hour chatting with them in smaller groups. Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, said the session was focused on coordinating what the senators are doing with the administration’s own efforts to promote Obama’s priorities. Also Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House voted to require that the president submit a budget that balances the federal ledger. The bill was symbolic, meant as a taunt to the president. While it has little chance in the Senate, 26 House Democrats did support it. In the Senate, Democrats hold the majority and can be far more effective at driving Obama’s legislative agenda. But a uniﬁed Democratic

caucus in the House is critical on issues that might divide Republicans, such as an overhaul of immigration laws or even some fiscal policies. Carney has said Obama and lawmakers have made “significant progress” toward a bipartisan deal on immigration. The Senate has taken the lead assembling comprehensive legislation, including a path to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. On gun control, many Democrats are reluctant to embrace Obama’s call for banning certain weapons. But Obama has argued that other proposals, such as universal background checks, have broad public support. On fiscal issues, Obama wants Congress to pass a short-term package of spending cuts and tax revenue. That would give lawmakers more time to negotiate a broader deficit-reduction deal and avoid deep spending cuts that are set to take effect March 1.

Coroner says Alabama hostage taker shot multiple times A

la. — A man who held a 5-year-old boy hostage in an underground bunker for nearly a week before dying in a shootout with the FBI received multiple gunshot wounds, a county coroner said Thursday. Dale County Coroner Woodrow Hilboldt said he was allowed into the bunker in the southeastern Alabama community of Midland City on Wednesday evening. He pronounced 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes dead at 8:58 p.m. “He had multiple gunshot wounds,” Hilboldt told The Associated Press. The coroner declined to say how many times Dykes had been shot or where the wounds were on his body. He said the body was taken to a state forensics laboratory in Montgomery for an autopsy. The body was removed from the bunker Wednesday night, FBI agent Jason Pack said Thursday, hours after the FBI announced that it had found no more explosives on the property besides those that were discovered in a PVC pipe leading into the bunker and inside the bunker itself. FBI Special Agent Paul Bresson said in an email late Wednesday that the technicians who scoured the 100-acre property in the days after the standoff ended had “completed their work and cleared the crime scene.” “No additional devices were found,” he added. Bresson said evidence-review teams are now sifting through the crime scene, a process that could take two to three more days. A shooting-re-

Lawmen outside the hostage scene view team from Washington also is reviewing the hostage-taking episode, which began Jan. 29 and ended Monday when Dykes was killed in a gunfight with the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team. The team, which is the agency’s full-time counterterrorism unit, raided the bunker and rescued the 5-year-old boy, FBI spokesman Jason Pack said. Trained in military tactics and outfitted with combat-style gear and weapons, the group was formed 30 years ago in preparation for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. According to a U.S. official, about a dozen Navy Seabees, who specialize in naval construction, helped authorities build a mock-up of the bunker to plan the FBI assault. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the rescue effort, spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity. Hilboldt, who got a close look at the bunker Wednesday night, described it as being about 6

feet-by-8 feet with an 8-foot-high plywood ceiling. The ceiling contained a 2-foot-by-2-foot hatch for a door and a ladder extending to the floor from the opening, Hilboldt said. The interior was lined with concrete blocks and the bunker contained only “makeshift” furniture, he said. “There wasn’t much room,” Hilboldt said, adding that the officers who stormed the bunker “did good with what they had to work with.” Hilboldt said the FBI already had removed many items from the bunker and conducted an inventory. He wouldn’t go into details about what was still there, such as toys that had been delivered to the child or electronic equipment. Authorities said the standoff began a week ago Tuesday when Dykes boarded a bus full of children and gunned down driver Charles Albert Poland Jr. as Poland sought to protect the 21 children on board. According to officials, the gunman then seized the boy, whom law enforcement authorities have identified only by his first name, Ethan, and fled with his hostage to the nearby bunker, setting up the standoff that captured national attention. On Wednesday, Ethan’s sixth birthday, Midland City residents sought to resume a normal life in their tight-knit rural community nestled amid peanut and cotton farms. The boy, who has Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was said to be acting like a normal kid despite his ordeal.

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WORLD NEWS

British PM David Cameron’s party split as first gay marriage vote passes B

ritain’s parliament voted heavily in favor of legalizing gay marriage on Tuesday, but Prime Minister David Cameron’s authority in his own party took a blow as his Conservatives split in two over the measure he had championed.

In the ﬁrst of several votes required for its passage, the lower house of parliament backed the legislation by 400-175, but more than half of Cameron’s 303 lawmakers voted against or abstained, signaling deep unease with it and his leadership. During a debate that lasted more than six hours, many Conservative MPs denounced the legislation, saying it was morally wrong, not a public priority, and unnecessarily divisive, threatening a corrosive legacy of bitterness. Conservative lawmaker Gerald Howarth told parliament that the government had no mandate to push through a “massive social and cultural change”. “This is not evolution, it’s revolution,” added Edward Leigh, another Conservative member of parliament, saying marriage was “by its nature a heterosexual union”. Although the vote went Cameron’s way, many analysts believe he will now have to address a deep seam of discontent running through his party. He made a last minute televised statement ahead of the vote, arguing gay marriage would make society stronger. “I’m a big believer in marriage. It helps people to commit to each other, and I think that’s why gay people should be able to get married too,” he said. He later hailed the result of the vote as “a step forward for our country”. Cameron is trying to perform a tricky balancing act: to reconcile his desire to show his party is progressive, with the views of many in it who are uncomfortable with such a reform.

British Prime Minister David Cameron

Amid talk of a possible leadership challenge to Cameron, many Conservative lawmakers say the prime minister is sacriﬁcing core party values on the altar of populism. “He hasn’t got a lot of political capital left in the bank,” Stewart Jackson, a Conservative MP who opposes the gay marriage bill, told Reuters before the vote. “He has to deliver some authentic Conservative policies very soon.” Such talk is rife among some Conservative lawmakers and follows a spate of articles in the British press in which a handful of MPs raised the possibility of ousting Cameron, a prospect most commentators regard as farfetched before the next election in 2015. GRIEVANCES AGAINST CAMERON Conservative MPs’ grievances are many: that Cameron is “arrogant”, that he is too fond of the European Union, that the party’s policies have been diluted by its coalition partner after Cameron failed to win the last election outright, and a nagging fear that he will not win the next one. The gay marriage initiative has infuriated rank-and-ﬁle party activists and a protest letter signed by 25 past and present chairmen of

local Conservative associations warned that members were starting to resign over the issue. Justin Welby, the newly elected Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the world’s 80 million Anglicans, used his ﬁrst comments after being conﬁrmed on Monday to reiterate his own opposition to gay marriage. Faced with strong opposition from the Anglican and Catholic churches, the law would not force them to conduct gay marriages, but critics say gay people may launch legal challenges. The new law proposes legalizing samesex marriage in 2014. It would also allow civil partners to convert their partnerships into marriages. Gay marriage supporters say that while existing civil partnerships for same-sex couples afford the same legal rights as marriage, the distinction implies they are inferior. In a sometimes emotional debate on Tuesday, several gay MPs from different parties took to their feet to commend the bill, describing the prejudice they had suffered growing up. “Millions will be watching us today,” said Nick Herbert, a gay Conservative MP. “Not just gay people but people who want to live in an equal society.” The vote was warmly welcomed by Cameron’s junior coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, and by the opposition Labour party, while gay rights group Stonewall called the result “a truly historic step forward”. Tuesday’s vote in the House of Commons was “free”, meaning MPs were able to vote according to their conscience, rather than under party orders. The bill is still many stages away from becoming law, and some of its opponents called on Cameron after the vote to consider amending it to appease their concerns, promising they would try to frustrate its progress through parliament.

Tsunami destroys villages in Solomon Islands

YDNEY—A powerful earthquake in the South Pacific triggered a tsunami that destroyed villages and killed at least five people in the Solomon Islands Wednesday, according to government and hospital officials.

A wave measuring three feet reached the island chain after the quake hit around midday local time, the Paciﬁc Tsunami Warning Center said. The magnitude-8 quake, with a depth of 17.8 miles (28.7 kilometers), was centered about 220 miles east of the Santa Cruz Islands, part of the Solomon Islands nation, according to a bulletin issued by the U.S. Geological Survey. A magnitude-6.3 quake had struck minutes earlier in the same area, and there were at least three aftershocks measuring above magnitude-6 later in the day. An initial tsunami warning for the Paciﬁc region was

soon canceled. Official accounts of the extent of the damage in the Solomons remained vague hours after the fact, and a government official said communication with the worst-hit areas remained difficult. Among the affected areas has been the provincial capital of Lata, a city of about 2,300 in Temotu Province where hospital patients were evacuated to higher ground. Chris Roger, a registered nurse at Lata Hospital, said by telephone that five deaths had been confirmed; one child, an elderly male and three elderly females. “Houses have been washed down, and the airport has been filled with seawater,” said Charles Elliott Fox-Ngali, also a registered nurse at Lata Hospital who was reached by telephone. Loti Yates, director of the na-

tional disaster management office in the Solomon capital Honiara, confirmed that the airport in Lata had been damaged by the tsunami and that logs and debris which had washed into the area by the wave were blocking the runway. Mr. Yates said four villages had been ruined, but he couldn’t confirm any fatalities. Mr. Yates said a team of officials will be sent to the region early Thursday. “Some villages were inundated with saltwater … At this stage we have very limited information,” he said. Conditions in Honiara were described as calm, although some residents had moved away from coastal areas as a precaution, said Chris Nemaia, an official at the Solomon Islands Visitor Bureau. “People are already up on the higher grounds,” he said. Christian aid organization

World Vision, which is active in the affected region, said at least 100 homes had been destroyed in Lata and that power outages were widespread. Located in the Paciﬁc’s so called Ring of Fire—a volcanic region that stretches across the ocean—the Solomon Islands have been hit by strong earthquakes in the past, including a major quake in 2007 that left 52 people dead. James Goff, director of the Tsunami and Natural Hazards Research Group at the University of New South Wales, said it will likely be some time before the extent of the damage becomes clear. “This part of the Solomon Islands is in a particularly active part of the boundary between the Australian and Paciﬁc plates, and has seen a swarm of earthquakes recently,” he said.

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WORLD NEWS

Iran rebuffs US offer of direct talks I

ran’s highest authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday slapped down an offer of direct talks made by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden this week, saying they would not solve the problem between them. “Some naive people like the idea of negotiating with America, however, negotiations will not solve the problem,” Khamenei said in a speech to officials and members of Iran’s air force carried on his official website. “If some people want American rule to be established again in Iran, the nation will rise up to face them,” he said. “American policy in the Middle East has been destroyed and Americans now need to play a new card. That card is dragging Iran into negotiations.” Khamenei made his comments just days after Joe Biden said the United States was prepared to meet bilaterally with the Iranian leadership. “That offer stands but it must be real and tangible,” Biden said in a speech in Munich. With traditional fiery rhetoric, Khamenei

lambasted Biden’s offer, saying that since the 1979 revolution the United States had gravely insulted Iran and continued to do so with its threat of military action. “You take up arms against the nation of Iran and say: ‘negotiate or we ﬁre’. But you should know that pressure and negotiations are not compatible and our nation will not be intimidated by these actions,” he added. Relations between Iran and the United States were severed in 1979 after the overthrow of Iran’s pro-western monarchy and diplomatic meetings between ofﬁcials have since been very rare. Currently U.S.-Iran contact is limited to talks between Tehran and a so-called P5+1 group of powers on Iran’s disputed nuclear program which are to resume on February 26 in Kazakhstan. Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said he was skeptical the negotiations in Almaty could yield a result, telling Israel Radio that the United States needed to demonstrate to Iran that “all options were still on the table”. Israel, widely recognized to be the only nu-

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

clear power in the Middle East, has warned it could mount a pre-emptive strike on Iranian atomic sites. Israel sees its existence as directly threatened by the prospect of an nuclear-armed Iran, given Tehran’s refusal to recognize the existence of the Jewish state.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie fires back at doctor over weight comments N

ew Jersey Governor Chris Christie responded angrily on Wednesday to a former White House physician’s comment that he could die in ofﬁce if he does not lose weight, calling the doctor a “hack” for offering advice without examining him.

Connie Mariano, a doctor in the White House medical unit from 1992 to 2001, said in an interview on CNN that Christie, a blunt-spoken Republican who is seen as a strong contender if he decides to run for president in 2016, risks a heart attack or a stroke if he does not slim down. “It’s almost like a time bomb waiting to happen unless he addresses those issues before running for ofﬁce,” Mariano said.

New jersey Governor Chris Christie

Asked about the comments on Wednesday, Christie, who has spoken openly about his struggle to lose weight, said Mariano was out of line. “I ﬁnd it fascinating that a doctor in Arizona

who has never met me, never examined me, never reviewed my medical history or records, knows nothing about my family history, could make a diagnosis from 2,400 miles away. She must be a ge-

nius,” Christie said, adding: “My children saw that.” He called Mariano “just another hack who wants ﬁve minutes on TV.” Mariano’s comments came after Christie appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and poked fun at his own size - producing a donut while Letterman was mid-joke. “I’m basically the healthiest fat guy you’ve ever seen in your life,” Christie said. But Mariano, who helped former President Bill Clinton during his White House years, said her advice was not partisan. “I’m a Republican. I like Chris Christie. I want him to run. I just want

Libya must hand over Gaddafi spy chief: Hague judges I

nternational Criminal Court judges ordered Libya on Thursday to hand over Muammar Gaddaﬁ ’s former spy chief and let him see his lawyer, raising the stakes in a dispute over who has the right to try the deposed strongman’s top lieutenants. The statement placed the Haguebased court on a collision course with Libya’s new rulers, who say Gaddaﬁ-era leaders in their custody should face local justice over charges of mass killings and other

atrocities. The ICC judges said Libya must extradite Abdullah al-Senussi over his alleged role in orchestrating reprisals against the protesters in the 2011 uprising that overthrew Gaddaﬁ. “Libya remains under obligation to comply with the surrender request,” the judges said in their statement. They would decide later how to respond if the North African state continues to hold Senussi, the judg-

es added. The court has the power to refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council. “The ICC has ordered an immediate halt to Libya’s unseemly rush to drag Mr. Al-Senussi to the gallows before the law has taken its course,” said Ben Emmerson, Senussi’s lawyer before the ICC. Judges also ordered Libya to grant Emmerson access to his client. Libya has become a test case of the effectiveness of the 10-year-old

him to lose weight,” Mariano said. “I’m a physician more than I’m a Democrat or Republican. And I’m worried about this man dying in ofﬁce.” In a follow-up interview on CNN on Wednesday, Mariano said she and Christie had spoken by phone. “The words gracious and appreciative don’t come to mind,” she said, adding that Christie had asked her not to share the speciﬁcs of their conversation. “You don’t have to be a doctor to look at him and see that he has a problem with weight,” she said. “I have patients who suffer with obesity, and it is not a laughing matter.”

court, which relies on the cooperation of member countries to arrest suspects and enforce its orders. A court-appointed lawyer for Gaddafi ’s son Saif al-Islam was detained in Libya for a month alongside three other court officials when she attempted to visit her jailed client. Since, court officials and defense lawyers have had no contact with either Saif al-Islam or Senussi. Most recently, allegations have surfaced that Libya paid Mauritania $200 million to ignore the ICC arrest warrant last year, sending Senussi to Tripoli rather than to the ICC’s detention center in The Hague.

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HIGHLIGHTS

Dell goes private Postal Service cuts Saturday delivery

ECHN LOGY American Airlines and US Airways near merger agreement

merican Airlines parent AMR Corp. and US Airways Group Inc. are hashing out the last major details of a merger agreement that would create the world’s largest airline and are racing to finalize a deal within the next week or two, said people close to the discussions. If the deal is reached, the new company could have a market capitalization of more than $10 billion and would vault ahead of United Continental Holdings Inc. as the biggest U.S. airline by traffic. The allstock deal would be executed as a reorganization plan that takes American out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The people cautioned the merger negotiations remained fluid and could fall apart. American has resisted a deal at various points in favor of emerging from bankruptcy protection as an independent airline. Significant points of the deal, including how to split ownership of the airline and how to arrange board seats and management ranks, remain unresolved.

The boards of both airlines haven’t yet convened to consider the deal, although American representatives on Wednesday discussed whether to schedule such a meeting, said a person close to the matter. The discussions are now at an advanced stage, with AMR Chief Executive Tom Horton, US Airways CEO Doug Parker, and a small circle of advisers negotiating the merger’s finer points. Under the deal’s current contours, American creditors would own roughly 72% of the airline and US Airways shareholders about 28%, people close to the discussions said. Mr. Parker is in line to run the combined airline as CEO, they said. Mr. Horton, meanwhile, could become nonexecutive board chairman for a limited time, they said, though his exact role remained in flux and there were some discussions about him becoming executive chairman, a more powerful position. American’s board is interested in Mr. Horton having some kind of role to ensure the merger’s potential financial

benefits are realized, one of the people said. Influential creditors controlling American’s fate largely support a merger, making a deal highly likely unless disagreements unexpectedly mushroom, the people said. The airlines and American’s creditors are racing to finish a deal before Feb. 15, win a nondisclosure agreement American’s bondholders have signed expires, they said. American’s bondholders have decided a merger would enable them to recover more money. But several people close to the matter said it could be difficult to meet that deadline, so the confidentiality agreements might need to be extended. Other outstanding issues that could delay a deal include the exact makeup of the new airline’s board and how creditors with claims against American’s parent and operating subsidiary would be treated in bankruptcy court, they said. American’s bondholders have decided a merger would enable them to recover more money. And the air-

line’s unionized pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and ground workers have long lobbied for a marriage, at one point even negotiating secret contracts with US Airways on how they would be treated if the companies joined forces. A combined airline would likely retain the American name and remain based in Fort Worth, Texas. The airlines are hopeful the marriage eventually will generate more increased revenues and cost savings. That would mainly come from eliminating duplicative back office and operational functions, downsizing US Airways’ Tempe, Ariz., headquarters, reducing management ranks, sharing airport gates and jettisoning some aircraft. The two sides have disagreed at various points on the merger’s potential financial benefits. US Airways has said it believes the merger would yield $1.2 billion in additional revenues and cost savings. American has at certain points pegged that number lower, according to people familiar with the company’s views.

Royal Bank of Scotland fined $612 million for rate rigging L

ONDON - Royal Bank of Scotland will pay $612 million to U.S. and British authorities to settle allegations it manipulated benchmark interest rates, and British regulators warned there is more to come in the global investigation. RBS became the third bank to pay fines in the Libor scandal. The British bank, which is 82-percent-owned by the state after the world’s costliest bank bailout in 2008, said on Wednesday it was cutting bonuses to help pay for the fine, in a bid to avoid a public backlash. The bank fears the scandal will embolden critics who want it to further shrink its profitable investment bank and focus on basic lending at home. “What happened at RBS and other banks is totally unacceptable,” Britain’s finance minister, George Osborne, told reporters. Britain’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) signalled more large fines were in the offing. “The size and scale of our continuing investigations remains significant,” said Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA. More than a dozen banks and brokerage firms, including JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup, are being investigated by regulators over the manipulation of benchmark interest rates such as the London interbank

offered rate, known as Libor, and Euribor, which are used to price trillions of dollars worth of loans. For their roles in the Libor scandal, Switzerland’s UBS agreed in December to pay penalties of $1.5 billion, and Britain’s Barclays has paid $453 million. Deutsche Bank has suspended ﬁve traders in connection with alleged manipulation of Euribor, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Recent reports have raised the possibility of other banks resolving liability through a group settlement, but in an interview on Wednesday a top U.S. Justice Department ofﬁcial shot down that idea.

“Criminal cases are not resolved in a group setting,” said Lanny Breuer, the head of the department’s criminal division. “We are going to go after each individual ﬁnancial institution.” PURE MANIPULATION Investigators said they discovered hundreds of attempts by at least 21 RBS employees in London, Singapore and Tokyo to manipulate Libor. RBS traders aided dealers at other banks, including UBS, to rig the rates. The abuse at RBS occurred from at least 2006 until late 2010 - after some of the traders learned of the probe into Libor. The FSA criticised RBS for seating derivatives traders next to people who submitted Libor rates and said the bank’s systems and controls were ﬂawed as recently as March 2012. Like their peers at Barclays and UBS, RBS staff were blatant about what they were doing in internal chatrooms, according to extracts of exchanges released by investigators. A Swiss-franc trader at RBS told someone submitting rates to Libor that if he submitted them in the way he wanted, he would “come over there and make love to you.” A manager said “pure manipulation” was at work. The U.S. Department of Justice said the near 300-year old bank was guilty of a “stunning abuse of trust”.

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BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

Postal Service To Cut Saturday Mail Delivery To Save $2 Billion Per Year W

ASHINGTON — The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to disburse packages six days a week, an apparent end-run around an unaccommodating Congress. The service expects the Saturday mail cutback to begin the week of Aug. 5 and to save about $2 billion annually, said Postmaster General and CEO Patrick R. Donahoe. “Our financial condition is urgent,” Donahoe told a press conference. The move accentuates one of the agency’s strong points – package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and other Internet services. Under the new plan, mail would be delivered to homes and businesses only from Monday through Friday, but would still be delivered to post office boxes on Saturdays. Post offices now open on Saturdays would remain open on Saturdays.

Over the past several years, the Postal Service has advocated shifting to a five-day delivery schedule for mail and packages – and it repeatedly but unsuccessfully appealed to Congress to approve the move. Though an independent agency, the service gets no tax dollars for its dayto-day operations but is subject to congressional control. The agency in November reported an annual loss of a record $15.9 billion for the last budget year and forecast more red ink in 2013, capping a tumultuous year in which it was forced to default on billions in retiree health benefit prepayments to avert bankruptcy. The financial losses for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 were more than triple the $5.1 billion loss in the previous year. Having reached its borrowing limit, the mail agency is operating with little cash on hand. The agency’s biggest problem – and the majority of the red ink in 2012 – was not due to reduced mail flow but rather to mounting mandatory costs for future retiree health

beneﬁts, which made up $11.1 billion of the losses. Without that and other related labor expenses, the mail agency sustained an operating loss of $2.4 billion, lower than the previous year. The Postal Service is in the midst of a major restructuring throughout

its retail, delivery and mail processing operations. Since 2006, it has cut annual costs by about $15 billion, reduced the size of its career workforce by 193,000 or by 28 percent, and has consolidated more than 200 mail processing locations, ofﬁcials say.

Dell goes private: Bought by Michael Dell and $2 billion from Microsoft M

ichael Dell has teamed up with investment firm Silver Lake to buy computer maker Dell, the company he founded as a 19-year-old in 1984, in a deal valued at about $24.4 billion. After the transaction closes, Michael Dell will continue as CEO and chairman of the company, according to a statement. “I believe this transaction will open an exciting new chapter for Dell, our customers and team members,” Michael Dell said in the statement. “We can deliver immediate value to stockholders, while we continue the execution of our longterm strategy and focus on delivering best-in-class solutions to our customers as a private enterprise.” According to the statement, the deal is being financed through a combination of cash and equity contributed by Dell, cash from investors affiliated with Silver Lake, cash invested by MSD Capital, L.P., a $2 billion loan from Microsoft, rollover of existing debt and debt financing that’s been committed by BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Credit Suisse and RBC Capital Markets. Microsoft issued a statement saying that it is “committed to the long term success of the entire PC ecosystem and invests heavily in a variety of ways to build that ecosystem for the future. … we will continue to look for opportunities to support partners who are committed to innovating and driving business for their devices and services built on the Microsoft platform.”

Michael Dell Dell has been around in one form or another since 1984, when Michael Dell started a company called PC’s Ltd. with $1,000 in his pocket. He changed the name to Dell and took the company public four years later. Dell made its biggest mark in the 1990s, when its model of building PCs to order and shipping them directly to customers undercut rivals like Hewlett-Packard and IBM, which had complex supply chains and backlogs of inventory. In 2001 Dell became the top PC seller in the world. Its fortunes didn’t last, however. Dell’s rivals adopted some of its lowcost production methods, while also expanding into other areas such as services and software. Dell stayed focussed on PCs and servers and eventually found itself left behind.

In 2007, after a spell away from his CEO job, Michael Dell returned to try to right his listing ship. Since then it’s been on an acquisition spree, buying 25 companies to build out networking, software and services businesses. Notable buys include Quest Software, Perot Systems, Force 10 Networks and Wyse Technologies. Dell’s goal is to refashion itself into an all round provider of hardware, software and services, mimicking larger rivals IBM and HP, except focused primarily on the midmarket. It’s had some success, but combining those acquisitions into cohesive “integrated systems” is a long road. Dell itself said last year that it could be a two to three year journey. Investors have been impatient, and Michael Dell apparently grew

tired of running his company to the whims of a stock market that often favors immediate return over longterm investment. “Dell has made solid progress executing this strategy over the past four years, but we recognize that it will still take more time, investment and patience, and I believe our efforts will be better supported by partnering with Silver Lake in our shared vision,” Michael Dell said in the statement. “I am committed to this journey and I have put a substantial amount of my own capital at risk together with Silver Lake, a world-class investor with an outstanding reputation. We are committed to delivering an unmatched customer experience and excited to pursue the path ahead.” The company’s PCs and server hardware remains the core of its business for now. Dell has said it will stay in the PC market because it provides an entry point to selling other, higher-margin products and services. It offers fewer lowcost computers and more high-end models like its XPS PCs, which has caused it to fall behind HP and Lenovo in worldwide shipments. Dell has also exited the smartphone market, but sells tablets that target use both at home and in the enterprise. The transactions calls for Dell shareholders to get $13.65 in cash, a premium of about 25 percent over Dell’s closing price on Jan. 11, when rumors of a deal ﬁrst appeared, the company said.

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LOCAL

Turks & Caicos Cricketers pulled off brilliant ICC Cricket win against Panama

urks & Caicos Islands pulled off an amazing victory in high scoring fashion to win by 5 wickets, chasing an imposing 170 runs set by Panama in their ICC Division Two Americas Championship Cricket Competition on Wednesday, February 6, in the Bahamas. Panama won the toss and elected to bat in brilliant sunshine, on a wicket playing better as the tournament progresses. Panama was soon in their stride as opening batsmen Soyab Chohan (10) with two 4’s and Imran Bulbulia (12) with a 6’s and one 4, put on 26 runs for the ﬁrst wicket. Bharat Ahir played well for (35) and further good knocks came from

Irfan Tarajia (33), and Rajesh Ahir (30) respectively. Mahmud Bhana completed the innings with 13 off of 8 balls to take Panama to a commendable 170 runs for 7 wickets. Mark Henry was the best bowler for Turks & Caicos as the bowlers were put to the sword on a good batting wicket and fast outﬁeld. Turks & Caicos innings was off to the perfect start as openers Gareth Butler (36) and Nuwan Bodhinayake blasted their way to 46 runs for the power-play overs and 87 runs for the 1st wicket in 12 overs. The match hung in the balance for the next 4 overs with wickets falling amongst a ﬂurry of rash stokes.

Sabuton John with a mammoth task ahead of him and a run rate passing the 10 runs per over mark, played the innings of the tournament thus far. He made 41 runs from 15 balls with two 6’s and ﬁve 4’s to secure victory for the Turks & Caicos and lead the team to a spectacular come from behind victory. Host Bahamas move to the top of the standings with a comprehensive 63 run victory over Belize. This also brings them one step closer to being promoted to the ICC Americas Division 1 Championship scheduled for March 2013 in Fort Lauderdale Florida, where two Americas members will qualify for the ICC World T20 Qualiﬁer.

Club Basketball tourney reaches fever pitch I

n action from the Provo Amateur Basketball Association, played on January 31, at the Gustarvus Lightbourne Complex, South Caicos Habour Boys defeated Top Shottas 66 – 53 in the first of three games. Habour’s Kirk Adams 13 shot pointsts, grabbed four rebounds, made one assist, and grabbed two steals. His team mate L. Harvey gave great assistance scoring 12 points, 1 rebound, five assists. Shottas’ W. Chery shot a gamehigh 16 points, eight rebounds, and three steals. His team mate K. Lewis came away with 15 points, 7 rebounds, three assist and four steals. In game two – Flyers rushed by Cobras 90 to 38. Flyers’ Anthony Cash sank 25 points, one rebound, eight assist, three steals. D. Fulford also got among the scores, shooting 22 points, three rebounds, four assist and two steals. Cobras’ M. Joseph ended the game with 15 points, two rebounds, one assist, and four steals. G. Agenot got six points, 5 rebounds, one assist, and one steal. In game three, Customs defeated Knights 59 to 54, with Mervin Forbes leading the way with 16 points, three rebounds, one assist, one block, and steal. E. Taylor 10 points, five rebounds, one assist, two steals. Knights’ T. Deal ended with a game-high 22 points, 10 re-

bounds and three assists. P. Sylvin got 12 points, two rebounds, 11 assists, 1 block. In the first of three games played on February 1, Flyers defeated North Caicos Spartans 71 – 54, with Shanovan Williams leading the charge with 12 points, four rebounds, one block, and one steal. O.J Lewis ended with eight points, two rebounds, three assist, two blocks and four steals. Spartans’ E. Williams shot 25 points, one rebounds, five assists and steal. R. Palmer got 11 points, three rebounds, and one assist. In game two, South Caicos Habour Boys outscored Police 78 to 63, with Ehlo Seymour leading the way with 12 points, four rebounds, three assists and steals. A. Parker got 12 points, six rebounds, three assists, one block. Police’s S. Jermain shot 17 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and one steal. R. Smith ended with 14 points, five rebounds, two assists and one steal. In game three, Cobras squeezed by Customs 50 to 48. Cobras’ Jean Rousseaux shot points, six rebounds, made one assist and 6 steals. D. Cook shot eight points, four rebounds, one assist and steal. Customs’ J. Swann shot a gamehigh 21 points, two rebounds, one assist and five steals. D. Holbert ended with eight points, two re-

bounds, three assists, one block and seven steals. In the first of a trio of games played on February 2, Cobras stung Top Shottas 74 to 27, with Cobras‘Junior Nicholas leading the winning charge with 15 points, four rebounds, one assist, one block and steal. M. Joseph assisted with 13 points, two assist and steal. Shottas’C. Dean ended with 14 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and one steal. W. Chery got five points, 11 rebounds and four steals. In game two, Predators outscored Knights 65 – 52. Predators’ Troy Saunders led the way for his team with 14 points, two rebounds, one block and steal. J. Misud ended with 10 points, three rebounds and two steals. Knights’ T. Deal shot 16 points and three rebounds. R. Arisnord ended with 10 points, eight rebounds and one assist. In game three, Flyers mauled Police 74 to 27, Ehlo Seymour leading the way with 20 points, five rebounds, and steals. D. Fulford also got among the scoring with 18 points, five rebounds, one assist and two blocks. Police’s K. Doughty scored a game-high 21 points, 17 rebounds and one steal. S. Jermain also got among the scoring for the police with 16 points, 13 rebounds, two assist and two steals.

Belize won the toss and elected to ﬁeld; they then bowled out the Bahamas for 149 all out from their 20 overs. In reply, Belize were bowled for 86 runs and the Bahamas ran out victors by 63 runs. The Turks and Caicos sit in third position behind Bahamas and Panama in the four-team tournament. The following are the points standing

RANK TEAM P W L T N/R PTS NRR 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Bahamas 2 2 0 0 0 4 +1.925 Panama 2 1 1 0 0 2 +0.258 Turks & Caicos 1 1 0 0 0 2 +0.223 Argentina 1 0 1 0 0 0 -0.700 Belize 2 0 2 0 0 0 -1.915

SONIA BIEN-AIME AMONG FOUR FEMALES NOMINATED FOR SOLE FIFA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE SPOT

urks & and Caicos Islands’ Sonia Bien-Aime is among four running in the running for a FIFA Executive Committee position when the congress is held on May 31 Sonia Bien-Aime in Mauritius. The mandate will be for a four-year period. Bien-Aime, who is the General Secretary for the Turks & Caicos Islands Football Association, has been active in the CONCACAF region as well as at the Caribbean Football Union level. In the framework of the FIFA reform process, and following a proposal made by the FIFA President, Joseph S. Blatter, at the 2011 Congress in Zurich, a revision of the FIFA Statutes was approved by a vote taken at the 2012 Congress in Budapest for an additional Executive Committee member, a woman, to be appointed. The four women nominated are Moya Dodd from the AFC region; Lydia Nsekera of the CAF region; Sonia Bien-Aime from the CONCACAF Region and Paula Kearns from the OFC region. Lydia Nsekera, the President of the Burundi Football Association and a member of the Committee for Women’s Football and the FIFA Women’s World Cup and of the Organising Committee for the Olympic Football Tournaments, has been the co-opted member of the FIFA Executive Committee since the Congress in 2012.

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LOCAL SPORTS

Its ACF Academy’s championship to lose W

ith just two weeks of games remaining the WFL title appears to be heading the way of possibly the youngest female women’s league team in the world as AFC Academy Strikers pulled off a dramatic late win against Net Rockers FC to go five points clear at the top of the league table with just three games left to play. The game between the top two teams in the league lived up to all expectations and it was clear from the outset that one goal would perhaps be enough to separate the two teams. This proved to be the case as Yarileny De La Cruz confidently stepped forward to convert a penalty five minutes from time after she had been fouled by Net Rockers goalkeeper Bertha Lee Belle. The dramatic ending was a fitting climax to a very competitive and entertaining game. The young Strikers team dominated possession for most of the game but could not convert their chances. Captain Kadine Delphin was a constant threat on the right wing as her pace and accurate crossing caused problems for the Net Rockers defence. Both the De La Cruz sisters (Yarileny and Yarielca) came close to scoring on several occasions and Christma Jean Louis had a ferocious volley saved by

Belle but the Net Rockers defence held out well and with the likes of Guerline Herilien and Gerlie Azemard running the midfield they were always a threat on the counter attack. The opening twenty minutes were a very even affair, however the Strikers team ended the first half with the momentum on their side as Delphin and Guerline Hall threatened from wide positions. The second half was very competitive as both team sensed that the outcome of this game could determine who would become this year’s champions. Belle made several impressive saves to keep her team in the game and Azemard almost gave Net Rockers the lead as she raced onto a through ball only to be denied by a brave save by Chrystal Stirling. As both teams pushed hard for the elusive goal it seemed that a stalemate was on the cards, however with just five minutes remaining Kadine Delphin’s exquisite long pass found Yarileny De La Cruz in space who was fouled by the Net Rockers goal keeper as she was about to shoot on goal. The resulting penalty manage to squirm its way through the legs of Belle, much to the delight of the jubilant Strikers players. The two rivals will face each other next weekend and the Strikers know that

WFL leading goal-scorer Yarileny De La Cruz. a win will give them the WFL title. In the second game of the day a Sarah Cenary hat-trick and a goal by Edwine Rousseaux saw AFC Hurricanes close the gap on Net Rockers to just two points as they beat Revolution FC 4-0. The Hurricanes took an early lead as Cenary latched on to a pass from Alande Rosima. She soon doubled the lead when Jacin-

da Alfrena’s cross fell perfectly at her feet and she then completed her hat trick with a well taken solo effort. Cenary then became the provider for the fourth goal as Edwine Rousseaux ﬁnished from close range. The second half was a more even affair and some resolute defending from the Revolution players ensured that the scoreline remained 4-0 to the

HAB MANAGEMENT LTD. HAB Management Ltd is seeking applicants for the following positions: RESERVATION ATTENDANTS (2) Job Description The successful candidates will be required to welcome and serve guests in a courteous, efficient and friendly manner, both face-to-face and on the phone. The candidates will also be required to take reservations via the telephone, email and walk-in requests. Candidates will also be responsible for promoting the resort at all times. Requirements Candidates should have seven years or more experience as a Reservation Attendant. Candidates should also have an extensive knowledge of Visual One Property Management System. Candidates must be proficient in Microsoft Office. Candidates will be required to check guests in and out; perform certain accounting procedures, such as preparing bills for guests, performing audit duties, balancing work and preparing paperwork for the following day; present a friendly, outgoing, energetic and guest service demeanor. Candidates will also be required to work cohesively with co-workers as part of a team. Must be able to speak, read and write in English and understand verbal and written instructions. Salary is $14,400 per annum. BARTENDER (1) Job Description This is an enhanced position and requires a bubbly personality as well as some guest services experience. The successful candidates should be well versed in bar service and drink preparation. Requirements Candidates should have six years or more experience as a Bartender. Candidates will be required to solicit guests drink orders from around the pool and on the beach area and deliver drinks to guests when needed. Plan and maintain bar inventory. Maintain cleanliness of all workplace areas that apply to the bar. Candidates will be required to be able to multi-task and assist at front desk when necessary. The candidates will also be required to work cohesively with co-workers as part of a team. Must be able to speak, read and write in English and understand verbal and written instructions. Good presentation and a pleasant, friendly personality required. Salary is $12,000 per annum. HOUSEKEEPERS (7) Job Description Candidates will be required to clean guest rooms as assigned, ensuring the hotel’s established standards of cleanliness.

Requirements Candidates should have six years or more experience as a Housekeeper. Candidates must have knowledge of proper cleaning techniques. Maintain positive guest relations at all times. Candidates will also be required to work cohesively with co-workers as part of a team. Must be able to speak, read and write in English and understand verbal and written instructions. Good presentation and a pleasant, friendly personality required. Salary is $12,000 per annum. LAUNDRY ATTENDANT (1) Job Description Process soiled linen and distribute clean linen in accordance with standard operating procedures in a safe, accident-free manner, as assigned by management. Requirements Candidate should have seven years or more experience as a Laundry Attendant. Candidate will be required to receive and sort soiled linen; process sorted linen utilizing the washers, dryers and ironers ensuring finished product meets the quality standards of the resort. Notify supervisor of malfunctioning equipment, supplies needed, damaged linens, to ensure laundry operation is running at maximum efficiency level. Maintain assigned work area in a clean and safe condition. Must be able to speak, read and write in English and understand verbal and written instructions. Must be well presented and physically fit. The candidate will also be required to work cohesively with co-workers as part of a team. Salary is $12,000 per annum. SECURITY OFFICERS (2) Job Description The successful candidates will be responsible for the safeguarding of the owners property, hotel property, assets, guests, visitors and employees. The Security Officers will also be responsible for insuring a safe environment; patrolling; documenting; reporting; and following-up on safety and security hazards or infractions. Requirements Candidates should have eight years or more experience as a Security Officer. Candidates will be required to work flexible hours. Record problems encountered in the area during the course of duty. Check effectiveness and safety and availability of security and safety equipments. Respond immediately to emergency or crisis situations. Candidates will be required to maintain positive guest relations at all times. The candidates will also be required to work cohesively with co-workers as part of a team. Must be able to speak, read and write in English and understand verbal and written instructions. Good presentation and a pleasant, friendly personality required. Salary is $14,400 per annum.

Interested applicants should contact Veronica Rigby via email by January 21, 2013 at ronnie@habgroup.com or by fax 649-946-5191. Only persons selected for an interview will be contacted by email or telephone to schedule an interview.

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CARIBBEAN

The Bahamas to host Tottenham Hotspur vs. Jamaica exhibition match

ASSAU, The Bahamas -- The Bahamas will make history on May 23, 2013, as its new $30 million national stadium will serve as host to an exhibition match between Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and the Jamaican national football team on Nassau’s Paradise Island. Both teams accepted an invitation from the government of The Bahamas, which set the stage for the ﬁrst match featuring a Premier League Club in The Bahamas. The match will also mark one of the major events in the new 15,000-seat stadium as well as in the yearlong celebration of The Bahamas’ 40th anniversary of independence. The stadium and the country hosting two world-class soccer teams in this international event is another indication of The Bahamas’ growth in prominence over the past four decades. While The Bahamas is best known to consumers as an easily accessible tropical getaway, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism is also hoping to stake a claim as a destination for sports tourism by making investments in the industry and establishing partnerships that promote the islands as a location for both sports participation and spectating. “We are delighted at the opportunity to host this ﬁrst-rate event, which will mark a new and exciting thrust in our efforts to support and encourage global sporting events at all levels” said David Johnson, director general, Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. He continued: “This event will serve to further val-

idate our decision to focus on the development of sports tourism and will showcase the excellent facilities at the new Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium for world-class sporting events. Finally, it’s an event that will be among the highlights of the 40th anniversary of Bahamian independence celebrations.” In the run-up to the match, Tottenham Hotspur will work with the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism to help promote The Bahamas as a world-leading destination for tourism, while working with the National Sports Authority to help position the new national stadium as a hub for major international sporting events. The stadium is part of the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre, an ongoing redevelopment plan on its 450 acres that will eventually include an athletes’ village, new baseball and softball ﬁelds and stadiums, and a new indoor multiplex. Anton Sealy, president of the Bahamas Football Association, said: “The Bahamas Football Association is delighted to welcome Tottenham Hotspur and the Jamaican national team to The Bahamas. We will be working closely with Tottenham Hotspur ahead of this match to help us develop football across the islands. We’re conﬁdent that the Club will enjoy its experience here and in turn attract other Premier League Clubs who seek a warm and friendly place to train and prepare their squads.” Leroy Archer, chairman of the National Sports Authority, Bahamas, said: “This is a wonderful opportuni-

ty for Bahamians to see world-class football on home soil. Tottenham Hotspur is one of the most famous clubs in world football with a rich tradition, while Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz is the standard of Caribbean football with a huge following of colourful fans.” Tottenham Hotspur chairman, Daniel Levy, said: “We are delighted to accept an invitation from the government of The Bahamas to take part in the country’s 40th anniversary celebrations. This match will see the club support the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, as it looks to build its proﬁle across key markets around the world as a leading destination for tourism.” In the build-up to Jamaica’s qualifying round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, this ﬁxture provides the Jamaican team with ideal preparation ahead of its all-important match against Mexico the following week. Horace Burrell, president of the Jamaica Football Federation, said: “The Jamaica Football Federation is pleased to be invited to participate in the historic occasion of the 40th anniversary of Bahamian independence celebrations. We are delighted to play against one of the world’s most famous football teams Tottenham Hotspur to commemorate this special occasion. “The Jamaican team will be at full strength with all our European and American-based players. The game will be very exciting, highly competitive and played in the true Caribbean spirit of cooperation and collaboration that has always existed between the two countries. Looking forward to a great game.”

New contract for West Indies cricket coach Ottis Gibson S

T JOHN’S, Antigua -- The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) announced on Tuesday that Ottis Gibson has signed a new contract as head coach. The term of the contract is three years and will go to 2016. Gibson has served in the position for the past three years, from January 2010. “Ottis has added signiﬁcant value to the development of the West Indies team during his tenure and we are delighted to have secured his services for another three years,” WICB chief executive ofﬁcer Michael Muirhead said. “Most notably is that he led the implementation of a system of professionalism within the team unit and curbed the negative results which we were experiencing with some frequency. There have also been clear successes under his stewardship from 2010 to date. These include, most notably, having coached the team to the World Twenty20 title, the team showing consistent improvements in the other for-

mats, the reintegration of players into the team unit and the achievement of the set goals as outlined in the WICB Strategic Plan 2011 – 2016,” Muirhead added. “While there have also been some challenges along the way, these are not to be unexpected in such a dynamic and high pressure environment and the WICB looks forward to the continued development of the West Indies team

through this next critical phase under Ottis’ stewardship at the elite team level,” Muirhead said. Gibson commented: “I enjoy being involved in West Indies cricket and it is something I’m very excited about considering what we have achieved – especially in the last year – beating New Zealand at home in all three formats and winning the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka. This conﬁrms that we

are making progress and I am happy to continue with the team for the next three years as we look to take West Indies cricket forward.” “There is a lot to do and things to look forward to. There is the Champions Trophy in England this year, we will be defending the World T20 title in Bangladesh next year and there is the World Cup in 2015. These are things we have talked about and these are things the selectors have been planning for,” Gibson continued. “We will also look to climb the ICC rankings in all three formats. This is something we have to strive for, to make the move up. There is a lot more One-Day cricket than Test cricket this year, but next year there are quite a few more Test matches, so these will be opportunities for the players to perform and for the team to progress. You set goals and the real enjoyment is when you achieve those goals and see progress being made,” Gibson concluded. Gibson is currently with the West Indies team in Australia.

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HIGHLIGHTS

Ravens win Superbowl Doc Rivers dismisses Garnett trade rumours READ MORE ON PAGE 45

Australia seal series win over West Indies

Shane Watson century, an Australian victory. In the minds of the coach Mickey Arthur and the captain Michael Clarke, such a scenario should occur far more often, and Watson could scarcely have made a better start to life as a non-bowling batsman with a fluent innings to set the platform for a total that proved beyond West Indies in the third ODI at a resplendent Manuka Oval. The 39-run victory sealed the series for the hosts, but they were as satisfied by the fact that minus the distraction of allround duties Watson was able to sail to three figures on an amiable pitch. His free-scoring was followed up by a contrasting innings from Phillip Hughes, scratchy early but sublime later, while George Bailey clattered 44 from a mere 22 balls before leaving the

field with a tight hamstring in the evening. Kieron Pollard had leapt outrageously to catch Glenn Maxwell, and the visiting batsmen were set a similarly high mark to win. Their pursuit threatened to amount to something when Darren and Dwayne Bravo joined forces in an attractive stand, but Mitchell Starc broke their union just when Clarke’s brow was beginning to furrow, having brought himself on to bowl after leaving out the specialist spin of Xavier Doherty. Chris Gayle batted down the order due to a side strain suffered in the field, and was to be the first of four victims for James Faulkner, who reprised his strong showing against the tourists on this ground for the Prime Minister’s XI to round up the remainder of the innings.

Seeking a record chase for their region, Devon Thomas and Kieran Powell were conservative to begin with but played some handsome strokes to reach 50 inside nine overs, Starc not gaining much swing and becoming a far more hittable bowler as a result. However Thomas’ stay was ended when he miscued Clint McKay. Powell threatened a more lasting stay before he too failed to ﬁnd the middle of the bat, top edging a sweep at Glenn Maxwell that was held in agile fashion by Matthew Wade, running around from behind the stumps. The Bravo brothers were soon looking comfortable however, and Clarke looked short of options on a slow surface as Maxwell’s overs dried up and the visitors engineered a realistic Twenty20 scenario.

Paul Gasol out at least six weeks L

os Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol has a tear in the plantar fascia of his right foot, an MRI revealed Wednesday. The Lakers did not say how long Gasol will be out, but sources told ESPN that the 7-footer will miss miss four-to-six weeks. “The result of the MRI shows I have a torn fascia of my right foot,” Gasol tweeted. “Tomorrow I’ll ﬂy back to LA to see our team doctors. #AlwaysPositive Gasol also tweeted that’s he’s “hoping to recover asap so I can be back with the team and keep ﬁghting until the end of the season. #GoLakers #AlwaysPositive”

Gasol was injured in Tuesday night’s win over the Brooklyn Nets. After Tuesday’s win, Gasol explained his injury. “I tweaked my fascia in the ﬁrst half, so I was dealing with quite a bit of soreness in the second half,” Gasol said. “So I couldn’t do certain things. “I was dealing with it, but that play when I tried to jump off of it and try go block the shot (by Brooklyn’s Brook Lopez), just as I took off, I felt a pop in the bottom of my foot on my fascia and I couldn’t get up. I’m worried about it.” Gasol initially tried to play through the injury that occured

Nadal wins doubles match on Chilean comeback R

afa Nadal made a successful comeback after a seven-month injury absence with victory in the first round of the Chilean Open doubles on Tuesday. The former world number one and Argentine partner Juan Monaco overpowered second-seeded Czechs Frantisek Cermak and Lukas Dlouhy 6-3 6-2 in 65 minutes at the Pacific coastal city of Vina del March Spanish left-hander Nadal had been out with a knee problem since losing to Czech Lukas Rosol in the second round at Wimbledon in June. “It’s a good feeling to be back. We’ll see how the knee reacts,” Nadal told a news conference. “The moment and the surfaces were the right ones and playing for the first

time in this country was a great opportunity. “Playing doubles is less aggressive, so we’ll see how things go tomorrow in singles,” he added after he and Monaco had taken advantage of four of their seven chances to break the Czechs’ service. The 26-year-old’s planned return at the end of last year was delayed due to illness but he will compete on his favorite clay surface at three Latin American events this month. On Wednesday, Nadal plays a second-round singles match against Argentine qualiﬁer Federico Delbonis. After the Chile tournament he will compete at the Brazil Open in Sao Paulo next week and the Mexico Open in Acapulco from February 25.

Paul Gasol with 3:50 left in the game. But after one trip up and down the ﬂoor, he asked coach Mike D’Antoni for a sub and went to the locker room with Lakers trainer Gary Vitti. “It felt kind of OK a little bit putting my weight on it without walking or running, but once I started running, I was limping and it was really sore,” Gasol said Tuesday. “Even if I tried, I couldn’t go.” Gasol ﬁnished with 15 points, four rebounds and two blocks in the Lakers’ 92-83 win over the Nets. The Lakers were granted a disabled player’s exception for Jordan Hill last week after the backup center went out with season-ending

hip surgery. The exception will allow the Lakers to spend a little more than half of Hill’s salary, about $1.78 million, in order to sign a free agent or to absorb a player’s contract acquired in a trade. Despite Gasol’s foot injury, the Lakers are not dead set on using the exception, a team source told ESPNLosAngeles.com’s Dave McMenamin, and are hopeful the situation will prompt Dwight Howard to return and play through his sore right shoulder “sooner than later.” Gasol already has missed 13 games this season because of tendinitis in both knees and a concussion.

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WORLD SPORTS

Baltimore Ravens turn out the lights on the San Francisco 49ers to win Superbowl N

EW ORLEANS – The Crescent City’s unique brand of voodoo threatened to sneak up on the Baltimore Ravens, the kind of dark magic that deﬁes logic and explanation but maybe not fate. “Is it real? Is it real?” Ravens safety Ed Reed would later say in disbelief. But nothing could darken this day for the Ravens. When it was all over and the mercurial team ﬂickered back to life to win Super Bowl XLVII, Baltimore players embraced the gleaming Vince Lombardi Trophy. Their brilliant leader was able to go out on top, and their understated quarterback showed that the future looked bright, too. A game marred by a power outage that

Ray Lewis holding trophy stopped action for more than a half-hour, embarrassing the National Football League and forcing CBS broadcasters to scramble, ended with linebacker Ray Lewis in tears and his Ravens ﬁrmly on top, 34-31, victors over a San Francisco 49ers squad that fell just ﬁve yards shy of a historic comeback.

“It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t pretty, but it was us,” said Ravens Coach John Harbaugh. “And that’s who we are.” On the ﬁeld, Harbaugh walked through the rain of purple and gold confetti to ﬁnd 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh, siblings experiencing the biggest game of their lives in starkly different ways.

The Ravens coach drew his younger brother close and told him he loved him. “It’s a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be,” the elder Harbaugh said of facing his brother. With the end of the game, doors swung open in several Baltimore neighborhoods, including Federal Hill, as jubilant fans swarmed into the streets to join in a vast celebration. Horns honked, ﬁreworks popped and sparkled and here and there people stood on porches to watch and join in the general boisterousness. Others rolled by in a pickup truck, but for the most part, trafﬁc came to a standstill as fans swarmed into the streets. The win marked the

Ravens’ second Super Bowl title and their first since 2001. It also drew together the organization’s past and its future. Lewis, the flashy and outspoken face of the franchise for so long, played his final game Sunday. “BAL-TI-MORE!” he bellowed as he accepted the championship trophy before a partisan, purple-clad crowd, announced at 71,024 before the 49ers faithful retreated to the French Quarter to deal with the loss. “This is the way you do it,” Lewis, 37, said later. “No other way to go out and end a career.” On the other side of the ball, quarterback Joe Flacco etched his name in the team’s history books as he cemented his place in its future. This might

have been Lewis’s team the past several years, but Flacco was named the Super Bowl MVP and he now carries Baltimore’s torch. Even a power outage couldn’t stop him. Flacco sparkled in the ﬁrst half Sunday, and diehard Ravens fans could already envision the victory parade back home moving past the Inner Harbor. And then it got better. Jacoby Jones, the Ravens’ speedy offseason addition, opened the second half by ﬁelding a 49ers kickoff and returning it 108 yards for a touchdown, giving Baltimore a 28-6 lead and the kind of momentum that should have made the remaining minutes of the game a formality. No team had ever blown such a big lead in the Super Bowl.

Boston Celtics Doc Rivers shoots down trade rumors as ‘silly’ W

ALTHAM, Mass. -- A frustrated Doc Rivers on Tuesday called the recent trade rumors swirling around the Boston Celtics’ stars “silly” and driven solely by the media, while a couple of the players who have been the subject of those rumors blew them off as just part of life at this time of year. “All from [the media],” the Celtics’ coach said of trade rumors. “None from us. Really. I would like to say that. Sometimes I like [the media], sometimes, some of the stuff that happens is just silly. It really is. When I wake up in the morning and I hear a trade rumor that I haven’t heard in my ofﬁce, that’s silly, and that’s what happens.” Rivers continued: “I heard one report -- I honestly did -- that me, [Los Angeles Clippers guard] Chauncey [Billups], Kevin [Garnett] and Paul [Pierce] had dinner. And I was like, ‘I wish I would have known about it. That would have been terriﬁc, because I would have made them pay and I could have had a free dinner.’ But it’s just silly what goes on. And I don’t think it’s honestly [the Boston media]. I think someone can sit behind a computer and write something. The problem is, now you guys have to actually report it, which you shouldn’t do. But you do, and it becomes an issue.” The hottest rumor making the rounds was the Clippers taking an interest in acquiring Garnett, a deal sources told ESPN had not been discussed by the two teams. According to a Sporting News report, the Clippers would send Eric Bledsoe and Caron Butler to Boston as part of the deal. “Well [Celtics president of basketball operations] Danny [Ainge] made it very, very obvious since day one, since he brought Ray Allen and my-

self here to be aligned with Paul [Pierce] that he was going to do whatever is best for this organization,” said Garnett, who can block any deal with his no-trade clause. “He’s always made that apparent, so I’ve always understood that. I bleed green, I die green, that’s what it is. But it is a business and when that crosses the paths, I deal with it. But trades are a part of this league. Every year you’re going to hear certain things. If I were y’all, I wouldn’t read too much into it.” Garnett went on to explain that it’s common for trade rumors to pop up around this time of the season, with the Feb. 21 trade deadline less than three weeks away. “It’s part of the year, All-Star [Game], right after All-Star you start to hear things, and some of it’s chatter, some of it’s real, and you just have to be able to block certain things out, be able to play through certain things,” Garnett said. “If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. It’s out of your control a lot of time. The things you do control, you control those -- your play, obviously family, and if a situation comes up where you have to move, then you get ready for it.” Pierce maintained that trade rumors don’t bother him, noting that he’s always just preferred to let things play out. “I don’t really pay too much attention to it,” Pierce said. “Whatever happens just happens. It’s going to play out the way it’s going to play out, just like in the draft. When I got drafted, it played out the way it’s supposed to play out. So things of that nature really don’t bother me. It has no effect on how I’m going to perform, how I’m going to practice, how I’m going to approach each and every day.

Kevin Garnett “I’m taking each day day by day. I’m enjoying it, I’m enjoying my teammates, and like I said, whatever happens, it just happens. It’s out of my control.” Rivers said he’d be surprised if the current roster is different from the one that will be in place at the end of the season, saying that the biggest discussion he and Ainge have had was about the San Francisco 49ers’ loss in the Super Bowl on Sunday. “Yeah, I would be [surprised]. but, again, you don’t know,” Rivers said. “But the fact that Danny and I have only talked about how [49ers quarterback Colin] Kaepernick should have run a couple times in the fourth quarter tells me where we’re at right now.”

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